The Project Gutenberg EBook of Leila, Complete, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton

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Title: Leila, Complete
The Siege of Granada

Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Release Date: March 17, 2009 [EBook #9761]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Produced by David Widger

LEILA

OR,

THE SIEGE OF GRANADA

By Edward Bulwer Lytton

BOOK I.

CHAPTER I. THE ENCHANTER AND THE WARRIOR.

It was the summer of the year 1491, and the armies of Ferdinand and
Isabel invested the city of Granada.

The night was not far advanced; and the moon, which broke through
the transparent air of Andalusia, shone calmly over the immense and
murmuring encampment of the Spanish foe, and touched with a hazy light
the snow-capped summits of the Sierra Nevada, contrasting the verdure
and luxuriance which no devastation of man could utterly sweep from the
beautiful vale below.

In the streets of the Moorish city many a group still lingered. Some, as
if unconscious of the beleaguering war without, were listening in quiet
indolence to the strings of the Moorish lute, or the lively tale of
an Arabian improrvisatore; others were conversing with such eager
and animated gestures, as no ordinary excitement could wring from the
stately calm habitual to every oriental people. But the more public
places in which gathered these different groups, only the more
impressively heightened the desolate and solemn repose that brooded over
the rest of the city.

At this time, a man, with downcast eyes, and arms folded within the
sweeping gown which descended to his feet, was seen passing through the
streets, alone, and apparently unobservant of all around him. Yet this
indifference was by no means shared by the struggling crowds through
which, from time to time, he musingly swept.

"God is great!" said one man; "it is the Enchanter Almamen."

"He hath locked up the manhood of Boabdil el Chico with the key of his
spells," quoth another, stroking his beard; "I would curse him, if I
dared."

"But they say that he hath promised that when man fails, the genii will
fight for Granada," observed a third, dou