His curiosity was now fully
awakened; the time and place served to stimulate it. He resolved to
watch this groper after secret and forgotten lore, and to trace him to
his habitation. There was something like adventure in the thing, that
charmed his romantic disposition. He followed the stranger, therefore,
at a little distance; at first cautiously, but he soon observed him to
be so wrapped in his own thoughts, as to take little heed of external
objects.
They passed along the skirts of the mountain, and then by the shady
banks of the Darro. They pursued their way, for some distance from
Granada, along a lonely road that led among the hills. The gloom of
evening was gathering, and it was quite dark when the stranger stopped
at the portal of a solitary mansion.
It appeared to be a mere wing, or ruined fragment, of what had once
been a pile of some consequence. The walls were of great thickness;
the windows narrow, and generally secured by iron bars. The door was
of planks, studded with iron spikes, and had been of great strength,
though at present it was much decayed. At one end of the mansion was a
ruinous tower, in the Moorish style of architecture. The edifice had
probably been a country retreat, or castle of pleasure, during the
occupation of Granada by the Moors, and rendered sufficiently strong
to withstand any casual assault in those warlike times.
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