himself, that they might not kill him, gave information of who he was, and the Alcaide, who followed the hermit, ordered them to take him to Lucena." De Marlès has almost the same words :-" Trois cavaliers chrétiens qui l'avaient suivi de près le découvrirent, et le misérable prince, craignant qu'ils ne lui ôtassent la vie, se nomma leur prisonnier; les cavaliers le conduisirent à leurs generaux." In a word, they all represent him as hiding in the rushes by the river-side, calling out his name for safety, and surrendering, without resistance, to the common soldiers who first came up. Thus is the correct representation of historical character sacrificed for effect. As regards Abdallah, this is peculiarly wrong;-for nearly all his misfortunes, and those of his followers, arose from his want of firmness and determination. Like Miss Edgeworth's 'Murad,' he was surnamed El Zogoybi, the Unlucky-and the moral of that excellent story might be applied to him, namely, that that usually called want of luck is much more often want of prudence, firmness, and forethought.

The destruction of Abdallah's troops, and his own captivity, greatly weakened his party in Granada, and revived that of the old king. "The news," says Conde, "of this most unfortunate event flew.to Granada: all the city was full of affliction and grief, the flower of the knighthood had perished;-in one house they called for the father, in another for the brother; in this for the sons, in that for the lover or the husband." This representation, at once feeling and unaffected, Mr. Irving has swelled out into a scene of three pages, in which Abdallah's wife, Morayma, is made to soliloquize exactly after the manner of the heroine of a melo-drame. In continued consonance with the character of that species of entertainment," the royal minstrels were summoned to assuage the sorrows of the queen: they attuned their instruments to cheerful strains; but in a little while the anguish of their hearts prevailed, and turned their songs to lamentations." This is really very much like the language of the play-bills at Astley's.

The song of the musicians is then given, which certainly must have been exceedingly consolatory to a lady who had just received the intelligence of the death of her father and her husband. It is to be hoped, however, that, as she considered that a fitting occasion to send for a band and a chorus, she might be benefited by their services.

And this sentiment of the Minerva Press Mr. Irving most complacently sets before us as history!

Conde then turns to Abul Hassan." Whether," he begins slily, "the King Abul Hassan rejoiced at this disaster which had befallen his rebellious son, I think no one will ask me."-Accordingly, with the full approbation of his brother, El Atar, he came from Malaga to Granada, and took quiet possession of the Alhambra, without the partisans of his son offering him the least resistance.

Meanwhile Abdallah had been taken to Seville, and was negotiating with Ferdinand and Isabella for his release. Zoraya sent great sums from the treasures she had accumulated, to assist her son in his endeaShe had established herself, on Abul Hassan's arrival in the Albaycen a quarter of the city, which had always adhered to her party, and where her husband thought it as well to leave her undis

vours.

turbed, as he as yet did not know how much he might trust to his newly-recovered popularity.

Meanwhile, Abul Hassan sent an embassy to the King and Queen of Spain, offering the Count of Cifuentes and nine of the principal Spanish prisoners in exchange for the person of his rebellious son-but his message was couched haughtily, and moreover Ferdinand felt the advantage of keeping up civil dissensions in Granada, and he refused Abul Hassan's request altogether.

Abdallah, however, succeeded in effecting his liberation-but it was upon terms which rendered him despicable in the eyes of the Moorish nation. He offered, for his ransom, to render perpetual submission and vassalage to the King of Castile; and, in recognition of his sovereignty, to pay to him every year two thousand doubloons of gold, besides a great quantity of presents, and to send him three hundred Christian prisoners, of those who were in Granada, whom the King of Castile was to choose: that he should do the service of the King of Castile as he might order, and when he pleased, as well in peace as in war; and, as hostage and security, to give his only son and heir. On the other hand, the King of Castile was to aid him in recovering the towns which formerly were under his rule, and which since joined the party of his father.

These stipulations were discussed in the Spanish council; and Conde justly says, that it "agreed to the offered conditions of giving him liberty, and aiding him to recover his kingdom, that they might the better be able to foment those horrible civil wars which saturated with blood the plains and grateful fields of Granada*."

And truly Abdallah's return to Granada occasioned immediate bloodshed. He arrived, escorted by a considerable body of Spaniards, and was surreptitiously introduced into the Albaycen, where his mother still held out for him. In the morning it was spread throughout the city, and large sums from the treasures of the sultana accompanied the news. By these means, and by gifts and promises to the people in office in the city, great numbers were gained over.

