CHAPTER III. THE HOUR AND THE MAN
It was on the third morning after the King of Granada, reconciled to hispeople, had reviewed his gallant army in the Vivarrambla; and Boabdil,surrounded by his chiefs and nobles, was planning a deliberate anddecisive battle, by assault on the Christian camp,--when a scoutsuddenly arrived, breathless, at the gates of the palace, to communicatethe unlooked-for and welcome intelligence that Ferdinand had in thenight broken up his camp, and marched across the mountains towardsCordova. In fact, the outbreak of formidable conspiracies had suddenlyrendered the appearance of Ferdinand necessary elsewhere; and, hisintrigues with Almamen frustrated, he despaired of a very speedyconquest of the city. The Spanish king resolved, therefore, aftercompleting the devastation of the Vega, to defer the formal andprolonged siege, which could alone place Granada within his power, untilhis attention was no longer distracted to other foes, and until, it mustbe added, he had replenished an exhausted treasury. He had formed, withTorquemada, a vast and wide scheme of persecution, not only againstJews, but against Christians whose fathers had been of that race,and who were suspected of relapsing into Judaical practices. The twoschemers of this grand design were actuated by different motives; theone wished to exterminate the crime, the other to sell forgiveness forit. And Torquemada connived at the griping avarice of the king, becauseit served to give to himself, and to the infant Inquisition, a power andauthority which the Dominican foresaw would be soon greater even thanthose of royalty itself, and which, he imagined, by scourging earth,would redound to the interests of Heaven.
The strange disappearance of Almamen, which was distorted andexaggerated, by the credulity of the Spaniards, into an event of themost terrific character, served to complete the chain of evidenceagainst the wealthy Jews, and Jew-descended Spaniards, of Andalusia;and while, in imagination, the king already clutched the gold of theirredemption here, the Dominican kindled the flame that was to light themto punishment hereafter.
Boabdil and his chiefs received the intelligence of the Spanish retreatwith a doubt which soon yielded to the most triumphant delight. Boabdilat once resumed all the energy for which, though but by fits and starts,his earlier youth had been remarkable.
"Alla Achbar! God is great!" cried he; "we will not remain here tillit suit the foe to confine the eagle again to his eyrie. They have leftus--we will burst on them. Summon our alfaquis, we will proclaim a holywar! The sovereign of the last possessions of the Moors is in the field.Not a town that contains a Moslem but shall receive our summons, and wewill gather round our standard all the children of our faith!"
"May the king live for ever!" cried the council, with one voice.
"Lose not a moment," resumed Boabdil--"on to the Vivarrambla, marshalthe troops--Muza heads the cavalry; myself our foot. Ere the sun'sshadow reach yonder forest, our army shall be on its march."
The warriors, hastily and in joy, left the palace; and when he wasalone, Boabdil again relapsed into his wonted irresolution. Afterstriding to and fro for some minutes in anxious thought, he abruptlyquitted the hall of council, and passed in to the more private chambersof the palace, till he came to a door strongly guarded by plates ofiron. It yielded easily, however, to a small key which he carried in hisgirdle; and Boabdil stood in a small circular room, apparently withoutother door or outlet; but, after looking cautiously round, the kingtouched a secret spring in the wall, which, giving way, discovered aniche, in which stood a small lamp, burning with the purest naphtha,and a scroll of yellow parchment covered with strange letters andhieroglyphics. He thrust the scroll in his bosom, took the lamp in hishand, and pressing another spring within the niche, the wall receded,and showed a narrow and winding staircase. The king reclosed theentrance, and descended: the stairs led, at last, into clamp and roughpassages; and the murmur of waters, that reached his ear through thethick walls, indicated the subterranean nature of the soil through whichthey were hewn. The lamp burned clear and steady through the darkness ofthe place; and Boabdil proceeded with such impatient rapidity, thatthe distance (in reality, considerable) which he traversed, before hearrived at his destined bourne, was quickly measured. He came at lastinto a wide cavern, guarded by doors concealed and secret as those whichhad screened the entrance from the upper air. He was in one of the manyvaults which made the mighty cemetery of the monarchs of Granada; andbefore him stood the robed and crowned skeleton, and before him glowedthe magic dial-plate of which he had spoken in his interview with Muza.
"Oh, dread and awful image!" cried the king, throwing himself on hisknees before the skeleton,--"shadow of what was once a king, wise incouncil, and terrible in war, if in those hollow bones yet lurks theimpalpable and unseen spirit, hear thy repentant son. Forgive, whileit is yet time, the rebellion of his fiery youth, and suffer thy daringsoul to animate the doubt and weakness of his own. I go forth to battle,waiting not the signal thou didst ordain. Let not the penance for arashness, to which fate urges me on, attach to my country, but to me.And if I perish in the field, may my evil destinies be buried with me,and a worthier monarch redeem my errors and preserve Granada!"
As the king raised his looks, the unrelaxed grin of the grim dead, madeyet more hideous by the mockery of the diadem and the royal robe, frozeback to ice the passion and sorrow at his heart. He shuddered, and rosewith a deep sigh; when, as his eyes mechanically followed the lifted armof the skeleton, he beheld, with mingled delight and awe, the hithertomotionless finger of the dial-plate pass slowly on, and rest at the wordso long and so impatiently desired. "ARM!" cried the king; "do I readaright?--are my prayers heard?" A low and deep sound, like that ofsubterranean thunder, boomed through the chamber; and in the sameinstant the wall opened, and the king beheld the long-expected figure ofAlmamen, the magician. But no longer was that stately form clad in theloose and peaceful garb of the Eastern santon. Complete armour cased hisbroad chest and sinewy limbs; his head alone was bare, and his prominentand impressive features were lighted, not with mystical enthusiasm, butwith warlike energy. In his right hand, he carried a drawn sword--hisleft supported the staff of a snow-white and dazzling banner.
So sudden was the apparition, and so excited the mind of the king, thatthe sight of a supernatural being could scarcely have impressed him withmore amaze and awe.
"King of Granada," said Almamen, "the hour hath come at last; go forthand conquer! With the Christian monarch, there is no hope of peace orcompact. At thy request I sought him, but my spells alone preserved thelife of thy herald. Rejoice! for thine evil destinies have rolled awayfrom thy spirit, like a cloud from the glory of the sun. The genii ofthe East have woven this banner from the rays of benignant stars. Itshall beam before thee in the front of battle--it shall rise over therivers of Christian blood. As the moon sways the bosom of the tides, itshall sway and direct the surges and the course of war!"
"Man of mystery! thou hast given me a new life."
"And, fighting by thy side," resumed Almamen, "I will assist to carveout for thee, from the ruins of Arragon and Castile, the grandeur ofa new throne. Arm, monarch of Granada!--arm! I hear the neigh of thycharger, in the midst of the mailed thousands! Arm!"
BOOK IV.