The castles were under
the command of Mahomet Lentin Ben Usef, an Abencerrage, and one of the
bravest cavaliers of Granada. In his garrisons were many troops of
the fierce African tribe of Gomeres. Mahomet Lentin, confident in
the strength of his fortresses, smiled as he looked down from his
battlements upon the Christian cavalry perplexed in the rough and narrow
valley. He sent forth skirmishing parties to harass them, and there were
many sharp combats between small parties and single knights; but the
Moors were driven back to their castles, and all attempts to send
intelligence of their situation to Granada were frustrated by the
vigilance of the marques of Cadiz.

At length the legions of the royal army came pouring, with vaunting
trumpet and fluttering banner, along the defiles of the mountains.
They halted before the castles, but the king could not find room in
the narrow and rugged valley to form his camp; he had to divide it
into three parts, which were posted on different heights, and his tents
whitened the sides of the neighboring hills. When the encampment was
formed the army remained gazing idly at the castles. The artillery was
upward of four leagues in the rear, and without artillery all attack
would be in vain.

The alcayde Mahomet Lentin knew the nature of the road by which the
artillery had to be brought. It was merely a narrow and rugged path, at
times scaling almost perpendicular crags and precipices, up which it was
utterly impossible for wheel carriages to pass, neither was it in
the power of man or beast to draw up the lombards and other ponderous
ordnance. He felt assured, therefore, that they never could be brought
to the camp, and without their aid what could the Christians effect
against his rock-built castles? He scoffed at them, therefore, as he
saw their tents by day and their fires by night covering the surrounding
heights. "Let them linger here a little while longer," said he, "and the
autumnal torrents will wash them from the mountains."

While the alcayde was thus closely mewed up within his walls and
the Christians remained inactive in their camp, he noticed, one calm
autumnal day, the sound of implements of labor echoing among the
mountains, and now and then the crash of a falling tree or a thundering
report, as if some rock had been heaved from its bed and hurled into the
valley. The alcayde was on the battlements of his castle, surrounded by
his knights. "Methinks," said he, "thes