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diff --git a/44490-0.txt b/44490-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..15742b4 --- /dev/null +++ b/44490-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8786 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44490 *** + +Every attempt has been made to replicate the original as printed. No +attempt has been made to correct or normalize the spelling or +anglicization of non-English words. Some typographical errors have been +corrected; a list follows the text. Some illustrations have been moved +from mid-paragraph for ease of reading. (etext transcriber's note) + + + + + + + NORTHERN + SPAIN + + _PAINTED AND DESCRIBED_ + + BY + + EDGAR T. A. WIGRAM + + [Illustration: colophon] + + LONDON + + ADAM & CHARLES BLACK + + 1906 + + "There is, Sir, a good deal of Spain which has not been + perambulated. I would have you go thither." + +DR JOHNSON. + + + "And so you travel on foot?" said Leon. "How romantic! How + courageous!" + + * * * * * + + "Yes," returned the undergraduate, "it's rather nice than + otherwise, when once you're used to it; only it's devilish + difficult to get washed. I like the fresh air and these stars and + things." + + "Aha!" said Leon, "Monsieur is an artist." + + "Oh, nonsense!" cried the Englishman. "A fellow may admire the + stars and be anything he likes." + +R. L. STEVENSON. + + + +[Illustration: SEGÓVIA + +The Aqueduct.] + +TO + +W. A. W. + + + +SAEPE MECUM TEMPUS IN ULTIMUM +DEDUCTO + + + + +PREFACE + + +It is ill gleaning for a necessitous author when Ford and Borrow have +been before him in the field, and I may not attempt to justify the +appearance of these pages by the pretence that I have any fresh story to +tell. Yet, if my theme be old, it is at least still unhackneyed. The +pioneers have done their work with unapproachable thoroughness, but the +rank and file of the travelling public are following but slackly in +their train. + +Year after year our horde of pleasure-seekers are marshalled by +companies for the invasion of Europe: yet it would seem that there are +but few in the total who have any real inkling of how to play the game. +Some seem to migrate by instinct, and to make themselves miserable in +the process. These ought to be restrained by their families, or +compelled to hire substitutes in their stead. Others can indeed relish a +flitting; but cannot find it in their hearts to divorce themselves from +their dinner-table and their toilet-battery, their newspaper, their +small-talk and their golf. To them all petty annoyances and +inconveniences assume disproportionate dimensions, and they are well +advised in checking their _razzias_ at San Sebástien, Pau, or Biarritz. +But, to the elect, the very root of the pleasure of travel lies in the +fact that their ordinary habits may be frankly laid aside. It is a mild +method of "going _Fanti_" which rejoices their primitive instincts: and +they will find both the land and the people just temperately primitive +in Spain. + +Many of us have felt the fascination of Italy. But those who have "heard +the East a-calling" tell us that her call is stronger still;--and Spain +is the echo of the East. "Lofty and sour to them that love her not, but +to those men that seek her sweet as summer." Even Italy, with all its +charm, tastes flat to a Spanish enthusiast. He craves no other nor no +better land. + + * * * * * + +It has been said of Spain, that none who have not been there are +particularly desirous of going, and none who have been there once can +refrain from going again. The author has not found himself exempt from +this common fatality; and his notes and sketches, as embodied in this +volume, are the fruit of four successive bicycle tours, undertaken +sometimes alone, and sometimes in company with a kindred spirit. Of +their shortcomings he believes that no one can be so conscious as +himself. But in the hope that they may prove of interest to sympathisers +he ventures to expose them to the public gaze. + + + + +NOTE + + +ALL Spanish names ending in vowels are pronounced with the stress on the +penultimate; and those ending in consonants with the stress on the final +syllable. Any exception is indicated by an accent. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I + + PAGE + +THE NORTH COAST OF CASTILE 1 + +CHAPTER II + +COVADONGA AND EASTERN ASTÚRIAS 24 + +CHAPTER III + +ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS TO LEON 43 + +CHAPTER IV + +THE PILGRIM ROAD 64 + +CHAPTER V + +THE CIRCUIT OF GALÍCIA 89 + +CHAPTER VI + +WESTERN ASTÚRIAS 113 + +CHAPTER VII + +BENAVENTE, ZAMORA, AND TORO 132 + +CHAPTER VIII + +SALAMANCA 152 + +CHAPTER IX + +BÉJAR, ÁVILA, AND ESCORIAL 171 + +CHAPTER X + +TOLEDO 192 + +CHAPTER XI + +A RAID INTO ESTREMADURA 215 + +CHAPTER XII + +SEGÓVIA 237 + +CHAPTER XIII + +BÚRGOS 256 + +CHAPTER XIV + +ACROSS NAVARRE 278 + +INDEX 301 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +1. Segóvia. The Aqueduct _Frontispiece_ + + FACING PAGE + +2. Castro Urdiáles. The Bilbao Coastline 6 + +3. Castro Urdiáles. The Harbour 10 + +4. Santoña 12 + +5. San Vicente de la Barquera 20 + +6. The Deva Gorge. La Hérmida 22 + +7. The Deva Gorge. Urdon 26 + +8. Cángas de Onís. The Bridge over the Sella 32 + +9. The Sella Valley. Below Arrióndas 38 + +10. Pasana. An Asturian Mountain Village 40 + +11. Llánes. The Harbour 42 + +12. Leon. An Old Palace Doorway 50 + +13. Leon. From the Pajáres Road 58 + +14. Leon. Church of San Isidoro 60 + +15. Leon. The Market Place, and Casa del Ayuntamiento 62 + +16. Astorga. From the South-east 68 + +17. The Vierzo. From Ponferrada, looking towards + the Pass of Piedrafita 72 + +18. Lugo. The Santiago Gate 78 + +19. Lugo. Fuente de San Vicente 80 + +20. Santiago de Compostela. From the Lugo Road 82 + +21. Santiago de Compostela. The Cathedral from the North-east 86 + +22. Orense. The Bridge over the Miño 92 + +23. Tuy and Valencia. The Frontier Towns on the Miño 96 + +24. Vigo Bay. The Inner Harbour, looking out towards the Sea 100 + +25. Nuestra Señora de la Esclavitud 104 + +26. Betánzos. A Colonnaded Calle 108 + +27. The Masma Valley. Near Mondoñedo 110 + +28. Rivadeo. An Approach to the Harbour 114 + +29. The Návia Valley 116 + +30. Cudillero. The Harbour 120 + +31. Oviedo. A Street near the Cathedral 124 + +32. In the Pass of Pajáres. Near Pola de Gordon 130 + +33. Benavente. From above the Bridge of Castro Gonzalo 134 + +34. Zamora. From the banks of the Duero 140 + +35. Zamora. Church of Sta Maria de la Horta 144 + +36. A Spanish Patio 148 + +37. Toro. From the banks of the Duero 150 + +38. Salamanca. Arcades in the Plaza de la Verdura 156 + +39. Salamanca. Church of San Martin 160 + +40. Salamanca. From the left bank of the Tormes 164 + +41. Salamanca. The Puerta del Rio, with the Cathedral Tower 168 + +42. Béjar. An Approach to the Town 174 + +43. Béjar. A Corner in the Market-place 176 + +44. Ávila. From the North-west 180 + +45. Ávila. A Posada Patio 184 + +46. Escorial. From the East 188 + +47. Toledo. Bridge of Alcántara, from the Illescas Road 194 + +48. Toledo. The Bridge of Alcántara 198 + +49. Toledo. Puerta del Sol 200 + +50. Toledo. Calle del Comércio, with the Cathedral Tower 204 + +51. Toledo. The Gorge of the Tagus 208 + +52. Talavera de la Reina. From the banks of the Tagus 212 + +53. Plaséncia. Puente San Lazaro 216 + +54. Plaséncia. The Town Walls and Cathedral 218 + +55. Cáceres. Within the old Town Walls 222 + +56. Cáceres. Calle de la Cuesta de Aldana 226 + +57. Mérida. "Los Milagros," the ruins of the Great Aqueduct 228 + +58. Alcántara 232 + +59. Segóvia. Church of San Miguel 238 + +60. Segóvia. Arco San Estéban 244 + +61. Segóvia. The Alcázar 248 + +62. Segóvia. Arco Santiago 252 + +63. Segóvia. Church of San Estéban 254 + +64. Búrgos. Arco San Martin 260 + +65. Dueñas 264 + +66. Búrgos. Hospital del Rey 266 + +67. Búrgos. Arco Sta Maria 268 + +68. Búrgos. Patio of the Casa de Miranda 272 + +69. Búrgos. From the East 276 + +70. The Gorge of Pancorvo 282 + +71. La Rioja Alavesa. Looking Northwards across the Ebro 284 + +72. Miranda del Ebro. A Corner in the Town 288 + +73. Pamplona. From the Road to the Frontier 290 + +74. Olite. The Castle 292 + +75. Pamplona. A Patio near the Cathedral 296 + +_Map at end of Volume._ + + _The design of the Cover is adapted from the façade of the Casa de + las Conchas (House of the Shells) at Salamanca._ + + _The device on the Title Page is taken from a wrought-iron knocker + of the Cathedral at Toledo._ + +_The illustrations in this volume have been engraved and printed +in England by Messrs Carl Hentschel, Ltd._ + + + + +NORTHERN SPAIN + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE NORTH COAST OF CASTILE + + +DEAR E.,--Can you manage to get off some time in May and go bicycling +with me in Norway? Blank's have offered me a passage to Bergen. + + * * * * * + +DEAR W.,--I can manage your date, but don't quite feel drawn to your +country. Norway is all mountains, and I want a little archæology. I had +been thinking of Provence. + + * * * * * + +DEAR E.,--No objection to Provence. Blank's will give us a passage in +one of their colliers to Bilbao, and we can ride in across the Pyrenees. +You must allow me some mountains. + + * * * * * + +DEAR W.,--It's awfully good of Blank's. But once at Bilbao, why not +stick to Spain? Toledo is no further than Toulouse, and Cantabria as +mountainous as the Pyrenees. + + * * * * * + +DEAR E.,--Very good! Spain first; and Provence second string if +necessary. There's a boat sailing about May 20th. + + * * * * * + +The casting vote was indisputably the collier's; but our plans were not +quite so inconsequent as this conclusion might lead one to infer. Some +nebulous notion of a Spanish expedition had been miraging