King, Georgiana Goddard: A brief account of the military orders in Spain (New York: The Hispanic Society of America, 1921)

54
MILITARY ORDERS
War
much cattle: but in January he lay three
weeks before Baeza and could not take it.
“And horses died there, and mules, and
she-mules and asses, and the folk ate them,
famine
and thereafter the folk died of hunger. At
that time a measure of grain cost sixty sols.
And the host came up to Toledo and the
famine was in the kingdom till summer,
and most of the folk died, and they ate
the beasts and the dogs and the cats and
and horror
what children they could steal. This was
in Toledo, and wheat went up to . . . .”
Curiously enough he never set down the
figure, leaving it, presumably, to be veri-
fied—a trustworthy chronicler. I know
few pages which can so convey the sense of
living through those wars. The same tale
is told now by travellers in southeastern
Europe, or in the fringes of Austria, or by
the coasts of Syria and the uplands of
Armenia.
it
In the battle of Las Navas the Master
of Calatrava was wounded in the arm,
HISPANIC NOTES