Garcilasso had shortened his sword and, as Tarfe raised his
arm, had struck him to the heart.

The rules of chivalry were rigidly observed. No one interfered on either
side. Garcilasso despoiled his victim, raised the inscription "Ave Maria"
on the point of his sword, and bore it triumphantly back, amid shouts of
triumph from the Christian army.

By this time the passions of the Moors were so excited that they could not
be restrained. They made a furious charge upon the Spanish host, driving
in its advanced ranks. The word to attack was given the Spaniards in
return, the war-cry "Santiago!" rang along the line, and in a short time
both armies were locked in furious combat. The affair ended in a repulse
of the Moors, the foot-soldiers taking to flight, and the cavalry vainly
endeavoring to rally them. They were pursued to the gates of the city,
more than two thousand of them being killed, wounded, or taken prisoners
in "the queen's skirmish," as the affair came to be called.

THE LAST SIGH OF THE MOOR.

In 1492, nearly eight centuries after the conquest of Spain by the Arabs,
their dominion ended in the surrender of the city of Granada by King
Boabdil to the army of Ferdinand and Isabella. The empire of the Arab
Moors had shrunk, year by year and century by century, before the steady
advance of the Christians, until only the small kingdom of Granada
remained. This, distracted by anarchy within and assailed by King
Ferdinand with all the arts of statecraft and all the strength of arms,
gradually decreased in dimensions, city after city, district after
district, being lost, until only the single city of Granada remained.

This populous and powerful city would have proved very difficult to take
by the ordinary methods of war, and could only have been subdued with
great loss of life and expenditure of treasure. Ferdinand assailed it by a
less costly and more exasperating method. Granada subsisted on the broad
and fertile vega or plain surrounding it, a region marvellously productive
in grain and fruits and rich in cattle and sheep. It was a cold-blooded
and cruel system adopted by the Spanish monarch. He assailed the city
through the vega. Disregarding the city, he marched his army into the
plain at the time of harvest and so thoroughly destroyed its growing crops
that the smiling and verdant expanse was left a scene of frightful
desolation. This was not accomplished without sharp reprisals by the
Moors, but t