THE HERO IN THE POWER OF THE DREAMER.
It was in the same chamber, and nearly at the same hour, in which we
first presented to the reader Boabdil el Chico, that we are again
admitted to the presence of that ill-starred monarch. He was not alone.
His favourite slave, Amine, reclined upon the ottomans, gazing with
anxious love upon his thoughtful countenance, as he leant against the
glittering wall by the side of the casement, gazing abstractedly on the
scene below.
From afar he heard the shouts of the populace at the return of Muza, and
bursts of artillery confirmed the tidings of triumph which had already
been borne to his ear.
"May the king live for ever!" said Amine, timidly; "his armies have gone
forth to conquer."
"But without their king," replied Boabdil, bitterly, and headed by a
traitor and a foe. I am meshed in the nets of an inextricable fate!"
"Oh!" said the slave, with sudden energy, as, clasping her hands, she
rose from her couch,--"oh, my lord, would that these humble lips dared
utter other words than those of love!"
"And what wise counsel would they give me?" asked Boabdil with a faint
smile. "Speak on."
"I will obey thee, then, even if it displease," cried Amine; and she
rose, her cheek glowing, her eyes spark ling, her beautiful form dilated.
"I am a daughter of Granada; I am the beloved of a king; I will be true
to my birth and to my fortunes. Boabdil el Chico, the last of a line of
heroes, shake off these gloomy fantasies--these doubts and dreams that
smother the fire of a great nature and a kingly soul! Awake--arise--rob
Granada of her Muza--be thyself her Muza! Trustest thou to magic and to
spells? then grave them on they breastplate, write them on thy sword, and
live no longer the Dreamer of the Alhambra; become the saviour of thy
people!"
Boabdil turned, and gazed on the inspired and beautiful form before him
with mingled emotions of surprise and shame. "Out of the mouth of woman
cometh my rebuke!" said he sadly. "It is well!"
"Pardon me, pardon me!" said the slave, falling humbly at his knees; "but
blame me not that I would have thee worthy of thyself. Wert thou not
happier, was not thy heart more light and thy hope more strong when, at
the head of thine armies, thine own cimiter slew thine own foes, and the
terror of the Hero-king spread, in flame and slaughter, from the
mountains to the seas. Boabdil! dear as thou art to me-equally as I
would have loved thee hadst thou been born a lowly fisherman of the
Darro, since thou art a king, I would have thee die a king; even if my
own heart broke as I armed thee for thy latest battle!"
"Thou knowest not what thou sayest, Amine," said Boabdil, "nor canst thou
tell what spirits that are not of earth dictate to the actions and watch
over the destinies, of the rulers of nations. If I delay, if I linger,
it is not from terror, but from wisdom. The cloud must gather on, dark
and slow, ere the moment for the thunderbolt arrives."
"On thine own house will the thunderbolt fall, since over thine own house
thou sufferest the cloud to gather," said a calm and stern voice.
Boabdil started; and in the chamber stood a third person, in the shape of
a woman, past middle age, and of commanding port and stature. Upon her
long-descending robes of embroidered purple were thickly woven jewels of
royal price, and her dark hair, slightly tinged with grey, parted over a
majestic brow while a small diadem surmounted the folds of the turban.
"My mother!" said Boabdil, with some haughty reserve in his tone; "your
presence is unexpected."
"Ay," answered Ayxa la Horra, for it was indeed that celebrated, and
haughty, and high-souled queen, "and unwelcome; so is ever that of your
true friends. But not thus unwelcome was the presence of your mother,
when her brain and her hand delivered you from the dungeon in which your
stern father had cast your youth, and the dagger and the bowl seemed the
only keys that would unlock the cell."
"And better hadst thou left the ill-omened son that thy womb conceived,
to die thus in youth, honoured and lamented, than to live to manhood,
wrestling against an evil star and a relentless fate."
"Son," said the queen, gazing upon him with lofty and half disdainful
compassion, "men's conduct shapes out their own fortunes, and the unlucky
are never the valiant and the wise."
"Madam," said Boabdil, colouring with passion, "I am still a king, nor
will I be thus bearded--withdraw!"
Ere the queen could reply, a eunuch entered, and whispered Boabdil.
"Ha!" said he, joyfully, stamping his foot, "comes he then to brave the
lion in his den? Let the rebel look to it. Is he alone?"
"Alone, great king."
"Bid my guards wait without; let the slightest signal summon them.
Amine, retire! Madam--"
"Son!" interrupted Ayxa la Horra in visible agitation, "do I guess
aright? is the brave Muza--the sole bulwark and hope of Granada--whom
unjustly thou wouldst last night have placed in chains--(chains! Great
Prophet! is it thus a king should reward his heroes)--is, I say, Muza
here? and wilt thou make him the victim of his own generous trust?"
