d Boabdil, regaining his customary cold composure;
"and since you are now satisfied with your son, leave me alone with
Muza."

The queen sighed heavily; but there was something in the calm of Boabdil
which chilled and awed her more than his bursts of passion. She drew her
veil around her, and passed slowly and reluctantly from the chamber.

"Muza," said Boabdil, when alone with the prince, and fixing his large
and thoughtful eyes upon the dark orbs of his companion,--"when, in
our younger days, we conversed together, do you remember how often that
converse turned upon those solemn and mysterious themes to which the
sages of our ancestral land directed their deepest lore; the enigmas
of the stars--the science of fate--the wild searches into the
clouded future, which hides the destines of nations and of men? Thou
rememberest, Muza, that to such studies mine own vicissitudes and
sorrows, even in childhood--the strange fortunes which gave me in my
cradle the epithet of El Zogoybi--the ominous predictions of santons
and astrologers as to the trials of my earthly fate,--all contributed to
incline my soul. Thou didst not despise those earnest musings, nor our
ancestral lore, though, unlike me, ever more inclined to action than
to contemplation, that which thou mightest believe had little influence
upon what thou didst design. With me it hath been otherwise; every event
of life hath conspired to feed my early prepossessions; and, in this
awful crisis of my fate, I have placed myself and my throne rather under
the guardianship of spirits than of men. This alone has reconciled me to
inaction--to the torpor of the Alhambra--to the mutinies of my people.
I have smiled, when foes surround and friends deserted me, secure of
the aid at last--if I bided but the fortunate hour--of the charms of
protecting spirits, and the swords of the invisible creation. Thou
wonderest what this should lead to. Listen! Two nights since (and the
king shuddered) I was with the dead! My father appeared before me--not
as I knew him in life--gaunt and terrible, full of the vigour of health,
and the strength of kingly empire, and of fierce passion--but wan, calm,
shadowy. From lips on which Azrael had set his livid seal, he bade me
beware of thee!"

The king ceased suddenly; and sought to read on the face of Muza the
effect his words produced. But the proud and swarthy features of the
Moor evinced no pang of conscience; a slight smile of pity might have
c