Volume I Part 34 (1/2)

The various details, even to the site of the battle, are told in the usual confused and contradictory manner by the garrulous chroniclers of the period. All authorities, however, both Christian and Moorish, agree as to its general results.

[6] Mendoza, Dignidades, p. 382.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 4, dial. 9.

[7] Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 36.--Cardonne, Hist.

d'Afrique et d'Espagne, pp. 271-274.

[8] Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 23.--Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib.

1, cap. 12.

Charles V. does not seem to have partaken of his grandfather's delicacy in regard to an interview with his royal captive, or indeed to any part of his deportment towards him.

[9] Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, ubi supra.--Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, cap. 36.

[10] Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, loc. cit.--Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, cap. 36.

[11] The term _cavalgada_ seems to be used indifferently by the ancient Spanish writers to represent a marauding party, the foray itself, or the booty taken in it.

[12] Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 22.--Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom.

vi. Il.u.s.t. 6.

[13] Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 32, 41.--Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. iv lib.

20, cap. 59.--Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decades, ii. lib. 3, cap. 5.

[14] Machiavelli, Arte della Guerra, lib. 3.

[15] Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Il.u.s.t. 6.

According to Gibbon, the cannon used by Mahomet in the siege of Constantinople, about thirty years before this time, threw stone b.a.l.l.s, which weighed above 600 pounds. The measure of the bore was twelve palms.

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. 68.

[16] Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Il.u.s.t. 6.

We get a more precise notion of the awkwardness with which the artillery was served in the infancy of the science, from a fact recorded in the Chronicle of John II., that at the siege of Setenil, in 1407, five lombards were able to discharge only forty shot in the course of a day. We have witnessed an invention, in our time, that of our ingenious countryman, Jacob Perkins, by which a gun, with the aid of that miracle- worker, steam, is enabled to throw a thousand bullets in a single minute.

[17] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 174.--Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 44. Some writers, as the Abbe Mignot, (Histoire des Rois Catholiques Ferdinand et Isabelle, (Paris, 1766,) tom. i. p. 273,) have referred the invention of bombs to the siege of Ronda. I find no authority for this.

Pulgar's words are, ”They made many iron b.a.l.l.s, large and small, some of which they cast in a mould, having reduced the iron to a state of fusion, so that it would run like any other metal.”

[18] Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 51.--Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 82.

[19] Mendoza, Guerra de Granada, (Valencia, 1776,) pp. 73, 74.--Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. iv. lib. 20, cap. 59.--Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p.

168. According to Mendoza, a decoction of the quince furnished the most effectual antidote known against this poison.

[20] Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 304.--Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decades, ii. lib. 4, cap. 2.--Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 76.-- Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 12.

Pulgar, who is by no means bigoted for the age, seems to think the literal terms granted by Ferdinand to the enemies of the faith stand in need of perpetual apology. See Reyes Catolicos, cap. 44 et pa.s.sim.

[21] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 75.--Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 21, 33, 42.--Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decades, ii. lib. 8, cap. 6.-- Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 13.

[22] Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Il.u.s.t. 6.