suspended on a pillar the round shield, the light javelin, and the
curving cimiter, of Moorish warfare. So studded were these arms with
jewels of rare cost, that they might alone have sufficed to indicate the
rank of the evident owner, even if his own gorgeous vestments had not
betrayed it. An open manuscript, on a silver table, lay unread before
the Moor: as, leaning his face upon his hand, he looked with abstracted
eyes along the mountain summits dimly distinguished from the cloudless
and far horizon.

No one could have gazed without a vague emotion of interest, mixed with
melancholy, upon the countenance of the inmate of that luxurious chamber.

Its beauty was singularly stamped with a grave and stately sadness, which
was made still more impressive by its air of youth and the unwonted
fairness of the complexion: unlike the attributes of the Moorish race,
the hair and curling beard were of a deep golden colour; and on the broad
forehead and in the large eyes, was that settled and contemplative
mildness which rarely softens the swart lineaments of the fiery children
of the sun. Such was the personal appearance of Boabdil el Chico, the
last of the Moorish dynasty in Spain.

"These scrolls of Arabian learning," said Boabdil to himself, "what do
they teach? to despise wealth and power, to hold the heart to be the true
empire. This, then, is wisdom. Yet, if I follow these maxims, am I
wise? alas! the whole world would call me a driveller and a madman. Thus
is it ever; the wisdom of the Intellect fills us with precepts which it
is the wisdom of Action to despise. O Holy Prophet! what fools men would
be, if their knavery did not eclipse their folly!"

The young king listlessly threw himself back on his cushions as he