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/ No. 8. May 2 1 St, 1891. Price, 25 Cents. 1 THE POPULAR SERIES Issued Semi-Monthly. The Conspirator OF Cordova By Sylvanus Cobb, Jr., Author of The Gunmaker of Moscow,” etc. Single Numbers 25 Cents, By Stthscrtplion, (24 Kos.) per Annum, ROBERT BONNER’S SONS, NEW YORK. Entered at the Bast Opice at New York, N, I'., as Second Class ALail Matter. : THE NEW YORK LEDGER. The Illustrated National Family Journal of To-day. A Great Quantity and Variety of Reading. he enlarged size of the Ledger in its new form enables the T publishers to give such an extensive variety of reading matter that every number contains something of interest to every member of the household. While the older members of the household are gathering information from the more weighty editorials on the current topics and international issues of the day, the younger members will find infinite delight and enter- tainment in the purity of the stories. The following is only a partial list of the Eminent and Popular Contributors Amelia E. Barr, Dr. Felix Oswald, Margaret Deland, George F. Parsons, Frances Hodgson Burnett, James McCosh, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rev. Dr. H. M. Field, Anna Katharine Green, Maurice Thompson, Marion Harland, Thomas Dunn English, Col. Thomas W. Knox, Hon. George Bancroft, ‘‘ Josiah Allen’s Wife,” Rev. John R. Paxton, William Henry Bishop, Helen Marshall North, Harold Frederic, Prof. Charles F. Holder, The Marquise Lanza, M. W. Hazeltine, James Russell Lowell, James Parton, Rev. Dr. John Hall« Harriet Prescott SpofPord, Oliver Dyer, Dr. Julia Holmes Smith, Lieut. Frederick Schiwatka Kate M. Cleary, , Mary J 3afford, Murat Halstead, Gen. Jas. S. Brisbin, TJ. S. A. he following table of contents ^ves only a slight outline of T the rich and varied contributions to the Ledger from the pens of the distinguished writers already enumerated and from hundreds of others. Fifty Dollars’ Wortla of Matter for Two Dollars. Twenty Complete Novels, Biogrraphical Sketches, Novels of American Idfe, Impressive Papers, Novels of Foreigm Travel, Explorations, Novels of Southern Society, Humorous Anecdotes, Novels of Adventure, Poems and Ballads, Novels of Metropolitan Life, Scientihc Articles, Emotional Komances, Natural History, 200 Short Stories, Home Culture, 300 Popular Sketches, Health Sugrgrestions, 2,000 Short Articles, Principles of Etictuette, Stories of Adventure, Scholastic Disquisitions, Popular Information, Articles of Travel, Household Advice, Historical Sketches, Articles. his is a variety from which all can make a pleasing selection it is T every week ; and, furthermore, ample testimony to the great merit and value of the coming volume. Illustrated Souvenir Numbers. rom week to week, the Ledger will be filled with the illus- F trations of celebrated artists, and the extra Christmas and Easter numbers will be features of special artistic embellishment. The charming Whittier souvenir of last year will be succeeded in the Christmas number this year by a poem from James Russell Lowell, with full-page illustrations by De Meza, These souvenir numbers will be sent free to all subscribers. The LEDGER is issued weekly, and the subscription price is only $2 a year. Send Money Order, Regis- tered Letter or Check, at our risk, to ROBERT BONNER’S SONS, Cor. William and Spruce Streets, New York City. a COUSIN PONS TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF HONORE DE BALZAC. 12mo. 439 Pages. With. Twelve Beautiful and Characteristic Illustrations by Whitney. Handsomely Bound in Cloth, Price, $1.00. Paper Cover, 50 Cents. Cousin Pons is one of the most interesting characters in the whole range of Balzac’s wonderful creations. Balzac penetrated human nature to its depth. There is scarcely a type which evaded his keen eye. His characters are types of the living, human world swarming at his feet. His creations are as real as noble peaks standing out against an evening sky. In every one of Balzac’s novels there is a great human lesson. There is not a volume you can open which does not set forth some deep human truth by means of characterizations so vivid that they seem to breathe. So it is with Cousin Pons.” After reading it we think of him not as a character in a novel, but as a personage— sweet and true soul—a simple enthusiast for art and beauty at the mercy of selfish and vulgar harpies. THE CONSPIRATOR OF CORDOVA. D THE CONSPIRATOR OF CORDOVA. CX ^OBcl. BY / S.YLVANUs Cobb, Jr, Author of The Gunmaker of Moscow,” etc. t ) )C W NEW YORK: ROBERT BONNER’S SONS, PUnLISHERS. THE POPULAR SERIES : ISSUED SEMI-MONTHLY. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, SIX DOLLARS PER ANNUM. NO. 8 ' t MAY 21, 1891. ENTERED AT THE NEW YORK, N. Y., POST OFFICE AS SECOND CLASS MAIL MATTER, /O / - / / Copyright, 1869 and 1891, BY ROBERT BONNER’S SONS. (All rights reserved.) PRESS OF THE NEW YORK LEDGER, NEW YORK. The Conspirator of Cordova.' CHAPTER I. THE NORMAN KNIGHT—AN ADVENTURE. At the time of which we write nearly the whole of the Spanish peninsula, south of the Pyrenees, was under the Moorish rule. Abderahman III. sat upon the throne of Cordova, and the season of his reign is known as the Golden Age of the Moorish empire. The Moors were an enlightened and industrious race of people, and during their occupation of the country, agriculture, as well as the arts and sciences, flourished in a remarkable degree. In short, so far were they in advance of other European nations in general knowledge, that great numbers of Christians, of all countries, went to study in the Arabian schools of Cordova. And, furtheimiore, the Moors had brought with them from the Orient a thousand ideas of luxury and elegance never entertained by the Goths ; so that even their social and domestic 8 TIu Conspirator of Cor arrangements were far above those of their predecessors in point of comfort and refinement. The proximity, however, of these devoted followers of Islam to the restless and warlike knights of the Cross, led to continual scenes of border strife, and to not a few romantic adventures. A day in early summer, had been warm and clear ; and now, as the sun was sinking towards the western horizon, the balmy breeze, which had been laden with fragrant odors from a thousand groves of orange and of citron, died away, until the leaves of the aspen were still, and the surface of the water reposed like a mirror. A few miles out from Cordova, where the road lay close I upon the northern bank of the Guadalquiver, and beneath the shade of a grove of olives, sat two men. The first was a Christian, and a noble knight, as his garb plainly indicated. His boots were russet, with light, silk, golden spurs attached ; his hose of white with trunks of amber satin a doublet of emerald velvet a ; ; short cloak of purple, slashed with white satin, with collar of rich point lace ; and a light cap of green vel- vet, from the side of which swept a white ostrich feather. He was about five-and-twenty years of age, possessing a powerful frame, the full, symmetrical, muscular form of which had been developed by a thorough course of knightly training even from child- hood. His face was fair and frank, the features bold and marked, the whole contour presenting a remarkable type of strong masculine beauty. Such was Leon de Bournay, a knight of Normandy, and only son of the old Baron, Robert de Bournay, whose deeds of arms were known throughout all : The Norman Knight—An Advenhire, g Christendom. Sir Leon had come to Cordova to study. The time might not be far distant when he would be called to rule over the broad barony of Bournay, and he wished to qualify himself for the work. In the science of arms he was already a proficient ; few men dared to oppose his lance or broadsword, but he felt that the true prince should be able to instruct his people in those sciences which come nearer to the peace and comfort of their homes and firesides, and hence he had sought the help of the renowned scholars of the Moorish schools. Sir Leon's companion was a short, stout, hearty, genial looking individual, with broad, massive shoulders, a thick neck, and a head which betrayed considerable pugnacity in its peculiarity of form, though a rich vein of humor and good-will, which seemed to well up from his deep bosom, served in a great measure to counter- balance the rougher traits of his character. He was the knight's most faithful esquire and body servant, having been his attendant from early boyhood. He was some ten years older than his master, and his garb was much after pattern as that already the same described ; only the fabrics were coarser and more substantial, and the feather which he wore in his brown cap, secured by a silver button and loop, was from an eagle's wing. “ Come, come, my master," said the esquire, with a restless movement, “ it is high time that we were on our way back to the city for, if my wits do not fail me, ; there is a storm brewing." The knight turned his gaze upon the point where the sun was just sinking behind the crescent crowned minarets of the great mosque of Cordova, and after a while he replied : lO The Conspirator of Cordova, Don't be alarmed, Gabriel. We shall have daylight for a good hour yet." “ Aye, but it isn't the loss of daylight I'm thinking about," quickly retorted the other. It's the storm that troubles me. We are a league and a half from the city, with nothing but our legs to depend upon and it will ; be dark before we can get home.

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