THE CITY OF THE MOOR 23 



October 1491, had to be conducted, through 

 fear of the populace, with profound secrecy. 

 Indeed, at the last moment, Boabdil, in danger 

 of his life, besought Ferdinand to accelerate 

 his entrance into the city. On January 2, 1492, 

 accordingly, the Moorish king, attended by fifty 

 horsemen, surrendered the keys to the Catholic 

 sovereigns on the banks of the Genii, passing on 

 to the domain allotted him by the conquerors 

 in the rocky Alpuj arras. The story of his stop- 

 ping to gaze for the last time on his former 

 kingdom, and of the rebuke administered to him 

 by his mother, is well known. We are not told 

 whether his eye caught the gleam of the great 

 silver cross hoisted over the Alhambra by Car- 

 dinal Mendoza by way of signal to the Spanish 

 host that the occupation of Granada was com- 

 pleted and that the dominion of Islam in Spain 

 was for ever at an end. 



It had endured seven hundred and eighty-one 

 years a period only sixty years short of that 

 which has elapsed since the Norman Conquest of 

 England. More remarkable still, the Sultanate 

 of Granada had survived the virtual break-up 

 of the Saracen empire by over two centuries. 

 When we consider its limited area, its isolated 

 position, the might and the inveterate hostility 

 of the neighbouring states, and the attacks to 

 which it was unceasingly subjected, we cannot 



