f the city. They were carried after a
sanguinary conflict of six hours, in which many Christian cavaliers were
killed and wounded, and among the latter Don Alvaro of Portugal, son of
the duke of Braganza. The suburbs were then fortified toward the city
with trenches and palisades, and garrisoned by a chosen force under Don
Fadrique de Toledo. Other trenches were digged round the city and from
the suburbs to the royal camp, so as to cut off all communication with
the surrounding country.

Bodies of troops were also sent to take possession of the
mountain-passes by which the supplies for the army had to be brought.
The mountains, however, were so steep and rugged, and so full of defiles
and lurking-places, that the Moors could sally forth and retreat in
perfect security, frequently swooping down upon Christian convoys and
bearing off both booty and prisoners to their strongholds. Sometimes the
Moors would light fires at night on the sides of the mountains, which
would be answered by fires from the watch-towers and fortresses. By
these signals they would concert assaults upon the Christian camp, which
in consequence was obliged to be continually on the alert.

King Ferdinand flattered himself that the manifestation of his force had
struck sufficient terror into the city, and that by offers of clemency
it might be induced to capitulate. He wrote a letter, therefore, to
the commanders, promising, in case of immediate surrender, that all
the inhabitants should be permitted to depart with their effects, but
threatening them with fire and sword if they persisted in defence. This
letter was despatched by a cavalier named Carvajal, who, putting it on
the end of a lance, reached it to the Moors on the walls of the city.
Abul Cacim Vanegas, son of Reduan, and alcayde of the fortress, replied
that the king was too noble and magnanimous to put such a threat in
execution, and that he should not surrender, as he knew the artillery
could not be brought to the camp, and he was promised succor by the king
of Granada.

At the same time that he received this reply the king learnt that at the
strong town of Comares, upon a height about two leagues distant from the
camp, a large number of warriors had assembled from the Axarquia, the
same mountains in which the Christian cavaliers had been massacred in
the beginning of the war, and that others were daily expected, for this
rugged sierra was capable of furnishing fifteen thousand fighting-me