their ladders overturned, and all who were on them precipitated
headlong below.

Muley Abul Hassan stormed with passion at the sight: he sent
detachment after detachment to scale the walls, but in vain; they
were like waves rushing upon a rock, only to dash themselves to
pieces. The Moors lay in heaps beneath the wall, and among them
many of the bravest cavaliers of Granada. The Christians also
sallied frequently from the gates, and made great havoc in the
irregular multitude of assailants.

Muley Abul Hassan now became sensible of his error in hurrying from
Granada without the proper engines for a siege. Destitute of all
means to batter the fortifications, the town remained uninjured,
defying the mighty army which raged and roamed before it. Incensed
at being thus foiled, Muley Abul Hassan gave orders to undermine the
walls. The Moors advanced with shouts to the attempt. They were
received with a deadly fire from the ramparts, which drove them from
their works. Repeatedly were they repulsed, and repeatedly did they
return to the charge. The Christians not merely galled them from
the battlements, but issued forth and cut them down in the
excavations they were attempting to form. The contest lasted
throughout a whole day, and by evening two thousand Moors were
either killed or wounded.

Muley Abul Hassan now abandoned all hope of carrying the place
by assault, and attempted to distress it into terms by turning the
channel of the river which runs by its walls. On this stream the
inhabitants depended for their supply of water, the place being
destitute of fountains and cisterns, from which circumstance it is