itself before +our eyes for several seasons previously; and it is the nature of such +nebulous notions to materialise accidentally at the last. Hitherto we +had been awed by the drawbacks; for Spain had been pictured to us as +positively alive with bugbears. Travelling was difficult--nay, even +dangerous; the people were Anglophobists, the country a desert, and the +cities dens of pestilence. The roads were unridable, and the heat +unbearable. We should be eaten of fleas, and choked with garlic; and to +crown all our other tribulations, we should have to learn a new and +unknown tongue. The knight who plunged into the lake of pitch had hardly +a more inviting prospect; and the fairy palaces beneath it did not +yield him an ampler reward. Provence still waits unvisited; neither have +we now any immediate intention of going there. We still keep going to +Spain. + + * * * * * + +The owners said she would sail on Thursday; but Wednesday brought down +the captain in a highly energetic condition, and confident of catching +the midnight tide. We had to make a bolt for the docks by the last train +of the evening, and groped our way to the _Amadeo_ through a haze of +coal dust, only to be met by the intelligence that the captain had gone +home to bed! There was nothing for it but to camp in the cabin, where +night was made constantly hideous by the coal roaring into the +after-hold: and next morning found us out in the middle of the dock, +sitting on our tail with our bows pointing to heaven. The coal for the +fore-hold had failed us, and a luckier rival had ousted us from our +berth at the staithes. The morning was occupied in resolving a general +tangle; for every ship in the basin seemed to fall foul of all the +others in turn. Soon a second tide was lost. And when we regained the +staithes there came another break in our procession of coal trucks. +"Oh! the little cargo boats that clear with _every_ tide!" + +We flung ashore in despair. But a more hopeful sight saluted us when we +returned. The _Amadeo_ lay out by the dock gates, long and low, with her +main deck but eighteen inches above the water. At last she was fully +laden; and we sailed on the Friday morn. + +So long as we remained in Tyne Dock we had not judged ourselves +conspicuously dirty; but we showed as a crying scandal when out in the +clean blue sea. The mate even bewailed the calm weather. If we "took it +green" once we should be clean immediately. But such heroic methods of +labour-saving we very contentedly excused. Meanwhile we made leisurely +progress, for the _Amadeo_ was no greyhound. "She never yet caught +anything with steam in her" according to her despondent engineer. +Saturday's sun set behind Dover--the great cliffs looming darkly over +us, and the town lights showing like pin-holes pricked through the +blackness to the glowing sky beyond. Sunday showed us the grim teeth of +the Caskets; and the weird natural dolmens of Ushant were passed the +following day. But Providence still continued to temper the wind to that +very shorn lamb the _Amadeo_, and the dreaded Bay was as smooth as a +sheet of rippled glass. + +About Wednesday evening the captain began to wax very bitter concerning +Spanish lighthouses, and we went below better satisfied that deep water +should last us till dawn! But the first rays of light showed us a long +line of blue peaks high on the horizon to the southward, and within an +hour our voyage was over. "In we came--and time enough--'cross Bilbao +bar." + +It was from the sea that I had my first view of Genoa and the Italian +Riviera, and the seaward approach to Bilbao deserves no meaner +comparison than this. The romantic hills reared themselves from the +water's edge, unwinding their veils at the touch of the early sunshine; +and the sparkling villages clinging to the cliffs round the shell-shaped +harbour of Portugalete made a picture which might have been borrowed +from Lugano or Lucerne. A tumult of tossing peaks was piled in disorder +to the eastward, above the smoke of the iron furnaces in the winding +valley of the Nervion; and far away to the westward, ridge upon ridge +fell sloping down into the blue waters of the Atlantic; sometimes +breaking off so sheer at the finish that the ore ships could actually +moor alongside to load. The beauty of the Spanish coast is a favourite +theme of visitors to San Sebástien, but they know not a tithe of the +truth which they are so eager to proclaim. The whole Atlantic littoral +from the Bidassoa to the Miño is teeming with equal attractions, and the +immediate vicinity of Bilbao is a stretch which is second to none. + +Neither were our first impressions of the people less favourable than +those of the country. And that though they were formed in the Custom +House, which is scarcely a promising beat. These hospitable officials +were if anything over-considerate; for we were only anxious to pay and +have done with it, while they were all intent on excusing us, if they +could find any justification under the code. At last, however, we were +allowed to purchase our freedom; fled to our machines amid a haze of +reciprocal compliments; and a few minutes later were drifting along the +road to the westward, with no more care for the morrow than flotsam on +uncharted seas. + +[Illustration: CASTRO URDIÁLES + +The Bilbao Coastline.] + +The busy industries of Bilbao have unfortunately gone some way towards +marring its lovely situation. Its valley is choked with smoky factories; +and its mountains are one vast red scar from base to summit, the +entire face having been flayed away for ironstone, and ladled out into +the ore ships along the aërial railways to feed the blast furnaces of +Sheffield and Middlesborough. Our uglier trades seem to take malicious +delight in ruining the prettiest landscapes. But their dominion is but +for a season, and the land will enjoy its Sabbaths in the end. We only +scratch Nature skin-deep, and her wealds will devour our black +countries. "After a thousand years," say the Spaniards, "the river +returns to his bed." + +Beyond the blight of the quarries, the scenery is of the type of our own +Welsh highlands--steep, rocky ridges and gullies, thickly clothed with +bracken and scrub oak. Even the railway has a most charming ramble, +hunting its own tail up and down the long, steep, corkscrew gradients of +the inland valleys. But the road clambers along the deeply fissured +coast line, and no free agent will elect to follow the rail. Our first +stage, however, was but a short one, for it was evening when we quitted +Bilbao. Castro Urdiales gaped for us with its cavernous little _calle_, +and we dived in to seek quarters for the night. + +Surely a town so close to Bilbao might have been expected to be inured +to visitors! Yet our modest progress through the streets of Castro +created as great a sensation as though we had been "Corsica" Boswell in +his costume of scarlet and gold. The children formed up in procession +behind us. Their elders turned out to take stock of us from the +balconies. And a voluble old pilot (whose knowledge of English was about +equal to our Spanish) came bustling out of a café to conduct us to the +primitive little inn. + +It is a fortunate thing that a traveller's needs can be guessed without +much vocabulary; for our first task was to order our supper, and +mistakes may be serious when you have to eat the result. The enterprise, +however, is not so hazardous as one imagines. Like Sancho Panza, you may +ask for what you will;--but what you get is "the pair of cow heels +dressed with chick peas, onions and bacon which are just now done to a +turn." After all, we did not fare badly; mine hostess was a damsel of +resources, and our old pilot prompted us vigorously from the rear. It +was he who suggested the "lamp-post"--a threat at which we jibbed +somewhat visibly. But the girl plunged promptly into the kitchen behind +her and returned displaying the "lamp-post"--which was a lobster. As to +the three weird courses which followed him, our conclusions were not +equally positive. They appeared in cryptic disguises;--_carne_, "meat" +which defied identification. There is no declaration of origin in most +of the dishes of Spain. Yet the traveller need not be nervous. He can +generally trust Maritornes. Let him eat what is set before him, asking +no questions for conscience sake. + +One might travel a long way along any coast line before finding a +prettier haven than Castro Urdiales. The nucleus of the town, with the +church and castle, is perched upon a rocky promontory, whose cliffs drop +sheer into the deep water, and whose outlying pinnacles have been linked +up to the mainland by irregular arches so as to form natural wharves. A +little harbour for fishing-craft nestles under the cliff to the +eastward; looking back along the coast to Bilbao, and the bold conical +hill with the watch-tower (reminiscent of Barbary pirates), which guards +the entrance to the harbour of Portugalete. Yet all this fair exterior +hides a hideous secret, and at last we surprised it unaware. + +We were well acquainted with sardines in England, and it had not escaped +our cognisance that sardines were commonly bereft of heads. Had it ever +occurred to us that all those heads were somewhere? Well, the dreadful +truth must be acknowledged; they were here. Yes, here at Castro +Urdiales--a mountain of gibbous eyes and a smell to poison the +heavens--awaiting the kindly wave which would eventually garner them in +from the ledge upon which they were stewing, and deliver them over to +the "lamp-posts" in the crevices of the rock below. + +Castro Urdiales is a city of ambitions. It is keeping pace with the era, +and in 1901 its most antiquated alley had been already dignified