.

"At night the scene was far more direful than in the day. The cheerful
light of the sun was gone; there was nothing but the flashes of
artillery or the baleful gleams of combustibles thrown into the city,
and the conflagration of the houses. The fire kept up from the Christian
batteries was incessant: there were seven great lombards in particular,
called the Seven Sisters of Ximenes, which did tremendous execution.
The Moorish ordnance replied in thunder from the walls; Gibralfaro was
wrapped in volumes of smoke rolling about its base; and Hamet and his
Gomeres looked out with triumph upon the tempest of war they had awaked.
Truly they were so many demons incarnate," concludes the pious Fray
Antonio Agapida, "who were permitted by Heaven to enter into and possess
this infidel city for its perdition."

CHAPTER LIV.

SIEGE OF MALAGA.

The attack on Malaga by sea and land was kept up for several days with
tremendous violence, but without producing any great impression, so
strong were the ancient bulwarks of the city. The count de Cifuentes was
the first to signalize himself by any noted achievement. A main tower,
protecting what is at present called the suburb of Santa Ana, had been
shattered by the ordnance and the battlements demolished, so as to yield
no shelter to its defenders. Seeing this, the count assembled a gallant
band of cavaliers of the royal household and advanced to take it by
storm. They applied scaling-ladders and mounted sword in hand. The
Moors, having no longer battlements to protect them, descended to a
lower floor, and made furious resistance from the windows and loopholes.
They poured down boiling pitch and rosin, and hurled stones and darts
and arrows on the assailants. Many of the Christians were slain, their
ladders were destroyed by flaming combustibles, and the count was
obliged to retreat from before the tower. On the following day he
renewed the attack with superior force, and after a severe combat
succeeded in planting his victorious banner on the tower.

The Moors now assailed the tower in their turn. They undermined the part
toward the city, placed props of wood under the foundation, and, setting
fire to them, drew off to a distance. In a little while the props gave
way, the foundation sunk, and the tower was rent; part of its wall
fell with a tremendous noise; many of the Christians were thrown out
headlong, and the rest were laid open to the missiles of the enemy.

By this