"Thou usest plain language, my friend," said he; "my words can be as rudely spoken. Thou art in my power, and canst return not, save at my permission."
"I have your royal word, sire, for free entrance and safe egress,"
answered Almamen. "Break it, and Granada is with the Moors till the Darro runs red with the blood of her heroes, and her people strew the vales as the leaves in autumn."
"Art thou then thyself of the Jewish faith?" asked the king. "If thou art not, wherefore are the outcasts of the world so dear to thee?"
"My fathers were of that creed, royal Ferdinand; and if I myself desert their creed, I do not desert their cause. O king! are my terms scorned or accepted?"
"I accept them: provided, first, that thou obtainest the exile or death of Muza; secondly, that within two weeks of this date thou bringest me, along with the chief councillors of Granada, the written treaty of the capitulation, and the keys of the city. Do this: and though the sole king in Christendom who dares the hazard, I offer to the Israelites throughout Andalusia the common laws and rights of citizens of Spain; and to thee I will accord such dignity as may content thy ambition."
The Hebrew bowed reverently, and drew from his breast a scroll, which he placed on the table before the king. "This writing, mighty Ferdinand, contains the articles of our compact."
"How, knave! wouldst thou have us commit our royal signature to conditions with such as thou art, to the chance of the public eye? The king"s word is the king"s bond!"
The Hebrew took up the scroll with imperturbable composure, "My child!"
said he; "will your majesty summon back my child? we would depart."
"A st.u.r.dy mendicant this, by the Virgin!" muttered the king; and then, speaking aloud, "Give me the paper, I will scan it."
Running his eyes hastily over the words, Ferdinand paused a moment, and then drew towards him the implements of writing, signed the scroll, and returned it to Almamen.
The Israelite kissed it thrice with oriental veneration, and replaced it in his breast.
Ferdinand looked at him hard and curiously. He was a profound reader of men"s characters; but that of his guest baffled and perplexed him.
"And how, stranger," said he, gravely,--"how can I trust that man who thus distrusts one king and sells another?"
"O king!" replied Almamen (accustomed from his youth to commune with and command the possessors of thrones yet more absolute),--"O king! if thou believest me actuated by personal and selfish interests in this our compact, thou has but to make, my service minister to my interest, and the lore of human nature will tell thee that thou hast won a ready and submissive slave. But if thou thinkest I have avowed sentiments less abject, and developed qualities higher than those of the mere bargainer for sordid power, oughtest thou not to rejoice that chance has thrown into thy way one whose intellect and faculties may be made thy tool? If I betray another, that other is my deadly foe. Dost not thou, the lord of armies, betray thine enemy? The Moor is an enemy bitterer to myself than to thee. Because I betray an enemy, am I unworthy to serve a friend? If I, a single man, and a stranger to the Moor, can yet command the secrets of palaces, and render vain the counsels of armed men, have I not in that attested that I am one of whom a wise king can make an able servant?"
"Thou art a subtle reasoner, my friend," said Ferdinand, smiling gently.
"Peace go with thee! our conference for the time is ended. What ho, Perez!" The attendant appeared.
"Thou hast left the maiden with the queen?"
"Sire, you have been obeyed."
"Conduct this stranger to the guard who led him through the camp. He quits us under the same protection. Farewell! yet stay--thou art a.s.sured that Muza Ben Abil Gazan is in the prisons of the Moor?"
"Yes."
"Blessed be the Virgin!"
"Thou hast heard our conference, Father Tomas?" said the king, anxiously, when the Hebrew had withdrawn.
"I have, son."
"Did thy veins freeze with horror?"
"Only when my son signed the scroll. It seemed to me then that I saw the cloven foot of the tempter."
"Tush, father, the tempter would have been more wise than to reckon upon a faith which no ink and no parchment can render valid, if the Church absolve the compact. Thou understandest me, father?"
"I do. I know your pious heart and well-judging mind."
"Thou wert right," resumed the king, musingly, "when thou didst tell us that these caitiff Jews were waxing strong in the fatness of their substance. They would have equal laws--the insolent blasphemers!"
"Son!" said the Dominican, with earnest adjuration, "G.o.d, who has prospered your arms and councils, will require at your hands an account of the power intrusted to you. Shall there be no difference between His friends and His foes--His disciples and His crucifiers?"
"Priest," said the king, laying his hand on the monk"s shoulder, and with a saturnine smile upon his countenance, "were religion silent in this matter, policy has a voice loud enough to make itself heard. The Jews demand equal rights; when men demand equality with their masters, treason is at work, and justice sharpens her sword. Equality! these wealthy usurers! Sacred Virgin! they would be soon buying up our kingdoms."
The Dominican gazed hard on the king. "Son, I trust thee," he said, in a low voice, and glided from the tent.
CHAPTER II. THE AMBUSH, THE STRIFE, AND THE CAPTURE.
The dawn was slowly breaking over the wide valley of Granada, as Almamen pursued his circuitous and solitary path back to the city. He was now in a dark and entangled hollow, covered with brakes and bushes, from amidst which tall forest trees rose in frequent intervals, gloomy and breathless in the still morning air. As, emerging from this jungle, if so it may be called, the towers of Granada gleamed upon him, a human countenance peered from the shade; and Almamen started to see two dark eyes fixed upon his own.
He halted abruptly, and put his hand on his dagger, when a low sharp whistle from the apparition before him was answered around--behind; and, ere he could draw breath, the Israelite was begirt by a group of Moors, in the garb of peasants.
"Well, my masters," said Almamen, calmly, as he encountered the wild savage countenances that glared upon him, "think you there is aught to fear from the solitary santon?"
"It is the magician," whispered one man to his neighbour--"let him pa.s.s."
"Nay," was the answer, "take him before the captain; we have orders to seize upon all we meet."
This counsel prevailed; and gnashing his teeth with secret rage, Almamen found himself hurried along by the peasants through the thickest part of the copse. At length, the procession stopped in a semicircular patch of rank sward, in which several head of cattle were quietly grazing, and a yet more numerous troop of peasants reclined around upon the gra.s.s.
"Whom have we here?" asked a voice which startled back the dark blood from Almamen"s cheek; and a Moor of commanding presence rose from the midst of his brethren. "By the beard of the prophet, it is the false santon! What dost thou from Granada at this hour?"
"n.o.ble Muza," returned Almamen--who, though indeed amazed that one whom he had imagined his victim was thus unaccountably become his judge, retained, at least, the semblance of composure--"my answer is to be given only to my lord the king; it is his commands that I obey."
"Thou art aware," said Muza, frowning, "that thy life is forfeited without appeal? Whatsoever inmate of Granada is found without the walls between sunrise and sunset, dies the death of a traitor and deserter."
"The servants of the Alhambra are excepted," answered the Israelite, without changing countenance.
"Ah!" muttered Muza, as a painful and sudden thought seemed to cross him, "can it be possible that the rumour of the city has truth, and that the monarch of Granada is in treaty with the foe?" He mused a little; and then, motioning the Moors to withdraw, he continued aloud, "Almamen, answer me truly: hast thou sought the Christian camp with any message from the king?"
"I have not."
"Art thou without the walls on the mission of the king?"
"If I be so, I am a traitor to the king should I reveal his secret."
"I doubt thee much, santon," said Muza, after a pause; "I know thee for my enemy, and I do believe thy counsels have poisoned the king"s ear against me, his people and his duties. But no matter, thy life is spared a while; thou remainest with us, and with us shalt thou return to the king."
"But, n.o.ble Muza----"