by the +title of "Twentieth Century Street." Since then it has developed a +ponderous steel bridge in the harbour, and thrown out a massive concrete +break-water from the end of the modest jetty. But its progress is not to +be deprecated where it does not interfere with its beauty; and now a +comfortable _Fonda_ has supplanted the humble _Venta_ which was our +first lodging on Spanish soil. + +[Illustration: CASTRO URDIÁLES + +The Harbour.] + +Our road next day still followed the mountainous coast line, and we +descended at noon upon the roofs of Laredo, a delightful little town, +climbing up the steep hillside above its tiny anchorage, and facing the +great mass of Santoña, the "Gibraltar of the North." This imposing +fortress lies across the mouth of an immense land-locked lagoon, +and in size, shape, and situation is almost a replica of the famous +Rock. It has no such strategical value, but is probably equally +impregnable; for it was the only northern city where the French flag was +still waving at the close of that "War of Liberation" which we style the +Peninsular War. + +At Laredo we dined, and as Spanish meals are the subject of much +needless apprehension, perhaps we may pause to say a word in their +defence before proceeding further upon our way. We begin with _Desayuno_ +or _petit déjeuner_, and here, in a genuinely Spanish _ménage_, +chocolate will generally take the place of the Frenchman's _café au +lait_. It is served in tiny cups, very hot and very thick. It is really +a substitute for butter, and you eat it by dipping your bread in it, +washing it down with a glass of cold water, which you are expected to +"sugar to taste." The peasants, however, eschew this fashion as +new-fangled, and content themselves with a draught of wine or a +thimbleful of "the craythur." This is not recommended by the faculty, +but travellers have sometimes to be content. + +[Illustration: SANTONA] + +Dinner, or _Comida_, is served about mid-day; the nominal time varies, +but it is always half an hour late. In many districts, however, this +title is transferred to the supper, and then the luncheon is known as +_Almuerzo_--_Déjeuner_. It is a very substantial banquet of some +half-dozen courses, inaugurated (in strictly classical fashion) by an +egg. Next comes a dish of haricot beans, or chick peas, or rice +garnished with _pimientos_, closely pursued by another containing boiled +meat, bacon, and sausages, all which you may tackle separately or +simultaneously, according to your greatness of soul. Then comes a +stew--the celebrated _Olla Podrida_; and then (to the great astonishment +of the stranger) the belated fish. Fish seems to have methods of +penetrating to all spots which are accessible by railway. Hake is the +general stand-by, but in the mountains you get most excellent little +trout. The solid portion of the meal is concluded by a "biftek" and +salad, but there is still an appendix in case you are not satisfied yet. +On Sundays, in superior _Fondas_ you will get caramel pudding, and +always and everywhere cheese, accompanied by a sort of quince jelly +known as _membrillo_, a very excellent institution indeed. Finally +(again classically) comes the fruit; but this is usually rather +inferior, considering how very cheap and excellent it is in the markets +outside. Wine is, of course, supplied _ad lib._ to every diner, and +water in porous earthenware bottles which evaporation keeps deliciously +cool. Olives are eaten steadily at all intervals; and if you have long +to wait between courses, you fill up the intervals with cigarettes! The +evening meal--_cena_--is generally very similar to the mid-day, except +that soup takes the place of the egg. + +The cooking is by no means deserving of all the strictures that have +been showered upon it; for most nations know how to cook their own +dishes, and only come seriously to grief when they try to imitate +French. The dreaded garlic is used but sparingly; oil is a much more +dominating feature. But then oil has a double debt to pay, because +Spaniards make no butter. At all events the food is plentiful, and "St +Bernard's sauce" will cover a multitude of deficiencies; for appetite is +a blessing that is seldom lacking to the traveller in Spain! + +After dinner, the Café. And a Spanish café is a most noteworthy +assemblage. It is comparatively empty in the evenings, for the +Spaniard's homing instincts are much more strongly developed than the +Frenchman's, and he seldom quits his house and his family circle after +dark. But in the early afternoon it is thronged to repletion with all +sorts and conditions of customers, from the general in command of the +garrison to the ragged vine-dresser and muleteer. Here they sit through +the long, sultry hours of siesta-tide in a roomful of shuttered +twilight, chattering like a mill-wheel in flood-time, sipping their +coffee and aniseed brandy,[1] and steadily consuming cigarettes. It +often seems mild dissipation for such very truculent-looking +desperadoes. Fancy an English navvy regaling his carnal appetites on +black coffee and dominoes! Not but that dominoes (as played in a Spanish +café) is an exciting, even an athletic, pastime. It entails alarming +vociferation; and every piece that you play must be slammed down on the +marble table top with all the force at your command. The domino volleys +echo through the café like musketry on a field-day on Salisbury Plain, +and if you feel at all dubious as to your direction when you chance to +be seeking that edifice, you may readily succeed in locating it by +listening in the street for the din. + +But the heat of the day is now passing, and the traveller must answer +the call. His road is at least more level than hitherto; for the coast +hills westward of Laredo are gradually losing their mountainous +character, and over their heads to the southward we begin to catch +glimpses of the great rock walls of the Cantabrian Sierras, which grow +ever higher and grander as we near the Asturian march. The environs of +Santander are again disfigured by quarrying; and the soil, where +disturbed, is of a deep red ferruginous hue. Truly "a land whose stones +are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass"; though "rivers +and fountains of water" are not quite so common as we might desire. +Santander itself, however, we will avoid altogether. Like Bilbao, it is +quite a modern city; and the direct road through the mountain glens +behind it brings us down to the sea again at Torrelavega by a very much +pleasanter line. + +Meanwhile we pursued our career to an intermittent orchestral +accompaniment--a tune in two keys, like M'Alpin's drone and small pipes, +but far more powerful and piercing than the most brazen-lunged piper +could blow. Occasionally we met the musician. He is only an ordinary +ox-cart--a pair of wheels, a pole, and a plank or two, actuated by a +pair of sleepy kine. + +In Galicia the yoke is fastened round the necks of the oxen; but more +generally it is bound with thongs to their horns and finished off with a +bonnet of goat-skin, or in Asturias with a fleecy busby of most imposing +size. The wheels have often only a single spoke, or sometimes three +arranged in the form of the letter H. Altogether it is probably the +simplest, slowest, and most vociferous affair on wheels. + +For the amount of lamentation that can be extracted from one dry axle is +a thing that is scarcely credible even when it is heard. The natives +encourage it. They have one theory that it pleases the oxen, and another +(far more probable) that it scares the Fiend. But at any rate it has no +apparent effect upon the Spanish teamster, who lounges along in front +waving his goad like a drum-major's baton; or sleeps--yes, sleeps--on +the summit of his yelling load. Verily the man who first invented sleep +must have been a waggoner! This evening, as we were crossing the ridge +between two parallel valleys, our ears were saluted by the unmistakable +long-drawn scream of an impatient locomotive. Our map showed no railway, +however; and we were just beginning to plume ourselves on an important +geographical discovery, when we caught sight of a single ox-cart--200 +feet below and half a mile away! The hill sloped away straight and +smooth before us, and we fled! We felt no shame at the time; yet perhaps +it was rather faint-hearted to shirk the chance of a personal interview +with the most musical axle in the world. + +But the bicyclist has one grievance in Spain which is not so easily +avoided as ox-carts, and it is about the end of the second day that the +iron of it begins to enter his soul. Thenceforward for ever he cherishes +a deadly and undying rancour against the Spanish dogs. We had been +partly prepared for the infliction beforehand. The captain had mentioned +them, and had talked of ammonia pistols; but we spurned the suggestion +with humane horror. We knew quite well that all foreign dogs were +brutes, but we were confident in our own benignity and scornful of +"methods of barbarism." And in these noble sentiments we persisted--for +about a day and a half. Next morning we were awakened out of our beauty +sleep by the yellings of some miserable cur in the _Fonda +patio_;--"Hurrah! there's a dog getting hurt," was our simultaneous +comment; and ere we recrossed the frontier we had registered a grim +resolve that next time we would bring revolvers, and strew our path +with carcases from Fuenterrabia to Cadiz. So much for the deterioration +of moral fibre under the strain of Spanish dog. + +Well, we are not the first (nor the last) whose amiability has been +ruined by "dogs barking at us as we pass by"; and when every brute in +the countryside, from the toy mongrel to the wolf-hound as big as an +ass-colt, dances yelling and snapping at your heels for half a mile +together, it is not entirely surprising that patience should wear thin. +Of course there are stones. The Guadarrama district in particular +produces a beautiful white quartzose,--hard and heavy, with many sharp +angles,--an excellent article to throw at a dog. But what is a pocketful +among so many? Besides, you often miss them, and never hurt them enough. +Truly I could feel no sure confidence in anything short of a loaded +revolver. But only a very even-tempered man could trust himself with +that _ultima ratio_ within reach of his fingers; and I cherish a rooted +objection to "going heeled" in a civilised land. Perhaps a lion-tamer's +whip with a loaded butt and a bullet at the end of the lash may prove +effective enough to compromise upon. + +Meanwhile there is some silver lining to the cloud. There are already +some convertites among the dogs of Spain. The majority pour themselves +upon the cyclist, clamorous and open-mouthed, like the demons in +Malebolge; but a remnant clap their tails between their legs and make a +bee-line for the horizon. We humbly hope that our own modest assiduity +will have effected a small but perceptible increase in the latter class. + +Beyond Torrelavega there is again a parting of roadways. One passes +along the coast by Santillana, the birthplace of Gil Blas; and the other +through Cabezon, threading the mountain glens. They reunite at San +Vicente de la Barquera, another minor seaport of Cantabria, less +progressive than Castro, but quite as attractive after its style. The +town lies at the extremity of a tongue of land between two wide +estuaries. It is the meeting-place of the two long bridges which cross +them, and its precipitous acropolis and arcaded market-place afford +endless studies to the lover of the picturesque. + +San Vicente had got a hideous secret of its own as well as Castro, only +at San Vicente it was hardly a secret--in fact, they were rather booming +it as a show. An old sunken coasting vessel had recently been recovered +and beached in the estuary, and its hold was positively teeming with +lobsters, like Sir Thomas Ingoldsby's pockets with eels. Truly it was a +gruesome sight; and a novelist in search of an appropriate ending for a +really desperate villain could hardly do better than have him pincered +to death in that crawly inferno by the black clanking monsters which +inhabited it! + +The Cantabrian Sierras, already sufficiently majestic, now reach their +culmination in the acknowledged monarchs of the range--the Picos de +Europa, the landmark of all the old navigators who once steered their +Mexican argosies into Gijon or Santander. This vast mass of snow-crowned +peaks forms a most imposing spectacle. They are great "cloud +compellers," and are seldom entirely clear. But they are sometimes seen +unveiled in the calm of the early morning, an apparently impassable +barrier filling half the horizon towards the south. + +[Illustration: SAN VICENTE DE LA BARQUERA] + +Yet the road which we have taken to guide us aims right at the very +heart of them, and at the little village of Unquera it bears up square +to the left. A copious sea-green river (officially known as the Tina +Mayor, but invariably styled the Deva by the inhabitants) comes hurrying +down at this point from the mountains, and charges the great ridge of +limestone which edges the coast-line like a natural sea-wall. We look in +vain for the outlet: the barrier seems absolutely unbroken. But a +stream that has pierced the Picos recks little of minor obstacles, and +the waves are booming to welcome it but half a mile beyond. + +Turning our backs on the sea, we enter a noble valley, walled in by +crags of Alpine grandeur, and populated by families of Imperial eagles +swinging to and fro their eyries, high amid the cornices of rock; but +the pastures at the foot of the steeps are everywhere level and placid, +and from Unquera up to Abándames can scarcely be called an ascent. + +There is a waters-meet just above Abándames, and the traveller as he +approaches it begins to experience considerable misgivings concerning +the future of his road. If it will but condescend to follow the valley, +there seems just a chance that it may emerge as a staircase; but when it +bears resolutely to the left to knock its head against the precipices of +the Picos, he resignedly concludes that now there's nothing for it but a +lift. A deep notch in the crags lets out the river, and here the road +slips in. There seems every prospect that it will be promptly confronted +by a precipice and a waterfall; but beyond the first notch is a second, +and beyond the second a third. At every turn the passage grows narrower +and deeper, and the way is never clear before us for more than a few +score yards. Yet the unhoped-for outlet is invariably forthcoming, and +at last we cease to marvel at the unfailing surprise. It is the great +cañon of the Deva, one of the finest passes in the world. + +It is but a few miles since we quitted sea level, and we have risen but +little on the way. Yet the cliffs that edge the roadway make but one +leap of it to the clouds, and their tops are streaked with snow. Here +rises a staircase of gigantic terraces; here a fringe of crooked +fingers, black and jagged against the sky; here a range of sheer bluff +bastions, like the _cubos_[2] of a titanic wall; and from time to time +the glittering crest of some remoter peak peers over their shoulders +into the depths of the gulf below. The mountain limestone is as hard as +granite, and has shed but few screes or boulders to obstruct the passage +of the stream, and the road squeezes itself along whichever bank happens +to be widest at the moment, crossing and recrossing as occasion +requires. At one point a magnificent osprey, looking twice as large as +life, came sailing slowly down the chasm, and passed but a few feet +above our heads, regally indifferent to the presence of trespassers in +his domain. But apart from him the passage was practically +solitary--mile after mile of the same stupendous scenery, till our necks +ached from craning up the precipices, and our minds seemed oppressed +with a sort of hopelessness of escape. + +[Illustration: THE DEVA GORGE + +La Hérmida.] + +At the hamlet of la Hermida the valley makes a momentary attempt to +widen; but this little ebullition is promptly squashed in the grip of +the mountains, and the great beetling cliffs once more shoulder in upon +the defile. The effects seemed finer than ever, for the clouds of a +gathering tempest were tearing themselves to ribbons among the jagged +_aiguilles_, and their streamers were pierced and illuminated by the +level rays of the setting sun. Not till we had burrowed our way for some +fifteen miles through the roots of the mountains did we escape at last +into the upland vale of Liebana; and looking back on the snow-wreathed +fangs behind us, wondered (like Ali Baba before his cavern) what had +become of the crevice from which we had just emerged. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +COVADONGA AND EASTERN ASTURIAS + + +Far be it from me to disparage Vizcaya or Galicia, but the prize "for +the fairest" must be awarded to Asturias. No other province in +Spain--few even in Italy--can show such wealth of natural beauty; and it +is the district around the Picos de Europa that is the crowning glory of +the whole. + +The stranger pays his homage to its scenery, but for the Spaniard it has +a more sentimental appeal. This great mountain citadel is his Isle of +Athelney, the last refuge of the little band of stalwarts who never +bowed the knee to the dominion of Mahound. Here the first gleam of +victory broke the long darkness of disaster; and seven years after the +downfall of Roderic, Pelayo began the redemption of Spain. It still +remains a place of pilgrimage; for Our Lady herself fought from Heaven +against the infidel upon that momentous day. Her miraculous image, in +its extravagant tinsel nimbus and stiff brocaded gown, holds its state +over the High Altar in the _Colegiata_,[3] and its picture adorns the +walls of half the cottages in Asturias. Decidedly no tour would be +complete without a visit to Covadonga. + +I had lingered sketching in the rocky labyrinth of the Deva till the +failing light would no longer serve my turn. Darkness would be upon me +ere I could emerge from its recesses; but I had not been caught unaware, +for the gully can boast an occasional _venta_, and I had resolved to +trust the resources of the little inn at Urdon. + +Urdon consists of a single house, and that, to be strictly accurate, is +only half a house, for it abuts straight upon the vertical face of the +precipice, and the naked rock is its inner wall. If anything disturbed +that rock (quoth mine hostess airily, as she handed me my candlestick), +Urdon would become an omelet. And perhaps that fate is in store for it +eventually, for the rocks do drop an occasional sugar-plum into the +valley at their feet. + +Urdon looks up a bend of the river, and faces southerly; yet for six +months in the year no ray of direct sunshine falls upon that little red +roof. It is only from near the zenith that the sun can peer into so +deep a well. The traveller plumps upon it suddenly round an abrupt +corner, and "here," thinks he, "is the most secluded nook in all the +habitable globe." Yet Urdon is the hub of the universe to Tresviso--its +inn, its post-office, its commercial emporium, the one link that unites +it with the balance of mankind. The pathway to Tresviso struggles up the +tiny gully which debouches upon the main gorge at Urdon; but Tresviso +itself lies high above the cloud wreaths, a good hard three-hours climb. +The Tresvisans