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The course of our legendary narration now returns
to notice the fortunes of Count Julian,
after his departure from Toledo, to resume his
government on the coast of Barbary. He left
the Countess Frandina at Algeziras, his paternal
domain, for the province under his command was
threatened with invasion. In fact, when he arrived
at Ceuta he found his post in imminent danger
from the all-conquering moslems. The
Arabs of the east, the followers of Mahomet,
having subjugated several of the most potent
oriental kingdoms, had established their seat of
empire at Damascus, where, at this time, it was
filled by Waled Almanzor, surnamed “The Sword
of God.” From thence the tide of moslem conquest
had rolled on to the shores of the Atlantic,
so that all Almagreb, or Western Africa, had
submitted to the standard of the prophet, with
the exception of a portion of Tingitania, lying

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along the straits; being the province held by
the Goths of Spain, and commanded by Count
Julian. The Arab invaders were a hundred
thousand strong, most of them veteran troops,
seasoned in warfare and accustomed to victory.
They were led by an old Arab General, Muza
ben Nosier, to whom was confided the government
of Almagreb; most of which he had himself
conquered. The ambition of this veteran was
to make the moslem conquest complete, by expelling
the christians from the African shores;
with this view his troops menaced the few remaining
Gothic fortresses of Tingitania, while he
himself set down in person before the walls of
Ceuta. The Arab chieftain had been rendered
confident by continual success, and thought nothing
could resist his arms and the sacred standard
of the prophet. Impatient of the tedious delays
of a siege, he led his troops boldly against the
rock-built towers of Ceuta, and attempted to take
the place by storm. The onset was fierce, and
the struggle desperate; the swarthy sons of the
desert were light and vigorous, and of fiery spirit,
but the Goths, enured to danger on this frontier,
retained the stubborn valour of their race, so
impaired among their brethren in Spain. They
were commanded, too, by one skilled in warfare
and ambitious of renown. After a vehement
conflict the moslem assailants were repulsed

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from all points, and driven from the walls. Don
Julian sallied forth and harrassed them in their
retreat, and so severe was the carnage that the
veteran Muza was fain to break up his camp and
retire confounded from the siege.

The victory at Ceuta resounded throughout
Tingitania, and spread universal joy. On every
side were heard shouts of exultation mingled with
praises of Count Julian. He was hailed by the
people, wherever he went, as their deliverer, and
blessings were invoked upon his head. The
heart of Count Julian was lifted up, and his spirit
swelled within him; but it was with noble and
virtuous pride, for he was conscious of having
merited the blessings of his country.

In the midst of his exultation, and while the
rejoicings of the people were yet sounding in his
ears, the page arrived who bore the letter from
his unfortunate daughter.

“What tidings from the king?” said the count,
as the page knelt before him: “None my lord,”
replied the youth, “but I bear a letter sent in all
haste by the Lady Florinda.”

He took the letter from his bosom and presented
it to his lord. As Count Julian read it
his countenance darkened and fell. “This,”
said he, bitterly, “is my reward for serving a
tyrant; and these are the honours heaped on me
by my country while fighting its battles in a

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foreign land. May evil overtake me, and infamy
rest upon my name, if I cease until I have full
measure of revenge.

Count Julian was vehement in his passions,
and took no council in his wrath. His spirit
was haughty in the extreme, but destitute of true
magnanimity, and when once wounded turned
to gall and venom. A dark and malignant
hatred entered into his soul, not only against
Don Roderick, but against all Spain: he looked
upon it as the scene of his disgrace, a land in
which his family was dishonoured, and, in seeking
to avenge the wrongs he had suffered from
his sovereign, he meditated against his native
country one of the blackest schemes of treason
that ever entered into the human heart.

The plan of Count Julian was to hurl King
Roderick from his throne, and to deliver all
Spain into the hands of the infidels. In concerting
and executing this treacherous plot, it seemed
as if his whole nature was changed; every
lofty and generous sentiment was stifled, and he
stooped to the meanest dissimulation. His first
object was, to extricate his family from the power
of the king, and to remove it from Spain before
his treason should be known; his next, to deprive
the country of its remaining means of defence
against an invader.

With these dark purposes at heart, but with

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an open and serene countenance, he crossed to
Spain and repaired to the court at Toledo.
Wherever he came he was hailed with acclamation,
as a victorious general, and appeared in
the presence of his sovereign radiant with the
victory at Ceuta. Concealing from King Roderick
his knowledge of the outrage upon his
house, he professed nothing but the most devoted
loyalty and affection.

The king loaded him with favours; seeking
to appease his own conscience by heaping honours
upon the father in atonement of the deadly
wrong inflicted upon his child. He regarded
Count Julian, also, as a man able and experienced
in warfare, and took his advice in all
matters relating to the military affairs of the
kingdom. The count magnified the dangers
that threatened the frontier under his command,
and prevailed upon the king to send thither the
best horses and arms remaining from the time
of Witiza, there being no need of them in the
centre of Spain, in its present tranquil state.
The residue, at his suggestion, was stationed on
the frontiers of Gallia; so that the kingdom was
left almost wholly without defence against any
sudden irruption from the south.

