[Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada by Washington Irving]@TWC D-Link book
Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada

CHAPTER X
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He was now in the ninetieth year of his age, yet indomitable in spirit, fiery in his passions, sinewy and powerful in frame, deeply versed in warlike stratagem, and accounted the best lance in all Mauritania.

He had three thousand horsemen under his command, veteran troops with whom he had often scoured the borders, and he daily expected the old Moorish king with reinforcements.
Old Ali Atar had watched from his fortress every movement of the Christian army, and had exulted in all the errors of its commanders: when he beheld the flower of Spanish chivalry glittering about the height of Albohacen, his eye flashed with exultation.

"By the aid of Allah," said he, "I will give those pranking cavaliers a rouse." Ali Atar privately and by night sent forth a large body of his chosen troops to lie in ambush near one of the skirts of Albohacen.

On the fourth day of the siege he sallied across the bridge and made a feint attack upon the height.

The cavaliers rushed impetuously forth to meet him, leaving their encampment almost unprotected.


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