Book: Leila or, The Siege of Granada, Book II.
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Edward Bulwer Lytton >> Leila or, The Siege of Granada, Book II.
"Ah, fairest!" said he, then, as he attempted to take her hand, "thou
wilt not answer my letters--see me, then, at thy feet. It is thou who
teachest me to kneel."
"You, prince." said Leila, agitated, and in great and evident fear.
"Why harass and insult me thus? Am I not sacred as a hostage and a
charge? and are name, honour, peace, and all that woman is taught to
hold most dear, to be thus robbed from me under the pretext of a love
dishonouring to thee and an insult to myself?"
"Sweet one," answered Don Juan, with a slight laugh, "thou hast learned,
within yonder walls, a creed of morals little known to Moorish maidens,
if fame belies them not. Suffer me to teach thee easier morality and
sounder logic. It is no dishonour to a Christian prince to adore beauty
like thine; it is no insult to a maiden hostage if the Infant of Spain
proffer her the homage of his heart. But we waste time. Spies, and
envious tongues, and vigilant eyes, are around us; and it is not often
that I can baffle them as I have done now. Fairest, hear me!" and this
time he succeeded in seizing the hand which vainly struggled against his
clasp. "Nay, why so coy? what can female heart desire that my love
cannot shower upon thine? Speak but the word, enchanting maiden, and I
will bear thee from these scenes unseemly to thy gentle eyes. Amidst the
pavilions of princes shalt thou repose; and, amidst gardens of the orange
and the rose, shalt thou listen to the vows of thine adorer. Surely, in
these arms thou wilt not pine for a barbarous home and a fated city. And
if thy pride, sweet maiden, deafen thee to the voice of nature, learn
that the haughtiest dames of Spain would bend, in envious court, to the
beloved of their future king. This night--listen to me--I say, listen--
this night I will bear thee hence! Be but mine, and no matter, whether
heretic or infidel, or whatever the priests style thee, neither Church
nor king shall tear thee from the bosom of thy lover."
"It is well spoken, son of the most Christian monarch!" said a deep
voice; and the Dominican, Tomas de Torquemada, stood before the prince.
Juan, as if struck by a thunderbolt, released his hold, and, staggering
back a few paces, seemed to cower, abashed and humbled, before the eye of
the priest, as it glared upon him through the gathering darkness.
"Prince," said the friar, after a pause, "not to thee will our holy
Church attribute this crime; thy pious heart hath been betrayed by
sorcery. Retire!"
"Father," said the prince,--in a tone into which, despite his awe of that
terrible man, THE FIRST GRAND INQUISITOR OF SPAIN, his libertine spirit
involuntarily forced itself, in a half latent raillery,--"sorcery of eyes
like those bewitched the wise son of a more pious sire than even
Ferdinand of Arragon."
"He blasphemes!" muttered the monk. "Prince, beware! you know not what
you do."
The prince lingered, and then, as if aware that he must yield, gathered
his cloak round him, and left the tent without reply.
Pale and trembling,--with fears no less felt, perhaps, though more vague
and perplexed, than those from which she had just been delivered,--Leila
stood before the monk.
"Be seated, daughter of the faithless," said Torquemada, "we would
converse with thee: and, as thou valuest--I say not thy soul, for, alas!
of that precious treasure thou art not conscious--but mark me, woman! as
thou prizest the safety of those delicate limbs, and that wanton beauty,
answer truly what I shall ask thee. The man who brought thee hither--is
he, in truth, thy father?"
"Alas!" answered Leila, almost fainting with terror at this rude and
menacing address, "he is, in truth, mine only parent."
"And his faith--his religion?"
"I have never beheld him pray."
"Hem! he never prays--a noticeable fact. But of what sect, what creed,
does he profess himself?"
"I cannot answer thee."
"Nay, there be means that may wring from thee an answer. Maiden, be not
so stubborn; speak! thinkest thou he serves the temple of the
Mohammedan?"
"No! oh, no!" answered poor Leila, eagerly, deeming that her reply, in
this, at least, would be acceptable. "He disowns, he scorns, he abhors,
the Moorish faith,--even," she added, "with too fierce a zeal."
"Thou dost not share that zeal, then? Well, worships he in secret after
the Christian rites?"
Leila hung her head and answered not.
"I understand thy silence. And in what belief, maiden, wert thou reared
beneath his roof?"
