s!
They fought among the scenes of their loves and pleasures, the scenes of
their infancy, and the haunts of their domestic life. They fought
under the eyes of their wives and children, their old men and their
maidens--of all that was helpless and all that was dear to them; for all
Granada, crowded on tower and battlement, watched with trembling heart
the fate of this eventful day.

There was not so much one battle as a variety of battles: every garden
and orchard became a scene of deadly contest; every inch of ground was
disputed with an agony of grief and valor by the Moors; every inch of
ground that the Christians advanced they valiantly maintained, but never
did they advance with severer fighting or greater loss of blood.

The cavalry of Muza was in every part of the field; wherever it came it
gave fresh ardor to the fight. The Moorish soldier, fainting with heat,
fatigue, and wounds, was roused to new life at the approach of Muza; and
even he who lay gasping in the agonies of death turned his face toward
him and faintly uttered cheers and blessings as he passed.

The Christians had by this time gained possession of various towers near
the city, whence they had been annoyed by crossbows and arquebuses. The
Moors, scattered in various actions, were severely pressed. Boabdil, at
the head of the cavaliers of his guard, mingling in the fight in various
parts of the field, endeavored to inspirit the foot-soldiers to the
combat. But the Moorish infantry was never to be depended upon. In the
heat of the action a panic seized upon them; they fled, leaving their
sovereign exposed with his handful of cavaliers to an overwhelming
force. Boabdil was on the point of falling into the hands of the
Christians, when, wheeling round, he and his followers threw the reins
on the necks of their steeds and took refuge by dint of hoof within the
walls of the city.*

* Zurita, lib. 20, c. 88.

Muza endeavored to retrieve the fortune of the field. He threw himself
before the retreating infantry, calling upon them to turn and fight for
their homes, their families, for everything sacred and dear to them.
All in vain: totally broken and dismayed, they fled tumultuously for the
gates. Muza would fain have kept the field with his cavalry; but this
devoted band, having stood the brunt of war throughout this desperate
campaign, was fearfully reduced in numbers, and many of the survivors
were crippled and enfeebled by their wounds. Sl