Leila by Edward Bulwer Lytton Baron Lytton

At dawn over famine-stricken Granada, Boabdil's people brace for a final defense as Ferdinand's army advances and the city's gardens burn. With the women watching from the walls, Muza and the Moorish captains rally cavalry and infantry, while Boabdil cries for liberty or death, turning the battle into a desperate defense of home, faith, and honor. Ferdinand answers not with a direct assault but with ruthless strategy, scattering the fighting across fields, towers, and orchards to break Moorish unity. In the chaos, Hernando del Pulgar and Muza clash in a dazzling duel, and the struggle widens as kings, knights, artillery, and banners collide in a brutal contest of leadership and survival. As the sacred banner falls and panic spreads, Granada's last resistance collapses. Boabdil escapes into the city, Muza covers the retreat, and the Christian victory seals the fate of the kingdom. The story then turns inward to Leila, a young novice in a convent, where Don Juan, Prince of Spain, pleads for her love and freedom. She refuses him, choosing duty, renunciation, and a sorrowful peace, even as her health fails and her vows draw near. Meanwhile, Boabdil endures starvation, isolation, and the humiliating reality of surrender, until Ferdinand and Isabella's terms arrive: yield within seventy days, and Granada may yet be spared. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.