For twenty years besieging it in vain.
Then should this shame, unbearable to us,
Prove but incitement to our foes, a foothold
For further wresting. Two months have not passed
Since that a new Armada sailed from Tagus
Against Tangiers, and both by land and sea
Beleaguering would have reft that city too,
And added my dishonour to my father’s,
Had not Ben Sala’s generalship o’ermatched
Their most infernal malice. Praised be Allah!