eived with great favor by
the queen Exilona, and admitted among the noble damsels that attended upon
her person. Here she lived in honor and apparent security, and surrounded
by innocent delights. To gratify his queen, Don Roderick had built for her
rural recreation, a palace without the walls of Toledo, on the banks of
the Tagus. It stood in the midst of a garden, adorned after the luxurious
style of the east. The air was perfumed by fragrant shrubs and flowers;
the groves resounded with the song of the nightingale; while the gush of
fountains and waterfalls, and the distant murmur of the Tagus, made it a
delightful retreat during the sultry days of summer. The charm of perfect
privacy also reigned throughout the place; for the garden walls were high,
and numerous guards kept watch without to protect it from all intrusion.

In this delicious abode, more befitting an oriental voluptuary than a
Gothic king, Don Roderick was accustomed to while away much of that time
which should have been devoted to the toilsome cares of government. The
very security and peace which he had produced throughout his dominions, by
his precautions to abolish the means and habitudes of war, had effected a
disastrous change in his character. The hardy and heroic qualities which
had conducted him to the throne, were softened in the lap of indulgence.
Surrounded by the pleasures of an idle and effeminate court, and beguiled
by the example of his degenerate nobles, he gave way to a fatal sensuality
that had lain dormant in his nature during the virtuous days of his
adversity. The mere love of female beauty had first enamoured him of
Exilona; and the same passion, fostered by voluptuous idleness, now
betrayed him into the commission of an act fatal to himself and Spain. The
following is the story of his error, as gathered from an old chronicle and
legend.

In a remote part of the palace was an apartment devoted to the queen. It
was like an eastern harem, shut up from the foot of man, and where the
king himself but rarely entered. It had its own courts, and gardens, and
fountains, where the queen was wont to recreate herself with her damsels,
as she had been accustomed to do in the jealous privacy of her father's
palace.

One sultry day, the king, instead of taking his siesta, or mid-day
slumber, repaired to this apartment to seek the society of the queen. In
passing through a small oratory, he was drawn by the sound of female
voices to a casement