CHAPTER IV.
EXPEDITION OF MULEY ABUL HASSAN AGAINST THE FORTRESS OF ZAHARA.
In the year of our Lord one thousand four hundred and eighty-one, and but a night or two after the festival of the most blessed Nativity, the inhabitants of Zahara were sunk in profound sleep the very sentinel had deserted his post, and sought shelter from a tempest which had raged for three nights in succession, for it appeared but little probable that an enemy would be abroad during such an uproar of the elements.

But evil spirits work best during a storm.

In the midst of the night an uproar rose within the walls of Zahara more awful than the raging of the storm.

A fearful alarm-cry, "The Moor! the Moor!" resounded through the streets, mingled with the clash of arms, the shriek of anguish, and the shout of victory.

Muley Abul Hassan, at the head of a powerful force, had hurried from Granada, and passed unobserved through the mountains in the obscurity of the tempest.