--- title: The Field of Battle After the Defeat.—the Fate of Roderick. — Legends of the conquest of Spain · full text with trees description: The Field of Battle After the Defeat.—the Fate of Roderick., «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: On the morning after the battle, the Arab leader, Taric ben Zeyad, rode over the bloody field of --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/19/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Legends of the conquest of Spain](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/) / The Field of Battle After the Defeat.—… # The Field of Battle After the Defeat.—the Fate of Roderick. The Field of Battle After the Defeat.—the Fate of Roderick. of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving: the whole text, 43 sentences and 1292 words. The small number after every sentence leads to its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. On the morning after the battle, the Arab leader, Taric ben Zeyad, rode over the bloody field of the Guadalete, strewed with the ruins of those splendid armies, which had so lately passed like glorious pageants along the river banks.[1](1/ "tree and pragmatics") There Moor and Christian, horseman and horse, lay gashed with hideous wounds; and the river, still red with blood, was filled with the bodies of the slain.[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics") The gaunt Arab was as a wolf roaming through the fold he had laid waste.[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics") On every side his eye revelled on the ruin of the country, on the wrecks of haughty Spain.[4](4/ "tree and pragmatics") There lay the flower of her youthful chivalry, mangled and destroyed, and the strength of her yeomanry prostrated in the dust.[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics") The Gothic noble lay confounded with his vassals; the peasant with the prince; all ranks and dignities were mingled in one bloody massacre.[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics") When Taric had surveyed the field, he caused the spoils of the dead and the plunder of the camp to be brought before him.[7](7/ "tree and pragmatics") The booty was immense.[8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") There were massy chains, and rare jewels of gold; pearls and precious stones; rich silks and brocades, and all other luxurious decorations in which the Gothic nobles had indulged in the latter times of their degeneracy.[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics") A vast amount of treasure was likewise found, which had been brought by Roderick for the expenses of the war.[10](10/ "tree and pragmatics") Taric then ordered that the bodies of the Moslem warriors should be interred; as for those of the Christians, they were gathered in heaps, and vast pyres of wood were formed, on which they were consumed.[11](11/ "tree and pragmatics") The flames of these pyres rose high in the air, and were seen afar off in the night; and when the Christians beheld them from the neighbouring hills they beat their breasts and tore their hair, and lamented over them as over the funeral fires of their country.[12](12/ "tree and pragmatics") The carnage of that battle infected the air for two whole months, and bones were seen lying in heaps upon the field for more than forty years; nay, when ages had past and gone, the husbandman, turning up the soil, would still find fragments of Gothic cuirasses and helms, and Moorish scimitars, the relics of that dreadful fight.[13](13/ "tree and pragmatics") For three days the Arabian horsemen pursued the flying Christians, hunting them over the face of the country; so that but a scanty number of that mighty host escaped to tell the tale of their disaster.[14](14/ "tree and pragmatics") Taric ben Zeyad considered his victory incomplete so long as the Gothic monarch survived; he proclaimed great rewards, therefore, to whomsoever should bring Roderick to him, dead or alive.[15](15/ "tree and pragmatics") A diligent search was accordingly made in every direction, but for a long time in vain; at length a soldier brought to Taric the head of a Christian warrior, on which was a cap decorated with feathers and precious stones.[16](16/ "tree and pragmatics") The Arab leader received it as the head of the unfortunate Roderick, and sent it, as a trophy of his victory, to Muza ben Nosier, who, in like manner, transmitted it to the caliph at Damascus.[17](17/ "tree and pragmatics") The Spanish historians, however, have always denied its identity.[18](18/ "tree and pragmatics") A mystery has ever hung, and ever must continue to hang, over the fate of King Roderick, in that dark and doleful day of Spain.[19](19/ "tree and pragmatics") Whether he went down amidst the storm of battle, and atoned for his sins and errors by a patriot grave, or whether he survived to repent of them in hermit exile, must remain matter of conjecture and dispute.