he death which one such arrow would occasion, if it should find
the opening of the visor, or the joints of the hauberk.

"Mother of Mercy," groaned the knight, perplexed and enraged, "let not
thy servant be shot down like a hart, by this cowardly warfare; but, if
I must fall, be it with mine enemy, grappling hand to hand."

While yet muttering this short invocation, the war-cry of Spain was
heard hard by, and the gallant company of Villena was seen scouring
across the plain to the succour of their comrades. The deadly attention
of Muza was distracted from individual foes, however eminent; he wheeled
round, re-collected his men, and, in a serried charge, met the new enemy
in midway.

While the contest thus fared in that part of the field, the scheme of
Ferdinand had succeeded so far as to break up the battle in detached
sections. Far and near, plain, grove, garden, tower, presented each the
scene of obstinate and determined conflict. Boabdil, at the head of
his chosen guard, the flower of the haughtier tribe of nobles who were
jealous of the fame and blood of the tribe of Muza, and followed also
by his gigantic Ethiopians, exposed his person to every peril, with the
desperate valour of a man who feels his own stake is greatest in the
field. As he most distrusted the infantry, so amongst the infantry he
chiefly bestowed his presence; and wherever he appeared, he sufficed,
for the moment, to turn the changes of the engagement. At length, at
mid-day Ponce de Leon led against the largest detachment of the Moorish
foot a strong and numerous battalion of the best-disciplined and veteran
soldiery of Spain. He had succeeded in winning a fortress, from which
his artillery could play with effect; and the troops he led were
composed, partly of men flushed with recent triumph, and partly of
a fresh reserve, now first brought into the field. A comely and a
breathless spectacle it was to behold this Christian squadron emerging
from a blazing copse, which they fired on their march; the red light
gleaming on their complete armour, as, in steady and solemn order, they
swept on to the swaying and clamorous ranks of the Moorish infantry.
Boabdil learned the danger from his scouts; and hastily quitting a
tower from which he had for a while repulsed a hostile legion, he threw
himself into the midst of the battalions menaced by the skilful Ponce
de Leon. Almost at the same moment, the wild and ominous apparition of
Almamen, long absent from