EXPEDITION AGAINST LOXA.

King Ferdinand held a council of war at Cordova, where it was
deliberated what was to be done with Alhama. Most of the council advised
that it should be demolished, inasmuch as, being in the centre of the
Moorish kingdom, it would be at all times liable to attack, and could
only be maintained by a powerful garrison and at a vast expense. Queen
Isabella arrived at Cordova in the midst of these deliberations,
and listened to them with surprise and impatience. "What!" said she,
"destroy the first fruits of our victories? Abandon the first place we
have wrested from the Moors? Never let us suffer such an idea to occupy
our minds. It would argue fear or feebleness, and give new courage to
the enemy. You talk of the toil and expense of maintaining Alhama. Did
we doubt on undertaking this war that it was to be one of infinite cost,
labor, and bloodshed? And shall we shrink from the cost the moment a
victory is obtained and the question is merely to guard or abandon its
glorious trophy? Let us hear no more about the destruction of Alhama;
let us maintain its walls sacred, as a stronghold granted us by Heaven
in the centre of this hostile land; and let our only consideration be
how to extend our conquest and capture the surrounding cities."

The language of the queen infused a more lofty and chivalrous spirit
into the royal council. Preparations were made to maintain Alhama at all
risk and expense, and King Ferdinand appointed as alcayde Luis Fernandez
Puerto Carrero, senior of the house of Palma, supported by Diego Lopez
de Ayala, Pero Ruiz de Alarcon, and Alonso Ortis, captains of four
hundred lances and a body of one thousand foot, supplied with provisions
for three months.

Ferdinand resolved also to lay siege to Loxa, or Loja, a city of great
strength at no great distance from Alhama, and all-important to its
protection. It was, in fact, a military point situated in a pass of the
mountains between the kingdoms of Granada and Castile, and commanded a
main entrance to the Vega. The Xenil flowed by its walls, and it had a
strong castle or citadel built on a rock. In preparing for the siege of
this formidable place Ferdinand called upon all the cities and towns of
Andalusia and Estramadura, and the domains of the orders of Santiago,
Calatrava, and Alcantara, and of the priory of San Juan, and the kingdom
of Toledo, and beyond to the cities of Salamanca, Toro, and Valladolid,
to furnish, according