that his garrison was too small to serve for a successful sally.

The alert Moor, however, advanced with great caution, sending out parties
to explore every pass where an ambush might await him, since, despite his
secrecy, the news of his coming might have gone before. At length the
broken country of Castellar was traversed and the plains were reached.
Encamping on the banks of the Celemin, he sent four hundred lancers to the
vicinity of Algeciras to keep a close watch upon Gibraltar across the bay,
to attack Pedro if he sallied out, and to send word to the camp if any
movement took place. This force was four times that said to be in
Gibraltar. Remaining on the Celemin with his main body of troops, King
Hassan sent two hundred horsemen to scour the plain of Tarifa, and as many
more to the lands of Medina Sidonia, the whole district being a rich
pasture land upon which thousands of animals grazed.

All went well. The parties of foragers came in, driving vast flocks and
herds, enough to replace those which had been swept from the vega of
Granada by the foragers of Spain. The troops on watch at Algeciras sent
word that all was quiet at Gibraltar. Satisfied that for once Pedro de
Vargas had been foiled, the old king called in his detachments and started
back in triumph with his spoils.

He was mistaken. The vigilant governor had been advised of his movements,
but was too weak in men to leave his post. Fortunately for him, a squadron
of the armed galleys in the strait put into port, and, their commander
agreeing to take charge of Gibraltar in his absence, Pedro sallied out at
midnight with seventy of his men, bent upon giving the Moors what trouble
he could.

Sending men to the mountain-tops, he had alarm fires kindled as a signal
to the peasants that the Moors were out and their herds in peril. Couriers
were also despatched at speed to rouse the country and bid all capable of
bearing arms to rendezvous at Castellar, a stronghold which Abul Hassan
would have to pass on his return. The Moorish king saw the fire signals
and knew well what they meant. Striking his tents, he began as hasty a
retreat as his slow-moving multitude of animals would permit. In advance
rode two hundred and fifty of his bravest men. Then came the great drove
of cattle. In the rear marched the main army, with Abul Hassan at its
head. And thus they moved across the broken country towards Castellar.

Near that place De Vargas was on the watch, a thick