sed, and the darkness rendered it
impossible to make any impression. The Moors, however, kept up constant
assaults and alarms throughout the night, and the weary Christians,
exhausted by the toils and sufferings of the day, were not allowed a
moment of repose.*

* Pulgar, part 3, cap. 106, 107; Cura de los Palacios, cap. 92;
Zurita, lib. 20, cap 31.

CHAPTER LXXII.

SIEGE OF BAZA.--EMBARRASSMENTS OF THE ARMY.

The morning sun rose upon a piteous scene before the walls of Baza.
The Christian outposts, harassed throughout the night, were pale and
haggard, while the multitudes of slain which lay before their palisadoes
showed the fierce attacks they had sustained and the bravery of their
defence.

Beyond them lay the groves and gardens of Baza, once favorite resorts
for recreation and delight, now a scene of horror and desolation. The
towers and pavilions were smoking ruins; the canals and water-courses
were discolored with blood and choked with the bodies of the slain. Here
and there the ground, deep dinted with the tramp of man and steed and
plashed and slippery with gore, showed where had been some fierce and
mortal conflict, while the bodies of Moors and Christians, ghastly
in death, lay half concealed among the matted and trampled shrubs and
flowers and herbage.

Amidst these sanguinary scenes rose the Christian tents, hastily pitched
among the gardens in the preceding evening. The experience of the night,
however, and the forlorn aspect of everything in the morning convinced
King Ferdinand of the perils and hardships to which his camp must be
exposed in its present situation, and after a consultation with his
principal cavaliers he resolved to abandon the orchards.

It was a dangerous movement, to extricate his army from so entangled a
situation in the face of so alert and daring an enemy. A bold front was
therefore kept up toward the city; additional troops were ordered to the
advanced posts, and works begun as if for a settled encampment. Not a
tent was struck in the gardens, but in the mean time the most active and
unremitting exertions were made to remove all the baggage and furniture
of the camp back to the original station.

All day the Moors beheld a formidable show of war maintained in front of
the gardens, while in the rear the tops of the Christian tents and the
pennons of the different commanders were seen rising above the groves.
Suddenly, toward evening the tents sank and disappear