[20](20/ "tree and pragmatics") The learned Archbishop Rodrigo, who has recorded the events of this disastrous field, affirms that Roderick fell beneath the vengeful blade of the traitor Julian, and thus expiated with his blood his crime against the hapless Florinda; but the archbishop stands alone in his record of the fact.[21](21/ "tree and pragmatics") It seems generally admitted that Orelia, the favourite war-horse of Don Roderick, was found entangled in a marsh on the borders of the Guadalete, with the sandals and mantle and royal insignia of the king lying close by him.[22](22/ "tree and pragmatics") The river at this place ran broad and deep, and was encumbered with the dead bodies of warriors and steeds; it has been supposed, therefore, that he perished in the stream; but his body was not found within its waters.[23](23/ "tree and pragmatics") When several years had passed away, and men’s minds, being restored to some degree of tranquillity, began to occupy themselves about the events of this dismal day, a rumour arose that Roderick had escaped from the carnage on the banks of the Guadalete, and was still alive.[24](24/ "tree and pragmatics") It was said, that having from a rising ground caught a view of the whole field of battle, and seen that the day was lost, and his army flying in all directions, he likewise sought his safety in flight.[25](25/ "tree and pragmatics") It is added, that the Arab horsemen, while scouring the mountains in quest of fugitives, found a shepherd arrayed in the royal robes, and brought him before the conqueror, believing him to be the king himself.[26](26/ "tree and pragmatics") Count Julian soon dispelled the error.[27](27/ "tree and pragmatics") On being questioned, the trembling rustic declared, that while tending his sheep in the folds of the mountains, there came a cavalier on a horse wearied and spent and ready to sink beneath the spur; that the cavalier with an authoritative voice and menacing air commanded him to exchange garments with him, and clad himself in his rude garb of sheep-skin, and took his crook and his scrip of provisions, and continued up the rugged defiles of the mountains leading towards Castile, until he was lost to view.[28](28/ "tree and pragmatics") \[27\][29](29/ "tree and pragmatics") This tradition was fondly cherished by many, who clung to the belief in the existence of their monarch as their main hope for the redemption of Spain.[30](30/ "tree and pragmatics") It was even affirmed that he had taken refuge, with many of his host, in an island of the “Ocean sea,” from whence he might yet return, once more to elevate his standard, and battle for the recovery of his throne.[31](31/ "tree and pragmatics") Year after year, however, elapsed, and nothing was heard of Don Roderick; yet, like Sebastian of Portugal, and Arthur of England, his name continued to be a rallying point for popular faith, and the mystery of his end to give rise to romantic fables.[32](32/ "tree and pragmatics") At length, when generation after generation had sunk into the grave, and near two centuries had passed and gone, traces were said to be discovered that threw a light on the final fortunes of the unfortunate Roderick.[33](33/ "tree and pragmatics") At that time, Don Alphonso the Great, King of Leon, had wrested the city of Viseo in Lusitania from the hands of the Moslems.[34](34/ "tree and pragmatics") As his soldiers were ranging about the city and its environs, one of them discovered in a field, outside of the walls, a small chapel or hermitage, with a sepulchre in front, on which was inscribed this epitaph in Gothic characters:—[35](35/ "tree and pragmatics") HIC REQUIESCIT RUDERICUS, ULTIMUS REX GOTHORUM.[36](36/ "tree and pragmatics") Here lies Roderick, The last king of the Goths.[37](37/ "tree and pragmatics") It has been believed by many that this was the veritable tomb of the monarch, and that in this hermitage he had finished his days in solitary penance.[38](38/ "tree and pragmatics") The warrior, as he contemplated the supposed tomb of the once haughty Roderick, forgot all his faults and errors, and shed a soldier’s tear over his memory; but when his thoughts turned to Count Julian, his patriotic indignation broke forth, and with his dagger he inscribed a rude malediction on the stone.[39](39/ "tree and pragmatics") “Accursed,” said he, “be the impious and headlong vengeance of the traitor Julian.[40](40/ "tree and pragmatics") He was a murderer of his king; a destroyer of his kindred; a betrayer of his country.[41](41/ "tree and pragmatics") May his name be bitter in every mouth, and his memory infamous to all generations.”[42](42/ "tree and pragmatics") Here ends the legend of Don Roderick.[43](43/ "tree and pragmatics") - ← previous: [Last Day of the Battle.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/18/) - next →: [The Tomb of Roderick.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/20/) - ↑ back to [Legends of the conquest of Spain](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/)