But the opprobrium of the world was nothing to the upbraiding of her own
heart. She charged herself with all the miseries of these disastrous
wars; the deaths of so many gallant cavaliers; the conquest and perdition
of her country. The anguish of her mind preyed upon the beauty of her
person. Her eye, once soft and tender in its expression, became wild
and haggard; her cheek lost its bloom, and became hollow and pallid;
and at times there was desperation in her words. When her father sought
to embrace her, she withdrew with shuddering from his arms; for she
thought of his treason, and the ruin it had brought upon Spain. Her
wretchedness increased after her return to her native country, until it
rose to a degree of frenzy. One day when she was walking with her parents
in the garden of their palace, she entered a tower, and, having barred
the door, ascended to the battlements. From thence she called to them in
piercing accents, expressive of her insupportable anguish and desperate
determination. “Let this city,” said she, “be henceforth called Malacca,
in memorial of the most wretched of women, who therein put an end to her
days.” So saying, she threw herself headlong from the tower, and was
dashed to pieces. The city, adds the ancient chronicler, received the
name thus given it, though afterwards softened to Malaga, which it still
retains, in memory of the tragical end of Florinda.
The Countess Frandina abandoned this scene of woe, and returned to Ceuta,
accompanied by her infant son. She took with her the remains of her
unfortunate daughter, and gave them honourable sepulture in a mausoleum
of the chapel belonging to the citadel. Count Julian departed for
Carthagena, where he remained plunged in horror at this doleful event.
About this time, the cruel Suleiman, having destroyed the family of Muza,
had sent an Arab general, named Alahor, to succeed Abdalasis as emir or
governor of Spain. The new emir was of a cruel and suspicious nature,
and commenced his sway with a stern severity that soon made those under
his command look back with regret to the easy rule of Abdalasis. He
regarded with an eye of distrust the renegado Christians who had aided
in the conquest, and who bore arms in the service of the Moslems; but
his deepest suspicions fell upon Count Julian. “He has been a traitor to
his own countrymen,” said he: “how can we be sure that he will not prove
traitor to us?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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