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Edward Bulwer Lytton >> Leila or, The Siege of Granada, Book IV.
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LEILA
OR,
THE SIEGE OF GRANADA
BY
EDWARD BULWER LYTTON
Book IV.
CHAPTER. I.
LEILA IN THE CASTLE--THE SIEGE.
The calmer contemplations and more holy anxieties of Leila were, at
length, broken in upon by intelligence, the fearful interest of which
absorbed the whole mind and care of every inhabitant of the castle.
Boabdil el Chico had taken the field, at the head of a numerous army.
Rapidly scouring the country, he had descended, one after one, upon the
principal fortresses, which Ferdinand had left, strongly garrisoned, in
the immediate neighbourhood. His success was as immediate as it was
signal; the terror of his arms began, once more to spread far and wide;
every day swelled his ranks with new recruits; and from the snow-clad
summits of the Sierra Nevada poured down, in wild hordes, the fierce
mountain race, who, accustomed to eternal winter, made a strange
contrast, in their rugged appearance and shaggy clothing, to the
glittering and civilised soldiery of Granada.
Moorish towns, which had submitted to Ferdinand, broke from their
allegiance, and sent their ardent youth and experienced veterans to the
standard of the Keys and Crescent. To add to the sudden panic of the
Spaniards, it went forth that a formidable magician, who seemed inspired
rather with the fury of a demon than the valour of a man, had made an
abrupt appearance in the ranks of the Moslems. Wherever the Moors shrank
back from wall or tower, down which poured the boiling pitch, or rolled
the deadly artillery of the besieged, this sorcerer--rushing into the
midst of the flagging force, and waving, with wild gestures, a white
banner, supposed by both Moor and Christian to be the work of magic and
preternatural spells--dared every danger, and escaped every weapon: with
voice, with prayer, with example, he fired the Moors to an enthusiasm
that revived the first days of Mohammedan conquest; and tower after
tower, along the mighty range of the mountain chain of fortresses, was
polluted by the wave and glitter of the ever-victorious banner. The
veteran, Mendo de Quexada, who, with a garrison of two hundred and fifty
men, held the castle of Almamen, was, however, undaunted by the
unprecedented successes of Boabdil. Aware of the approaching storm, he
spent the days of peace yet accorded to him in making every preparation
for the siege that he foresaw; messengers were despatched to Ferdinand;
new out-works were added to the castle; ample store of provisions laid
in; and no precaution omitted that could still preserve to the Spaniards
a fortress that, from its vicinity to Granada, its command of the Vega
and the valleys of the Alpuxarras, was the bitterest thorn in the side of
the Moorish power.
It was early, one morning, that Leila stood by the lattice of her lofty
chamber gazing, with many and mingled emotions, on the distant domes of
Granada, as they slept in the silent sunshine. Her heart, for the
moment, was busy with the thoughts of home, and the chances and peril of
the time were forgotten.
The sound of martial music, afar off, broke upon her reveries; she
started, and listened breathlessly; it became more distinct and clear.
The clash of the zell, the boom of the African drum, and the wild and
barbarous blast of the Moorish clarion, were now each distinguishable
from the other; and, at length, as she gazed and listened, winding along
the steeps of the mountain were seen the gleaming spears and pennants of
the Moslem vanguard. Another moment and the whole castle was astir.
Mendo de Quexada, hastily arming, repaired, himself, to the battlements;
and, from her lattice, Leila beheld him, from time to time, stationing to
the best advantage his scanty troops. In a few minutes she was joined by
Donna Inez and the women of the castle, who fearfully clustered round
their mistress,--not the less disposed, however, to gratify the passion
of the sex, by a glimpse through the lattice at the gorgeous array of the
Moorish army.
The casements of Leila's chamber were peculiarly adapted to command a
safe nor insufficient view of the progress of the enemy; and, with a
beating heart and flushing cheek, the Jewish maiden, deaf to the voices
around her, imagined she could already descry amidst the horsemen the
lion port and snowy garments of Muza Ben Abil Gazan.
What a situation was hers! Already a Christian, could she hope for the
success of the infidel? ever a woman, could she hope for the defeat of
her lover? But the time for meditation on her destiny was but brief; the
detachment of the Moorish cavalry was now just without the walls of the
little town that girded the castle, and the loud clarion of the heralds
summoned the garrison to surrender.
"Not while one stone stands upon another!" was the short answer of
Quexada; and, in ten minutes afterwards, the sullen roar of the artillery
broke from wall and tower over the vales below.
