e Christians are making war
upon the rocks and trees of the mountains, since they find our castle
unassailable."

The sounds did not cease even during the night: every now and then the
Moorish sentinel as he paced the battlements heard some crash echoing
among the heights. The return of day explained the mystery. Scarcely
did the sun shine against the summits of the mountains than shouts burst
from the cliffs opposite to the castle, and were answered from the camp
with joyful sounds of kettledrums and trumpets.

The astonished Moors lifted up their eyes and beheld, as it were, a
torrent of war breaking out of a narrow defile. There was a multitude
of men with pickaxes, spades, and bars of iron clearing away every
obstacle, while behind them slowly moved along great teams of oxen
dragging heavy ordnance and all the munitions of battering artillery.

"What cannot women and priests effect when they unite in council?"
exclaims again the worthy Antonio Agapida. The queen had held another
consultation with the grand cardinal and the belligerent bishop of Jaen.
It was clear that the heavy ordnance could never be conveyed to the
camp by the regular road of the country, and without battering artillery
nothing could be effected. It was suggested, however, by the zealous
bishop that another road might be opened through a more practicable part
of the mountains. It would be an undertaking extravagant and chimerical
with ordinary means, and therefore unlooked for by the enemy; but what
could not kings effect who had treasure and armies at command?

The project struck the enterprising spirit of the queen. Six thousand
men with pickaxes, crowbars, and every other necessary implement were
set to work day and night to break a road through the very centre of the
mountains. No time was to be lost, for it was rumored that El Zagal
was about to march with a mighty host to the relief of the castles.
The bustling bishop of Jaen acted as pioneer to mark the route and
superintend the laborers, and the grand cardinal took care that the work
should never languish through lack of means.*

* Zurita, Anales de Aragon, lib. 20, c. 64; Pulgar, part 3, cap. 51.

"When kings' treasures," says Fray Antonio Agapida, "are dispensed by
priestly hands, there is no stint, as the glorious annals of Spain
bear witness." Under the guidance of these ghostly men it seemed as if
miracles were effected. Almost an entire mountain was levelled, valleys
w