CHAPTER XXXIII

Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada

by Washington Irving

CHAPTER XXXIII, CHRONICLE OF THE CONQUEST OF GRANADA by Washington Irving

EXPEDITION AGAINST THE CASTLES OF CAMBIL AND ALBAHAR.


"Happy are those princes," exclaims the worthy padre Fray Antonio
Agapida, "who have women and priests to advise them, for in these

dwelleth the spirit of counsel." While Ferdinand and his captains
were confounding each other in their deliberations at the Fountain
of the King, a quiet but deep little council of war was held in the
state apartment of the old castle of Vaena between Queen Isabella,
the venerable Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, grand cardinal of Spain,
and Don Garcia Osoria, the belligerent bishop of Jaen. This last
worthy prelate, who had exchanged his mitre for a helm, no sooner
beheld the defeat of the enterprise against Moclin than he turned
the reins of his sleek, stall-fed steed and hastened back to Vaena,
full of a project for the employment of the army, the advancement
of the faith, and the benefit of his own diocese. He knew that the
actions of the king were influenced by the opinions of the queen,
and that the queen always inclined a listening ear to the counsels
of saintly men: he laid his plans, therefore, with the customary
wisdom of his cloth, to turn the ideas of the queen into the proper
channel; and this was the purport of the worthy bishop's suggestions:

The bishopric of Jaen had for a long time been harassed by two
Moorish castles, the scourge and terror of all that part of the
country. They were situated on the frontiers of the kingdom of
Granada, about four leagues from Jaen, in a deep, narrow, and
rugged valley surrounded by lofty mountains. Through this valley
runs the Rio Frio (or Cold River) in a deep channel worn between
high, precipitous banks. On each side of the stream rise two vast
rocks, nearly perpendicular, within a stone's throw of each other,
blocking up the gorge of the valley. On the summits of these rocks
stood the two formidable castles, Cambil and Albahar, fortified with
battlements and towers of great height and thickness. They were
connected together by a bridge thrown from rock to rock across the
river. The road which passed through the valley traversed this
bridge, and was completely commanded by these castles. They
stood like two giants of romance guarding the pass and dominating
the valley.

The kings of Granada, knowing the importance of these castles,
kept them always well garrisoned and victualled to stand a siege,
with fleet steeds and hard riders to forage the country of the
Christians. The warlike race of the Abencerrages, the troops of the
royal household, and others of the choicest chivalry of Granada made
them their strongholds or posts of arms, whence to sally forth on
those predatory and roving enterprises in which they delighted. As
the wealthy bishopric of Jaen lay immediately at hand, it suffered
more peculiarly from these marauders. They drove off the fat beeves
and the flocks of sheep from the pastures and swept the laborers
from the field; they scoured the country to the very gates of Jaen,
so that the citizens could not venture from their walls without the
risk of being borne off captive to the dungeons of these castles.

The worthy bishop, like a good pastor, beheld with grief of heart
his fat bishopric daily waxing leaner and leaner and poorer and
poorer, and his holy ire was kindled at the thoughts that the
possessions of the Church should thus be at the mercy of a crew
of infidels. It was the urgent counsel of the bishop, therefore,
that the military force thus providentially assembled in the
neighborhood, since it was apparently foiled in its attempt upon
Moclin, should be turned against these insolent castles and the
country delivered from their domination. The grand cardinal
supported the suggestion of the bishop, and declared that he
had long meditated the policy of a measure of the kind. Their
united opinions found favor with the queen, and she despatched
a letter on the subject to the king. It came just in time to relieve
him from the distraction of a multitude of counsellors, and he
immediately undertook the reduction of those castles.

The marques of Cadiz was accordingly sent in advance, with two
thousand horse, to keep a watch upon the garrisons and prevent
all entrance or exit until the king should arrive with the main army
and the battering artillery. The queen, to be near at hand in case
of need, moved her quarters to the city of Jaen, where she was
received with martial honors by the belligerent bishop, who had
buckled on his cuirass and girded on his sword to fight in the cause
of his diocese.

In the mean time, the marques of Cadiz arrived in the valley and
completely shut up the Moors within their walls. The castles were
under the command of Mahomet Lentin Ben Usef, an Abencerrage,
and one of the bravest cavaliers of Granada. In his garrisons were
many troops of the fierce African tribe of Gomeres. Mahomet Lentin,
confident in the strength of his fortresses, smiled as he looked
down from his battlements upon the Christian cavalry perplexed in
the rough and narrow valley. He sent forth skirmishing parties to
harass them, and there were many sharp combats between small
parties and single knights; but the Moors were driven back to their
castles, and all attempts to send intelligence of their situation to
Granada were frustrated by the vigilance of the marques of Cadiz.

At length the legions of the royal army came pouring, with vaunting
trumpet and fluttering banner, along the defiles of the mountains.
They halted before the castles, but the king could not find room in
the narrow and rugged valley to form his camp; he had to divide it
into three parts, which were posted on different heights, and his
tents whitened the sides of the neighboring hills. When the
encampment was formed the army remained gazing idly at the
castles. The artillery was upward of four leagues in the rear, and
without artillery all attack would be in vain.

