k the author recounted a
characteristic adventure of the stout Juan de Vera as happening on
the occasion of this embassy; a further consultation of historical
authorities has induced him to transfer it to a second embassy of De
Vera's, which the reader will find related in a subsequent chapter.

CHAPTER III.

DOMESTIC FEUDS IN THE ALHAMBRA--RIVAL SULTANAS--PREDICTIONS CONCERNING
BOABDIL, THE HEIR TO THE THRONE--HOW FERDINAND MEDITATES WAR AGAINST
GRANADA, AND HOW HE IS ANTICIPATED.

Though Muley Abul Hassan was at peace in his external relations, a civil
war raged in his harem, which it is proper to notice, as it had a fatal
effect upon the fortunes of the kingdom. Though cruel by nature, he was
uxorious and somewhat prone to be managed by his wives. Early in life
he had married his kinswoman, Ayxa (or Ayesha), daughter of his
great-uncle, the sultan Mohammed VII., surnamed El Hayzari, or the
Left-handed. She was a woman of almost masculine spirit and energy, and
of such immaculate and inaccessible virtue that she was generally called
La Horra, or the Chaste. By her he had a son, Abu Abdallah, or, as he is
commonly named by historians, Boabdil. The court astrologers, according
to custom, cast the horoscope of the infant, but were seized with
fear and trembling as they regarded it. "Allah Akbar! God is great!"
exclaimed they; "he alone controls the fate of empires. It is written in
the book of fate that this child will one day sit upon the throne, but
that the downfall of the kingdom will be accomplished during his reign."
From that time the prince had been regarded with aversion by his father,
and the prediction which hung over him and the persecutions to which
he became subjected procured him the surname of El Zogoybi, or
the Unfortunate. He grew up, however, under the protection of his
valiant-hearted mother, who by the energy of her character long
maintained an undisputed sway in the harem, until, as her youth passed
away and her beauty declined, a formidable rival arose.

In one of the forays of the Moorish chivalry into the Christian
territories they had surprised a frontier fortress commanded by Sancho
Ximenes de Solis, a noble and valiant cavalier, who fell in bravely
defending it. Among the captives was his daughter Isabella, then almost
in her infancy, who was brought to Granada, delicately raised, and
educated in the Moslem faith.* Her Moorish captors gave her the name of
Fatima, but as she grew up h