of movement was unequalled;
who would, almost at the same moment, charge in mass, break into
detached troops, scatter, rally, fly off, and again form in line; these
cavaliers, whose voice, whose slightest gesture, whose very thoughts,
so to speak, were intelligible to their docile and sagacious steeds,
and who were able to recover a lance or sabre that had fallen to the
earth while in full gallop, constituted the principal military force of
the Moors. Their infantry was of little value; and their ill-fortified
towns, surrounded only by walls and moats, and defended by this
worthless infantry, could offer but an imperfect resistance to that of
the Spaniards, which began already to deserve the reputation it
afterward so well sustained in Italy, under Gonzalvo, the Great Captain.

After the death of St. Ferdinand, his son Alphonso the Sage[2] mounted
the throne, A.D. 1252, Heg. 650. The first care of Mohammed Alhamar
after this event was to go in person to Toledo, followed by a brilliant
retinue, to renew the treaty of alliance, or, rather, of dependance, by
which he was united to Ferdinand. {133} The new king of Castile
remitted on this occasion a part of the tribute to which the Moors had
been subjected.

But this peace was not of long continuance; and the two contending
nations now recommenced the war with nearly equal advantages.

An incident is related as having occurred during this war, which
reflects equal honour on the humanity of the Moors and the courage of
the Spaniards. It refers to Garcias Gomes, governor of the city of
Xeres. He was besieged by the Grenadians, and his garrison nearly
destroyed, but still he refused to surrender; and, standing on the
ramparts covered with blood, and literally bristling with arrows, he
sustained alone the onset of the assailants. The Moors, on seeing him
in this situation, agreed, with one accord, to spare the life of so
brave a man. Garcias then threw himself from the walls upon some iron
hooks; but he was rescued alive in spite of his efforts to prevent it,
treated with respect by his captors, and, after his wounds were healed,
dismissed with presents.

Alhamar could not prevent Alphonso from adding the kingdom of Murcia to
his dominions; and the fortunes of war compelled him to obtain {134}
peace by submitting anew to the payment of tribute to the Catholic
sovereign, A.D. 1266, Heg. 665.

But some dissensions which soon after arose between the Castilian
monarch