Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/477

SURPRISE OF ALHAMA. S3l At length, however, Abul Hacen, after the loss chapter . IX. of more than two thousand of his bravest troops in . ^ — these precipitate assaults, became convinced of the impracticability of forcing a position, whose natu- ral strength was so ably seconded by the valor of its defenders, and he determined to reduce the place by the more tardy but certain method of blockade. In this he was favored by one or two circumstances. The town, having but a single well oistreasof ' o o the garrison. within its walls, was almost wholly indebted for its supplies of water to the river which flowed at its base. The Moors, by dint of great labor, succeed- ed in diverting the stream so effectually, that the only communication with it, which remained open to the besieged, was by a subterraneous gallery or mine, that had probably been contrived with refer- ence to some such emergency by the original in- habitants. The mouth of this passage was com- manded in such a manner by the Moorish archers, that no egress could be obtained without a regular skirmish, so that every drop of water might be said to be purchased with the blood of Christians; who, " if they had not possessed the courage of Span- iards," says a Castilian writer, " would have been reduced to the last extremity." In addition to this calamity, the garrison began to be menaced with scarcity of provisions, owing to the improvident waste of the soldiers, who supposed that the city, after being plundered, was to be razed to the ground and abandoned. ^^ i3Garibay, Compendio, torn. ii. lib. 18, cap. 23. — Pulgar, Reyes Calolicos, pp. 183, 184.