sudden turn in their course brought abruptly before them the tower they
had so valiantly defended. There it still stood, proud and stern, amidst
the blackened and broken wrecks around it, shooting aloft, dark and grim,
against the sky. Another moment, and a mighty crash sounded on their
ears, while the tower fell to the earth, amidst volumes of wreathing
smoke and showers of dust, which were borne, by the concussion to the
spot on which they took their last gaze of the proudest fortress on which
the Moors of Granada had beheld, from their own walls, the standard of
Arragon and Castile.

At the same time, Leila--thus brought so strangely within the very reach
of her father and her lover, and yet, by a mysterious fate, still divided
from both,--with Donna Inez, and the rest of the females of the garrison,
pursued her melancholy path along the ridges of the mountains.




CHAPTER II.

ALMAMEN'S PROPOSED ENTERPRISE.--THE THREE ISRAELITES--CIRCUMSTANCE
IMPRESSES EACH CHARACTER WITH A VARYING DIE.

Boadbil followed up his late success with a series of brilliant assaults
on-the neighbouring fortresses. Granada, like a strong man bowed to the
ground, wrenched one after one the bands that had crippled her liberty
and strength; and, at length, after regaining a considerable portion of
the surrounding territory, the king resolved to lay siege to the seaport
of Salobrena. Could he obtain this town, Boabdil, by establishing
communication between the sea and Granada, would both be enabled to avail