Gonzalo de Cordova. An Heroic Romance. GONZALO DE CORDOVA; Or, GRANADA RECOVERED. W An Heroic Romance. BOOK V. (Continued from p. 454.) 559 dreadful fhriek, and awaked, bathed in tears. Trembling, and fcarcely able to breathe, fhe threw her felf, fobbing bitterly, into the arms of the aftonished Almanzor: fhe preffed him to her heart, and poured forth the precious flood from her eyes. Dear Moraima, faid the hero, whence this fudden terror? I am HEN Ifabella had given the here: It is against my bofom that fignal to end thete pleafing thine palpitates; it is thy Almanfports, and the youthful Futies zor who fpeaks to thee, who comretired to their chambers, paffed intorts, and who will defend thee. tender recollection the hours defined Ah! deight of my heart, replied to fleep; the lover of each, watchful like them, wandered around the happy tent which contained the object of his wifes, Cortez, efpecialiy, the amorous Cortez, repairs every night to wait the morning at the door of Seraphina. A thin veil is the only obutacle which feparates him from his mistress, but his reverence for her renders this impenetrable. Wrapped in a long cloak, he touches the plaintive ftrings of a guitar, and fings his render love. fe, by what a dreadful dream have I been terrified! Methought-my fenfes forfake me, my faultering voice fails me-Methought i w n dered in that extenfive plain which feparates us from our enemies; the two armies were in fight, and our Moorish troops lined the ramparts. 1 faw thee, in refplendent armour, advance alone, defy Gonzalo, and engage in fingle combat with that formidable Spaniard. I beheld thee a conqueror, but covered with a crape, which wrapped thee in its black folds. No mortal dared to approach thee. I ran, I flew, to encircle thee in my feeble arms-but the dark veil extended over my head, and we funk together in a fea of O my husband! O my friend! I In the midst of one of thofe ni, hts in which he repole of the camp was only disturbed by the complaints of lovers, Almanzor, wearied with the labours and inquietude which occupied him ince antly, enjoyed by the fide of Mora'ma the fweets of a tran-blood. quil fleep. This bero, whofe intrepid foul knew no other paffions thanam too well acquainted with the the love of glory and of his fpeute, after having paffed the whole day in vinting the rampar's, fortitving the pofts, and redoubling by his example the courage of the foldiers. returned every evening to the folitary Moraima, to encourage her to difregard dangers the feared not for her felf, and to receive in her embraces that pure reward which chafte loverages is exiled from Granada. All bestows on virtue. Whilft in the inmoft,receffes of their palace, the happy pair locked in each other's arms, repofed on a bed of purple, Moraima uttered a VOL. XXIV. greatnefs of thy foul to feek to intimidate thee; but I request, I entreat thee, to remember that in the world Moraima poffeffes only thee. My family is almost extin&t. My father and my brothers have fallen by the cruelty of Boahdil; my mother is dead of grief. What remains of the tribe of the Abencer this I have borne, I have lived, for heaven iliil left me Almanzor. In you bas centered all the affections. of which I had loft the object. My heart has made you the heir of all 4 D the tenderness it has ever felt. Would'st | fay, when they fee thee pafs, Behold the mifirefs-the wife of our deli thou deprive me, alas! of the only comfort fate has left me? Would't thou, more cruel than that, condemn thy Moraima? She would die that fame initant; fhe muft expire by a dreadful torture Have pity on me, too valiant hero: promife me to remain behind our walls, and confine thy courage to defend thofe towers, which have no other protection-but thy arm. Swear that thou wilt never leave thy wife, thy Moraima, to expofe thy life in that fatal plain, in defence of a perfidious king, who detefts thy noble virtues, and will perhaps deliver thee into the hands of the executioner, the moment thou shalt have faved his empire. verer ! As he pronounced these words, he embraced and comforted her, promifing her not to leave the walls. Moraima made him repeat thofe confoling words: fhe believed, the always bad believed what Almanzor faid. But her fears were not calmed, nor her tears wiped away, when on a fudden, a found of trumpets was heard near the palace. Almanzor, aftonifhed, rofe, and liftened; the noife of arms was mingled with the trampling of courfers. The hero flies to his fword, covers his head with a large turban, hatlily puts on his ftrong cuiras, and, without waiting to hear Morima, haiens to inform himfelf of the cause of the noife and commotion. No fooner had he left the palace than he beheld, by the light of flam beauxs, at the head of the fable Africans, Alamar, the fierce Alamar, mounted on a courfer of Suz, and clad in the fkin of a ferpent, whole