y. "Good!" said Hamet

Med and perplexed by signal-fires on the mountain and by the sound of
distant battle. When the morning broke the Moorish army had vanished
as if by enchantment.
While the inhabitants were lost in wonder
and conjecture, a body of cavalry, the fragment of the army saved by
Reduan de Vanegas, the brave alcayde of Granada, came galloping to the
gates. The tidings of the strange discomfiture of the host
filled the city with consternation,
but Reduan exhorted the people to continue their resistance.
He was devoted to El Zagal and confident in his skill
and prowess, and felt assured that he would soon collect his scattered
forces and return
with fresh troops from Granada. The people were
comforted by the words and encouraged by the presence of Reduan, and
they had still
a lingering hope that the heavy artillery of the Christians might be
locked up in
the impassable defiles of the mountains. This hope was soon at an end.
The very next day they beheld long laborious lines of ordnance slowly
moving into the Spanish camp--lombards, ribadoquines,
catapults, and cars laden with munitions--while the
escort, under the brave master of Alcantara, wheeled in great
battalions into the camp to augment the force
of the besiegers. The intelligence that Granada had shut its gates
against El Zagal, and that no reinforcements
were to be expected, completed the despair of the inhabitants; even
Reduan

himself lost confidence and advised capitulation. Ferdinand granted
favorable conditions, for he was eager to proceed against Malaga. The
inhabitants were permitted to depart with their effects except their
arms,

and to reside, if they chose it, in Spain in any place distant from
the sea. One hundred and twenty Christians of both sexes were rescued
from captivity by the surrender, and were sent to
Cordova, where they were received with great tenderness by the queen
and her daughter the infanta
Isabella in the famous cathedral in the midst of public rejoicings for
the victory. The capture of Velez Malaga was followed by the surrender
of Bentomiz, Comares, and all the towns and fortresses of the
Axarquia, which were strongly

garrisoned, and discreet and valiant cavaliers appointed as their
alcaydes. The inhabitants of nearly
forty towns of the Alpuxarras mountains also sent

deputations to the Castilian sovereigns, taking the oath of allegiance
as mudexares or Moslem vassals. About the same time came letters from
Boab