gaged in some distant province collecting troops to march
against the invaders, and he wrote to them to come and join him with
their forces, in order to march against the Arabs; and, cautioning them
against the inconvenience and danger of private feuds at that moment,
engaged them to join him and attack the Arabs in one mass. The sons of
Wittiza readily agreed to Roderic's proposition, and collecting all
their forces, came to meet him, and encamped not far from the village of
Shakandah, on the opposite side of the river, and on the south of the
palace of Cordova.

There they remained for some time, not daring to enter the capital or to
trust Roderic, until at last, having ascertained the truth of the
preparations, and seeing the army march out of the city and him with it,
they entered Cordova, united their forces to his, and marched with him
against the enemy, although, as will be seen presently, they were
already planning the treachery which they afterward committed. Others
say that the sons of Wittiza did not obey the summons sent them by the
usurper Roderic; on the contrary, that they joined Tarik with all their
forces.

When Tarik received the news of the approach of Roderic's army, which is
said to have amounted to nearly one hundred thousand men, provided with
all kinds of weapons and military stores, he wrote to Musa for
assistance, saying that he had taken Algesiras, a port of Andalusia,
thus becoming, by its possession, the master of the passage into that
country; that he had subdued its districts as far as the bay; but that
Roderic was now advancing against him with a force which it was not in
his power to resist, except it was God Almighty's will that it should be
so. Musa, who since Tarik's departure for this expedition had been
employed in building ships, and had by this time collected a great many,
sent by them a reinforcement of five thousand Moslems, which, added to
the seven thousand of the first expedition, made the whole forces amount
to twelve thousand men, eager for plunder and anxious for battle. Ilyan
was also sent with his army and the people of his states to accompany
this expedition, and to guide it through the passes in the country, and
gather intelligence for them.

In the mean while Roderic was drawing nearer to the Moslems, with all
the forces of the barbarians, their lords, their knights, and their
bishops; but the hearts of the great people of the kingdom being against
him, they used t