d the sound as a
promise of deliverance.

When Hamet el (8) Zegri beheld his city thus surrounded and assailed,
he called upon his men to follow him and cut their way through to its
relief. They proceeded stealthily through the mountains until they came
to the nearest heights above the Christian camp. When night fell and
part of the army was sunk in sleep, they descended the rocks, and,
rushing suddenly upon the weakest part of the camp, endeavored to break
their way through and gain the city. The camp was too strong to be
forced; they were driven back to the crags of the mountains, whence
they defended themselves by showering down darts and stones upon their
pursuers.

Hamet now lit alarm-fires about the heights: his standard was joined by
the neighboring mountaineers and by troops from Malaga. Thus reinforced,
he made repeated assaults upon the Christians, cutting off all
stragglers from the camp. All his attempts to force his way into the
city, however, were fruitless; many of his bravest men were slain, and
he was obliged to retreat into the fastnesses of the mountains.

In the mean while the distress of Ronda increased hourly. The marques of
Cadiz, having possession of the suburbs, was enabled to approach to the
very foot of the perpendicular precipice rising from the river on the
summit of which the city is built. At the foot of this rock is a living
fountain of limpid water gushing into a great natural basin. A secret
mine led down from within the city to this fountain by several hundred
steps cut in the solid rock. Hence the city obtained its chief supply of
water, and these steps were deeply worn by the weary feet of Christian
captives employed in this painful labor. The marques of Cadiz discovered
this subterraneous passage, and directed his pioneers to countermine in
the side of the rock; they pierced to the shaft, and, stopping it up,
deprived the city of the benefit of this precious fountain.

While the marques was thus pressing the siege with the generous thought
of soon delivering his companions-in-arms from the Moorish dungeons,
far other were the feelings of the alcayde, Hamet el Zegri. He smote
his breast and gnashed his teeth in impotent fury as he beheld from
the mountain-cliffs the destruction of the city. Every thunder of the
Christian ordnance seemed to batter against his heart. He saw tower
after tower tumbling by day, and various parts of the city in a blaze
at night. "They fired not merely