A number of cavaliers of rank who lacked faith in the promised
miracle, and dreaded the consequences of this unprovoked irruption
into the country of the Moor, assembled at the bridge of the
Guadalquivir and endeavored to dissuade the grand master from
crossing. He was deaf to prayers, expostulations or menaces; his
followers were enraged at this opposition to the cause of the faith;
they put an end to the parley by their clamors; the cross was again
reared and borne triumphantly across the bridge.
The multitude increased as it proceeded; by the time the grand
master had reached Alcala la Real, which stands on a mountain
overlooking the Vega of Granada, upwards of five thousand men on
foot had joined his standard.
At Alcala came forth Alonzo Fernandez de Cordova, Lord of Aguilar,
his brother Diego Fernandez, Marshal of Castile, and other cavaliers
of valor and experience. Placing themselves in the way of the grand
master, "What madness is this, Don Martin?" said they. "The Moorish
king has two hundred thousand foot-soldiers and five thousand horse
within his walls; what can you and your handful of cavaliers and
your noisy rabble do against such force? Bethink you of the
disasters which have befallen other Christian commanders, who have
crossed these rocky borders with ten times your force. Think, too,
of the mischief that will be brought upon this kingdom by an outrage
of the kind committed by a man of your rank and importance, a grand
master of Alcantara.
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