the charms
of ripened beauty, surrounded with the dazzling splendors of rank,
fortune, and a glorious name. Gomez Arias perceived the advantages of
his alliance with Leonor, and the wildest dreams of ambition danced in
rapid succession before his mind. He beheld himself the envied possessor
of the first lady of the land, the near relative of its most respected
warrior, and the honorable expectant of the highest preferment. His
pride would be gratified, and his fondest desires realized. He held the
cup of happiness to his lips, filled even to the brim; he was
bewildered, intoxicated with the sweet beverage, and in the flow of
pleasurable expectations, the thought of _her_ whom he had made wretched
for ever, was soon completely lost.

Alas! the anticipation of the future will always thus overpower the
recollection of the past; beauty, honors, glory, and their sparkling
attendants, were fearful odds against the love, the solitary love, of a
fond and innocent girl--a love which had nothing more to promise,
nothing more to bestow. But to return:

No sooner had Gomez Arias quitted the place, than Roque, struck by the
decision and promptitude of his master, stood silent and motionless,
gazing on the unfortunate and deserted fair. She was tranquilly
sleeping; dreaming perhaps of love and joy, and Roque hesitated to
shorten the sweet illusion by making known to her the dismal reality. He
felt an unconquerable repugnance to be the messenger of such fearful
intelligence; for though the valet was accustomed to the unprincipled
vagaries of his master, he was not entirely divested of humanity, and he
could not but commiserate the utter wretchedness of Theodora's lot.

But now the soft rays of evening were deepening into twilight; darker
shadows stole imperceptibly over the various-tinted and drowsy
landscape, till at last all was enveloped in one calm uninterrupted blue
of night.

The superstitious fears of Roque, as he saw the gloom increasing around,
overcame his feelings of compassion, and he began to think of awakening
Theodora, when the hollow sound of a horn burst suddenly upon his ear,
and momentarily rivetted him to the spot. He looked towards the quarter
from whence the blast proceeded, and with surprise and terror he beheld,
at a short distance above his head, two men, who, as well as he could
distinguish, were arrayed in Moorish attire; presently three or four
others made their appearance, and Roque, now dead to all ot