Here he found an ample supply of
food and obtained water from some secret source, so that he was enabled to
hold out against the enemy.

For three long months the brave garrison defied its foes, though Magued
made every effort to take the church. How they obtained water was what
most puzzled him, but he finally discovered the secret through the aid of
a negro whom the Christians had captured and who escaped from their hands.
The prisoner had learned during his captivity that the church communicated
by an underground channel with a spring somewhere without. This was sought
for with diligence and at length found, whereupon the water supply of the
garrison was cut off at its source, and a new summons to surrender was
made.

There are two stories of what afterwards took place. One is that the
garrison refused to surrender, and that Magued, deeply exasperated,
ordered the church to be set on fire, most of its defenders perishing in
the flames. The other story is a far more romantic one, and perhaps as
likely to be true. This tells us that Pelistes, weary of long waiting for
assistance from without, determined to leave the church in search of aid,
promising, in case of failure, to return and die with his friends.

Mounted on the good steed that he had kept alive in the church, and armed
with lance, sword, and shield, the valiant warrior set forth before the
dawn, and rode through the silent streets, unseen by sentinel or early
wayfarer. The vision of a Christian knight on horseback was not likely to
attract much attention, as there were many renegade Christians with the
Moors, brought thither in the train of Count Julian. Therefore, when the
armed warrior presented himself at a gate of the city just as a foraging
party was entering, he rode forth unnoticed in the confusion and galloped
briskly away towards the neighboring mountains.

Having reached there he stopped to rest, but to his alarm he noticed a
horseman in hot pursuit upon his trail. Spurring his steed onward,
Pelistes now made his way into the rough intricacies of the mountain
paths; but, unluckily, as he was passing along the edge of a declivity,
his horse stumbled and rolled down into the ravine below, so bruising and
cutting him in the fall that, when he struggled to his feet, his face was
covered with blood.

While he was in this condition the pursuer rode up. It proved to be Magued
himself, who had seen him leave the city and had followed in haste. To his