Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/49

25 of the Moors. CONQUEST OF MALAGA. 25 greatest confusion ; and the marquis, who rushed chapter half armed from his tent, found no little difficulty — ^ — '. — in bringing them to order, and beating oif the as- sailants, after receiving a wound in the arm from an arrow ; while he had a still narrower escape from the ball of an arquebus, that penetrated his buckler and hit him below the cuirass, but fortu- nately so much spent as to do him no injury. '^ The Moors were not unmindful of the impor- civn fewis tance of Malaga, or the gallantry with which it was defended. They made several attempts to relieve it, whose failure was less owing to the Christians than to treachery and their own miserable feuds. A body of cavalry, which El Zagal despatched from Guadix to throw succours into the beleaguer- ed city, was encountered and cut to pieces by a superior force of the young king Abdallah, who consummated his baseness by sending an embassy to the Christian camp, charged with a present of Arabian horses sumptuously caparisoned to Ferdi- nand, and of costly silks and oriental perfumes to the queen ; at the same time complimenting them on their successes, and soliciting the continuance of their friendly dispositions towards hi-mself. Ferdi- nand and Isabella requited this act of humiliation by securing to Abdallah's subjects the right of cultivating their fields in quiet, and of trafficking with the Spaniards in every commodity, save mili- tary stores. At this paltry price did the dastard 15 Bled a, Coronica, lib. 5, cap. Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 83. — 15. — Conde, Dominacion, torn. Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 79. iv, pp. 237, 238. — Bernaldez, VOL. II. 4