the troops of the grand cardinal,
commanded by the count of Buendia, and the forces of the bishop of Jaen,
led by that belligerent prelate, amounting in all to four thousand horse
and six thousand foot, were to set off in time to co-operate with the
count de Cabra, so as to surround the town. The king was to follow with
his whole force and encamp before the place.

And here the worthy padre Fray Antonio Agapida breaks forth into a
triumphant eulogy of the pious prelates who thus mingled personally
in these scenes of warfare. As this was a holy crusade (says he),
undertaken for the advancement of the faith and the glory of the
Church, so was it always countenanced and upheld by saintly men; for the
victories of their most Catholic majesties were not followed, like
those of mere worldly sovereigns, by erecting castles and towers and
appointing alcaydes and garrisons, but by the founding of convents and
cathedrals and the establishment of wealthy bishoprics. Wherefore their
majesties were always surrounded in court or camp, in the cabinet or
in the field, by a crowd of ghostly advisers inspiriting them to the
prosecution of this most righteous war. Nay, the holy men of the Church
did not scruple, at times, to buckle on the cuirass over the cassock,
to exchange the crosier for the lance, and thus with corporal hands and
temporal weapons to fight the good fight of the faith.

But to return from this rhapsody of the worthy friar. The count de
Cabra, being instructed in the complicated arrangements of the king,
marched forth at midnight to execute them punctually. He led his troops
by the little river that winds below Vaena, and so up to the wild
defiles of the mountains, marching all night, and stopping only in the
heat of the following day to repose under the shadowy cliffs of a deep
barranca, calculating to arrive at Moclin exactly in time to co-operate
with the other forces.

The troops had scarcely stretched themselves on the earth to take
repose, when a scout arrived bringing word that El Zagal had suddenly
sallied out of Granada with a strong force, and had encamped in the
vicinity of Moclin. It was plain that the wary Moor had received
information of the intended attack. This, however, was not the idea that
presented itself to the mind of the count de Cabra. He had captured one
king; here was a fair opportunity to secure another. What a prisoner to
deliver into the hands of his royal mistress! Fired with the thought