Leila | Page 7

thy rank, thy parents?
Think you, beautiful Leila, that Granada holds a rouse lofty enough to
disdain the alliance with Muza Ben Abil Gazan? and oh!" he added
(sinking the haughty tones of his voice into accents of the softest
tenderness), "if not too high to scorn me, what should war against our
loves and our bridals? For worn equally on my heart were the flower of
thy sweet self, whether the mountain top or the valley gave birth to the
odour and the bloom."
"Alas!" answered Leila, weeping, "the mystery thou complainest of is
as dark to myself as thee. How often have I told thee that I know
nothing of my birth or childish fortunes, save a dim memory of a more
distant and burning clime; where, amidst sands and wastes, springs the
everlasting cedar, and the camel grazes on stunted herbage withering in
the fiery air? Then, it seemed to me that I had a mother: fond eyes
looked on me, and soft songs hushed me into sleep."
"Thy mother's soul has passed into mine," said the Moor, tenderly.
Leila continued:--"Borne hither, I passed from childhood into youth
within these walls. Slaves ministered to my slightest wish; and those
who have seen both state and poverty, which I have not, tell me that
treasures and splendour, that might glad a monarch, are prodigalised
around me: but of ties and kindred know I little: my father, a stern and
silent man, visits me but rarely--sometimes months pass, and I see him
not; but I feel he loves me; and, till I knew thee, Muza, my brightest

hours were in listening to the footsteps and flying to the arms of that
solitary friend."
"Know you not his name?"
"Nor, I nor any one of the household; save perhaps Ximen, the chief of
the slaves, an old and withered man, whose very eye chills me into fear
and silence."
"Strange!" said the Moor, musingly; "yet why think you our love is
discovered, or can be thwarted?"
"Hush! Ximen sought me this day: 'Maiden,' said he, 'men's footsteps
have been tracked within the gardens; if your sire know this, you will
have looked your last on Granada. Learn,' he added, in a softer voice,
as he saw me tremble, 'that permission were easier given to thee to wed
the wild tiger than to mate with the loftiest noble of Morisca! Beware!'
He spoke, and left me. O Muza!" she continued, passionately wringing
her hands, "my heart sinks within me, and omen and doom rise dark
before my sight!"
"By my father's head, these obstacles but fire my love, and I would
scale to thy possession, though every step in the ladder were the
corpses of a hundred foes!"
Scarcely had the fiery and high-souled Moor uttered his boast, than,
from some unseen hand amidst the groves, a javelin whirred past him,
and as the air it raised came sharp upon his cheek, half buried its
quivering shaft in the trunk of a tree behind him.
"Fly, fly, and save thyself! O God, protect him!" cried Leila; and she
vanished within the chamber.
The Moor did not wait the result of a deadlier aim; he turned; yet, in the
instinct of his fierce nature, not from, but against, the foe; his drawn
scimitar in his hand, the half-suppressed cry of wrath trembling on his
lips, he sprang forward in the direction the javelin had sped. With eyes
accustomed to the ambuscades of Moorish warfare, he searched eagerly,

yet warily through the dark and sighing foliage. No sign of life met his
gaze; and at length, grimly and reluctantly, he retraced his steps, and
quitted the demesnes; but just as he had cleared the wall, a voice--low,
but sharp and shrill--came from the gardens.
"Thou art spared," it said, "but, haply, for a more miserable doom!"
CHAPTER IV.
THE FATHER AND DAUGHTER.
The chamber into which Leila retreated bore out the character she had
given of the interior of her home. The fashion of its ornament and
decoration was foreign to that adopted by the Moors of Granada. It had
a more massive and, if we may use the term, Egyptian gorgeousness.
The walls were covered with the stuffs of the East, stiff with gold,
embroidered upon ground of the deepest purple; strange characters,
apparently in some foreign tongue, were wrought in the tesselated
cornices and on the heavy ceiling, which was supported by square
pillars, round which were twisted serpents of gold and enamel, with
eyes to which enormous emeralds gave a green and lifelike glare:
various scrolls and musical instruments lay scattered upon marble
tables: and a solitary lamp of burnished silver cast a dim and subdued
light around the chamber. The effect of the whole, though splendid,
was gloomy, strange, and oppressive,