gained access to his prison, and, tying together the shawls and
scarfs of herself and her female attendants, lowered him down from
a balcony of the Alhambra to the steep rocky hillside which sweeps
down to the Darro. Here some of her devoted adherents were
waiting to receive him, who, mounting him on a swift horse, spirited
him away to the city of Guadix, in the Alpuxarras.



CHAPTER V.

EXPEDITION OF THE MARQUES OF CADIZ AGAINST ALHAMA.


Great was the indignation of King Ferdinand when he heard of the
storming of Zahara, though the outrage of the Moor happened most
opportunely. The war between Castile and Portugal had come to a
close; the factions of Spanish nobles were for the most part quelled.
The Castilian monarchs had now, therefore, turned their thoughts
to the cherished object of their ambition, the conquest of Granada.
The pious heart of Isabella yearned to behold the entire Peninsula
redeemed from the domination of the infidel, while Ferdinand, in
whom religious zeal was mingled with temporal policy, looked with
a craving eye to the rich territory of the Moor, studded with wealthy
towns and cities. Muley Abul Hassan had rashly or unwarily thrown
the brand that was to produce the wide conflagration. Ferdinand was
not the one to quench the flames. He immediately issued orders to
all the adelantados and alcaydes of the frontiers to maintain the
utmost vigilance at their several posts, and to prepare to carry fire
and sword into the territories of the Moors.