_ 302 _ have done this, each goes off at once to see to his home and family), the captain or corporal of the quarto (which is what they call the period of time when the guards keep watch) arrives. And, before any of his soldiers arrive, at least two hours pass, because they all go off to carry out their business before coming to serve their quarto. Then they can be seen coming slowly to the gates, sending ahead some halberd or old spear carried by a black man or woman. And it should be pointed out that the greater part of these soldiers of the guard lives outside the fortress in the Moors’ city. In this way they arrive at the fortress well after it is full of Moors, as well as those who work in it at various occupations, such as merchants and others who have dealings with the captain and his administrators and servants, because no one is ever asked whom he is seeking nor what he wants. They stand at the gates until a bell is rung, at which they leave the duties and the work of the fortress, this being at eleven o’clock. Each one goes home, shutting the great gates and simply leaving a rear gate open with a gatekeeper guarding it. For even though half of the gatekeepers are obliged to remain continuously at the gates during each quarto, since they are married men, and poor, with families, and some of them are blind, lame and wounded (and others, being
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