ights took
refuge in Alhama and other towns: many wandered about the mountains for
eight days, living on roots and herbs, hiding themselves during the day
and sallying forth at night. So enfeebled and disheartened were they
that they offered no resistance if attacked. Three or four soldiers
would surrender to a Moorish peasant, and even the women of Malaga
sallied forth and made prisoners. Some were thrown into the dungeons of
frontier towns, others led captive to Granada, but by far the greater
number were conducted to Malaga, the city they had threatened to attack.
Two hundred and fifty principal cavaliers, alcaydes, commanders, and
hidalgos of generous blood were confined in the alcazaba, or citadel, of
Malaga to await their ransom, and five hundred and seventy of the common
soldiery were crowded in an enclosure or courtyard of the alcazaba to be
sold as slaves.*

* Cura de los Palacios.

Great spoils were collected of splendid armor and weapons taken from the
slain or thrown away by the cavaliers in their flight, and many horses,
magnificently caparisoned, together with numerous standards,--all which
were paraded in triumph in the Moorish towns.

The merchants also who had come with the army, intending to traffic
in the spoils of the Moors, were themselves made objects of traffic.
Several of them were driven like cattle before the Moorish viragoes to
the market of Malaga, and, in spite of all their adroitness in trade and
their attempts to buy themselves off at a cheap ransom, they were unable
to purchase their freedom without such draughts upon their money-bags at
home as drained them to the very bottom.

CHAPTER XIII.

EFFECTS OF THE DISASTERS AMONG THE MOUNTAINS OF MALAGA.

The people of Antiquera had scarcely recovered from the tumult of
excitement and admiration caused by the departure of the gallant band of
cavaliers upon their foray when they beheld the scattered wrecks flying
for refuge to their walls. Day after day and hour after hour brought
some wretched fugitive, in whose battered plight and haggard woebegone
demeanor it was almost impossible to recognize the warrior who had
lately issued so gayly and gloriously from their gates.

The arrival of the marques of Cadiz almost alone, covered with dust and
blood, his armor shattered and defaced, his countenance the picture of
despair, filled every heart with sorrow, for he was greatly beloved by
the people. The multitude asked of his co