keep himself from falling on his son's neck in an agony of despair. Rodrigo himself was shaken by his father's grief. And all the nobles gave signs of compassion at the misfortune of one so young and brave.

Xiména had kept herself proud and erect while the gladsome welcome had sounded in her ears as an injury to Conde Lozano's memory. But when she saw the scene of mourning around her, despair took possession of her too, and she fell into Urraca the Infanta's arms.

"It is because you would not take my advice, and look at him," whispered Urraca. "Had you looked on his noble face, you never could have done it."

"I knew it, and therefore I dared not look," she replied.

"Look at him now," pleaded Urraca.

The guards were leading him out, and his head was bent to the ground; but at that moment their eyes met, and both felt that he must not die.

That night he was in his prison. She could not rest in her chamber: the guard had respect for her orders, for she was an earl's daughter, and he let her stand behind an arch where she could hear him talking with his faithful esquire.

"Think no more of Xiména," said the esquire: "she loves you not."

"Nay, say not so," he answered. "Wrong her

T

not. I know she loved me, and she could not change; therefore she loves me yet. As she was to me when I encountered the Conde, so was I to her when she denounced me to the king; and in what she has done to honour her father's memory, she has shown her true nobility."

"It may be very grand," said the esquire, "but it is yet hard you should have to die."

"Hard! Of what use would life be to me if Xiména will not be mine? I have only one use for it; and if she requires it of me, it is a joy to yield it up at her behest."

her so justly and hear no more, lest She withdrew to her

When Xiména heard him express so much devotion for her, and judge tenderly, she could bear to her tears should betray her. chamber, but could not sleep; but when her tired eyelids, weary with watching, closed, there seemed to come a sweet, soft voice, as of an angel, which spoke of pardon and forgiveness, and of mercy more sweet than justice. And before her eyes there floated visions of terrible Moorish hordes encompassing her native land, spreading fire and sword over its smiling plains; and there rode out against them a single youth, clad in bright armour, and wherever he raised his flashing sword the ranks of the enemy gave way and fled before him.

And when the morning light came in, and chased these phantasms away, she rose and went to the

king, and asked the liberation of him whose condemnation she had sought yesterday.

Then the king saw that his stratagem had answered well, and that he had done right to trust to her woman's heart. So he ordered Rodrigo to be brought forth, and pronounced him free. And then he joined their hands and gave them to each other, and told them they were worthy of each other, for each had preferred a father's honour before the love of their own heart; and now it was his royal will that they should forget the past, and live for each other in the future.

A

RAGUEL;

ов,

THE JEWESS OF TOLEDO,

His

|LFONSO VIII., King of Castille, succeeded to his throne in troublous times. native country was overrun and subjugated by a people alien in nationality and religion, and his own particular dominions were a prey to civil dissensions, which had gathered strength during his minority. The Pope, Innocent III., seeing how he was beset, had called on other Christian nations to assist him in resisting the encroachments of the Moors; and these auxiliaries had unhappily shown themselves disorderly and rapacious, wasting the territory they had come to protect. By his prudence, Alfonso found the means to remedy all these disorders in turn. His French, German, and English allies he dismissed to their own homes without involving himself in

any quarrel with them. He established tolerable order and harmony among the rival families of the nobility, and he struck a blow against the Moors which they never recovered, and which deserves to be remembered as one of the noblest achievements in the history of Christendom. After driving their hordes before him across the Sierra Morena, he gave them battle at a place called Las Navas de Tolosa, undismayed by their overpowering numbers. During the early part of the day, it had seemed impossible to resist their countless hordes. "Father," said Alfonso, turning to the Archbishop of Toledo, "here are we called upon to lay down our life for the Faith." 'Nay," answered the prelate, with almost prophetic instinct, "say, rather, here are we called to establish the triumph of the Faith." The cross-bearer, filled with ardour at the words, rushed into the thickest of the fray; the Christian soldiery hastened to protect the venerated sign, and so great was the enthusiasm which Alfonso's bravery kindled, that the infidel host was entirely routed, and its commander ran away into Africa.

Yet, notwithstanding his bravery and his wisdom, Alfonso, like King Solomon of old, found it a harder matter to govern himself than to govern his kingdom; and though he had vanquished his adversaries, he suffered himself to be led away by his passions.