ansfixed him
with his lance. He then sought to draw his sword, which hung at his
saddle-bow, but in vain. Never had he been exposed to such peril; he was
surrounded by the enemy without a weapon wherewith to defend himself.

In this moment of awful jeopardy the marques of Cadiz, the count
de Cabra, the adelantado of Murcia, with two other cavaliers, named
Garcilasso de la Vega and Diego de Atayde, came galloping to the scene
of action, and, surrounding the king, made a rampart of their bodies
against the assaults of the Moors. The horse of the marques was pierced
by an arrow, and that worthy cavalier exposed to imminent danger; but
with the aid of his valorous companions he quickly put the enemy to
flight, and pursued them with slaughter to the very gates of the city.

When those loyal warriors returned from the pursuit they remonstrated
with the king for exposing his life in personal conflict, seeing that
he had so many valiant captains whose business it was to fight. They
reminded him that the life of a prince was the life of his people,
and that many a brave army was lost by the loss of its commander. They
entreated him, therefore, in future to protect them with the force of
his mind in the cabinet, rather than of his arm in the field.

Ferdinand acknowledged the wisdom of their advice, but declared that he
could not see his people in peril without venturing his person to assist
them--a reply (say the old chroniclers) which delighted the whole army,
inasmuch as they saw that he not only governed them as a good king, but
protected them as a valiant captain. He, however, was conscious of the
extreme peril to which he had been exposed, and made a vow never again
to venture into battle without having his sword girt to his side.*

* Illescas, Hist. Pontif., lib. 6, c. 20; Vedmar, Hist. Velez Malaga.

When this achievement of the king was related to Isabella, she trembled
amidst her joy at his safety, and afterward, in memorial of the event,
granted to Velez Malaga, as the arms of the city, the figure of the king
on horseback, with a groom lying dead at his feet and the Moors flying.*

* Ibid.

The camp was formed, but the artillery was yet on the road, advancing
with infinite labor at the rate of merely a league a day, for heavy
rains had converted the streams of the valleys into raging torrents and
completely broken up the roads. In the mean time, King Ferdinand
ordered an assault on the suburbs o