The chroniclers have left us minute accounts of her labours to this end, carried through with the characteristic thoroughness that had so often brought her success. The purchase of the crops of Andalusia and the lands belonging to the Military Orders; the transference of this grain and hay by a procession of fourteen thousand mules to the seat of war and the outposts already in Christian hands; the repair of the roads, worn by traffic and the heavy rains, by the vigilance of an army of engineers, kept ever at hand for the purpose; the enrollment of fresh troops and workmen to replace those lives lost in the great crusade; most arduous of all the continual disbursement of the money that came so slowly again into the royal treasury. At times the attempt to adjust the balance between demand and supply appeared impossible; and rents and subsidies failed as expenses grew, but Isabel’s hand on the helm of affairs never wavered. The crown jewels were pawned to the merchants of Valencia and Barcelona, but the campaign against Baeza did not slacken. Ferdinand and his generals, certain of support from their base of operations, took new heart; and to the dismay of the besieged huts made of clay and timber began to replace the old tents, and traders to appear with their merchandise of comforts and luxuries, till the camp gradually assumed the air of a permanent settlement or village. To it amongst other strangers came Franciscan friars from the Holy Land, bearing despatches from the Sultan of Egypt, in which he complained of the destruction that was being wrought against the Mahometans in Spain. Unless such hostility ceased, he declared his intention of venting his wrath on any Christians he might find in Palestine. The sovereigns, in answer, protested their right to reconquer the kingdom of Granada which had belonged to their ancestors; but they expressed their willingness to deal kindly by such Moors as proved themselves good subjects. Not content with explaining the situation by letter they even sent an embassy to the Sultan some years later, with Peter Martyr, the young Italian noble who had been an eye-witness of so much of the war, at its head; and his eloquence succeeded in establishing friendly relations.