he Franks trembled at that terrible army, and they
betook them to their king 'Caldus,' and told him of the havoc made by
the Moslem horsemen, and how they rode at their will through all the
land of Narbonne, Toulouse, and Bordeaux, and they told the King of the
death of their count. Then the King bade them be of good cheer, and
offered to aid them. And in the 114th year[70] he mounted his horse, and
he took with him a host that could not be numbered, and went against the
Moslems. And he came upon them at the great city of Tours. And
Abderrahman and other prudent cavaliers saw the disorder of the Moslem
troops, who were loaded with spoil; but they did not venture to
displease the soldiers by ordering them to abandon everything except
their arms and war-horses. And Abderrahman trusted in the valor of his
soldiers, and in the good fortune which had ever attended him. But, the
Arab writer remarks, such defect of discipline always is fatal to
armies.
"So Abderrahman and his host attacked Tours to gain still more spoil,
and they fought against it so fiercely that they stormed the city almost
before the eyes of the army that came to save it, and the fury and the
cruelty of the Moslems toward the inhabitants of the city were like the
fury and cruelty of raging tigers. It was manifest," adds the Arab,
"that God's chastisement was sure to follow such excesses, and Fortune
thereupon turned her back upon the Moslems.
"Near the river Owar,[71] the two great hosts of the two languages and
the two creeds were set in array against each other. The hearts of
Abderrahman, his captains, and his men, were filled with wrath and
pride, and they were the first to begin the fight. The Moslem horsemen
dashed fierce and frequent forward against the battalions of the Franks,
who resisted man-fully, and many fell dead on either side, until the
going down of the sun. Night parted the two armies, but in the gray of
the morning the Moslems returned to the battle. Their cavaliers had soon
hewn their way into the centre of the Christian host. But many of the
Moslems were fearful for the safety of the spoil which they had stored
in their tents, and a false cry arose in their ranks that some of the
enemy were plundering the camp; whereupon several squadrons of the
Moslem horsemen rode off to protect their tents. But it seemed as if
they fled, and all the host was troubled.
"And while Abderrahman strove to check their tumult and to lead them
back to
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