drew her veil, and Fakredeen and
Tancred beheld Eva!

CHAPTER LVI.

_Eva a Captive_

IN ONE of a series of chambers excavated in the mountains, yet connected
with the more artificial portion of the palace, chambers and galleries
which in the course of ages had served for many purposes, sometimes
of security, sometimes of punishment; treasuries not unfrequently, and
occasionally prisons; in one of these vast cells, feebly illumined from
apertures above, lying on a rude couch with her countenance hidden,
motionless and miserable, was the beautiful daughter of Besso, one who
had been bred in all the delights of the most refined luxury, and in the
enjoyment of a freedom not common in any land, and most rare among the
Easterns.

The events of her life had been so strange and rapid during the last few
days that, even amid her woe, she revolved in her mind their startling
import. It was little more than ten days since, under the guardianship
of her father, she had commenced her journey from Damascus to Aleppo.
When they had proceeded about half way, they were met at the city of
Horns by a detachment of Turkish soldiers, sent by the Pasha of Aleppo,
at the request of Hillel Besso, to escort them, the country being much
troubled in consequence of the feud with the Ansarey. Notwithstanding
these precautions, and although, from the advices they received, they
took a circuitous and unexpected course, they were attacked by the
mountaineers within half a day's journey of Aleppo; and with so much
strength and spirit, that their guards, after some resistance, fled and
dispersed, while Eva and her attendants, after seeing her father cut
down in her defence, was carried a prisoner to Gindarics.

Overwhelmed by the fate of her father, she was at first insensible to
her own, and was indeed so distracted that she delivered herself up to
despair. She was beginning in some degree to collect her senses, and to
survey her position with some comparative calmness, when she learnt
from the visit of Cypros that Fakredeen and Tancred were, by a strange
coincidence, under the same roof as herself. Then she recalled the kind
sympathy and offers of consolation that had been evinced and proffered
to her by the mistress of the castle, to whose expressions at the time
she had paid but an imperfect attention. Under these circumstances she
earnestly requested permission to avail herself of a privilege, which
had been previously offered and