impenetrable scales almost entirely covered him, and whose bloody and hideous head twined around his green turban, Moraima, replied Almanzor, while a few generous drops efcaped his eyes, thou art dearer to me than my life, but my duty is fill more dear to me. I know Boabdil, and thou art not ignorant that I have ever in my power a dreadful means of withdrawing myfelf from his fury. It is not for that monfter that I fight; it is for my religion; it is for my country, it is to leave on my tomb a name which may be to my widow an inheritance of refpect. Ó Prince of Granada, faid the barba my worthy and faithful spouse! feek rian, thou fleepeft, and I am haftennot to enfeeble my virtue. Thouing to brave the battle; thou rehaft given birth to it in my foul, cherished it with thy facred example, and embellished it with thy pure charms. Should I cease to love it, I muft no longer hold thee dear. But take courage, Moraima, I mean not to leave our walls: the intereft of my countrymen forbids me. I will remain with thee; with thee from whom a fingle glance, a fingle word, one tender fmite, amp'y rewards me for all my labours. Dry thy tears. The god of battles may perhaps foon put a period to my miferies; or per haps my fuccefful efforts may, in a fhort time, obtain us peace. Oh! what glory, what happiness, fhould eople, faved by my exertions, pofeft by the fide of thy fpouse, and He faid, and the hero, furveying He immediately gave orders for the Zeg Modes of Marriage among the Sumatrans. Zegris and the Alabez to arm, called for one of his courfers, took his heavy battle ax, and by the fide of Alamar rushed to the field, like the god of war. He made the three united fquadrons file off in filence, and went out of the city by the gate of Elvira. Before they arrived at the first posts, Almanzor fettled with Alamar, the order to be obferved. The Zegris, under their chief, Maaz, were to attack the centre of the camp, where the warriors of Caftile defended their queen lfabella. The left of the camp, defended by the aged Tellez, and the knights of Ca. latrava, was to be furprised by the Africans, commanded by Alamar. Almanzor and his faithful Alabez were to attack the right, where was ftationed Ferdinand and his Arragonefe warriors. The different columns divided, and advanced with an equal step, rapid but without tumult. Darkness favoured the Moors; the fecurity of their enemies feemed to enfure them fuccefs. The first guards were flaughtered, and the fecond met the 571 aged Tellez, at the first noife, had caufed the trumpet to be founded, and, fword in hand, without buckler or helmet, by the light of fome flambeaux, hattened to funimon his knigths. Alamar hears him, flies to him, overturns thofe who furround him, feized the old man by those white hairs which more than a hun dred battles had fpared, and with one stroke of his flymetar, takes off that venerable head which had fo long, been reverenced. Without making any stay, the African rushes upon the fquadron of Calatrava, which had affembled, and formed in diforder, to receive the commands of Tellez. Alamar darts on them 1 ke a thunder-bolt. There, exclaims he, there is your chief! I restore him to you without a ranfom. Immediately he throws among them the bleeding head, falls upon the fquadron, puts it to the rout, and covers the earth with dead bodies. (To be continued.) fame fate. They arrived at the MODES of MARRIAGE among the SUMATRANS. HE modes of marriage in Su matra, according to the origi TH entrenchments, and the courfers of Africa bounded over them. Then the fquadron of Alamar fet up a dreadful fhout, which was answered by that of Almanzor, and the Ze-nal inftitution of these people, are gris in the centre. The camp was entered by the Moors on three fides at the fame inftant. Like Getulian lions who meet in the defert with a flock of timid goats, they throw themselves on the Spaniards, attack, purfue, and flaughter those who fly, and those who refift, heap up the dead bodies, and fear only left their ftrength should fail them before their fury thould be fatiated. Alamar, thirsting for blood, alone, and separated from his fable warriors, amid the confufion and dark nefs, ranges over the quarter of Tellez, overturning and deftroying every thing which oppofed his rage- 'I he by joojoor, by amble-ana, or by femundo. The joojoor is a certain fum of money, given by one man to another, as a confideration for the perfon of his daughter, whofe fitua tion in this cafe differs not much from that of a flave to the man fhe marries, and to his family. His abfolute property in her depends however upon fome nice circumstances. Befide the batang joojoor (or main fum) there are certain appendages or branches; one of which, the tallee koolo of five dollars, is ufually, from motives of delicacy or friendship, left unpaid; and fo long as that is the cafe, a relation4.D.2 fhip |