e army might reach the table-land, and to prove
his words led Lopez de Haro and another through this little-known mountain
by-way. It was difficult but passable, the army was put in motion and
traversed it all night long, and on the morning of the 14th of July the
astonished eyes of the Mohammedans gazed on the Christian host, holding in
force the borders of the plateau, and momentarily increasing in numbers
and strength. Ten miles before the eyes of Alfonso and his men stretched
the plain, level in the centre, in the distance rising in gentle slopes to
its border of hills, like a vast natural amphitheatre. The soldiers,
filled with hope and enthusiasm, spread through their ranks the story that
the shepherd who had led them was an angel, sent by the Almighty to lead
his people to victory over the infidel.

Mohammed and his men had been told on the previous day by their scouts
that the camp of the Christians was breaking up, and rejoiced in what
seemed a victory without a blow. But when they saw these same Christians
defiling in thousands before them on the plain, ranged in battle array
under their various standards, their joy was changed to rage and
consternation. Against the embattled front their wild riders rode,
threatening the steady troops with brandished lances and taunting them
with cowardice. But Alfonso held his mail-clad battalions firm, and the
light-armed Moorish horsemen hesitated to attack. Word was brought to
Mohammed that the Christians would not fight, and in hasty gratulation he
sent off letters to cities in the rear to that effect. He little dreamed
that he was soon to follow his messengers in swifter speed.

It was a splendid array upon which the Christians gazed,--one well
calculated to make them tremble for the result,--for the hosts of Mohammed
covered the hill-sides and plain like "countless swarms of locusts." On an
eminence which gave an outlook over the whole broad space stood the
emperor's tent, of three-ply crimson velvet flecked with gold, strings of
pearls depending from its purple fringes. To guard it from assault rows of
iron chains were stretched, before which stood three thousand camels in
line. In front of these ten thousand negroes formed a living wall, their
front bristling with the steel of their lances, whose butts were planted
firmly in the sand. In the centre of this powerful guard stood the
emperor, wearing the green dress and turban of his ancestral line.
Grasping in one hand