LEILA

OR,

THE SIEGE OF GRANADA

BY

EDWARD BULWER LYTTON


Book I.




CHAPTER I.

THE ENCHANTER AND THE WARRIOR.

It was the summer of the year 1491, and the armies of Ferdinand and
Isabel invested the city of Granada.

The night was not far advanced; and the moon, which broke through the
transparent air of Andalusia, shone calmly over the immense and murmuring
encampment of the Spanish foe, and touched with a hazy light the snow-
capped summits of the Sierra Nevada, contrasting the verdure and
luxuriance which no devastation of man could utterly sweep from the
beautiful vale below.