Abul Hassan, on the other hand, on consulting with his council, determined to bring the matter to issue at once. He had the advantage on his side of the strong excitation created against his son by his shameful defeat, and the degrading terms of his treaty of release. The being subject to the sovereignty of the Spaniards had ever been a galling heart-sore to the Moors-and it had never before gone further than a yearly tribute-and Abul Hassan himself had refused to continue it at the commencement of his reign. He answered to the ambassador who came to claim it on his accession-" Go, and tell your sovereigns that those kings of Granada are dead who paid tribute to the Christians, and that in Granada nothing now is coined but swords and spear-heads against our enemies." But now, his son had made himself the slave, rather than the vassal, of the Spaniards, and

The exact meaning of some words it is next to impossible to render. Among these is ameno amenos campos-which we have translated grateful. We were curious to see what the dictionary would say. We found pleasant, which constant use has weakened so as to cause it to express too little-and delicious, which expresses too much.

this excited a violent spirit against him in Granada. The parties may be thus considered as pretty nearly equally balanced.

The awful conflict that followed we can scarcely give more briefly, certainly not better, than in the words of Señor Conde. "That sad and horrible day dawned, and the whole city shook with the drums and the trumpets. The inhabitants did not dare to open their doors, for through the streets there ran in crowds armed people, some proclaiming King Abdallah, others King Abul Hassan, and in the open places they divided themselves to dispute the bloody quarrel. Those of Abul Hassan's party first attacked the rebels, who were the more in number, but consisted of the lower order of the people, gathered pell-mell and without order, who fled at the shock towards the fortified streets and barriers. There the resistance was the greatest, and the strife the most death-bearing and bloody. The slaughter lasted the whole day with an envenomed rage, till at last the night gave a respite to so many horrors."

And this is Mr. Irving's pastime and delight! That gentleman seems misled, we suppose, by the Monkish Chronicler, whom he has trusted so implicitly as to have missed no occasion of siding with Abdallah and his tigress-mother against Abul Hassan. He constantly calls the latter cruel, blood-thirsty, diabolical, and sacrificing every→ thing to his ambition and love of rule. We have already seen Mariana call him "the kind Albohazen." And the following representation which we shall continue to give from Conde's animated narrative, tells, we think, of other things than those in Mr. Irving's list.

"Both sides passed the night in preparing themselves to renew the conflict, and as the King Abul Hassan consulted with his Alimes and the Shieks and the principal nobles, he bewailed the death of so many good cavaliers, the defence and hope of the kingdom, and manifested so much feeling at these misfortunes, that an Alime, called Macer,* offered himself to propose to the two parties a reconciliation, to which Abul Hassan himself agreed that night, being especially urged to it by his son the Prince Cidi Alnayar, [half-brother of Abdallah] who said to him that it was far better that he should leave the agitations and the turmoils of the dangerous rule,-that the throne of Granada was floating upon a tempestuous and tossing sea-that now his advanced years needed tranquillity and repose, that he should place these cares upon stronger men, while he himself retired to live a quiet and easy life wherever he preferred; where nothing should disturb peace in the asylum he might choose in which to pass his remaining days.

"With the day came the hoarse sound of the trumpets and the drums, announcing to the unhappy dwellers in Granada the beginning of those horrible civil conflicts which tore them to pieces. The desire of vengeance which burned within their souls, stimulated the brave cavaliers to present themselves for the defence of their respective factions. Just then the Alime Macer, a man of great authority in the popular meetings, addressed them, in a loud voice thus: What fury is this of yours, O Citizens! Since when have ye been thus discordant and frantic, that, for the passions and cupidity of others, ye forget

* The same alluded to as prophesying the downfall of Granada.

yourselves, your children, your wives, your country? What deep folly and ignorance are yours! How can ye thus seek to serve as victims to the unjust ambition of a bad son on the one part-while both of them are even without valour*, without energy and firmness, without good fortune, without royal qualities. Both of them pretend to, and dispute, the government which neither of them deserves, nor is able nor knows how to defend. Have you not shame thus to slay each other for such as these? Thus it is, O Citizens! if shame do not move you, be moved by the peril in which you stand. If so much illustrious blood has flowed like water against our enemies, and in defence of our dear country, let our vengeful bands reach the Guadalquivir and the Tagus, the boundary. What do you expect from the name of Abu Abdallah, or the vain shadow of Abul Hassan, kings without power to protect or favour you? There is no want in the kingdom of some hero, some valiant and vigorous man, the descendant of our illustrious and glorious kings, whose prudence and noble heart can govern us, and lead us to victory against our enemies. Now listen, as I name the Prince El Zagal, Wali of Malaga, and the terror of the Christian frontiers!"

