ALHAMBRA, COURT OF LIONS
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDERSON, ROME
Conscious of their helpless plight, the Castilians turned and fled. “Into such evil case were they fallen,” says the chronicler, “that none listened to the sound of the trumpet, nor followed a banner, nor paid attention to those who were his leaders.”
The Moors, hanging on their rear, and descending in swarms from the ridges above, broke between the lines, preventing one commander from assisting another; while many of the scouts, either of evil intention or from sheer terror, advised ways of escape that ended in impassable ravines or mere goat-tracks across the peaks. But a small portion of the gallant army that had set out with such self-confidence from Antequera returned safe from the “Heights of Slaughter,” as these mountains were ever afterwards known.
The Master of Santiago, finding it impossible to rally his forces, borrowed a horse from his servants, and in the darkness escaped by secret footpaths.
“I turn my back not on the Moors,” he exclaimed, “but on a country that for our sins has shown itself hostile.”
The Marquis of Cadiz and Don Alonso de Aguilar, after many detours and wanderings, also found their way to Antequera; but the former had lost his three brothers and two nephews; while the Count of Cifuentes, and others of the Christian army, almost to the number of a thousand, were captured and led to Malaga.
This defeat [says the Curate of Los Palacios] was marvellous for the small band of Moors by whom it was inflicted. It would seem that Our Lord consented, because robbery or merchandise rather than His service had been the thought of the majority. For many of the same acknowledged that they went not to fight against the Infidels, as good Christians who had confessed their sins and received the Sacrament, and made their will, and wished to fight against their enemies and conquer them for the sake of the Holy Catholic Faith;—for but few of them had this desire.
The shame and sorrow, aroused by the retreat from Loja, was as nothing to the lamentations over this new disaster. There was scarcely a man or a woman in Andalusia, it was said, who had not cause to weep; but Castilian fortunes had touched their lowest depth.
“The good are punished for a time,” says the Curate of Los Palacios, “because they have neglected God; but always He returns to succour and console them.”
The victory of Ajarquia had redounded to the credit of Muley Hacen, and still more to that of his brother “El Zagal,” with the result that the popularity of Boabdil began to wane. Necessity demanded that the young Sultan should take some steps to show his ability as a general; and, since he was neither devoid of courage nor ambition, in April, 1483, the gates of Granada were opened to permit the exodus of himself and the flower of his nobility at the head of a picked army of horse and foot. His plan of campaign was, marching through the vega, to cross the Genil near Loja, where he would be reinforced by his father-in-law, Aliator, and then on again beyond the Christian frontier, till he arrived at Lucena in Andalusia, the object of his attack.