While thus
engaged, they were startled by the sudden appearance of a great
Moorish host. The atalayas had given the alarm by fire and smoke
from the mountain tops of "an enemy across the border," and the king
of Granada had sallied forth with a great force to the encounter.
The crusaders, nearly taken by surprise, flew to arms and prepared
for battle. The grand master ordered his three hundred horsemen to
dismount and fight on foot in support of the infantry. The Moors,
however, charged so suddenly that they separated the cavaliers from
the foot-soldiers and prevented their uniting. The grand master gave
the old war cry, "Santiago! Santiago! and close Spain!" He and his
knights breasted the fury of the battle, but were surrounded by a
countless host and assailed with arrows, stones, darts, and
arquebuses. Still they fought fearlessly, and made prodigious
slaughter. The hermit mingled in the hottest of the fight. In one hand
he bore the cross, in the other he brandished a sword, with which he
dealt about him like a maniac, slaying several of the enemy, until
he sank to the ground covered with wounds. The grand master saw him
fall, and saw too late the fallacy of his prophecies. Despair,
however, only made him fight the more fiercely, until he also fell
overpowered by numbers. His devoted cavaliers emulated his holy
zeal. Not one turned his back nor asked for mercy; all fought until
they fell.
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