The Spanish maid at first repulsed his addresses ” he was an infidel ” he was the open foe of her country ” what was worse, he was stricken in years! There every thing was devised to soothe her melancholy and the monarch, more and more enamored, sought to make her his queen. Mohamed claimed her as his royal share of the booty, and had her conveyed to his harem in the Alhambra. The monarch was struck with her beauty, and, on inquiring of the captain of the troop, found that she was the daughter of the alcayde of a frontier fortress, that had been surprised and sacked in the course of the foray. They were conducting a long string of mules laden with spoil, and many captives of both sexes, among whom the monarch was struck with the appearance of a beautiful damsel, richly attired, who sat weeping on a low palfrey, and heeded not the consoling words of a duenna who rode beside her. His story appears to be a little fictionized in the legend.Īs this Mohamed was one day riding forth with a train of his courtiers, by the foot of the mountain of Elvira, he met a band of horsemen returning from a foray into the land of the Christians.

* The reader will recognize the sovereign connected with the fortunes of the Abencerrages.

The evils of a public nature which he thus brought upon himself and his kingdom may be learned by those who will delve into the Arabian annals of Granada the present legend deals but with his domestic policy. Instead, however, of learning wisdom from adversity, he hardened his neck, and stiffened his left arm in wilfulness. Still he was as brave as he was blundering and though left-handed, wielded his cimeter to such purpose, that he each time re-established himself upon his throne by dint of hard fighting. Certain it is, either through misfortune or mismanagement, he was continually in trouble: thrice was he driven from his throne, and, on one occasion, barely escaped to Africa with his life, in the disguise of a fisherman. IN OLD times there reigned a Moorish king in Granada, whose name was Mohamed, to which his subjects added the appellation of El Hayzari, or 'The Left-handed.' Some say he was so called on account of his being really more expert with his sinister than his dexter hand others, because he was prone to take every thing by the wrong end or in other words, to mar wherever he meddled. Legend of the Three Beautiful Princesses.

Alhambra irving