33. CHAPTER XXXIII.
Expedition against the Castles of Cambil and Albahar.
“Happy are those princes,” exclaims the worthy
padre Fray Antonio Agapida, “who have women
and priests to advise them, for in these dwelleth the
spirit of counsel.” While Ferdinand and his captains
were confounding each other in their deliberations
at the Fountain of the King, a quiet but deep little
council of war was held in the state apartment of
the old castle of Vaena, between queen Isabella, the
venerable Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, grand cardinal
of Spain, and Don Garcia Osorio, the belligerent
bishop of Jaen. This last worthy prelate, who
had exchanged his mitre for a helm, no sooner beheld
the defeat of the enterprise against Moclin, than he
turned the reins of his sleek, stall-fed steed, and
hastened back to Vaena, full of a project for the employment
of the army, the advancement of the faith,
and the benefit of his own diocese. He knew that
the actions of the king were influenced by the opinions
of the queen, and that the queen always inclined
a listening ear to the counsels of saintly men: he laid
his plans, therefore, with the customary wisdom of
his cloth, to turn the ideas of the queen into the
proper channel; and this was the purport of the
worthy bishop's suggestions.
The bishopric of Jaen had for a long time been
harassed by two Moorish castles, the scourge and
terror of all that part of the country. They were
situated on the frontiers of the kingdom of Granada,
about four leagues from Jaen, in a deep, narrow,
and rugged valley, surrounded by lofty mountains.
Through this valley runs the Rio Frio, (or Cold
river,) in a deep channel, worn between high precipitous
banks. On each side of the stream rise two
vast rocks, nearly perpendicular, within a stone'sthrow
of each other; blocking up the gorge of the
valley. On the summits of these rocks stood the two
formidable castles Cambil and Albahar, fortified with
battlements and towers of great height and thickness.
They were connected together by a bridge, thrown
from rock to rock across the river. The road, which
passed through the valley, traversed this bridge, and
was completely commanded by these castles. They
stood like two giants of romance, guarding the pass,
and dominating the valley.
The kings of Granada, knowing the importance
of these castles, kept them always well garrisoned,
and victualled to stand a siege, with fleet steeds and
hard riders, to forage the country of the christians.
The warlike race of the Abencerrages, the troops
of the royal household, and others of the choicest
chivalry of Granada, made them their strong-holds,
or posts of arms, from whence to sally forth on those
predatory and roving enterprises, which were the
delight of the Moorish cavaliers. As the wealthy
bishopric of Jaen lay immediately at hand, it suffered
more peculiarly from these marauders. They drove
off the fat beeves and the flocks of sheep from the
pastures, and swept the laborers from the field; they
scoured the country to the very gates of Jaen, so
that the citizens could not venture from their walls,
without the risk of being borne off captive to the
dungeons of these castles.
The worthy bishop, like a good pastor, beheld with
grief of heart his fat bishopric daily waxing leaner
and leaner, and poorer and poorer; and his holy ire
was kindled at the thoughts that the possessions of
the church should thus be at the mercy of a crew of
infidels. It was the urgent counsel of the bishop,
therefore, that the military force, thus providentially
assembled in the neighborhood, since it was apparently
foiled in its attempt upon Moclin, should be
turned against these insolent castles, and the country
delivered from their domination. The grand cardinal
supported the suggestion of the bishop, and declared
that he had long meditated the policy of a measure
of the kind. Their united opinions found favor with
the queen, and she dispatched a letter on the subject
to the king. It came just in time to relieve him from
the distraction of a multitude of counsellors, and he
immediately undertook the reduction of those castles.
The marques of Cadiz was accordingly sent in advance,
with two thousand horse, to keep a watch
upon the garrisons, and prevent all entrance or exit,
until the king should arrive with the main army and
the battering artillery. The queen, to be near at
hand in case of need, moved her quarters to the city
of Jaen, where she was received with martial honors
by the belligerent bishop, who had buckled on his
cuirass and girded on his sword, to fight in the cause
of his diocese.
In the mean time, the marques of Cadiz arrived in
the valley, and completely shut up the Moors within
their walls. The castles were under the command
of Mahomet Lentin Ben Usef, an Abencerrage, and
one of the bravest cavaliers of Granada. In his garrisons
were many troops of the fierce African tribe
of Gomeres. Mahomet Lentin, confident in the
strength of his fortresses, smiled as he looked down
from his battlements upon the christian cavalry, perplexed
in the rough and narrow valley. He sent
forth skirmishing parties to harass them, and there
were many sharp combats between small parties and
single knights; but the Moors were driven back to
their castles, and all attempts to send intelligence of
their situation to Granada, were frustrated by the
vigilance of the marques of Cadiz.
At length the legions of the royal army came pouring,
with vaunting trumpet and fluttering banner,
along the defiles of the mountains. They halted before
the castles, but the king could not find room in
the narrow and rugged valley to form his camp: he
had to divide it into three parts, which were posted
on different heights; and his tents whitened the sides
of the neighboring hills. When the encampment was
formed, the army remained gazing idly at the castles.
The artillery was upwards of four leagues in the rear,
and without artillery all attack would be in vain.
The alcayde Mahomet Lentin knew the nature of
the road by which the artillery had to be brought.