"Retire, woman?" said Boabdil, sullenly.
"I will not, save by force! I resisted a fiercer soul than thine when I
saved thee from thy father."
"Remain, then, if thou wilt, and learn how kings can punish traitors.
Mesnour, admit the hero of Granada." Amine had vanished. Boabdil seated
himself on the cushions his face calm but pale. The queen stood erect at
a little distance, her arms folded on her breast, and her aspect knit and
resolute. In a few moments Muza entered alone. He approached the king
with the profound salutation of oriental obeisance; and then stood before
him with downcast eyes, in an attitude from which respect could not
divorce a natural dignity and pride of mien.
"Prince," said Boabdil, after a moment's pause, "yestermorn, when I sent
for thee thou didst brave my orders. Even in mine own Alhambra thy
minions broke out in mutiny; they surrounded the fortress in which thou
wert to wait my pleasure; they intercepted, they insulted, they drove
back my guards; they stormed the towers protected by the banner of thy
king. The governor, a coward or a traitor, rendered thee to the
rebellious crowd. Was this all? No, by the Prophet! Thou, by right my
captive, didst leave thy prison but to head mine armies. And this day,
the traitor subject--the secret foe--was the leader of a people who defy
a king. This night thou comest to me unsought. Thou feelest secure from
my just wrath, even in my palace. Thine insolence blinds and betrays
thee. Man, thou art in my power! Ho, there!"
As the king spoke, he rose; and, presently, the arcades at the back of
the pavilion were darkened by long lines of the Ethiopian guard, each of
height which, beside the slight Moorish race, appeared gigantic; stolid
and passionless machines, to execute, without thought, the bloodiest or
the slightest caprice of despotism. There they stood; their silver
breastplates and long earrings contrasting their dusky skins; and
bearing, over their shoulders, immense clubs studded with brazen nails.
A little advanced from the rest, stood the captain, with the fatal
bowstring hanging carelessly on his arm, and his eyes intent to catch the
slightest gesture of the king. "Behold!" said Boabdil to his prisoner.
"I do; and am prepared for what I have foreseen." The queen grew pale,
but continued silent.
Muza resumed--
"Lord of the faithful!" said he, "if yestermorn I had acted otherwise, it
would have been to the ruin of thy throne and our common race. The
fierce Zegris suspected and learned my capture. They summoned the troops
they delivered me, it is true. At that time had I reasoned with them, it
would have been as drops upon a flame. They were bent on besieging thy
palace, perhaps upon demanding thy abdication. I could not stifle their
fury, but I could direct it. In the moment of passion, I led them from
rebellion against our common king to victory against our common foe.
That duty done, I come unscathed from the sword of the Christian to bare
my neck to the bowstring of my friend. Alone, untracked, unsuspected, I
have entered thy palace to prove to the sovereign of Granada, that the
defendant of his throne is not a rebel to his will. Now summon the
guards--I have done."
"Muza!" said Boabdil, in a softened voice, while he shaded his face with
his hand, "we played together as children, and I have loved thee well: my
kingdom even now, perchance, is passing from me, but I could almost be
reconciled to that loss, if I thought thy loyalty had not left me."
"Dost thou, in truth, suspect the faith of Muza Ben Abil Gazan?" said the
Moorish prince, in a tone of surprise and sorrow. "Unhappy king! I
deemed that my services, and not my defection, made my crime."
"Why do my people hate me? why do my armies menace?" said Boabdil,
evasively; "why should a subject possess that allegiance which a king
cannot obtain?"
"Because," replied Muza, boldly, "the king has delegated to a subject the
command he should himself assume. Oh, Boabdil!" he continued,
passionately--"friend of my boyhood, ere the evil days came upon us,--
gladly would I sink to rest beneath the dark waves of yonder river, if
thy arm and brain would fill up my place amongst the warriors of Granada.
And think not I say this only from our boyish love; think not I have
placed my life in thy hands only from that servile loyalty to a single
man, which the false chivalry of Christendom imposes as a sacred creed
upon its knights and nobles. But I speak and act but from one principle
--to save the religion of, my father and the land of my birth: for this I
have risked my life against the foe; for this I surrender my life to the
sovereign of my country. Granada may yet survive, if monarch and people
unite together. Granada is lost for ever, if her children, at this fatal
hour, are divided against themselves. If, then, I, O Boabdil! am the
true obstacle to thy league with thine own subjects, give me at once to
the bowstring, and my sole prayer shall be for the last remnant of the
Moorish name, and the last monarch of the Moorish dynasty."
"My son, my son! art thou convinced at last?" cried the queen, struggling
with her tears; for she was one who wept easily at heroic sentiments, but
never at the softer sorrows, or from the more womanly emotions.
