h agony; every account of the exploits of its
devoted defenders brought blushes to their cheeks. Many stole forth
secretly with their weapons and hastened to join the besieged, and the
partisans of El Zagal wrought upon the patriotism and passions of the
remainder until another of those conspiracies was formed that were
continually menacing the unsteady throne of Granada. It was concerted
by the conspirators to assail the Alhambra on a sudden, slay Boabdil,
assemble the troops, and march to Guadix, where, being reinforced by the
garrison of that place and led on by the old warrior monarch, they might
fall with overwhelming power upon the Christian army before Baza.

Fortunately for Boabdil, he discovered the conspiracy in time, and the
heads of the leaders were struck off and placed upon the walls of
the Alhambra--an act of severity unusual with this mild and wavering
monarch, which struck terror into the disaffected, and produced a kind
of mute tranquillity throughout the city.

Ferdinand had full information of all the movements and measures for the
relief of Baza, and took precautions to prevent them. Bodies of horsemen
held watch in the mountain-passes to prevent supplies and intercept
any generous volunteers from Granada, and watch-towers were erected or
scouts placed on every commanding height to give the alarm at the least
sign of a hostile turban.

The prince Cid Hiaya and his brave companions-in-arms were thus
gradually walled up, as it were, from the rest of the world. A line
of towers, the battlements of which bristled with troops, girded their
city, and behind the intervening bulwarks and palisadoes passed and
repassed continual squadrons of troops. Week after week and month after
month passed away, but Ferdinand waited in vain for the garrison to be
either terrified or starved into surrender. Every day they sallied
forth with the spirit and alacrity of troops high fed and flushed with
confidence. "The Christian monarch," said the veteran Mohammed Ibn
Hassan, "builds his hopes upon our growing faint and desponding--we must
manifest unusual cheerfulness and vigor. What would be rashness in other
service becomes prudence with us." The prince Cid Hiaya agreed with
him in opinion, and sallied forth with his troops upon all kinds of
hare-brained exploits. They laid ambushes, concerted surprises, and made
the most desperate assaults. The great extent of the Christian works
rendered them weak in many parts: again