"The lives of all that faithful be, This good day, will I spare; But wo betide or kings or boors, That currish Christians are!"-- Up rode Cid Ramon bleeding fast; The princess wept to see;-- "No cross was kiss'd, no prayer was said, But still I die for thee!" I remember thee, Granada! The Moorish maid she kiss'd the cross, She knelt upon her knee;-- "I kiss the cross, I say the prayer, Because thou diest for me. To buy thy thousand score of swords, I would not give my faith; But now I take the good cross up, To follow thee in death." I remember thee, Granada! "Holy Maria! Come to us, And take us to the blest; In the true blood of love and faith, Receive us to thy rest!"-- The Emir struck in bitter wrath, Sharp fell the Arab blade; And Mary took the Cid to heaven, And bless'd the Christian maid. I remember thee, Granada! "I like that ballad well," said De Morla, with a pensive sigh, when the singer had finished, "and, to my thought, no handsome maiden, though such always makes the best ballad-singer, could have trolled it with a more tender and loving accent than Jacinto. 'The Moorish maid,'" he continued, humming the words in a sentimental manner,-- "The Moorish maid she kiss'd the cross, She knelt upon her knee.-- To my mind, it would read better, if we could say, 'The Mexican maid.'-- The Mexican maid she kiss'd the cross-- But, pho upon it! that spoils the metre.--Is it not thy opinion, senor, the princess Suleya would have shown more true love as well as wisdom, to have kissed the cross _before_ the Cid came to his death-gasp?" "By my faith, I cannot doubt it," said Don Amador; "yet, considering that she avowed herself a proselyte, when the sword of that accursed Emir was suspended over her head, and so provoked and endured the death of a martyr for Don Ramon's sake, it must be acknowledged she acted as became a loving and truly devout lady. But what I chiefly esteem in this ditty, is the magnanimous art with which the Cid Ramon both preserved his faith to his king, and devoted himself to death for his mistress,--a reconciliation of duties which some might have considered impracticable, or, at least, highly objectionable." "Amigo querido mio," cried De Morla, grasping the neophyte's hand, and speaking with a voice half comical, half serious, "if thou livest a hundred years longer than myself, thou wilt hear some such mournful madrigal as this sung in memory of my foolish self; only that, in place of a Moorish Infanta, thou wilt hear the name of a Mexican princess; and Minnapotzin will doubtless be immortalized along with De Morla." "Minnapotzin!" exclaimed Don Amador, with a stare rendered visible enough by the distant flashings of the volcano. "I swear to thee, my brother, I understand not a word thou art saying!"