After a few minutes of intense suspense, she again stole to the lattice,
gently unclosed it, and looked forth. Far, through an opening amidst the
trees, she descried for a single moment the erect and stately figure of
her lover, darkening the moonshine on the sward, as now, quitting his
fruitless search, he turned his lingering gaze towards the lattice of his
beloved: the thick and interlacing foliage quickly hid him from her eyes;
but Leila had seen enough--she turned within, and said, as grateful tears
trickled clown her cheeks, and she sank on her knees upon the piled
cushions of the chamber: "God of my fathers! I bless Thee--he is safe!"
"And yet (she added, as a painful thought crossed her), how may I pray
for him? we kneel not to the same Divinity; and I have been taught to
loathe and shudder at his creed! Alas! how will this end? Fatal was the
hour when he first beheld me in yonder gardens; more fatal still the hour
in which he crossed the barrier, and told Leila that she was beloved by
the hero whose arm was the shelter, whose name is the blessing, of
Granada. Ah, me! Ah, me!"
The young maiden covered her face with her hands, and sank into a
passionate reverie, broken only by her sobs. Some time had passed in
this undisturbed indulgence of her grief, when the arras was gently put
aside, and a man, of remarkable garb and mien, advanced into the chamber,
pausing as he beheld her dejected attitude, and gazing on her with a look
on which pity and tenderness seemed to struggle against habitual severity
and sternness.
"Leila!" said the intruder.
Leila started, and and a deep blush suffused her countenance; she dashed
the tears from her eyes, and came forward with a vain attempt to smile.
"My father, welcome!"
The stranger seated himself on the cushions, and motioned Leila to his
side.
"These tears are fresh upon thy cheek," said he, gravely; "they are the
witness of thy race! our daughters are born to weep, and our sons to
groan! ashes are on the head of the mighty, and the Fountains of the
Beautiful run with gall! Oh that we could but struggle--that we could
but dare--that we could raise up, our heads, and unite against the
bondage of the evil doer! It may not be--but one man shall avenge a
nation!"
The dark face of Leila's father, well fitted to express powerful emotion,
became terrible in its wrath and passion; his brow and lip worked
convulsively; but the paroxsym was brief; and scarce could she shudder
at its intensity ere it had subsided into calm.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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