rtunate companions-in-arms who had fallen in the fatal battle
of Alarcos. The sight of those bloody relics added fury to his cruel
disposition, and served to steel a heart already but little disposed to
sentiments of mercy.

Three days after the sack and plunder of the place, Don Beltran was
seated in the hall-court lately occupied by the proud Alfaqui, lying
in his divan, dressed in his rich robes, the fountains playing in the
centre, the slaves of the Moor ministering to his scarred and rugged
Christian conqueror. Some fanned him with peacocks' pinions, some danced
before him, some sang Moor's melodies to the plaintive notes of a guzla,
one--it was the only daughter of the Moor's old age, the young Zutulbe,
a rosebud of beauty--sat weeping in a corner of the gilded hall: weeping
for her slain brethren, the pride of Moslem chivalry, whose heads were
blackening in the blazing sunshine on the portals without, and for her
father, whose home had been thus made desolate.

He and his guest, the English knight Sir Wilfrid, were playing at chess,
a favorite amusement with the chivalry of the period, when a messenger
was announced from Valencia, to treat, if possible, for the ransom of
the remaining part of the Alfaqui's family. A grim smile lighted up Don
Beltran's features as he bade the black slave admit the messenger. He
entered. By his costume it was at once seen that the bearer of the
flag of truce was a Jew--the people were employed continually then as
ambassadors between the two races at war in Spain.

"I come," said the old Jew (in a voice which made Sir Wilfrid start),
"from my lord the Alfaqui to my noble senor, the invincible Don Beltran
de Cuchilla, to treat for the ransom of the Moor's only daughter, the
child of his old age and the pearl of his affection."

"A pearl is a valuable jewel, Hebrew. What does the Moorish dog bid for
her?" asked Don Beltran, still smiling grimly.

"The Alfaqui offers 100,000 dinars, twenty-four horses with their
caparisons, twenty-four suits of plate-armor, and diamonds and rubies to
the amount of 1,000,000 dinars."

"Ho, slaves!" roared Don Beltran, "show the Jew my treasury of gold. How
many hundred thousand pieces are there?" And ten enormous chests were
produced in which the accountant counted 1,000 bags of 1,000 dirhems
each, and displayed several caskets of jewels containing such a treasure
of rubies, smaragds, diamonds, and jacinths, as made the eyes of the
aged ambassador