'"
At length Antonio so far gained on the heart of his patient, as to
draw from him the outlines of his story.
Felix de Vasques, the alchymist, was a native of Castile, and of an
ancient and honourable line. Early in life he had married a beautiful
female, a descendant from one of the Moorish families. The marriage
displeased his father, who considered the pure Spanish blood
contaminated by this foreign mixture. It is true, the lady traced her
descent from one of the Abencerrages, the most gallant of Moorish
cavaliers, who had embraced the Christian faith on being exiled from
the walls of Granada.
The injured pride of the father, however, was not to be appeased. He
never saw his son afterwards, and on dying left him but a scanty
portion of his estate; bequeathing the residue, in the piety and
bitterness of his heart, to the erection of convents, and the
performance of masses for souls in purgatory. Don Felix resided for a
long time in the neighbourhood of Valladolid, in a state of
embarrassment and obscurity. He devoted himself to intense study,
having, while at the university of Salamanca, imbibed a taste for the
secret sciences. He was enthusiastic and speculative; he went on from
one branch of knowledge to another, until he became zealous in the
search after the grand Arcanum.
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