All these wise men having assembled in his presence, King Alfonso made them an exact relation of his dream, which he described with much prolixity, and in precise order as it had happened; when, having concluded his narration, he added these words: "That which most amazes and alarms me in this matter is the peculiarity of the elephant which I see in these my visions, and which is an animal not reared in our country, nor seen therein: in like manner the Atambore is not of the form and kind which we have in use among us, nor is that either to be seen in Spain; wherefore do ye consider what these may portend, and give me the signification thereof without delay.

The wise men thereupon retired, and having considered that vision and dream, they returned to the presence of Alfonso, to whom they said: "Lord King, this dream and the vision that thou hast seen are sent to signify that thou shalt vanquish these great armies that the Moslemah have congregated against thee; that thou shalt despoil their camp, and make thyself master of the riches they bring with them; that thou shalt occupy their territory, and return victorious with great honour and a glorious fame: they signify, furthermore, that thou shalt see this thy triumph made known through all parts of the East, since the elephant which thou dost nightly appear to bestride is this Juzef Aben Taxfin, King of the Moslemah and lord of the far-extending lands of Africa, who, as well as the elephant, hath had his birth and been reared in the deserts of that country, nor hath come forth from thence to any other end than that thou shouldst conquer him and mount upon his shoulders, in despite of the vast power which he wields. The strangelyformed Atambore which thou hast sounded on these many nights, implies the unheard and marvellous fame which shall echo throughout the world, and carry the knowledge of thine illustrious victories to every part of the same.

Alfonso had listened with extreme attention to that declaration; but when the wise men had ceased to speak, he said, "It appears to me that ye have gone far from the true interpretation of my dream, seeing that the explication which my heart gives me and rarely doth it deceive meis of a widely different kind, for this announces to me nothing better than events of terror and dismay."

Having thus spoken, the King turned his head, and looking towards certain Moslemah cavaliers who were his vassals, and stood in the chamber, he said to them, "Do ye perchance know of any Alime of your nation, who hath skill in the interpretation of dreams ?" Thereupon those cavaliers replied that they did know of such, since there was in Toledo itself a wise man who taught in one of the mosques, and who would interpret the vision to the satisfaction of the King.

Alfonso then commanded that they should bring that sage to his presence, since he desired to see him and to speak with him respecting the matter in question. The Moslemah cavaliers went, therefore, to seek the man of whom they had spoken, and this was the Faki Muhamad Aben Iza, who was a native of Magama, and to whom they made known the summons and desire of the King.

Muhamad Aben Iza then asked them if they knew for what purpose he was summoned; and they repeated to him what they had heard of the matter, adding that the king desired to hear the interpretation of a dream from his mouth; but the Faki replied, "God will not permit me to cross the threshold of an Infidel for any such purpose;" and all their efforts to prevail on him to consent remained without avail. It was in vain that the nobles represented to him the honour he would receive for having entered the presence of so powerful a sovereign; the Faki did but repeat these words, "God is my Lord and my Protector; in His hands are the good and the evil that are to be my lot." Beyond that, the cavaliers could obtain nothing.

Much displeased, these messengers then returned to the king; but to avoid awakening the anger of Alfonso, which might have turned to the destruction of the sage, they said to him, "Lord King, this Faki is a man of austere life and great humility, insomuch that he doth not consider it lawful for him to enter palaces and the dwellings of the great; but, since this is a delicacy of his law and of his religious humility, it appears to us excusable; wherefore, if your Highness shall permit, we will relate to the wise man the dream you have had; we will then bring to you the explication which he shall make thereof, and which we hope will be the true one."

With that proposal the king declared himself content; he repeated his dream and the vision to the Moslemah cavaliers, and they returned to the Faki Muhamad Aben Iza of Magama. He was at that time reading in the mosque within Toledo, for he was the Almoeri of the same, and they there related to him very minutely the vision of the king, desiring him to meditate maturely thereon, since it was a grave thing and of much importance; also they were anxious to satisfy the desire of the sovereign.

The Faki betook himself to his meditations accordingly, and when these were finished, he said, "Go to the King Don Alfonso, and say that the accomplishment of his vision is very near, and that the signification of the dream is after this wise-He shall be vanquished, yea, in a disgraceful defeat and with great slaughter; he shall fly with but few of his people, and the victory shall remain with the Moslemah. Tell him, moreover, that this declaration is derived from the honourable Koran,- Know ye not what your God hath prepared for him of the elephant ? Hath he not brought his force to nothing, and rendered his evil intentions of no avail? See ye not that He hath sent over them the vultures of Babel ?'

