ing one division of the enemy with great slaughter. This battle
took place at the fountain of the fig tree, near to the Lopera. Six
hundred Moorish cavaliers were slain and many taken prisoners. Much
spoil was collected on the field, with which the Christians returned in
triumph to their homes.

The larger body of the enemy had retreated along a road leading more to
the south, by the banks of the Guadalete. When they reached that river
the sound of pursuit had died away, and they rallied to breathe and
refresh themselves on the margin of the stream. Their force was reduced
to about a thousand horse and a confused multitude of foot. While they
were scattered and partly dismounted on the banks of the Guadalete a
fresh storm of war burst upon them from an opposite direction. It was
the (4) marques of Cadiz, leading on his household troops and the fighting
men of Xeres. When the Christian warriors came in sight of the Moors,
they were roused to fury at beholding many of them arrayed in the armor
of the cavaliers who had been slain among the mountains of Malaga. Nay,
some who had been in that defeat beheld their own armor, which they had
cast away in their flight to enable themselves to climb the mountains.
Exasperated at the sight they rushed upon the foe with the ferocity of
tigers rather than the temperate courage of cavaliers. Each man felt
as if he were avenging the death of a relative or wiping out his own
disgrace. The good marques himself beheld a powerful Moor bestriding the
horse of his brother Beltran: giving a cry of rage and anguish at the
sight, he rushed through the thickest of the enemy, attacked the Moor
with resistless fury, and after a short combat hurled him breathless to
the earth.

The Moors, already vanquished in spirit, could not withstand the assault
of men thus madly excited. They soon gave way, and fled for the defile
of the Serrania de Ronda, where the body of troops had been stationed
to secure a retreat. These, seeing them come galloping wildly up the
defile, with Christian banners in pursuit and the flash of weapons at
their deadly work, thought all Andalusia was upon them, and fled without
awaiting an attack. The pursuit continued among glens and defiles, for
the Christian warriors, eager for revenge, had no compassion on the foe.

When the pursuit was over the marques of Cadiz and his followers reposed
themselves upon the banks of the Guadalete, where they divided the
spoil. Among this were