"'Prithee, comrade,' said I, 'what is the meaning of all this?'
"'This,' said the trooper, 'is a great and fearful mystery. Know,
O Christian, that you see before you the court and army of Boabdil the
last king of Granada.'
"'What is this you tell me?' cried I. 'Boabdil and his court were
exiled from the land hundreds of years agone, and all died in Africa.'
"'So it is recorded in your lying chronicles,' replied the Moor;
'but know that Boabdil and the warriors who made the last struggle for
Granada were all shut up in the mountain by powerful enchantment. As
for the king and army that marched forth from Granada at the time of
the surrender, they were a mere phantom train of spirits and demons,
permitted to assume those shapes to deceive the Christian
sovereigns. And furthermore let me tell you, friend, that all Spain is
a country under the power of enchantment. There is not a mountain
cave, not a lonely watchtower in the plains, nor ruined castle on
the hills, but has some spell-bound warriors sleeping from age to
age within its vaults, until the sins are expiated for which Allah
permitted the dominion to pass for a time out of the hands of the
faithful. Once every year, on the eve of St. John, they are released
from enchantment, from sunset to sunrise, and permitted to repair here
to pay homage to their sovereign! and the crowds which you beheld
swarming into the cavern are Moslem warriors from their haunts in
all parts of Spain.
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