pressed between high banks, and so deep as to be fordable
with extreme difficulty; and the Moors had possession of the bridge.
The king pitched his tents in a plantation of olives on the banks of
the river; the troops were distributed in different encampments on the
heights, but separated from each other by deep rocky ravines, so as to
be incapable of yielding each other prompt assistance. There was no
room for the operations of the cavalry. The artillery also was so
injudiciously placed as to be almost entirely useless. Alonso of Aragon,
duke of Villahermosa and illegitimate brother of the king, was present
at the siege, and disapproved of the whole arrangement. He was one of
the most able generals of his time, and especially renowned for his
skill in battering fortified places. He recommended that the whole
disposition of the camp should be changed, and that several bridges
should be thrown across the river. His advice was adopted, but slowly
and negligently followed, so that it was rendered of no avail. Among
other oversights in this hasty and negligent expedition, the army had no
supply of baked bread, and in the hurry of encampment there was no time
to erect furnaces. Cakes were therefore hastily made and baked on the
coals, and for two days the troops were supplied in this irregular way.

King Ferdinand felt, too late, the insecurity of his position, and
endeavored to provide a temporary remedy. There was a height near the
city, called by the Moors Santo Albohacen, which was in front of
the bridge. He ordered several of his most valiant cavaliers to take
possession of this height and to hold it as a check upon the enemy and a
protection to the camp. The cavaliers chosen for this distinguished and
perilous post were the marques of Cadiz, the marques of Villena, Don
Roderigo Tellez Giron, master of Calatrava, his brother the count of
Urena, and Don Alonso de Aguilar. These valiant warriors and tried
companions-in-arms led their troops with alacrity to the height, which
soon glittered with the array of arms, and was graced by several of the
most redoubtable pennons of warlike Spain.

Loxa was commanded at this time by an old Moorish alcayde whose daughter
was the favorite wife of Boabdil. The name of this Moor was Ibrahim Ali
Atar, but he was generally known among the Spaniards as Alatar. He had
grown gray in border warfare, was an implacable enemy of the Christians,
and his name had long been the terror of the front