aver that there is another village, Sontres, some hours +above them. Perhaps there is something above Sontres;--but this +imagination boggles at. + +The little shop was thronged with a company of Tresvisan women. They had +been to the market at Potes to sell their cheeses,--a sort of +gorgonzola, and excellent feeding for a zoophagist,--and had paused at +the stair-foot of their Nephelococcygia to wipe something off the slate +before returning home. Sturdy active figures, clad in patched and +weather-stained garments which had once been bright-coloured, they +formed a striking group which would have attracted attention anywhere. +Their features were hard yet not ill-favoured, and their skins as +brown as mahogany; but there was not a grey hair nor a wrinkle among +them all. Perhaps they were younger than they looked, but they are a +long-lived race in the mountains; and even their octogenarians are +capable of running errands to Urdon. + +[Illustration: THE DEVA GORGE + +Urdon.] + +"'Try not the path,' the old man said." And the path in question was +steep and narrow and stony, wriggling up along the brink of the torrent +and the brow of the precipice; the little party had done some nine +hours' journeying already, and the shades of night had fallen. Yet for +them and their beasts it was but the fag end of their regular Monday +tramp, and they made naught of it. Evidently when the "blue-eyed youth" +flourishes off with his banner a-climbing the Picos, the maiden of +Tresviso is not likely to be vastly impressed. She takes that walk with +her grandfather on Sunday afternoons. + +The inn at Urdon may be small, but at least it is commendably early. +They sped their parting guest with the twilight, and I was well clear of +the gorge before I caught my first glimpse of the sun. The mists had not +yet bestirred themselves to gather on the sides of the mountains; and +the whole line of peaks stood out sharp and clear as I crossed the +bridge at Abándames and headed westward up the left bank of the Cares, +which joins the Deva at the waters-meet below the gorge. + +Just beyond the gash that marks the exit of the Deva, a prominent peak, +like a small cousin of the Matterhorn, stands out boldly into the centre +of the valley. The river circles round from behind it, and the road once +more plunges in among the roots of the hills. + +But that the Deva cliffs still towered overwhelmingly in the memory, one +would have declared it impossible for any ravine to be finer than this. +Indeed, in many respects the Cares is complementary of its rival. Its +rocks may be less terrific, but its slopes are more generously wooded, +and its pale sea-green waters seem of ampler volume than the +sister-stream. The river boils along beside the road in a deep, rocky +trench--a series of rapids and pot-holes--a dangerous river for a swim; +and every turn that it takes opens some new and wonderful vista--huge +buttresses of precipitous limestone, and shaggy floods of pinewood +pouring out of the gaps between. + +The Cares gorge is hardly so long as the Deva's; but it ekes out its +interest in an appendix which is not much inferior to the text. The road +begins to heave itself slowly upward along the face of the mountain +towards the saddle at the head of the valley; and every foot that it +rises seems to magnify the grandeur of the opposing heights. Now at last +the upper slopes of the Picos surge into sight above their terraced +pedestal; and far away into the distance behind us ridge after ridge in +endless series radiates out from the great central chaos which towers +close and high across the vale. This final view from the culminating +point of the roadway is one of the most striking of all. + +In Spain it seems never permissible to travel entirely for pleasure. The +gossips provide you a business if you have none ready to hand. In the +Rioja district you are branded as a wine-bibber. In the Asturias you are +promptly consigned to the mines. Such was my fate at Carreño, the little +hamlet which sits astride the watershed. An aged crone was squatting on +the hearth in the _Venta_, performing the functions of a meat-jack over +the smouldering embers of the fire. She unhesitatingly diagnosed my +profession, and at once began to reel off the local directory--Don +Jorge, and Don Juan, and Don Jaime and his wife and family--all English +mining engineers in the various villages around. Everybody seems to know +everybody else in Asturias and to speak of them familiarly by their +Christian names. But this latter custom is practically universal in the +Peninsula; and I have surprised myself figuring as Don Edgar on the +strength of a second day's stay. + +However, rather to "mine aunt's" bewilderment, I did not linger at +Carreño. The descent to Cángas lay before me, and I was soon speeding on +the way. This valley is of a less daring type of beauty than that which +debouches at Abándames. It is wider, shallower, and shadier, and moulded +in gentler curves. The Picos are still upon the left, but they are now +growing more distant; and the most prominent feature is the parallel +range upon the right, between them and the sea; a fine bold line of +hills some four thousand feet high known as the Sierra de Cuera. + +Presently I became conscious of an ox-cart. It was grinding along the +road in front of me. I overhauled it rapidly, and was close up when it +arrived at the turn. But when the road straightened, behold! it was +entirely empty; and a second glance showed the cart-wheels peeping over +the margin, and the driver gathering himself together out of the bushes +beyond. The oxen, maddened by flies, had made a dash for a pool at the +roadside, and the whole equipage had incontinently turned turtle. + +The accident was entirely the fault of the beasts, and one would not +have been surprised if the man had been angry. But this rough-looking +fellow took his mishap with admirable equanimity, and thanked me most +impressively for my help in righting his cart. "_Gracias a Dios_ that I +was thrown clear!" said he, crossing himself, as I approached him. And +he even spared some sympathy for his oxen, "Ah! but they annoy them +greatly--the flies." The Spanish peasant is not usually of a surly +temper, and even a double back somersault may leave his manners in +working trim. Once before it had been my lot to witness a similar +accident in England, where the driver, just extricated from beneath his +vehicle, was indignantly demanding his hat. The incident was not without +humour, and was gratifying to a student of Dickens; but it struck me +that "_Gracias a Dios_" was distinctly a happier phrase. + +Cángas de Onis, the little town which was the goal of my day's journey, +boasts that it was once the capital of Spain. And so it was--in the +sense that Caerleon was of England--for here Pelayo first established +his modest court when all the rest of the Peninsula was Mahommedan. The +days of its greatness, however, are too remote to have left much trace. +It still retains its lovely situation; but a few rude monastic fragments +are the only relics left by its early kings. It boasts, however, one +striking monument (more modern than Pelayo), in the grand old mediæval +bridge; one of those lofty gable-shaped structures that are so typical +of Southern countries, and perhaps, next to Orense, the finest example +of its kind in Spain. Like most of its class, it is now little used, for +the modern bridge is but a few yards distant. And, indeed, none of them +could ever have accommodated wheel traffic, for they are steep and +narrow, and frequently innocent of parapets. Bar archery, one can well +believe that Diego Garcia de Paredes with his two-handed sword might +have held such a pass against a host; though (in justice to that doughty +warrior's modesty, so highly commended by the curate) I believe his +autobiography never states that he actually did. + +[Illustration: CÁNGAS DE ONIS + +The Bridge over the Sella.] + +A most attractive-looking road leads up the Sella valley, inviting the +traveller to adventure himself for Sahagun; and the view frames itself +delightfully into the great arch of the bridge. It was obviously +impossible to do it justice on a sketching block, and exceedingly +probable that one would get sunstroke in the attempt; but there was no +deferring to the promptings of prudence, and the clouds charitably came +to my rescue before I was quite melted away. The natives at first +watched me in horror from a distance; but they crowded in around me as +soon as the sun retired, and began to volunteer information concerning +the annals of the dale. "One morning in '85," said an old peasant, +tapping the roadway impressively with his cudgel, "the water was over +here!" _Car-r-ramba_, my brother! But that must have been an anxious day +for Cángas de Onis! A twenty-five-foot spate must have wrought pretty +havoc in the valley! It was no mere vaulting ambition that induced the +old architects to build their bridge so high! + +Covadonga itself lies at the head of a little lateral valley some seven +miles above Cángas de Onis. The spot is a veritable _cul-de-sac_. The +steep wooded slopes are battlemented with a fringe of _aiguilles_, and +over their tops one catches an occasional glimpse of the pathless Pikes +beyond, their steel-grey summits streaked with wreaths of snow. A huge +semi-detached rock stands out boldly in the centre of this natural +auditorium, and the valley curling around its foot finishes in a hook +against the isthmus which connects it to the hillside. Upon its summit +is the Church of Our Lady of Covadonga, with its attendant buildings, +and behind it, at the end of the hook, is a broad beetling precipice, +coving itself out over its own base--the famous "Cave," sacred for ever +in the legendary annals of Spain. + +Here it was that Pelayo and his dauntless 300 made their stand against +the 300,000 who had been sent against them by the Moor; and sallying out +smote them with very great slaughter, in so much that 126,000 were left +dead upon the field and about half as many more killed in the course of +the pursuit! Truly we deal with gorgeous round figures in these early +battles against the infidel! But why should the Spanish chroniclers have +modestly stopped short at 188,000? A full quarter of a million is their +standard casualty list. + +It is a pity that the legend should have got so fantastically attired in +buckram, for the facts upon which it is founded are indubitably +historical, and, stripped of extravagances, they reveal a gallant +episode enough. + +The Moorish invasion of the Peninsula seemed at the moment invincible, +and the first rush of conquest had carried them even to Gijon. But the +northern provinces were as yet rather overrun than subjugated; and many +bands of broken men had taken refuge in the mountains, where they were +carrying on a _guerilla_ warfare according to the immemorial habit of +Spain. One of the most formidable of these bands was captained by +Pelayo, whose stronghold was the rock of Covadonga, an ideal natural +citadel for a bandit chief. Him it was resolved to suppress; and a +"punitive column"--shall we say ten thousand strong?