Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/55

31 CONQUEST OF MALAGA. 31 guns of the city, pushed out and engaged the Span- chapter ish fleet. Thus the battle raged with fire and '. sword, above and under ground, along the ramparts, the ocean, and the land, at the same time. Even Pulgar cannot withhold his tribute of admiration to this unconquerable spirit in an enemy, wasted by all the extremities of famine and fatigue. " Who does not marvel," he says, " at the bold heart of these infidels in battle, their prompt obedience to their chiefs, their dexterity in the wiles of war, their patience under privation, and undaunted per- severance in their purposes?"^* A circumstance occurred in a sortie from the city, Generosity '' of a Moorish indicating a trait of character worth recording. A ^"'s**'- loble Moor, named Abrahen Zenete fell in with a number of Spanish children who had wandered from their quarters. Without injuring them, he touched them gently with the handle of his lance, saying, " Get ye gone, varlets, to your mothers." On being rebuked by his comrades, who inquired why he had let them escape so easily, he replied, "Because I saw no beard upon their chins." " An example of magnanimity," says the Curate of Los Palacios, " truly wonderful in a heathen, and which might have reflected credit on a Christian hi- dalgo. 5J22 21^ Conde, Dominacion de los The honest exclamation of the Arabes, torn. iii. pp. 237, 238. — Curate brings to mind the similar Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 80. encomium of the old Moorish bal- — Caro de Torres, Ordenes Mill- lad, tares, fol. 82, 83. " Caballeros Granadinos, 22 Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. Aunque Moros, hijosdalgo." lh~ ^^™^''^^^' ^^y^« Cat61icos, jj f.^^^^^ jg Granada, torn. i. MS., cap. 84. p. 257.