state
becoming the remains of a once-powerful sovereign, but transported on
a mule, like the corpse of the poorest peasant. It received no honor or
ceremonial from El Zagal, and appears to have been interred obscurely
to prevent any popular sensation; and it is recorded by an ancient and
faithful chronicler of the time that the body of the old monarch was
deposited by two Christian captives in his osario or charnel-house.*
Such was the end of the turbulent Muley Abul Hassan, who, after passing
his life in constant contests for empire, could scarce gain quiet
admission into the corner of a sepulchre.

* Cura de los Palacios, c. 77.

No sooner were the populace well assured that old Muley Abul Hassan was
dead and beyond recovery than they all began to extol his memory and
deplore his loss. They admitted that he had been fierce and cruel, but
then he had been brave; he had, to be sure, pulled this war upon their
heads, but he had likewise been crushed by it. In a word, he was
dead, and his death atoned or every fault; for a king recently dead is
generally either a hero or a saint.

In proportion as they ceased to hate old Muley they began to hate his
brother. The circumstances of the old king's death, the eagerness to
appropriate his treasures, the scandalous neglect of his corpse, and the
imprisonment of his sultana and children,--all filled the public mind
with gloomy suspicions, and the epithet of Fratricide was sometimes
substituted for that of El Zagal in the low murmurings of the people.

As the public must always have some object to like as well as to hate,
there began once more to be an inquiry after their fugitive king,
Boabdil el Chico. That unfortunate monarch was still at Cordova,
existing on the cool courtesy and meagre friendship of Ferdinand,
which had waned exceedingly ever since Boabdil had ceased to have any
influence in his late dominions. The reviving interest expressed in his
fate by the Moorish public, and certain secret overtures made to him,
once more aroused the sympathy of Ferdinand: he advised Boabdil again to
set up his standard within the frontiers of Granada, and furnished him
with money and means for the purpose. Boabdil advanced but a little way
into his late territories; he took up his post at Velez el Blanco, a
strong town on the confines of Murcia: there he established the shadow
of a court, and stood, as it were, with one foot over the border,
and ready to draw that back upo