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The critical moment for action, upon
which his own life as well as the happiness
and safety of the Moorish maiden
depended, had now arrived, and the young
gazelle-keeper felt the need of all his
coolness, as well as of his courage.

Slowly he advanced towards the door,
on the threshold of which the Ethiop reclined—
a giant in stature and strength—
his head bowed upon his breast, and
buried in profound sleep. The Moorish
sentinel at the gate raised his eyes as Alfonzo
approached the Ethiopian, but
merely towards him: he closed them
again. Alfonzo saw in this act proof of
the perfection of his disguise; for the
sentry had evidently taken him for one
of the Moors walking about in preference
to sleeping.

Taking a firmer grasp upon the hilt of
the scymetar, Alfonzo now strode rapidly
forward, and, passing by the Ethiopian,
came suddenly upon the sentinel,
whom he caught by the beard and, at a
single blow with his scymetar, sent the
Moor to his Propnet. It was the act of
an instant. The victim of necessity uttered
no groan, but fell dead across the
stone upon which he was seated. Alfonzo
with a strong arm then swung back
the heavy gates, and leaving them wide
open, he bounded lightly towards the
Ethiopian, and leaping upon the giant

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buried his steel deep into his breast. The
African rose convulsively to his full
height, tossed his arms wildly in the air
above his head, and then pitched headlong
forward, at the foot of one of the
circular, serpent-entwined barbaric altars
in the fortress, and struck upon the ground
with a sound that made the court-yard
ring again, and to vibrate with the shock,
while Alfonzo springing upon him once
more struck him to ensure his death.

Instantly three or four Moors were
awake and upon their feet.

`The horses, Ben Habib!' cried Alfonzo.
`This way quickly. Rescue,
lady! rescue!' he called to the maiden.
`I have slain your guard, and now will
open the door for thy escape!'

With this he took the massive scymetar
of the Ethiopian, and wielding the
ponderous weapon as he would have done
a battle-axe, he broke the door down and
sprung across it into the apartment. There
stood the Moorish maiden with eager face,
her hands clasped, and her head bent forward
between fear and wonder and hope.

`Ask no questions, lady! Know that
I am the foe of El Zegris, and risk my
life to save thee. Wilt thou commit thyself
to my guidance!

`Yes, oh yes!' she cried, yet shrinking
instinctively from the presence of a
stranger. But there was something in
the tones of his voice, more than in his
words, that gave her confidence, and assured
her that she was not flying from
one enemy into the power of another.
`I go with you—only save me from El
Zegris!' she added, grasping his hand.

`Then mount with me upon one of
these horses. The way is open before
us. Delay not a moment, the Moors are
arising.'

With these words he caught her up,
and the next moment was seated in the
saddle with her in his arms. There was
no time to place her upon the other horse.
Ben Habib no sooner beheld him mounted,
than springing forward he dashed first
out of the gate, and just in time cleared
the portal to avoid a blow of a yataghan
from one of the Moors, who had bounded
forward to stop his progress. Alfonzo
was met by three of them in his passage
to the gate; but with the heavy scymetar
of the Ethiopian he cut two of them down
and rode over the third. He turned his
head for a second and shouted back,

`Tell the Zegris that Alfonzo the Destroyer
has taken his bride away.' The
next moment he was threading across the
bridge, leaving confusion, alarm and
amazement behind him in the fortress.

The Moors were now all awake, and
seizing their arms before he got across
the moat, ran to the walls, and a score
of spears and lances were sent after him,
but fell harmlessly about his path, as he
flew like the wind—but still outstripped
by Ben Habib, who went down the rocky
pass as if he had neither neck or head to
break.

The astonished Moors finding their sentinel
dead, the Ethiopian slain, and seeing
the surprising escape of what seemed
to them a Christian and a Moslem
mounted upon two of their best horses,
the latter carrying on his saddle bow the
Moorish captive, knew not what to say,
or how to understand it all. But when
they heard his defying cry which told who
he was, fear seized them. They increased
their confusion by asking a hundred
questions of one another, which none
could answer. They believed they were
surrounded by mountaineers. Diego soon
recovered his presence of mind, and seeing
no other enemies, ordered the whole
party into the saddle to pursue the fugitives,
whoever they were. But they refused
to stir to a man, without El Zegris.
The daring act they had witnessed, with
the dread name which had been shouted
back to their ears, paralyzed them.

The third horse still galloped by the
side of Alfonzo, held fast by the rein, and
when he got to the foot of the defile, he
transferred the maiden to the saddle upon
it, and thus side by side they flew down
the mountain. Not a word was spoken
by either. Flight—safety—were only
in the minds of both. Ahead of them
rode at an unflinching pace the affrighted
Ben Habib, laying on with fist and
heels, and glowing, as if pursued by
wolves. From the heights above, the
Moor sent cries of defiance, and lances
that fell short; but none came forth to
pursue. Not even Diego crossed the
portal, but believing that the mountaineers
were in force near by, and that he
would fall into an ambuscade, he ordered

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the gates to be closed, and the garrison
to stand at arms ready to repel the expected
assault; for that the person who
had entered the fort and carried off the
maiden, slaying the sentry and the Ethiopian,
must have been backed by a large
force, he felt confident. He was anxious,
too, for the safety of El Zegris,
whom one of the Moors said he recollectas
he was going to sleep, having seen
ride forth accompanied by Ali Benish his
trumpeter.

`This is all a strange work,' ejaculated
Diego, as he gazed upon the bodies of
the two men. `One cant well say what
is done when one is asleep; but things,
look as if the devil had been paying us a
visit. How that man who rode forth
with the maiden on his saddle ever got
inside I know not. Yet as he rode out
he must have rode in.'

