stance promised him in Africa, the prince
put to sea almost alone. As he was about to step on board his boat a
number of Berbers gathered round and showed an intention to prevent his
departure. They were quieted by a handful of dinars and he hastened on
board,--none too soon, for another band, greedy for gold, rushed to the
beach, some of them wading out and seizing the boat and the camel's-hair
cable that held it to the anchor. These fellows got blows instead of
dinars, one, who would not let go, having his hand cut off by a sword
stroke. The edge of a scimitar cut the cable, the sail was set, and the
lonely exile set forth upon the sea to the conquest of a kingdom. It was
evening of a spring day of the year 756 that the fugitive prince landed
near Malaga, in the land of Andalusia, where some prominent chiefs were in
waiting to receive him with the homage due to a king.

Hundreds soon flocked to the standard of the adventurer, whose manly and
handsome presence, his beaming blue eyes, sweet smile, and gracious manner
won him the friendship of all whom he met. With steadily growing forces he
marched to Seville. Here were many of his partisans, and the people flung
open the gates with wild shouts of welcome. It was in the month of May
that the fortunes of Abdurrahman were put to the test, Yusuf having
hastily gathered a powerful force and advanced to the plain of Musarah,
near Cordova, on which field the fate of the kingdom was to be decided.

It was under a strange banner that Abdurrahman advanced to meet the army
of the emir,--a turban attached to a lance-head. This standard afterwards
became sacred, the turban, as it grew ragged, being covered by a new one.
At length the hallowed old rags were removed by an irreverent hand, "and
from that time the empire of the Beni Ummeyah began to decline."

We may briefly conclude our tale. The battle was fierce, but Abdurrahman's
boldness and courage prevailed, and the army of Yusuf in the end gave way,
Cordova becoming the victor's prize. The generous conqueror gave liberty
and distinction to the defeated emir, and was repaid in two years by a
rebellion in which he had an army of twenty thousand men to meet. Yusuf
was again defeated, and now lost his life.

Thus it was that the fugitive prince, who had saved his life by swimming
the Euphrates under the eyes of an assassin band, became the Caliph of the
West, for under him Spain was cut loose from the dominion of the
Abbassides a