"Be there any of the tribes of Moisa amongst the crowd?" cried Boabdil,
pursuing his advantage; "if so, let them approach and testify what they
know." Forth came--not from the crowd, but from amongst Boabdil's train,
a well-known Israelite.

"We disown this man of blood and fraud," said Elias, bowing to the earth;
"but he was of our creed."

"Speak, false santon! art thou dumb?" cried the king.

"A curse light on thee, dull fool!" cried Almamen, fiercely. "What
matters who the instrument that would have restored to thee thy throne?
Yes! I, who have ruled thy councils, who have led thine armies, I am of
the race of Joshua and of Samuel--and the Lord of Hosts is the God of
Almamen!"

A shudder ran through that mighty multitude: but the looks, the mien, and
the voice of the man awed them, and not a weapon was raised against him.
He might, even then, have passed scathless through the crowd; he might
have borne to other climes his burning passions and his torturing woes:
but his care for life was past; he desired but to curse his dupes, and to
die. He paused, looked round and burst into a laugh of such bitter and
haughty scorn, as the tempted of earth may hear in the halls below from
the lips of Eblis.

"Yes," he exclaimed, "such I am! I have been your idol and your lord.
I may be your victim, but in death I am your vanquisher. Christian and
Moslem alike my foe, I would have trampled upon both. But the Christian,
wiser than you, gave me smooth words; and I would have sold ye to his