the walls of Loxa, though it had been of great
service in rendering him wary in his attacks upon fortified places, yet
rankled sorely in his mind, and he had ever since held Loxa in peculiar
odium. It was, in truth, one of the most belligerent and troublesome
cities on the borders, incessantly harassing Andalusia by its
incursions. It also intervened between the Christian territories and
Alhama and other important places gained in the kingdom of Granada. For
all these reasons King Ferdinand had determined to make another grand
attempt upon this warrior city, and for this purpose had summoned to the
field his most powerful chivalry.

It was in the month of May that the king sallied from Cordova at the
head of his army. He had twelve thousand cavalry and forty thousand
foot-soldiers armed with crossbows, lances, and arquebuses. There
were six thousand pioneers with hatchets, pickaxes, and crowbars for
levelling roads. He took with him also a great train of lombards and
other heavy artillery, with a body of Germans skilled in the service of
ordnance and the art of battering walls.

It was a glorious spectacle (says Fray Antonio Agapida) to behold this
pompous pageant issuing forth from Cordova, the pennons and devices of
the proudest houses of Spain, with those of gallant stranger knights,
fluttering above a sea of crests and plumes--to see it slowly moving,
with flash of helm and cuirass and buckler, across the ancient bridge
and reflected in the waters of the Guadalquivir, while the neigh of
steed and blast of trumpet vibrated in the air and resounded to the
distant mountains. "But, above all," concludes the good father, with his
accustomed zeal, "it was triumphant to behold the standard of the faith
everywhere displayed, and to reflect that this was no worldly-minded
army, intent upon some temporal scheme of ambition or revenge, but a
Christian host bound on a crusade to extirpate the vile seed of Mahomet
from the land and to extend the pure dominion of the Church."

CHAPTER XXXVII.

HOW FRESH COMMOTIONS BROKE OUT IN GRANADA, AND HOW THE PEOPLE UNDERTOOK
TO ALLAY THEM.

While perfect unity of object and harmony of operation gave power to
the Christian arms, the devoted kingdom of Granada continued a prey to
internal feuds. The transient popularity of El Zagal had declined ever
since the death of his brother, and the party of Boabdil was daily
gaining strength; the Albaycin and the Alhambra were again arrayed