Note 36 — Chapter II · REBELLION OF THE MORISCOES.

"Era mancebo de veinte y dos años, de poca barba, color moreno, verdinegro, cejijunto, ojos negros y grandes, gentil hombre de cuerpo: mostraba en su talle y garbo ser de sangre real, como en verdad lo era, teniendo los pensamientos correspondientes."—Hita, Guerras de Granada, tom. ii. p. 13.

Few will be disposed to acquiesce in the savage tone of criticism with which the learned Nic. Antonio denounces Hita's charming volumes as "Milesian tales, fit only to amuse the lazy and the listless." (Bibliotheca Nova, tom. i. p. 536.) Hita was, undoubtedly, the prince of romancers; but fiction is not falsehood; and when the novelist, who served in the wars of the Alpujarras, tells us of things which he professes to have seen with his own eyes, we may surely cite him as an historical authority.