Give me back the maiden--you will have no further need of the hostage you demanded: I return to the city, and renew our interviews no more." Politic and cold-blooded as was the temperament of the great Ferdinand, he had yet the imperious and haughty nature of a prosperous and long-descended king; and he bit his lip in deep displeasure at the tone of the dictatorial and stately stranger.
"Thou usest plain language, my friend," said he; "my words can be as rudely spoken.

Thou art in my power, and canst return not, save at my permission." "I have your royal word, sire, for free entrance and safe egress," answered Almamen.

"Break it, and Granada is with the Moors till the Darro runs red with the blood of her heroes, and her people strew the vales as the leaves in autumn." "Art thou then thyself of the Jewish faith ?" asked the king.

"If thou art not, wherefore are the outcasts of the world so dear to thee ?" "My fathers were of that creed, royal Ferdinand; and if I myself desert their creed, I do not desert their cause.

O king! are my terms scorned or accepted ?" "I accept them: provided, first, that thou obtainest the exile or death of Muza; secondly, that within two weeks of this date thou bringest me, along with the chief councillors of Granada, the written treaty of the capitulation, and the keys of the city.