e scattered
or destroyed in the flight and pursuit of the three following days.
Amidst the general disorder, Roderic started from his car, and mounted
Orelia, the fleetest of his horses; but he escaped from a soldier's
death to perish more ignobly in the waters of the Btis or Guadalquivir.
His diadem, his robes, and his courser, were found on the bank; but
as the body of the Gothic prince was lost in the waves, the pride and
ignorance of the caliph must have been gratified with some meaner head,
which was exposed in triumph before the palace of Damascus. "And such,"
continues a valiant historian of the Arabs, "is the fate of those kings
who withdraw themselves from a field of battle."

Count Julian had plunged so deep into guilt and infamy, that his only
hope was in the ruin of his country. After the battle of Xeres, he
recommended the most effectual measures to the victorious Saracen. "The
king of the Goths is slain; their princes have fled before you, the army
is routed, the nation is astonished. Secure with sufficient detachments
the cities of Btica; but in person, and without delay, march to the
royal city of Toledo, and allow not the distracted Christians either
time or tranquillity for the election of a new monarch." Tarik listened
to his advice. A Roman captive and proselyte, who had been enfranchised
by the caliph himself, assaulted Cordova with seven hundred horse: he
swam the river, surprised the town, and drove the Christians into the
great church, where they defended themselves above three months. Another
detachment reduced the sea-coast of Btica, which in the last period of
the Moorish power has comprised in a narrow space the populous kingdom
of Grenada. The march of Tarik from the Btis to the Tagus was directed
through the Sierra Morena, that separates Andalusia and Castille, till
he appeared in arms under the walls of Toledo. The most zealous of the
Catholics had escaped with the relics of their saints; and if the
gates were shut, it was only till the victor had subscribed a fair and
reasonable capitulation. The voluntary exiles were allowed to depart
with their effects; seven churches were appropriated to the Christian
worship; the archbishop and his clergy were at liberty to exercise their
functions, the monks to practise or neglect their penance; and the Goths
and Romans were left in all civil and criminal cases to the subordinate
jurisdiction of their own laws and magistrates. But if the justice of
T