CAVA OF TOLEDO; or The Gothic Princess - A Romance. Volume I

This ebook edition has been proofed and corrected for errors and compiled to be read with without errors!***An excerpt of the first few pages:PREFACE. THE author of the following sheets, struck by the account historians have given of the fall of the Gothic empire in Spain, took the story of Cava for the foundation of a romance: whether she has succeeded or not in rendering it interesting, must be left to her readers to judge. She thinks it, however, necessary to say she has not falsified history; all relating to the war is exact: the real characters she has endeavoured to delineate such as they were; —Rodrigo—count Julian—don Palayo—Abdalesis, the Moor—queen Egilone—Musa—and Tariff, are drawn as the Spanish history represents them. Cava was never heard of from her quitting Spain with her father; of course, her adventures, from that period, are the coinage of the author's brain. The enchanted palace, which Rodrigo broke into, is mentioned in history. Her fictitious characters she has moulded to her own will; and has found it a much more difficult task than she expected, to write an historical romance, and adhere to the truth, while she endeavoured to embellish it.*****CHAPTER. I. IN the beginning of the eighth century, Rodrigo, the last king of the Goths, reigned over Spain. He was grandson to Chandaswinthe; the nobles of the kingdom had placed him on the throne, to the exclusion of the family of Witiza. In an evil hour he was called to govern that rich and flourishing kingdom; for it may be said of him, that he lit the funeral-pile of the Goths, and nearly consumed with their ashes the beautiful country and magnificent cities of Spain, from the northern provinces to the pillars of Hercules. The young prince Palayo, bred up with Rodrigo, and also grandson to Chandaswinthe, was of a very different disposition from his cousin. It was by the genius, the prudence, the valour of don Palayo, that the Christians at last began to retrieve the affairs of Spain, so ruined by the imprudence, or rather by the bad conduct and the vices of Rodrigo, that it appeared as if the country was devoted to destruction.It is from the prince Palayo that the kings of Spain have for ages descended without interruption; sons having succeeded to their fathers, or brothers to their brothers. At the time that Rodrigo mounted the throne, in the year seven hundred and eleven, there was little unity among the nobles; the country was weakened by the base conduct of Witiza, the late king; it was without arms, without troops, or strong places, and in no condition to make resistance to an enemy. Spain had neither friends at home to be depended on, nor allies abroad, and she was but a vain shadow of her former greatness: the people, sunk in luxury, in debauchery, and corruption, had lost that greatness of soul, that gallantry, and that love of glory which had rendered them terrible to their enemies, and carried their renown to the extremities of the earth. They had now no occupation but pleasure, and the gratification of their sensual appetites: how different such characters from the ancient Goths, who made the study of arms their delight! Plunged by their last sovereigns in the most shameful disorders, they only shewed their bravery by exciting sedition, and being ready on every occasion to mutiny, and massacre each other.Opulence, which in a state is ever accompanied by vice, deprived the Goths of an empire they had enjoyed three hundred years, and for which they were indebted to the prudence and the valour of their ancestors—debauchery extinguished their warlike ardour, and that heroic intrepidity which had rendered them capable of executing the most glorious projects, both in peace and war—they now scarcely preserved the remembrance of the military discipline that had rendered them invincible; their corrupt manners led to as great an avidity for pleasure, as they had once had for combat; and they as anxiously attended to the magnificence of their dress and epuipage, as they had formerly done to the splendor of their armour, and the beauty and perfection of their warlike weapons.