"I know not what it is called among men," answered Leila, with firmness,
"but it is the faith of the ONE GOD, who protects His chosen, and shall
avenge their wrongs--the God who made earth and heaven; and who, in an
idolatrous and benighted world, transmitted the knowledge of Himself and
His holy laws, from age to age, through the channel of one solitary
people, in the plains of Palestine, and by the waters of the Hebron."
"And in that faith thou wert trained, maiden, by thy father?" said the
Dominican, calmly. "I am satisfied. Rest here, in peace: we may meet
again, soon."
The last words were spoken with a soft and tranquil smile--a smile in
which glazing eyes and agonising hearts had often beheld the ghastly omen
of the torture and the stake.
On quitting the unfortunate Leila, the monk took his way towards the
neighbouring tent of Ferdinand. But, ere he reached it, a new thought
seemed to strike the holy man; he altered the direction of his steps, and
gained one of those little shrines common in Catholic countries, and
which had been hastily built of wood, in the centre of a small copse, and
by the side of a brawling rivulet, towards the back of the king's
pavilion. But one solitary sentry, at the entrance of the copse, guarded
the consecrated place; and its exceeding loneliness and quiet were a
grateful contrast to the animated world of the surrounding camp. The
monk entered the shrine, and fell down on his knees before an image of
the Virgin, rudely sculptured, indeed, but richly decorated.
"Ah, Holy Mother!" groaned this singular man, "support me in the trial to
which I am appointed. Thou knowest that the glory of thy blessed Son is
the sole object for which I live, and move, and have my being; but at
times, alas! the spirit is infected with the weakness of the flesh. Ora
pro nobis, O Mother of mercy! Verily, oftentimes my heart sinks within
me when it is mine to vindicate the honour of thy holy cause against the
young and the tender, the aged and the decrepit. But what are beauty and
youth, grey hairs and trembling knees, in the eye of the Creator?
Miserable worms are we all; nor is there anything acceptable in the
Divine sight but the hearts of the faithful. Youth without faith, age
without belief, purity without grace, virtue without holiness, are only
more hideous by their seeming beauty--whited sepulchres, glittering
rottenness. I know this--I know it; but the human man is strong within
me. Strengthen me, that I pluck it out; so that, by diligent and
constant struggle with the feeble Adam, thy servant may be reduced into
a mere machine, to punish the godless and advance the Church."
Here sobs and tears choked the speech of the Dominican; he grovelled in
the dust, he tore his hair, he howled aloud: the agony was fierce upon
him. At length, he drew from his robe a whip, composed of several
thongs, studded with small and sharp nails; and, stripping his gown, and
the shirt of hair worn underneath, over his shoulders, applied the
scourge to the naked flesh with a fury that soon covered the green sward
with the thick and clotted blood. The exhaustion which followed this
terrible penance seemed to restore the senses of the stern fanatic. A
smile broke over the features, that bodily pain only released from the
anguished expression of mental and visionary struggles; and, when he
rose, and drew the hair-cloth shirt over the lacerated and quivering
flesh, he said--"Now hast thou deigned to comfort and visit me, O pitying
Mother; and, even as by these austerities against this miserable body, is
the spirit relieved and soothed, so dost thou typify and betoken that
men's bodies are not to be spared by those who seek to save souls and
bring the nations of the earth into thy fold."
With that thought the countenance of Torquemada reassumed its wonted
rigid and passionless composure; and, replacing the scourge, yet clotted
with blood, in his bosom, he pursued his way to the royal tent.
He found Ferdinand poring over the accounts of the vast expenses of his
military preparations, which he had just received from his treasurer; and
the brow of the thrifty, though ostentatious monarch, was greatly
overcast by the examination.
"By the Bulls of Guisando!" said the king, gravely, "I purchase the
salvation of my army in this holy war at a marvellous heavy price; and
if the infidels hold out much longer, we shalt have to pawn our very
patrimony of Arragon."
"Son," answered the Dominican, "to purposes like thine fear not that
Providence itself will supply the worldly means. But why doubtest thou?
are not the means within thy reach? It is just that thou alone shouldst
not support the wars by which Christendom is glorified. Are there not
others?"
"I know what thou wouldst say, father," interrupted the king, quickly--
"thou wouldst observe that my brother monarchs should assist me with arms
and treasure. Most just. But they are avaricious and envious, Tomas;
and Mammon hath corrupted them."
"Nay, not to kings pointed my thought."
"Well, then," resumed the king, impatiently, "thou wouldst imply that
mine own knights and nobles should yield up their coffers, and mortgage
their possessions. And so they ought; but they murmur already at what
they have yielded to our necessities."
