the Moor bent--the
Spaniards raised a shout--Muza seemed stricken from his horse. But the
blow of the heavy falchion had not touched him: and, seemingly without
an effort, the curved blade of his own cimiter, gliding by that part
of his antagonist's throat where the helmet joins the cuirass, passed
unresistingly and silently through the joints; and Alonzo fell at once,
and without a groan, from his horse--his armour, to all appearance,
unpenetrated, while the blood oozed slow and gurgling from a mortal
wound.

"Allah il Allah!" shouted Muza, as he joined his friends; "Lelilies!
Lelilies!" echoed the Moors; and ere the Christians recovered their
dismay, they were engaged hand to hand with their ferocious and swarming
foes. It was, indeed, fearful odds; and it was a marvel to the Spaniards
how the Moors had been enabled to harbour and conceal their numbers in
so small a space. Horse and foot alike beset the company of Villena,
already sadly reduced; and while the infantry, with desperate and savage
fierceness, thrust themselves under the very bellies of the chargers,
encountering both the hoofs of the steed and the deadly lance of the
rider, in the hope of finding a vulnerable place for the sharp Moorish
knife,--the horsemen, avoiding the stern grapple of the Spaniard
warriors, harrassed them by the shaft and lance,--now advancing, now
retreating, and performing, with incredible rapidity, the evolutions of
Oriental cavalry. But the life and soul of his party was the indomitable
Muza. With a rashness which seemed to the superstitious Spaniards like
the safety of a man protected by magic, he spurred his ominous
black barb into the very midst of the serried phalanx which Villena
endeavoured to form around him, breaking the order by his single charge,
and from time to time bringing to the dust some champion of the troop by
the noiseless and scarce-seen edge of his fatal cimiter.

Villena, in despair alike of fame and life, and gnawed with grief for
his brother's loss, at length resolved to put the last hope of the
battle on his single arm. He gave the signal for retreat; and to protect
his troop, remained himself, alone and motionless, on his horse, like
a statue of iron. Though not of large frame, he was esteemed the best
swordsman, next only to Hernando del Pulgar and Gonsalvo de Cordova, in
the army; practised alike in the heavy assault of the Christian warfare,
and the rapid and dexterous exercise of the Moorish cavalry.