Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1858-11-15

out arms, or with such only as were TOO much
battered or broken for service, the wretched
tugltives would gladly have made some terms
with their pursuers, who now closed darkly
around them. But the stag at bay might as
easily have made terms with his hunters and
the fierce hounds that were already on his
launches. Their prayers were answered by
volley after volley, until not a man was left
alive.
More than four hundred women and chill.
dren were gathered together without the
walls, and the soldiers, mindful of the value
OF such booty, were willing to spare their
lives. This was remarked by Don John, and
no sooner did he observe the symptoms of
lenlty IN the troops, than the 1nty hearted
chief reouked their renissness, land sternly
minded them Of the order of the day. He
even sent the halberdiers OF his guard and the
cavaliers about his person to assist the SOL
diers III their bloody work; while he sat-
calm spectator, on his horse, as imnovable
as a marble statue, and as insensfole to the
sgonIzing screams of his victims and their
heart breaking prayers for mercy.
While this was going on without the town.
the work of death was no less active within
Every square and enclosure that had afforded
temporary refuge to the fugitives was heap
ed with the bodies OF the slain. Blood ran
down the kennels, like water after heavy
shower The dwellings, were fired, some by
the conquerors, others by the inmates, who
thre" themselves madly into the flames, rath-
er than TAIL into the hands of their enemies
Inc gathering shadows OF the evening-for
the hight had lasted nearly nine hours-were
disPelled by the light of the conflagration,
winch threw an ominous glare for many a
league over tho country, PToelaImIng far and
wide the downfall of Galera.
AT length Don John was so far moved from
his original purpose as to consent that the
women, and the children under twelve years
of age, should be spared. This he did, not
from any feeling of compunction, but from
Difference to the murmurs of his followers,
whose discomfort at seeing their customary
booty snatched from them, began to show it.
self in way not to be disregarded. Some IF
teen hundred women and children, in con-
sequence of this, are said to have escaped the
general doom of their countrympn. All the
rest, soldiers and citizens, Turks, Africans,
and Moriscoes, were mercilessly butchered.-
Not one man, if we may trust the Spaniards
themselves, escaped alive 1t would not be
easy, even in that age of blood, to find a par
allel to 30 wholesale and indiscriminate mas
sacre.
Yet to borrow the words of the Castisn
proverb, - If Africa had cause TO weep, Spain
had little reason to rejoice" No success dur
ing the war was purchased at SO high a price
as the capture of Galera. The loss fell as
heavily on the officers and men Of rank as on
the common file. We have seen the eager
ness with, which they had focked to the stan
dard Of John OF Austria. They showed the
same eRgerness to distinguish themselves I'M
der the eye of their leader. The Spanish
chivalry were sure to be found in the post of
danger. Dearly did they pay for that pre-
eminence; and many noble house in Spain
wept bitter tears when the tdings came of
the conquest of Galera.
Don John himself was so much exasperat-
ed, says the chronicler, by the thought Of the
grievous loss which he had sustained, through
the obstinate resistance of the heretics that
he resolved to carry at once into effect his me-
mace OF demolishing the town, 30 that no one
stone should be left on another. Every house
was accordingly burnt or levelled to the
ground, which was then sire wed with salt,
as an accursed shot, on which no man was to
build thereafter. A royal decree to that effect
was soon afterwards published; and the viii
lage OF struggling houses, which, undefended
by wall, still clusters round the base of the
hill, in the Gardens occupied by Padila, is all
that now serves to remind the traveller of the
once tlourishing and strongly fortified city of
Galera.