esired.

"A prominent member of the tribe or family of the Abencerrages, named
Hamet," he replied, "fell in love with the Sultana, and she in return
loved the handsome and gallant warrior. Secret meetings took place under
a cypress tree in the garden of the Generalife until the Sultan,
Boabdil, accidentally discovered their meetings. The enraged Boabdil,
without revealing his knowledge of their actions, invited the guilty
Hamet and every member of his tribe to attend a banquet. As each guest
arrived at the palace he was brought into this hall. Here the guards
seized him, forced his head over the edge of this basin, and the sharp
simitar of the executioner showed no mercy. This was the king's revenge,
and so the stains on the fountain."

The Room of Two Sisters brought forth exclamations of praise. Walls
covered with dainty traceries in plaster, like embroideries on a ground
of lace work; dados brilliant in fantastic designs of red, green, and
blue; ceilings dropping thousands of stalactites each differing from the
others in beauty of form; and charming views from the boudoir windows of
floral beds and fountains in the garden beyond,--all these combined to
make this place a suitable residence for a Queen.

In the Baths we saw where royalty had bathed in marble basins to the
sound of music by players in the gallery overhead.

"Here are the rooms which Washington Irving occupied in the Alhambra
during his stay in Granada," explained the guide.

[Illustration: THE SUMMER RESIDENCE OF THE MOORISH KINGS.]

Some of us tried to recall Irving's graphic descriptions in the
"Conquest of Granada" of the scenes around this city; of the struggles
between the Christian knights under the banner of Ferdinand, and the
Moorish cavaliers under the standard of Mahomet; of fields covered with
silken canopies; of cavalcades of warriors in jeweled armor and nodding
plumes; of hand-to-hand conflicts and daring exploits; of the siege
and capture of the city and expulsion of the Moors from Spain. As we
thought of the unfortunate Boabdil, the noble queen mother Ayxa, and the
beautiful Zoraya, driven into exile, giving up their beloved palace, the
home of their ancestors with all its wealth and beauty, to their hated
enemies, and leaving the land which had been in possession of the Moors
for eight centuries, we to some extent realized the sorrow that filled
the hearts of the departing exiles as they looked back for the last time
on the height