a
solitary apartment; and the Mahometan flew, with the speed of the wind,
to execute her meditated project.

The Moorish Governor of Tangier, who exercises both civil and military
power, was at this time Arbi Esid, a man of a stern and capricious
character. To him Tahra, the Moor, repaired, soliciting an audience. She
told him that her home had afforded refuge to a young maiden of the
Hebrews, who was fairer than the spring, and whom she had led by her
arguments to the verge of Mahometanism; but that should she remain
beneath her roof, her resolutions would certainly be frustrated by her
mother, since the contiguity of their abodes rendered communication so
easy, that it would be impossible to carry out the work of conversion,
or to annul the maternal influence. This audacious dissembler failed not
to enlarge on the difficulty and importance of her conquest, and the
governor, without further demur, commanded a soldier[8] to bring the
unhappy Jewess into his presence. The thunderbolt that rends the airy
region, travels not with more fatal celerity than did the mandate of the
Moorish governor.

Sol was yet listening to the announcement of Tahra Mesmudi, when, at one
and the same moment, entered Simla, demanding her lost daughter, and the
soldier bearing the order of Arbi Esid. Words are unequal to depict the
scene that ensued. The innocent Sol, ignorant as she was of the whole
plot, in vain endeavored to ascertain the cause of this abrupt and
alarming summons. Her mother, Simla, equally amazed, embraced her
repeatedly, and sought by the most passionate efforts to detain her in
her arms, from whence she was forced away by the soldier, impatient to
fulfil his mission--and those hearts, never more destined to beat one
against the other, were torn asunder and separated for ever. Tahra
alone, the fanatical and reckless Moor, understood this mystery, while
she assumed the most profound ignorance, lest her participation in the
act should be suspected; and in this moment of anguish, as in all ages
of the world, force triumphed over right and justice. The soldier
roughly disengaged the arms of the two unhappy Hebrews, which were
entwined in each other, and held them apart by main strength: and the
fair Sol pressed her coral lips on the wet cheek of her mother, Simla,
and bade her a last farewell.

"Mother," she said, "calm your sorrow. I know not the views of the
governor in thus summoning me before him, but conscience tells m