Here were the beloved bowers and gardens, and rural
pavilions, for which the unfortunate Moors fought with such
desperate valor. The very hovels and rude granges, now inhabited by
boors, show, by the remains of arabesques and other tasteful
decoration, that they were elegant residences in the days of the
Moslems. Behold, in the very centre of this eventful plain, a place
which in a manner links the history of the Old World with that of
the New. Yon line of walls and towers gleaming in the morning sun,
is the city of Santa Fe, built by the Catholic sovereigns during the
siege of Granada, after a conflagration had destroyed their camp. It
was to these walls Columbus was called back by the heroic queen, and
within them the treaty was concluded which led to the discovery of the
Western World. Behind yon promontory to the west is the bridge of
Pinos, renowned for many a bloody fight between Moors and
Christians. At this bridge the messenger overtook Columbus when,
despairing of success with the Spanish sovereigns, he was departing to
carry his project of discovery to the court of France.
Above the bridge a range of mountains bounds the Vega to the west:
the ancient barrier between Granada and the Christian territories.
Among their heights you may still discern warrior towns, their gray
walls And battlements seeming of a piece with the rocks on which
they are built. Here and there a solitary atalaya, or watchtower,
perched on a mountain peak, looks down as it were from the sky into
the valley on either side.
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