On the other side it overlooked
a deep embowered ravine separating the grounds of the Alhambra from
those of the Generalife. The interior of the tower was divided into
small fairy apartments, beautifully ornamented in the light Arabian
style, surrounding a lofty hall, the vaulted roof of which rose almost
to the summit of the tower. The walls and the ceilings of the hall
were adorned with arabesque and fretwork, sparkling with gold and with
brilliant pencilling. In the centre of the marble pavement was an
alabaster fountain, set round with aromatic shrubs and flowers, and
throwing up a jet of water that cooled the whole edifice and had a
lulling sound. Round the hall were suspended cages of gold and
silver wire, containing singing-birds of the finest plumage or
sweetest note.
The princesses had been represented as always cheerful when in the
castle of the Salobrena; the king had expected to see them
enraptured with the Alhambra. To his surprise, however, they began
to pine, and grow melancholy, and dissatisfied with every thing around
them. The flowers yielded them no fragrance, the song of the
nightingale disturbed their night's rest, and they were out of all
patience with the alabaster fountain with its eternal drop-drop and
splash-splash, from morning till night, and from night till morning.
The king, who was somewhat of a testy, tyrannical disposition,
took this at first in high dudgeon; but he reflected that his
daughters had arrived at an age when the female mind expands and its
desires augment.
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