Without injuring them, he touched them gently with the handle of his
lance, saying, "Get ye gone, varlets, to your mothers." On being rebuked
by his comrades, who inquired why he had let them escape so easily, he
replied, "Because I saw no beard upon their chins." "An example of
magnanimity," says the Curate of Los Palacios, "truly wonderful in a
heathen, and which might have reflected credit on a Christian hidalgo."
[22]

But no virtue nor valor could avail the unfortunate Malagans against the
overwhelming force of their enemies, who, driving them back from every
point, compelled them, after a desperate struggle of six hours, to shelter
themselves within the defences of the town. The Christians followed up
their success. A mine was sprung near a tower, connected by a bridge of
four arches with the main works of the place. The Moors, scattered and
intimidated by the explosion, retreated across the bridge, and the
Spaniards, carrying the tower, whose guns completely enfiladed it,
obtained possession of this important pass into the beleaguered city. For
these and other signal services during the siege, Francisco Ramirez, the
master of the ordnance, received the honors of knighthood from the hand of
King Ferdinand. [23]

The citizens of Malaga, dismayed at beholding the enemy established in
their defences, and fainting under exhaustion from a siege which had
already lasted more than three months, now began to murmur at the
obstinacy of the garrison, and to demand a capitulation. Their magazines
of grain were emptied, and for some weeks they had been compelled to
devour the flesh of horses, dogs, cats, and even the boiled hides of these
animals, or, in default of other nutriment, vine leaves dressed with oil,
and leaves of the palm tree, pounded fine, and baked into a sort of cake.
In consequence of this loathsome and unwholesome diet, diseases were