Investment of Seville.—All Spain aroused to Arms.—Surrender of
Alcala Del Rio.—The Fleet of Admiral Ramon Bonifaz advances up the
Guadalquivir.—Don Pelayo Correa, Master of Santiago.—His Valorous
Deeds and the Miracles wrought in his Behalf.
When it was bruited abroad that King Fernando the Saint intended to
besiege the great city of Seville, all Spain was roused to arms.
The masters of the various military and religious orders, the ricos
hombres, the princes, cavaliers, hidalgos, and every one of Castile
and Leon capable of bearing arms, prepared to take the field. Many of
the nobility of Catalonia and Portugal repaired to the standard of
the king, as did other cavaliers of worth and prowess from lands far
beyond the Pyrenees.
Prelates, priests, and monks likewise thronged to the army,—some to
take care of the souls of those who hazarded their lives in this holy
enterprise, others with a zealous determination to grasp buckler and
lance, and battle with the arm of flesh against the enemies of God
and the Church.
At the opening of spring the assembled host issued forth in shining
array from the gates of Cordova. After having gained possession of
Carmona, and Lora and Alcolea, and of other neighboring places,—some
by voluntary surrender others by force of arms,—the king crossed
the Guadalquivir, with great difficulty and peril, and made himself
master of several of the most important posts in the neighborhood
of Seville. Among these was Alcala del Rio, a place of great
consequence, through which passed all the succors from the mountains
to the city. This place was bravely defended by Axataf in person,
the commander of Seville. He remained in Alcala with three hundred
Moorish cavaliers, making frequent sallies upon the Christians, and
effecting great slaughter. At length he beheld all the country around
laid waste, the grain burnt or trampled down, the vineyards torn up,
the cattle driven away and the villages consumed; so that nothing
remained to give sustenance to the garrison or the inhabitants. Not
daring to linger there any longer, he departed secretly in the night
and retired to Seville, and the town surrendered to King Fernando.
While the king was putting Alcala del Rio in a state of defense.
Admiral Ramon Bonifaz arrived at the mouth of the Guadalquivir with a
fleet of thirteen large ships and several small vessels and galleys.
While he was yet hovering about the land, he heard of the approach
of a great force of ships from Tangier, Ceuta, and Seville, and of
an army to assail him from the shores. In this peril he sent in all
speed for succor to the king; when it reached the sea-coast the
enemy had not yet appeared; wherefore, thinking it a false alarm,
the reinforcement returned to the camp. Scarcely, however, had it
departed when the Africans came swarming over the sea, and fell upon
Ramon Bonifaz with a greatly superior force. The admiral, in no way
dismayed, defended himself vigorously—sunk several of the enemy, took
a few prizes, and put the rest to flight, remaining master of the
river. The king had heard of the peril of the fleet, and, crossing
the ford of the river, had hastened to its aid; but when he came
to the sea-coast, he found it victorious, at which he was greatly
rejoiced, and commanded that it should advance higher up the river.
It was on the twentieth of the month of August that King Fernando
began formally the siege of Seville, having encamped his troops,
small in number, but of stout hearts and valiant hands, near to the
city on the banks of the river. From hence Don Pelayo Correa, the
valiant Master of Santiago, with two hundred and sixty horsemen, many
of whom were warlike friars, attempted to cross the river at the ford
below Aznal Farache. Upon this, Aben Amaken, Moorish king of Niebla,
sallied forth with a great host to defend the pass, and the cavaliers
were exposed to imminent peril, until the king sent one hundred
cavaliers to their aid, led on by Rodrigo Flores and Alonzo Tellez
and Fernan Diañez.
Thus reinforced, the Master of Santiago scoured the opposite side of
the river, and with his little army of scarce four hundred horsemen,
mingled monks and soldiers, spread dismay throughout the country.
