"Almamen," cried Boabdil, eagerly, "you are welcome." As he spoke, he
motioned to the dancing-girls to withdraw. "May I not rest? O core of
my heart, thy bird is in its home," murmured the songstress at the king's
feet.

"Sweet Amine," answered Boabdil, tenderly smoothing down her ringlets as
he bent to kiss her brow, "you should witness only my hours of delight.
Toil and business have nought with thee; I will join thee ere yet the
nightingale hymns his last music to the moon." Amine sighed, rose, and
vanished with her companions.

"My friend," said the king, when alone with Almamen, "your counsels often
soothe me into quiet, yet in such hours quiet is a crime. But what do?--
how struggle?--how act? Alas! at the hour of his birth, rightly did they
affix to the name of Boabdil, the epithet of _El Zogoybi_. [The Unlucky].
Misfortune set upon my brow her dark and fated stamp ere yet my lips
could shape a prayer against her power. My fierce father, whose frown
was as the frown of Azrael, hated me in my cradle; in my youth my name
was invoked by rebels against my will; imprisoned by my father, with the
poison-bowl or the dagger hourly before my eyes, I was saved only by the
artifice of my mother. When age and infirmity broke the iron sceptre of
the king, my claims to the throne were set aside, and my uncle, El Zagal,
usurped my birthright. Amidst open war and secret treason I wrestled for
my crown; and now, the sole sovereign of Granada, when, as I fondly
imagined, my uncle had lost all claim on the affections of my people by
succumbing to the Christian king, and accepting a fief under his
dominion, I find that the very crime of El Zagal is fixed upon me by my
unhappy subjects--that they deem he would not have yielded but for my
supineness. At the moment of my delivery from my rival, I am received