"Don Alonso en este tiempo
Muy gran batalla hacia,
El cavallo le havian muerto,
Por muralla le tenia.
Y arrimado a un gran peñon
Con valor se defendia:
Muchos Moros tiene muertos,
Pero poco le valia.
Porque sobre el cargan muchos,
Y le dan grandes heridas,
Tantas que cayó allí muerto
Entre la gente enemiga."
The warrior's death is summed up with an artless brevity, that would be affectation in more studied composition.
"Muerto queda Don Alonso,
Y eterna fama ganada."
[19] Paolo Giovio finds an etymology for the name in the eagle (aguila), assumed as the device of the warlike ancestors of Don Alonso. St. Ferdinand of Castile, in consideration of the services of this illustrious house at the taking of Cordova, in 1236, allowed it to bear as a cognomen the name of that city. This branch, however, still continued to be distinguished by their territorial epithet of Aguilar, although Don Alonso's brother, the Great Captain, as we have seen, was more generally known by that of Cordova. Vita Magni Gonsalvi, fol. 204.
[20] Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol 340, 341.
The hero's body, left on the field of battle, was treated with decent respect by the Moors, who restored it to King Ferdinand; and the sovereigns caused it to be interred with all suitable pomp in the church of St. Hypolito at Cordova. Many years afterwards the marchioness of Priego, his descendant, had the tomb opened; and, on examining the mouldering remains, the iron head of a lance, received in his last mortal struggle, was found buried in the bones. Bleda, Corónica, lib. 5, cap. 26.
[21]
"Tambien el Conde de Urena,
Mal herido en demasia,
Se sale de la batalla
Llevado por una guia.
"Que sabia bien la senda
Que de la Sierra salia:
Muchos Moros dexaba muertos
Por su grande valentia.
"Tambien algunos se escapan,
Que al buen Conde le seguian."
Oviedo, speaking of this retreat of the good count and his followers, says, "Volvieron las riendas a sus caballos, y se retiraron a mas que galope por la multitud de los Infieles." Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 36.
[22] Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, año 1501.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1501.—Bleda, Corónica, lib. 5, cap. 26.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 36.