It was then that the women, from Leila's lattice, beheld, slowly
marshalling themselves in order, the whole power and pageantry of the
besieging army. Thick-serried--line after line, column upon column--they
spread below the frowning steep. The sunbeams lighted up that goodly
array, as it swayed, and murmured, and advanced, like the billows of a
glittering sea. The royal standard was soon descried waving above the
pavilion of Boabdil; and the king himself, mounted on his cream-coloured
charger, which was covered with trappings of cloth-of-gold, was
recognised amongst the infantry, whose task it was to lead the assault.
"Pray with us, my daughter!" cried Inez, falling on her knees.-Alas!
what could Leila pray for?
Four days and four nights passed away in that memorable siege; for the
moon, then at her full, allowed no respite, even in night itself. Their
numbers, and their vicinity to Granada, gave the besiegers the advantage
of constant relays, and troop succeeded to troop; so that the weary had
ever successors in the vigour of new assailants.
On the fifth day, all of the fortress, save the keep (an immense tower),
was in the hands of the Moslems; and in this last hold, the worn-out and
scanty remnant of the garrison mustered, in the last hope of a brave,
despair.
Quexada appeared, covered with gore and dust-his eyes bloodshot, his
cheek haggard and hollow, his locks blanched with sudden age-in the hall
of the tower, where the women, half dead with terror, were assembled.
"Food!" cried he,--"food and wine!--it may be our last banquet."
His wife threw her arms round him. "Not yet," he cried, "not yet; we
will have one embrace before we part."
"Is there, then, no hope?" said Inez, with a pale cheek, yet steady eye.
"None; unless to-morrow's dawn gild the spears of Ferdinand's army upon
yonder hills. Till morn we may hold out." As he spoke, he hastily
devoured some morsels of food, drained a huge goblet of wine, and
abruptly quitted the chamber.
At that moment, the women distinctly heard the loud shouts of the Moors;
and Leila, approaching the grated casement, could perceive the approach
of what seemed to her like moving wails.
Covered by ingenious constructions of wood and thick hides, the besiegers
advanced to the foot of the tower in comparative shelter from the burning
streams which still poured, fast and seething, from the battlements;
while, in the rear came showers of darts and cross-bolts from the more
distant Moors, protecting the work of the engineer, and piercing through
almost every loophole and crevice in the fortress.
Meanwhile the stalwart governor beheld, with dismay and despair, the
preparations of the engineers, whom the wooden screen-works protected
from every weapon.
"By the Holy Sepulchre!" cried he, gnashing his teeth, "they are mining
the tower, and we shall be buried in its ruins! Look out, Gonsalvo! see
you not a gleam of spears yonder over the mountain? Mine eyes are dim
with watching."
"Alas! brave Mendo, it is only the sloping sun upon the snows--but there
is hope yet."
The soldier's words terminated in a shrill and sudden cry of agony; and
he fell dead by the side of Quexada, the brain crushed by a bolt from a
Moorish arquebus.
"My best warrior!" said Quexada; "peace be with him! Ho, there! see you
yon desperate infidel urging on the miners? By the heavens above, it is
he of the white banner!--it is the sorcerer! Fire on him! he is without
the shelter of the woodworks."
Twenty shafts, from wearied and nerveless arms, fell innocuous round the
form of Almamen: and as, waving aloft his ominous banner, he disappeared
again behind the screen-works, the Spaniards almost fancied they could
hear his exulting and demon laugh.
The sixth day came, and the work of the enemy was completed. The tower
was entirely undermined--the foundations rested only upon wooden props,
which, with a humanity that was characteristic of Boabdil, had been
placed there in order that the besieged might escape ere the final crash
of their last hold.
It was now noon: the whole Moorish force, quitting the plain, occupied
the steep that spread below the tower, in multitudinous array and
breathless expectation. The miners stood aloof--the Spaniards lay
prostrate and exhausted upon the battlements, like mariners who, after
every effort against the storm, await, resigned, and almost indifferent,
the sweep of the fatal surge.
Suddenly the lines of the Moors gave way, and Boabdil himself, with Muza
at his right hand, and Almamen on his left, advanced towards the foot of
the tower. At the same time, the Ethiopian guards, each bearing a torch,
marched slowly in the rear; and from the midst of them paced the royal
herald and sounded the last warning. The hush of the immense armament--
the glare of the torches, lighting the ebon faces and giant forms of
their bearers--the majestic appearance of the king himself--the heroic
aspect of Muza--the bare head and glittering banner of Almamen--all
combined with the circumstances of the time to invest the spectacle with
something singularly awful, and, perhaps, sublime.
