castles, provided they were mere forays, conducted furtively,
without sound of trumpet or display of banners or pitching of camps
or regular investment, and that they did not last above three days.*

*Zurita, Anales de Aragon, 1. 20, c. 42; Mariana, Hist. de Espana 1.
25, c. 1; Bleda, Coron. de los Moros, l. 5, c. 3.


Aben Ismael was faithful in observing the conditions of the truce,
but they were regarded with impatience by his eldest son, Muley
Abul Hassan, a prince of a fiery and belligerent spirit, and fond of
casing himself in armor and mounting his war-horse. He had been
present at Cordova at one of the payments of tribute, and had
witnessed the scoffs and taunts of the Christians, and his blood
boiled whenever he recalled the humiliating scene. When he came
to the throne in 1465, on the death of his father, he ceased the
payment of the tribute altogether, and it was sufficient to put him
into a tempest of rage only to mention it.

"He was a fierce and warlike infidel," says the pious Fray Antonio
Agapida; "his bitterness against the holy Christian faith had been
signalized in battle during the lifetime of his father, and the same
diabolical spirit of hostility was apparent in his ceasing to pay
this most righteous tribute."



CHAPTER II.

OF THE EMBASSY OF DON JUAN DE VERA TO DEMAND ARREARS