rely, loitering,
dreamy spirit in which the temporary American resident of the ancient
palace-fortress entered into its moldering beauties and romantic
associations, and in the artistic skill with which he wove the
commonplace daily life of his attendant: there into the more brilliant
woof of its past. The book abounds in delightful legends, and yet then
are all so touched with the author's airy humor that our credulity is
never overtaxed; we imbibe all the romantic interest of the place without
for a moment losing our hold upon reality. The enchantment of this
Moorish paradise become part of our mental possessions, without the least
shock to our common sense. After a few days of residence in the part of
the Alhambra occupied by Dame Tia Antonia and her family, of which the
handmaid Dolores was the most fascinating member, Irving succeeded in
establishing himself in a remote and vacant part of the vast pile, in a
suite of delicate and elegant chambers with secluded gardens and
fountains, that had once been occupied by the beautiful Elizabeth of
Farnese, daughter of the Duke of Parma, and more than four centuries ago
by a Moorish beauty named Lindaraxa, who flourished in the court of
Muhamed the Left-Handed. These solitary and ruined chambers had their
own terrors and enchantments, and for the first nights gave the author
little but sinister suggestions and grotesque food for his imagination.
But familiarity dispersed the gloom and the superstitious fancies.

"In the course of a few evenings a thorough change took place in the
scene and its associations. The moon, which, when I took possession
of my new apartments, was invisible, gradually gained each evening
upon the darkness of the night, and at length rolled in full
splendor above the towers, pouring a flood of tempered light into
every court and hall. The garden beneath my window, before wrapped
in gloom, was gently lighted up; the orange and citron trees were
tipped with silver; the fountain sparkled in the moonbeams, and even
the blush of the rose was faintly visible.

"I now felt the poetic merit of the Arabic inscription on the walls:
'How beauteous is this garden; where the flowers of the earth vie
with the stars of heaven. What can compare with the vase of yon
alabaster fountain filled with crystal water? nothing but the moon
in her fullness, shining in the midst of an unclouded sky!'