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!'

"On such heavenly nights I would sit for hours at my window inhaling
the sweetness of the garden, and musing on the checkered fortunes of
those whose history was dimly shadowed out in the elegant memorials
around. Sometimes, when all was quiet, and the clock from the
distant cathedral of Granada struck the midnight hour, I have
sallied out on another tour and wandered over the whole building;
but how different from my first tour! No longer dark and
mysterious; no longer peopled with shadowy foes; no lo