ica, instead of meeting with kindness
and sympathy, he was seized and thrown into prison by the caliph of Fez,
Benimerin, as though he had been his vassal. He was accused of being the
cause of the dissensions and downfall of the kingdom of Granada, and,
the accusation being proved to the satisfaction of the king of Fez, he
condemned the unhappy El Zagal to perpetual darkness. A basin of glowing
copper was passed before his eyes, which effectually destroyed his
sight. His wealth, which had probably been the secret cause of these
cruel measures, was confiscated and seized upon by his oppressor, and El
Zagal was thrust forth, blind, helpless, and destitute, upon the world.
In this wretched condition the late Moorish monarch groped his way
through the regions of Tingitania until he reached the city of Velez de
la Gomera. The emir of Velez had formerly been his ally, and felt some
movement of compassion at his present altered and abject state. He
gave him food and raiment and suffered him to remain unmolested in his
dominions. Death, which so often hurries off the prosperous and happy
from the midst of untasted pleasures, spares, on the other hand, the
miserable to drain the last drop of his cup of bitterness. El Zagal
dragged out a wretched existence of many years in the city of Velez. He
wandered about blind and disconsolate, an object of mingled scorn and
pity, and bearing above his raiment a parchment on which was written in
Arabic, "This is the unfortunate king of Andalusia."*

* Marmol, De Rebelione Maur., lib. 1, cap. 16; Padraza, Hist.
Granad., part 3, c. 4; Suarez, Hist. Obisp. de Guadix y Baza, cap. 10.

CHAPTER XC.

PREPARATIONS OF GRANADA FOR A DESPERATE DEFENCE.

How is thy strength departed, O Granada! how is thy beauty withered
and despoiled, O city of groves and fountains! The commerce that once
thronged thy streets is at an end; the merchant no longer hastens to
thy gates with the luxuries of foreign lands. The cities which once paid
thee tribute are wrested from thy sway; the chivalry which filled thy
Vivarrambla with sumptuous pageantry have fallen in many battles. The
Alhambra still rears its ruddy towers from the midst of groves, but
melancholy reigns in its marble halls, and the monarch looks down from
his lofty balconies upon a naked waste where once extended the blooming
glories of the Vega!

Such is the lament of the Moorish writers over the lamentable state of
Granada, now a mere p