Year: 1862

Here told Seville, Spain.l in the middle Of
the eleventh century dwelt Muhamad Bed Mp-
hamad Ben Ismai, called Almoated. prince
remarkable for his beauty Of person, pOetical
ability, voluptuousness. treachery. and cruelty.
His harem numbered eight hundred souls
gathered from the flower and pride Of those
countries which he could reach by gold. prom
ises or threats, 1t was kept with great splen-
dor, and united the delights of the tropic and
temperate zones yet the slightest cause fer
irritation, the smallest temptation extended to
bis ambition, sent him from his slippered ease
into deadly frays, and to the commission Of
enormous atrocities With years and power
bis ferocity increased, and there grew within
him feeling of personal hatred without louu-
dation as without limits. which finally divided
him almost wholly from his race. His re
yengeful spirit was never satiated, and in the
solitude of his one private closet, he repeated
his triumphs in imagination, until the Joy
changed TO pain, and drove him to madness by
its intensity. Early in his guilty course he
caused the skull of an enemy slain by his own
hand to be made into a bowl exquisitively
carved and set around with rubies Day and
by night he gloated over this treasure. The
sparkle of the gems he called his sunlight, and
he fanced the sherbet which he quaifed from
it more delicious than that mixed by the hours
in paradise. Then he desired companion
cup, another, until he burned for collection of
these hideous trophies Irresistably impelled
as it appeared by the demon within, he cut
down with remorseless diligence the old in his
gray hairs and the young in their bounding
strength, either with or without the pre.ence
of an excuse, as chanced to happen, in order TO
add to the monuments of his guilt For their
decoration he sacrificed his finest Jewels and
his choicest silks and gauzes embellished the
appartnent in which he kept them. They, in
their turn, revengod themselves upon him.
They drew him perpetually to them by an IN
holy spell, They haunted him both sleeping
and waking. Everywhere and at all times, in
the palace and the camp, at the banquet and
the burial be beheld their phantom forms. As
the circle of his real or supposed enemies mar
rowed he struck nearer home, and his appetite
for bloodShed reached even 10 the harem
demanding the death of some of its fairest
inmates while the unceasing war Of contra
dictory passions gave rise TO fever which
slowly and surely consumed him. To crown
the horrors of his life his thoughts began to
dwell upon Leila, his favorite wife, as his next
victim. The struggle was long and full Of
agony, but he at length resolved to spend one
more evening with her. and at its close to deal
the fatal blow. He summoned her to his side,
and peremptorily ordered her to sing. His
manner, so utterly devoid Of tenderness, his
countenance, distorted with his internal warfare,
terrified her; and it was with difficulty that
she touched the strings of her lutte She i'm
provised the story Of their early lovcs-their
wooiug and their wedding. and gradually sung
herself into the gay mood which she had al
first feigned, and tpringing from her cushions,
she bent over the Prince. She started back
with cry of horror. In the rush of carly
memories beautiful with youth and hope, the
contest of passionate love with murderous de-
sire, and writhing horror of his own terrible
transformation from man to demon, the soul Of
Almoated had returned to its Maker without
one thought of penitence or one cry for par
don.