Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/554

408 408 WAR OF GRANADA. PART Notwithstanding these auxiliary circumstances, ' the progress of the Christians was comparatively slow. Every cliff seemed to be crowned with a fortress ; and every fortress was defended with the desperation of meji willing to bury themselves under its ruins. The old men, women, and chil- dren, on occasion of a siege, were frequently de- spatched to Granada. Such was the resolution, or rather ferocity of the Moors, that Malaga closed its gates against the fugitives from Alora, after its sur- render, and even massacred some of them in cold blood. The eagle eye of El Zagal seemed to take in at a glance the whole extent of his little territo- ry, and to detect every vulnerable point in his an- tagonist, whom he encountered where he least ex- pected it ; cutting off his convoys, surprising his foraging parties, and retaliating by a devastating inroad on the borders. ^^ ciirihtian No cffcctual aud permanent resistance, however, ronquests. ■■■ could be opposed to the tremendous enginery of the Christians. Tower and town fell before it. Besides the principal towns of Cartama, Coin, Setenil, Ronda, Marbella, Illora, termed by the Moors " the right eye," Moclin, " the shield " of Granada, and Loja, after a second and desperate siege in the spring of 1486, Bernaldez enumerates more than seventy subordinate places in the Val de Cartama, and thirteen others after the fall of ^1 Amonp other achievements, that nobleman his capture of the Zafral surprised and beat the count Moorish kin^r Abdallah. Pulgar, of Cabra in a nipht attack upon Reyes Catohcos, cap. 48. Moclin, and wellniffh retaliated on