Quexada turned his eyes, mutely, round the ghastly faces of his warriors,
and still made not the signal. His lips muttered--his eyes glared: when,
suddenly, he heard below the wail of women; and the thought of Inez, the
bride of his youth, the partner of his age, came upon him; and, with a
trembling hand, he lowered the yet unquailing standard of Spain. Then,
the silence below broke into a mighty shout, which shook the grim tower
to its unsteady and temporary base.
"Arise, my friends," he said, with a bitter sigh; "we have fought like
men--and our country will not blush for us." He descended the winding
stairs--his soldiers followed him with faltering steps: the gates of the
keep unfolded, and these gallant Christians surrendered themselves to the
Moor.
"Do with it as you will," said Quexada, as he laid the keys at the hoofs
of Boabdil's barb; "but there are women in the garrison, who--"
"Are sacred," interrupted the king. "At once we accord their liberty,
and free transport whithersoever ye would desire. Speak, then! To what
place of safety shall they be conducted?"
"Generous king!" replied the veteran Quexada, brushing away his tears
with the back of his hand; "you take the sting from our shame. We accept
your offer in the same spirit in which it is made. Across the mountains,
on the verge of the plain of Olfadez, I possess a small castle,
ungarrisoned and unfortified. Thence, should the war take that
direction, the women can readily obtain safe conduct to the queen at
Cordova."
"Be it so," returned Boabdil. Then, with Oriental delicacy, selecting
the eldest of the officers round him, he gave him instructions to enter
the castle, and, with a strong guard, provide for the safety of the
women, according to the directions of Quexada. To another of his
officers he confided the Spanish prisoners, and gave the signal to his
army to withdraw from the spot, leaving only a small body to complete the
ruin of the fortress.
Accompanied by Almamen and his principal officers, Boabdil now hastened
towards Granada; and while, with slower progress, Quexada and his
companions, under a strong escort, took their way across the Vega, a
sudden turn in their course brought abruptly before them the tower they
had so valiantly defended. There it still stood, proud and stern, amidst
the blackened and broken wrecks around it, shooting aloft, dark and grim,
against the sky. Another moment, and a mighty crash sounded on their
ears, while the tower fell to the earth, amidst volumes of wreathing
smoke and showers of dust, which were borne, by the concussion to the
spot on which they took their last gaze of the proudest fortress on which
the Moors of Granada had beheld, from their own walls, the standard of
Arragon and Castile.
At the same time, Leila--thus brought so strangely within the very reach
of her father and her lover, and yet, by a mysterious fate, still divided
from both,--with Donna Inez, and the rest of the females of the garrison,
pursued her melancholy path along the ridges of the mountains.
CHAPTER II.
ALMAMEN'S PROPOSED ENTERPRISE.--THE THREE ISRAELITES--CIRCUMSTANCE
IMPRESSES EACH CHARACTER WITH A VARYING DIE.
Boadbil followed up his late success with a series of brilliant assaults
on-the neighbouring fortresses. Granada, like a strong man bowed to the
ground, wrenched one after one the bands that had crippled her liberty
and strength; and, at length, after regaining a considerable portion of
the surrounding territory, the king resolved to lay siege to the seaport
of Salobrena. Could he obtain this town, Boabdil, by establishing
communication between the sea and Granada, would both be enabled to avail
himself of the assistance of his African allies, and also prevent the
Spaniards from cutting off supplies to the city, should they again
besiege it. Thither, then, accompanied by Muza, the Moorish king bore
his victorious standard.
On the eve of his departure, Almamen sought the king's presence. A great
change had come over the canton since the departure of Ferdinand; his
wonted stateliness of mien was gone; his eyes were sunk and hollow; his
manner disturbed and absent. In fact, his love for his daughter made the
sole softness of his character; and that daughter was in the hands of the
king who had sentenced the father to the tortures of the Inquisition!
To what dangers might she not be subjected, by the intolerant zeal of
conversion! and could that frame, and gentle heart, brave the terrific
engines that might be brought against her fears? "Better," thought he,
"that she should perish, even by the torture, than adopt that hated
faith." He gnashed his teeth in agony at either alternative. His
dreams, his objects, his revenge, his ambition--all forsook him: one
single hope, one thought, completely mastered his stormy passions and
fitful intellect.
