Having trimmed off his rough
beard, his sunburnt face found favor in the eyes of the fair, and
the demure handmaid of the governor declared that his squint was
perfectly irresistible. This kind-hearted damsel had from the first
evinced a deep sympathy in his fortunes, and having in vain tried to
mollify the governor, had set to work privately to mitigate the
rigor of his dispensations. Every day she brought the prisoner some
crumbs of comfort which had fallen from the governor's table, or
been abstracted from his larder, together with, now and then, a
consoling bottle of choice Val de Penas, or rich Malaga.
While this petty treason was going on, in the very centre of the old
governor's citadel, a storm of open war was brewing up among his
external foes. The circumstance of a bag of gold and jewels having
been found upon the person of the supposed robber, had been
reported, with many exaggerations, in Granada. A question of
territorial jurisdiction was immediately started by the governor's
inveterate rival, the captain-general. He insisted that the prisoner
had been captured without the precincts of the Alhambra, and within
the rules of his authority. He demanded his body therefore, and the
spolia opima taken with him. Due information having been carried
likewise by the friar to the grand inquisitor of the crosses and
rosaries, and other relics contained in the bag, he claimed the
culprit as having been guilty of sacrilege, and insisted that his
plunder was due to the church, and his body to the next auto-da-fe.
Pages:
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386