University of Virginia Library

20. XX.

Melchior was busy in preparing and counselling his
Hebrews for the approaching combat when Pelayo
sought him for conference.

“You are ready, Melchior?” said the prince.

“Ay, my prince, we are all ready. We wait but the
signal,” was the immediate reply of Melchior.

“The trumpet will sound thrice before we move.
At the first summons, set your men in motion; at the
second, have them in readiness to descend the pass
which has been assigned you; at the third, move down
upon the foe, and the rest I leave to your own good
conduct, and the guardian care of the Great Father of
mankind.”

“I feel, my prince, as if our battle were his battle,
and this feeling gives me confidence and strength.”

Pelayo smiled only, pressed the hand of the aged
warrior in silence, and then departed, without further
word, to the station held by Abimelech. To him he
gave similar commands, and having satisfied himself
that he had done all that could be done by him towards
ensuring success, he departed for the central passage,
which he had reserved for his own lead, and where his
chiefs, and the detachment of Hebrews which had been
given him by Melchior and Abimelech, were already assembled
and prepared to follow him.

The dawn came on rapidly, and day was diffused
around the mountain where they were gathered without
yielding them much light for the discovery of distant objects.
Heavy clouds still hung about the rising sun,
who thus seemed to look inauspiciously upon their enterprise.
But such omens troubled not Pelayo. He
prepared to avail himself of the first light which would
enable him to descend upon his foes, and he ordered

the first signal trumpet to sound. With the sound the
several leaders completed their arrangements, which
were, indeed, already more than half finished. But,
though all ready with the second blast of the trumpet,
Pelayo departed not from his original instructions, as
he was resolute that the descent should be a concerted
movement of the three divisions. He greatly feared the
concentration of the force of Edacer at some one single
passage, upon the party which might first make its descent
in advance of the others which were intended to
support it. Before the third trumpet was sounded, some
of the bowmen, who were distributed along the intervals
of rock between the passages, discovered the silent advance
of Edacer's army, which had left its tents, and
was arrayed in force at the foot of each of the several
passes, ready to encounter those who should descend
them, and who must necessarily do so at great
disadvantage, fighting with an irregular footing, and presenting
a narrow front, which could be assailed on three
hands while emerging from the gorge, and which could
be defended only on one. This movement of Edacer
produced some anxiety and alarm among the people on
the mountain, until the words of Pelayo reassured
them.

“Now am I glad,” said he, “that Edacer hath thus
advanced. We have him at disadvantage, and can occasion
disorder in his array which he will find it difficult
to amend. Ho, there,” he cried, to some of those
whom he had employed as attendants, “go you to
Melchior and to Abimelech.”

He gave fitting directions to the couriers thus despatched,
and then gave like instructions to his own
people.

“Do as you see me do, brave chiefs and valiant men
—one and all, to the rocks. Detach we these masses
from the sides of the mountain, and send them down
to Edacer as a token that we are coming. Ply your

spears, men, and the path will soon be free, I warrant ye.
Speed, warriors, to the work—and ye shall see these
Goths fly with even more haste than I look for ye to advance.”

Thus speaking, Pelayo seized a spear from the hands
of a soldier, and thrusting it under a heavy and detached
rock that lay on the edge of the mountain, and just
above the gorge which formed his passage-way down,
with the strength of a giant he heaved it from the bed
where it had lain for ages, and for a moment it vibrated
and trembled upon a point ere it went bounding and
thundering, without impediment, to the valley below.
From side to side of the mountain it leaped with fearful
concussions, tearing the earth from before its path, and
detaching, in its downward progress, other masses of
rock scarcely less weighty than itself, which joined it,
without resistance, in its fearful flight. The example
of Pelayo was followed on every side; and while the
scattered bands of Edacer fled backward to their tents
before this unlooked-for assault, Pelayo, under cover of
the clouding dust which had been raised by the tumultuous
rocks in their unresisted passage, led his warriors
after them into the plain. When the cloud was lifted,
what was the surprise of Edacer to behold his foe before
him, not merely awaiting his assault, but boldly
marching down in three dense masses upon his scattered
troops.

Surprised, but not confounded, Edacer immediately
sought to amend his error. He brought his men quickly
together, and advanced to meet Pelayo. The first
shock was terrific. The spirits of the mountain warriors
had been duly heightened, and their confidence
strengthened as they had seen the bands of Edacer
scattering before the descending rocks. They rushed
to the battle with a fierce cry, and closed in a warm
fury with their enemy. Pelayo drew not his sword, but,
armed with a curtal or short-handled axe, which he

wielded as if it were a part of his own arm, he moved
like a terror and a tower through every part of the field,
striking here and striking there, seldom twice, encouraging
his people at every stroke, and showing himself
particularly heedful of the Jewish warriors, whom he
checred by frequent words addressed only to themselves.

