How the King sent to call the ambassador,and of the answer which he gave to him.
Next day the King sent to call the ambassador,and after other things had been spoken of between[569]them,the King said that he would be content to restore everything to the Ydallcao according to his wish,and would be pleased at once to release Satabetacao,provided the Ydallcao would come and kiss his foot.When the ambassador heard the King's answer he took leave of him and went to his tent;and he wrote to the Ydallcao and told him what had passed,sending to him one of the scribes that had come with him.And much time had not passed when the Ydallcao sent him a reply,saying:How could it be possible for him to meet the King,seeing that he could not go to Bisnaga?and yet that he was of full mind joyfully to do that which the King wished.With this answer the ambassador went to the King,and since the King would have set higher value on the Ydallcao's coming to kiss his feet than on all that he had taken from him,he said to the ambassador,"Do thou cause the Ydallcao to come to the confines of my kingdom,for I shall be,soon there."Agreeing to this,the ambassador departed,so as to persuade the Ydallcao to come to the boundary.The King on his part went forthwith to a city called Mudugal[570]which is close to the boundary,and there he waited until they told him that the Ydallcao was coming and was already near at hand.Forthwith the King set out to meet him,and entered the kingdom of Daquem,so desirous was he to meet the Ydallcao;but the Ydallcao,after all,dared not meet the King.And the King journeyed so far,whilst they kept saying to him,"Lo!he is here close at hand,"that he even went as far as Bizapor,[571]which is the best city in all the kingdom of Daquem.It has numbers of beautiful houses built according to our own fashion,with many gardens and bowers made of grape-vines,and pomegranates,and oranges and lemons,and all other kinds of garden produce.
Hither went the King,for it seemed well for him to await the coming of the Ydallcao in so goodly a city;and he formed the determination that if he got him here he would seize him or command him to be put to death,to avenge the affront that had been put upon him;and seeing that his enemy did not dare to come he remained in the city several days.Then he turned away because water failed him;for since this city lies in a plain and has no water save that which it receives from rainfall into two lakes,of which there are two large ones,the Moors had opened these in order to drain them,so that the King should not be able to stay in their country.For this reason it behoved the King to depart.But the city was left almost in ruins --not that the King had commanded it to be destroyed,but that his troops,in order to make fires for cooking,had torn down so many houses that it was a great grief to see --and this was occasioned by there being in the country a dearth of firewood,which comes to them from a great distance.The Ydallcao sent to ask the King what wrong the houses of his captains had done that he had commanded to destroy them;for there remained no other houses standing save only the palaces of the Ydallcao,the King himself being therein.The King sent answer that it was not he who had done it,but that he could not control his people.
When the King went to the town of Modogal the Ydallcao returned to Bigapor,where,seeing the great havoc that had been wrought in it,he took to himself the blame for such damage having been done,[572]saying that if he had gone to the King such destruction would not have taken place,and that at least he could do this in future;he said that he had been badly advised since for his own part he had been prepared to do it.Thus he took counsel with his advisers,putting before them how secure his position was if he had the friendship of the King,that if allied to him he might be able to still further increase (the greatness of)his State,and that with the King's favour he would be able to carry out all his wishes.Concerning these things and others similar to these he continued constantly speaking with his advisers.Wherefore Acadacao the lord of Bilgao,he who had fled with him in the battle,and who was a man sagacious and cunning in such matters,addressed the Ydallcao begging permission to go himself to the King,and saying that he would remedy everything and would cause everything to take place just as his lord wished;and the Ydallcao listened to him readily.
Now Acadacao did not trouble himself to make this journey because he desired to serve the Ydallcao,for another would have done it as well,but he did it with a villainous motive and from the ill-will he bore to Salebatacao whom the King held in prison at Bisnaga;and the reason that he had this wicked motive was because Salebatacao knew that Acadacao was the man that had caused the Ydallcao to flee,and that the cowardice of such an act was enough to destroy an army.Salebatacao had spoken angrily about this to all those who went to see him or who were sent to visit him,and he always said that he did not desire to be released from his captivity save for one reason only,namely that he might ruin Acadacao and war against him as against a mortal enemy.These things were all known to Acadacao,and he knew that if they released him it would come to pass as he had said,and therefore he determined to prevent this by contriving his enemy's death,as will be mentioned in its place.It was for this reason that Acadacao asked to be sent as ambassador to the King;and this was done.
