第107章

How Crisnarao,after he had made peace with the King of Oria,determined to go against the land of Catuir.

After Crisnarao had made peace,and had married the daughter of the King of Oria,and had restored to him his wife and the lands beyond the river,as has been narrated above,he made ready a large army and prepared to attack Catuir,[526]which is the land of a lord who had been in revolt for fifty years;this land is on the Charamaodel side.And he went against it,and laid siege to one of the principal cities where the lord of the land was;and it is called ...[527]and is surrounded with water.

Now at the time when Crisnarao attacked this city it was winter,for which cause the river that surrounded it was so swollen,and carried down so much water,that the king could do no harm to the place.And King Crisnarao,seeing this,and seeing that time was passing away without his attaining his desire,commanded his men to cut many new channels in order to be able to attack that principal (river)which had opposed itself to the fulfilment of his wishes.And this was done in a short time,since he had many soldiers;and after the (new)watercourses were finished and brought to where the water should go he opened mouths in the river,the water of which very soon flowed out so that the bottom could be seen,and it was left so shallow that it enabled him to reach the walls of the city;and the river was thus diverted into fifty different beds.Inside the city were one hundred thousand foot-soldiers and three thousand cavalry,who defended themselves and fought very bravely,but this availed little to prevent Crisnarao from entering in a few days and slaughtering all of them.He found large treasures in this city,amongst others in ready money a million and six hundred thousand golden PARDAOS,besides jewels,and horses,which were numerous,and elephants.And after he had finished the capture of this land Crisnarao divided it amongst many of his captains,giving to each one what was necessary for him;and the chief who lived in the city and who was lord of the land was taken away captive and carried to Bisnaga,where he died in the King's prison.

And after the King had settled the country he came to Bisnaga,whence he sent Salvatinea to the city of Comdovy,since he was chief of it,by whom his brother was placed in it so as to see directly to the land and ifs government;for after the King returned from Orya he never went again thither.

And Salvatinea,having departed on his journey to Comdovy,before he arrived there,met,opposing his path,a Muhammadan named Madarmeluquo,who was a captain of the King on this side,[528]and who was awaiting him with sixty thousand men.Salvatinea had two hundred thousand men,and had very little fear of him;and with these he went against him,and took and defeated him,and took prisoners himself and his wife and son and horses and elephants and much money and store of jewels,and sent them all to King Crisnarao.The king commanded to put (the captives)in prison,and there they died.And Sallvatinea went to his territories,and after he had stayed there some months and seen to its government and decided matters in dispute,he returned to the King at Bisnaga,by whom he was well received as being the principal person in the kingdom.