uld be
delivered to Pedro de Vargas.

"Tell him," said the king, "that I beg his pardon for not sending these
cattle sooner, but have just learned they are his dues, and hasten to
satisfy them in courtesy to so worthy a cavalier. Tell him, at the same
time, that I did not know the alcaide of Gibraltar was so vigilant in
collecting his tolls."

The soldierly pleasantry of the old king was much to the taste of the
brave De Vargas, and called for a worthy return. He bade his men deliver a
rich silken vest and a scarlet mantle to the messenger, to be presented to
the Moorish king.

"Tell his majesty," he said, "that I kiss his hands for the honor he has
done me, and regret that my scanty force was not fitted to give him a more
signal reception. Had three hundred horsemen, whom I have been promised
from Xeres, arrived in time, I might have served him up an entertainment
more befitting his station. They may arrive during the night, in which
case his majesty, the king, may look for a royal service in the morning."

"Allah preserve us," cried the king, on receiving this message, "from a
brush with these hard riders of Xeres! A handful of troops familiar with
these wild mountain-passes may destroy an army encumbered like ours with
booty."

It was a relief to the king to find that De Vargas was too sorely wounded
to take the field in person. A man like him at the head of an adequate
force might have given no end of trouble. During the day the retreat was
pushed with all speed, the herds being driven with such haste that they
were frequently broken and scattered among the mountain defiles, the
result being that more than five thousand cattle were lost, being gathered
up again by the Christians.

The king returned triumphantly to Malaga with the remainder, rejoicing in
his triumph over the Duke of Medina Sidonia, and having taught King
Ferdinand that the game of ravaging an enemy's country was one at which
two could play.

THE RIVAL KINGS OF GRANADA.

"In the hand of God is the destiny of princes. He alone giveth empire,"
piously says an old Arabian chronicler, and goes on with the following
story: A Moorish horseman, mounted on a fleet Arabian steed, was one day
traversing the mountains which extend between Granada and the frontier of
Murcia. He galloped swiftly through the valleys, but paused and gazed
cautiously from the summit of every height. A squadron of cavaliers
followed warily at a distance. There were