CHAPTER LXXII

Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada

by Washington Irving

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

SIEGE OF BAZA.--EMBARRASSMENTS OF THE ARMY.


The morning sun rose upon a piteous scene before the walls of Baza.
The Christian outposts, harassed throughout the night, were pale
and haggard, while the multitudes of slain which lay before their
palisadoes showed the fierce attacks they had sustained and the
bravery of their defence.

Beyond them lay the groves and gardens of Baza, once favorite
resorts for recreation and delight, now a scene of horror and
desolation. The towers and pavilions were smoking ruins; the canals
and water-courses were discolored with blood and choked with the
bodies of the slain. Here and there the ground, deep dinted with the
tramp of man and steed and plashed and slippery with gore, showed
where had been some fierce and mortal conflict, while the bodies of
Moors and Christians, ghastly in death, lay half concealed among the
matted and trampled shrubs and flowers and herbage.

Amidst these sanguinary scenes rose the Christian tents, hastily
pitched among the gardens in the preceding evening. The experience
of the night, however, and the forlorn aspect of everything in the
morning convinced King Ferdinand of the perils and hardships to
which his camp must be exposed in its present situation, and after
a consultation with his principal cavaliers he resolved to abandon
the orchards.

It was a dangerous movement, to extricate his army from so entangled
a situation in the face of so alert and daring an enemy. A bold front
was therefore kept up toward the city; additional troops were ordered
to the advanced posts, and works begun as if for a settled encampment.
Not a tent was struck in the gardens, but in the mean time the most
active and unremitting exertions were made to remove all the baggage
and furniture of the camp back to the original station.

All day the Moors beheld a formidable show of war maintained in
front of the gardens, while in the rear the tops of the Christian
tents and the pennons of the different commanders were seen rising
above the groves. Suddenly, toward evening the tents sank and
disappeared, the outposts broke up their stations and withdrew,
and the whole shadow of an encampment was fast vanishing from
their eyes.

The Moors saw too late the subtle manoeuvre of King Ferdinand.
Cid Hiaya again sallied forth with a large force of horse and foot,
and pressed furiously upon the Christians. The latter; however,
experienced in Moorish attack, retired in close order, sometimes
turning upon the enemy and driving them to their barricadoes, and
then pursuing their retreat. In this way the army was extricated
without much further loss from the perilous labyrinths of the gardens.

The camp was now out of danger, but it was also too distant from
the city to do mischief, while the Moors could sally forth and return
without hindrance. The king called a council of war to consider in
what manner to proceed. The marques of Cadiz was for abandoning
the siege for the present, the place being too strong, too well
garrisoned and provided, and too extensive for their limited forces
either to carry it by assault or invest and reduce it by famine,
while in lingering before it the army would be exposed to the usual
maladies and sufferings of besieging armies, and when the rainy
season came on would be shut up by the swelling of the rivers. He
recommended, instead, that the king should throw garrisons of horse
and foot into all the towns captured in the neighborhood, and leave
them to keep up a predatory war upon Baza, while he should
overrun and ravage all the country, so that in the following year
Almeria and Guadix, having all their subject towns and territories
taken from them, might be starved into submission.

Don Gutierre de Cardenas, senior commander of Leon, on the other
hand, maintained that to abandon the siege would be construed by
the enemy into a sign of weakness and irresolution. It would give new
spirits to the partisans of El Zagal, and would gain to his standard
many of the wavering subjects of Boabdil, if it did not encourage the
fickle populace of Granada to open rebellion. He advised, therefore,
that the siege should be prosecuted with vigor.

The pride of Ferdinand pleaded in favor of the last opinion, for it
would be doubly humiliating again to return from a campaign in this
part of the Moorish kingdom without effecting a blow. But when he
reflected on all that his army had suffered, and on all that it must
suffer should the siege continue--especially from the difficulty of
obtaining a regular supply of provisions for so numerous a host
across a great extent of rugged and mountainous country--he
determined to consult the safety of his people and to adopt the
advice of the marques of Cadiz.

When the soldiery heard that the king was about to raise the siege
in mere consideration of their sufferings, they were filled with
generous enthusiasm, and entreated as with one voice that the
siege might never be abandoned until the city surrendered.

Perplexed by conflicting counsels, the king despatched messengers to
the queen at Jaen, requesting her advice. Posts had been stationed
between them in such manner that missives from the camp could reach
the queen within ten hours. Isabella sent instantly her reply. She left
the policy of raising or continuing the siege to the decision of the king
and his captains, but, should they determine to persevere, she pledged
herself, with the aid of God, to forward them men, money, provisions
and all other supplies until the city should be taken.

The reply of the queen determined Ferdinand to persevere, and when
his determination was made known to the army, it was hailed with as
much joy as if it had been tidings of a victory.