some
degree restored by the provisions which they found. The Christian army
beneath the town, being also refreshed by a morning's repast,
advanced vigorously to the attack of the walls. They planted their
scaling-ladders, and, swarming up, sword in hand, fought fiercely with
the Moorish soldiery upon the ramparts.

In the mean time, the marques of Cadiz, seeing that the gate of the
castle, which opened toward the city, was completely commanded by the
artillery of the enemy, ordered a large breach to be made in the wall,
through which he might lead his troops to the attack, animating them in
this perilous moment by assuring them that the place should be given up
to plunder and its inhabitants made captives.

The breach being made, the marques put himself at the head of his
troops, and entered sword in hand. A simultaneous attack was make by the
Christians in every part--by the ramparts, by the gate, by the roofs
and walls which connected the castle with the town. The Moors fought
valiantly in their streets, from their windows, and from the tops of
their houses. They were not equal to the Christians in bodily strength,
for they were for the most part peaceful men, of industrious callings,
and enervated by the frequent use of the warm bath; but they were
superior in number and unconquerable in spirit; old and young, strong
and weak, fought with the same desperation. The Moors fought for
property, for liberty, for life. They fought at their thresholds and
their hearths, with the shrieks of their wives and children ringing in
their ears, and they fought in the hope that each moment would bring aid
from Granada. They regarded neither their own wounds nor the death of
their companions, but continued fighting until they fell, and seemed
as if, when they could no longer contend, they would block up the
thresholds of their beloved homes with their mangled bodies. The
Christians fought for glory, for revenge, for the holy faith, and for
the spoil of these wealthy infidels. Success would place a rich town at
their mercy; failure would deliver them into the hands of the tyrant of
Granada.

The contest raged from morning until night, when the Moors began to
yield. Retreating to a large mosque near the walls, they kept up so
galling a fire from it with lances, crossbows, and arquebuses that for
some time the Christians dared not approach. Covering themselves, at
length, with bucklers and mantelets* to protect them from the deadly