the
citadel, they came upon the sentinel by surprise. Ortega seized him
by the throat, brandished a dagger before his eyes, and ordered him to
point the way to the guard-room. The infidel obeyed, and was instantly
despatched, to prevent his giving an alarm. The guard-room was a scene
rather of massacre than combat. Some of the soldiery were killed while
sleeping, others were cut down almost without resistance, bewildered by
so unexpected an assault: all were despatched, for the scaling party was
too small to make prisoners or to spare. The alarm spread throughout the
castle, but by this time the three hundred picked men had mounted the
battlements. The garrison, startled from sleep, found the enemy already
masters of the towers. Some of the Moors were cut down at once, others
fought desperately from room to room, and the whole castle resounded
with the clash of arms, the cries of the combatants, and the groans of
the wounded. The army in ambush, finding by the uproar that the castle
was surprised, now rushed from their concealment, and approached
the walls with loud shouts and sound of kettle-drums and trumpets to
increase the confusion and dismay of the garrison. A violent conflict
took place in the court of the castle, where several of the scaling
party sought to throw open the gates to admit their countrymen. Here
fell two valiant alcaydes, Nicholas de Roja and Sancho de Avila, but
they fell honorably, upon a heap of slain. At length Ortega de Prado
succeeded in throwing open a postern through which the marques of Cadiz,
the adelantado of Andalusia, and Don Diego de Merlo entered with a
host of followers, and the citadel remained in full possession of the
Christians.

As the Spanish cavaliers were ranging from room to room, the marques of
Cadiz, entering an apartment of superior richness to the rest, beheld,
by the light of a silver lamp, a beautiful Moorish female, the wife
of the alcayde of the castle, whose husband was absent attending a
wedding-feast at Velez Malaga. She would have fled at the sight of a
Christian warrior in her apartment, but, entangled in the covering of
the bed, she fell at the feet of the marques, imploring mercy. That
Christian cavalier, who had a soul full of honor and courtesy toward the
sex, raised her from the floor and endeavored to allay her fears; but
they were increased at the sight of her female attendants pursued into
the room by the Spanish soldiery. The marques reproached his sol