In this mood the pretended santon met Boabdil. He represented to the
king, over whom his influence had prodigiously increased since the late
victories of the Moors, the necessity of employing the armies of
Ferdinand at a distance. He proposed, in furtherance of this policy, to
venture himself in Cordova; to endeavour secretly to stir up those Moors,
in that, their ancient kingdom, who had succumbed to the Spanish yoke,
and whose hopes might naturally be inflamed by the recent successes of
Boabdil; and, at least, to foment such disturbances as might afford the
king sufficient time to complete his designs, and recruit his force by
aid of the powers with which he was in league.
The representations of Almamen at length conquered Boabdil's reluctance
to part with his sacred guide; and it was finally arranged that the
Israelite should at once depart from the city.
As Almamen pursued homeward his solitary way, he found himself suddenly
accosted in the Hebrew tongue. He turned hastily, and saw before him an
old man in the Jewish gown: he recognised Elias, one of the wealthiest
and most eminent of the race of Israel.
"Pardon me, wise countryman!" said the Jew, bowing to the earth, "but I
cannot resist the temptation of claiming kindred with one through whom
the horn of Israel may be so triumphantly exalted."
"Hush, man!" said Almamen, quickly, and looking sharply round; "I thy
countryman! Art thou not, as thy speech betokens, an Israelite?"
"Yea," returned the Jew, "and of the same tribe as thy honoured father--
peace be with his ashes! I remembered thee at once, boy though thou wert
when thy steps shook off the dust against Granada. I remembered thee, I
say, at once, on thy return; but I have kept thy secret, trusting that,
through thy soul and genius, thy fallen brethren might put off sackcloth
and feast upon the house-tops."
Almamen looked hard at the keen, sharp, Arab features of the Jew; and at
length he answered, "And how can Israel be restored? wilt thou fight for
her?"
"I am too old, son of Issachar, to bear arms; but our tribes are many,
and our youth strong. Amid these disturbances between dog and dog--"
"The lion may get his own," interrupted Almamen, impetuously,--"let us
hope it. Hast thou heard of the new persecutions against us that the
false Nazarene king has already commenced in Cordova--persecutions that
make the heart sick and the blood cold?"
"Alas!" replied Elias, "such woes indeed have not failed to reach mine
ear; and I have kindred, near and beloved kindred, wealthy and honoured
men, scattered throughout that land."
"Were it not better that they should die on the field than by the rack?"
exclaimed Almamen, fiercely. "God of my fathers! if there be yet a spark
of manhood left amongst thy people, let thy servant fan it to a flame,
that shall burn as the fire burns the stubble, so that the earth may bare
before the blaze!"
"Nay," said Elias, dismayed rather than excited by the vehemence of his
comrade,--"be not rash, son of Issachar, be not rash: peradventure thou
wilt but exasperate the wrath of the rulers, and our substance thereby
will be utterly consumed."
Almamen drew back, placed his hand quietly on the Jew's shoulder, looked
him hard in the face, and, gently laughing, turned away.
Elias did not attempt to arrest his steps. "Impracticable," he muttered;
"impracticable and dangerous! I always thought so. He may do us harm:
were he not so strong and fierce, I would put my knife under his left
rib. Verily, gold is a great thing; and--out on me! the knaves at home
will be wasting the oil, now they know old Elias is abroad." Thereat the
Jew drew his cloak around him, and quickened his pace.
Almamen, in the meanwhile, sought, through dark and subterranean
passages, known only to himself, his accustomed home. He passed much of
the night alone; but, ere the morning star announced to the mountain tops
the presence of the sun, he stood, prepared for his journey, in his
secret vault, by the door of the subterranean passages, with old Ximen
beside him.
"I go, Ximen," said Almamen, "upon a doubtful quest: whether I discover
my daughter, and succeed in bearing her in safety from their
contaminating grasp, or whether I fall into their snares and perish,
there is an equal chance that I may return no more to Granada. Should
this be so, you will be heir to such wealth as I leave in these places I
know that your age will be consoled for the lack of children when your
eyes look upon the laugh of gold."
Ximen bowed low, and mumbled out some inaudible protestations and thanks.
Almamen sighed heavily as he looked round the room. "I have evil omens
in my soul, and evil prophecies in my books," said he, mournfully. "But
the worst is here," he added, putting his finger significantly to his
temples; "the string is stretched--one more blow would snap it."
