Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/82

58 38 WAR OF GRANADA. PART nojing, that the work of devastation did not ad- '- — vance more than ten paces a day, and was not completed before the expiration of seven weeks. When the ancient groves, so long the ornament and protection of the city, were levelled to the ground, preparations were made for connecting the two camps, bj a deep trench, through which the moun- tain waters M^ere made to flow ; while the borders were fortified with palisades, constructed of the timber lately hewn, together with strong towers of mud or clay, arranged at regular intervals. In this manner, the investment of the city was comijlete on the side of the vega. *^ cit^ closely As mcans of communication still remained open, invested. r however, by the opposite sierra, defences of similar strength, consisting of two stone walls separated by a deep trench, were made to run along the rocky heights and ravines of the mountains until they touched the extremities of the fortifications on the plain ; and thus Baza was encompassed by an un- broken line of circumvallation. In the progress of the laborious work, which occupied ten thousand men, under the indefatigable commander of Leon, for the space of two months, it would have been easy for the people of Guadix, or of Granada, by cooperation with the sallies of the besieged, to place the Christian army in great peril. Some feeble demonstration of such a move- ment was made at Guadix, but it was easily dis- 11 Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et — Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. d'Espagne, torn. iii. p. 304. — 2, epist. 73. Bernaldez, Reyes Ca- Pulgar, Reyes Cat61icos, cap. 109. tolicos, MS., cap. 92.