CHAPTER XLIV

Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada

by Washington Irving

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

HOW KING FERDINAND FORAGED THE VEGA; AND OF THE BATTLE
OF THE BRIDGE OF PINOS, AND THE FATE OF THE TWO
MOORISH BROTHERS.


Muley Abdallah el Zagal had been under a spell of ill-fortune ever
since the suspicious death of the old king his brother. Success had
deserted his standard, and with his fickle subjects want of success
was one of the greatest crimes in a sovereign. He found his
popularity declining, and he lost all confidence in his people. The
Christian army marched in open defiance through his territories,
and sat down deliberately before his fortresses; yet he dared not
lead forth his legions to oppose them, lest the inhabitants of the
Albaycin, ever ripe for a revolt, should rise and shut the gates of
Granada against his return.

Every few days some melancholy train entered the metropolis, the
inhabitants of some captured town bearing the few effects spared
them, and weeping and bewailing the desolation of their homes.
When the tidings arrived that Illora and Moclin had fallen, the people
were seized with consternation. "The right eye of Granada is
extinguished," exclaimed they; "the shield of Granada is broken:
what shall protect us from the inroad of the foe?" When the
survivors of the garrisons of those towns arrived, with downcast
looks, bearing the marks of battle and destitute of arms and
standards, the populace reviled them in their wrath, but they
answered, "We fought as long as we had force to fight or walls
to shelter us; but the Christians laid our town and battlements
in ruins, and we looked in vain for aid from Granada."

The alcaydes of Illora and Moclin were brothers; they were alike
in prowess and the bravest among the Moorish cavaliers. They
had been the most distinguished in those tilts and tourneys which
graced the happier days of Granada, and had distinguished
themselves in the sterner conflicts of the field. Acclamation had
always followed their banners, and they had long been the delight
of the people. Yet now, when they returned after the capture of
their fortresses, they were followed by the unsteady populace with
execrations. The hearts of the alcaydes swelled with indignation;
they found the ingratitude of their countrymen still more intolerable
than the hostility of the Christians.

Tidings came that the enemy was advancing with his triumphant
legions to lay waste the country about Granada. Still El Zagal did
not dare to take the field. The two alcaydes of Illora and Moclin
stood before him. "We have defended your fortresses," said they,
"until we were almost buried under their ruins, and for our reward
we receive scoffings and revilings: give us, O king, an opportunity
where knightly valor may signalize itself--not shut up behind stone
walls, but in the open conflict of the field. The enemy approaches
to lay our country desolate: give us men to meet him in the advance,
and let shame light upon our heads if we be found wanting in the
battle!"

The two brothers were sent forth with a large force of horse and
foot; El Zagal intended, should they be successful, to issue forth
with his whole force, and by a decisive victory repair the losses he
had suffered. When the people saw the well-known standards of
the brothers going forth to battle, there was a feeble shout, but
the alcaydes passed on with stern countenances, for they knew
the same voices would curse them were they to return unfortunate.
They cast a farewell look upon fair Granada and upon the beautiful
fields of their infancy, as if for these they were willing to lay down
their lives, but not for an ungrateful people.

The army of Ferdinand had arrived within two leagues of Granada,
at the bridge of Pinos, a pass famous in the wars of the Moors and
Christians for many a bloody conflict. It was the pass by which the
Castilian monarchs generally made their inroads, and was capable of
great defence from the ruggedness of the country and the difficulty
of the bridge. The king, with the main body of the army, had
attained the brow of a hill, when they beheld the advance guard,
under the marques of Cadiz and the master of Santiago, furiously
attacked by the enemy in the vicinity of the bridge. The Moors
rushed to the assault with their usual shouts, but with more than
usual ferocity. There was a hard struggle at the bridge; both
parties knew the importance of that pass.

The king particularly noted the prowess of two Moorish cavaliers,
alike in arms and devices, and whom by their bearing and attendance
he perceived to be commanders of the enemy. They were the two
brothers, the alcaydes of Illora and Moclin. Wherever they turned
they carried confusion and death into the ranks of the Christians,
but they fought with desperation rather than valor. The count de
Cabra and his brother Don Martin de Cordova pressed forward with
eagerness against them, but, having advanced too precipitately, were
surrounded by the foe and in imminent danger. A young Christian
knight, seeing their peril, hastened with his followers to their
relief. The king recognized him for Don Juan de Aragon, count of
Ribargoza, his own nephew, for he was illegitimate son of the duke
of Villahermosa, illegitimate brother of King Ferdinand. The
splendid armor of Don Juan and the sumptuous caparison of his
steed rendered him a brilliant object of attack. He was assailed
on all sides and his superb steed slain under him, yet still he fought
valiantly, bearing for a time the brunt of the fight and giving the
exhausted forces of the count de Cabra time to recover breath.

