University of Virginia Library

25. CHAPTER XXV.
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
swoln 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 strong-holds in the vicinity of Baza,
which might otherwise harass his army. Some of
these made obstinate resistance, especially the town
of Cuxar. The christians assailed the walls with
various machines, to sap them and batter them down.
The brave alcayde, Hubec Adalgan, 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 cauldrons
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 Adalgan marched forth with
the remnant of his force, and took the way to that
devoted city.

The delays which had been caused to the invading
army by these various circumstances, had been diligently
improved by the old Moorish monarch 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. El Zagal 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, that was collecting
and rolling towards 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 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 he 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 dispatched missives throughout his territories,
calling upon true Moslems to hasten to Baza,
to 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 towards 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, Cidi Yahye Alnayar Aben Zelim,
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. Cidi
Yahye 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 re-assemble
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.

When Cidi Yahye 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. “Cidi Yahye,” 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 ben 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 Adalgan, the valiant alcayde of Cuxar, who
had repaired hither with the remains of his garrison.
Over all these Cidi Yahye exercised a supreme command,
in consequence of his being of the blood-royal,
and in the especial confidence of Muley Abdalla
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
ben Hassan, for whose shrewdness, caution, and
experience, Cidi Yahye 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; but one part of it was protected
by the rocky precipices of the mountain, and
by a powerful citadel; the other part was defended
by massive walls, studded with immense towers. It

had suburbs towards 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 to serve 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, and affording covert to the defenders.

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 burthen, some laden
with food, others with lances, darts, and arms of all
kinds, kept pouring into the place. Already there
were munitions collected sufficient for a siege of
fifteen months; yet 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 burthened 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 Cidi
Yahye, indignant at the menace 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 the advice of Mohammed ben
Hassan, 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.