who have seen both state and poverty, which I have not, tell me that
treasures and splendour, that might glad a monarch, are prodigalised
around me: but of ties and kindred know I little: my father, a stern and
silent man, visits me but rarely--sometimes months pass, and I see him
not; but I feel he loves me; and, till I knew thee, Muza, my brightest
hours were in listening to the footsteps and flying to the arms of that
solitary friend."

"Know you not his name?"

"Nor, I nor any one of the household; save perhaps Ximen, the chief of
the slaves, an old and withered man, whose very eye chills me into fear
and silence."

"Strange!" said the Moor, musingly; "yet why think you our love is
discovered, or can be thwarted?"

"Hush! Ximen sought me this day: 'Maiden,' said he, 'men's footsteps
have been tracked within the gardens; if your sire know this, you will
have looked your last on Granada. Learn,' he added, in a softer voice,
as he saw me tremble, 'that permission were easier given to thee to wed
the wild tiger than to mate with the loftiest noble of Morisca! Beware!'
He spoke, and left me. O Muza!" she continued, passionately wringing her
hands, "my heart sinks within me, and omen and doom rise dark before my
sight!"

"By my father's head, these obstacles but fire my love, and I would scale
to thy possession, though every step in the ladder were the corpses of a
hundred foes!"