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Untitled Article
outworks , surmounted by a magnificent terrace , which served the Moors as a promenade . On the night chosen b y the brave Aguilar for the attack , the voluptuous songs of the Pagans were wafted from that terrace into our camp , like the voices of the syrens . 4
" When the fort was carried , many women were made prisoners ; and though our troops were driven from the fort back to the camp by a strong reinforcement of the enemy , yet the prisoners remained in their power . Among the women was one whose despair particularly excited the attention of Don Aguilar . He approached her ; she was veiled ; and , as if her grief could find no means of expression or relief but in singing , she took the cithern
which hung from her neck by a golden ribbon , and , sweeping the strings , commenced a romance which described the misery of two lovers torn asunder by a cruel fate . Don Aguilar , strangely moved by those lamentations , determined to send her back in safety to Granada . She threw herself upon her knees , and raised her veil to thank him . ' Are you not Zuleima ,, the pearl of the
singers of Granada ? ' exclaimed Don Aguilar . It was indeed Zuleima , whom he had seen before , when on an embassy to king Boabdil . 'I grant you your liberty ! ' said Don Aguilar . But (the reverend father , Agostino Sanchez , who was standing by , crucifix in hand , then said ., Do you know that you do wrongly to send this maiden back again amongst the infidels ?
Peradventure , if she remain with us , the grace of the saints may enlighten her , and lead her into the bosom of holy church . ' Don Aguilar answered ,, ' WelL , she shall remain with us a month ; and , if in that time the grace of the saints does not enlighten her , then shall the maiden return to Granada . ' * " It is thus , O queen ! that Zuleima was received among us in this cloister . At first , she abandoned herself to boundless
grief , and made the place re-echo with her strange songs . One night , however , we were assembled in the choir of the church , to sing the hours , according to the beautiful and hol y method of the great Ferrara , when I observed , by the light of the tapers , Zuleima standing at the open door . She contemplated us with an air of grave meditation , and when we departed from the choir , two and two , I saw her kneel down in the corridor , near the image of the holy Mary . The next day she sang not romances ; she passed it
in silence and reflection . Soon after , we heard her trying upon her cithern , the music of the chorus ; then she sang it very softly , endeavouring even to imitate the words . Thus we remarked that the goodness of the saints , manifested in her singing , had opened her soul to grace ; and we sent sister Emanuella , our chorusmistress , to the young Moor , to fan into a flame the sacred spark which had illumined in her heart . Zuleima has not yet been received into holy church by the sacrament of baptism , but she is permitted to aid with her marvellous voice the glorifying of the saints . "
Untitled Article
86 The Sancfus .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1835, page 86, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2642/page/6/
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