"And in truth," rejoined the friar, "these noble warriors should not be
shorn of a splendour that well becomes the valiant champions of the
Church. Nay, listen to me, son, and I may suggest a means whereby, not
the friends, but enemies, of the Catholic faith shall contribute to the
down fall of the Paynim. In thy dominions, especially those newly won,
throughout Andalusia, in the kingdom of Cordova, are men of enormous
wealth; the very caverns of the earth are sown with the impious treasure
they have plundered from Christian hands, and consume in the furtherance
of their iniquity. Sire, I speak of the race that crucified the Lord."
"The Jews--ay, but the excuse--"
"Is before thee. This traitor, with whom thou boldest intercourse, who
vowed to thee to render up Granada, and who was found the very next
morning, fighting with the Moors, with the blood of a Spanish martyr red
upon his hands, did he not confess that his fathers were of that hateful
race? did he not bargain with thee to elevate his brethren to the rank of
Christians? and has be not left with thee, upon false pretences, a harlot
of his faith, who, by sorcery and the help of the Evil One, hath seduced
into frantic passion the heart of the heir of the most Christian king?"
"Ha! thus does that libertine boy ever scandalise us!" said the king,
bitterly.
"Well," pursued the Dominican, not heeding the interruption, "have you
not here excuse enough to wring from the whole race the purchase of their
existence? Note the glaring proof of this conspiracy of hell. The
outcasts of the earth employed this crafty agent to contract with thee
for power; and, to consummate their guilty designs, the arts that seduced
Solomon are employed against thy son. The beauty of the strange woman
captivates his senses; so that, through the future sovereign of Spain the
counsels of Jewish craft may establish the domination of Jewish ambition.
How knowest thou," he added as he observed that Ferdinand listened to him
with earnest attention--"how knowest thou but what the next step might
have been thy secret assassination, so that the victim of witchcraft, the
minion of the Jewess, might reign in the stead of the mighty and
unconquerable Ferdinand?"
"Go on, father," said the king, thoughtfully; "I see, at least, enough to
justify an impost upon these servitors of Mammon."
"But, though common sense suggests to us," continued Torquemada, "that
this disguised Israelite could not have acted on so vast a design without
the instigation of his brethren, not only in Granada, but throughout all
Andalusia,--would it not be right to obtain from him his confession, and
that of the maiden, within the camp, so that we may have broad and
undeniable evidence, whereon to act, and to still all cavil, that may
come not only from the godless, but even from the too tender scruples of
the righteous? Even the queen--whom the saints ever guard!--hath ever
too soft a heart for these infidels; and--"
"Right!" cried the king, again breaking upon Torquemada; "Isabel, the
queen of Castile, must be satisfied of the justice of all our actions."
"And, should it be proved that thy throne or life were endangered, and
that magic was exercised to entrap her royal son into a passion for a
Jewish maiden, which the Church holds a crime worthy of excommunication
itself, surely, instead of counteracting, she would assist our schemes."
"Holy friend," said Ferdinand, with energy, "ever a comforter, both for
this world and the next, to thee, and to the new powers intrusted to
thee, we commit this charge; see to it at once; time presses--Granada is
obstinate--the treasury waxes low."
"Son, thou hast said enough," replied the Dominican, closing his eyes,
and muttering a short thanksgiving. "Now then to my task."
"Yet stay," said the king, with an altered visage; "follow me to my
oratory within: my heart is heavy, and I would fain seek the solace of
the confessional."
The monk obeyed: and while Ferdinand, whose wonderful abilities were
mingled with the weakest superstition, who persecuted from policy, yet
believed, in his own heart, that he punished but from piety,--confessed
with penitent tears the grave offences of aves forgotten, and beads
untold; and while the Dominican admonished, rebuked, or soothed,--neither
prince nor monk ever dreamt that there was an error to confess in, or a
penance to be adjudged to, the cruelty that tortured a fellow-being, or
the avarice that sought pretences for the extortion of a whole people.
CHAPTER VII.
