This would have been harmless enough, and even convenient both to
his queen and courtiers, had he been content to remain in the quietude
befitting a dead man; but to their annoyance he insisted upon having
the funeral ceremonies performed over him, and, to their inexpressible
perplexity, began to grow impatient, and to revile bitterly at them
for negligence and disrespect, in leaving him unburied. What was to be
done? To disobey the king's positive commands was monstrous in the
eyes of the obsequious courtiers of a punctilious court- but to obey
him, and bury him alive would be downright regicide!
In the midst of this fearful dilemma a rumor reached the court, of
the female minstrel who was turning the brains of all Andalusia. The
queen dispatched missions in all haste to summon her to St. Ildefonso,
where the court at that time resided.
Within a few days, as the queen with her maids of honor was
walking in those stately gardens, intended, with their avenues and
terraces and fountains, to eclipse the glories of Versailles, the
far-famed minstrel was conducted into her presence. The imperial
Elizabetta gazed with surprise at the youthful and unpretending
appearance of the little being that had set the world madding. She was
in her picturesque Andalusian dress, her silver lute in hand, and
stood with modest and downcast eyes, but with a simplicity and
freshness of beauty that still bespoke her "the Rose of the Alhambra.
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