374 WAR OF GRANADA. PART sand foot, and seven hundred horse, the flower of ^ Granada's chivah'j. He strengthened his armj still further by the presence of Ali Atar, the de- fender of Loja, the veteran of a hundred battles, whose military prowess had raised him from the common file up to the highest post in the army ; and whose plebeian blood had been permitted to mingle with that of royalty, by the marriage of his daughter with the young king Abdallah. Ill omens. With this gallant array, the Moorish monarch sallied forth from Granada. As he led the way through the avenue which still bears the name of the gate of Elvira, ^ the point of his lance came in contact with the arch, and was broken. This sinister omen was followed by another more alarming. A fox, which crossed the path of the army, was seen to run through the ranks, and, not- withstanding the showers of missiles discharged at him, to make his escape unhurt. Abdallah's coun- sellors would have persuaded him to abandon, or at least postpone, an enterprise of such ill augury. But the king, less superstitious, or from the obsti- nacy with which feeble minds, when once resolved, frequently persist in their projects, rejected their advice, and pressed forward on his march. ^ 1 " Por esa puerte de Elvira " En medio de todos ellog sale miiy grnn rnbalgnda : va el rev Chiro de Granada, cuAnto del hidalgo mora, mirando las damas moras cujnto de la yegua baya. de las torres del Alhambra. • ***•♦ " Cuinta pltima y gentileza, ^ " La reina mora sii madre cuinlo capellar de grana, Qf esta manera le liaWa ; cuAnto bayo borcegiii; ' Al ' te guarde, mi hijo, cuinto raso que se esmalta, Mahoma vaya en tu guarda.' " ,, _ , , , , Hyta, Gnerras de Granada, "CuAnto de espuela de ore, tom. i p 232. cuilnta rstribera de plata ! Toda es gcnte valerosa, o /^ . t-v • • ^ t y esperta para butaiia. •* Conde, Dominacion de los
