As it was evening before these advantages were obtained, the army did not
defile into the plains around Malaga before the following morning, when
dispositions were made for its encampment. The eminence on the sierra, so
bravely contested, was assigned as the post of greatest danger to the
marquis duke of Cadiz. It was protected by strong works lined with
artillery, and a corps of two thousand five hundred horse and fourteen
thousand foot was placed under the immediate command of that nobleman. A
line of defence was constructed along the declivity from this redoubt to
the seashore. Similar works, consisting of a deep trench and palisades,
or, where the soil was too rocky to admit of them, of an embankment or
mound of earth, were formed in front of the encampment, which embraced the
whole circuit of the city; and the blockade was completed by a fleet of
armed vessels, galleys and caravels, which rode in the harbor under the
command of the Catalan admiral, Requesens, and effectually cut off all
communication by water. [10]

The old chronicler Bernaldez warms at the aspect of the fair city of
Malaga, thus encompassed by Christian legions, whose deep lines,
stretching far over hill and valley, reached quite round from one arm of
the sea to the other. In the midst of this brilliant encampment was seen
the royal pavilion, proudly displaying the united banners of Castile and
Aragon, and forming so conspicuous a mark for the enemy's artillery, that
Ferdinand, after imminent hazard, was at length compelled to shift his
quarters. The Christians were not slow in erecting counter-batteries; but
the work was obliged to be carried on at night, in order to screen them
from the fire of the besieged. [11]

The first operations of the Spaniards were directed against the suburb, on
the land side of the city. The attack was intrusted to the count of
Cifuentes, the nobleman who had been made prisoner in the affair of the