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29 Alphonso, who beheld this scene, felt deeply affected; yet he stood looking with surprise at Alvar's Moorish habit and appearance, until the Spaniard perceiving it, led Alvar to him, and thus spoke: "Behold, great prince, my son clothed in this disguise, to whom we owe the bright success this day hath witnessed. My name is Don Manuel D'Aranda, and he was baptized by the name of Ferdinando.—Yes, beneath this Moorish semblance, behold that Alvar, so well known to both. Under this disguise hath he sought through numerous perils his persecuted Seraphina, to release whom he had entered this castle." Alphonso, after clasping the brave Ferdinando to his heart, anxiously enquired for Seraphina. The unhappy Ferdinando related his misfortunes, and they tenderly sympathised with him in his loss.

Then, Alphonso, after leaving with Ferdinando a sufficient number of soldiers, together with those who had joined Don Manuel on his way to his camp, created him governor of the castle, and one of his chief generals. Don Manuel would by no means quit his beloved son; and Alphonso, accompanied by the remainder of his troops, returned to his encampment.

As Ferdinando was returning from one of those expeditions in which he had subdued a numerous party of the infidels, he passed over a wide extending forest; where, as he and his followers eagerly pursued their track, the darkened firmament proclaimed a storm at hand; and while they strove, by increasing their speed, to elude its vengeance, a deep gloom surrounded them, and they beheld with terror the vivid flash of the lightning, which shone with reflected lustre on their burnished armour.

A heavy torrent accompanied the awful scene,