The Christian king was easily pacified when he found that his
daughter was suffered to continue in her faith- not that he was
particularly pious, but religion is always a point of pride and
etiquette with princes. Instead of bloody battles, there was a
succession of feasts and rejoicings, after which the king returned
well pleased to Toledo, and the youthful couple continued to reign
as happily as wisely, in the Alhambra.
It is proper to add, that the owl and the parrot had severally
followed the prince by easy stages to Granada, the former travelling
by night and stopping at the various hereditary possessions of his
family, the latter figuring in gay circles of every town and city on
his route.
Ahmed gratefully requited the services which they had rendered on
his pilgrimage. He appointed the owl his prime minister, the parrot
his master of ceremonies. It is needless to say that never was a realm
more sagely administered, nor a court conducted with more exact
punctilio.
A Ramble Among the Hills.
I USED frequently to amuse myself towards the close of the day, when
the heat had subsided, with taking long rambles about the
neighboring hills and the deep umbrageous valleys, accompanied by my
historiographic squire, Mateo, to whose passion for gossiping I on
such occasions gave the most unbounded license; and there was scarce a
rock, or ruin, or broken fountain, or lonely glen, about which he
had not some marvellous story; or, above all, some golden legend;
for never was poor devil so munificent in dispensing hidden treasures.
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