`He was mounted on the captain's
dun mare, that he keeps for holidays,'
said one of the Moors.

`So I thought I had seen the horse before;
but he rode on like the wind. And
that was one of ours that he led too, I suppose.
'

`It belongs to Aben Hafel.'

`Yet it was not Alfonzo the Destroyer
who had the maiden. He, whoever he
was, was a Moor. The person who rode
ahead alone was the young mountaineer
chief.'

`If ever there were two heads made
on the same block,' said one of the
Moorish robbers, `the head on that man's
shoulders was as like that of Ben Osmin
as two eyes under one brow. I made a
stroke at him, believing him to be a
Christian dog, as he rode out, and he
drew up his eyes and uttered a yell that
none but the gullet of Ben Osmin could
have given voice to. Besides, I knew the
board and the bottle-nose.'

`Then who in the name of St. Peter of
Rome was the turbaned fellow who rode
so gallantly, and shouted back the name
of Alfonzo?' asked Diego.

`It was the Christian himself,' said
another of the renegade Spanish robbers
who stood by. `I saw him when he defeated
our captain, and heard his voice
resounding above the fight. It was the
same voice. He spoke for himself and
not for the one in the Christian garb,
who rode ahead.'

`Then I have it,' said Diego, as the riddle
seemed to resolve itself slowly to his
apprehension. `This Alfonzo has met
Ben Huzzar, who you know we found
not when we returned, he has met him
outside and, changing garbs with him,
has, by his means, through his treachery
or his fears, got entrance into the fort
while we slept, slew the sentinel and the
Ethiopian, and so carried off the maiden
bodily. This is all the explanation I can
give for it, especially as, El Melec here
says that he heard El Zegris when he went
out order the sentinel to leave the gate
ajar for his return. This must be the
truth. But more than this, Alfonzo
would never have ventured inside a fortress
in broad day.

When El Zegris returns he will foam
and chafe life a tiger to find his mistress
stolen and we all asleep the while. But
as we are all alike to blame, he will have
to take all our heads if any; so the very
magnitude of the offence will be our
safety. I care not for the loss of the
maiden, nor for that matter will any of
us weep for the death of this mass of
Ethiopian bone and flesh. I will let
them lay where they are till El Zegris
returns, and in the meanwhile will keep
our defences in case that this daring
mountaineer should have a force at hand,
as is likely. If El Zegris be not watchful,
he will be in danger! I wonder what
sent him abroad. Hark! there is a shout.
There clangs steel against steel in the
defile below! To horse! There is a
combat! El Zegris is no doubt in peril.
Who will follow me?'

Four of the Moors leaped into their
saddles at the same instant that he did.
The gates were thrown open, and like a
whirlwind the party dashed across the
moat and soon diappeared to the eyes of
those who watched them from the walls.

El Zegris had left the fortress for the
purpose of satisfying himself touching
the wolf-spear, which had been found in
the interior of his stronghold. The
blood upon it he believed to be either that
of Ben Habib or of a wolf, slain near the
fort; but he suspected it to be the blood
of the former, who had been slain by

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the owner of the spear, and his body cast
over the cliff.

He, therefore, after getting down the
path to the foot of the rock on which the
tower stood, rode round the base of it,
looking for the body of his slave. But
nothing appeared to confirm his suspicions.
He carefully, also, watched the
neighborhood, which was a wild scene of
rocks overthrown, tangled forest and
barren pinnacles that towered like minerets,
seeming to invite the crescent to
crown their sharp points. He rode, scy
mitar in hand, like a man who expects an
enemy to start out from behind every
covert. After riding quite around the
elevated spur of the peak on which his
stronghold was perched, without finding
the body of his slave, he turned into the
gorge which led over the shoulder of the
mountain in the direction of the hamlet
on the southern side. He dismounted in
this path, and giving his reign to his follower,
he carefully walked along, examining
the ground and the stones, and
even noticing the spears and grass to ascertain
if a foot-step either of man or
horse had recentiy disturbed it. He had
not proceeded far before he saw a small
pebble that had been brushed from its bed
in the soil, its moist side being turned upward
and the little clayey cavity in which
it had been half imbedded, was still damp
and smooth, not being even sun-dried.—
This was a proof to him that some one
had been in the path not long before.
He continued his search and a little ways
further came upon the print of a foot.
He saw that it was not a Moorish sharppointed
boot, but the broad sandal track
of a mountaineer.

`I have now evidence enough that
some Christian dog has found his way
into the fort in my absence, and that the
spear belongs to the owner of the foot
that pressed its print into the soil here!'

While he was examining the ground
farther, his followers, who had gone forward
a few paces, leading his horse, suddenly
cried out that the horses would not
move, and that they acted as if a wolf
was near. Upon looking up, El Zegris
saw the animals running backwards,
moving their ears and snorting with
alarm. He immediately sprung into his
saddle, and levelling his spear, rode for
ward, urging his reluctant steed with its
sharp point. He had proceeded but a
few steps when his horse reared and
nearly threw him, and wheeling about
would have galloped away. Directly in
the path lay a dead wolf, and a vulture
was balancing himself on his large dark
wings above its head, fiercely picking
out its eye. A shout from the chief sent
him soaring away to settle slowly upon
the top of a scathed oak. El Zegris, unable
to get his horse nigher, leaped to
the ground and approached the wolf,
which he found had been recently slain
by a spear thrust, from which the blood
still oozed out upon the earth.