Jan. 2. 96 WAR OF GRANADA. PART pointed day of surrender ; and the 2d of January, '■ — 1492, was accordingly fixed on for that purpose. Preparations Evcry preparation was made by the Spaniards for occupy- ^ x x j i. ing the city. f^j. performing this last act of the drama with suit- able pomp and effect. The mourning which the court had put on for the death of Prince Alonso of Portugal, occasioned by a fall from his horse a few months after his marriage with the infanta Isabella, was exchanged for gay and magnificent apparel. 1492. On the morning of the 2d, the whole Christian camjj exhibited a scene of the most animating bustle. The grand cardinal Mendoza was sent forward at the head of a large detachment, com- prehending his household troops, and the veteran infantry grown grey in the Moorish wars, to occupy the Alhambra jDreparatory to the entrance of the sovereigns. ^^ Ferdinand stationed himself at some distance in the rear, near an Arabian mosque, since consecrated as the hermitage of St. Sebastian. He was surrounded by his courtiers, with their stately retinues, glittering in gorgeous panoply, and proud- ly displaying the armorial bearings of their ancient houses. The queen halted still farther in the rear, at the village of Armilla. ^'^ 16 Oviedo, whose narrative ex- weight with that of persons, who, hibits many discrepancies with those like Martyr, described events as of other contemporaries, assigns they were passing before them, this part to the count of Tendilla, 17 Pedraza, Antiguedad de Gra- the first captain-general of Gra- nada, fol. 75. — Salazar de Men- nada. (Quincuagenas, MS., bat. doza, Cron. del Gran Cardenal, p. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 28.) But, as this 238. — Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. writer, though an eyewitness, was cap. 90. — Peter Martyr, Opus but thirteen or fourteen years of Epist., lib. 4, epist. 92. — Abarca, age at the time of the capture, and Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 309. wrote some sixty years later from — Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, his early recollections, his authori- lib. l,cap. 20. ty cannot be considered of equal