THE TRIBUNAL AND THE MIRACLE
It was the dead of night--the army was hushed in sleep--when four
soldiers belonging to the Holy Brotherhood, bearing with them one whose
manacles proclaimed him a prisoner, passed in steady silence to a huge
tent in the neighbourhood of the royal pavilion. A deep dyke, formidable
barricadoes, and sentries stationed at frequent intervals, testified the
estimation in which the safety of this segment of the camp was held. The
tent to which the soldiers approached was, in extent, larger than even
the king's pavilion itself--a mansion of canvas, surrounded by a wide
wall of massive stones; and from its summit gloomed, in the clear and
shining starlight, a small black pennant, on which was wrought a white
broad-pointed cross. The soldiers halted at the gate in the wall,
resigned their charge, with a whispered watchword, to two gaunt sentries;
and then (relieving the sentries who proceeded on with the prisoner)
remained, mute and motionless, at the post: for stern silence and Spartan
discipline were the attributes of the brotherhood of St. Hermandad.
The prisoner, as he now neared the tent, halted a moment, looked round
steadily, as if to fix the spot in his remembrance, and then, with an
impatient though stately gesture, followed his guards. He passed two
divisions of the tent, dimly lighted, and apparently deserted. A man,
clad in long black robes, with a white cross on his breast, now appeared;
there was an interchange of signals in dumb-show-and in another moment
Almamen, the Hebrew, stood within a large chamber (if so that division of
the tent might be called) hung with black serge. At the upper part of
the space was an estrado, or platform, on which, by a long table, sat
three men; while at the head of the board was seen the calm and rigid
countenance of Tomas de Torquemada. The threshold of the tent was
guarded by two men, in garments similar in hue and fashion to those of
the figure who had ushered Almamen into the presence of the inquisitor,
each bearing a long lance, and with a long two-edged sword by his side.
This made all the inhabitants of that melancholy and ominous apartment.
The Israelite looked round with a pale brow, but a flashing and scornful
eye; and, when he met the gaze of the Dominican, it almost seemed as if
those two men, each so raised above his fellows, by the sternness of his
nature and the energy of his passions, sought by a look alone to assert
his own supremacy and crush his foe. Yet, in truth, neither did justice
to the other; and the indignant disdain of Almamen was retorted by the
cold and icy contempt of the Dominican.
"Prisoner," said Torquemada (the first to withdraw his gaze), "a less
haughty and stubborn demeanour might have better suited thy condition:
but no matter; our Church is meek and humble. We have sent for thee in a
charitable and paternal hope; for although, as spy and traitor, thy life
is already forfeited, yet would we fain redeem and spare it to
repentance. That hope mayst thou not forego, for the nature of all of us
is weak and clings to life--that straw of the drowning seaman."
"Priest, if such thou art," replied the Hebrew, "I have already, when
first brought to this camp, explained the causes of my detention amongst
the troops of the Moor. It was my zeal for the king of Spain that
brought me into that peril. Escaping from that peril, incurred in his
behalf, is the king of Spain to be my accuser and my judge? If, however,
my life now be sought as the grateful return for the proffer of
inestimable service, I stand here to yield it. Do thy worst; and tell
thy master, that he loses more by my death than he can win by the lives
of thirty thousand warriors."
"Cease this idle babble," said the monk-inquisitor, contemptuously, "nor
think thou couldst ever deceive, with thy empty words, the mighty
intellect of Ferdinand of Spain. Thou hast now to defend thyself against
still graver charges than those of treachery to the king whom thou didst
profess to serve. Yea, misbeliever as thou art, it is thine to vindicate
thyself from blasphemy against the God thou shouldst adore. Confess the
truth: thou art of the tribe and faith of Israel?"
The Hebrew frowned darkly. "Man," said he, solemnly, "is a judge of the
deeds of men, but not of their opinions. I will not answer thee."
"Pause! We have means at hand that the strongest nerves and the stoutest
hearts have failed to encounter. Pause--confess!"
"Thy threat awes me not," said the Hebrew; "but I am human; and since
thou wouldst know the truth, thou mayst learn it without the torture.
I am of the same race as the apostles of thy Church--I am a Jew."
"He confesses--write down the words. Prisoner, thou hast done wisely;
and we pray the Lord that, acting thus, thou mayst escape both the
torture and the death. And in that faith thy daughter was reared?
Answer."
"My daughter! there is no charge against her! By the God of Sinai and
Horeb, you dare not touch a hair of that innocent head!"
"Answer," repeated the inquisitor, coldly.
"I do answer. She was brought up no renegade to her father's faith."
"Write down the confession. Prisoner," resumed the Dominican, after a
pause, "but few more questions remain; answer them truly, and thy life is
saved. In thy conspiracy to raise thy brotherhood of Andalusia to power
and influence--or, as thou didst craftily term it, to equal laws with the
followers of our blessed Lord; in thy conspiracy (by what dark arts I
seek not now to know _protege nos, beate Domine_!) to entangle in wanton
affections to thy daughter the heart of the Infant of Spain-silence, I
say--be still! in this conspiracy, thou wert aided, abetted, or
instigated by certain Jews of Andalusia--"
"Hold, priest!" cried Almamen, impetuously, "thou didst name my child.
