He showed us also certain
broad ruddy stains on the pavement, traces of their blood, which,
according to popular belief, can never be effaced.
Finding we listened to him apparently with easy faith, he added,
that there was often heard at night, in the Court of Lions, a low
confused sound, resembling the murmuring of a multitude; and now and
then a faint tinkling, like the distant clank of chains. These
sounds were made by the spirits of the murdered Abencerrages, who
nightly haunt the scene of their suffering and invoke the vengeance of
Heaven on their destroyer.
The sounds in question had no doubt been produced, as I had
afterwards an opportunity of ascertaining, by the bubbling currents
and tinkling falls of water conducted under the pavement through pipes
and channels to supply the fountains; but I was too considerate to
intimate such an idea to the humble chronicler of the Alhambra.
Encouraged by my easy credulity, Mateo gave me the following as an
undoubted fact, which he had from his grandfather:
There was once an invalid soldier, who had charge of the Alhambra to
show it to strangers: as he was one evening, about twilight, passing
through the Court of Lions, he heard footsteps on the Hall of the
Abencerrages; supposing some strangers to be lingering there, he
advanced to attend upon them, when to his astonishment he beheld
four Moors richly dressed, with gilded cuirasses and cimeters, and
poniards glittering with precious stones.
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