If, however, he could be kept from the
allurements of love until of mature age, these dangers would be
averted, and his life thereafter be one uninterrupted course of
felicity.
To prevent all danger of the kind, the king wisely determined to
rear the prince in a seclusion where he should never see a female
face, nor hear even the name of love. For this purpose he built a
beautiful palace on the brow of the hill above the Alhambra, in the
midst of delightful gardens, but surrounded by lofty walls, being,
in fact, the same palace known at the present day by the name of the
Generalife. In this palace the youthful prince was shut up, and
intrusted to the guardianship and instruction of Eben Bonabben, one of
the wisest and dryest of Arabian sages, who had passed the greatest
part of his life in Egypt, studying hieroglyphics, and making
researches among the tombs and pyramids, and who saw more charms in an
Egyptian mummy than in the most tempting of living beauties. The
sage was ordered to instruct the prince in all kinds of knowledge
but one- he was to be kept utterly ignorant of love.
"Use every precaution for the purpose you may think proper," said
the king; "but remember, O Eben Bonabben, if my son learns aught of
that forbidden knowledge while under your care, your head shall answer
for it."
A withered smile came over the dry visage of the wise Bonabben at
the menace.
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