You know the deep ravine outside of the walls
which passes immediately below the tower. Put the three Christians
to work there, and at the intervals of their labor, let them play
and sing, as if for their own recreation. In this way the princesses
will be able to hear them from the windows of the tower, and you may
be sure of their paying well for your compliance."
As the good old woman concluded her harangue, she kindly pressed the
rough hand of the renegado, and left within it another piece of gold.
Her eloquence was irresistible. The very next day the three
cavaliers were put to work in the ravine. During the noontide heat,
when their fellow-laborers were sleeping in the shade, and the guard
nodding drowsily at his post, they seated themselves among the herbage
at the foot of the tower, and sang a Spanish roundelay to the
accompaniment of the guitar.
The glen was deep, the tower was high, but their voices rose
distinctly in the stillness of the summer noon. The princesses
listened from their balcony, they had been taught the Spanish language
by their duenna, and were moved by the tenderness of the song. The
discreet Kadiga, on the contrary, was terribly shocked. "Allah
preserve us!" cried she, "they are singing a love-ditty, addressed
to yourselves. Did ever mortal hear of such audacity? I will run to
the slave-master, and have them soundly bastinadoed."
"What! bastinado such gallant cavaliers, and for singing so
charmingly!" The three beautiful princesses were filled with horror at
the idea.
Pages:
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323