s
being placed in ambush among the chestnut-trees that covered the heights
above the Diva. All kept silent until the Moslem advance had emerged into
the valley. Then the battle began, one of the most famous conflicts in the
whole history of Spain, famous not for the numbers engaged, but for the
issue involved. The future of Spain dwelt in the hands of that group of
patriots. The fight in the valley was sharp, but one-sided. The Moslem
arrows rebounded harmlessly from the rocky sides of the cave, whose
entrance could be reached only by a ladder, while the Christians, hurling
their missiles from their point of vantage into the crowded mass below,
punished them so severely that the advance was forced back upon those that
crowded the defile in the rear. Al Kamah, finding his army recoiling in
dismay and confusion, and discovering too late his error, ordered a
retreat; but no sooner had a reverse movement been instituted than the
ambushed Christians on the heights began their deadly work, hurling huge
stones and fallen trees into the defile, killing the Moslems by hundreds,
and choking up the pass until flight became impossible.

The panic was complete. From every side the Christians rushed upon the
foe. Pelayo, bearing a cross of oak and crying that the Lord was fighting
for his people, leaped downward from the cave, followed by his men, who
fell with irresistible fury on the foe, forcing them backward under the
brow of Mount Auseva, where Al Kamah strove to make a stand.

The elements now came to the aid of the Christians, a furious storm
arising whose thunders reverberated among the rocks, while lightnings
flashed luridly in the eyes of the terrified troops. The rain poured in
blinding torrents, and soon the Diva, swollen with the sudden fall, rose
into a flood, and swept away many of those who were crowded on its
slippery banks. The heavens seemed leagued with the Christians against the
Moslem host, whose destruction was so thorough that, if we can credit the
chronicles, not a man of the proud army escaped.

This is doubtless an exaggeration, but the victory of Pelayo was complete
and the first great step in the reconquest of Spain was taken. The year
was 717, six years after the landing of the Arabs and the defeat of the
Goths.

Thus ended perhaps the most decisive battle in the history of Spain. With
it new Spain began. The cave of Covadonga is still a place of pilgrimage
for the Spanish patriot, a stairway of marbl