royal pair with profound respect and silent reverence, and rode slowly on, leaving the army below, as he ascended the path that led to his new principality, beyond the Alpuxarras. As the trees snatched the Moorish cavalcade from the view of the king, Ferdinand ordered the army to recommence its march; and trumpet and cymbal presently sent their music to the ear of the Moslem.

10. Boabdil spurred on, at full speed, till his panting charger halted at the little village where his mother, his slaves, and his faithful wife, Armine, (sent on before) awaited him. Joining these, he proceeded without delay upon his melancholy path. They ascended that eminence, which is the pass into the Alpuxarras. From its hight, the vale, the rivers, the spires, and the towers of Grenada, broke gloriously upon the view of the little band. They halted mechanically and abruptly; every eye was turned to the beloved scene. The proud shame of +baffled warriors, the tender memories of home, of childhood, of fatherland, swelled every heart, and gushed from every eye.

11. Suddenly, the distant boom of artillery broke from the +citadel, and rolled along the sun-lighted valley and crystal river. An universal wail burst from the exiles; it smote, it overpowered the heart of the till-starred king, in vain seeking to wrap himself in the eastern pride, or stoical philosophy. The tears gushed from his eyes, and he covered his face with his hands. The band wound slowly on through the solitary defiles; and that place, where the king wept at the last view of his lost empire, is still called THE LAST SIGH OF THE MOOR.

THE Spaniards gave this name, ("The Last Sigh of the Moor,") to the eminence from which, after their expulsion, the Moorish king and his followers took their farewell view of Grenada.

1. WINDING along, at break of day,
And arm'd with helm and spears,
Along the martyr's rocky way,
A king comes, with his peers;

Unto the eye a splendid sight,
Making the air all richly bright,

Seen flashing through the trees;
But, to the heart, a scene of blight,
Sadder than death were these.

2. For brightly fall the morning rays
Upon a conquer'd king;

The breeze that with his banner plays,
Plays with an abject thing.

Banner and king no more will know
Their rightful place mid friend and foe:
Proud clarion, cease thy blast!
Or, changing to the wail of woe,
Breathe dirges for the past.

3. Along, along, by rock and tower,
That they have fail'd to keep,

By wood and vale, their fathers' dower,
The exiled warriors sweep:

The chevron'd* steed, no more telate,
As if he knew his rider's fate,
Steps languidly and slow,
As if he knew Grenada's gate,
Now open to the foe.

4. Along, along, till all is past,

That once they call'd their own,
Till bows the pride of strength at last,
And knights, like women, moan.
Pausing upon the green hill-side,
That soon their city's towers will hide,
They lean upon their spears;

And hands, that late with blood were dyed,
Are now wash'd white with tears.

5. Another look, from brimming eyes,
Along the glorious plain ;

Elsewhere may spread as lovely skies,
Elsewhere their monarch reign;
But never more in that bright land,
With all his chivalry at hand,
Now dead or far departed!

And from the hill-side moves the band,
The bravest, broken-hearted.

A chevron is a certain mark used in heraldry.

CLXXIII. THE MOON AND STARS--A FABLE.

FROM MONTGOMERY.

JAMES MONTGOMERY, an English poet, is one of the most amiable and pathetic of modern writers. Though he can not be ranked in the first class of poets, he merits the praise of never having written a line that did not tend to the honor of God and the good of man.

1. ON the fourth day of creation, when the sun, after a glorious, but solitary course, went down in the evening, and darkness began to gather over the face of the uninhabited globe, already arrayed in the exuberance of vegetation, and prepared by the diversity of land and water, for the abode of uncreated animals and man,-a star, single and beautiful, stepped forth into the firmament. Trembling with wonder and delight in new-found existence, she looked abroad, and beheld nothing in heaven or on earth resembling herself. But she was not long alone; now one, then another, here a third, and there a fourth resplendent companion had joined her, till light after light stealing through the gloom, in the lapse of an hour the whole hemisphere was brilliantly +bespangled.

