The Christians not merely galled them from the battlements, but issued forth and cut them down in the excavations they were attempting to form.

The contest lasted throughout a whole day, and by evening two thousand Moors were either killed or wounded.
Muley Abul Hassan now abandoned all hope of carrying the place by assault, and attempted to distress it into terms by turning the channel of the river which runs by its walls.

On this stream the inhabitants depended for their supply of water, the place being destitute of fountains and cisterns, from which circumstance it is called Alhama "la seca," or "the dry." A desperate conflict ensued on the banks of the river, the Moors endeavoring to plant palisades in its bed to divert the stream, and the Christians striving to prevent them.

The Spanish commanders exposed themselves to the utmost danger to animate their men, who were repeatedly driven back into the town.

The marques of Cadiz was often up to his knees in the stream fighting hand to hand with the Moors.