of Don Juan and
his promptness in vindicating the immaculate character of the Blessed
Virgin, and, besides conferring on him various honorable distinctions,
made him a royal present of three hundred thousand maravedis.*

* Alcantara, Hist. Granad., vol. 3, c. 17, apud De Harro, Nobiliario
Genealogico, lib. 5, cap. 15.

The report brought by this cavalier of affairs in Granada, together
with the preceding skirmishings between the Moorish factions before the
walls, convinced Don Fadrique that there was no collusion between the
monarchs: on returning to his frontier post, therefore, he sent Boabdil
a reinforcement of Christian foot-soldiers and arquebusiers, under
Fernan Alvarez de Sotomayor, alcayde of Colomera. This was as a
firebrand thrown in to light up anew the flames of war in the city,
which remained raging between the Moorish inhabitants for the space of
fifty days.

CHAPTER XLVII.

HOW KING FERDINAND LAID SIEGE TO VELEZ MALAGA.

Hitherto the events of this renowned war have been little else than a
succession of brilliant but brief exploits, such as sudden forays,
wild skirmishes among the mountains, and the surprisals of castles,
fortresses, and frontier towns. We approach now to more important and
prolonged operations, in which ancient and mighty cities, the bulwarks
of Granada, were invested by powerful armies, subdued by slow and
regular sieges, and thus the capital left naked and alone.

The glorious triumphs of the Christian sovereigns (says Fray Antonio
Agapida) had resounded throughout the East and filled all heathenesse
with alarm. The Grand Turk, Bajazet II., and his deadly foe, the grand
soldan of Egypt, suspending for a time their bloody feuds, entered into
a league to protect the religion of Mahomet and the kingdom of Granada
from the hostilities of the Christians. It was concerted between them
that Bajazet should send a powerful armada against the island of Sicily,
then appertaining to the Spanish Crown, for the purpose of distracting
the attention of the Castilian sovereigns, while at the same time great
bodies of troops should be poured into Granada from the opposite coast
of Africa.

Ferdinand and Isabella received timely intelligence of these designs.
They resolved at once to carry the war into the sea-board of Granada, to
possess themselves of its ports, and thus, as it were, to bar the gates
of the kingdom against all external aid. Malaga was to be the main
object of at