Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/471

SURPRISE OF ALHAMA. 325 inflamed by the sight of the rich spoil, which, after chai-ter so many fatigues, now lay at their feet. It was 1^ — accordingly resolved to demolish part of the fortifi- cations which looked towards the town, and at all hazards to force a passage into it. This resolution was at once put into execution ; and the marquis, throwing himself into the breach thus made, at the head of his men-at-arms, and shouting his war-cry of " St. James and the Virgin," precipitated him- self into the thickest of the enemy. Others of the Spaniards, running along the out-works contiguous to the buildings of the city, leaped into the street, and joined their companions there, while others again sallied from the gates, now opened for the second time. The Moors, unshaken by the fury of this assault, Desperate ' . combat. received the assailants with brisk and well-directed vollevs of shot and arrows : while the women and children, thronging the roofs and balconies of the houses, discharged on their heads boiling oil, pitch, and missiles of every description. But the weapons of the Moors glanced comparatively harmless from the mailed armour of the Spaniards, while their own bodies, loosely arrayed in such habiliments as they could throw over them in the confusion of the night, presented a fatal mark to their enemies. Still they continued to maintain a stout resistance, checking the progress of the Spaniards by barri- cades of timber hastily thrown across the streets ; 7 Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, MS., ubi supra. — Conde, Domi- fol. 172. nacion de Jos Arabes, cap. 34. —