Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/53

29 CONQUEST OF MALAGA. 29 siege such celebrity, that volunteers, eager to share chapter XIII. in it, flocked from all parts of the Peninsula to the xijiiiiiuaiaaui royal standard. Among others, the duke of Medma °^g^^^^*'™- Sidonia, who had furnished his quota of troops at the opening of the campaign, now arrived in person with a reinforcement, together with a hundred gal- leys freighted with supplies, and a loan of twenty thousand doblas of gold to the sovereigns for the expenses of the war. Such was the deep interest in it excited throughout the nation, and the alac- rity which every order of men exhibited in sup- porting its enormous burdens. ^^ The Castilian army, swelled by these daily aug- J^'^';'P|i"'"^ mentations, varied in its amount, according to dif- ferent estimates, from sixty to ninety thousand men. Throughout this immense host, the most perfect discipline was maintained. Gaming was restrained by ordinances interdicting the use of dice and cards, of which the lower orders were passionately fond. Blasphemy was severely punished. Prosti- tutes, the common pest of a camp, w^ere excluded ; and so entire was the subordination, that not a knife was drawn, and scarcely a brawl occurred, says the historian, among the motley multitude. Besides the higher ecclesiastics who attended the court, the camp was well supplied with holy men, priests, friars, and the chaplains of the great nobil- ity, who performed the exercises of religion in their respective quarters with all the pomp and splendor 19 Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 87-89. — Bernaldez, Reyes Catoli- cos, MS., cap. 84.