might
otherwise harass his army. Some of these made obstinate resistance,
especially the town of Zujar. The Christians assailed the walls with
various machines to sap them and batter them down. The brave alcayde,
Hubec Abdilbar, opposed force to force and engine to engine. He manned
his towers with his bravest warriors, who rained down an iron shower
upon the enemy, and he linked caldrons together by strong chains and
cast fire from them, consuming the wooden engines of their assailants
and those who managed them.

The siege was protracted for several days: the bravery of the alcayde
could not save his fortress from an overwhelming foe, but it gained him
honorable terms. Ferdinand permitted the garrison and the inhabitants to
repair with their effects to Baza, and the valiant Hubec marched forth
with the remnant of his force and took he way to that devoted city.

The delays caused to the invading army by these various circumstances
had been diligently improved by El Zagal, who felt that he was now
making his last stand for empire, and that this campaign would decide
whether he should continue a king or sink into a vassal. He was but a
few leagues from Baza, at the city of Guadix. This last was the most
important point of his remaining territories, being a kind of bulwark
between them and the hostile city of Granada, the seat of his nephew's
power. Though he heard of the tide of war, therefore, collecting and
rolling toward the city of Baza, he dared not go in person to its
assistance. He dreaded that should he leave Guadix, Boabdil would attack
him in the rear while the Christian army was battling with him in front.
El Zagal trusted in the great strength of Baza to defy any violent
assault, and profited by the delays of the Christian army to supply it
with all possible means of defence. He sent thither all the troops
he could spare from his garrison of Guadix, and despatched missives
throughout his territories calling upon all true Moslems to hasten
to Baza and make a devoted stand in defence of their homes, their
liberties, and their religion. The cities of Tavernas and Purchena and
the surrounding heights and valleys responded to his orders and sent
forth their fighting-men to the field. The rocky fastnesses of the
Alpuxarras resounded with the din of arms: troops of horse and bodies
of foot-soldiers were seen winding down the rugged cliffs and defiles of
those marble mountains and hastening toward Baza. Many brave c