with execration by my subjects, and, driven into this my fortress of the
Alhambra, dare not venture to head my armies, or to face my people; yet
am I called weak and irresolute, when strength and courage are forbid me.
And as the water glides from yonder rock, that hath no power to retain
it, I see the tide of empire welling from my hands."

The young king spoke warmly and bitterly; and, in the irritation of his
thoughts, strode, while he spoke, with rapid and irregular strides along
the chamber. Almamen marked his emotion with an eye and lip of rigid
composure.

"Light of the faithful," said he, when Boabdil had concluded, "the powers
above never doom man to perpetual sorrow, nor perpetual joy: the cloud
and the sunshine are alike essential to the heaven of our destinies; and
if thou hast suffered in thy youth, thou hast exhausted the calamities of
fate, and thy manhood will be glorious, and thine age serene."

"Thou speakest as if the armies of Ferdinand were not already around my
walls," said Boabdil, impatiently.

"The armies of Sennacherib were as mighty," answered Almamen.

"Wise seer," returned the king, in a tone half sarcastic and half solemn,
"we, the Mussulmans of Spain, are not the blind fanatics of the Eastern
world. On us have fallen the lights of philosophy and science; and if
the more clear-sighted among us yet outwardly reverence the forms and
fables worshipped by the multitude, it is from the wisdom of policy, not
the folly of belief. Talk not to me, then, of thine examples of the
ancient and elder creeds: the agents of God for this world are now, at
least, in men, not angels; and if I wait till Ferdinand share the destiny