CHAPTER XLIII

Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada

by Washington Irving

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

HOW KING FERDINAND ATTACKED MOCLIN, AND OF THE STRANGE
EVENTS THAT ATTENDED ITS CAPTURE.


"The Catholic sovereigns," says Fray Antonio Agapida, "had by
this time closely clipped the right wing of the Moorish vulture."
In other words, most of the strong fortresses along the western
frontier of Granada had fallen beneath the Christian artillery. The
army now lay encamped before the town of Moclin, on the frontier
of Jaen, one of the most stubborn fortresses of the border. It stood
on a high rocky hill, the base of which was nearly girdled by a river:
a thick forest protected the back part of the town toward the
mountain. Thus strongly situated, it domineered, with its frowning
battlements and massive towers, all the mountain-passes into that
part of the country, and was called "the shield of Granada." It had
a double arrear of blood to settle with the Christians: two hundred
years before, a master of Santiago and all his cavaliers had been
lanced by the Moors before its gates. It had recently made terrible
slaughter among the troops of the good count de Cabra in his
precipitate attempt to entrap the old Moorish monarch. The pride
of Ferdinand had been piqued by being obliged on that occasion
to recede from his plan and abandon his concerted attack on the
place; he was now prepared to take a full revenge.

El Zagal, the old warrior-king of Granada, anticipating a second
attempt, had provided the place with ample ammunitions and
provisions, had ordered trenches to be digged and additional
bulwarks thrown up, and caused all the old men, the women,
and the children to be removed to the capital.

Such was the strength of the fortress and the difficulties of its
position that Ferdinand anticipated much trouble in reducing it,
and made every preparation for a regular siege. In the centre of
his camp were two great mounds, one of sacks of flour, the other of
grain, which were called the royal granary. Three batteries of heavy
ordnance were opened against the citadel and principal towers, while
smaller artillery, engines for the discharge of missiles, arquebuses,
and crossbows, were distributed in various places to keep up a fire
into any breaches that might be made, and upon those of the
garrison who should appear on the battlements.

The lombards soon made an impression on the works, demolishing a
part of the wall and tumbling down several of those haughty towers
which, from their height, had been impregnable before the invention
of gunpowder. The Moors repaired their walls as well as they were
able, and, still confiding in the strength of their situation, kept up a
resolute defence, firing down from their lofty battlements and towers
upon the Christian camp. For two nights and a day an incessant fire
was kept up, so that there was not a moment in which the roaring
of ordnance was not heard or some damage sustained by the
Christians or the Moors. It was a conflict, however, more of engineers
and artillerists than of gallant cavaliers; there was no sally of troops
nor shock of armed men nor rush and charge of cavalry. The knights
stood looking on with idle weapons, waiting until they should have
an opportunity of signalizing their prowess by scaling the walls or
storming the breaches. As the place, however, was assailable only in
one part, there was every prospect of a long and obstinate resistance.

The engineers, as usual, discharged not merely balls of stone and
iron to demolish the walls, but flaming balls of inextinguishable
combustibles designed to set fire to the houses. One of these, which
passed high through the air like a meteor, sending out sparks and
crackling as it went, entered the window of a tower which was used
as a magazine of gunpowder. The tower blew up with a tremendous
explosion; the Moors who were upon its battlements were hurled
into the air, and fell mangled in various parts of the town, and the
houses in its vicinity were rent and overthrown as with an earthquake.

The Moors, who had never witnessed an explosion of the kind,
ascribed the destruction of the tower to a miracle. Some who had
seen the descent of the flaming ball imagined that fire had fallen
from heaven to punish them for their pertinacity. The pious Agapida
himself believes that this fiery missive was conducted by divine
agency to confound the infidels--an opinion in which he is supported
by other Catholic historians.*

*Pulgar, Garibay; Lucio Marino Siculo, Cosas Memoral. de Hispan.,
lib.20.


Seeing heaven and earth, as it were, combined against them, the
Moors lost all heart: they capitulated, and were permitted to depart
with their effects, leaving behind all arms and munitions of war.

The Catholic army (says Antonio Agapida) entered Moclin in solemn
state, not as a licentious host intent upon plunder and desolation,
but as a band of Christian warriors coming to purify and regenerate
the land. The standard of the cross, that ensign of this holy crusade,
was borne in the advance, followed by the other banners of the
army. Then came the king and queen at the head of a vast number
of armed cavaliers. They were accompanied by a band of priests and
friars, with the choir of the royal chapel chanting the canticle "Te
Deum laudamus." As they were moving through the streets in this
solemn manner, every sound hushed excepting the anthem of the
choir, they suddenly heard, issuing as it were from under ground, a
chorus of voices chanting in solemn response "Benedictum qui venit
in nomine Domini."* The procession paused in wonder. The sounds
rose from Christian captives, and among them several priests, who
were confined in subterraneous dungeons.

*Marino Siculo.


The heart of Isabella was greatly touched. She ordered the captives
to be drawn forth from their cells, and was still more moved at
beholding, by their wan, discolored, and emaciated appearance, how
much they had suffered. Their hair and beards were overgrown and
shagged; they were wasted by hunger, half naked, and in chains.
She ordered that they should be clothed and cherished, and money
furnished them to bear them to their homes.*

*Illescas, Hist. Pontif., lib. 6, c. 20, \0xA4 1.


Several of the captives were brave cavaliers who had been wounded
and made prisoners in the defeat of the count de Cabra by El Zagal
in the preceding year. There were also found other melancholy traces
of that disastrous affair. On visiting the narrow pass where the
defeat had taken place, the remains of several Christian warriors
were found in thickets or hidden behind rocks or in the clefts of the
mountains. These were some who had been struck from their horses
and wounded too severely to fly. They had crawled away from the
scene of action, and concealed themselves to avoid falling into the
hands of the enemy, and had thus perished miserably and alone. The
remains of those of note were known by their armor and devices, and
were mourned over by their companions who had shared the disaster
of that day.*

*Pulgar, part 3, cap. 61.


The queen had these remains piously collected as the relics of so
many martyrs who had fallen in the cause of the faith. They were
interred with great solemnity in the mosques of Moclin, which had
been purified and consecrated to Christian worship. "There," says
Antonio Agapida, "rest the bones of those truly Catholic knights,
in the holy ground which in a manner had been sanctified by their
blood; and all pilgrims passing through those mountains offer up
prayers and masses for the repose of their souls."

The queen remained for some time at Moclin, administering comfort to
the wounded and the prisoners, bringing the newly-acquired territory
into order, and founding churches and monasteries and other pious
institutions. "While the king marched in front, laying waste the land
of the Philistines," says the figurative Antonio Agapida, "Queen
Isabella followed his traces as the binder follows the reaper, gathering
and garnering the rich harvest that has fallen beneath his sickle. In
this she was greatly assisted by the counsels of that cloud of bishops,
friars, and other saintly men which continually surrounded her,
garnering the first fruits of this infidel land into the granaries of the
Church." Leaving her thus piously employed, the king pursued his
career of conquest, determined to lay waste the Vega and carry fire
and sword to the very gates of Granada.