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The calmer contemplations and more holy anxieties of Leila were, atlength, broken in upon by intelligence, the fearful interest of whichabsorbed 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 theprincipal fortresses, which Ferdinand had left, strongly garrisoned, inthe immediate neighbourhood. His success was as immediate as it wassignal; 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-cladsummits of the Sierra Nevada poured down, in wild hordes, the fiercemountain race, who, accustomed to eternal winter, made a strangecontrast, in their rugged appearance and shaggy clothing, to theglittering and civilised soldiery of Granada.
Moorish towns, which had submitted to Ferdinand, broke from theirallegiance, and sent their ardent youth and experienced veterans to thestandard of the Keys and Crescent. To add to the sudden panic of theSpaniards, it went forth that a formidable magician, who seemed inspiredrather with the fury of a demon than the valour of a man, had made anabrupt appearance in the ranks of the Moslems. Wherever the Moors shrankback from wall or tower, down which poured the boiling pitch, or rolledthe deadly artillery of the besieged, this sorcerer—rushing into themidst of the flagging force, and waving, with wild gestures, a whitebanner, supposed by both Moor and Christian to be the work of magic andpreternatural spells—dared every danger, and escaped every weapon: withvoice, with prayer, with example, he fired the Moors to an enthusiasmthat revived the first days of Mohammedan conquest; and tower aftertower, along the mighty range of the mountain chain of fortresses, waspolluted by the wave and glitter of the ever-victorious banner. Theveteran, Mendo de Quexada, who, with a garrison of two hundred and fiftymen, held the castle of Almamen, was, however, undaunted by theunprecedented successes of Boabdil. Aware of the approaching storm, hespent the days of peace yet accorded to him in making every preparationfor the siege that he foresaw; messengers were despatched to Ferdinand;new out-works were added to the castle; ample store of provisions laidin; and no precaution omitted that could still preserve to the Spaniardsa fortress that, from its vicinity to Granada, its command of the Vegaand the valleys of the Alpuxarras, was the bitterest thorn in the side ofthe Moorish power.
It was early, one morning, that Leila stood by the lattice of her loftychamber gazing, with many and mingled emotions, on the distant domes ofGranada, as they slept in the silent sunshine. Her heart, for themoment, was busy with the thoughts of home, and the chances and peril ofthe time were forgotten.
The sound of martial music, afar off, broke upon her reveries; shestarte