Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/77

53 SIEGE OF BAZA. 53 Zagal, who lay at this time in Guadix, prepared to chapter cover his own dominions against any hostile move- " ment of his rival in Granada. These veterans were commissioned to defend the place to the last ex- tremity ; and, as due time had been given for prep- aration, the town was victualled with fifteen months' provisions, and even the crops growing in the vega had been garnered before their prime, to save them from the hands of the enemy. ^ The first operation, after the Christian army had Assauu on encamped before the walls of Baza, was to get possession of the garden, without which it would be impossible to enforce a thorough blockade, since its labyrinth of avenues afforded the inhabitants abundant facilities of communication with the sur- rounding country. The assault was intrusted to the grand master of St. James, supported by the principal cavaliers, and the king in person. Their reception by the enemy was such as gave them a foretaste of the perils and desperate daring they were to encounter in the present siege. The brok- en surface of the ground, bewildered with intricate passes, and thickly studded with trees and edifices, was peculiarly favorable to the desultory and illuso- ry tactics of the Moors. The Spanish cavalry was brought at once to a stand ; the ground proving impracticable for it, it was dismounted, and led to the charge by its officers on foot. The men, how- 8 Zurita, Anales, torn. iv. fol. 70. — Estrada, Poblacion de Ea- 360. — Conde, Dominacion de los paiia, torn. ii. fol. 239. — Marmol, Arabes, torn. iii. p. 241. — Peter Kebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. Martyi-, Opus Epist., lib. 2, epist. 16.