The victory of Lucena more than counteracted the effect of the disaster in the Ajarquia. The Moorish army was practically annihilated; of nine thousand seven hundred scarcely two hundred escaped. The list of killed and missing included the names of the most eminent nobles and citizens of Granada. A thousand horses, nine hundred mules, twenty-two standards, the sumptuous tents and furniture of the royal household, and all the spoil taken in the fertile plains of Lucena and Aguilar were the fruits of the victory. Thus the varying fortune of war, like the vibration of a pendulum, again swung towards the side of the Christians; but in the future its impetus was to be retarded, and finally repelled forever from the cause of the Moors, whose complete disorganization had long portended irretrievable disaster.
The news of the defeat and capture of Boabdil terrified the capital. The absence of the King and his most powerful adherents made it impossible for the faction of Ayesha to resist the advance of Muley Hassan, who, without delay, resumed possession of his throne. With no apparent difficulty, he re-established his authority; but, with an infatuation not easy to explain, he permitted the deposed sultana to retire with her treasures to the citadel of the Alcazaba, an act of singular imprudence, considering her vindictive character, her political influence, and her well-known talent for intrigue.
The identity of Boabdil having been ascertained through the respectful homage paid him by Moorish captives accidentally taken into his presence, he was removed by order of Ferdinand to the castle of Porcuna. With his usual caution, the Spanish king determined, before deciding what disposition to make of his prisoner, to weaken his remaining power as much as possible by an extensive foray into his dominions. By this design he not only contemplated the destruction of the ripening harvests cultivated to replenish the granaries of the capital, but also the aggravation of factional hostility, which would be intensified by indiscriminate devastation, and thus still further impair the allegiance of the people to rulers either incapable of sympathy or indisposed to defence.
The expedition was organized on a tremendous scale. All the provinces of the kingdom were laid under contribution. A body of Swiss adventurers, whose arms and accoutrements were regarded with curiosity by the Spaniards, few of whom had ever heard of their country, brought to the aid of the Catholic sovereigns their Helvetian obstinacy and thorough discipline. The army proper was composed of ten thousand cavalry and twenty thousand foot. A body of thirty thousand men, whose sole duty was to destroy, was provided with axes, saws, and fagots. In addition to these was a host of non-combatants, muleteers, servants, traders, and camp-followers. A train of eighty thousand beasts of burden was required to transport supplies and munitions of war for this great force. In the face of such a power, Granada, at the time of its greatest prosperity, would have found resistance difficult. As it was,—with one of its princes a captive and the other infirm and detested, its population divided by faction and weakened by discontent and misfortune,—there was no military organization capable of even seriously harassing the invaders. The latter, therefore, pursued their relentless course without hindrance. For a distance of many leagues, and in full view of Granada, the country was swept bare of vegetation. The orchards were destroyed. The vines were dug up. The harvests were burnt. Not a tree or a shrub remained in what had so recently been a paradise. In a single district three hundred farm-houses and towers were committed to the flames. The net-work of silver rivulets, hitherto concealed by myrtle hedges and pomegranate and almond groves, now sparkled amidst a scene of sombre desolation; where the monotonous level was only relieved by charred and smoking heaps of what had been, but the day before, the picturesque, flower-embowered homes of a prosperous and happy people. The numbers of the enemy, and the organized system of destruction which he employed, enabled him in a few hours to eradicate every trace of that agricultural skill which had required centuries to develop and carry to perfection. Many towns were taken by storm and abandoned to spoliation. From the walls of such as offered a successful resistance, the dismayed inhabitants saw nothing as far as the eye could reach but a desert. Having accomplished the object of the expedition, Ferdinand disbanded his army and returned to Cordova. The moral and physical effect of this inhuman policy upon the Moors was more decisive than those of a dozen successful campaigns. Their means of subsistence were gone. Their military spirit was broken. Continually exposed to a repetition of such misfortunes, no incentive for recuperation could exist. Under these circumstances, it is not strange that great numbers of the Moslems, abandoned to despair, should seriously contemplate a transfer of their allegiance to those sovereigns who had hitherto been their ruthless enemies and oppressors.
A council composed of the principal personages of the realm was now assembled at Cordova to decide what should be done with the Moorish king. After much altercation and argument, it was decided to release him, it being recognized that his captivity, by removing an element of discord from the councils of the Moslems, would have a tendency to reconcile the jarring factions and prolong the war. Two embassies from Granada appeared before the assembled nobles,—one from Ayesha, whom the blind folly of Muley Hassan permitted to plot treason under the very shadow of his palace, and which was ready to make any concessions to obtain the deliverance of the royal captive; the other from his father, offering a magnificent reward for the delivery of his rebellious son into his hands. The envoys of the Sultana alone received an attentive hearing. Boabdil was to render homage to the Spanish monarchs and pay an annual tribute of twelve thousand doubloons of gold; to liberate four hundred captives, three-fourths of them to be named by his master; and to permit unmolested passage through his dominions to the Christian armies, and furnish them with provisions whenever they were at war with Muley Hassan or his brother Abdallah-al-Zagal. As a security for the performance of these obligations, the son of the King and a number of the nobles of Granada were to be delivered as hostages. Boabdil consented without remonstrance or hesitation to the humiliating terms which insured his freedom, and the convention was signed. A truce of two years’ duration was agreed upon; and the illustrious captive, conducted to Cordova, did homage to his suzerain surrounded by all the pomp of the Spanish court. Then, provided with a numerous and splendid escort, he returned to his kingdom, to receive the hollow congratulations of his partisans, to encounter the contempt of his enemies, and to be the target for the maledictions of the fickle and infuriated populace, which, not unjustly, ascribed to his effeminacy and want of resolution the larger share of the public distress.