Seeing the peril of these troops and the general obstinacy of the
fight, the king ordered the royal standard to be advanced, and
hastened with all his forces to the relief of the count de Cabra. At
his approach the enemy gave way and retreated toward the bridge.
The two Moorish commanders endeavored to rally their troops and
animate them to defend this pass to the utmost: they used prayers,
remonstrances, menaces, but almost in vain. They could only collect
a scanty handful of cavaliers; with these they planted themselves
at the head of the bridge and disputed it inch by inch. The fight was
hot and obstinate, for but few could contend hand to hand, yet many
discharged crossbows and arquebuses from the banks. The river
was covered with the floating bodies of the slain. The Moorish band
of cavaliers was almost entirely cut to pieces; the two brothers fell,
covered with wounds, upon the bridge they had so resolutely
defended. They had given up the battle for lost, but had determined
not to return alive to ungrateful Granada.

When the people of the capital heard how devotedly they had fallen,
they lamented greatly their deaths and extolled their memory: a
column was erected to their honor in the vicinity of the bridge,
which long went by the name of "the Tomb of the Brothers."

The army of Ferdinand now marched on and established its camp in
the vicinity of Granada. The worthy Agapida gives many triumphant
details of the ravages committed in the Vega, which was again laid
waste, the grain, fruits, and other productions of the earth
destroyed, and that earthly paradise rendered a dreary desert.
He narrates several fierce but ineffectual sallies and skirmishes
of the Moors in defence of their favorite plain; among which one
deserves to be mentioned, as it records the achievements of one
of the saintly heroes of this war.

During one of the movements of the Christian army near the walls
of Granada a battalion of fifteen hundred cavalry and a large force
of foot had sallied from the city, and posted themselves near some
gardens, which were surrounded by a canal and traversed by ditches
for the purpose of irrigation.

The Moors beheld the duke del Infantado pass by with his two
splendid battalions--one of men-at-arms, the other of light cavalry
armed "a la gineta." In company with him, but following as a rear-
guard, was Don Garcia Osorio, the belligerent bishop of Jaen,
attended by Francisco Bovadillo, the corregidor of his city, and
followed by two squadrons of men-at-arms from Jaen, Anduxar,
Ubeda, and Baeza.* The success of last year's campaign had given
the good bishop an inclination for warlike affairs, and he had once
more buckled on his cuirass.

*Pulgar, part 3, cap. 62.


The Moors were much given to stratagem in warfare. They looked
wistfully at the magnificent squadrons of the duke del Infantado,
but their martial discipline precluded all attack: the good bishop
promised to be a more easy prey. Suffering the duke and his troops
to pass unmolested, they approached the squadrons of the bishop, and
making a pretended attack, skirmished slightly and fled in apparent
confusion. The bishop considered the day his own, and, seconded
by his corregidor Bovadillo, followed with valorous precipitation. The
Moors fled into the "Huerta del Rey," or Orchard of the King; the
troops of the bishop followed hotly after them.

When the Moors perceived their pursuers fairly embarrassed among
the intricacies of the garden, they turned fiercely upon them, while
some of their number threw open the sluices of the Xenil. In an
instant the canal which encircled and the ditches which traversed
the garden were filled with water, and the valiant bishop and his
followers found themselves overwhelmed by a deluge.* A scene of
great confusion succeeded. Some of the men of Jaen, stoutest of
heart and hand, fought with the Moors in the garden, while others
struggled with the water, endeavoring to escape across the canal,
in which attempt many horses were drowned.

*Pulgar.


Fortunately, the duke del Infantado perceived the snare into which
his companions had fallen, and despatched his light cavalry to their
assistance. The Moors were compelled to flight, and driven along
the road of Elvira up to the gates of Granada.* Several Christian
cavaliers perished in this affray; the bishop himself escaped with
difficulty, having slipped from his saddle in crossing the canal,
but saving himself by holding on to the tail of his charger. This
perilous achievement seems to have satisfied the good bishop's
belligerent propensities. He retired on his laurels (says Agapida)
to his city of Jaen, where, in the fruition of all good things, he
gradually waxed too corpulent for his corselet, which was hung
up in the hall of his episcopal palace, and we hear no more of his
military deeds throughout the residue of the holy war of Granada.**

*Pulgar.

**"Don Luis Osorio fue obispo de Jaen desde el ano de 1483, y
presidio in esta. Iglesia hasta el de 1496 in que murio en Flandes,
a donde fue acompanando a la princesa Dona Juana, esposa del
archiduque Don Felipe."--"Espana Sagrada," por Fr. M. Risco, tom.
41, trat. 77, cap. 4.


King Ferdinand, having completed his ravage of the Vega and kept
El Zagal shut up in his capital, conducted his army back through the
Pass of Lope to rejoin Queen Isabella at Moclin.

The fortresses lately taken being well garrisoned and supplied, he
gave the command of the frontier to his cousin, Don Fadrique de
Toledo, afterward so famous in the Netherlands as the duke of Alva.
The campaign being thus completely crowned with success, the
sovereigns returned in triumph to the city of Cordova.