Or they might have heard rumours of his sword-play at the inn and on the ship.

At any rate, their attitude was that of courteous dislike of the Christian, mingled with respect for the brave man in misfortune.
At length, after mounting a long rise, they came to a palace on a mount, facing the vast, red-walled fortress which seemed to dominate the place, which he afterwards knew as the Alhambra, but separated from it by a valley.

This palace was a very great building, set on three sides of a square, and surrounded by gardens, wherein tall cypress-trees pointed to the tender sky.

They rode through the gardens and sundry gateways till they came to a courtyard where servants, with torches in their hands, ran out to meet them.

Somebody helped him off his horse, somebody supported him up a flight of marble steps, beneath which a fountain splashed, into a great, cool room with an ornamented roof.