Don Christopher Had Already One Arm Broken And A Knee Shattered By A
Musket Shot.
Valour was at length oppressed by superiority of numbers:
The
enemy entered the camp, and put the Christians to the spear. The
Portuguese general escaped the slaughter with ten men, and retreated to a
wood, where they were discovered by a detachment of the enemy. [16]
Mohammed, overjoyed to see his most formidable enemy in his power, ordered
Don Christopher to take care of a wounded uncle and nephew, telling him
that he should answer for their lives, and upon their death, taxed him
with having hastened it. The Portuguese roundly replied that he was come
to destroy Moslems, not to save them. Enraged at this language, Mohammed
placed a stone upon his captive's head, and exposed him to the insults of
the soldiery, who inflicted upon him various tortures which he bore with
the resolution of a martyr. At length, when offered a return to India as
the price of apostacy, the hero's spirit took fire. He answered with the
highest indignation, that nothing could make him forsake his Heavenly
Master to follow an "imposter," and continued in the severest terms to
vilify the "false Prophet," till Mahommed struck off his head. [17] The
body was divided into quarters and sent to different places [18], but the
Catholics gathered their martyr's remains and interred them. Every Moor
who passed by threw a stone upon the grave, and raised in time such a heap
that Father Lobo found difficulty in removing it to exhume the relics.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 286 of 479
Words from 76431 to 76691
of 128411
