Book Description:
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. PILGRIMAGE OF PELAYO, AND WHAT BEFELL HIM ON HIS RETURN TO SPAIN. Pelayo, according to the old chronicle before quoted, returned to his home deeply impressed with the revelations made to him by the saintly hermit, and prepared to set iorth upon the pilgrimage to the holy sepulchre. Some historians have alleged that he was quickened to this pious expedition by fears of violence from the wicked King Witiza; but at this time Witiza was in his grave and Roderick swayed the Gothic sceptre; the sage Agapida is therefore inclined to attribute the pilgrimage to the mysterious revelation already mentioned. Having arranged the concerns of his household, chosen the best suit of armour from his armoury, and the best horse from his stable, and supplied himself with jewels and store of gold for his expenses, he took leave of his mother and his sister Lucinda, as if departing upon a distant journey in Spain, and, attended only by his page, set out upon his holy wayfaring. Descending from the rugged Pyrenees, he journeyed through the fair plains of France to Marseilles, where, laying by his armour, and leaving his horses in safe keeping, he put on a pilgrim's garb, with staff and scrip and cockle shell, and embarked on board of a galley bound for Sicily. From Messina he voyaged in a small bark to Rhodes; thence in a galliot with a number of other pilgrims to the Holy Land. Having passed a year of pious devotion at the Holy Sepulchre, and visited all the places rendered sacred by the footsteps of our Lord, and of his mother the ever blessed Virgin, and having received the order of Knighthood, he turned his steps toward his native land. The discreet Agapida here pauses and forbears to follow the ancient chronicler further in his narration, for an interval of obscurity n...
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