A grave Spaniard, somewhat past the verge of middle age, appeared.
"Perez," said the king, reseating himself, "has the person we expected from Granada yet arrived ?" "Sire, yes; accompanied by a maiden." "He hath kept his word; admit them.

Ha! holy father, thy visits are always as balsam to the heart." "Save you, my son!" returned a man in the robes of a Dominican friar, who had entered suddenly and without ceremony by another part of the tent, and who now seated himself with smileless composure at a little distance from the king.
There was a dead silence for some moments; and Perez still lingered within the tent, as if in doubt whether the entrance of the friar would not prevent or delay obedience to the king's command.

On the calm face of Ferdinand himself appeared a slight shade of discomposure and irresolution, when the monk thus resumed: "My presence, my son, will not, I trust, disturb your conference with the infidel--since you deem that worldly policy demands your parley with the men of Belial." "Doubtless not--doubtless not," returned the king, quickly: then, muttering to himself, "how wondrously doth this holy man penetrate into all our movements and designs!" he added, aloud, "Let the messenger enter." Perez bowed, and withdrew.
During this time, the young prince reclined in listless silence on his seat; and on his delicate features was an expression of weariness which augured but ill of his fitness for the stern business to which the lessons of his wise father were intended to educate his mind.

His, indeed, was the age, and his the soul, for pleasure; the tumult of the camp was to him but a holiday exhibition--the march of an army, the exhilaration of a spectacle; the court as a banquet--the throne, the best seat at the entertainment.

The life of the heir-apparent, to the life of the king possessive, is as the distinction between enchanting hope and tiresome satiety.
The small grey eyes of the friar wandered over each of his royal companions with a keen and penetrating glance, and then settled in the aspect of humility on the rich carpets that bespread the floor; nor did he again lift them till Perez, reappearing, admitted to the tent the Israelite, Almamen, accompanied by a female figure, whose long veil, extending from head to foot, could conceal neither the beautiful proportions nor the trembling agitation, of her frame.
"When last, great king, I was admitted to thy presence," said Almamen, "thou didst make question of the sincerity and faith of thy servant; thou didst ask me for a surety of my faith; thou didst demand a hostage; and didst refuse further parley without such pledge were yielded to thee.