t
far removed, of Roderick--was possessed of qualities no less marked by
daring than artifice. His plans well digested, he committed his
government in Africa to the charge of a deputy, and repaired to the
court at Toledo. There he made it his business to advance in credit and
favour until the moment should arrive for action. His first step was, by
means of false alarms of attacks meditated on the northern frontier, to
get rid of the principal part of the disposable forces in that
direction. Meanwhile he caused a letter from his Countess, who remained
in Africa, to be forwarded to the King, in which, on the plea of serious
illness, she urgently entreats the royal permission for the departure
of Florinda to Ceuta. It is related that the profligate Rodrigo
consented to the journey with so much the better grace, that possession
had divested the attractions of his victim of all further hold of his
passions, already under the dominion of new allurements.

There is a gate at Malaga, giving issue towards the sea-shore, which
bears to this day the name of Gate of the Cava: through it she is said
to have passed on embarking for Africa.

With regard to the name "la Cava" given to the gate and to the bath, I
am disposed to prefer the popular notion to the assertion of Mariana,
that it was her name. It is a natural supposition that the anecdote of
the affair of Toledo, spread among the Arabs, who, for centuries after
this period, were the depositaries of the annals and traditions of the
Peninsula,--should have become tinted with a colour derived from their
customs and ideas. Now it would be difficult to persuade an Arab that
the circumstances of the story in question could befall a virtuous
female, surrounded with the thousand precautions peculiar to an oriental
court. If we add to this the contemptuous tone assumed by them towards
those of the hostile creed--a tone that must have suited in an especial
degree with their way of thinking on the subject of female deportment
among the Christians, which they look upon as totally devoid of
delicacy and reserve--the epithet applied to Florinda is easily
accounted for. But to return to the story.

It only now remained for Don Julian to determine the Caliph's viceroy in
Africa in favour of the invasion. Repairing to his court, he obtained an
audience, in which he painted to the Prince, in such eloquent terms, the
natural and artificial wealth of the Spanish peninsula, the facility of
the