HOW QUEEN ISABELLA DEVISED MEANS TO SUPPLY THE ARMY WITH PROVISIONS.
It has been the custom to laud the conduct and address of King Ferdinand
in this most arduous and protracted war, but the sage Agapida is more
disposed to give credit to the counsels and measures of the queen, who,
he observes, though less ostensible in action, was in truth the
very soul, the vital principle, of this great enterprise. While King
Ferdinand was bustling in his camp and making a glittering display with
his gallant chivalry, she, surrounded by her saintly counsellors in the
episcopal palace of Jaen, was devising ways and means to keep the king
and his army in existence. She had pledged herself to keep up a supply
of men and money and provisions until the city should be taken. The
hardships of the siege caused a fearful waste of life, but the supply of
men was the least difficult part of her undertaking. So beloved was
the queen by the chivalry of Spain that on her calling on them for
assistance not a grandee or cavalier that yet lingered at home but
either repaired in person or sent forces to the camp; the ancient
and warlike families vied with each other in marshalling forth their
vassals, and thus the besieged Moors beheld each day fresh troops
arriving before their city, and new ensigns and pennons displayed
emblazoned with arms well known to the veteran warriors.
But the most arduous task was to keep up a regular supply of provisions.
It was not the army alone that had to be supported, but also the
captured towns and their garrisons; for the whole country around them
had been ravaged, and the conquerors were in danger of starving in the
midst of the land they had desolated. To transport the daily supplies
for such immense numbers was a gigantic undertaking in a country where
there was neither water conveyance nor roads for carriages. Everything
had to be borne by beasts of burden over rugged and broken paths of
mountains and through dangerous defiles exposed to the attacks and
plunderings of the Moors.
The wary and calculating merchants accustomed to supply the army shrank
from engaging at their own risk in so hazardous an undertaking. The
queen therefore hired fourteen thousand beasts of burden, and ordered
all the wheat and barley to be brought up in Andalusia and in the
domains of the knights of Santiago and Calatrava. She entrusted the
administration of these supplies to able and confidential persons. Some
were employed to collect the grain; others to take it to the mills;
others to superintend the grinding and delivery; and others to convey
it to the camp. To every two hundred animals a muleteer was allotted to
take charge of them on the route. Thus great lines of convoys were in
constant movement, traversing to and fro, guarded by large bodies of
troops to defend them from hovering parties of the Moors. Not a single
day’s intermission was allowed, for the army depended upon the constant
arrival of the supplies for daily food. The grain when brought into
the camp was deposited in an immense granary, and sold to the army at a
fixed price, which was never either raised or lowered.
Incredible were the expenses incurred in these supplies, but the queen
had ghostly advisers thoroughly versed in the art of getting at the
resources of the country. Many worthy prelates opened the deep purses of
the Church, and furnished loans from the revenues of their dioceses
and convents, and their pious contributions were eventually rewarded
by Providence a hundred-fold. Merchants and other wealthy individuals,
confident of the punctual faith of the queen, advanced large sums on
the security of her word; many noble families lent their plate without
waiting to be asked. The queen also sold certain annual rents in
inheritance at great sacrifices, assigning the revenues of towns and
cities for the payment. Finding all this insufficient to satisfy the
enormous expenditure, she sent her gold and plate and all her jewels
to the cities of Valencia and Barcelona, where they were pledged for a
great amount of money, which was immediately appropriated to keep up the
supplies of the army.
Thus through the wonderful activity, judgment, and enterprise of this
heroic and magnanimous woman a great host, encamped in the heart of the
warlike country accessible only over mountain-roads, was maintained in
continual abundance. Nor was it supplied merely with the necessaries
and comforts of life. The powerful escorts drew merchants and artificers
from all parts to repair, as if in caravans, to this great military
market. In a little while the camp abounded with tradesmen and artists
of all kinds to administer to the luxury and ostentation of the
youthful chivalry. Here might be seen cunning artificers in steel and
accomplished armorers achieving those rare and sumptuous helmets and
cuirasses, richly gilt, inlaid, and embossed, in which the Spanish
cavaliers delighted. Saddlers and harness-makers and horse-milliners
also were there, whose tents glittered with gorgeous housings and
caparisons. The merchants spread forth their sumptuous silks, cloths,
brocades, fine linen, and tapestry. The tents of the nobility were
prodigally decorated with all kinds of the richest stuffs and dazzled
the eye with their magnificence, nor could the grave looks and grave
speeches of King Ferdinand prevent his youthful cavaliers from vying
with each other in the splendor of their dresses and caparisons on all
occasions of parade and ceremony.