Having thus artfully arranged his plans, and
all things being prepared for his return to Africa,
he obtained permission to withdraw his

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daughter from the court, and leave her with her
mother, the Countess Frandina, who, he pretended,
lay dangerously ill at Algeziras. Count
Julian issued out of the gate of the city, followed
by a shining band of chosen followers, while
beside him, on a palfrey, rode the pale and
weeping Florinda. The populace hailed and
blessed him as he passed, but his heart turned
from them with loathing. As he crossed the
bridge of the Tagus he looked back with a dark
brow upon Toledo, and raised his mailed hand
and shook it at the royal palace of King Roderick,
which crested the rocky height. “A father's
curse,” said he, “be upon thee and thine!
may desolation fall upon thy dwelling, and confusion
and defeat upon thy realm!”

In his journeyings through the country, he
looked round him with a malignant eye; the
pipe of the shepherd, and the song of the husbandman,
were as discord to his soul; every
sight and sound of human happiness sickened
him at heart, and, in the bitterness of his spirit,
he prayed that he might see the whole scene of
prosperity laid waste with fire and sword by the
invader.

The story of domestic outrage and disgrace
had already been made known to the Countess
Frandina. When the hapless Florinda came in
presence of her mother, she fell on her neck,

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and hid her face in her bosom, and wept; but
the countess shed never a tear, for she was a
woman haughty of spirit and strong of heart.
She looked her husband sternly in the face.
“Perdition light upon thy head,” said she, “if
thou submit to this dishonour. For my own
part, woman as I am, I will assemble the followers
of my house, nor rest until rivers of
blood have washed away this stain.”

“Be satisfied,” replied the count, “vengeance
is on foot, and will be sure and ample.”

Being now in his own domains, surrounded
by his relatives and friends, Count Julian went
on to complete his web of treason. In this he
was aided by his brother-in-law, Oppas, the
bishop of Seville: a man dark and perfidious
as the night, but devout in demeanour, and
smooth and plausible in council. This artful
prelate had contrived to work himself into the
entire confidence of the king, and had even
prevailed upon him to permit his nephews, Evan
and Siseburto, the exiled sons of Witiza, to return
into Spain. They resided in Andalusia,
and were now looked to as fit instruments in
the present traitorous conspiracy.

By the advice of the bishop, Count Julian
called a secret meeting of his relatives and adherents
on a wild rocky mountain, not far from
Consuegra, and which still bears the Moorish

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appellation of “La Sierra de Calderin,” or the
mountain of treason.[12] When all were assembled,
Count Julian appeared among them, accompanied
by the bishop and by the Countess
Frandina. Then gathering around him those
who were of his blood and kindred, he revealed
the outrage that had been offered to their house.
He represented to them that Roderick was their
legitimate enemy; that he had dethroned Witiza,
their relation, and had now stained the honour
of one of the most illustrious daughters of their
line, The Countess Frandina seconded his
words. She was a woman majestic in person
and eloquent of tongue, and being inspired by
a mother's feelings, her speech aroused the assembled
cavaliers to fury.

The count took advantage of the excitement
of the moment to unfold his plan. The main
object was to dethrone Don Roderick, and give
the crown to the sons of the late King Witiza.
By this means they would visit the sins of the
tyrant upon his head, and, at the same time,
restore the regal honours to their line. For this
purpose their own force would be sufficient, but
they might procure the aid of Muza ben Nosier,
the Arabian general, in Mauritania, who would
no doubt gladly send a part of his troops into
Spain to assist in the enterprise.

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The plot thus suggested by Count Julian received
the unholy sanction of Bishop Oppas,
who engaged to aid it secretly with all his influence
and means: for he had great wealth and
possessions, and many retainers. The example
of the reverend prelate determined all who
might otherwise have wavered, and they bound
themselves by dreadful oaths to be true to the
conspiracy. Count Julian undertook to proceed
to Africa, and seek the camp of Muza, to negotiate
for his aid, while the bishop was to keep
about the person of King Roderick, and lead
him into the net prepared for him.

All things being thus arranged, Count Julian
gathered together his treasure, and taking his
wife and daughter and all his household, abandoned
the country he meant to betray; embarking
at Malaga for Ceuta. The gate in the wall
of that city, through which they went forth,
continued for ages to bear the name of Puerta
de la Cava, or the gate of the harlot; for such
was the opprobrious and unmerited appellation
bestowed by the Moors on the unhappy Florinda.
[13]

eaf221v3.n12

[12] Bleda. Cap. 5.

eaf221v3.n13

[13] Bleda. Cap. 4.

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