• Peace, maiden! the man thou speakst of the courts, and the streaming glare of of is the priest of God, and the innocent torches, falling upon stern and bearded have nothing to dread from his reverend visages, and imparting a ruddier glow to zeal. For thyself, I say again, be cheer- the moonlighted buttresses and battlements ed; in the home to which I consign thee of the fortress, aroused Leila from a kind of thou wilt see him no more. Take com- torpor rather than sleep, in which the fafort, poor child; weep not: all have their tige and excitement of the day had steepcares; our duty is to bear in this life, re-ed her senses. An old seneschal conducserving hope only for the next.' ted her, through vast and gloomy halls

The que, destined herself to those do- (how unlike the brillian chambers and mestic afflictions which pomp cannot fantastic arcades of her Moorish home!) sooth nor power allay, spoke with a pro- to a huge Gothic apartment, hung with the phetic sadness which yet more touched a arras of Flemish looms. In a few moheart that her kindness of look and tone ments, maidens, hastily aroused from had already softened; and in the impulse slumber, grouped around her with a reof a nature never tutored in the rigid spect which would certainly not have ceremonials of that stately court, Leila been accorded had her birth and creed suddenly came forward, and, falling on been known., They gazed with surprise one knee, seized the hand of her protec- at her extraordinary beauty and foreign tress, and kissed it warmly through her garb, and evidently considered the new guest a welcome addition to the scanty 'Are you, too, unhappy?" she said; I society of the castle. Under any other will pray for you to my God!' circumstances, the strangeness of all she

tears.

The queen, surprised and moved at an saw and the frowning gloom of the action which, had witnesses been present, chamber to which she was consigned would only, (for such is human nature), would have damped the spirits of one have offended her Castilian prejudices, left whose destiny had so suddenly passed her hand in Leila's grateful clasp: and from the deepest quiet into the sternest laying the other upon the parted and luxu- excitement. But any change was a reriant ringlets of the kneeling maiden, said, lief to the roar of the camp, the addresses gently, And thy prayers shall avail thee of the prince, and the ominous voice and and me when thy God and mine are the countenance of Torquemada ; and Leila same. Bless thee, maiden! I am a mother, looked around her with feeling that the thou art motherless; bless thee!'

CHAPTER XV.

queen's promise was fulfilled, and she was already amid the blessings of shelter and repose. It was long, however, before sleep revisited her eyelids, and when she

IN WHICH THE HISTORY PASSES FROM THE Woke the noonday sun streamed broadly

OUTWARD TO THE INTERNAL.

through the lattice. By the bedside sat a matron advanced in years, but of a mild It was about the very hour, almost the and prepossessing countenance, which very moment, in which Almamen effec- only borrowed a yet more attractive ted his mysterious escape from the tent of charm from an expression of placid and the Inquisition, that the train accompany- habitual melancholly. She was robed in ing the litter which bore Leila, and which black; but the rich pearls that were inwas composed of some chosen soldiers of terwoven in the sleeves and stomacher, Isabel's own body-guard, after traversing the jewelled cross that was appended from the camp, winding along that part of the a chain of massive gold, and, still more, a mountainous defile which was in the pos- certain air of dignity and command, besession of the Spaniards, and ascending a spoke, even to the inexperienced eye of high and steep acclivity, halted before the Leila, the evidence of superior station. gates of a strongly-fortified castle re- "Thou hast slept late, daughter," said ' nowned in the chronicles of that memora- the lady, with a benevolent smile; may ble war. The hoarse challenge of the thy slumbers have refreshed thee! Acsentry, the grating of jealous bars, the cept my regrets that I knew not till this elank of hoofs upon the rough pavement morning of thine arrival, or I should

have oeen the first to welcome the charge same as mine, adding only the assurance of my royal mistress." of immortal life; Christianity is but the

There was in the look, much more than Revelation of Judaism.' in the words, of the Donna Inez de Quex

