After extricating his troops with some difficulty and loss from this
perilous predicament, Ferdinand retreated on his own dominions by the way
of Huescar, where he disbanded his army, and withdrew to offer up his
devotions at the cross of Caravaca. The campaign, though signalized by no
brilliant achievement, and indeed clouded with some slight reverses,
secured the surrender of a considerable number of fortresses and towns of
inferior note. [2]

The Moorish chief, El Zagal, elated by his recent success, made frequent
forays into the Christian territories, sweeping off the flocks, herds, and
growing crops of the husbandman; while the garrisons of Almeria and
Salobrena, and the bold inhabitants of the valley of Purchena, poured a
similar devastating warfare over the eastern borders of Granada into
Murcia. To meet this pressure, the Spanish sovereigns reinforced the
frontier with additional levies under Juan de Benavides and Garcilasso de
la Vega; while Christian knights, whose prowess is attested in many a
Moorish lay, flocked there from all quarters, as to the theatre of war.

During the following winter, of 1488, Ferdinand and Isabella occupied
themselves with the interior government of Castile, and particularly the
administration of justice. A commission was specially appointed to
supervise the conduct of the corregidors and subordinate magistrates, "so
that every one," says Pulgar, "was most careful to discharge his duty
faithfully, in order to escape the penalty, which was otherwise sure to
overtake him." [3]

While at Valladolid, the sovereigns received an embassy from Maximilian,
son of the emperor Frederic the Fourth, of Germany, soliciting their co-
operation in his designs against France for the restitution of his late
wife's rightful inheritance, the duchy of Burgundy, and engaging in turn