90 THE SEA. 



did with, so to speak, everything standing, many families took with them the gr-at 

 wooden keys of their mansions, so confident were they of returning home again, when 

 the keys should open the locks and the houses be joyful anew. It was not to be as 

 thus longed for ; but many families in Barbary still keep the keys of these long ago 

 deserted and destroyed mansions." * And now we must mention an incident of its 

 history, recorded in the " Norwegian Chronicles of the Kings," concerning Sigurd the 

 Crusader the Pilgrim. After battling his way from the North, with sixty " long ships," 

 King Sigurd proceeded on his voyage to the Holy Land, " and came to Niorfa Sound 

 (Gibraltar Straits), and in the Sound he was met by a large viking force (squadron of 

 war-ships), and the King gave them battle ; and this was his fifth engagement with 

 heathens since the time he came from Norway. So says Halldor Skualldre : 



" ' He moistened your dry swords with blood, 

 As through Niorfa Sound ye stood; 

 The screaming raven got a feast, 

 As ye sailed onwards to the East.' 



Hence he went along Sarkland, or Saracen's Land, Mauritania, where he attacked a strong 

 party, who had their fortress in a cave, with a wall before it, in the face of a precipice: 

 a place which was difficult to come at, and where the holders, who are said to have been 

 freebooters, defied and ridiculed the Northmen, spreading their valuables on the top of 

 the wall in their sight. Sigurd was equal to the occasion in craft as in force, for he had 

 his ships' boats drawn up the hill, filled them with archers and slingers, and lowered 

 them before the mouth of the cavern, so that they were able to keep back the defenders 

 long enough to allow the main body of the Northmen to ascend from the foot of the 

 cliff and break down the wall. This done, Sigurd caused large trees to be brought to 

 the mouth of the cave, and roasted the miserable wretches within/' Further fights, and 

 he at last reached Jerusalem, where he was honourably received by Baldwin, whom he 

 assisted with his ships at the siege of Sidon. Sigurd also visited Constantinople, where 

 the Emperor Alexius offered him his choice : either to receive six skif-pound (or about a 

 ton of gold), or see the great games of the hippodrome. The Northman wisely chose the 

 latter, the cost of which was said to be equal to the value of the gold offered. Sigurd 

 presented his ships to the Emperor, and their splendid prows were hung up in the church 

 of St. Peter, at Constantinople. 



In the year 1319, Pedro, Infante of Castile, fought the Moors at Granada. The latter 

 were the victors, and their spoils were enormous, consisting in part of forty-three hundred- 

 weights of gold, one hundred and forty hundredweights of silver, with armour, arms, and 

 horses in abundance. Fifty thousand Castilians were slain, and among the captives were the 

 wife and children of the Infante. Gibraltar, then in the hands of Spain, with Tarifa and 

 eighteen castles of the district, were offered, and refused for her ransom. The body of 

 the Infante himself was stripped of its skin, and stuffed and hung over the gate of Granada. 



The third siege occurred in the reign of Mohammed IV., when the Spanish held the 



*" History of Gibraltar and its Sieges," by F. Gr. Stephens, with photographic illustrations by J. H. Mann* 

 The writer is much indebted to this valuable work for information embodied in these pages. 



