Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/470

S2A WAR OF GRANADA. PART I. Vslor of the citizens. Sally upon the iVIoors. flying, at the head of his army, and took possession of the fortress/ After allowing the refreshment necessary to the exhausted spirits of his soldiers, the marquis resolv- ed to sally forth at once upon the town, before its inhabitants could muster in sufficient force to oppose him. But the citizens of Alhama, showing a reso- lution rather to have been expected from men train- ed in a camp, than from peaceful burghers of a manufacturing town, had sprung to arms at the first alarm, and, gathering in the narrow street on which the portal of the castle opened, so completely com- manded it with their arquebuses and crossbows, that the Spaniards, after an ineffectual attempt to force a passage, were compelled to recoil upon their defen- ces, amid showers of bolts and balls which occa- sioned the loss, among others, of two of their prin- cipal alcaydes. A council of war was then called, in which it was even advised by some, that the fortress, after having been dismantled, should be abandoned as incapable of defence against the citizens on the one hand, and the succours which might be expected speedily to arrive from Granada, on the other. But this counsel was rejected with indignation by the marquis of Cadiz, whose fiery spirit rose with the occasion ; indeed, it was not very palatable to most of his followers, whose cupidity was more than ever 6 Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum De- cap. 52. — Zurita, Anales, toni. cades, ii. lib. 1, cap. 2. — Carba- iv. fol. 315. — Cardonne, Hist. el, Anales, MS., afio 1482. — d'Afrique et d'Espagne, torn. iii. ernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., pp. 252, 253.