Aguero, the captain of the
royal guards; the duke of Esculona girded one of his own gilt spurs
upon his heel, and the grand master of Santiago, the count de Cabra, and
Gonsalvo of Cordova officiated as witnesses. Furthermore, to perpetuate
in his family the memory of his achievement, the sovereigns authorized
him to emblazon on his escutcheon a golden lion in an azure field,
bearing a lance with a handkerchief at the end of it. Round the border
of the escutcheon were depicted the eleven alcaydes vanquished in the
battle.* The foregoing is but one of many hardy and heroic deeds done
by this brave cavalier in the wars against the Moors, by which he gained
great renown and the distinguished appellation of "El de las hazanas,"
or "He of the exploits."**

* Alcantara, Hist. de Granada, tomo iv. cap. 18; Pulgar, Cron.,
part iii.

* *Hernan or Hernando del Pulgar, the historian, secretary to Queen
Isabella, is confounded with this cavalier by some writers. He was also
present at the siege of Baza, and has recounted this transaction in his
Chronicle of the Catholic sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella.

CHAPTER LXXV.

CONTINUATION OF THE SIEGE OF BAZA.

The Moorish king, El Zagal, mounted a tower and looked out eagerly to
enjoy the sight of the Christian marauders brought captive into the
gates of Guadix, but his spirits fell when he beheld his own troops
stealing back in the dusk of the evening in broken and dejected parties.

The fortune of war bore hard against the old monarch; his mind was
harassed by disastrous tidings brought each day from Baza, of the
sufferings of the inhabitants, and the numbers of the garrison slain in
the frequent skirmishes. He dared not go in person to the relief of the
place, for his presence was necessary in Guadix to keep a check upon his
nephew in Granada. He sent reinforcements and supplies, but they were
intercepted and either captured or driven back. Still, his situation
was in some respects preferable to that of his nephew Boabdil. He
was battling like a warrior on the last step of his throne; El Chico
remained a kind of pensioned vassal in the luxurious abode of the
Alhambra. The chivalrous part of the inhabitants of Granada could not
but compare the generous stand made by the warriors of Baza for their
country and their faith with their own time-serving submission to the
yoke of an unbeliever. Every account they received of the woes of Baza
wrung their hearts wit