--was despatched +from Gijon under command of Alxaman for that purpose. What force Pelayo +had at his disposal it is impossible to guess; certainly more than three +hundred, yet far too few to admit of encountering his foe in the open +field. Cornered at last with his back to the wall at the head of the +Covadonga valley, he drew his followers together into his rocky eyrie +and prepared to fight to the death. The nucleus of his force would no +doubt have been posted upon the rock itself and the neck by which it is +approached; others would be scattered along the hillside, lest the foe +should endeavour to crown the heights and deliver the attack from above. +This last, indeed, was the only move to be dreaded. Against a _coup de +main_ the position was practically impregnable. Yet the attempt was +made. Some of the Moors would perhaps have pushed straight ahead to +storm the neck from the valley; but the main column circled around the +base of the rock to take the position in reverse. It was upon these that +the great destruction fell. Their ranks were disordered by the steep and +broken ground, their flanks exposed to the great rock batteries which +the Asturians had prepared upon the slopes above, and a well-timed sally +by the party in ambush in the cave completed their discomfiture. From +such a rout there was no possibility of rally. The whole army, deeply +committed in the intricate recesses of the mountains, was overwhelmed in +irremediable disaster; and on the little _Campo del Rey_ at the foot of +the crag, all cumbered with the bodies of the infidels, the enthusiastic +victors saluted their chieftain with the title of King. + +The victory was indeed even more decisive than its magnitude appeared to +warrant. The destruction of Alxaman rendered it impossible for Munuza to +maintain himself at Gijon, and the forces of Pelayo, rapidly increasing +with the prestige of success, overwhelmed his army also in the Pass of +Pajáres as he was attempting to regain Leon. The Moors made no further +attempt to establish themselves beyond the mountains. Their Emirs were +intent upon the invasion of Aquitania; and the civil wars which +succeeded their great defeat at Tours allowed ample time for the +consolidation of the infant kingdom of Asturias, until it finally grew +strong enough to cope with them upon equal terms. + +Covadonga has always been sacred to Asturians, but of late some attempt +has been made to excite a more national cult. The new memorial church is +one symptom of this ambition, but it is to be hoped the design will +never develop sufficiently to mar the quiet retirement of this solitary +glen. The church itself is a graceful little building enough, but +contains nothing of antiquarian interest except the miraculous image +before alluded to; and I regret to say that the feature which sticks +most resolutely in my memory is an engraved bronze plate over the +western door, of which the following is a literal translation:--"Out of +respect for the House of God, and the Principles of Hygiene, you are +requested not to enter in wooden shoes, nor to expectorate in this +Sacred Edifice." + +At Arriondas, a little below Cángas de Onis, the Sella receives a strong +reinforcement from the Pilona; and thence to the sea it is a fine +copious river--broad swift shallows alternating with deep calm pools in +the very best salmon-stream style. It has the repute of being an +excellent fishing river, as, indeed, its appearance would warrant. Yet I +fear it gets but scurvily treated; for the local piscatorial methods +cannot strictly be classified as "Sport." Once upon a time, saith +tradition, there came a "little Englishman" to Arriondas, and sallied +forth to inveigle the _truchas_ with fragments of feather and wool. "And +he caught some! Yes, he actually did! He even tried to induce us to do +likewise. But we of Arriondas know better. We go angling with shot-guns +and bombs." + +It seems characteristic of Asturian rivers that they should keep +persistently running into mountains instead of away from them, and the +Sella below Arriondas is no exception to the rule. The stormy hills of +the Sierra de Cuera throng tumultuously across its pathway and appear to +prohibit all egress. But the river slips like an eel through the tangle, +and its agile windings map out a passage for the road. No one looking +downstream at the view which I sketched from the banks of it would +imagine that the sea was within six miles of him and the river tidal up +to his feet. But at least those six miles through the glens are +picturesque enough for a dozen; and they reach no unworthy conclusion +when they finish at Rivadesella on the little hill-girt harbour where +the Sella meets the sea. + +[Illustration: THE SELLA VALLEY + +Below Arrióndas.] + +All roads are charming in Cantabria: but where there are two to select +from, it is generally best to bear inland in preference to following the +coast. This is rather a cruel observation in connection with so pretty a +ride as that from Rivadesella to Unquera; but nothing short of the +Corniche road should pit itself against the route from Cángas to +Abándames. + +If the coast-line could be adequately seen, there might be more doubt +about the verdict: for the bold black limestone cliffs which front the +Biscay rollers would supply as fine a spectacle as anyone need desire. +But it is only here and there that the road allows us a peep at some +sandy beach ensconced between its jagged breakwaters, or some more +distant prospect of cliff and headland where the coast trends forward +beyond the general line. For the greater part of the way the view is +entirely one-sided--the high, steep slopes of the Sierra de Cuera, and +the idyllic villages nestling in the meadows at their feet. How +Goldsmith would have rejoiced in this series of sweet Auburns, with +their rustic shrines and _Pergolas_, their skittle-alleys, and their +little _Alamedas_![4] How he would have loved to haunt the road at +eventide where the village athletes scatter the ninepins with their +great wooden discus, and the maidens dance together under the shadow of +the trees! The Corydon and Phyllis of the Eclogues still survive in +these odd corners of the globe. + +The little town of Llanes cannot boast nearly so good a harbour as that +of Rivadesella. It is but a creek in the coast-line through which a +mountain burn makes its exit to the sea. The town is, however, larger +and busier, and full of quaint balconied houses overhanging the harbour +and the stream. Half a dozen fishing boats were unloading their catch +upon the quay in the evening. Some rigged with short masts and long +cross yards carrying square sails; others with two tall spars carrying +lateen sails. The latter are the larger in size and more picturesque in +appearance, but both types are common along the whole Atlantic coast. +They carry large crews, and beside their sails they have sweeps for use +in calm weather. When these are being worked the spars are lowered +into a crutch above the heads of the crew. + +[Illustration: PASANA + +An Asturian Mountain Village.] + +Their catch consisted principally of the ubiquitous hake which forms +such a persistent feature in Spanish bills of fare; but there were also +a few squid, which at first I regarded as wastage, but which proved to +have practical value in the _Fonda_ at _Comida_ time. They were served +up complete, beak and all, with their tentacles drawn up inside +themselves, and looking exactly like boiled parsnips. I tackled one on +principle, having a well-broken palate, and being ambitious to do in +Rome as the Romans: but it tasted of nothing in particular so far as I +was able to make out. They are better stewed, however; and in this guise +a gastronomical companion has pronounced them rather a delicacy; so +perhaps they are yet destined to obtain recognition at Prince's and the +_Maison Chevet_. + +There is a mail-coach which works the road between Llanes and San +Vicente de la Barquera--one of those miraculous rattle-traps wherein no +sane person would dream of risking his neck if he were at home. They ply +in all districts whither the railway has not yet penetrated; but an +extensive nodding acquaintance among the tribe has introduced me to few +crazier specimens than this. The fact that its hind