1

The wise and gentle instrument of Leiada, a soothing and tender interest that la's conversion did not, however, give was as balm to the heart of Leila; in truth, vent to those more Catholic sentiments she had been made the guest of, perhaps, which might have scared away the wings the only lady in Spain of pure and Chris of the descending dove, She forbore, too, fian blood who did not despise or execrate vehemently to point out the distinctions of the name of Leila's tribe. the several creeds, and rather suffered It was by little and little that Donna them to melt insensibly into the other! Inez sought rather to undermine than to Leila was a Christian while she still bestorm the mental fortress she hoped to ieved herself a Jewess. But in the fond man with spiritual allies; and, in her fre- and lovely weakness of mortal emotions. quent conversations with Leila, she was there was one bitter thought that often at once perplexed and astonished by the and often came to mar the peace that simple and sublime nature of the beliet otherwise would have settled on her soul. upon which she waged war. That father, the sole softener of whose Leila's curiosity and interest were stern heart and mysterious fate she was, aroused; she willingly listened to her with what pangs would he receive the And Muzaj new guide; she willingly inclined to concws of her conversion! clusions pressed upon her, not with me-that bright and hero-vision of her youthnace, but persuasion. Free from the stub was she not setting the last seal of separa. born associations, the sectarian prejudi- tion upon all hope of union with the idol ces, and unversed in the peculiar tra of the Moors?

ditions and accounts of the learned of her By degrees, as her new faith grew conrace, she found nothing to shock her infirmed, Leila now inclined herself carnestthe volume which seemed but a continua-jly to those pictures of the sanctity and tion of the elder writings of her faith. calm of the conventual life which Inez deThe sufferings of the Messiah, his sublime lighted to draw. In the reaction of her purity, his meek forgiveness, spoke to her thoughts, and her despondency of all woman's heart; his doctrines, elevated, worldly happiness, there seemed to the while they charmed, her reason; and in young maiden an inexpressible charm in a the heaven that a Divine hand opened to solitude which was to release her for ever all the humble as the proud, the oppres from human love, and render her entirely sed as the oppressor, to the woman as to up to sacred visions and imperishable the lords of the earth-she found a haven hopes. On these thoughts Leila medita for all the doubts she had known, and forted, till thoughts acquired the intensity of the despair which of late had darkened passions, and the conversion of the Jewthe face of earth. Her home lost, the less was completed.

CHAPTER XVI

THE HOUR AND THE MAX.

deep and beautiful love of her youth blight ed, that was a creed almost irresistible. which told her that grief was but for at day, that happiness was eternal. Far, too, from revolting such of the Hebrew pride of association as she had formed, the birth of the Messiah in the land of the Israelites seemed to consummate their peculiar Ir was on the third morning after the triumph as the elected of Jehovah; and King of Grenada, reconciled to his people, while she mourned for the Jews who per had revived his gallant army in the Vivasecuted the Saviour, she gloried in those rambla and Boabdil, surrounded by his whose belief had carried the name and chiefs and nobles, was planning a deliber. worship of the descendants of David over te and decisive battle, by assault on the the farthest regions of the world. Often Christian camp, when a scout suddenly she perplexed and startled the worthy Inez arrived, breathless, at the gates of the by exclaiming, This your belief is the palace, to communicate the unlooked-for

and welcome intelligence that Ferdinand Summon our alfaquis, we will proclaim a had in the night broken up his camp and holy war! The sovereign of the last marched across the mountains towards possessions of the Moors is in the field, Cordova. In fact, the outbreak of formi- Not a town that contains a Moslem but dable conspiracies had suddenly rendered shall receive our summens, and we will the appearance of Ferdinand necessary gather round our standard all the children' elsewhere; and, his intrigues with Alma-of our faith!"

men frustrated, he despaired of a very May the king live for ever!' cried the speedy conquest of the city. The Span-council, with one voice.

