CHAPTER LXIX

Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada

by Washington Irving

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

HOW THE MOORS MADE VARIOUS ENTERPRISES AGAINST THE
CHRISTIANS.


"While the pious king Ferdinand," observes Fray Antonio Agapida,
"was humbling himself before the cross and devoutly praying for the
destruction of his enemies, that fierce pagan, El Zagal, depending
merely on arm of flesh and sword of steel, pursued his diabolical
outrages upon the Christians." No sooner was the invading army
disbanded than he sallied forth from his stronghold, and carried
fire and sword into all those parts which had submitted to the
Spanish yoke. The castle of Nixar, being carelessly guarded, was
taken by surprise and its garrison put to the sword. The old warrior
raged with sanguinary fury about the whole frontier, attacking
convoys, slaying, wounding, and making prisoners, and coming by
surprise upon the Christians wherever they were off their guard.

Carlos de Biedma, alcayde of the fortress of Culla, confiding in the
strength of its walls and towers and in its difficult situation, being
built on the summit of a lofty hill and surrounded by precipices,
ventured to absent himself from his post. He was engaged to be
married to a fair and noble lady of Baeza, and repaired to that city
to celebrate his nuptials, escorted by a brilliant array of the best
horsemen of his garrison. Apprised of his absence, the vigilant
El Zagal suddenly appeared before Culla with a powerful force,
stormed the town sword in hand, fought the Christians from
street to street, and drove them with great slaughter to the
citadel. Here a veteran captain, by the name of Juan de Avalos,
a gray-headed warrior scarred in many a battle, assumed the
command and made an obstinate defence. Neither the multitude
of the enemy nor the vehemence of their attacks, though led on
by the terrible El Zagal himself, had power to shake the fortitude
of this doughty old soldier.

The Moors undermined the outer walls and one of the towers of the
fortress, and made their way into the exterior court. The alcayde
manned the tops of his towers, pouring down melted pitch and
showering darts, arrows, stones, and all kinds of missiles upon the
assailants. The Moors were driven out of the court, but, being
reinforced with fresh troops, returned repeatedly to the assault.
For five days the combat was kept up: the Christians were nearly
exhausted, but were sustained by the cheerings of their stanch old
alcayde and the fear of death from El Zagal should they surrender.
At length the approach of a powerful force under Don Luis Puerto
Carrero relieved them from this fearful peril. El Zagal abandoned
the assault, but set fire to the town in his rage and disappointment,
and retired to his stronghold of Guadix.

The example of El Zagal roused his adherents to action. Two bold
Moorish alcaydes, Ali Aliatar and Yzan Aliatar, commanding the
fortresses of Alhenden and Salobrena, laid waste the country of the
subjects of Boabdil and the places which had recently submitted to
the Christians: they swept off the cattle, carried off captives, and
harassed the whole of the newly-conquered frontier.

The Moors also of Almeria and Tavernas and Purchena made inroads
into Murcia, and carried fire and sword into its most fertile regions.
On the opposite frontier also, among the wild valleys and rugged
recesses of the Sierra Bermeja, or Red Mountains, many of the
Moors who had lately submitted again flew to arms. The marques of
Cadiz suppressed by timely vigilance the rebellion of the mountain-
town of Gausin, situated on a high peak almost among the clouds;
but others of the Moors fortified themselves in rock-built towers and
castles, inhabited solely by warriors, whence they carried on a
continual war of forage and depredation, sweeping down into the
valleys and carrying off flocks and herds and all kinds of booty to
these eagle-nests, to which it was perilous and fruitless to pursue
them.

The worthy Fray Antonio Agapida closes his history of this checkered
year in quite a different strain from those triumphant periods with
which he is accustomed to wind up the victorious campaigns of the
sovereigns. "Great and mighty," says this venerable chronicler,
"were the floods and tempests which prevailed throughout the
kingdoms of Castile and Aragon about this time. It seemed as though
the windows of heaven were again opened and a second deluge
overwhelming the face of nature. The clouds burst as it were in
cataracts upon the earth; torrents rushed down from the mountains,
overflowing the valleys; brooks were swelled into raging rivers;
houses were undermined; mills were swept away by their own
streams; the affrighted shepherds saw their flocks drowned in the
midst of the pasture, and were fain to take refuge for their lives in
towers and high places. The Guadalquivir for a time became a roaring
and tumultuous sea, inundating the immense plain of the Tablada and
filling the fair city of Seville with affright.

"A vast black cloud moved over the land, accompanied by a hurricane
and a trembling of the earth. Houses were unroofed, the walls and
battlements of fortresses shaken, and lofty towers rocked to their
foundations. Ships riding at anchor were either stranded or
swallowed up; others, under sail, were tossed to and fro upon
mountain waves and cast upon the land, where the whirlwind rent
them in pieces and scattered them in fragments in the air. Doleful
was the ruin and great the terror where this baleful cloud passed
by, and it left a long track of desolation over sea and land. Some of
the faint-hearted," adds Antonio Agapida, "looked upon this torment
of the elements as a prodigious event, out of the course of nature.
In the weakness of their fears they connected it with those troubles
which occurred in various places, considering it a portent of some
great calamity about to be wrought by the violence of the bloody-
handed El Zagal and his fierce adherents."*

*See Cura de los Palacios, cap. 91; Palencia, De Bello Granad.,
lib. 8.