CHAPTER LXX

Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada

by Washington Irving

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

HOW KING FERDINAND PREPARED TO BESIEGE THE CITY OF
BAZA, AND HOW THE CITY PREPARED FOR DEFENCE.


The stormy winter had passed away, and the spring of 1489 was
advancing, yet the heavy rains had broken up the roads, the
mountain-brooks were swollen to raging torrents, and the late
shallow and peaceful rivers were deep, turbulent, and dangerous.
The Christian troops had been summoned to assemble in early
spring on the frontiers of Jaen, but were slow in arriving at the
appointed place. They were entangled in the miry defiles of the
mountains or fretted impatiently on the banks of impassable floods.
It was late in the month of May before they assembled in sufficient
force to attempt the proposed invasion, when at length a valiant
army of thirteen thousand horse and forty thousand foot marched
merrily over the border. The queen remained at the city of Jaen with
the prince-royal and the princesses her children, accompanied and
supported by the venerable cardinal of Spain and those reverend
prelates who assisted in her councils throughout this holy war.

The plan of King Ferdinand was to lay siege to the city of Baza,
the key of the remaining possessions of the Moor. That important
fortress taken, Guadix and Almeria must soon follow, and then the
power of El Zagal would be at an end. As the Catholic king advanced
he had first to secure various castles and strongholds in the vicinity
of Baza which might otherwise harass his army. Some of these made
obstinate resistance, especially the town of Zujar. The Christians
assailed the walls with various machines to sap them and batter them
down. The brave alcayde, Hubec Abdilbar, opposed force to force and
engine to engine. He manned his towers with his bravest warriors,
who rained down an iron shower upon the enemy, and he linked
caldrons together by strong chains and cast fire from them, consuming
the wooden engines of their assailants and those who managed them.

The siege was protracted for several days: the bravery of the
alcayde could not save his fortress from an overwhelming foe, but
it gained him honorable terms. Ferdinand permitted the garrison
and the inhabitants to repair with their effects to Baza, and the
valiant Hubec marched forth with the remnant of his force and took
he way to that devoted city.

The delays caused to the invading army by these various
circumstances had been diligently improved by El Zagal, who felt
that he was now making his last stand for empire, and that this
campaign would decide whether he should continue a king or sink into
a vassal. He was but a few leagues from Baza, at the city of Guadix.
This last was the most important point of his remaining territories,
being a kind of bulwark between them and the hostile city of
Granada, the seat of his nephew's power. Though he heard of the
tide of war, therefore, collecting and rolling toward the city of Baza,
he dared not go in person to its assistance. He dreaded that should
he leave Guadix, Boabdil would attack him in the rear while the
Christian army was battling with him in front. El Zagal trusted in
the great strength of Baza to defy any violent assault, and profited
by the delays of the Christian army to supply it with all possible
means of defence. He sent thither all the troops he could spare from
his garrison of Guadix, and despatched missives throughout his
territories calling upon all true Moslems to hasten to Baza and make
a devoted stand in defence of their homes, their liberties, and their
religion. The cities of Tavernas and Purchena and the surrounding
heights and valleys responded to his orders and sent forth their
fighting-men to the field. The rocky fastnesses of the Alpuxarras
resounded with the din of arms: troops of horse and bodies of foot-
soldiers were seen winding down the rugged cliffs and defiles of
those marble mountains and hastening toward Baza. Many brave
cavaliers of Granada also, spurning the quiet and security of Christian
vassalage, secretly left the city and hastened to join their fighting
countrymen. The great dependence of El Zagal, however, was upon
the valor and loyalty of his cousin and brother-in-law, Cid Hiaya
Alnagar,* who was alcayde of Almeria--a cavalier experienced in
warfare and redoubtable in the field. He wrote to him to leave Almeria
and repair with all speed at the head of his troops to Baza. Cid Hiaya
departed immediately with ten thousand of the bravest Moors in the
kingdom. These were for the most part hardy mountaineers, tempered
to sun and storm and tried in many a combat. None equalled them
for a sally or a skirmish. They were adroit in executing a thousand
stratagems, ambuscadoes, and evolutions. Impetuous in their assaults,
yet governed in their utmost fury by a word or sign from their commander,
at the sound of a trumpet they would check themselves in the midst of
their career, wheel off and disperse, and at another sound of a trumpet
they would as suddenly reassemble and return to the attack. They were
upon the enemy when least expected, coming like a rushing blast,
spreading havoc and consternation, and then passing away in an
instant; so that when one recovered from the shock and looked around,
behold, nothing was to be seen or heard of this tempest of war but a
cloud of dust and the clatter of retreating hoofs.**

*This name has generally been written Cidi Yahye. The present mode
is adopted on the authority of Alcantara in his History of Granada,
who appears to have derived it from Arabic manuscripts existing in
the archives of the marques de Corvera, descendant of Cid Hiaya.
The latter (Cid Hiaya) was son of Aben Zelim, a deceased prince of
Almeria, and was a lineal descendant from the celebrated Aben Hud,
surnamed the Just. The wife of Cid Hiaya was sister of the two
Moorish generals, Abul Cacim and Reduan Vanegas, and, like them,
the fruit of the union of a Christian knight, Don Pedro Vanegas, with
Cetimerien, a Moorish princess.

