Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/95

71 SIEGE OF BAZA. ^ 71 through many a narrow pass, which a handful of chapter resolute Moors, says an eyewitness, might have. made good against the whole Christian army, over mountains whose peaks were lost in clouds, and valleys whose depths were never warmed by a sun. The winds were exceedingly bleak, and the weather inclement ; so that men, as well as horses, exhausted by the fatigues of previous service, were benumbed by the intense cold, and many of them frozen to death. Many more, losing their way in the intrica- cies of the sierra, would have experienced the same miserable fate, had it not been for the marquis of Cadiz, whose tent was pitched on one of the loftiest hills, and who caused beacon fires to be lighted around it, in order to guide the stragglers back to their quarters. At no great distance from Almeria, Ferdinand interview '-' between was met, conformably to the previous arrangement, aiidE"zagai. by El Zagal, escorted by a numerous body of Moslem cavaliers. Ferdinand commanded his no- bles to ride forward and receive the Moorish prince. " His appearance," says Martyr, who was in the royal retinue, " touched my soul with compassion ; for, although a lawless barbarian, he was a king, and had given signal proofs of heroism." El Zagal, without waiting to receive the courtesies of the Spanish nobles, threw himself from his horse, and advanced towards Ferdinand with the design of kissing his hand ; but the latter, rebuking his followers for their " rusticity," in allowing such an act of humiliation in the unfortunate monarch, pre-