counter. Numerous were the combats which took place between the high-mettled cavaliers on both sides, who met on the level arena, as on a tilting-ground, where they might display their prowess in the presence of the assembled beauty and chivalry of their respective nations; for the Spanish camp was graced, as usual, by the presence of queen Isabella and the infantas, with the courtly train of ladies, who had accompanied their royal mistress from Alcala la Real. The Spanish ballads glow with picturesque details of these knightly tourneys, forming the most attractive portion of this romantic minstrelsy, which, celebrating the prowess of Moslem, as well as Christian warriors, sheds a dying glory round the last hours of Granada.[1]
The festivity, which reigned throughout the camp on the arrival of Isabella, did not divert her attention from the stern business of war. She superintended the military preparations, and personally-inspected every part of the encampment. She appeared on the field superbly mounted, and dressed in complete armour; and, as she visited the different quarters and reviewed her troops, she adminis-
- ↑ On one occasion, a Christian knight having discomfited with a handful of men a much superior body of Moslem chivalry, King Abdallah testified his admiration of his prowess by sending him on the following day a magnificent present, together with his own sword superbly mounted. (Mem. de la Acad, de Hist., tom. vi. p. 178.) The Moorish ballad beginning
"Al Ray Chico de Granada,"
describes the panic occasioned in the city by the Christian encampment on the Xenil.
"Por ese fresco Genil
un campo vene marchando,
todo de lucida geute,
las armas van relumbrando.
el General de esta geute
es el invicto Fernando.
Y tambien viene la Reyna
Munger del Rey don Fernando,
Ia Qual fiene tanto esfuerzo
que auima a qualquier soldado."