No sooner was this name uttered, than the whole party of Abul Hassan raised the voice and cried out-"Long live the Prince El Zagal!--live the Wali of Malaga!—and let him be our leader and our lord "The party of Abdallah soon joined in the cry—and they sent off immediately to Malaga to inform El Zagal of what had happened. He set off at once, and meeting a party of the knights of Calatrava foraging as he came, he overcame them, and entered Granada in triumph. He went straight to the Alhambra, and he and his brother the King Abul Hassan embraced. He shewed great pleasure at the good fortune of his brother-and set off immediately for Illora, taking with his treasures, his harem, and his two sons Cidi Yahye and Cidi Alnayar, "Thus," says Señor Conde, "terminated, by his own will, the reign of Abul Hassan, in the year of the Hegira eight hundred and eighty-nine, and of the Christian era 1484."

From this time forward the historical discrepancies between Mr. Irving and Señor Conde are most numerous and important. The latter has distinctly made, as we have just seen, Abdallah's return from Granada the cause and the date of El Zagal's accession. The account Mr. Irving gives is as follows::

It was impossible that such violent convulsions should last long in the heart of a city. The people soon longed for repose, and a return to their peaceful occupations; and the cavaliers detested these conflicts with the multitude, in which there were all the horrors of war, without its laurels. By the interference of the alfaquis, an armistice was at length effected. Boabdil was persuaded that there was no dependence upon the inconstant favour of the multitude, and was prevailed upon to quit a capital, where he could only maintain a precarious seat upon his throne, by a perpetual and bloody struggle. He fixed his court at the city of Almeria, which was entirely devoted to him; and which at that time vied with Granada in splendour and importance. This compromise of grandeur for tranquillity, however, was

This was not true of the father, however calculated to serve the purposes of rhetoric.

sorely against the counsels of his proud-spirited mother, the sultana Ayxa Granada appeared in her eyes the only legitimate seat of dominion; and she observed, with a smile of disdain, that he was not worthy of being called a monarch, who was not master of his capital.*

We have taken great pains to follow, comparing the one with the other, Señor Conde's and Mr. Irving's statements. It was originally our intention to have set the result before our readers. But our task has been so irksome and wearisome, from the desultory and inconsecutive manner in which Mr. Irving's narrative is composed, that we really dread that our condensed statement of his confusion of dates, transposition of some facts, and total alteration of others, would smack of the painful labour with which it was got up. That labour shall not, however, be wholly thrown away-for we will give just a précis, taken from the clear, manly, and straight-forward history of Conde, which may serve to make more intelligible one or two scenes with which we shall present our readers, in concluding our task of conducting them through so much devastation and bloodshed.

To shew, however, that we have not been unjust in the accusations we have made against Fray Agapida's authority, we shall begin by one instance of his extraordinary talent in swelling a dwarf into a giant, and then bedecking him with tawdry ornaments. That worthy monk insisting upon keeping Abul Hassan on the throne for two or three years after he was in retirement, attributes the following little feat to El Zagal, we suppose en attendant the throne:

In the month of February, 1485, El Zagal suddenly appeared before Almeria, at the head of a troop of horse. The Alfaquis were prepared for his arrival, and the gates were thrown open to him. He entered with his band and galloped to the citadel. The Alcayde would have made resistance; but the garrison put him to death, and received El Zagal with exclamations. El Zagal rushed through the apartments of the alcazar, but he sought in vain for Boabdil. He found the sultana Ayxa la Horra in one of the saloons with Ben Ahagete, a younger brother of the monarch, a valiant Abencerrage, and several attendants who rallied round them to protect them. Where is the traitor Boabdil? exclaimed El Zagal. I know no traitor more perfidious than thyself,' exclaimed the intrepid sultana,- and I trust my son is in safety, to take vengeance on thy treason. The rage of El Zagal was without bounds when he learned that his intended victim had escaped. In his fury he slew the prince, Ben Ahagete; and his followers fell upon him and massacred the Abencerrage, and attendants. As to the proud sultana, she was borne away prisoner, and loaded with revilings as having upheld her son in rebellion, and fomented a civil war.

The unfortunate Boabdil had been apprized of his danger by a faithful soldier, just in time to make his escape. Throwing himself on one of the fleetest horses of his stables, and followed by a handful of adherents, he had galloped, in the confusion, out of the gates of Almeria. Several of the cavalry of El Zagal, who were stationed within the walls, perceived his flight, and attempted to pursue him. Their horses were jaded with travel, and he soon left them far behind. But whither was he to fly? Every fortress and castle in the kingdom was closed against him. He knew not whom among the Moors to trust; for they had been taught to detest him, as a traitor

The date of Abdallah's return Mr. Irving places several months earlier than Conde, or Marlès. The dates are more frequently given in the last-named work, than in either of the other two.