I would
fain have a little minstrelsy to refresh my mind when weary with the
toils of study."
"A truce with thy hermit cravings," said the king, impatiently.
"This damsel have I marked for my own. I see much comfort in her; even
such comfort as David, the father of Solomon the wise, found in the
society of Abishag the Shunammite."
Further solicitations and remonstrances of the astrologer only
provoked a more peremptory reply from the monarch, and they parted
in high displeasure. The sage shut himself up in his hermitage to
brood over his disappointment; ere he departed, however, he gave the
king one more warning to beware of his dangerous captive. But where is
the old man in love that will listen to council? Aben Habuz resigned
himself to the full sway of his passion. His only study was how to
render himself amiable in the eyes of the Gothic beauty. He had not
youth to recommend him, it is true, but then he had riches; and when a
lover is old, he is generally generous. The Zacatin of Granada was
ransacked for the most precious merchandise of the East; silks,
jewels, precious gems, exquisite perfumes, all that Asia and Africa
yielded of rich and rare, were lavished upon the princess. All kinds
of spectacles and festivities were devised for her entertainment;
minstrelsy, dancing, tournaments, bull-fights- Granada for a time
was a scene of perpetual pageant.
The Gothic princess regarded all this splendor with the air of one
accustomed to magnificence.
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