ABSTRACT
And he entered the Kingdom of Murcia very joyously by land and by sea, and he held the sea in order that his hosts should be well provided with victuals, and so it was arranged. And he took the castle and town of Alicante and of Elche and all the other places I have named to you already, which are in the kingdoms of Valencia and Murcia, and he laid siege to the city of Murcia which is a very noble and important city and very strong and has perhaps the strongest walls of any city of the world. And as soon as he arrived before the said city, he so ordained the siege that, from no side could any man enter. Should I tell you much about it ? The siege lasted so long that the city became his by a treaty with the Saracens, who surrendered it, namely half the city ; and the other half they kept for their needs under his overlordship.1 A street runs through the middle of the city, one of the most beautiful streets there are in any city of the world ; it is long and wide and begins at the market-place, which is in front of the Dominican Church, and goes as far as the cathedral of Our Lady Saint Mary. And in this street are the furriers and the exchanges and the clothiers and many other establish ments. However, after the city was thus divided, the Lord King peopled it with his followers and, a few days later, the Saracens saw that there could be no good fellowship between them and the Christians in that city. And so they begged and entreated the Lord King, that it might please him to take their part of the city and people it with whom he thought right and to give them a district which they could enclose with walls and in which they could live in security. And the Lord King
