ANTIQUITIES. 



881 



ed with infinite labour, and were it 

 not for the splendor of the co- 

 lours, might well excite the idea of 

 some cool dripping cave. In the 

 corresponding apartment, called 

 the hall of the Abencerraxes, is a 

 fountain, in the marble basin of 

 which is a reddish stain. This, 

 you are told, proceeds from the 

 blood of six-and-thirty cavaliers 

 of the noble family of the Aben- 

 cerraxes, who were here beheaded 

 on false accusations; one of thera 

 for unlawful intercourse with the 

 sultana, and the rest for an alleged 

 conspiracy against their sovereign, 

 Abo Abdeli. This tale, which is 

 not countenanced by the authority 

 of a single respectable historian, 

 would long ere this have been for- 

 gotten, had not superstition taken 

 it up. These noble youths were 

 secretly attached to Christianity: 

 even through the walls of the pa- 

 lace they were heard, at the hour 

 of death, exhorting each other in 

 the name of Jesus; and the blood 

 of these martyrs has indelibly 

 stained the marble, and remains an 

 unquestionable record of the crime 

 and the miracle! 



In two small apartments of the 

 hall of the tribunal, are paintings 

 on the ceilings, which have given 

 rise to many conjectures; some 

 have supposed them to have been 

 painted since the conquest of Gra- 

 nada, by the Spanianis, founding 

 this opinion upon the known law 

 of Mahomet; but if the Arabian 

 nionarchs could so far break 

 through the superstitious restric- 

 tions of their prophet as to have 

 marble lions in their courts, they 

 need not have been scrupulous 

 about a few paintings in their clo- 

 sets. One represents a landscape 

 with trees, and two young women 



Vol. LI. 



sitting admiring it; others a chace, 

 with cavaliers and their servants 

 on horseback; a castle, out of 

 which two ladies, with their du- 

 ennas, are coming to receive some 

 knights who are approaching dis- 

 mounted; men combating an en- 

 chanter with a long beard, holding 

 a lady by both her hands, and a 

 knight with a couched lance riding 

 full speed to her deliverance; such 

 are the subjects of these paintings, 

 which show the very infancy of the 

 art. The most interesting is the 

 representation of judges assembled, 

 and deliberating on the life of an 

 accused person; and perhaps, as 

 the only specimens existing of Ma- 

 hometan paintings, the whole are 

 not unworthy of being copied and 

 made public. 



In one small room, from the 

 construction of the roof, a whis- 

 per in one corner is distinctly 

 heard in the other. This may have 

 appeared a wonderful invention to 

 the Moors, as it seems to the 

 greater part of the Spaniards who 

 visit it, but to one who has been 

 in the whispering gallery of St. 

 Paul's, nothing can appear more 

 childish than this contrivance. In 

 fact, the size of the room is such, 

 that a whisper might easily be 

 heard across it with very little 

 effort. 



The queen's dressing-closet is a 

 pleasant little apartment into which 

 we enter by a gallery to the east- 

 ward of the hall of audience ; it is 

 ornamented with paintings, the 

 subjec'.s of which are chiefly taken 

 from the Roman mythology, and 

 which of course are comparatively 

 of a modern date. In a smaller 

 closet near to it is a marble slab 

 inserted in the pavement, with 

 holes, and a vacancy beneath, 



3 L where 



