brother, becomes twice a man. On this battle we will set all. Liberty or
chains! empire or exile! victory or death! Forward!"

He spoke, and gave the rein to his barb. It bounded forward, and cleared
the gloomy arch of the portals, and Boabdil el Chico was the first Moor
who issued from Granada, to that last and eventful field. Out, then,
poured, as a river that rushes from caverns into day, the burnished and
serried files of the Moorish cavalry. Muza came the last, closing the
array. Upon his dark and stern countenance there spoke not the ardent
enthusiasm of the sanguine king. It was locked and rigid; and the
anxieties of the last dismal weeks had thinned his cheeks, and ploughed
deep lines around the firm lips and iron jaw which bespoke the obstinate
and unconquerable resolution of his character.

As Muza now spurred forward, and, riding along the wheeling ranks,
marshalled them in order, arose the acclamation of female voices; and
the warriors, who looked back at the sound, saw that their women--their
wives and daughters, their mothers and their beloved (released from
their seclusion, by a policy which bespoke the desperation of
the cause)--were gazing at them, with outstretched arms, from the
battlements and towers. The Moors knew that they were now to fight for
their hearths and altars in the presence of those who, if they failed,
became slaves and harlots; and each Moslem felt his heart harden like
the steel of his own sabre.

While the cavalry formed themselves into regular squadrons, and the
tramp of the foemen came more near and near, the Moorish infantry,
in miscellaneous, eager, and undisciplined bands, poured out, until,
spreading wide and deep below the walls, Boabdil's charger was seen,
rapidly careering amongst them, as, in short but distinct directions,
or fiery adjurations, he sought at once to regulate their movements, and
confirm their hot but capricious valour.

Meanwhile the Christians had abruptly halted; and the politic Ferdinand
resolved not to incur the full brunt of a whole population, in the first
flush of their enthusiasm and despair. He summoned to his side Hernando
del Pulgar, and bade him, with a troop of the most adventurous and
practised horsemen, advance towards the Moorish cavalry, and endeavour
to draw the fiery valour of Muza away from the main army. Then,
splitting up his force into several sections, he dismissed each to
different stations; some to storm the adjacent towers, ot