hough but by fits and starts,
his earlier youth had been remarkable.

"Alla Achbar! God is great!" cried he; "we will not remain here till
it suit the foe to confine the eagle again to his eyrie. They have left
us--we will burst on them. Summon our alfaquis, we will proclaim a holy
war! The sovereign of the last possessions of the Moors is in the field.
Not a town that contains a Moslem but shall receive our summons, and we
will gather round our standard all the children of our faith!"

"May the king live for ever!" cried the council, with one voice.

"Lose not a moment," resumed Boabdil--"on to the Vivarrambla, marshal
the troops--Muza heads the cavalry; myself our foot. Ere the sun's
shadow reach yonder forest, our army shall be on its march."

The warriors, hastily and in joy, left the palace; and when he was
alone, Boabdil again relapsed into his wonted irresolution. After
striding to and fro for some minutes in anxious thought, he abruptly
quitted the hall of council, and passed in to the more private chambers
of the palace, till he came to a door strongly guarded by plates of
iron. It yielded easily, however, to a small key which he carried in his
girdle; and Boabdil stood in a small circular room, apparently without
other door or outlet; but, after looking cautiously round, the king
touched a secret spring in the wall, which, giving way, discovered a
niche, in which stood a small lamp, burning with the purest naphtha,
and a scroll of yellow parchment covered with strange letters and
hieroglyphics. He thrust the scroll in his bosom, took the lamp in his
hand, and pressing another spring within the niche, the wall receded,
and showed a narrow and winding staircase. The king reclosed the
entrance, and descended: the stairs led, at last, into clamp and rough
passages; and the murmur of waters, that reached his ear through the
thick walls, indicated the subterranean nature of the soil through which
they were hewn. The lamp burned clear and steady through the darkness of
the place; and Boabdil proceeded with such impatient rapidity, that
the distance (in reality, considerable) which he traversed, before he
arrived at his destined bourne, was quickly measured. He came at last
into a wide cavern, guarded by doors concealed and secret as those which
had screened the entrance from the upper air. He was in one of the many
vaults which made the mighty cemetery of the monarchs of Granada; and
before him stood the robed and