the city; they were clamorous
in their complaints at being thus excluded from their homes, but were
told they must wait with patience until the charges against them could
be investigated and the pleasure of the king be known.*

* Zurita, lib.--, c. 85; Cura de los Palacios, c. 97.

When Ferdinand arrived at Guadix, he found the unhappy Moors in their
cabins among the orchards. They complained bitterly of the deception
practised upon them, and implored permission to return into the city and
live peaceably in their dwellings, as had been promised them in their
articles of capitulation.

King Ferdinand listened graciously to their complaints. "My friends,"
said he in reply, "I have been informed that there has been a conspiracy
among you to kill my alcayde and garrison and to take part with my
enemy, the king of Granada. I shall make a thorough investigation of
this conspiracy. Those among you who shall be proved innocent shall be
restored to their dwellings, but the guilty shall incur the penalty of
their offences. As I wish, however, to proceed with mercy as well as
justice, I now give you your choice--either to depart at once without
further question, going wherever you please, and taking with you your
families and effects under an assurance of safety, or to deliver up
those who are guilty, not one of whom, I give you my royal word, shall
escape punishment."

When the people of Guadix heard these words they communed among
themselves; and, as most of them (says the worthy Agapida) were either
culpable or feared to be considered so, they accepted the alternative
and departed sorrowfully, they and their wives and their little ones.
"Thus," in the words of that excellent and contemporary historian Andres
Bernaldez, commonly called the curate of Los Palacios,--"thus did the
king deliver Guadix from the hands of the enemies of our holy faith
after seven hundred and seventy years that it had been in their
possession, ever since the time of Roderick the Goth; and this was one
of the mysteries of our Lord, who would not consent that the city should
remain longer in the power of the Moors"--a pious and sage remark which
is quoted with peculiar approbation by the worthy Agapida.

King Ferdinand offered similar alternatives to the Moors of Baza,
Almeria, and other cities accused of participation in this conspiracy,
who generally preferred to abandon their homes rather than incur the
risk of an investigation. Most of