It so happened, however, that this most reasonable and pacific old
monarch had young rivals to deal with; princes full of his early
passion for fame and fighting, and who were disposed to call him to
account for the scores he had run up with their fathers. Certain
distant districts of his own territories, also, which during the
days of his vigor he had treated with a high hand, were prone, now
that he languished for repose, to rise in rebellion and threaten to
invest him in his capital. Thus he had foes on every side; and as
Granada is surrounded by wild and craggy mountains, which hide the
approach of an enemy, the unfortunate Aben Habuz was kept in a
constant state of vigilance and alarm, not knowing in what quarter
hostilities might break out.
It was in vain that he built watchtowers on the mountains, and
stationed guards at every pass with orders to make fires by night
and smoke by day, on the approach of an enemy. His alert foes,
baffling every precaution, would break out of some unthought-of
defile, ravage his lands beneath his very nose, and then make off with
prisoners and booty to the mountains. Was ever peaceable and retired
conqueror in a more uncomfortable predicament?
While Aben Habuz was harassed by these perplexities and
molestations, an ancient Arabian physician arrived at his court. His
gray beard descended to his girdle, and he had every mark of extreme
age, yet he had travelled almost the whole way from Egypt on foot,
with no other aid than a staff, marked with hieroglyphics.
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