As he thus said, he opened the door and vanished through that labyrinth
of galleries by which he was enabled at all times to reach unobserved
either the palace of the Alhambra or the gardens without the gates of the
city.
Ximen remained behind a few moments in deep thought. "All mine if he
dies!" said he: "all mine if he does not return! All mine, all mine!
and I have not a child nor a kinsman in the world to clutch it away from
me!" With that he locked the vault, and returned to the upper air.
CHAPTER III.
THE FUGITIVE AND THE MEETING
In their different directions the rival kings were equally successful.
Salobrena, but lately conquered by the Christians, was thrown into a
commotion by the first glimpse of Boabdil's banners; the populace rose,
beat back their Christian guards, and opened the gates to the last of
their race of kings. The garrison alone, to which the Spaniards
retreated, resisted Boabdil's arms; and, defended by, impregnable walls,
promised an obstinate and bloody siege.
Meanwhile, Ferdinand had no sooner entered Cordova than his extensive
scheme of confiscation and holy persecution commenced. Not only did more
than five hundred Jews perish in the dark and secret gripe of the Grand
Inquisitor, but several hundred of the wealthiest Christian families, in
whose blood was detected the hereditary Jewish taint, were thrown into
prison; and such as were most fortunate purchased life by the sacrifice
of half their treasures. At this time, however, there suddenly broke
forth a formidable insurrection amongst these miserable subjects--the
Messenians of the Iberian Sparta. The Jews were so far aroused from
their long debasement by omnipotent despair, that a single spark, falling
on the ashes of their ancient spirit, rekindled the flame of the
descendants of the fierce warriors of Palestine. They were encouraged
and assisted by the suspected Christians, who had been involved in the
same persecution; and the whole were headed by a man who appeared
suddenly amongst them, and whose fiery eloquence and martial spirit
produced, at such a season, the most fervent enthusiasm. Unhappily, the
whole details of this singular outbreak are withheld from us; only by
wary hints and guarded allusions do the Spanish chroniclers apprise us
of its existence and its perils. It is clear that all narrative of an
event that might afford the most dangerous precedent, and was alarming to
the pride and avarice of the Spanish king, as well as the pious zeal of
the Church, was strictly forbidden; and the conspiracy was hushed in the
dread silence of the Inquisition, into whose hands the principal
conspirators ultimately fell. We learn, only, that a determined and
sanguinary struggle was followed by the triumph of Ferdinand, and the
complete extinction of the treason.
It was one evening, that a solitary fugitive, hard chased by an armed
troop of the brothers of St. Hermandad, was seen emerging from a wild and
rocky defile, which opened abruptly on the gardens of a small, and, by
the absence of fortification and sentries, seemingly deserted, castle.
Behind him; in the exceeding stillness which characterises the air of a
Spanish twilight, he heard, at a considerable distance the blast of the
horn and the tramp of hoofs. His pursuers, divided into several
detachments, were scouring the country after him, as the fishermen draw
their nets, from bank to bank, conscious that the prey they drive before
the meshes cannot escape them at the last. The fugitive halted in doubt,
and gazed round him: he was well-nigh exhausted; his eyes were bloodshot;
the large drops rolled fast down his brow; his whole frame quivered and
palpitated, like that of a stag when he stands at bay. Beyond the castle
spread a broad plain, far as the eye could reach, without shrub or hollow
to conceal his form: flight across a space so favourable to his pursuers
was evidently in vain. No alternative was left unless he turned back on
the very path taken by the horsemen, or trusted to such scanty and
perilous shelter as the copses in the castle garden might afford him. He
decided on the latter refuge, cleared the low and lonely wall that girded
the demesne, and plunged into a thicket of overhanging oaks and
chestnuts.
At that hour, and in that garden, by the side of a little fountain, were
seated two females: the one of mature and somewhat advanced years; the
other, in the flower of virgin youth. But the flower was prematurely
faded; and neither the bloom, nor sparkle, nor undulating play of
feature, that should have suited her age, was visible in the marble
paleness and contemplative sadness of her beautiful countenance.
"Alas! my young friend," said the elder of these ladies, "it is in these
hours of solitude and calm that we are most deeply impressed with the
nothingness of life. Thou, my sweet convert, art now the object, no
longer of my compassion, but my envy; and earnestly do I feel convinced
of the blessed repose thy spirit will enjoy in the lap of the Mother
Church. Happy are they who die young! but thrice happy they who die in
the spirit rather than the flesh: dead to sin, but not to virtue; to
terror, not to hope; to man, but not to God!"