with his
attentions. He had beset her in her walks, until she had been obliged
to confine herself to the house, except when accompanied by her
father. He had besieged her with letters, serenades, and every art by
which he could urge a vehement, but clandestine and dishonourable
suit. The scene in the garden was as much of a surprise to her as to
Antonio. Her persecutor had been attracted by her voice, and had found
his way over a ruined part of the wall. He had come upon her unawares;
was detaining her by force, and pleading his insulting passion, when
the appearance of the student interrupted him, and enabled her to make
her escape. She had forborne to mention to her father the persecution
which she suffered; she wished to spare him unavailing anxiety and
distress, and had determined to confine herself more rigorously to the
house; though it appeared that even here she had not been safe from
his daring enterprise.

Antonio inquired whether she knew the name of this impetuous admirer?
She replied that he had made his advances under a fictitious name; but
that she had heard him once called by the name of Don Ambrosio de
Loxa.

Antonio knew him, by report, for one of the most determined and
dangerous libertines in all Granada. Artful, accomplished, and, if he
chose to be so, insinuating; but daring and headlong in the pursuit of
his pleasures; violent and implacable in his resentments. He rejoiced
to find that Inez had been proof against his seductions, and had been
inspired with aversion by his splendid profligacy; but he trembled to
think of the dangers she had run, and he felt solicitude about the
dangers that must yet environ her.

At present, however, it was probable the enemy had a temporary
quietus. The traces of blood had been found for some distance from the
ladder, until they were lost among thickets; and as nothing had been
heard or seen of him since, it was concluded that he had been
seriously wounded.

As the student recovered from his wounds, he was enabled to join Inez
and her father in their domestic intercourse. The chamber in which
they usually met had probably been a saloon of state in former times.
The floor was of marble; the walls partially covered with remains of
tapestry; the chairs, richly carved and gilt, were crazed with age,
and covered with tarnished and tattered brocade. Against the wall hung
a long rusty rapier, the only relic that the old man retained of the
chivalry of his ancestors