The vizier had not dared altogether to conceal the important fact of her capture from the Sultan, but that she should reach Cordoba alive and tell the tale of her misfortunes, was not at all his intention. The passion Kerim had conceived for her was well known to Mahoun, and that she was surrounded by Moorish slaves, who not only urged his suit by threats and persuasion, but watched her every action. If Onesinda did not yield to the desires of Kerim, her brother’s fate was certain, were he taken dead or alive. On Pelayo rested the hope of the fugitive Goths. The last of the long line of hereditary princes, all the trust of the conquered lay in him. That this base intrigue should come to the knowledge of the [Illustration: A Proclamation in Granada, by Boabdil. From a Painting by Placido Francés. National Exhibition of Fine Arts, Madrid, 1884.] [Illustration] Caliph was death to all concerned. Not all the bribes offered him by Kerim in rich stuffs, jewels, and slaves, could blind the astute vizier to the danger of his position. “May Allah confound Kerim and his harem!” he exclaimed in a rage, as he paced the gardens after the Sultan’s departure until late into the night, his silken sandals falling lightly on the coloured patterns drawn upon the walks. “Why could not the dark-skinned beauties of Barbary content him without meddling with the pale-faced Goth? Truly the flag of the Crescent has triumphed over the Cross in the length and breadth of Spain; but it is not wise to provoke a fallen people. These Goths have the endurance of the camel of the desert, which lives long without food or drink, but even that patient animal will turn upon his driver if he rains down blows upon him causelessly. Better let the infidels starve in holes and caverns than bring them down into the plains, bent on a desperate revenge. A curse on Kerim! The Sultan forgets nothing. He will ask for Onesinda. What in the name of Allah am I to reply?” CHAPTER XIII Onesinda and Kerim Kerim-El-Nozier, the Governor of Gijon in Galicia, is a Berber, infinitely less cultured than the Moors, and the distance from the capital at Cordoba has made him almost independent of all rule. Little did the noble-minded Caliph, Abdurraman, guess what was passing at this moment in the remote peninsula at Gijon, sheltered on one side by the dark hill of Santa Catalina, on the other exposed to the full force of the rollers of the Bay of Biscay, and that the governor he had appointed was a tyrant who knew no law but his own will.