Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/464

318 WAR OF GRANADA. PART its base bj the river Guadalete, which from its po- — '. — sition seemed ahnost inaccessible. The garrison, trusting to these natural defences, suffered itself to be surprised on the night of the 26th of December, by the Moorish monarch ; who, scaling the walls under favor of a furious tempest, which prevented his approach from being readily heard, put to the sword such of the guard as offered resistance, and swept away the whole population of the place, men, women, and children, in slavery to Granada. The intelligence of this disaster caused deep mortification to the Spanish sovereigns, especially to Ferdinand, by whose grandfather Zahara had been recovered from the Moors. Measures were accordingly taken for strengthening the whole line of frontier, and the utmost vigilance was exerted to detect some vulnerable point of the enemy, on which retaliation might be successfully inflicted. Neither were the tidings of their own successes welcomed, with the joy that might have been ex- pected, by the people of Granada. The prognos- tics, it was said, afforded by the appearance of the heavens, boded no good. More sure prognostics were afforded in the judgments of thinking men, who deprecated the temerity of awakening the wrath of a vindictive and powerful enemy. " Woe is me ! " exclaimed an ancient Alfaki, on quitting the hall of audience, " The ruins of Zahara will fall on our own heads ; the days of the Moslem empire in Spain are now numbered ! " ^ 2 Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, cion de los Arabes, torn. iii. cap. MS., cap. 51. — Conde, Domina- 34. — Pulgar, Reyes Cat61icos, p.