"Do ye fly in the sight of your wives and daughters? Would ye not rather
they beheld ye die?"

A thousand voices answered him. "The banner is in the hands of the
infidel--all is lost!" They swept by him, and stopped not till they
gained the gates.

But still a small and devoted remnant of the Moorish cavaliers remained
to shed a last glory over defeat itself. With Muza, their soul and
centre, they fought every atom of ground: it was, as the chronicler
expresses it, as if they grasped the soil with their arms. Twice they
charged into the midst of the foe: the slaughter they made doubled their
own number; but, gathering on and closing in, squadron upon squadron,
came the whole Christian army--they were encompassed, wearied out, beaten
back, as by an ocean. Like wild beasts, driven, at length, to their
lair, they retreated with their faces to the foe; and when Muza came, the
last--his cimiter shivered to the hilt,--he had scarcely breath to
command the gates to be closed and the portcullis lowered, ere he fell
from his charger in a sudden and deadly swoon, caused less by his
exhaustion than his agony and shame. So ended the last battle fought for
the Monarchy of Granada!




CHAPTER II.

THE NOVICE.

It was in one of the cells of a convent renowned for the piety of its