Do I hear aright? Placed under the sacred charge of a king, and a belted
knight, has she--oh! answer me, I implore thee--been insulted by the
licentious addresses of one of that king's own lineage? Answer! I am a
Jew--but I am a father and a man."
"This pretended passion deceives us not," said the Dominican, who,
himself cut off from the ties of life, knew nothing of their power.
"Reply to the question put to thee: name thy accomplices."
"I have told thee all. Thou hast refused to answer one. I scorn and
defy thee: my lips are closed."
The Grand Inquisitor glanced to his brethren, and raised his hand. His
assistants whispered each other; one of them rose, and disappeared behind
the canvas at the back of the tent. Presently the hangings were
withdrawn; and the prisoner beheld an, interior chamber, hung with
various instruments the nature of which was betrayed by their very shape;
while by the rack, placed in the centre of that dreary chamber, stood a
tall and grisly figure, his arms bare, his eyes bent, as by an instinct,
on the prisoner.
Almamen gazed at these dread preparations with an unflinching aspect.
The guards at the entrance of the tent approached: they struck off the
fetters from his feet and hands; they led him towards the appointed place
of torture.
Suddenly the Israelite paused.
"Priest," said he, in a more humble accent than he had yet assumed, "the
tidings that thou didst communicate to me respecting the sole daughter of
my house and love bewildered and confused me for the moment. Suffer me
but for a single moment to recollect my senses, and I will answer without
compulsion all thou mayst ask. Permit thy questions to be repeated."
The Dominican, whose cruelty to others seemed to himself sanctioned by
his own insensibility to fear, and contempt for bodily pain, smiled with
bitter scorn at the apparent vacillation and weakness of the prisoner:
but, as he delighted not in torture merely for torture's sake, he
motioned to the guards to release the Israelite; and replied in a voice
unnaturally mild and kindly, considering the circumstances of the scene,
"Prisoner, could we save thee from pain, even by the anguish of our own
flesh and sinews, Heaven is our judge that we would willingly undergo the
torture which, with grief and sorrow, we ordained to thee. Pause--take
breath--collect thyself. Three minutes shalt thou have to consider what
course to adopt ere we repeat the question. But then beware how thou
triflest with our indulgence."
"It suffices--I thank thee," said the Hebrew, with a touch of gratitude
in his voice. As he spoke he bent his face within his bosom, which he
covered, as in profound meditation, with the folds of his long robe.
Scarcely half the brief time allowed him had expired, when he again
lifted his countenance and, as he did so, flung back his garment. The
Dominican uttered a loud cry; the guards started back in awe. A
wonderful change had come over the intended victim; he seemed to stand
amongst them literally--wrapt in fire; flames burst from his lip, and
played with his long locks, as, catching the glowing hue, they curled
over his shoulders like serpents of burning light: blood-red were his
breast and limbs, his haughty crest, and his outstretched arm; and as for
a single moment, he met the shuddering eyes of his judges, he seemed,
indeed, to verify all the superstitions of the time--no longer the
trembling captive but the mighty demon or the terrible magician.
The Dominican was the first to recover his self-possession. "Seize the
enchanter!" he exclaimed; but no man stirred. Ere yet the exclamation
had died on his lip, Almamen took from his breast a phial, and dashed it
on the ground--it broke into a thousand shivers: a mist rose over the
apartment--it spread, thickened, darkened, as a sudden night; the lamps
could not pierce it. The luminous form of the Hebrew grew dull and dim,
until it vanished in the shade. On every eye blindness seemed to fall.
There was a dead silence, broken by a cry and a groan; and when, after
some minutes, the darkness gradually dispersed, Almamen was gone. One,
of the guards lay bathed in blood upon the ground; they raised him: he
had attempted to seize the prisoner, and had been stricken with a mortal
wound. He died as he faltered forth the explanation. In the confusion
and dismay of the scene none noticed, till long afterwards, that the
prisoner had paused long enough to strip the dying guard of his long
mantle; a proof that he feared his more secret arts might not suffice to
bear him safe through the camp, without the aid of worldly stratagem.
"The fiend hath been amongst us!" said the Dominican, solemnly falling on
his knees,--"let us pray!"