the noble Spaniard's brow, but it also softened the natural proud
severity of his nature, and Antonia could cling the more tenderly and
closely to him with her loving heart.

Tunis, which had been before so amazed at Zelinda's magic power and
enthusiastic hostility against the Christians, now witnessed
Antonia's solemn baptism in a newly-consecrated edifice, and soon
after the three companions took ship with a favorable wind for
Malaga.




CHAPTER XVII.



Beside the fountain where she had parted from Heimbert, Dona Clara
was sitting one evening in deep thought. The guitar on her knees
gave forth a few solitary chords, dreamily drawn from it, as it were,
by her delicate hands, and at length forming themselves into a
melody, while the following words dropped softly from her partly
opened lips:


"Far away, 'fore Tunis ramparts,
Where the Christian army lies,
Paynim host are fiercely fighting
With Spanish troops and Spain's allies.
Who from bloodstained lilies there,