steeped her senses. An old seneschal conducted her, through vast and
gloomy halls (how unlike the brilliant chambers and fantastic arcades of
her Moorish home) to a huge Gothic apartment, hung with the arras of
Flemish looms. In a few moments, maidens, hastily aroused from slumber,
grouped around her with a respect which would certainly not have been
accorded had her birth and creed been known. They gazed with surprise at
her extraordinary beauty and foreign garb, and evidently considered the
new guest a welcome addition to the scanty society of the castle. Under
any other circumstances, the strangeness of all she saw, and the frowning
gloom of the chamber to which she was consigned, would have damped the
spirits of one whose destiny had so suddenly passed from the deepest
quiet into the sternest excitement. But any change was a relief to the
roar of the camp, the addresses of the prince, and the ominous voice and
countenance of Torquemada; and Leila looked around her, with the feeling
that the queen's promise was fulfilled, and that she was already amidst
the blessings of shelter and repose. It was long, however, before sleep
revisited her eyelids, and when she woke the noonday sun streamed broadly
through the lattice. By the bedside sat a matron advanced in years, but
of a mild and prepossessing countenance, which only borrowed a yet more
attractive charm from an expression of placid and habitual melancholy.
She was robed in black; but the rich pearls that were interwoven in the
sleeves and stomacher, the jewelled cross that was appended from a chain
of massive gold, and, still more, a certain air of dignity and command,--
bespoke, even to the inexperienced eye of Leila, the evidence of superior
station.

"Thou hast slept late, daughter," said the lady, with a benevolent smile;
"may thy slumbers have refreshed thee! Accept my regrets that I knew not
till this morning of thine arrival, or I should have been the first to
welcome the charge of my royal mistress."