read to the ends of the earth. Now, the same renown conveys
only thy sighs. Days and nights pass away, and like them the enjoyments
of the world; thy greatness has vanished like a dream!'"

But if Mahomet was superstitious--if he felt that fate had doomed him,
and that resistance would be useless--he resolved not to fall ignobly.
His defence was indeed heroic; but it was vain, even though Alfonso sent
him an aid of twenty thousand men: his cities fell one by one; Seville
was constrained to capitulate: he and his family were thrown into prison
until a ship was prepared to convey them into Africa, whither their
perfidious ally had retired some weeks before. His conduct in this
melancholy reverse of fortune is represented as truly great. Not a sigh
escaped him, except for the innocent companions of his misfortune,
especially for his son, Al Raxid, whose virtues and talents deserved a
better destiny. Surrounded by the best beloved of his wives, by his
daughters, and his four surviving sons, he endeavored to console them as
they wept on seeing his royal hands oppressed with fetters, and still
more when the ship conveyed all from the shores of Spain. "My children
and friends," said the suffering monarch, "let us learn to support our
lot with resignation! In this state of being our enjoyments are but lent
us, to be resumed when heaven sees fit. Joy and sorrow, pleasure and
pain, closely follow each other; but the noble heart is above the
inconstancy of fortune!"

The royal party disembarked at Ceuta, and were conveyed to Agmat, to be
confined in a fortress. We are told that on their journey a
compassionate poet presented the fallen King with a copy of verses
deploring his misfortunes, and that he rewarded the poet with thirty-six
pieces of gold--the only money he had left, from his once exhaustless
riches. He had little apprehension of what was to follow--that Yussef
would leave him without support; that his future life was to be passed
in penury; nay, that his daughters would be compelled to earn his
subsistence and their own by the labor of their hands. Yet even in that
indigent condition, says Aben Lebuna, and through the sadness which
covered their countenances, there was something about them which
revealed their high origin. The unfortunate monarch outlived the loss of
his crown and liberty about four years.

After the fall of Mahomet, the general of Yussef had little difficulty
in subduing the princes of Andalusia. Val