vements
from observation.

The army made its way as rapidly as the rugged nature of the mountains
would permit, guided by Hamet el Zegri, the bold alcayde of Ronda, who
knew every pass and defile: not a drum nor the clash of a cymbal nor
the blast of a trumpet was permitted to be heard. The mass of war
rolled quietly on as the gathering cloud to the brow of the mountains,
intending to burst down like the thunderbolt upon the plain.

Never let the most wary commander fancy himself secure from discovery,
for rocks have eyes, and trees have ears, and the birds of the air have
tongues, to betray the most secret enterprise. There chanced at this
time to be six Christian scouts prowling about the savage heights of the
Serrania de Ronda. They were of that kind of lawless ruffians who infest
the borders of belligerent countries, ready at any time to fight for
pay or prowl for plunder. The wild mountain-passes of Spain have ever
abounded with loose rambling vagabonds of the kind--soldiers in war,
robbers in peace, guides, guards, smugglers, or cutthroats according to
the circumstances of the case.

These six marauders (says Fray Antonio Agapida) were on this occasion
chosen instruments, sanctified by the righteousness of their cause. They
were lurking among the mountains to entrap Moorish cattle or Moorish
prisoners, both of which were equally salable in the Christian market.
They had ascended one of the loftiest cliffs, and were looking out like
birds of prey, ready to pounce upon anything that might offer in
the valley, when they descried the Moorish army emerging from a
mountain-glen. They watched it as it wound below them, remarking the
standards of the various towns and the pennons of the commanders. They
hovered about it on its march, skulking from cliff to cliff, until they
saw the route by which it intended to enter the Christian country.
They then dispersed, each making his way by the secret passes of the
mountains to some different alcayde, that they might spread the alarm
far and wide, and each get a separate reward.

One hastened to Luis Fernandez Puerto Carrero, the same valiant alcayde
who had repulsed Muley Abul Hassan from the walls of Alhama, and who
now commanded at Ecija in the absence of the master of Santiago. Others
roused the town of Utrera and the places of that neighborhood, putting
them all on the alert.*

* Pulgar, p. 3, c. 24; Cura de los Palacios, cap. 67.

Puerto Carrero was a cavali