against each other in deadly strife, and the streets of unhappy Granada
were daily dyed in the blood of her children. In the midst of these
dissensions tidings arrived of the formidable army assembling at
Cordova. The rival factions paused in their infatuated brawls, and
were roused to a temporary sense of the common danger. They forthwith
resorted to their old expedient of new-modelling their government, or
rather of making and unmaking kings. The elevation of El Zagal to the
throne had not produced the desired effect; what, then, was to be done?
Recall Boabdil el Chico and acknowledge him again as sovereign? While
they were in a popular tumult of deliberation Hamet Aben Zarrax,
surnamed El Santo, rose among them. This was the same wild, melancholy
man who had predicted the woes of Granada. He issued from one of the
caverns of the adjacent height which overhangs the Darro, and has since
been called the Holy Mountain. His appearance was more haggard than
ever, for the unheeded spirit of prophecy seemed to have turned inwardly
and preyed upon his vitals. "Beware, O Moslems," exclaimed he, "of men
who are eager to govern, yet are unable to protect. Why slaughter each
other for El Chico or El Zagal? Let your kings renounce their contests,
unite for the salvation of Granada, or let them be deposed."

Hamet Aben Zarrax had long been revered as a saint--he was now
considered an oracle. The old men and the nobles immediately consulted
together how the two rival kings might be brought to accord. They had
tried most expedients: it was now determined to divide the kingdom
between them, giving Granada, Malaga, Velez Malaga, Almeria, Almunecar,
and their dependencies to El Zagal, and the residue to Boabdil el Chico.
Among the cities granted to the latter Loxa was particularly specified,
with a condition that he should immediately take command of it in
person, for the council thought the favor he enjoyed with the Castilian
monarchs might avert the threatened attack.

El Zagal readily agreed to this arrangement: he had been hastily
elevated to the throne by an ebullition of the people, and might be as
hastily cast down again. It secured him one half of a kingdom to which
he had no hereditary right, and he trusted to force or fraud to gain the
other half hereafter. The wily old monarch even sent a deputation to his
nephew, making a merit of offering him cheerfully the half which he had
thus been compelled to relinquish, and inviting