El Zagal shut up in his capital, conducted his army back through the
Pass of Lope to rejoin Queen Isabella at Moclin.

The fortresses lately taken being well garrisoned and supplied, he
gave the command of the frontier to his cousin, Don Fadrique de
Toledo, afterward so famous in the Netherlands as the duke of Alva.
The campaign being thus completely crowned with success, the
sovereigns returned in triumph to the city of Cordova.



CHAPTER XLV.

ATTEMPT OF EL ZAGAL UPON THE LIFE OF BOABDIL, AND HOW THE
LATTER WAS ROUSED TO ACTION.


No sooner did the last squadron of Christian cavalry disappear
behind the mountains of Elvira and the note of its trumpets die away
upon the ear than the long-suppressed wrath of Muley el Zagal
burst forth. He determined no longer to be half a king, reigning over
a divided kingdom in a divided capital, but to exterminate by any
means, fair or foul, his nephew Boabdil and his faction. He turned
furiously upon those whose factious conduct had deterred him from
sallying upon the foe: some he punished by confiscations, others by
banishment, others by death. Once undisputed monarch of the entire
kingdom, he trusted to his military skill to retrieve his fortunes and
drive the Christians over the frontier.

Boabdil, however, had again retired to Velez el Blanco, on the