r the necessary mantelets and other protections--thinking
by attacking suddenly and at various points to distract the enemy and
overcome them by the force of numbers.

* Pulgar, Cronica.

The marques of Cadiz, with his confederate commanders, distributed
themselves along the walls to direct and animate their men in the
defence. The Moors in their blind fury often assailed the most difficult
and dangerous places. Darts, stones, and all kinds of missiles were
hurled down upon their defenceless heads. As fast as they mounted they
were cut down or dashed from the battlements, their ladders overturned,
and all who were on them precipitated headlong below.

Muley Abul Hassan stormed with passion at the sight: he sent detachment
after detachment to scale the walls, but in vain; they were like waves
rushing upon a rock, only to dash themselves to pieces. The Moors lay in
heaps beneath the wall, and among them many of the bravest cavaliers of
Granada. The Christians also sallied frequently from the gates, and made
great havoc in the irregular multitude of assailants.

Muley Abul Hassan now became sensible of his error in hurrying from
Granada without the proper engines for a siege. Destitute of all means
to batter the fortifications, the town remained uninjured, defying the
mighty army which raged and roamed before it. Incensed at being thus
foiled, Muley Abul Hassan gave orders to undermine the walls. The Moors
advanced with shouts to the attempt. They were received with a deadly
fire from the ramparts, which drove them from their works. Repeatedly
were they repulsed, and repeatedly did they return to the charge. The
Christians not merely galled them from the battlements, but issued forth
and cut them down in the excavations they were attempting to form. The
contest lasted throughout a whole day, and by evening two thousand Moors
were either killed or wounded.

Muley Abul Hassan now abandoned all hope of carrying the place by
assault, and attempted to distress it into terms by turning the channel
of the river which runs by its walls. On this stream the inhabitants
depended for their supply of water, the place being destitute of
fountains and cisterns, from which circumstance it is called Alhama "la
seca," or "the dry."

A desperate conflict ensued on the banks of the river, the Moors
endeavoring to plant palisades in its bed to divert the stream, and
the Christians striving to prevent them. The Spanish commanders