They arrived close to Alhama about two hours before daybreak.

Here the army remained in ambush, while three hundred men were despatched to scale the walls and get possession of the castle.

They were picked men, many of them alcaydes and officers, men who preferred death to dishonor.

This gallant band was guided by the escalador Ortega de Prado at the head of thirty men with scaling-ladders.

They clambered the ascent to the castle in silence, and arrived under the dark shadow of its towers without being discovered.