The history of Granada is henceforward one of almost continuous revolution and tumult. Mohammed VIII. was driven into exile by a namesake reckoned as the ninth of his name, and then restored by a counter-revolution. A Castilian army ravaged the Vega up to the walls of the capital. Granada itself would have fallen, had not Juan II. and the great Constable, Alvaro de Luna, been recalled to Castile by the disorders which resulted in the latter’s overthrow. An earthquake desolated the distracted kingdom; and we may suppose that Mohammed VIII. was not altogether sorry when he abandoned his throne to a pretender and fled to Malaga. The new sultan, Yusuf IV., held his throne as a fief of Castile, the support of which he had to purchase with humiliating concessions. He anticipated inevitable assassination by dying after sixteen months of authority; and for the third time, Mohammed VIII. was proclaimed at Granada (1432). Hostilities with Castile were at once renewed. This time the fortune of war was with the Moors, who routed their opponents at Illora, Archidona, and Castril. But Mohammed VIII.’s star was never long in the ascendant. He quarrelled with the powerful family of the Abencerrages; and, deprived of their support, was finally expelled from his kingdom, by his kinsman, Aben Osmin.[B] The usurper was victorious over the Christians and took several strongholds, but his army suffered at last a bloody defeat at Alporchones. This reverse seems to have maddened Osmin, who henceforward conducted himself as a tyrant of the old Roman type. Revolutions had now become as frequent in Granada as in some South American states. The usurper ran his brief career, and was then forced to make room for Mohammed VIII.’s cousin Saïd. Granada was all for peace. Tribute was paid to Enrique IV. of Castile, Christian captives released--all in vain. The intermittent warfare went on as before. Jaen, Archidona, Gibraltar, were lost, despite the desperate valour of the Prince, Muley Hassan, and of the Chieftain, Ibrahim, who, on being vanquished, plunged on horseback into the depths of a ravine. At last, however, the distracted Ibn Ismail obtained peace for his wretched country by a personal interview with Enrique, outside the walls of Granada. He devoted the remainder of his reign to the encouragement of commerce, industry, and agriculture in his dominions--labour that did not benefit even those who were to succeed him; and died at Almeria in the year 1465. The knell of the Moorish Empire in Europe was sounded over his bier. The reigns of Ali Abu-l-Hassan, Mohammed XI. (Boabdil), and Mohammed XII. (Az-Zaghal) covered the years 1465-1492, during which the downfall and extinction of the kingdom were accomplished. The history of these events has already filled many bulky tomes, and has been made familiar to English readers by the works of Prescott. Even our brief survey, however, cannot be concluded without a summary of the last chapter of the story of Granada.