2. The planets and stars, with a +superb comet flaming in the zenith, for awhile contemplated themselves and each other; and every one from the largest to the least, was so perfectly well pleased with himself, that he imagined the rest. only partakers of his felicity; he being the central luminary of his own universe, and all the hosts of heaven beside, displayed around him, in graduated splendor. Nor were any undeceived in regard to themselves, though all saw their associates in their real situations and relative proportions:self-knowledge being the last knowledge acquired either in the sky or below it;-till bending over the ocean in their turns, they discovered what they supposed at first to be a new heaven, peopled with beings of their own species. But when they perceived further, that no sooner had any one of their company touched the horizon than he instantly disappeared; they then recognized themselves in their individual forms, reflected beneath according to their places and +configurations above, from seeing others, whom they previously knew, reflected in like manner.

3. By an attentive but mournful self-examination in that mirror, they slowly learned humility; but every one learned it only for himself, none believing what others insinuated respecting their own inferiority, till they reached the western slope, from whence they could identify their true visages in the nether clement. Nor was this very surprising; stars being only visible points, without any distinction of limbs, each was all eye; and though he could see others most correctly, he could neither see himself nor any part of himself, till he came to reflection. The comet, however, having a long train of brightness, streaming sun-ward, could review that, and did review it with ineffable self-complacency. Indeed, after all pretensions to precedence, he was at length acknowledged king of the hemisphere, if not by the universal assent, by the silent envy of all his rivals.

4. But the object which attracted most attention, and astonishment too, was a slender thread of light that scarcely could be discerned through the blush of evening, and vanished soon after night fall, as if ashamed to appear in so scanty a form, like an unfinished work of creation. It was the moon; the first new moon. Timidly, she looked around upon the glittering multitude that crowded the dark serenity of space, and filled it with life and beauty. Minute indeed they seemed to her, but perfect in symmetry, and formed to shine forever; while she was unshapen, incomplete, and evanescent. In her humility, she was glad to hide herself from their keen glances in the friendly bosom of the ocean, wishing for immediate textinction.

5. When she was gone, the stars looked one at another with inquisitive surprise, as much as to say, "What a figure!" It was so evident that they all thought alike, and thought contemptuously of the tapparition, (though at first they almost doubted whether they should not be frightened,) that they soon began to talk freely concerning her; of course not with audible accents, but in the language of intelligent sparkles, in which stars are accustomed to converse with telegraphic *precision from one end of heaven to the other, and which no +dialect on earth so nearly resembles, as the language of the eyes; the only one, probably, that has survived in its purity, not only the confusion of Babel, but the revolutions of all

ages. Her crooked form and her shyness, were ridiculed and censured from pole to pole. For what purpose such a monster could have been created, not the wisest could conjecture; yet, to tell the truth, every one, though glad to be countenanced in the affectation of scorn by the rest, had secret misgivings concerning the stranger, and envied the delicate brilliancy of her light.

6. All the gay company, however, quickly returned to the admiration of themselves, and the inspection of each other. Thus, the first night passed away. But, when the east began to dawn, consternation seized the whole army of celestials, each feeling himself fainting into invisibility, and, as he feared, into nothingness, while his neighbors were, one after another, totally disappearing. At length, the sun arose, and filled the heavens, and clothed the earth with his glory. How he spent that day, belongs not to this history; but it is elsewhere recorded, that, for the first time from eternity, the lark, on the wings of the morning, sprang up to salute him; the eagle, at noon, looked undazzled on his splendor; and when he went down beyond the deep, the leviathan was sporting amid the multitude of waves.

CLXXIV. THE MOON AND STARS-CONCLUDED.

1. In the evening, the vanished *constellations again gradually awoke; and, on opening their eyes, were so rejoiced at meeting together,-not one being wanting of last night's levee, that they were in the highest good humor with themselves and one another. Decked in all their beams, and darting their benignest influence, they exchanged smiles and endearments, and made vows of affection, eternal and unchangeable; while, from this nether orb, the song of the nightingale arose out of darkness, and charmed even the stars in their courses, being the first sound, except the roar of the ocean, that they had ever heard. "The music of the spheres" may be traced to the rapture of that hour.

2. The little, gleaming horn was again discerned, leaning backward over the western hills. This companionless +lumi