r towns
being captured, and in the spring of 1368 all northern Castile was in
Henry's hands. Don Pedro, whose army was small, had entered into alliance
with the Moorish king of Granada, who sent him an army of thirty-five
thousand men, with which force a vigorous attack was made on the city of
Cordova,--a holy city in the eyes of the Moors. Among its defenders was Don
Alfonso de Guzman, whose mother had been burned to death. The defence was
obstinate, but the Moors at length made breaches in the walls. They were
about to pour into the city when the women, mad with fear, rushed into the
streets with cries and moans, now reproaching the men-at-arms with
cowardice, now begging them with sobs and tears to make a last effort to
save the city from the brutal infidels.

This appeal gave new courage to the Christians. They rushed on the Moors
with the fury of despair, drove them from the posts they had taken, hurled
them from the ramparts, tore down the black flags which already waved on
the towers, and finally expelled them from the breaches and the walls in a
panic. The breaches were repaired and the city was saved. In a few days
the Moors, thoroughly disheartened by their repulse, dispersed, and Don
Pedro lost his allies.

Meanwhile, Henry was engaged in the siege of Toledo, the strongest place
in the kingdom, and before which he persistently lay for months, despite
all allurements to use his forces in other directions. Here Bertrand du
Guesclin, who had been ransomed by the Black Prince, joined him with a
force of some six hundred men-at-arms, all picked men; and hither, in
March, 1369, Don Pedro marched to the city's relief at the head of a
strong army.

Henry, on learning of this movement, at once gathered all the forces he
could spare from the siege, three thousand men-at-arms in all, and
hastened to intercept his rival on the march. Not dreaming of such a
movement, Don Pedro had halted at Montiel, where his men lay dispersed, in
search of food and forage, over a space of several leagues. They were
attacked at daybreak, their surprise being so complete that the main body
was at once put to flight, while each division was routed as soon as it
appeared. Henry's forces suffered almost no loss, and within an hour's
time his rival's kingdom was reduced to the castle of Montiel, in which he
had taken refuge with a few of his followers.

Leaving the defeated army to take care of itself, Henry devoted himself to
the siege of