ottest of the fight amidst showers of
missiles, he still escaped uninjured. Blindly confiding in the prophecy
of victory, he continued to urge on his devoted troops. The dervise
too ran like a maniac through the ranks, waving his white banner and
inciting the Moors by howlings rather than by shouts. "Fear not! the
victory is ours, for so it is written!" cried he. In the midst of his
frenzy a stone from a catapult struck him in the head and dashed out his
bewildered brains.*

* Garibay, lib. 18, c. 33.

When the Moors beheld their prophet slain and his banner in the dust,
they were seized with despair and fled in confusion to the city. Hamet
el Zegri made some effort to rally them, but was himself confounded by
the fall of the dervise. He covered the flight of his broken forces,
turning repeatedly upon their pursuers and slowly making his retreat
into the city.

The inhabitants of Malaga witnessed from their walls with trembling
anxiety the whole of this disastrous conflict. At the first onset, when
they beheld the guards of the camp put to flight, they exclaimed, "Allah
has given us the victory!" and they sent up shouts of triumph. Their
exultation, however, was soon turned into doubt when they beheld their
troops repulsed in repeated attacks. They could see from time to time
some distinguished warrior laid low and others brought back bleeding to
the city. When at length the sacred banner fell and the routed troops
came flying to the gates, pursued and cut down by the foe, horror and
despair seized upon the populace.

As Hamet entered the gates he heard nothing but loud lamentations:
mothers whose sons had been slain shrieked curses after him as he
passed; some in the anguish of their hearts threw down their famishing
babes before him, exclaiming, "Trample on them with thy horse's feet,
for we have no food to give them, and we cannot endure their cries." All
heaped execrations on his head as the cause of the woes of Malaga.

The warlike part of the citizens also, and many warriors who with
their wives and children had taken refuge in Malaga from the
mountain-fortresses, now joined in the popular clamor, for their hearts
were overcome by the sufferings of their families.

Hamet el Zegri found it impossible to withstand this torrent of
lamentations, curses, and reproaches. His military ascendancy was at an
end, for most of his officers and the prime warriors of his African band
had fallen in this disastrou