serpents of burning light: blood-red were his
breast and limbs, his haughty crest, and his outstretched arm; and
as for a single moment, he met the shuddering eyes of his judges, he
seemed, indeed, to verify all the superstitions of the time--no longer
the trembling captive but the mighty demon or the terrible magician.

The Dominican was the first to recover his self-possession. "Seize the
enchanter!" he exclaimed; but no man stirred. Ere yet the exclamation
had died on his lip, Almamen took from his breast a phial, and dashed
it on the ground--it broke into a thousand shivers: a mist rose over the
apartment--it spread, thickened, darkened, as a sudden night; the lamps
could not pierce it. The luminous form of the Hebrew grew dull and dim,
until it vanished in the shade. On every eye blindness seemed to fall.
There was a dead silence, broken by a cry and a groan; and when, after
some minutes, the darkness gradually dispersed, Almamen was gone. One,
of the guards lay bathed in blood upon the ground; they raised him: he
had attempted to seize the prisoner, and had been stricken with a mortal
wound. He died as he faltered forth the explanation. In the confusion
and dismay of the scene none noticed, till long afterwards, that the
prisoner had paused long enough to strip the dying guard of his long
mantle; a proof that he feared his more secret arts might not suffice to
bear him safe through the camp, without the aid of worldly stratagem.

"The fiend hath been amongst us!" said the Dominican, solemnly falling
on his knees,--"let us pray!"

BOOK III.

CHAPTER I. ISABEL AND THE JEWISH MAIDEN.

While this scene took place before the tribunal of Torquemada, Leila had
been summoned from the indulgence of fears, which her gentle nature and
her luxurious nurturing had ill-fitted her to contend against, to the
presence of the queen. That gifted and high-spirited princess, whose
virtues were her own, whose faults were of her age, was not, it is true,
without the superstition and something of the intolerant spirit of her
royal spouse: but, even where her faith assented to persecution, her
heart ever inclined to mercy; and it was her voice alone that ever
counteracted the fiery zeal of Torquemada, and mitigated the sufferings
of the unhappy ones who fell under the suspicion of heresy. She had,
happily, too, within her a strong sense of justice, as well as the
sentiment of compassion; and often, when she could not save