The wisdom which advised the release of the Moslem king was not long in obtaining confirmation. Whether he hesitated, even in a desperate emergency, to proceed to extremities against his own flesh and blood, or whether the vigilance which never slept amidst the operations of a campaign faltered under circumstances of domestic peril, Muley Hassan, although fully aware of the liberation of his son, made no attempt to intercept him; and Boabdil, easily avoiding the sentinels and patrols of the outposts, entered the Albaycin in the dead of night. Without an hour’s delay his energetic mother called her adherents to arms. At dawn, the signal for conflict once more resounded throughout the city. Again the streets streamed with the best blood of the kingdom; again the savage tribesmen of Africa renewed in the most polished capital of Europe the fierce hostility which, generations before, had originated in the depths of the Libyan Desert; again the undiscerning fury of partisan discord dissipated those resources of wealth and martial energy that might have saved an empire; disorders which promoted more rapidly and effectually than a series of victories the designs of the mortal foes of the Mussulmans of Granada. Considerations of political expediency, reluctance to longer witness the shedding of blood which must eventually terminate in the extirpation of the fighting men of the kingdom, and the consciousness that their countrymen were involuntarily rendering substantial aid to the Christian cause, induced the more respectable class of citizens, the doctors of the law, and the ministers of religion,—in short, those persons in the community whose opinions were most entitled to respect,—to propose an armistice. This suggestion having been agreed to with less hesitation than might have been expected, and the timorous nature of Boabdil prevailing, to a certain extent, over his ambition, he decided to relinquish for the time his claims on the capital and remove his court and his following to Almeria.
Muley Hassan, while thus temporarily delivered from the presence of his rival, did not fail to realize the precarious character of his tenure, or the dangers—all the more to be apprehended by reason of the secrecy that enveloped them—which threatened the existence of his authority. To counteract these perils and divert the minds of the disaffected from sedition, he knew well that there was no expedient so effective as the popular and glorious exercise of war. Amidst the general demoralization and disgrace, his military reputation, acquired in fifty campaigns, remained unimpaired and untarnished. Among his adherents were to be found the ablest and most distinguished commanders in the Moorish service. Hamet-al-Zegri, Alcalde of Ronda, and Bejer, Governor of Malaga, had in the entire kingdom no equals in the arts of investment and ambuscade, no superiors in enterprise and courage. Twelve hundred picked horsemen and a large body of foot, under these experienced leaders, were ordered to assemble at Ronda, and, proceeding from this rendezvous, to overrun and ravage the rich plains of the province of Seville. Unfortunately for the success of the expedition, the movements of so many detachments of armed men converging to one point aroused the suspicions of some Christian spies who were lurking in the mountains near the former city. The destination of the force was soon ascertained. The Andalusian chieftains lost no time in summoning their vassals; and when the Moorish cavalry reached the vicinity of Utrera they found the country under arms. In the manœuvres which followed, the Christians employed their own tactics against the Moors with signal success. The Moslem infantry had remained encamped in the hills to hold the pass. Farther down, on the banks of the Lopera, a squadron of cavalry had been stationed to be ready for any unforeseen emergency. To a third division, comprising the flower of the army, was assigned the duty of securing the plunder which their companions were expected to guard during the retreat. The position of the enemy was well known to the Castilians, whose scouts promptly advised them of every movement. Leaving a small body of knights to engage the attention of the marauding parties on the plain, the main body of the Spaniards surprised and cut to pieces the division lying in ambush on the Lopera. The noise of the conflict attracted the Berbers from below, but they arrived too late, and were themselves routed and dispersed. Learning of the defeat of their comrades, the infantry, who numbered several thousand, but who in a contest with mail-clad knights were no better than cowherds or muleteers, fled in confusion without striking a blow. One fugitive band under Hamet-al-Zegri, guided by a Christian renegade, reached the Serrania de Ronda in safety. Another, under the Alcalde of Borje, whose followers had been present at the massacre of the Ajarquia and wore the armor of the unfortunate cavaliers who had been killed or taken in that engagement, was pursued, and almost destroyed by the Marquis of Cadiz. In several instances the Spanish knights recognized and recovered the arms and harnesses of which they had been despoiled on that bloody day.
The defeat of Lopera added another disaster to those which announced the declining fortunes of the Moslem power. The bravest defenders of the throne of Muley Hassan had been swept away. His prestige was seriously weakened. Only two hundred Moorish cavaliers returned from this ill-fated expedition. The governor of Velez was killed; those of Malaga, Marbella, Coin, Alora, and Comares remained in the hands of the enemy. The credit for this victory, which reflected so much lustre on the Spanish arms, was due to Don Luis Portocarrero, who had been the first Christian governor of Alhama.
About this time the Marquis of Cadiz, ever alert to take advantage of the negligence of the enemy, learned through his scouts that Zahara, whose capture had signalized the opening of hostilities, might be surprised. Making a feigned attack on the town with the main body of his troops, a scaling-party ascended the walls of the citadel unobserved, and but a few hours were necessary to regain possession of the place without the loss of a single life.
Appreciating the necessity for continuous action as well as the paramount importance of depriving the Moors of the capacity for resistance by the systematic devastation of their country, Ferdinand and Isabella now formulated the plan of a more extensive campaign than had yet been attempted. It embraced the conquest of many towns of note which had hitherto escaped, to a certain extent, the misfortunes of war; the desolation of every accessible locality which still preserved uninjured its crops, its orchards, and its plantations; the indiscriminate burning of farm-houses, mills, and magazines; and, finally, the capture of the great mountain fortress of Ronda, whose remarkable site had caused it to be deemed impregnable, leaving out of consideration the warlike and ferocious character of the mountaineers and the African soldiery by whom it was inhabited and garrisoned.