e
and fourteen thousand foot, and extended from the summit of the mount to
the margin of the sea, completely blocking up the approach to the city
on that side. From this post a line of encampments extended quite round
the city to the seaboard, fortified by bulwarks and deep ditches, while
a fleet of armed ships and galleys stretched before the harbor, so that
the place was completely invested by sea and land. The various parts
of the valley now resounded with the din of preparation, and was filled
with artificers preparing warlike engines and munitions; armorers
and smiths with glowing forges and deafening hammers; carpenters
and engineers constructing machines wherewith to assail the walls;
stone-cutters shaping stone balls for the ordnance; and burners of
charcoal preparing fuel for the furnaces and forges.

When the encampment was formed the heavy ordnance was landed from the
ships and mounted in various parts of the camp. Five huge lombards were
placed on the mount commanded by the marques of Cadiz, so as to bear
upon the castle of Gibralfaro.

The Moors made strenuous efforts to impede these preparations. They kept
up a heavy fire from their ordnance upon the men employed in digging
trenches or constructing batteries, so that the latter had to
work principally in the night. The royal tents had been stationed
conspicuously and within reach of the Moorish batteries, but were so
warmly assailed that they had to be removed behind a hill.

When the works were completed the Christian batteries opened in return,
and kept up a tremendous cannonade, while the fleet, approaching the
land, assailed the city vigorously on the opposite side.

"It was a glorious and delectable sight," observes Fray Antonio Agapida,
"to behold this infidel city thus surrounded by sea and land by a mighty
Christian force. Every mound in its circuit was, as it were, a little
city of tents bearing the standard of some renowned Catholic warrior.
Besides the warlike ships and galleys which lay before the place, the
sea was covered with innumerable sails, passing and repassing, appearing
and disappearing, being engaged in bringing supplies for the subsistence
of the army. It seemed a vast spectacle contrived to recreate the eye,
did not the volleying bursts of flame and smoke from the ships, which
seemed to lie asleep on the quiet sea, and the thunder of ordnance from
camp and city, from tower and battlement, tell the deadly warfare that
was waging