They attacked the town of Gelbes, and, after a desperate combat,
entered it, sword in hand, slaying or capturing the Moors, and making
rich booty. They made repeated assaults upon the castle of Triana,
and had bloody combats with its garrison, but could not take the
place. This hardy band of cavaliers had pitched their tents and
formed their little camp on the banks of the river, below the castle
of Aznal Farache. This fortress was situated on an eminence above the
river, and its massive ruins, remaining at the present day, attest
its formidable strength.
When the Moors from the castle towers looked down upon this little
camp of Christian cavaliers, and saw them sallying forth and
careering about the country, and returning in the evenings with
cavalgadas of sheep and cattle, and mules laden with spoil, and
long trains of captives, they were exceedingly wroth, and they
kept a watch upon them, and sallied forth every day to fight with
them, and to intercept stragglers from their camp, and to carry off
their horses. Then the cavaliers concerted together, and they lay
in ambush one day in the road by which the Moors were accustomed to
sally forth, and when the Moors had partly passed their ambush, they
rushed forth and fell upon them, and killed and captured above three
hundred, and pursued the remainder to the very gates of the castle.
From that time the Moors were so disheartened that they made no
further sallies.
Shortly after, the Master of Santiago receiving secret intelligence
that a Moorish sea-captain had passed from Seville to Triana, on
his way to succor the castle of Aznal Farache, placed himself, with
a number of chosen cavaliers, in ambuscade at a pass by which the
Moors were expected to come. After waiting a long time, their scouts
brought word that the Moors had taken another road, and were nearly
at the foot of the hill on which stood the castle. “Cavaliers,” cried
the master, “it is not too late; let us first use our spurs and then
our weapons, and if our steeds prove good, the day will yet be ours.”
So saying, he put spurs to his horse, and the rest following his
example, they soon came in sight of the Moors. The latter, seeing
the Christians coming after them full speed, urged their horses up
the hill towards the castle, but the Christians overtook them and
slew seven of those in the rear. In the skirmish, Garci Perez struck
the Moorish captain from his horse with a blow of his lance. The
Christians rushed forward to take him prisoner. On seeing this, the
Moors turned back, threw themselves between their commander and his
assailants, and kept the latter in check while he was conveyed into
the castle. Several of them fell, covered with wounds; the residue,
seeing their chieftain safe, turned their reins and galloped for the
castle, just entering in time to have the gates closed upon their
pursuers.
Time and space permit not to recount the many other valorous deeds
of Don Pelayo Correa, the good Master of Santiago, and his band
of cavaliers and monks. His little camp became a terror to the
neighborhood, and checked the sallies of the Moorish mountaineers
from the Sierra Morena. In one of his enterprises he gained a signal
advantage over the foe, but the approach of night threatened to
defraud him of his victory. Then the pious warrior lifted up his
voice and supplicated the Virgin Mary in those celebrated words:
“Santa Maria deten tu dia” (Holy Mary, detain thy day), for it
was one of the days consecrated to the Virgin. The blessed Virgin
listened to the prayer of her valiant votary; the daylight continued
in a supernatural manner, until the victory of the good Master of
Santiago was completed. In honor of this signal favor, he afterwards
erected a temple to the Virgin by the name of Nuestra Señora de
Tentudia.[87]
[87] Zuniga, _Annales de Sevilla_, L. 1.
If any one should doubt this miracle, wrought in favor of this
pious warrior and his soldiers of the cowl, it may be sufficient to
relate another, which immediately succeeded, and which shows how
peculiarly he was under the favor of Heaven. After the battle was
over, his followers were ready to faint with thirst, and could find
no stream or fountain; and when the good master saw the distress of
his soldiers, his heart was touched with compassion, and, bethinking
himself of the miracle performed by Moses, in an impulse of holy zeal
and confidence, and in the name of the blessed Virgin, he struck
a dry and barren rock with his lance, and instantly there gushed
forth a fountain of water, at which all his Christian soldiery drank
and were refreshed.[88] So much at present for the good Master of
Santiago, Don Pelayo Correa.
[88] Jacob Paranes, _Lib. de los Maestros de St. Iago._ _Corona
Gothica_, T. 3, § xiii. Zuniga, _Annales de Sevilla_.
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