The long truce which had succeeded the battle of
Salado was at an end, and every effort of Yusef to renew it was in
vain. His deadly foe, Alfonzo XI of Castile, took the field with great
force, and laid siege to Gibraltar. Yusef reluctantly took up arms,
and sent troops to the relief of the place. In the midst of his
anxiety, he received tidings that his dreaded foe had suddenly
fallen a victim to the plague. Instead of manifesting exultation on
the occasion, Yusef called to mind the great qualities of the
deceased, and was touched with a noble sorrow. "Alas!" cried he,
"the world has lost one of its most excellent princes; a sovereign who
knew how to honor merit, whether in friend or foe!"
The Spanish chroniclers themselves bear witness to this magnanimity.
According to their accounts, the Moorish cavaliers partook of the
sentiment of their king, and put on mourning for the death of Alfonzo.
Even those of Gibraltar, who had been so closely invested, when they
knew that the hostile monarch lay dead in his camp, determined among
themselves that no hostile movement should be made against the
Christians. The day on which the camp was broken up, and the army
departed bearing the corpse of Alfonzo, the Moors issued in multitudes
from Gibraltar, and stood mute and melancholy, watching the mournful
pageant. The same reverence for the deceased was observed by all the
Moorish commanders on the frontiers, who suffered the funeral train to
pass in safety, bearing the corpse of the Christian sovereign from
Gibraltar to Seville.
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