Granada henceforth shall have two chieftains; and if I be jealous of thee, it shall be from an emulation thou canst not blame.

Guards, retire.

Mesnour! ho, Mesnour! Proclaim at daybreak that I myself will review the troops in the Vivarrambla.

Yet"-- and, as he spoke his voice faltered, and his brow became overcast, "yet stay, seek me thyself at daybreak, and I will give thee my commands." "Oh, my son! why hesitate ?" cried the queen, "why waver?
Prosecute thine own kingly designs, and--" "Hush, madam," said Boabdil, regaining his customary cold composure; "and since you are now satisfied with your son, leave me alone with Muza." The queen sighed heavily; but there was something in the calm of Boabdil which chilled and awed her more than his bursts of passion.

She drew her veil around her, and passed slowly and reluctantly from the chamber.
"Muza," said Boabdil, when alone with the prince, and fixing his large and thoughtful eyes upon the dark orbs of his companion,--"when, in our younger days, we conversed together, do you remember how often that converse turned upon those solemn and mysterious themes to which the sages of our ancestral land directed their deepest lore; the enigmas of the stars--the science of fate--the wild searches into the clouded future, which hides the destines of nations and of men?
Thou rememberest, Muza, that to such studies mine own vicissitudes and sorrows, even in childhood--the strange fortunes which gave me in my cradle the epithet of El Zogoybi--the ominous predictions of santons and astrologers as to the trials of my earthly fate,--all contributed to incline my soul.