Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/113

89 SURRENDER OF THE CAPITAL. 39 tered words of commendation or sympathy, suited chapter to the condition of the soldier. ^° — '—1 On one occasion, she expressed a desire to take JJ^^g'^^^^^'^ a nearer survey of the city. For this purpose, a '"'^' house was selected, affording the best point of view, in the little village of Zubia, at no great dis- tance from Granada. The king and queen station- ed themselves before a window, which commanded an unbroken prospect of the Alhambra, and the most beautiful quarter of the town. In the mean while, a considerable force, under the marquis duke of Cadiz, had been ordered, for the protection of the royal persons, to take up a position between the village and the city of Granada, with strict in- junctions on no account to engage the enemy, as Isabella was unwilling to stain the pleasures of the day with unnecessary effusion of blood. The people of Granada, however, were too im- skirmish r r ' ' with th« patient long to endure the presence, and as they deemed it, the bravado of their enemy. They burst forth from the gates of the capital, dragging along with them several pieces of ordnance, and commenced a brisk assault on the Spanish lines. The latter sustained the shock with firmness, till the marquis of Cadiz, seeing them thrown into some disorder, found it necessary to assume the of- fensive, and, mustering his followers around him, made one of those desperate charges, which had so often broken the enemy. The Moorish cavalry fal- tered ; but might have disputed the ground, had it w Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 101. VOL. II. 12 wiih the enemv.