The attractions of political intrigue obtained the mastery over philosophical maxims and worldly experience in the mind of Abu-al-Fotuh, and he embraced with ardor the proposals of the Kadi of Seville. He secretly represented to Yahya, a cousin of Badis, that the present conjunction of the planets was unusually favorable to his fortunes, inasmuch as the calculations of astrology indicated the speedy death of the sovereign and the promotion of his relative to the honors and prerogatives of the crown. The vanity and the hopes of a thoughtless prince were excited by this announcement so authoritatively conveyed, and he willingly accepted a responsibility which seemed to have received the sanction of heaven. The discontent of the people was sedulously fomented; the support of a number of disaffected nobles was secured; and the ramifications of a formidable plot soon began to extend to every corner of the city and the province. Unfortunately for the success of their scheme, the conspirators had failed to take into consideration the sagacity and vigilance of the Jewish vizier. The suspicious movements of well-known malcontents could not long escape the observation of his spies. The plot was betrayed; and the ringleaders, escaping with some difficulty the vengeance of Badis, fled to Seville. Enraged by the interference of a stranger in the affairs of his kingdom, an appeal of the Lord of Carmona to Badis and to Edris of Malaga was made an opportune pretext for the chastisement of the presumptuous ruler of Seville. The hostile armies met near Ecija. The Sevillians, commanded by Ismail, the son of the Kadi, were defeated; and the sorrow of the catastrophe was aggravated by the death of the youthful general, who, in a short but brilliant career of arms, had displayed talents and resources worthy of an experienced veteran. Solicitude for the safety of his wife and children, unprotected in the power of his indignant sovereign, induced Abu-al-Fotuh soon after the battle to throw himself upon the generosity of a tyrant whose deafness to every appeal for mercy was notorious and proverbial. With a diabolical refinement of cruelty, Badis, through an effectual display of compassion, raised in the mind of the unfortunate captive fallacious hopes of a speedy deliverance. Conducted to Granada rather with the ceremony due to a guest than with the restraint imposed upon a prisoner, as soon as the gate of the city was reached the courtesy of the guard was abruptly changed into insult and violence, and Abu-al-Fotuh received the ignominious treatment of a common malefactor. His head was shaved; he was lashed upon the back of a camel; and the driver of the animal, followed by a guard of slaves, scourged the victim relentlessly, while the procession exhibiting this suggestive example of royal justice traversed with deliberate steps, and amidst the jeers of the populace, the principal thoroughfares of the city.