Boabdil lifted his head with a vain and momentary attempt at pride; his
eye glanced from his mother to his friend, and his better feelings gushed
upon him with irresistible force; he threw himself into Muza's arms.
"Forgive me," he said, in broken accents, "forgive me! How could I have
wronged thee thus? Yes," he continued, as he started from the noble
breast on which for a moment he indulged no ungenerous weakness,--"yes,
prince, your example shames, but it fires me. 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. Thou didst not despise those earnest musings, nor our
ancestral lore, though, unlike me, ever more inclined to action than to
contemplation, that which thou mightest believe had little influence upon
what thou didst design. With me it hath been otherwise; every event of
life hath conspired to feed my early prepossessions; and, in this awful
crisis of my fate, I have placed myself and my throne rather under the
guardianship of spirits than of men. This alone has reconciled me to
inaction--to the torpor of the Alhambra--to the mutinies of my people.
I have smiled, when foes surround and friends deserted me, secure of the
aid at last--if I bided but the fortunate hour--of the charms of
protecting spirits, and the swords of the invisible creation. Thou
wonderest what this should lead to. Listen! Two nights since (and the
king shuddered) I was with the dead! My father appeared before me--not
as I knew him in life--gaunt and terrible, full of the vigour of health,
and the strength of kingly empire, and of fierce passion--but wan, calm,
shadowy. From lips on which Azrael had set his livid seal, he bade me
beware of thee!"
The king ceased suddenly; and sought to read on the face of Muza the
effect his words produced. But the proud and swarthy features of the
Moor evinced no pang of conscience; a slight smile of pity might have
crossed his lip for a moment, but it vanished ere the king could detect
it. Boabdil continued:
"Under the influence of this warning, I issued the order for thy arrest.
Let this pass--I resume my tale. I attempted to throw myself at the
spectre's feet--it glided from me, motionless and impalpable. I asked
the Dead One if he forgave his unhappy son the sin of rebellion alas!
too well requited even upon earth. And the voice again came forth, and
bade me keep the crown that I had gained, as the sole atonement for the
past. Then again I asked, whether the hour for action had arrived! and
the spectre, while it faded gradually into air, answered, 'No!' 'Oh!' I
exclaimed, 'ere thou leavest me, be one sign accorded me, that I have not
dreamt this vision; and give me, I pray thee, note and warning, when the
evil star of Boabdil shall withhold its influence, and he may strike,
without resistance from the Powers above, for his glory and his throne.'
'The sign and the warning are bequeathed thee,' answered the ghostly
image. It vanished,--thick darkness fell around; and, when once more the
light of the lamps we bore became visible, behold there stood before me
a skeleton, in the regal robe of the kings of Granada, and on its grisly
head was the imperial diadem. With one hand raised, it pointed to the
opposite wall, wherein burned, like an orb of gloomy fire, a broad dial-
plate, on which were graven these words, BEWARE--FEAR NOT--ARM! The
finger of the dial moved rapidly round, and rested at the word beware.
From that hour to the one in which I last beheld it, it hath not moved.
Muza, the tale is done; wilt thou visit with me this enchanted chamber,
and see if the hour be come?"
"Commander of the faithful," said Muza, "the story is dread and awful.
But pardon thy friend--wert thou alone, or was the santon Almamen thy
companion?"
"Why the question?" said Boabdil, evasively, and slightly colouring.
"I fear his truth," answered Muza; "the Christian king conquers more foes
by craft than force; and his spies are more deadly than his warriors.
Wherefore this caution against me, but (pardon me) for thine own undoing?
Were I a traitor, could Ferdinand himself have endangered thy crown so
imminently as the revenge of the leader of thine own armies? Why, too,
this desire to keep thee inactive? For the brave every hour hath its
chances; but, for us, every hour increases our peril. If we seize not
the present time,--our supplies are cut off,--and famine is a foe all our
valour cannot resist. This dervise--who is he? a stranger, not of our
race and blood. But this morning I found him without the walls, not far
from the Spaniard's camp."
"Ha!" cried the king, quickly, "and what said he?"
"Little, but in hints; sheltering himself, by loose hints, under thy
name."
"He! what dared he own?--Muza, what were those hints?"
The Moor here recounted the interview with Almamen, his detention, his
inactivity in the battle, and his subsequent capture by the Spaniards.
The king listened attentively, and regained his composure.
"It is a strange and awful man," said he after a pause. "Guards and
chains will not detain him. Ere long he will return. But thou, at
least, Muza, are henceforth free, alike from the suspicion of the living
and the warnings of the dead. No, my friend," continued Boabdil, with
generous warmth, "it is better to lose a crown, to lose life itself, than
confidence in a heart like thine. Come, let us inspect this magic
tablet; perchance--and how my heart bounds as I utter the hope!--the hour
may have arrived."