CHAPTER LXXV

Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada

by Washington Irving

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

CONTINUATION OF THE SIEGE OF BAZA.


The Moorish king, El Zagal, mounted a tower and looked out eagerly
to enjoy the sight of the Christian marauders brought captive into
the gates of Guadix, but his spirits fell when he beheld his own
troops stealing back in the dusk of the evening in broken and
dejected parties.

The fortune of war bore hard against the old monarch; his mind was
harassed by disastrous tidings brought each day from Baza, of the
sufferings of the inhabitants, and the numbers of the garrison slain
in the frequent skirmishes. He dared not go in person to the relief
of the place, for his presence was necessary in Guadix to keep a
check upon his nephew in Granada. He sent reinforcements and
supplies, but they were intercepted and either captured or driven
back. Still, his situation was in some respects preferable to that
of his nephew Boabdil. He was battling like a warrior on the last
step of his throne; El Chico remained a kind of pensioned vassal in
the luxurious abode of the Alhambra. The chivalrous part of the
inhabitants of Granada could not but compare the generous stand
made by the warriors of Baza for their country and their faith with
their own time-serving submission to the yoke of an unbeliever.
Every account they received of the woes of Baza wrung their hearts
with agony; every account of the exploits of its devoted defenders
brought blushes to their cheeks. Many stole forth secretly with
their weapons and hastened to join the besieged, and the partisans
of El Zagal wrought upon the patriotism and passions of the
remainder until another of those conspiracies was formed that
were continually menacing the unsteady throne of Granada. It was
concerted by the conspirators to assail the Alhambra on a sudden,
slay Boabdil, assemble the troops, and march to Guadix, where,
being reinforced by the garrison of that place and led on by the old
warrior monarch, they might fall with overwhelming power upon the
Christian army before Baza.

Fortunately for Boabdil, he discovered the conspiracy in time, and
the heads of the leaders were struck off and placed upon the walls
of the Alhambra--an act of severity unusual with this mild and
wavering monarch, which struck terror into the disaffected, and
produced a kind of mute tranquillity throughout the city.

Ferdinand had full information of all the movements and measures for
the relief of Baza, and took precautions to prevent them. Bodies of
horsemen held watch in the mountain-passes to prevent supplies and
intercept any generous volunteers from Granada, and watch-towers
were erected or scouts placed on every commanding height to give the
alarm at the least sign of a hostile turban.

The prince Cid Hiaya and his brave companions-in-arms were thus
gradually walled up, as it were, from the rest of the world. A line
of towers, the battlements of which bristled with troops, girded
their city, and behind the intervening bulwarks and palisadoes
passed and repassed continual squadrons of troops. Week after week
and month after month passed away, but Ferdinand waited in vain for
the garrison to be either terrified or starved into surrender. Every
day they sallied forth with the spirit and alacrity of troops high
fed and flushed with confidence. "The Christian monarch," said the
veteran Mohammed Ibn Hassan, "builds his hopes upon our growing
faint and desponding--we must manifest unusual cheerfulness and
vigor. What would be rashness in other service becomes prudence
with us." The prince Cid Hiaya agreed with him in opinion, and sallied
forth with his troops upon all kinds of hare-brained exploits. They
laid ambushes, concerted surprises, and made the most desperate
assaults. The great extent of the Christian works rendered them
weak in many parts: against these the Moors directed their attacks,
suddenly breaking into them, making a hasty ravage, and bearing off
their booty in triumph to the city. Sometimes they would sally forth
by passes and clefts of the mountain in the rear of the city which
it was difficult to guard, and, hurrying down into the plain, sweep
off all cattle and sheep that were grazing near the suburbs and all
stragglers from the camp.

These partisan sallies brought on many sharp and bloody encounters,
in some of which Don Alonso de Aguilar and the alcayde de los
Donceles distinguished themselves greatly. During one of these hot
skirmishes, which happened on the skirts of the mountain about
twilight, a cavalier named Martin Galindo beheld a powerful Moor
dealing deadly blows about him and making great havoc among the
Christians. Galindo pressed forward and challenged him to single
combat. The Moor was not slow in answering the call.

Couching their lances, they rushed furiously upon each other. At the
first shock the Moor was wounded in the face and borne out of his
saddle. Before Galindo could check his steed and turn from his
career the Moor sprang upon his feet, recovered his lance, and,
rushing upon him, wounded him in the head and the arm. Though
Galindo was on horseback and the Moor on foot, yet such was the
prowess and address of the latter that the Christian knight, being
disabled in the arm, was in the utmost peril when his comrades
hastened to his assistance. At their approach the valiant pagan
retreated slowly up the rocks, keeping them at bay until he found
himself among his companions.

Several of the young Spanish cavaliers, stung by the triumph of this
Moslem knight, would have challenged others of the Moors to single
combat, but King Ferdinand prohibited all vaunting encounters of the
kind. He forbade his troops also to provoke skirmishes, well knowing
that the Moors were more dextrous than most people in this irregular
mode of fighting, and were better acquainted with the ground.