Muley Hacen, in the meantime, had fallen heir to the ill-luck that seemed to dog the rulers of Granada; for, in his efforts to satisfy the popular demand for Moorish victories, his army suffered in the autumn of 1483 a defeat approaching the disaster of Lucena. The fault did not lie in the calibre of the troops, mainly recruited from the half-savage Berbers who inhabited the mountains in the neighbourhood of Ronda and Malaga, nor with its famous commander Hamet “El Zegri,” who lived but to shed Christian blood. It lay rather, as in the case of the Christian routs at Ajarquia and Loja, in the futility of an isolated expedition, with the enemy everywhere on the watch. Surprised and outnumbered by the levies of Andalusia and the Holy Brotherhood, the Moors after a fierce struggle on the banks of the Lopera broke and fled, leaving many of their generals dead or captured. Hamet “El Zegri” himself escaped, but fifteen of his standards were carried to Vittoria, where the sovereigns celebrated their triumph by illuminations and religious processions. The battle of Lopera was followed by the reduction of numerous Moorish strongholds on the western frontier, that were now too weak to withstand the Christian advance. Most joyful of all was the recapture of Zahara, whose fall had marked the original outbreak of the war. This triumph won for the Marquis of Cadiz, its principal hero, the title “Duke of Zahara”; but he declined to surrender the name under which he had gained so many laurels, and compromised by styling himself Marquis-Duke of Cadiz. The culminating moment of the campaign was the capture of Ronda in May, 1485. This town, believed by its defenders impregnable, stood on the summit of a precipice six hundred feet high. Its walls [says a modern traveller, impressed by the grandeur even of its ruins] are built on the very edge of the cliff and look as weather-beaten and as solid. Indeed one could hardly tell where wall begins and rock ends but for the Moresque arches that span the rents in the face of the cliff to afford a firm basis for the continuous fortification. [Illustration: RONDA, THE TAJO OR CHASM FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY LACOSTE, MADRID ] To this stronghold Hamet “El Zegri” had retired after his crushing defeat at Lopera; but, being informed that the Christians were meditating a second attack on Loja, he hastily sent part of his garrison to assist “El Zagal” in its defence. This did not, however, satisfy his own desire for vengeance, and believing that his enemies were occupied elsewhere he sallied out with a contingent of his fiercest troops to lay waste the Duchy of Medina-Sidonia. His immediate mission was successful; but Hamet “El Zegri” soon found his joy turned to ashes. His cunning had been overreached.