, which, in the hands of our countrymen, have resisted the
art and power of the house of Bourbon. The adjacent governors informed
the court of Toledo of the descent and progress of the Arabs; and the
defeat of his lieutenant Edeco, who had been commanded to seize and bind
the presumptuous strangers, admonished Roderic of the magnitude of the
danger. At the royal summons, the dukes and counts, the bishops and
nobles of the Gothic monarchy, assembled at the head of their followers;
and the title of King of the Romans, which is employed by an Arabic
historian, may be excused by the close affinity of language, religion,
and manners, between the nations of Spain. His army consisted of ninety
or a hundred thousand men; a formidable power, if their fidelity and
discipline had been adequate to their numbers. The troops of Tarik
had been augmented to twelve thousand Saracens; but the Christian
malecontents were attracted by the influence of Julian, and a crowd of
Africans most greedily tasted the temporal blessings of the Koran. In
the neighborhood of Cadiz, the town of Xeres has been illustrated by the
encounter which determined the fate of the kingdom; the stream of the
Guadalete, which falls into the bay, divided the two camps, and marked
the advancing and retreating skirmishes of three successive and bloody
days. On the fourth day, the two armies joined a more serious and
decisive issue; but Alaric would have blushed at the sight of his
unworthy successor, sustaining on his head a diadem of pearls,
encumbered with a flowing robe of gold and silken embroidery, and
reclining on a litter or car of ivory drawn by two white mules.
Notwithstanding the valor of the Saracens, they fainted under the
weight of multitudes, and the plain of Xeres was overspread with
sixteen thousand of their dead bodies. "My brethren," said Tarik to
his surviving companions, "the enemy is before you, the sea is behind;
whither would ye fly? Follow your genera: I am resolved either to lose
my life, or to trample on the prostrate king of the Romans." Besides
the resource of despair, he confided in the secret correspondence and
nocturnal interviews of Count Julian with the sons and the brother of
Witiza. The two princes and the archbishop of Toledo occupied the
most important post: their well-timed defection broke the ranks of the
Christians; each warrior was prompted by fear or suspicion to consult
his personal safety; and the remains of the Gothic army wer