ave battle to the Arabs on the plain; but an
ambuscade rising from the shelter of a quarry, or a ruin, chastised
their indiscretion, and intercepted their return.

The wooden turrets of assault were rolled forwards to the foot of the
rampart; but the defence of Merida was obstinate and long; and the
castle of the martyrs was a perpetual testimony of the losses of the
Moslems. The constancy of the besieged was at length subdued by famine
and despair; and the prudent victor disguised his impatience under the
names of clemency and esteem. The alternative of exile or tribute was
allowed; the churches were divided between the two religions; and the
wealth of those who had fallen in the siege, or retired to Gallicia, was
confiscated as the reward of the faithful. In the midway between Merida
and Toledo, the lieutenant of Musa saluted the vicegerent of the
caliph, and conducted him to the palace of the Gothic kings. Their
first interview was cold and formal: a rigid account was exacted of the
treasures of Spain: the character of Tarik was exposed to suspicion
and obloquy; and the hero was imprisoned, reviled, and ignominiously
scourged by the hand, or the command, of Musa. Yet so strict was the
discipline, so pure the zeal, or so tame the spirit, of the primitive
Moslems, that, after this public indignity, Tarik could serve and
be trusted in the reduction of the Tarragonest province. A mosch was
erected at Saragossa, by the liberality of the Koreish: the port of
Barcelona was opened to the vessels of Syria; and the Goths were pursued
beyond the Pyrenaean mountains into their Gallic province of Septimania
or Languedoc. [184] In the church of St. Mary at Carcassone, Musa found,
but it is improbable that he left, seven equestrian statues of massy
silver; and from his term or column of Narbonne, he returned on his
footsteps to the Gallician and Lusitanian shores of the ocean. During
the absence of the father, his son Abdelaziz chastised the insurgents
of Seville, and reduced, from Malaga to Valentia, the sea-coast of
the Mediterranean: his original treaty with the discreet and valiant
Theodemir [185] will represent the manners and policy of the times. "The
conditions of peace agreed and sworn between Abdelaziz, the son of Musa,
the son of Nassir, and Theodemir prince of the Goths. In the name of
the most merciful God, Abdelaziz makes peace on these conditions: that
Theodemir shall not be disturbed in his principality; nor any injur