followed by a black slave on horseback carrying a full suit of armor, and leading a strong Arabian warhorse of the sacred race of kochlani, fully capari- ' soned for battle. The knight's armor was of richly polished Damascus steel inlaid with gold, his helmet being surmounted with a couched lion, and his shield bearing the device of a bull's head with the motto 'contra qudentior' in golden letters beneath it. The knight himself bore only a small dagger stuck in his sash, but was splendidly dressed in silver stuff trimmed with purple and gold. Lowly bowing to Alfayma and Boabdeli, he caused himself to be announced as a Syrian cavalier from the Turkish court of Stamboul, seeking distinction in the wars of Spain; and he prayed permission to make trial of the skill of his native land in the festivities of the day. Leave being granted, he threw the bridle of his jennet to one of the attendants, and instead of accepting the lance and horse proffered him in return, declared his intention of entering the arena as he was, and on foot.

All exclaimed at the rashness, not to say madness, of the enterprise; but, nowise regarding their remonstrances, he coolly advanced within the arena. As he passed the halberdiers, he exchanged turbans with the nearest of them, and unrolling the large scarlet shawl which he thus received, held it before him in his left hand, spread out on the end of the broken lance shaft, which Reduan had left behind him, and holding his dagger in his right,

walked slowly towards the bull,-and as they met shook the scarlet shawl in his eyes.-Enraged by this act, the animal threw himself at the shawl, and the cavalier suffering him to glide by, as he passed struck the dagger to the hilt in his spine, and wrenching it to and fro in the wound with a powerful grasp, threw him dead on the sand. At this feat of address and strength, the spectators, who had been looking on with breathless interest at the movements of the daring cavalier, raised a shout of applause, which rang through Granada.

The arena being once more cleared, the masked cavalier selected a horse from those again offered him by the attendants, and, taking a halberd from one of the guards, rode into the square, and commanded that another bull should be let in for fight. Fixing the halberd firmly between his right arm and his side, as the bull rushed on the knight received him on the point of the weapon, and by reining his horse aside suffered the wounded bull to glance off, staggering across the arena and hurried along by the fury of his own approach. Again and again the same thing was repeated, the knight sitting steadily and tranquilly in his seat, and the bull receiving a deep gash in his neck or shoulder at each unsuccessful attack, until, faint with loss of blood, the animal would no longer come to the encounter. Perceiving this, the knight suddenly threw himself from the saddle, and, stepping up full in the face of the bull, seized him by the horns,

and by an extraordinary exertion of strength jerked him aside, and threw him, rolling over by the force of his own struggles, to be despatched by the attendants.

Once more the Bivarrambla reechoed with delighted shouts; but, in the struggle of the last achievement, the mask of the cavalier had fallen from his face, betraying,-no swart features of an Asiatic chieftain bronzed in the burning suns of Palestine or Egypt, but the light hair and complexion, the high open brow, and the clear blue eye of the Gothic lords of Spain. The applauding cries of the fickle multitude were instantaneously changed into yells of rage and vengeance, as the name of the knight went around; for many a Moorish cavalier, who had felt the power of his arm in the frontier skirmishes of the times, recognized the young but redoubted Marquess of Cadiz. All now became uproar and confusion. Not supposing it possible that the Marquess should have dared to appear therǝ unarmed and alone, and suspecting some concealed treason, the Moorish cavaliers called for their arms, and Boabdeli hastily summoned about him his Mauritanian guards. Instead of a single commander of Calatrava or Santiago, standing unarmed in the midst of the Bivarrambla, one would have supposed that a Castilian army were drawn up in the heart of Granada.

Meanwhile the Spanish knight calmly waited until the commotion had a little subsided, and then

approaching the pavilion of the Queen, requested to be heard. 'Listen, O King,' he said. 'Are the brave knights of Granada afraid of the prowess of my single hand, that they arm in consternation, as if the Constable of Castile were here with all her nobles at his back? I have heard thy youthful Queen extolled for beauty above the ladies of my country, and I came hither in the confidence of all knightly courtesy and honor, to challenge the best lance of thy court to ride a course in the lists, in behalf of my Queen and mistress the Lady Isabel of Castile; but I avow that fame has only spoken half the truth, in its praise of the Lady Alfayma; and here stand I, Ponce de Leon, Marquess of Cadiz, Lord of Jerez and Arcos, ready to maintain, in battle against all comers, that the Lady Alfayma is the loveliest lady in all the realms of Spain and to this I pledge my faith as a knight and a noble.' With that he knelt and kissed his hand to the Queen, and calling for his armor and war-horse, was speedily equipped and mounted for the lists. But who, in that presence, would accept challenge on such an argument, and enter the lists to dispute the beauty of the blushing Alfayma? Instead of this, gratulation broke from every lip. Boabdeli welcomed the gallant Marquess to his pavilion, and the sports of the arena were again resumed, although the prowess of the Spanish cavalier had forestalled the interest of the remainder of the fiesta. He was entertained with royal magni

ficence, and, when he rose to depart, was accompanied to the frontier by a troop of loyal Abencerrages, rather as a suite of honor, than as an escort for any purpose of protection,-leaving the ladies of Granada enchanted with his grace, his gallantry, and his manly beauty, not less than with his courage, strength, and skill in the arena.

Once again the scene shifted. I imagined myself, as I was, reclining in an alcove of the Court of Lions. It seemed half a reverie, half a dream; for I could hear the constant fall of water from the mouths of the lions in the marble basin below, and the gilt tracery of the fretted roof, which covered the alcove, opened the light upon me from above, while the deep blue vault of the sky was visible over the Hall of the Sisters. Two persons were walking to and fro among the coupled columns under one of the arcades of the court, engaged in earnest conversation. One of them was far advanced in life, and wore the long flowing robe of the clergy and a cardinal's hat. The other was evidently young, dressed in the black velvet doublet and slashed satin hose of a Spanish gentleman, spangled all over with gems, and wearing a hat of black velvet, looped up with a large diamond set in pearls, and ornamented with a white ostrich plume. 'And this then,' said the latter, is the Alhambra, the far-famed palace of the Moorish princes of Granada, the scene of so many brilliant festivities, 4*

VOL. I.

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