"These words," continued the Faki, "gave intimation of the defeat and downfall of Ibrahim, King of the Abassides, when he went forth with his powerful army against Arabia, and with intent to destroy Alharam, the House of God; to which end he went riding on a great elephant: but God sent for his destruction the wild vultures of Babel, who cast balls of glowing fire upon that host, and rendering vain the proud resolves of the Ethiopian king, even Ibrahim of the Abassides, converted his pride and pomp into wretchedness and the vileness of dust. As to the Atambore which Alfonso describeth as having hung beside him, and which he struck with his own hands, this signifies that the hour of his desolation is approaching, and that the day when he shall next hear the sounding of trumpets and the clangour of drums from the ranks of his foes, shall be a day of terror, defeat, and carnage for the bands of the Infidel."

This interpretation was repeated by the Cavaliers to the king, who changed colour as he heard it, and who said, "By the God of my worship! let this your Alfaki tremble

if he hath lied, for be sure that I will make him a warning." But when that fierce menace of the king was repeated to the Faki, he treated it with contempt, and said, "Neither Alfonso nor any other can work me woe without the permission of God: be it then according to His will.”·

CHAP. XVI.-OF THE BATTLE OF ZALACCA.

WHEN the King Don Alfonso had assembled his host, it was found that there had congregated an innumerable multitude, and of that force more than eighty thousand were cavalry. The half of these horsemen were clothed in heavy armour, being covered with iron, and the other half were light cavalry, many of them Arabs, of whom Alfonso had nearly thirty thousand in his service. Thus there were many Moslemah in the camp of the Christian king.

With this host Alfonso marched to the encounter of Juzef Aben Taxfin and the Ameers of Andalusia; and when both armies had arrived within a short distance of each other, they formed their camps, which they seated in the territory of Badajoz, among the groves and plains called those of Zalacca, which are at the distance of some four leagues from that city. Aben Abed, King of Seville, advised that the Moslemah force should form two separate camps; this he did, to the end that their appearance might inspire the enemy with the greater fear and dismay :-and of a truth the spectacle which they thus presented was one well calculated to bear terror to the heart of him who beheld it. The river of Badajoz, which is called NaharHagir, flowed between the Christian camp and that of the Moslemah, both armies drinking of its waters.

We find it related in certain of the authors writing at the time, that the King of the Moslemah, Juzef Aben Taxfin, here wrote a letter to the King Don Alfonso; others say that this letter was written at Medina Artuxa, and contained a proposition to the effect that the Gallician monarch should do one of three things, which were these,-first, that he should abandon the Christian faith and declare himself

a Mosleman; or, he should acknowledge himself the vassal of Juzef Aben Taxfin, King of the Moslemah; or, failing these, he should prepare himself for the battle. In the letter, Juzef is furthermore affirmed to have spoken as follows: "I have heard, O King Alfonso, that thou hast expressed a wish for the possession of ships wherewith thou mayst come to seek me in my dominions, wherefore I have spared thee that trouble, as thou seest, and have come to seck thee in thy territories instead. God hath thus conjoined us in these regions, to the end that thou shouldst taste the fruits of thy presumption, and receive such fulfilment of thy desire as He hath destined for thee."

This letter being written and despatched, was given into the hands of Alfonso, and the messenger related on his return that the king, having read it very rapidly, had then cast it to the earth in great anger; which done, he turned to the envoy, and with infinite haughtiness uttered these words: "Go and bid thine Ameer not to conceal himself in the battle, which if he do not, we shall see each other."

There then arose many questions and replies between the hosts and among the generals, with respect to the order and day of the battle: and on that occasion the King Don Alfonso is said to have written a very crafty letter to Juzef Ben Taxfin, wherein he said that the next day being Friday, which was the holy day or solemn festival of the Moslemah, it would not be well to give battle on that day; and the next being Saturday, was the festival of the Jews, of whom he had many in his host, and did not consider it just to infringe on their sabbath; while the third was in like manner Sunday, or the day held sacred by the Christians, when it would by no means be suitable to give battle, for the same reason. He therefore wished that the conflict should be deferred to that following, namely Monday, when they might array themselves to the fight with one accord, standing forth power against power, without scruple on any part.

The King of the Moslemah, with consent of the Ameers of Andalusia, replied that he was content to await the time which King Alfonso had fixed, and that the battle should be given on Monday, which was the 14th of the moon Regeb, in the year 479. But the King of Seville warned Juzef