For many days there ensued the bustle and the confusion of a great preparation in the house of the Moor; men came and went, women sewed and cleaned and burnished; horses were groomed, their manes were combed and their hoofs were polished; and then one morning, ere the golden sun was an hour high, down the winding trail past the monastery of San Sebastian, came a brilliant cavalcade.  Abul Malek led, seated upon an Arabian steed whiter than the clouds which lay piled above the westward mountains.  His two sons, Hassam and Elzemah, followed astride horses as black as night—­horses the distinguished pedigrees of which were cited in the books of Ibn Zaid.  Back of them came one hundred swarthy warriors on other coal-black mounts, whose flashing sides flung back the morning rays.  Their flowing linen robes were like the snow, and from their turbans gleamed gems of value.  Each horseman bore at his girdle a purse, a kerchief, and a poinard; and in their purses lay two thousand dinars of gold.  Slaves brought up the rear of the procession, riding asses laden with bales, and they led fifty blood-red bays caparisoned as for a tournament.

With scowling glances at the monastery the band rode on across the valley, climbed to the pass, and disappeared.  After many days they arrived at Cordova, then when they had rested and cleansed themselves, Abul Malek craved audience of the Caliph, Aboul-Abbas El Hakkam.  Being of distinguished reputation, his wish was quickly granted; and on the following day in the presence of the Hadjeb, the viziers, the white and black eunuchs, the archers, and the cuirassiers of the guard, he made a gift to his sovereign of those hundred northern horsemen and their mounts, those fifty blooded bays and their housings, those bales of aloe-wood and camphor, those silken pieces and those two thousand dinars of yellow Catalonian gold.  This done, he humbly craved a favor in return, and when bade to speak, he began by telling of the indignities rendered him by the monks of San Sebastian.

“Five generations my people have dwelt upon our lands, serving the true God and His Prophet,” he declared, with quivering indignation; “but now those idolaters have come.  They gibe and they mock at me beneath my very window.  My prayers are broken by their yammerings; they defile my casement, and the stench of their presence assails my nostrils.”

“What do you ask of me?” inquired the Caliph.

“I ask for leave to cleanse my doorstep.”

The illustrious Moslem shook his head, whereat Abul Malek cried: 

“Does not the Koran direct us to destroy the unbelieving and the impious?  Must I then suffer these infidels to befoul my garden?”

“God is merciful; it is His will that for a time the Unbelievers shall appear to flourish,” said the Caliph.  “We are bound by solemn compact with the kings of Leon and Castile to observe an armistice.  That armistice we shall observe, for our land is weary of wars, our men are tired, and their scars must heal.  It is not for you or for me to say:  ‘This is good, or this is evil.’  Allah’s will be done!”