noon
I quit my country while it is yet free . '' Scarcely had he ceased , ere he had disappeared from the hall . It was as the parting genius of Granada ! It was a burning and sultry noon , when , through a small valley , skirted by rugged and precipitous hills , at the distance of several leagues from Granada , a horseman , in complete armour , wound his solitary way ; His mail was black and unadorned ; on his vizor waved no plume . But there was something in his carriage and mien , and the singular beauty of his coal - black steed , which appeared to indicate a higher rank than the absence of page and squire , and the plainness of his accoutrements , would have denoted to a careless eye . He rode very slowly ; and his steed , with the licence of a spoiled favourite , often halted lazily in his sultry path , as a tuft of herbage , or the bough of some overhanging tree , offered its temptation . At length , as he thus paused , a noise was heard in a copse that clothed the descent of a steep mountain ; and the horse started suddenly back , forcing the traveller from his reverie .