HOW KING FERDINAND PREPARED TO BESIEGE THE CITY OF BAZA, AND HOW THE
CITY PREPARED FOR DEFENCE.
The stormy winter had passed away, and the spring of 1489 was advancing,
yet the heavy rains had broken up the roads, the mountain-brooks were
swollen to raging torrents, and the late shallow and peaceful rivers
were deep, turbulent, and dangerous. The Christian troops had been
summoned to assemble in early spring on the frontiers of Jaen, but were
slow in arriving at the appointed place. They were entangled in the
miry defiles of the mountains or fretted impatiently on the banks of
impassable floods. It was late in the month of May before they assembled
in sufficient force to attempt the proposed invasion, when at length a
valiant army of thirteen thousand horse and forty thousand foot marched
merrily over the border. The queen remained at the city of Jaen with the
prince-royal and the princesses her children, accompanied and supported
by the venerable cardinal of Spain and those reverend prelates who
assisted in her councils throughout this holy war.
The plan of King Ferdinand was to lay siege to the city of Baza, the key
of the remaining possessions of the Moor. That important fortress taken,
Guadix and Almeria must soon follow, and then the power of El Zagal
would be at an end. As the Catholic king advanced he had first to secure
various castles and strongholds in the vicinity of Baza which might
otherwise harass his army. Some of these made obstinate resistance,
especially the town of Zujar. The Christians assailed the walls with
various machines to sap them and batter them down. The brave alcayde,
Hubec Abdilbar, opposed force to force and engine to engine. He manned
his towers with his bravest warriors, who rained down an iron shower
upon the enemy, and he linked caldrons together by strong chains and
cast fire from them, consuming the wooden engines of their assailants
and those who managed them.
The siege was protracted for several days: the bravery of the alcayde
could not save his fortress from an overwhelming foe, but it gained him
honorable terms. Ferdinand permitted the garrison and the inhabitants to
repair with their effects to Baza, and the valiant Hubec marched forth
with the remnant of his force and took he way to that devoted city.
The delays caused to the invading army by these various circumstances
had been diligently improved by El Zagal, who felt that he was now
making his last stand for empire, and that this campaign would decide
whether he should continue a king or sink into a vassal. He was but a
few leagues from Baza, at the city of Guadix. This last was the most
important point of his remaining territories, being a kind of bulwark
between them and the hostile city of Granada, the seat of his nephew’s
power. Though he heard of the tide of war, therefore, collecting and
rolling toward the city of Baza, he dared not go in person to its
assistance. He dreaded that should he leave Guadix, Boabdil would attack
him in the rear while the Christian army was battling with him in front.
El Zagal trusted in the great strength of Baza to defy any violent
assault, and profited by the delays of the Christian army to supply it
with all possible means of defence. He sent thither all the troops
he could spare from his garrison of Guadix, and despatched missives
throughout his territories calling upon all true Moslems to hasten
to Baza and make a devoted stand in defence of their homes, their
liberties, and their religion. The cities of Tavernas and Purchena and
the surrounding heights and valleys responded to his orders and sent
forth their fighting-men to the field. The rocky fastnesses of the
Alpuxarras resounded with the din of arms: troops of horse and bodies
of foot-soldiers were seen winding down the rugged cliffs and defiles of
those marble mountains and hastening toward Baza. Many brave cavaliers
of Granada also, spurning the quiet and security of Christian vassalage,
secretly left the city and hastened to join their fighting countrymen.
The great dependence of El Zagal, however, was upon the valor and
loyalty of his cousin and brother-in-law, Cid Hiaya Alnagar,* who was
alcayde of Almeria--a cavalier experienced in warfare and redoubtable in
the field. He wrote to him to leave Almeria and repair with all speed at
the head of his troops to Baza. Cid Hiaya departed immediately with ten
thousand of the bravest Moors in the kingdom. These were for the most
part hardy mountaineers, tempered to sun and storm and tried in many a
combat. None equalled them for a sally or a skirmish. They were adroit
in executing a thousand stratagems, ambuscadoes, and evolutions.
Impetuous in their assaults, yet governed in their utmost fury by a word
or sign from their commander, at the sound of a trumpet they would check
themselves in the midst of their career, wheel off and disperse, and at
another sound of a trumpet they would as suddenly reassemble and return
to the attack. They were upon the enemy when least expected, coming like
a rushing blast, spreading havoc and consternation, and then passing
away in an instant; so that when one recovered from the shock and looked
around, behold, nothing was to be seen or heard of this tempest of war
but a cloud of dust and the clatter of retreating hoofs.**
* This name has generally been written Cidi Yahye. The present mode
is adopted on the authority of Alcantara in his History of Granada,
who appears to have derived it from Arabic manuscripts existing in the
archives of the marques de Corvera, descendant of Cid Hiaya. The latter
(Cid Hiaya) was son of Aben Zelim, a deceased prince of Almeria, and was
a lineal descendant from the celebrated Aben Hud, surnamed the Just. The
wife of Cid Hiaya was sister of the two Moorish generals, Abul Cacim and
Reduan Vanegas, and, like them, the fruit of the union of a Christian
knight, Don Pedro Vanegas, with Cetimerien, a Moorish princess.
