Notwithstanding
all this throng and seeming bustle, not a voice nor a footstep was
to be heard; nothing interrupted the midnight silence but the
splashing of the fountains. The little Sanchica followed her
conductress in mute amazement about the palace, until they came to a
portal opening to the vaulted passages beneath the great Tower of
Comares. On each side of the portal sat the figure of a nymph, wrought
out of alabaster. Their heads were turned aside, and their regards
fixed upon the same spot within the vault. The enchanted lady
paused, and beckoned the child to her.
"Here," said she, "is a great secret, which I will reveal to thee in
reward for thy faith and courage. These discreet statues watch over
a treasure hidden in old times by a Moorish king. Tell thy father to
search the spot on which their eyes are fixed, and he will find what
will make him richer than any man in Granada. Thy innocent hands
alone, however, gifted as thou art also with the talisman, can
remove the treasure. Bid thy father use it discreetly, and devote a
part of it to the performance of daily masses for my deliverance
from this unholy enchantment."
When the lady had spoken these words, she led the child onward to
the little garden of Lindaraxa, which is hard by the vault of the
statues. The moon trembled upon the waters of the solitary fountain in
the centre of the garden, and shed a tender light upon the orange
and citron trees.
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