he defiles of the mountains, stationed himself behind the
rocky sierra of Elvira, not far from the eventful bridge of Pinos,
within a few short miles of Granada. Hence he detached Alonso de
Cardenas Ulloa, with fifty light horsemen, to post himself in ambush by
the road the bridal party had to travel. After a time the latter came in
sight, proving less numerous than had been expected, for the damsel
was escorted merely by four armed domestics and accompanied by a few
relatives and two female attendants. The whole party was surrounded and
captured almost without resistance, and carried off to the count at the
bridge of Pinos. The good count conveyed his beautiful captive to his
stronghold at Alcala, where he treated her and her companions with all
the delicacy and respect due to their rank and to his own character as a
courteous cavalier.

The tidings of the capture of his niece gave poignant affliction to the
vizier Aben Comixa. His royal master, Boabdil, of whom he was the prime
favorite and confidential adviser, sympathized in his distress. With his
own hand he wrote a letter to the count, offering in exchange for the
fair Fatima one hundred Christian captives to be chosen from those
detained in Granada. This royal letter was sent by Don Francisco de
Zuniga, an Aragonese cavalier, whom Aben Comixa held in captivity, and
who was set at liberty for the purpose.

On receiving the letter of Boabdil the count de Tendilla at once gave
freedom to the Moorish maid, making her a magnificent present of jewels,
and sending her and her companions under honorable escort to the very
gates of Granada.

Boabdil, exceeding his promises, immediately set free twenty captive
priests, one hundred and thirty Castilian and Aragonian cavaliers, and
a number of peasant-women. His favorite and vizier, Aben Comixa, was
so rejoiced at the liberation of his niece, and so struck with the
chivalrous conduct of her captor, that he maintained from that day a
constant and amicable correspondence with the count de Tendilla, and
became in the hands of the latter one of the most efficacious agents in
bringing the war of Granada to a triumphant close.*

* This interesting anecdote of the count de Tendilla, which is a key
to the subsequent conduct of the vizier Aben Comixa, and had a singular
influence on the fortunes of Boabdil and his kingdom, is originally
given in a manuscript history of the counts of Tendilla, written about
the middle of th