ish king resolved, therefore, after comple- 'Lose not a moment,' resumed Boabdil; ting the devastation of the Vega. to defer on the Vivarambla: marshal the troops; the formal and prolonged siege, which Muza heads the cavalry, myself our foot. could alone place Grenada within his pow-Ere the sun's shadow reach yonder forest er, until his attention was no longer dis-lour army shall be on its march.' tracted to other foes, and until, it must be The warriors, hastily and in joy, left added, he had replenished an exhausted the palace; and, when he was alone, Boabtreasury. He had formed with Torque-dil again relapsed into his wonted irresclumada a vast and wide scheme of perse-tion. After striding to and fro for some cution, not only against the Jews, but minutes in anxious thought, he abruptly against Christians whose fathers had been left the hall of council, and passed into of that race, and who were suspected of the more p:ivate chambers of the palace, relapsing into Judacal practices. The till he came to a door strongly guarded by two schemers of this grand design were plates of iron. It yielded easily, however, actuated by different motives: the one to a small key which he carried in his wished to exterminate the crime, the other girdle; and Boabdil stood in a small cirto sell forgiveness for it; and Torquemada cular room, apparently without other connived at the griping avarice of the door or outlet; but, after looking cautiousking, because it served to give to himself ly round, the king touched a secret spring and to the infant inquisition a power and in the wall, which, giving way, discovered authority which the Dominican foresaw niche, in which stood a small lamp, would be soon greater even than those of burning with the purest naphtha, and a royalty itself, and which, he imagined, by scroll of yellow parchment covered with Scourging carth, would redound to the strange letters and hieroglyphics. He terest of Heaven. thrust the scroll in his bosom, took the lamp The strange disappearance of Alma- in his hand, and pressing another spring men, which was distorted and exaggera within the niche, the wall receded and ted by the credulity of the Spaniards into showed a narrow and winding staircase. an event of the most terrific character, The king reclosed the entrance and descenserved to complete the chain of evidence ded: the stairs led, at last, into damp and against the wealthy Jews and Jew descen- rough passages; and the murmur of waded Spaniards of Andalusia; and while. ters, that reached his car through the in imagination, the king a'ready clutched thick walls, indicated the subterranean the gold of their redemption here, the nature of the soil through which they were Dominican kindled the flame that was to hewn. The lamp burned clear and steady light them to punishment hereafter. through the darkness of the place; and Boabdil and, his chiefs received the in- Boabdil proceeded with such impatient telligence of the Spanish retreat with a rapidity, that the distance (in reality condoubt which soon yielded to the most siderable) which he traversed before he triumphant delight. Boabdil at once re-arrived at his destined bourne was quickly sumed all the energy fr which, though measured. He came at last into a wide Lut by fits and starts, his earlier youth had cavern, guarded by doors concealed and been remarabic. secret as those which had screened the

Alla Achbar! God is great!' cried entrance from the upper air. He was he; we will not remain here till it suit the in one of the many vaults which made foe to confine the eagle again to his eyrie. the mighty cemetery of the monarchs of They have left us-we will burst on them. Grenada; and before him stood the robed

and crowned skeleton, and before him from thy spirit like a clould from the glory glowed the magic dial plate of which he of the sun. The genii of the East have had spoken in his interview with Muza. woven this banner from the rays of the

Oh, dread and awful image!' cried benignant stars. It shall beam before thee the king, throwing himself on his knees in the front of battle; it shall rise over before the skeleton; shadow of what was the rivers of Christian blood. As the once a king, wise in council and terrible moon sways the bosom of the tides, it in war; if those hollow bones yet lurks shall sway and direct the surges and the the impalpable and unseen spirit, hear thy course of war?'

repentant son. Forgive, while it is yet Man of mystery! thou hast given me time, the rebellion of his fiery youth, and a new life.'

suffer thy daring soul to animate the doubt And, fighting by thy side,' resumed and weakness of his own. I go forth to Almamen, I will assist to carve out for battle, waiting not the signal thou didst thee, from the ruins of Arragon and Casordain. Let not the penance for a rashness, tile, the grandeur of a new throne. Arm, to which fate urges me on, attach to my monarch of Grenada!-arm! I hear the country, but to me; and if I perish in the neigh of thy charger in the midst of the field, may my evil destines be buried with mailed thousands! Arm!' me, and a worthier monarch redeem my errors and preserve Grenada!'

6

CHAPTER XVII.

LEILA IN THE CASTLE. THE SIEGE.

As the king raised his looks, the unrelaxed grin of the grim dead, made yet more hideous by the mockery of the diadem and the royal robe, froze back to ice the passion and sorrow at his heart. He shuddered, and rose with a deep sigh; His success was as immediate as it was when, as his eyes mechanically followed signal; the terror of his arms began once the lifted arm of the skeleton, he beheld, more to spread far and wide; every day with mingled delight and awe, the hitherto swelled his ranks with new recrutes. motionless finger of the dial-plate pass Moorish towns which had submitted to slowly on, and rest at the word so long Ferdinatd broke from their allegiance, and so impatiently desired. Arm!' cried and sent their ardent youth and experi the king; do I read aright? are my enced veterans to the standard of the Key prayers heard?' A low and deep sound, and Crescent. To add to the sudden pa like that of subterranean thunder, boomed nic of the Spaniards, it went forth that a through the chamber; and in the same formidable magician, who seemed inspired instant the wall opened, and the king be- rather with the fury of a demon than the held the long-expected figure of Almamen valor of a man, had made an abrupt apthe magician. But no longer was that pearence in the ranks of the Moslems.stately form clad in the loose and peace- Wherever the Moors shrunk back from ful garb of the eastern santon. Complete wall or tower, down which pored the armour cased his broad breast and sinewy boiling pitch or rolled the deadly artillery limbs; his head alone was bare, and his of the besieged, this sorcerer, rushing into prominent and impressive features were the midst of the flagging force, and wa lighted, not with mystical enthusiasm, but ving with wild gestures, a white banner with warlike energy. In his right handjsupposed by both Moor and Christian to he carried a drawn sword, his left sup- be the work of magic and preternatural ported the staff of a snow-white and daz-spells, dared every danger and escaped every weapon: with voice, with prayer, King of Grenada," said Almamen, the with example, he fired the Moors to an hour hath come at last: go forth and con- enthusiasm that revived the first days of quer! With the Christian monarch there Mahommedan conquest; and tower after is no hope of peace or compact. At thy tower along the mighty range of moun reqnost I sought him, but by spells alone tain chain of fortresses was polluted by the preserved the life of thy herald. Rejoice! wave and glitter of the ever-victorious for thine evil destinies have rolled away banner. The veteran Mendo de Quaxa

