Baring-Gould’s sources: Spanish and Cistercian Martyrologies. Authority: — The Annals of the Cistercian Order.] Almanzor, prince of Carlet near Valencia, under the Moorish King Zaen, had two sons, Almanzor and Hamet, and two daughters, Zaida and Zoraida. Hamet was sent August 2i.i ‘■S'-S'- Bernard de A Izira, and others. 227 with a party on an embassy to Barcelona to negotiate an exchange of captives with the Christian king. On their way back, the Moorish delegates lost their road by night in a forest near Lerida. Hamet got separated from his companions, and after plunging deeper into the forest, flung himself down under an oak to sleep. In the middle of the night he was awoke: — “A light before him. swims, Between 4ark stems the forest glows, He hears a noise of hymns."

Through the fern in which he lies, Hamet sees the lancet windows of a monastery chapel illumined; hears the tinkle of the shrill bell, and the alternate waves of choral song roll through the solemn aisles of forest. Nursed in a lore of Jins and magic, the youth’s imagination is kindled. Hours pass. To Nocturns succeed Lauds, to Lauds Prime. The mysterious music dies away, and then bursts out again. The light whitens in the east. “ The star of morn to night succeeds,’’ yellow flashes streak the tree boles, the choirs of birds sing out, the wondrous song in the monastery is hushed. Hamet rises, and goes to the gate of the religious house, and asks for food and rest. He is received. All is wonderful within. The grey cloister, the black and white monks, the great crucifix with the morning sun on it, and an expiring lamp swinging before it; the statue of the Virgin Mother holding up the Divine Child.

There Hamet lingered; the day passed, he asked to stay another. Again, in the night, from this guest-room where he lay, he heard the nocturnal chanting whilst the stars wheeled above the chapel, and the slanting silver crescent cast a ghostly light on the white walls. Still Hamet lingered on. “ Who was that woman like a lily bowed in pain, a sword piercing her heart ? Who was that stripped of his garments, hanging on the cross, with head bowed down, and blood drops falling?” He must hear the story. So the swarthy Moor sat at the feet of Abbot Grimald, and was told the Gospel story. It was a story that moved him to his heart’s foundations. A very different tale from those he had long delighted in — the story of Camaralzaman, of Noureddin and the beautiful Persian, of the Three Calenders, sons of kings, and the Five Ladies of Bagdad. So he stayed on till all the truths of the Christian faith were made plain to him, and then he asked to be baptized and to become a Cistercian [strict Benedictine reform begun at Cîteaux in 1098] monk. His request was granted, and the Mussulman Hamet became the Christian Bernard, and a monk of the monastery of Alzira.

After some years he thought of his brother Almanzor, and of his sisters Zaida and Zoraida, and he longed to bear the lamp of faith to Carlet, to illumine their dark souls. Lea ve was granted him, and he departed. Hamet had been deemed lost and dead. In the strange gaunt man with burning eyes and hollow cheeks, Almanzor scarcely recognised his brother. The father was dead; Almanzor, the son, occupied his room. But when he began to speak of Christ, the Moorish chief cursed him, and bade him be silent. Bernard then sought his sisters: the beautiful story of the Virgin mother and her Son was told them under the orange trees, and filled their gentle souls with longing and delight. He told them more, and at length, they asked to be baptized and to profess Christ. He secretlyadministered to them the sacrament, giving to Zaida the name of Gratia, and to Zoraida that of Mary, and then Bernard and his two virgin sisters fled from the palace of their brother. Their flight was discovered before morning, and a party of Moors [the Muslims of North Africa and Spain] set forth in pursuit. Two days after, the fugitives were caught August ai.] BS. Bernard de A Izira, and others. 2 29 in a wood. Almanzor would have run his brother through with a spear, but his hand was arrested. However, Bernard was, by his orders, bound to a tree, and his head cleft with an axe. Gratia and Maria bowed their necks, and their heads were smitten off.