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In the Calle de las Tornarías there used to be a dilapidated Moorish house with one still handsome room, but it is doubtful whether this now survives the wreck of time. It was called El Taller del Moro, because Ambron, the Moorish governor of Huesca, is said to have invited four hundred of the refractory chiefs of Toledo to dine here, and to have cut off the head of each as he arrived.
This hero, one of the most truly admirable of those whom history has celebrated, since in his character were united the most exalted virtue and the highest qualities of the soldier; this simple Castilian cavalier, upon whom his reputation alone bestowed the control of armies, became master of several cities, assisted the King of Aragon to seize upon Huesca, and conquered the kingdom of Valencia without any other assistance than that of his men-at-arms.
But senators of his own party became jealous of the great elevation of Sertorius, and conspired to assassinate him at a feast to which he was invited. Sertorius seems to have been a great administrator as well as fighter, and must also be counted one of the civilizers of Spain. He founded a school at Osca, now Huesca, where he had Roman and Greek masters for the Spanish youth.
And my Cid chose out two hundred horsemen and went out by night, and fell upon the lands of Alcaniz; and he remained out three days in this inroad, and brought away great booty. Great was the talk thereof among the Moors: and they of Monzon and of Huesca were troubled, but they of Zaragoza rejoiced; because they paid tribute to the Cid, and were safe.
Thus, Justo and Pastor wandered forth again from village to village, running away from the infidels until they reposed temporarily in the cathedral of Huesca in the north of Aragon. In Alcalá their memory was kept alive in the parish church dedicated to them.
And when my Cid returned to Zaragoza he divided the spoil among his companions, and said to them, Ye know, my friends, that for all who live by their arms, as we do, it is not good to remain long in one place. Let us be off again to-morrow. So on the morrow they moved to the Puerto de Alucant, and from thence they infested Huesca and Montalban.
But he died before it set out . Duran de Huesca, a Catalan, conceived the idea of fighting the heretics with their own weapons, and founded the Pauperes Catholici as an Order professing poverty and engaged in missionary work. But the outbreak of the Albigensian War superseded the work of the Order by more summary methods of dealing with heretics.
Canovas has always impressed me as being as bad an orator as he was a writer. When I first read his Bell of Huesca, I could not contain myself for laughing. As far as his speeches are concerned, I have also read a few, and find them horribly heavy, diffuse, monotonous and deficient in style. I hear that Canovas is a great historian, but if so, I am not acquainted with that side of him.
The King of Saragossa, Abu-Giafar, had hoped that the defeat of Zalaca would prevent the Christians from attacking him; but that of his allies, the Mahometan princes, in the neighborhood, and the taking of Huesca by the King of Navarre, convinced him how fallacious was his fancied security.
At the commencement of the eleventh century, when the throne of Cordova was daily stained by the blood of some new usurper, the governors of the different cities, as has been already remarked, had assumed the title of kings. Toledo, Saragossa, Seville, Valencia, Lisbon, Huesca, and several other places of inferior importance, each possessed independent sovereigns.
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