seated in your capital! Why look abroad for perfidious aid
when you have loyal hearts beating true to you in Granada? The
Albaycin is ready to throw open its gates to receive you. Strike home
vigorously--a sudden blow may mend all or make an end. A throne or a
grave!--for a king there is no honorable medium."

Boabdil was of an undecided character, but there are circumstances which
bring the most wavering to a decision, and when once resolved they are
apt to act with a daring impulse unknown to steadier judgments. The
message of the sultana roused him from a dream. Granada, beautiful
Granada, with its stately Alhambra, its delicious gardens, its gushing
and limpid fountains sparkling among groves of orange, citron, and
myrtle, rose before him. "What have I done," exclaimed he, "that I
should be an exile from this paradise of my forefathers--a wanderer and
fugitive in my own kingdom, while a murderous usurper sits proudly upon
my throne? Surely Allah will befriend the righteous cause; one blow, and
all may be my own."

He summoned his scanty band of cavaliers. "Who is ready to follow his
monarch unto the death?" said he; and every one laid his hand upon his
scimetar. "Enough!" said he; "let each man arm himself and prepare his
steed in secret for an enterprise of toil and peril; if we succeed, our
reward is empire."

CHAPTER XLVI.

HOW BOABDIL RETURNED SECRETLY TO GRANADA, AND HOW HE WAS
RECEIVED.--SECOND EMBASSY OF DON JUAN DE VERA, AND HIS PERILS IN THE
ALHAMBRA.

"In the hand of God," exclaimed an old Arabian chronicler, "is the
destiny of princes; he alone giveth empire. A Moorish horseman, mounted
on a fleet Arabian steed, was one day traversing the mountains which
extended between Granada and the frontier of Murcia. He galloped swiftly
through the valleys, but paused and looked out cautiously from the
summit of every height. A squadron of cavaliers followed warily at
a distance. There were fifty lances. The richness of their armor and
attire showed them to be warriors of noble rank, and their leader had
a lofty and prince-like demeanor." The squadron thus described by
the Arabian chronicler was the Moorish king Boabdil and his devoted
followers.

For two nights and a day they pursued their adventurous journey,
avoiding all populous parts of the country and choosing the most
solitary passes of the mountains. They suffered severe hardships and
fatigues, but suffered without a murmur: they were accustome