led on by that valiant knight Don Alonzo Ponce, the uncle, and that
brave esquire Pedro Pineda, nephew, of the marques of Cadiz.

The walls being cleared, these two kindred cavaliers now hastened
with their forces in pursuit of the seventy Moors who had gained an
entrance into the town. The main party of the garrison being engaged
at a distance resisting the feigned attack of the Moorish king, this
fierce band of infidels had ranged the streets almost without
opposition, and were making their way to the gates to throw them
open to the army.* They were chosen men from among the Moorish
forces, several of them gallant knights of the proudest families of
Granada. Their footsteps through the city were in a manner printed
in blood, and they were tracked by the bodies of those they had
killed and wounded. They had attained the gate; most of the guard
had fallen beneath their scimetars; a moment more and Alhama would
have been thrown open to the enemy.

*Zurita, lib. 20, c. 43.


Just at this juncture Don Alonzo Ponce and Pedro de Pineda reached
the spot with their forces. The Moors had the enemy in front and
rear; they placed themselves back to back, with their banner in
the centre. In this way they fought with desperate and deadly
determination, making a rampart around them with the slain. More
Christian troops arrived and hemmed them in, but still they fought,
without asking for quarter. As their number decreased they serried
their circle still closer, defending their banner from assault, and the
last Moor died at his post grasping the standard of the Prophet.
This standard was displayed from the walls, and the turbaned heads