rother of Muley Abul
Hassan, and general of the few forces which remained faithful to the old
monarch. He possessed equal fierceness of spirit with his brother, and
surpassed him in craft and vigilance. His very name was a war-cry among
his soldiery, who had the most extravagant opinion of his prowess.

El Zagal suspected that Malaga was the object of this noisy expedition.
He consulted with old Bexir, a veteran Moor, who governed the city. "If
this army of marauders should reach Malaga," said he, "we should hardly
be able to keep them without its walls. I will throw myself with a small
force into the mountains, rouse the peasantry, take possession of
the passes, and endeavor to give these Spanish cavaliers sufficient
entertainment upon the road."

It was on a Wednesday that the pranking army of high-mettled warriors
issued forth from the ancient gates of Antiquera. They marched all day
and night, making their way, secretly as they supposed, through the
passes of the mountains. As the tract of country they intended to maraud
was far in the Moorish territories, near the coast of the Mediterranean,
they did not arrive there until late in the following day. In passing
through these stern and lofty mountains their path was often along the
bottom of a barranco, or deep rocky valley, with a scanty stream dashing
along it among the loose rocks and stones which it had broken and rolled
down in the time of its autumnal violence. Sometimes their road was a
mere rambla, or dry bed of a torrent, cut deep into the mountains and
filled with their shattered fragments. These barrancos and ramblas were
overhung by immense cliffs and precipices, forming the lurking-places of
ambuscades during the wars between the Moors and Spaniards, as in after
times they have become the favorite haunts of robbers to waylay the
unfortunate traveller.

As the sun went down the cavaliers came to a lofty part of the
mountains, commanding to the right a distant glimpse of a part of the
fair vega of Malaga, with the blue Mediterranean beyond, and they hailed
it with exultation as a glimpse of the promised land. As the night
closed in they reached the chain of little valleys and hamlets locked up
among these rocky heights, and known among the Moors by the name of the
Axarquia. Here their vaunting hopes were destined to meet with the first
disappointment. The inhabitants had heard of their approach: they
had conveyed away their cattle and effects, and with t