The alcayde Mahomet Lentin knew the nature of the road by which
the artillery had to be brought. It was merely a narrow and rugged
path, at times scaling almost perpendicular crags and precipices, up
which it was utterly impossible for wheel carriages to pass, neither
was it in the power of man or beast to draw up the lombards and
other ponderous ordnance. He felt assured, therefore, that they
never could be brought to the camp, and without their aid what
could the Christians effect against his rock-built castles? He scoffed
at them, therefore, as he saw their tents by day and their fires by
night covering the surrounding heights. "Let them linger here a
little while longer," said he, "and the autumnal torrents will wash
them from the mountains."

While the alcayde was thus closely mewed up within his walls and
the Christians remained inactive in their camp, he noticed, one calm
autumnal day, the sound of implements of labor echoing among the
mountains, and now and then the crash of a falling tree or a
thundering report, as if some rock had been heaved from its bed
and hurled into the valley. The alcayde was on the battlements of
his castle, surrounded by his knights. "Methinks," said he, "these
Christians are making war upon the rocks and trees of the mountains,
since they find our castle unassailable."

The sounds did not cease even during the night: every now and then
the Moorish sentinel as he paced the battlements heard some crash
echoing among the heights. The return of day explained the mystery.
Scarcely did the sun shine against the summits of the mountains than
shouts burst from the cliffs opposite to the castle, and were answered
from the camp with joyful sounds of kettledrums and trumpets.

The astonished Moors lifted up their eyes and beheld, as it were,
a torrent of war breaking out of a narrow defile. There was a
multitude of men with pickaxes, spades, and bars of iron clearing
away every obstacle, while behind them slowly moved along great
teams of oxen dragging heavy ordnance and all the munitions of
battering artillery.

"What cannot women and priests effect when they unite in council?"
exclaims again the worthy Antonio Agapida. The queen had held
another consultation with the grand cardinal and the belligerent
bishop of Jaen. It was clear that the heavy ordnance could never be
conveyed to the camp by the regular road of the country, and without
battering artillery nothing could be effected. It was suggested,
however, by the zealous bishop that another road might be opened
through a more practicable part of the mountains. It would be an
undertaking extravagant and chimerical with ordinary means, and
therefore unlooked for by the enemy; but what could not kings effect
who had treasure and armies at command?

The project struck the enterprising spirit of the queen. Six
thousand men with pickaxes, crowbars, and every other necessary
implement were set to work day and night to break a road through
the very centre of the mountains. No time was to be lost, for it was
rumored that El Zagal was about to march with a mighty host to the
relief of the castles. The bustling bishop of Jaen acted as pioneer
to mark the route and superintend the laborers, and the grand
cardinal took care that the work should never languish through
lack of means.*

*Zurita, Anales de Aragon, lib. 20, c. 64; Pulgar, part 3, cap. 51.


"When kings' treasures," says Fray Antonio Agapida, "are dispensed
by priestly hands, there is no stint, as the glorious annals of Spain
bear witness." Under the guidance of these ghostly men it seemed
as if miracles were effected. Almost an entire mountain was levelled,
valleys were filled up, trees hewn down, rocks broken and overturned;
in short, all the obstacles which nature had heaped around entirely
and promptly vanished. In little more than twelve days this gigantic
work was effected and the ordnance dragged to the camp, to the
great triumph of the Christians and confusion of the Moors.*

*Zurita


No sooner was the heavy artillery arrived than it was mounted in
all haste upon the neighboring heights: Francisco Ramirez de Madrid,
the first engineer in Spain, superintended the batteries, and soon
opened a destructive fire upon the castles.

When the alcayde, Mahomet Lentin, found his towers tumbling about
him and his bravest men dashed from the walls without the power of
inflicting a wound upon the foe, his haughty spirit was greatly
exasperated. "Of what avail," said he, bitterly, "is all the prowess
of knighthood against these cowardly engines that murder from afar?"

For a whole day a tremendous fire kept thundering upon the castle
of Albahar. The lombards discharged large stones which demolished
two of the towers and all the battlements which guarded the portal.
If any Moors attempted to defend the walls or repair the breaches,
they were shot down by ribadoquines and other small pieces of
artillery. The Christian soldiery issued from the camp under cover
of this fire, and, approaching the castles, discharged flights of
arrows and stones through the openings made by the ordnance.

At length, to bring the siege to a conclusion, Francisco Ramirez
elevated some of the heaviest artillery on a mount that rose in
form of a cone or pyramid on the side of the river near to Albahar
and commanded both castles. This was an operation of great
skill and excessive labor, but it was repaid by complete success,
for the Moors did not dare to wait until this terrible battery should
discharge its fury. Satisfied that all further resistance was in
vain, the valiant alcayde made signal for a parley. The articles of
capitulation were soon arranged. The alcayde and his garrisons
were permitted to return in safety to the city of Granada, and the
castles were delivered into the possession of King Ferdinand on the
day of the festival of St. Matthew in the month of September. They
were immediately repaired, strongly garrisoned, and delivered in
charge to the city of Jaen.

The effects of this triumph were immediately apparent. Quiet and
security once more settled upon the bishopric. The husbandmen tilled
their fields in peace, the herds and flocks fattened unmolested in
the pastures, and the vineyards yielded corpulent skinsful of rosy
wine. The good bishop enjoyed in the gratitude of his people the
approbation of his conscience, the increase of his revenues, and the
abundance of his table a reward for all his toils and perils. "This
glorious victory," exclaims Fray Antonio Agapida, "achieved by such
extraordinary management and infinite labor, is a shining example of
what a bishop can effect for the promotion of the faith and the good
of his diocese."