Charles Morris
speaker
7,961 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 18 Aug
Charles Morris’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.
Appearances
It was a splendid array upon which the Christians gazed, one well calculated to make them tremble for the result, for the hosts of Muhammad covered the hillsides and plains like countless swarms of locusts.
On an eminence which gave an outlook over the whole broad space stood the emperor's tent, of three ply crimson velvet flecked with gold, strings of pearls depending from its purple fringes.
To guard it from assault, rows of iron chains were stretched, before which stood three thousand camels in line.
In front of these, ten thousand negroes formed a living wall, their front bristling with the steel of their lances, whose butts were planted firmly in the sand.
In the centre of this powerful guard stood the emperor, wearing the green dress and turban of his ancestral line.
Grasping in one hand his scimitar, in the other he held a Quran, from which he read those passages of inspiration to the Muslims which promised the delights of paradise to those who should fall in a holy war, and the torments of hell to the coward who should desert his ranks.
The next day was Sunday.
The Moslems eager for battle stood all day in line, but the Christians declined to fight, occupying themselves in arranging their different corps.
Night descended without a skirmish.
But this could not continue with the two armies so closely face to face, one side or the other must surely attack on the following day.
At midnight, heralds called the Christians to mass and prayer.
Everywhere priests were busy confessing and shriving the soldiers, the sounds of the furbishing of arms mingled with the strains of religious service, and
At the dawn of the next day both hosts were drawn up in battle array.
The great struggle was about to begin.
The army of the Moors, said to contain three hundred thousand regular troops and seventy five thousand irregulars, was drawn up in crescent shape in front of the imperial tent.
In the center the vast host of the Almohadis, the tribes of the desert on the wings, in advance the light armed troops.
The Christian host was formed in four legions, King Alfonso occupying the center, his banner bearing an effigy of the Virgin.
With him were Rodrigo Jimenez, the Archbishop of Toledo, and many other prelates.
The force was less than one hundred thousand strong, some of the crusaders having left it in the march.
The sun was not high when the loud sound of the Christian trumpets and the Moorish Atabals gave signal for the fray, and the two hosts surged forward to meet in fierce assault.
Showing 1241–1260 of 7,961 · page 63 of 399
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