Christendom; now that
Europe was taking the offensive, it would be an outpost of the Spanish
crusade against Islam.

[Footnote 34: City of "Seven" Hills, as some have derived it.]

The city was built on the ordinary model, in two parts: a citadel and a
port-town, which together covered the neck of a long peninsula running
out some three miles eastward from the African mainland, and broadening
again beyond the eastern wall of Ceuta into a hilly square of country.

It was here, just where the land began to spread and form a natural
harbour, that the Portuguese had planned their landing, and to this
point Prince Henry, with great trouble, brought up the heavier craft.
The strong currents that turned them off to the Spanish coast, proved
good allies of the Europeans after all. For the Moors, who had been
greatly startled at the first signs of attack, and had hurried to get
all the help they could from Fez and the upland, now fancied the
Christian fleet to be scattered once for all, and dismissed all but
their own garrison; while the Portuguese had been roused afresh to
action by the fiery energy of King John, Prince Henry, and his brothers.
On the night of the 15th of August, the Feast of the Assumption, the
whole armada was at last brought up to the roads of Ceuta; Henry
anchored off the lower town with his ships from Oporto, and his father,
though badly wounded in the leg, rowed through the fleet in a shallop,
preparing all his men for the assault that was to be given at daybreak.
Henry himself was to have the right of first setting foot on shore,
where it was hoped the quays would be almost bared of defenders. For the
main force was brought up against the castle, and every Moor would rush
to the fight where the King of Portugal was leading.

While these movements were being settled in the armada, all through that
night Ceuta was brilliantly lighted up, as if _en fete_. The Governor in
his terror could think of nothing better than to frighten the enemy with
the show of an immensely populous city, and he had ordered a light to be
kept burning in every window of every house. As the morning cleared and
the Christian host saw the beach and harbour lined with Moors, shouting
defiance, the attack was begun by some volunteers who forgot the
Prince's claim. One Ruy Gonsalvez was the first to land and clear a
passage for the rest. The Infantes, Henry and Edward, were not far
behind, and after a fierce struggle the Moslems were