Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/476

330 330 WAR OF GRANADA. PART I. The Moors besiege AI- hama. On the 5th of March, the king of Granada ap- peared before the walls of Alhama, with an army which amounted to three thousand horse and fifty thousand foot. The first object which encountered his eyes, was the mangled remains of his unfortu- nate subjects, which the Christians, who would have been scandalized by an attempt to give them the rites of sepulture, had from dread of infection thrown over the walls, where they now lay half- devoured by birds of prey and the ravenous dogs of the city. The Moslem troops, transported with horror and indignation at this hideous spectacle, called loudly to be led to the attack. They had marched from Granada with so much precipitation, that they were wholly unprovided with artillery, in the use of which they were expert for that period ; and which was now the more necessary, as the Spaniards had diligently employed the few days which intervened since their occupation of the place, in repairing the breaches in the fortifications, and in putting them in a posture of defence. But the Moorish ranks were filled with the flower of their chivalry ; and their immense superiority of numbers enabled them to make their attacks simul- taneously on the most distant quarters of the town, with such unintermitted vivacity, that the little garrison, scarcely allowed a moment for repose, was wellnigh exhausted with fatigue. '^ ^2 Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, able estimate of the Arabian au MS., cap. 52. — Bernaldez swells thors. Conde, Dominacion de los the Moslem army to 5,500 horse, Arabes, torn. iii. cap. 34. — Pul- and 80,000 foot, but I have pre- gar, Reyes Catolicos, loc. cit. ferred the more moderate and prob-