With the first encounter, the auspices of which were
thus favourable to Pelayo, his troops drove back those
of Edacer. The religious enthusiasm with which Melchior
had inspired his people had impelled them forward
with a zealous rage, that seemed more like the heedless
indifference of madness than the practised sense and
spirit of a tried courage. Their first shock had been
irresistible, but that first shock was to be sustained by
enduring hardihood; for though it gave them a decided
advantage, yet, as the foe still held his ground, it called
for new efforts of like character, to which the untried
Hebrew warriors were not equal. The fierce Edacer—
doubly furious, as, so far, he seemed to have been baffled—having
rallied his men, rushed forward with a picked
body upon his foe, and was encountered by Abimelech,
whose troop was comparatively fresh, as it had been
more remote from the tug and trial attending the first
collision of the two armies. Success did not attend the
onset of Abimelech. His followers recoiled from the
heavy and close press of the Gothic spearmen; and that
warrior himself, having the ill-fortune to encounter with
Edacer, was thrust through and through with a spear,
and fell dead on the spot. The spear of Edacer was
broken with the fall of the enemy he had transfixed,
and he now drew his thick Spanish sword, a massive,
double-edged weapon, short and broad, which the Romans
had adopted from the native Iberian, and had preferred
to use before their sinews had been relaxed by
the effeminacies into which they afterward fell. The
overthrow of Abimelech dispirited his followers, while it
gave encouragement to the Gothic soldiers. They gave

back before their enemy, who pressed hardly upon them,
until the panic became a flight, the flight a rout, and
they fled in utter confusion to the rocks from which
they had descended. They were hotly pursued by the
force with which they had engaged, and it was then that
the bowmen whom Pelayo had stationed along the
mountain side rendered good service to the fugitives.
Their arrows fell fast and thick among the pursuers,
singling out their several and leading victims, and daunting
the rage of the pursuit with the terrors of an unexpected
foe; but this slight service could not long have
saved the warriors of Abimelech, had not the troops of
Melchior, which had been engaged with the right division
of Edacer's army, and had obtained like advantages
with those which he had won from Abimelech, now arrived
to their aid and rescue. The battle was begun
anew, and with new terrors. Melchior, with a vigour
that came from the resolution and sacred strength in
his mind, and which seemed to imbue him with all the
spirit, and strengthen him with all the muscles of youth,
led his men into the thickest of the enemy's array, and
ploughed to the heart of Edacer's force with shaft and
steel, until that fierce warrior himself was encountered.
The heavy maule of Melchior clashed with the thick,
short sword of Edacer. The fierce Goth opposed the
venerable Hebrew, and terrible indeed was the spectacle
to those around. But though Melchior seemed endowed
with the strength of youth, it was not possible for
him to strike long against the vigorous Edacer, particularly,
too, as the weapon which he employed, though
dreadful to strike, was not readily available, from its
great weight, for the purposes of defence. Edacer
pressed the venerable leader closely, and, chafed and
mortified, Melchior gave back before him. The strokes
of Edacer fell faster than ever as he found that he had
gained this advantage, and they became now more difficult
than ever for the Hebrew to parry and avoid; until,
at length, aiming to defend himself from a severe blow
meditated by the Goth, he threw up his maule crosswise
above his head, and the well-tempered steel of
Toledo, drawn down by the muscular arm of Edacer
with all its force, cut through the iron maule as if it
had been a reed, and the head of Melchior lay bare to
his blows. The force with which Edacer had struck
carried him forward, and, falling upon Melchior, they
both came heavily to the ground together. But the
Goth instantly regained his feet, and stood with his heel
upon his foe and his weapon uplifted. At this sight the
whole array of the Israelites cried aloud as with one
voice of unspeakable horror. The dreadful cry, significant
as it was of the general wo of her people, reached
the ears of the weeping and praying Thyrza, as she
lay anxious and apprehensive behind the rock where
her father had left her in safety. She started to her
feet as she heard this dreadful clamour, and, rushing
forward, beheld the white beard of Melchior upon the
earth, and saw the fierce Goth bestriding his body.
With a shriek of wo more piercing than the united
cry of the host, she bounded away; and, without a
consciousness of aught save of his danger, rushed
down the mountain just as a flight of arrows was interchanged
between those from below and those who still
kept their places as bowmen upon the heights. One
shaft penetrated her side, but she still went forward,
shrieking all the while, and calling upon Pelayo, in
whom she seemed to confide altogether and alone, for
the rescue of her father. Nor did the call seem to have
been made in vain. Before the blow of Edacer could
descend upon the head of his hoary victim, the Iberian
chief had dashed him away from the prostrate body of
Melchior, and he now opposed his dreadful battle-axe,
its edge smeared with hair and blood, that stood glued
in thick clots upon it, to the thirsting blade of the Gothic
sword. Two strokes had not been made between them
when the axe of Pelayo hewed down the shoulder of his
foe—a second blow, and its dripping edge was buried
deeply in his brain, and without a groan the Gothic
warrior fell prostrate to the earth. The cry of Pelayo's
warriors was that of victory. The Hebrews rallied as
they beheld the sight. The bowmen rushed down from
the mountain heights to the warm, close feast of the
sword below; and, in the entire rout and flight of the
Gothic warriors, the victory of Pelayo was complete.