"
So saying he seized the bridle of the palfrey, smote the earth
with his staff, and sank with the Gothic princess through the centre
of the barbican. The earth closed over them, and no trace remained
of the opening by which they had descended.
Aben Habuz was struck dumb for a time with astonishment.
Recovering himself, he ordered a thousand workmen to dig, with pickaxe
and spade, into the ground where the astrologer had disappeared.
They digged and digged, but in vain; the flinty bosom of the hill
resisted their implements; or if they did penetrate a little way,
the earth filled in again as fast as they threw it out. Aben Habuz
sought the mouth of the cavern at the foot of the hill, leading to the
subterranean palace of the astrologer; but it was nowhere to be found.
Where once had been an entrance, was now a solid surface of primeval
rock. With the disappearance of Ibrahim Ebn Abu Ayub ceased the
benefit of his talismans. The bronze horseman remained fixed, with his
face turned toward the hill, and his spear pointed to the spot where
the astrologer had descended, as if there still lurked the deadliest
foe of Aben Habuz.
From time to time the sound of music, and the tones of a female
voice, could be faintly heard from the bosom of the hill; and a
peasant one day brought word to the king, that in the preceding
night he had found a fissure in the rock, by which he had crept in,
until he looked down into a subterranean hall, in which sat the
astrologer, on a magnificent divan, slumbering and nodding to the
silver lyre of the princess, which seemed to hold a magic sway over
his senses.
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