The end of the great career was rapidly coming.  After another vain appeal to the Moorish ruler even Abd-el-Kader felt that all was lost.  A French writer in the Biographie generale truly declares: 

“The greatness of the man was strikingly displayed in the very hour of his downfall.  Destitute of resources, surrounded by foes, at open enmity with the Emperor of Morocco, wandering like a hunted lion, with hardly any comrade but his horse, no shelter except his tent, Abd-el-Kader still inspired a terror which forced his enemies to keep a great army on foot in Algeria for protection against possible attacks at his hand.”

In his deira, at this time, all was despondency and grief.  His own brothers had abandoned him.  Ben Salem, the faithful, long-tried, devoted friend and follower, was a voluntary prisoner in the French camp.  Abd-el-Kader’s whole force was fewer than two thousand men, but among these were twelve hundred horsemen, the flower of the Algerian cavalry.  Most of them had been his inseparable comrades, partakers in all his hardships and dangers, throughout his career.  During a short period of rest he summoned them daily around him and aroused new enthusiasm among the bronzed veterans by his eloquent words.

On December 9, 1847, the deira was stationed on Moorish territory, at Agueddin, on the left bank of the Melouia.  It comprised in all about five thousand souls.  The next day news arrived that a great Moorish host under the Sultan’s two sons was only three hours’ march away.  On January 11th, Abd-el-Kader gathered his armed force, marched at dead of night and fell furiously on the first division of the Moors and Arabs.  The slumbering foe awoke to see the thick darkness illumined by flashes of light from muskets.  Seized with panic, the men rushed away in all directions, abandoning arms, tents, and baggage.  In the mean time Abd-el-Kader and his men swept onward and attacked the second division, which was also defeated and dispersed.  In half an hour the third division was reached.  This force had time to prepare for defence, and the assailants withdrew before a steady fire of infantry and artillery to an adjacent hill.  At midday five thousand Moorish cavalry moved out against Abd-el-Kader’s little army.  At charging distance he led on his men, swept through the foe, and by a skilful combination of assault and retreat regained his deira by the river Melouia, before sunset.  The deira had nearly effected its passage across the river, with the baggage and the spoils taken from the enemy, when the Moorish army was seen cautiously advancing.