Had three hundred horsemen, whom I have been promised from Xeres, arrived in time, I might have served up an entertainment more befitting such a monarch.

I trust, however, they will arrive in the course of the night, in which case His Majesty may be sure of a royal regale in the dawning." Muley Abul Hassan shook his head when he received the reply of De Vargas.

"Allah preserve us," said he, "from any visitation of these hard riders of Xeres! A handful of troops acquainted with the wild passes of these mountains may destroy an army encumbered as ours is with booty." It was some relief to the king, however, to learn that the hardy alcayde of Gibraltar was too severely wounded to take the field in person.
He immediately beat a retreat with all speed before the close of day, hurrying with such precipitation that the cavalgada was frequently broken and scattered among the rugged defiles of the mountains, and above five thousand of the cattle turned back and were regained by the Christians.

Muley Abul Hassan returned triumphantly with the residue to Malaga, glorying in the spoils of the duke of Medina Sidonia.
King Ferdinand was mortified at finding his incursion into the Vega of Granada counterbalanced by this inroad into his dominions, and saw that there were two sides to the game of war, as to all other games.

The only one who reaped real glory in this series of inroads and skirmishings was Pedro de Vargas, the stout alcayde of Gibraltar.* * Alonzo de Palencia, 1.