Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/85

61 SIEGE OF BAZA. 61 have confined his operations to strict blockade, and chapter XIV. avoided the unnecessary effusion of blood ; espe- ~ ciallj as the advantage was most commonly on the side of the enemy, from the peculiar adaptation of their tactics to this desultory warfare. Although some months had elapsed, the besieged rejected with scorn every summons to surrender ; relying on their own resources, and still more on the tem- pestuous season of autumn, now fast advancing, which, if it did not break up the encampment at once, would at least, by demolishing the roads, cut off all external communication. In order to guard aeainst these impending; evils, Houses ° ° X to » erected for Ferdinand caused more than a thousand houses, or 'fiearmy. rather huts, to be erected, with walls of earth or clay, and roofs made of timber and tiles ; while the common soldiers constructed cabins by means of palisades loosely thatched with the branches of trees. The whole work was accomplished in four days ; and the inhabitants of Baza beheld with amazement a city of solid edifices, with all its streets and squares in regular order, springing as it were by magic out of the ground, which had before been covered with the light and airy pa- vilions of the camp. The new city was well sup- plied, owing to the providence of the queen, not merely with the necessaries, but the luxuries of life. Traders flocked there as to a fair, from Ara- gon, Valencia, Catalonia, and even Sicily, freighted with costly merchandise, and with jewelry and other articles of luxury ; such as, in the indignant lament of an old chronicler, " too often corrupt the