ccused
their governor of claiming the honors of royalty; and his scandalous
marriage with Egilona, the widow of Roderic, offended the prejudices
both of the Christians and Moslems. By a refinement of cruelty, the
head of the son was presented to the father, with an insulting
question, whether he acknowledged the features of the rebel? "I know his
features," he exclaimed with indignation: "I assert his innocence; and
I imprecate the same, a juster fate, against the authors of his death."
The age and despair of Musa raised him above the power of kings; and he
expired at Mecca of the anguish of a broken heart. His rival was more
favorably treated: his services were forgiven; and Tarik was permitted
to mingle with the crowd of slaves. [189] I am ignorant whether Count
Julian was rewarded with the death which he deserved indeed, though not
from the hands of the Saracens; but the tale of their ingratitude to the
sons of Witiza is disproved by the most unquestionable evidence. The two
royal youths were reinstated in the private patrimony of their father;
but on the decease of Eba, the elder, his daughter was unjustly
despoiled of her portion by the violence of her uncle Sigebut. The
Gothic maid pleaded her cause before the caliph Hashem, and obtained the
restitution of her inheritance; but she was given in marriage to a noble
Arabian, and their two sons, Isaac and Ibrahim, were received in Spain
with the consideration that was due to their origin and riches.

[Footnote 188: This design, which is attested by several Arabian
historians, (Cardonne, tom. i. p. 95, 96,) may be compared with that of
Mithridates, to march from the Crimaea to Rome; or with that of Caesar,
to conquer the East, and return home by the North; and all three are
perhaps surpassed by the real and successful enterprise of Hannibal.]

[Footnote 189: I much regret our loss, or my ignorance, of two Arabic
works of the viiith century, a Life of Musa, and a poem on the exploits
of Tarik. Of these authentic pieces, the former was composed by a
grandson of Musa, who had escaped from the massacre of his kindred; the
latter, by the vizier of the first Abdalrahman, caliph of Spain,
who might have conversed with some of the veterans of the conqueror,
(Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, tom. ii. p. 36, 139.)]

A province is assimilated to the victorious state by the introduction of
strangers and the imitative spirit of the natives; and Spain, which had
been successively tinctur