driven through the
gate of the landing-place back to the wall of the city. Here they
rallied, under a "negro giant, who fought naked, but with the strength
of many men, hurling the Christians to the earth with stones." At last
he was brought down by a lance-thrust, and the crusaders forced their
way into Ceuta. But Henry, as chief captain on this side, would not
allow his men to rush on plundering into the heart of the town, but kept
them by the gates, and sent back to the ships for fresh troops, who soon
came up under Fernandez d'Ataide, who cheered on the Princes. "This is
the sort of tournament for you; here you are getting a worthier
knighthood than you could win at Lisbon."

Meantime the King, with Don Pedro, had heard of Henry's first success
while still on shipboard, and ordered an instant advance on his side.
After a still closer struggle than that on the lower ground, the Moors
were routed, and Pedro pressed on through the narrow streets, just
escaping death from the showers of heavy stones off the house tops, till
he met his brothers in a mosque, or square adjoining, in the centre of
Ceuta.

Then the conquerors scattered for plunder, and came very near losing the
city altogether. But for the dogged courage of Henry, who twice broke up
the Moslem rally with a handful of men, at last holding a gate on the
inner wall between the lower town and the citadel, "with seventeen,
himself the eighteenth," Ceuta would have been lost after it had been
gained. Both Henry and Pedro were reported dead. "Such is the end a
soldier must not fear," was all their father said, as he stayed by the
ships under the lee of the fortress, waiting, like Edward III. at Crecy,
for what his sons would do. But towards evening it was known throughout
the army that the Princes were safe, that the port-town had been gained,
and that the Moors were slipping away from the citadel.

Henry, Edward, and Pedro held a council, and settled to storm the castle
next morning; but after sunset a few scouts, sent out to reconnoitre,
reported that all the garrison had fled.

It was true. The Governor, who had despaired all along of holding out,
was no sooner beaten out of the lower city than he set the example of a
strategic movement up the country, and when the Portuguese appeared at
the fortress gate with axes and began to hew it down, only two Moors
were left inside. They shouted out that the Christians might save
themselves that trouble, for they wou