* *Pulgar, part 3, c. 106.
When Cid Hiaya led his train of ten thousand valiant warriors into
the gates of Baza, the city rang with acclamations and for a time the
inhabitants thought themselves secure. El Zagal also felt a glow of
confidence, notwithstanding his own absence from the city. “Cid Hiaya,”
said he, “is my cousin and my brother-in-law; related to me by blood and
marriage, he is a second self: happy is that monarch who has his kindred
to command his armies.”
With all these reinforcements the garrison of Baza amounted to above
twenty thousand men. There were at this time three principal leaders in
the city: Mohammed Ibn Hassan, surnamed the Veteran, who was military
governor or alcayde, an old Moor of great experience and discretion; the
second was Hamet Abu Zali, who was captain of the troops stationed in
the place; and the third was Hubec Abdilbar, late alcayde of Zujar, who
had repaired hither with the remains of his garrison. Over all these
Cid Hiaya exercised a supreme command in consequence of his being of the
blood-royal and in the especial confidence of Muley Abdallah el Zagal.
He was eloquent and ardent in council, and fond of striking and splendid
achievements, but he was a little prone to be carried away by the
excitement of the moment and the warmth of his imagination. The councils
of war of these commanders, therefore, were more frequently controlled
by the opinions of the old alcayde Mohammed Ibn Hassan, for whose
shrewdness, caution, and experience Cid Hiaya himself felt the greatest
deference.
The city of Baza was situated in a great valley, eight leagues in
length and three in breadth, called the Hoya, or Basin, of Baza. It was
surrounded by a range of mountains called the Sierra of Xabalcohol, the
streams of which, collecting themselves into two rivers, watered and
fertilized the country. The city was built in the plain, one part of
it protected by the rocky precipices of the mountain and by a powerful
citadel, the other by massive walls studded with immense towers. It
had suburbs toward the plain imperfectly fortified by earthen walls. In
front of these suburbs extended a tract of orchards and gardens nearly a
league in length, so thickly planted as to resemble a continued forest.
Here every citizen who could afford it had his little plantation and
his garden of fruits and flowers and vegetables, watered by canals and
rivulets and dominated by a small tower for recreation or defence. This
wilderness of groves and gardens, intersected in all parts by canals and
runs of water, and studded by above a thousand small towers, formed
a kind of protection to this side of the city, rendering all approach
extremely difficult and perplexed.
While the Christian army had been detained before the frontier
posts, the city of Baza had been a scene of hurried and unremitting
preparation. All the grain of the surrounding valley, though yet unripe,
was hastily reaped and borne into the city to prevent it from yielding
sustenance to the enemy. The country was drained of all its supplies;
flocks and herds were driven, bleating and bellowing, into the gates:
long trains of beasts of burden, some laden with food, others with
lances, darts, and arms of all kinds, kept pouring into the place.
Already were munitions collected sufficient for a siege of fifteen
months: still, the eager and hasty preparation was going on when the
army of Ferdinand came in sight.
On one side might be seen scattered parties of foot and horse spurring
to the gates, and muleteers hurrying forward their burdened animals, all
anxious to get under shelter before the gathering storm; on the other
side, the cloud of war came sweeping down the valley, the roll of drum
or clang of trumpet resounding occasionally from its deep bosom, or
the bright glance of arms flashing forth like vivid lightning from its
columns. King Ferdinand pitched his tents in the valley beyond the
green labyrinth of gardens. He sent his heralds to summon the city
to surrender, promising the most favorable terms in case of immediate
compliance, and avowing in the most solemn terms his resolution never to
abandon the siege until he had possession of the place.
Upon receiving this summons the Moorish commanders held a council of
war. The prince Cid Hiaya, indignant at the menaces of the king, was for
retorting by a declaration that the garrison never would surrender, but
would fight until buried under the ruins of the walls. “Of what avail,”
said the veteran Mohammed, “is a declaration of the kind, which we may
falsify by our deeds? Let us threaten what we know we can perform, and
let us endeavor to perform more than we threaten.”
In conformity to his advice, therefore, a laconic reply was sent to the
Christian monarch, thanking him for his offer of favorable terms,
but informing him that they were placed in the city to defend, not to
surrender it.