g a second
attempt, had provided the place with ample ammunitions and provisions,
had ordered trenches to be digged and additional bulwarks thrown up, and
caused all the old men, the women, and the children to be removed to the
capital.

Such was the strength of the fortress and the difficulties of its
position that Ferdinand anticipated much trouble in reducing it, and
made every preparation for a regular siege. In the centre of his camp
were two great mounds, one of sacks of flour, the other of grain, which
were called the royal granary. Three batteries of heavy ordnance
were opened against the citadel and principal towers, while smaller
artillery, engines for the discharge of missiles, arquebuses, and
crossbows, were distributed in various places to keep up a fire into any
breaches that might be made, and upon those of the garrison who should
appear on the battlements.

The lombards soon made an impression on the works, demolishing a part of
the wall and tumbling down several of those haughty towers which, from
their height, had been impregnable before the invention of gunpowder.
The Moors repaired their walls as well as they were able, and, still
confiding in the strength of their situation, kept up a resolute
defence, firing down from their lofty battlements and towers upon the
Christian camp. For two nights and a day an incessant fire was kept up,
so that there was not a moment in which the roaring of ordnance was not
heard or some damage sustained by the Christians or the Moors. It was
a conflict, however, more of engineers and artillerists than of gallant
cavaliers; there was no sally of troops nor shock of armed men nor rush
and charge of cavalry. The knights stood looking on with idle weapons,
waiting until they should have an opportunity of signalizing their
prowess by scaling the walls or storming the breaches. As the place,
however, was assailable only in one part, there was every prospect of a
long and obstinate resistance.

The engineers, as usual, discharged not merely balls of stone and
iron to demolish the walls, but flaming balls of inextinguishable
combustibles designed to set fire to the houses. One of these, which
passed high through the air like a meteor, sending out sparks and
crackling as it went, entered the window of a tower which was used as
a magazine of gunpowder. The tower blew up with a tremendous explosion;
the Moors who were upon its battlements were hurled into the air,
and fell ma