knowledge rarely to thy sex. Not thine the lascivious arts of the
Moorish maidens; not thine their harlot songs, and their dances of lewd
delight; thy delicate limbs were but taught the attitude that Nature
dedicates to the worship of a God, and the music of thy voice was tuned
to the songs of thy fallen country, sad with the memory of her wrongs,
animated with the names of her heroes, with the solemnity of her prayers.
These scrolls, and the lessons of our seers, have imparted to thee such
of our science and our history as may fit thy mind to aspire, and thy
heart to feel for a sacred cause. Thou listenest to me, Leila?"

Perplexed and wondering, for never before had her father addressed her in
such a strain, the maiden answered with an earnestness of manner that
seemed to content the questioner; and he resumed, with an altered,
hollow, solemn voice:

"Then curse the persecutors. Daughter of the great Hebrew race, arise
and curse the Moorish taskmaster and spoiler!"

As he spoke, the adjuror himself rose, lifting his right hand on high;
while his left touched the shoulder of the maiden. But she, after gazing
a moment in wild and terrified amazement upon his face, fell cowering at
his knees; and, clasping them imploringly, exclaimed in scarce articulate
murmurs:

"Oh, spare me! spare me!"

The Hebrew, for such he was, surveyed her, as she thus quailed at his
feet, with a look of rage and scorn: his hand wandered to his poniard, he
half unsheathed it, thrust it back with a muttered curse, and then,
deliberately drawing it forth, cast it on the ground beside her.