she
did the same for the Sultan, having sent for other robes from the
Emperor, her father, and having dressed their wounds with certain
preparations made by Master Helisabat. Then the Queen, though of so
great fortune, was much astonished to see the great beauty of Leonorina,
and said,--

"'I tell you, Infanta, that in the same measure in which I was
astonished to see the beauty of your cavalier, Esplandian, am I now
overwhelmed, beholding yours. If your deeds correspond to your
appearance, I hold it no dishonor to be your prisoner.'

"'Queen,' said the Infanta, 'I hope the God in whom I trust will so
direct events that I shall be able to fulfil every obligation which
conquerors acknowledge toward those who submit to them.'"

With this chivalrous little conversation the Queen of California
disappears from the romance, and consequently from all written history,
till the very _denouement_ of the whole story, where, when the rest is
"wound up," she is wound up also, to be set a-going again in her own
land of California. And if the chroniclers of California find no records
of her in any of the griffin caves of the Black Canon, it is not our
fault, but theirs. Or, possibly, did she and her party suffer shipwreck
on the return passage from Constantinople to the Golden Gate? Their
probable route must have been through the AEgean, over Lebanon and
Anti-Lebanon to the Euphrates, ("I will sail a fleet over the Alps,"
said Cromwell,) down Chesney's route to the Persian Gulf, and so home.

After the Sultan and the Queen are taken prisoners, there are reams of
terrific fighting, in which King Lisuarte and King Perion and a great
many other people are killed; but finally the "Pagans" are all routed,
and the Emperor of Greece retires into a monastery, having united
Esplandian with his daughter Leonorina, and abdicated the throne in
their favor. Among the first acts of their new administration is the
disposal of Calafia.

"As soon as the Queen Calafia saw these nuptials, having no more hope of
him whom she so much loved, [Esplandian,] for a moment her courage left
her; and coming before the new Emperor and these great lords, she thus
spoke to them:--

"'I am a queen of a great kingdom, in which there is the greatest
abundance of all that is most valued in the world, such as gold and
precious stones. My lineage is very old,--for it comes from royal blood
so far back that there is no memory of the beginnings of it,--and my
honor