ding
reinforcements of horse and foot to those points where the battle was
most sanguinary and doubtful.

Among those who were brought forth mortally wounded was Don Juan de
Luna, a youth of uncommon merit, greatly prized by the king, beloved by
the army, and recently married to Dona Catalina de Urrea, a young lady
of distinguished beauty.* They laid him at the foot of a tree, and
endeavored to stanch and bind up his wounds with a scarf which his bride
had wrought for him; but his life-blood flowed too profusely, and while
a holy friar was yet administering to him the last sacred offices of the
Church, he expired, almost at the feet of his sovereign.

* Mariana, P. Martyr, Zurita.

On the other hand, the veteran alcayde Mohammed Ibn Hassan, surrounded
by a little band of chieftains, kept an anxious eye upon the scene of
combat from the walls of the city. For nearly twelve hours the battle
raged without intermission. The thickness of the foliage hid all the
particulars from their sight, but they could see the flash of swords
and glance of helmets among the trees. Columns of smoke rose in every
direction, while the clash of arms, the thundering of ribadoquines and
arquebuses, the shouts and cries of the combatants, and the groans and
supplications of the wounded bespoke the deadly conflict waging in
the bosom of the groves. They were harassed, too, by the shrieks
and lamentations of the Moorish women and children as their wounded
relatives were brought bleeding from the scene of action, and were
stunned by a general outcry of woe on the part of the inhabitants as the
body of Reduan Zafarjal, a renegado Christian and one of the bravest of
their generals, was borne breathless into the city.

At length the din of battle approached nearer to the skirts of the
orchards. They beheld their warriors driven out from among the groves
by fresh squadrons of the enemy, and, after disputing the ground inch by
inch, obliged to retire to a place between the orchards and the suburbs
which was fortified with palisadoes.

The Christians immediately planted opposing palisadoes, and established
strong outposts near to the retreat of the Moors, while at the same time
King Ferdinand ordered that his encampment should be pitched within the
hard-won orchards.

Mohammed Ibn Hassan sallied forth to the aid of the prince Cid Hiaya,
and made a desperate attempt to dislodge the enemy from this formidable
position, but the night had clo