File:Leila; or, The siege of Granada- and Calderon, the courtier (1838) (14592155840).jpg

Identifier: leilaorsiegeofgr00lytt (find matches)
Title: Leila; or, The siege of Granada: and Calderon, the courtier
Year: 1838 (1830s)
Authors: Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron, 1803-1873
Subjects: Granada (Spain) -- History Siege, 1491-1492 Fiction
Publisher: London : Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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d shewed a nar-row and winding staircase. The king reclosed theentrance, and descended: the stairs led, at last, intodamp and rough passages ; and the murmur of waters,that reached his ear through the thick walls, indicatedthe subterranean nature of the soil through which theywere hewn. The lamp burned clear and steady throughthe darkness of the place ; and Boabdil proceeded withsuch impatient rapidity, that the distance (in reality,considerable) which he traversed, before he arrived athis destined bourne, was quickly measured. He came,at last, into a wide cavern, guarded by doors concealedand secret as those which had screened the -entrancefrom the upper air. He was in one of the many vaultswhich made the mighty cemetery of the monarchsof Granada; and before him stood the robed andcrowned skeleton, and before him glowed the magicdial-plate, of which he had spoken in his interviewwith Muza. ** Oh, dread and awful image! cried the king,throwing himself on his knees before the skeleton;
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,^ )r THE HOUR AND THE MAN. 159 shadow of what was once a king, wise in council,and terrible in war; if in those hollow bones yet lurksthe impalpable and unseen spirit, hear thy repentantson. Forgive, while it is yet time, the rebellion of hisfiery youth, and suffer thy daring soul to animate thedoubt and weakness of his own. I go forth to battle,waitino; not the sig-nal thou didst ordain. Let not thepenance for a rashness, to which fate urges me on,attach to my country, but to me. And if I perish inthe field, may my evil destinies be buried with me, anda worthier monarch redeem my errors, and preserveGranada ! As the king raised his looks, the unrelaxed grin ofthe grim dead, made yet more hideous by the mockeryof the diadem and the royal robe, froze back to icethe passion and sorrow at his heart. He shuddered,and rose with a deep sigh; when, as his eyes mechani-cally followed the lifted arm of the skeleton, he beheld,with mingled delight and awe, the hitherto motionlessfinger of the

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