e the brave count de Tendilla, Don Rodrigo de Mendoza, and
Don Alonso de Cardenas, master of Santiago.

The two camps were wide asunder, on opposite sides of the city, and
between them lay the thick wilderness of orchards. Both camps were
therefore fortified by great trenches, breastworks, and palisadoes. The
veteran Mohammed, as he saw these two formidable camps glittering on
either side of the city, and noted the well-known pennons of renowned
commanders fluttering above them, still comforted his companions. "These
camps," said he, "are too far removed from each other for mutual succor
and cooperation, and the forest of orchards is as a gulf between
them." This consolation was but of short continuance. Scarcely were the
Christian camps fortified when the ears of the Moorish garrison were
startled by the sound of innumerable axes and the crash of falling
trees. They looked with anxiety from their highest towers, and beheld
their favorite groves sinking beneath the blows of the Christian
pioneers. The Moors sallied forth with fiery zeal to protect their
beloved gardens and the orchards in which they so much delighted. The
Christians, however, were too well supported to be driven from their
work. Day after day the gardens became the scene of incessant and bloody
skirmishings; yet still the devastation of the groves went on, for King
Ferdinand was too well aware of the necessity of clearing away this
screen of woods not to bend all his forces to the undertaking. It was
a work, however, of gigantic toil and patience. The trees were of such
magnitude, and so closely set together, and spread over so wide an
extent, that, notwithstanding four thousand men were employed, they
could scarcely clear a strip of land ten paces broad within a day; and
such were the interruptions from the incessant assaults of the Moors
that it was full forty days before the orchards were completely
levelled.

The devoted city of Baza now lay stripped of its beautiful covering
of groves and gardens, at once its ornament, its delight, and its
protection. The besiegers went on slowly and surely, with almost
incredible labors, to invest and isolate the city. They connected their
camps by a deep trench across the plain a league in length, into which
they diverted the waters of the mountain-streams. They protected this
trench by palisadoes, fortified by fifteen castles at regular distances.
They dug a deep trench also, two leagues in length, across the m