University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER LXII.

While the dervise was deluding the
garrison of Malaga with vain hopes, the
famine increased to a terrible degree.
The Gomeres ranged about the city as
though it had been a conquered place;
taking by force whatever they found eatable
in the houses of the peaceful citizens,
and breaking open vaults and
cellars, and demolishing walls, wherever
they thought provisions might be concealed.

The wretched inhabitants had no
longer bread to cat; the horse-flesh also
now failed them; and they were fain
to devour skins and hides toasted at
the fire, and to assuage the hunger of
their children with vine-leaves, cut up

and fried in oil. Many perished of
famine or of the unwholesome food with
which they endeavoured to relieve it;
and many took refuge in the Christian
camp, preferring captivity to the horrors
which surrounded them.

At length the sufferings of the inhabitants
became so great, as to conquer
even their fears of Hamet and his Gomeres.
They assembled before the
house of Ali Dordux, the wealthy merchant,
whose stately mansion was at the
foot of the hill of the alcazaba; and they
urged him to stand forth as their leader,
and to intercede with Hamet el Zegri for
a surrender. Ali Dordux was a man of
courage as well as policy; he perceived
also that hunger was giving boldness to
the citizens, while he trusted it was subduing
the fierceness of the soldiery. He
armed himself therefore, cap-a-pié, and
undertook this dangerous parley with
the alcayde. He associated with him an
alfaqui, named Abrahen Alharis, and an
important inhabitant, named Amar ben
Amar; and they ascended to the fortress
of Gibralfaro, followed by several
of the trembling merchants.

They found Hamet El Zegri, not, as
before, surrounded by ferocious guards,
and all the implements of war; but in a
chamber of one of the lofty towers, at a
table of stone, covered with scrolls, and
traced with strange characters and mystic
diagrams; while instruments of singular
and unknown form lay about the
room. Beside Hamet el Zegri stood the
prophetic dervise, who appeared to have
been explaining to him the mysterious
inscriptions of the scrolls. His presence
filled the citizens with awe; for even Ali
Dordux considered him a man inspired.

The alfaqui, Abrahen Alharis, whose
sacred character gave him boldness to
speak, now lifted up his voice, and addressed
Hamet el Zegri. "We implore
you," said he solemnly, "in the name of
the most powerful God, no longer to persist
in a vain resistance, which must end
in our destruction; but deliver up the
city, while clemency is yet to be obtained.
Think how many of our warriors have
fallen by the sword; do not suffer those
who survive to perish by famine. Our
wives and children cry to us for bread,
and we have none to give them. We
see them expire in lingering agony before
our eyes, while the enemy mocks
our misery by displaying the abundance
of his camp. Of what avail is our defence?
Are our walls, peradventure,
more strong than the walls of Ronda?
Are our warriors more brave than the
defenders of Loxa? The walls of Ronda
were thrown down, and the warriors of
Loxa had to surrender. Do we hope for
succour? From whence are we to receive
it? The time for hope has gone
by. Granada has lost its power: it no
longer possesses chivalry, commanders,
or a king. Boabdil sits a vassal in the
degraded walls of the Alhambra: El
Zagal is a fugitive, shut up within the
walls of Gundix. The kingdom is divided
against itself: its strength is gone, its
pride fallen, its very existence at an end.
In the name of Allah, we conjure thee,
who art our captain, be not our direst
enemy; but surrender these ruins of our
once happy Malaga, and deliver us from
these overwhelming horrors."

Such was the supplication forced from
the inhabitants by the extremity of their
sufferings. Hamet el Zegri listened to
the alfaqui without anger; for he respected
the sanctity of his office. His heart,
too, was at that moment lifted up with a
vain confidence. "Yet a few days of
patience," said he, "and all these evils
will suddenly have an end. I have been
conferring with this holy man, and find
that the time of our deliverance is at
hand. The decrees of fate are inevitable:
it is written in the book of destiny,
that we shall sally forth, and destroy the
camp of the unbelievers, and banquet
upon those mountains of grain, which
are piled up in the midst of it. So Allah
hath promised, by the mouth of this his
prophet. Allah achbar! God is great!
Let no man oppose the decrees of Heaven!"

The citizens heard with profound reverence;
for no true Moslem pretends to
struggle against whatever is written in
the book of fate. Ali Dordux, who had
come prepared to champion the city, and
to brave the ire of Hamet, humbled himself
before this holy man, and gave faith
to his prophecies as the revelations of
Allah. So the deputies returned to the
citizens, and exhorted them to be of good

cheer. "A few days longer," said they,
"and our sufferings are to terminate.
When the white banner is removed from
the tower, then look out for deliverance;
for the hour of sallying forth will have
arrived." The people retired to their
houses with sorrowful hearts. They
tried in vain to quiet the cries of their
famishing children; and day by day,
and hour by hour, their anxious eyes
were turned to the sacred banner, which
still continued to wave on the tower of
Gibralfaro.