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Everywhere they assembled nightly to listen to romantic narratives of love and valour. Everywhere they listened in silent attention, or wept from sympathetic interest in the fate of those whose adventures formed the subject of the tale. The Grenadians joined with this passion for exciting incident, a taste for music and singing.

But the courtiers, jealous of the glory and envious of the good-fortune of the favourite, formed a conspiracy against his master, and instigated revolts among the people. To complete his calamities, foreign war again broke forth; the King of Castile, Ferdinand IV., surnamed the Summoned, united with the King of Aragon in attacking the Grenadians.

The only change made in their dress by the Moorish cavaliers when preparing for battle was the addition of a coat of mail, and an iron lining within their turbans. It was the custom of the Grenadians to repair every year, during the autumn, to the charming villas by which the city was surrounded. There they yielded themselves up to the pursuit of pleasure.

Such an insult among the followers of Islam can only be expiated by blood: the monarch was assassinated by his exasperated officer. His son Mohammed V. mounted the throne in his stead, A.D. 1322, Heg. 722. At the request of the Grenadians, Abil-Hassan, king of Morocco, of the dynasty of the Merinis, landed in Spain at the head of innumerable troops, with whom he joined the army of Joseph.

Thus he became daily more and more an object of hatred and contempt to the Grenadians, by whom he was surnamed Zogoybi; that is to say, the Little King. The different tribes now grew dissatisfied and dispirited, especially the numerous and powerful tribe of the Abencerrages.

It refers to Garcias Gomes, governor of the city of Xeres. He was besieged by the Grenadians, and his garrison nearly destroyed, but still he refused to surrender; and, standing on the ramparts covered with blood, and literally bristling with arrows, he sustained alone the onset of the assailants.

But when it is remembered that they do not belong to the Asiatic Arabs, from whom these gallant knights originally sprang; that they are found, even in a less degree, if possible, among these followers of Mohammed in that portion of Africa where their conquests have naturalized them; and, that after their departure from Spain, the Grenadians lost every trace of the peculiarly interesting and chivalrous qualities by which they had previously been so remarkably distinguished, there is some ground for the opinion that it was to the Spaniards that their Moslem neighbours were indebted for the existence of these national attributes.