**Pulgar, part 3, c. 106.


When Cid Hiaya led his train of ten thousand valiant warriors into
the gates of Baza, the city rang with acclamations and for a time
the inhabitants thought themselves secure. El Zagal also felt a glow
of confidence, notwithstanding his own absence from the city. "Cid
Hiaya," said he, "is my cousin and my brother-in-law; related to me
by blood and marriage, he is a second self: happy is that monarch
who has his kindred to command his armies."

With all these reinforcements the garrison of Baza amounted to above
twenty thousand men. There were at this time three principal leaders
in the city: Mohammed Ibn Hassan, surnamed the Veteran, who was
military governor or alcayde, an old Moor of great experience and
discretion; the second was Hamet Abu Zali, who was captain of the
troops stationed in the place; and the third was Hubec Abdilbar,
late alcayde of Zujar, who had repaired hither with the remains of
his garrison. Over all these Cid Hiaya exercised a supreme command
in consequence of his being of the blood-royal and in the especial
confidence of Muley Abdallah el Zagal. He was eloquent and ardent in
council, and fond of striking and splendid achievements, but he was
a little prone to be carried away by the excitement of the moment
and the warmth of his imagination. The councils of war of these
commanders, therefore, were more frequently controlled by the
opinions of the old alcayde Mohammed Ibn Hassan, for whose
shrewdness, caution, and experience Cid Hiaya himself felt the
greatest deference.

The city of Baza was situated in a great valley, eight leagues in
length and three in breadth, called the Hoya, or Basin, of Baza.
It was surrounded by a range of mountains called the Sierra of
Xabalcohol, the streams of which, collecting themselves into
two rivers, watered and fertilized the country. The city was built
in the plain, one part of it protected by the rocky precipices of
the mountain and by a powerful citadel, the other by massive walls
studded with immense towers. It had suburbs toward the plain
imperfectly fortified by earthen walls. In front of these suburbs
extended a tract of orchards and gardens nearly a league in length,
so thickly planted as to resemble a continued forest. Here every
citizen who could afford it had his little plantation and his garden
of fruits and flowers and vegetables, watered by canals and rivulets
and dominated by a small tower for recreation or defence. This
wilderness of groves and gardens, intersected in all parts by canals
and runs of water, and studded by above a thousand small towers,
formed a kind of protection to this side of the city, rendering all
approach extremely difficult and perplexed.

While the Christian army had been detained before the frontier
posts, the city of Baza had been a scene of hurried and unremitting
preparation. All the grain of the surrounding valley, though yet
unripe, was hastily reaped and borne into the city to prevent it
from yielding sustenance to the enemy. The country was drained
of all its supplies; flocks and herds were driven, bleating and
bellowing, into the gates: long trains of beasts of burden, some
laden with food, others with lances, darts, and arms of all kinds,
kept pouring into the place. Already were munitions collected
sufficient for a siege of fifteen months: still, the eager and hasty
preparation was going on when the army of Ferdinand came in sight.

On one side might be seen scattered parties of foot and horse
spurring to the gates, and muleteers hurrying forward their burdened
animals, all anxious to get under shelter before the gathering storm;
on the other side, the cloud of war came sweeping down the valley,
the roll of drum or clang of trumpet resounding occasionally from its
deep bosom, or the bright glance of arms flashing forth like vivid
lightning from its columns. King Ferdinand pitched his tents in the
valley beyond the green labyrinth of gardens. He sent his heralds
to summon the city to surrender, promising the most favorable terms
in case of immediate compliance, and avowing in the most solemn
terms his resolution never to abandon the siege until he had
possession of the place.

Upon receiving this summons the Moorish commanders held a council
of war. The prince Cid Hiaya, indignant at the menaces of the king,
was for retorting by a declaration that the garrison never would
surrender, but would fight until buried under the ruins of the walls.
"Of what avail," said the veteran Mohammed, "is a declaration of the
kind, which we may falsify by our deeds? Let us threaten what we
know we can perform, and let us endeavor to perform more than
we threaten."

In conformity to his advice, therefore, a laconic reply was sent to
the Christian monarch, thanking him for his offer of favorable terms,
but informing him that they were placed in the city to defend, not to
surrender it.