The queen, surprised and moved at an action which, had witnesses been
present, would only perhaps (for such is human nature) have offended her
Castilian prejudices, left her hand in Leila's grateful clasp; and laying
the other upon the parted and luxuriant ringlets of the kneeling maiden,
said, gently,--"And thy prayers shall avail thee and me when thy God and
mine are the same. Bless thee, maiden! I am a mother; thou art
motherless--bless thee!"




CHAPTER II.

THE TEMPTATION OF THE JEWESS,--IN WHICH THE HISTORY PASSES FROM THE
OUTWARD TO THE INTERNAL.

It was about the very hour, almost the very moment, in which Almamen
effected his mysterious escape from the tent of the Inquisition, that the
train accompanying the litter which bore Leila, and which was composed of
some chosen soldiers of Isabel's own body-guard, after traversing the
camp, winding along that part of the mountainous defile which was in the
possession of the Spaniards, and ascending a high and steep acclivity,
halted before the gates of a strongly fortified castle renowned in the
chronicles of that memorable war. The hoarse challenge of the sentry,
the grating of jealous bars, the clanks of hoofs upon the rough pavement
of the courts, and the streaming glare of torches--falling upon stern and
bearded visages, and imparting a ruddier glow to the moonlit buttresses
and battlements of the fortress--aroused Leila from a kind of torpor
rather than sleep, in which the fatigue and excitement of the day had