zlind banner.

'da, who, with a garrison of two hundred horsemen, the lion port and showy garand fifty men, held the castle of Alhendin, ments of Muza Ben Abil Gazan. was, however, undaunted by the unprece What a situation was hers! Already a dented successes of Boabdil. Aware of Christian, could she hope for the success the approaching storm, he had spent the of the infidels? Ever a woman, could days of peace yet accorded to him in ma- she hope for the defeat of her lover! But king every preparation for the siege that the time of meditation of her destiny was he foresaw: messengers were despatched but brief; the detachment of the Moorish to Ferdinand; new out-works were add-cavalry was now just without the walls ed to the castle; ample stores of provi- of the little town that girded the castle, sion laid in; and no precautions omitted and the loud clarion of the heralds sumthat would still preserve to the Spaniards moned the garrison to surrender.

a fortress that, from its vicinity to Grenada, "Not while one stone stands upon anits command of Vega and the valleys of other," was the short answer of Quexada; the Alpuxarras, was the bitterest thorn in and, in ten minutes afterwards, the sullen the side of the Moorish power. roar of artillery broke from wall and

It was carly one morning that Leila tower over the vale below. stood before the lattice of her lofty cham- It was then that the women, from Leibe, gazing, with many and mingled emo- la's lattice, beheld, slowly marshalling tions, on the distant domes of Grenada as themselves in order, the whole power and they slept in silent sunshine. Her heart, pageantry of the besieging army. Thick for the moment, was busy with the-serried-line after line, column upon thoughts of home, and the chances and column-they spread below the frowning peril of the time were forgotten. steep. The sunbeams lighted up the

The sound of martial music, afar off, gloomy array, as it swayed, and murbroke upon her reveries; she started and mured, and advanced, like the billows of listened breathlessly; it become more dis- a glittering sea. The royal standard was tinct and clear. The clash of the zell, soon descried waving above the pavilion the boom of the African drum, and the of Boabdil; and the king himself, mounted wild and barbarous blast of the Moorish on his cream-colored charger, which clarion, were now each distinguishable was covered with trappings of cloth of from the other; and at length as she ga-gold, was recognised among the infantry, zed and listened, winding along the steep whose task it was to lead the assault. of the mountain, were seen the gleaming "Pray with us, my daughter," cried spears and pennants of the Moslem van- Inez, falling on her knees. Alas! what guard. Another moment, and the whole could Leila pray for!

castle was astir.

Four days and four nights passed Mendo Quexada, hastily arming, re-away in that memorable siege; for the paired himself to the battlements; and, moon, now at her full, allowed no respite, from her lattice, Leila beheld him, from even in night itself. Their numbers and time to time, stationing to the best advan- vicinity to Grenada gave the besiegers tage his scanty troops. In a few mo- the advantage of constant relays, and ments she was joined by Donna Inez and troop succeeded to troop; so that the the women of the castle, who fearfully weary had ever successors in the vigor of clustered round their mistress; not the less new assailants.

disposed, to gratify the passion of the sex On the fifth day all of the town, all of by a glimpse through the lattice at the the fortress, save the keep, (an immense gorgeous array of the Moorish army. tower,) were in the hands of the Moslems; The casements of Leila's chamber and in this last hold, the worn-out and were peculiarly adapted to command a scanty remnant of the garrison mustered, safe nor insufficient view of the progress in the last hope of a brave despair. of the enemy; and with a beating heart Quexada appeared covered with gore and flusning cheek, the Jewish maiden, and dust; his eyes bloodshot,, his cheeks deaf to all the voices around her, imagined haggard and hollow, his locks blanched that she could already desery amid the with sudden age, in the hall of the tower,