the emperor of Germany, whose interest had been roused in the crusade,
afforded a seasonable reinforcement of military stores and munitions.

The obstinate defence of Malaga had given the siege such celebrity, that
volunteers, eager to share in it, flocked from all parts of the Peninsula
to the royal standard. Among others, the duke of Medina Sidonia, who had
furnished his quota of troops at the opening of the campaign, now arrived
in person with a reinforcement, together with a hundred galleys freighted
with supplies, and a loan of twenty thousand doblas of gold to the
sovereigns for the expenses of the war. Such was the deep interest in it
excited throughout the nation, and the alacrity which every order of men
exhibited in supporting its enormous burdens. [19]

The Castilian army, swelled by these daily augmentations, varied in its
amount, according to different estimates, from sixty to ninety thousand
men. Throughout this immense host, the most perfect discipline was
maintained. Gaming was restrained by ordinances interdicting the use of
dice and cards, of which the lower orders were passionately fond.
Blasphemy was severely punished. Prostitutes, the common pest of a camp,
were excluded; and so entire was the subordination, that not a knife was
drawn, and scarcely a brawl occurred, says the historian, among the motley
multitude. Besides the higher ecclesiastics who attended the court, the
camp was well supplied with holy men, priests, friars, and the chaplains
of the great nobility, who performed the exercises of religion in their
respective quarters with all the pomp and splendor of the Roman Catholic
worship; exalting the imaginations of the soldiers into the high
devotional feeling, which became those who were fighting the battles of
the Cross. [20]

Hitherto, Ferdinand, relying on the blockade, and yielding to the queen's