its alcayde was careless of his charge. This important post was
built on the crest of a rocky mountain, with a strong castle perched
above it upon a cliff, so high that it was said to be above the flight
of birds or drift of clouds. The streets and many of the houses were
mere excavations wrought out of the living rock. The town had but
one gate, opening to the west and defended by towers and bulwarks.
The only ascent to this cragged fortress was by roads cut in the rock,
so rugged in many places as to resemble broken stairs. In a word,
the impregnable security of Zahara had become so proverbial throughout
Spain that a woman of forbidding and inaccessible virtue was called a
Zaharena. But the strongest fortress and sternest virtue have weak
points, and require unremitting vigilance to guard them: let warrior
and dame take warning from the fate of Zahara.



CHAPTER IV.

EXPEDITION OF MULEY ABUL HASSAN AGAINST THE FORTRESS
OF ZAHARA.


In the year of our Lord one thousand four hundred and eighty-
one, and but a night or two after the festival of the most blessed
Nativity, the inhabitants of Zahara were sunk in profound sleep
the very sentinel had deserted his post, and sought shelter from
a tempest which had raged for three nights in succession, for it
appeared but little probable that an enemy would be abroad during
such an uproar of the elements. But evil spirits work best during a
storm. In the midst of the night an uproar rose within the walls of