It was merely a narrow and rugged path, at times
scaling almost perpendicular crags and precipices,
up which it was utterly impossible for wheel carriages
to pass; neither was it in the power of man or
beast to draw up the lombards, and other ponderous
ordnance. He felt assured, therefore, that they never
could be brought to the camp; and, without their
aid, what could the christians effect against his rockbuilt
castles? He scoffed at them therefore, as he saw
their tents by day and their fires by night covering
the surrounding heights. “Let them linger here a
little while longer,” said he, “and the autumnal torrents
will wash them from the mountains.”
While the alcayde was thus closely mewed up
within his walls, and the christians remained inactive
in their camp, he noticed, one calm autumnal day,
the sound of implements of labor echoing among the
mountains, and now and then the crash of a falling
tree, or a thundering report, as if some rock had
been heaved from its bed and hurled into the valley.
The alcayde was on the battlements of his castle,
surrounded by his knights. “Methinks,” said he,
“these christians are making war upon the rocks
and trees of the mountains, since they find our castles
unassailable.”
The sounds did not cease even during the night:
every now and then, the Moorish sentinel, as he
paced the battlements, heard some crash echoing
among the heights. The return of day explained the
mystery. Scarcely did the sun shine against the
summits of the mountains, than shouts burst from the
cliffs opposite to the castles, and were answered
from the camp, with joyful sound of kettle-drums
and trumpets.
The astonished Moors lifted up their eyes, and
beheld, as it were, a torrent of war breaking out of
a narrow defile. There was a multitude of men,
with pickaxes, spades, and bars of iron, clearing
away every obstacle; while behind them slowly
moved along great teams of oxen, dragging heavy
ordnance, and all the munitions of battering artillery.
“What cannot women and priests effect, when
they unite in council?” exclaims again the worthy
Antonio Agapida. The queen had held another consultation
with the grand cardinal and the belligerent
bishop of Jaen. It was clear that the heavy ordnance
could never be conveyed to the camp by the regular
road of the country; and without battering artillery,
nothing could be effected. It was suggested, however,
by the zealous bishop, that another road might
be opened, through a more practicable part of the
mountains. It would be an undertaking extravagant
and chimerical, with ordinary means; and, therefore,
unlooked for by the enemy: but what could not
kings effect, who had treasures and armies at command?
The project struck the enterprising spirit of the
queen. Six thousand men, with pickaxes, crowbars,
and every other necessary implement, were set to
work day and night, to break a road through the
very centre of the mountains. No time was to be
lost, for it was rumored that El Zagal was about to
march with a mighty host to the relief of the castles.
The bustling bishop of Jaen acted as pioneer, to
mark the route and superintend the laborers; and
the grand cardinal took care that the work should
never languish through lack of means.
[1]
“When kings' treasures,” says Fray Antonio Agapida,
“are dispensed by priestly hands, there is no
stint, as the glorious annals of Spain bear witness.”
Under the guidance of these ghostly men, it seemed
as if miracles were effected. Almost an entire mountain
was levelled, valleys filled up, trees hewn down,
rocks broken and overturned; in short, all the obstacles
which nature had heaped around, entirely
and promptly vanished. In little more than twelve
days, this gigantic work was effected, and the ordnance
dragged to the camp, to the great triumph of
the christians and confusion of the Moors.[2]
No sooner was the heavy artillery arrived, than it
was mounted, in all haste, upon the neighboring
heights: Francisco Ramirez de Madrid, the first engineer
in Spain, superintended the batteries, and soon
opened a destructive fire upon the castles.
When the valiant alcayde, Mahomet Lentin, found
his towers tumbling about him, and his bravest men
dashed from the walls, without the power of inflicting
a wound upon the foe, his haughty spirit was
greatly exasperated. “Of what avail,” said he, bitterly,
“is all the prowess of knighthood against these
cowardly engines, that murder from afar?”
For a whole day, a tremendous fire kept thundering
upon the castle of Albahar. The lombards discharged
large stones, which demolished two of the
towers, and all the battlements which guarded the
portal. If any Moors attempted to defend the walls
or repair the breaches, they were shot down by ribadoquines,
and other small pieces of artillery. The
christian soldiery issued forth from the camp, under
cover of this fire; and, approaching the castles,
discharged flights of arrows and stones through the
openings made by the ordnance.
At length, to bring the siege to a conclusion, Francisco
Ramirez elevated some of the heaviest artillery
on a mount that rose in form of a cone or pyramid,
on the side of the river near to Albahar, and commanded
both castles. This was an operation of great
skill and excessive labor, but it was repaid by complete
success; for the Moors did not dare to wait
until this terrible battery should discharge its fury.
Satisfied that all further resistance was vain, the
valiant alcayde made signal for a parley. The
articles of capitulation were soon arranged. The
alcayde and his garrisons were permitted to return
in safety to the city of Granada, and the castles were
delivered into the possession of king Ferdinand, on
the day of the festival of St. Matthew, in the month
of September. They were immediately repaired,
strongly garrisoned, and delivered in charge to the
city of Jaen.
The effects of this triumph were immediately apparent.
Quiet and security once more settled upon
the bishopric. The husbandmen tilled their fields in
peace, the herds and flocks fattened unmolested in
the pastures, and the vineyards yielded corpulent
skinsful of rosy wine. The good bishop enjoyed, in
the gratitude of his people, the approbation of his
conscience, the increase of his revenues, and the
abundance of his table, a reward for all his toils and
perils. “This glorious victory,” exclaims Fray Antonio
Agapida, “achieved by such extraordinary
management and infinite labor, is a shining example
of what a bishop can effect, for the promotion of the
faith and the good of his diocese.”