wheels are +considerably larger than the front gives a vague resemblance to a +kangaroo; and as it whoops along bounding and lurching behind its five +disjointed mules, it always seems just on the point of resolving into +its ultimate sparables like the deacon's one-horse shay. At our first +meeting I watched it out of sight with some anxiety; but it was still +holding together three years later, and so, no doubt, it is doing still. +Nevertheless its days are numbered. A light railway is being constructed +along the coast to link up the two dead ends at Cabezon and Arriondas, +and soon the visitor to the Picos will be able to reach Unquera by +train. + +This last stage has completed our circle and brought us again to the +Deva. Our late-travelled road to Abándames turns off from the end of the +wooden bridge, and again guides us through the gorges into the secluded +vale of Liebana, sheltering behind its Alpine shield. At nightfall we +crept into Potes like a couple of mice from the mountains, and baited at +the little balconied _Fonda_, the first stage on the road to the +south. + +[Illustration: LLÁNES + +The Harbour.] + + + + +CHAPTER III + +ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS TO LEON + + +We had penetrated the loftiest mountains in Cantabria without any ascent +worth mentioning. Consequently it was somewhat disconcerting to discover +that the Pass was still to win. + +This preliminary canter had merely admitted us into a great cup, the bed +of an ancient lake. We had entered it through the outlet, but must leave +it over the lip. Within its mountain pale the whole internal area of +Castile and Leon consists of a lofty tableland, two thousand feet and +upwards above the coast-line. It is vain to sue entry on the level: +there can be no dispensation from the climb. + +Potes itself lies just above the mouth of the great Gorge, and the +precipices of the Picos dominate it as the Wetterhorn dominates +Grindelwald. The deep, narrow vale of Liebana comes winding down upon it +from the southward, its slopes gay with mountain flowers, and shaggy +with beech and chestnut, and dotted here and there with quaint little +red-roofed villages overhanging the brawling stream. But ever across the +exit the great rock wall frowns gloomy and impassive, its base in the +warm green valley and its battlements in the snow. + +We in our sanguine ignorance had fancied ourselves upon the watershed, +and thought that some two hours' collar-work would have earned us a +spell of downhill. But the mountains were still thronging round us at +the village of Valdeprado; and an old neat-herd, driving his cows to the +pastures, unfeelingly assured us that the pass was two leagues[5] +further on. We tried to hope that he was mistaken; but the Castilian +peasant knows his roads well, and is annoyingly accurate in his +estimates of distance. It is seldom indeed that he errs on the merciful +side. Now the road began to ascend in real earnest, climbing coil on +coil up the shoulders of the mountain, and marking its course far ahead +at yet loftier altitudes by faint zigzags traced among the trees. A +couple of easy-going ox-waggons had lost heart at the very first corner. +Their drivers and cattle were all placidly slumbering, and the whole +caravan had stuck fast in the middle of the road. It seemed a pity to +disturb so much unanimity; and quite an hour later, looking down from +the loftier terraces, we could still distinguish their figures in the +same position as before. At last we emerged upon a bare and rocky +saddle, just brushed by the drifting clouds--a pass by courtesy, for it +was almost as high as the peaks, and the snow-wreaths lay unmelted in +the shady spots by the road. A great craggy postern shot us out from the +ridge into the head of an upland valley; and beneath hotter skies, +through a more sunburnt country, we sped towards the plateau of Castile. + +The descent on the southern side of the _Puerto_ is nothing like so +formidable as upon the northern; and the mountains, shorn of half their +elevation by the altitude to which we have risen, look much less +imposing than on the seaward side. They eventually come to an end with +startling suddenness a mile or so beyond the village of Cervera; and +from their feet to the southward the great treeless level sweeps away +unbroken--an almost uncanny contrast to the tossing wilderness behind. + +We had counted upon finding a road of some kind towards Leon from +Cervera, but the inhabitants evidently needed none and declined to +encourage the idea. A railroad, yes;--the train would start at one +o'clock to-morrow. But the only road went southward. If we followed that +we might possibly find a way round. At all events it was a good road, +sagging steadily down over the moors and marshes, shaded here and there +by rustling poplar avenues, and musical with philharmonic frogs. It +delivered us safely at nightfall in the little village of Buenavista, a +collection of forlorn mud cabins, dumped disconsolately in the tawny +plain. + +The _Fondas_ in the larger towns are generally very tolerable, and even +the humbler hostels in Cantabria are presentable after their kind. But +the little _Posadas_ and _Paradors_ of the villages in the interior are +much more primitive institutions, and these are the lot of the traveller +who ventures to take to the road. I should imagine that they have not +changed one tittle since the day when Don Quixote, and the Curate, and +the Barber, and the beautiful Dorothea, and the tattered Cardenio, +foregathered with Don Ferdinand and Dona Lucinda at the _Venta de +Cárdenas_ in the Sierra Morena; and one wonders much how the whole of +that illustrious company were able to find accommodation under its roof. +Externally it suggests an abandoned cowshed, and the wayfarer +introduced to one for the first time will apply for quarters with +something bordering on despair. The gateway admits us into a barn-like +entrance-hall, disordered and unpaved. One of the four rooms opening out +of it is the stable, and the mules stroll sociably through the family +circle in the course of their passage to and fro. Another is the +kitchen, with the hearth in the middle of the floor,[6] and the ceiling +funnelled to an aperture in the apex, through which the log-reek escapes +as best it can. A third (the smallest) is the guestroom, and the fourth +one would call a lumberroom, if any of the others could be called +anything else. The bedrooms are mere attics, reached by a crazy +staircase, and the chinks in the floor communicate freely with the rooms +(or stables) below. The furniture is of the scantiest, and the food of +Spartan simplicity; and the family poultry cackle about between our legs +picking up the crumbs which fall from the table. But at least the dishes +are clean and the sheets obviously washed this very evening; and a +wayworn philosopher can brook a good number of hardships so long as he +is not compelled to wear them next his skin. + +The villagers were dancing before the door at the moment of our arrival, +but the ball was at once interrupted to interview such extraordinary +guests. "They came round about us like bees," wrote poor Sir E. Verney +in 1623, "touching one thing and handling another, and did not leave us +till we were abed!" Of course they did! But Sir Edmund was a little +particular; and we suspect old James Howell had some reason for his +strictures anent the stand-offishness of the members of Prince Charles' +suite. Our catechising was conducted by the hostess and her daughter: +What were our names? Whence were we? Whither did we go? They surveyed +the bicycles with gasps of "_Madre mia!_" and I am sure their fingers +itched to explore the inside of our packs. Were we married? No? The +English married very little! And this depressing reflection cost them a +sad little shake of the head. It grew rather wearying at last, but +discourtesy was nowise intended. A stranger in these forgotten villages +is as rare as a blue moon. + +Spain is socially the most democratic of countries; but it is an +aristocratic democracy; and we must not forget that fact because our +interlocutor happens to be wearing rags. He and his may have been as +poor as church mice for generations;--that is his misfortune. But he is +as good a gentleman as the king, and, as like as not, fully entitled to +all the proud quarterings that are graven up over his door. "I'm an old +Christian," quoth that powerful thinker, the Governor designate of +Barataria, "a high and dry old Christian, and that's good enough for a +lord." The Castilian peasant regards you as an equal, and expects to be +so treated in return: and I have no doubt that a modern Sancho, if he +found himself in the society of a duchess, would be fully as +unembarrassed as the great original himself. In many points--even in +physiognomical features--he has much in common with that other "foinest +pisantry" the Irish; and it is worth noting that the original Milesians +are traditionally reputed to have come from Spain. + +Individually he is "a very fine fellow." The verdict is the Duke of +Wellington's. And probably no one in history knew their failings better +than he. Spain is no "dying nationality," though her day be still rather +"_Mañana_." It is idle to deny a future to so robust and prolific a +race. + +The traveller need not look to fare sumptuously in a _Posada_. If he +does not carry his own food with him he must take what comes. Mine host +does not profess to find accommodation for man, only for beast; and +anything he does for the beast's owner is regarded as a work of +supererogation. We cannot lodge with the peasantry without sharing some +few of their holiday hardships; and there can be no doubt that in many +districts they are miserably poor. "There is no milk in the place," said +mine hostess to me on one occasion, in answer to a request for that +commonest of luxuries:--"this village is in _la ultima miseria_!" Yet +even there they seemed cheerful and contented; and the common taunt of +idleness certainly did not apply to them. Spanish townsfolk are by no +means early risers: but the villages are stirring at cock-crow and the +labourers out in the fields with the first rays of the sun. + +[Illustration: LEON + +An Old Palace Doorway.] + +This last is no inconsiderable advantage in a country which gets hot by +eight o'clock in the morning; and the great red disk was but half clear +of the horizon when we bade farewell to Buenavista, and began our long +ride to Leon. Washing arrangements had no share in our _Posada's_ +economy, so this mysterious British ritual was celebrated at +Saldaña, on the banks of the Carrion; and being here favoured with a +branch road which made a cast to the westward, we resumed our journey +across the level in the direction of Sahagun. + +Strictly speaking this is one of those levels which slope upwards and +downwards a good deal; for the streams coming down from the mountains +have cut themselves good deep valleys, though they seldom supply any +water except on special occasions during the autumn rains. In the dips +are trees and greenery, but the general impression is that of a bleak +red ploughland interspersed with wide stretches of heath. Here and +there, marooned at haphazard, are the casual villages, with their +umber-coloured mud walls and red-tiled roofs, rich blotches of colour +against the blue of the distant hills. And the desolate aspect of the +country is enhanced by the dearth of inhabitants. There is scarcely a +labourer in the fallows, scarcely a traveller on the road. + +No! the little squared stones that we keep passing so regularly do not +record the kilometres--only the ordinary roadside murders incidental to +an ancient highway. Upon each is graven the simple fact of the +tragedy:--_Aqui murió_,[7] with the name and date,--no more. They are +generally said to have been erected as a trespass offering by the +remorseful murderer: and their persistent recurrence cannot be said to +make for gaiety;--a large group is even depressing at a specially +desolate spot. + +Of course we endeavour to solace ourselves with the reflection that +there is at least one similar monument in England; and we note with +gratification that very few are of recent date. But then that does not +prove that the murders are now less frequent, only that the murderers +have less remorse. Yet, after all, the traveller may take courage; his +position is not quite desperate, however unpromising it may look. Many +of these untimely deaths were the result of ordinary accidents--storm or +sunstroke, falls from horses ("a grave that is always open"), or +drowning in the flooded streams. Sometimes a private vendetta may have +reached its _dénouement_ in a chance roadside meeting; but genuine +highway murders form a very small proportion of the whole. The roads in +Spain are as safe as those in England. And though I have been warned +that "there are men in this village who would not hesitate to cut your +throat for a dollar," yet the country folk generally (as one of +themselves bore me witness) are _gente muy regular_, "a very law-abiding +folk." The only really reliable method of getting murdered upon a +Spanish highway nowadays is to quarrel with the Arm of the Law! + +See,--out of one of the dips in the road before us rise the figures of +two horsemen;--big men, well mounted, in white puggarees and smart blue +uniforms, with sabre at saddle and carbine on thigh;--the Civil Guard of +Spain. _Vayan Vs con Dios, Caballeros!_ Spain owes you a debt that is +not to be readily computed. Those who have delivered her from her long +tyranny of lawlessness deserve a niche beside the old knightly orders of +Calatrava and Alcántara, who kept the border in the days of raiding +Moors. + +Don Bernardo de Castel Blazo distrusted those who kept company with +_Alguazils_; but it is a highly desirable privilege to be friends with +the Civil Guard. _En passant_ it may be mentioned that it is imprudent +to be otherwise, for they are authorised to shoot at sight, and are +reputed seldom to miss. But this vexatious habit is one which they +seldom indulge in, and so long as you keep the right side of them they +are very good fellows indeed. Should our misguided rulers ever signalise +their ineptitude by the disbandment of the Royal Irish Constabulary, we +shall lose the one body in Europe which is altogether comparable to the +_Guardia Civil_. + +Readers of Borrow may perhaps recall his description of a forlorn and +melancholy township halfway between Paléncia and Leon, a hotbed of +Carlism, which he discreetly alludes to as ----. But it seems somewhat +superfluous reticence to throw such a very thin veil of anonymity over a +name which is obviously Sahagun. Once the great Romanesque Monastery, +whose massive square tower forms such an imposing landmark, was first in +wealth and dignity in all the kingdom of Leon. But now it is but the +wreck of its former greatness; and the crazy mud hovels and hummocky +streets which surround it form an abomination of dilapidation that it +would not be easy to match even in Spain. What a fit scene for +disillusion it must have presented to Moore and his army as they here +turned their backs upon victory and commenced their disastrous retreat! +The soldiers were all spoiling for a battle, and the 15th Hussars had +brilliantly opened the scoring. But just as they savoured their +appetiser they were dragged off, disappointed and morose. No wonder they +sulked! How were they to know the true cause of their retirement? They +were thinking only of Soult at Saldaña; it was their General who had +been watching for the rush of Napoleon from Madrid. + +There is still a Carlist at Sahagun, because we saw him. The +inhabitants, recognising us as strangers, naturally assumed that we +should be interested in seeing their Carlist, and he was accordingly +fetched and paraded, much as a man who had been "out" in the '45 might +have been shown to Dr Johnson in the Hebrides. He was a white-haired and +mild-mannered old gentleman,--a greatly sobered edition of the dashing +young _guerillero_ who had ranged the mountains of Biscay in 1875. And +though he evidently enjoyed his repute as a fire-eater, I doubt whether +he really considered that the game had been quite worth the candle after +all. + +The Carlists of to-day seem much in the same position as the Jacobites +of the reign of George III. They may defiantly show you "King Carlos'" +portrait upon their parlour wall, or even exhibit it for sale in their +shop windows. But all this enthusiasm is rather sentimental than active; +and in their heart of hearts they must feel with Redgauntlet that a +cause so much tolerated is lost. + +Meanwhile the road to Leon did not seem nearer realisation at Sahagun +than at Cervera. There was only a "dead road," they told us, and this we +should scarcely have recognised had we not been introduced. The "dead +road" proved a sort of consensus of cart tracks, straying vaguely across +the moorland with a general trend towards the west. It had died in a +most dissipated fashion all asprawl among the boulders and heather: and +as each of us soon grew fully absorbed in negotiating his own wheel rut, +we frequently found ourselves drifting poles asunder, and had to regain +connection by cross-country sprints. The water-courses were ineffably +stony, and, of course, there were no bridges. We had good cause to +congratulate ourselves on the absence of rain in the mountains, for had +the streams been in spate we should have had no resource but to follow +the example of the expectant rustic, and wait for them to run down. The +occasional walled sheepfolds, and the spiked collars of the dogs which +guarded them, hinted broadly at the inroads of wolves in winter-time; +and our only way-fellows, a party of gypsies, savage-looking and +half-naked, with tangled elf locks and skins of negro blackness, formed +a group that to outward appearance seemed scarcely more amenable than +the wolves. Fortunately, however, there was small chance of missing our +direction. We could not stray many miles to our right without coming +upon the railway, nor to the left without striking the high-road from +Mayorga. The one thing needed was to keep our right shoulders to the +mountains; and eventually we emerged sure enough at Mansilla de las +Mulas, where, after twenty miles cross-country, our wilderness came to +an end. + +Mansilla lies upon the banks of the Esla, and the mules were grazing +under the ancient ramparts along the margin of the stream. A pretty +picture it made as we crossed the old bridge in the twilight and entered +the long colonnade of poplars that leads towards the city of Leon. The +poplar pollen carpeted the road before us as thick and white as +newly-fallen snow, and the whirl of our wheels flung it up on either +side in little wavelets, as the foam is flung up by the bows of a racing +eight. The effect was quite poetical, but we could not linger to +rhapsodise, for the causeway had been broken by floods in several +places, and unless we made use of the daylight we should be breaking our +necks in the pits. It does not seem to occur to the authorities that +there is any risk in delaying repairs for a year or so. And perhaps we +have no right to grumble, for at least we got safe to our goal. + +Leon is a city for which I have acquired a growing affection with each +successive visit, a grave old Gothic capital, all filled with memories +of the past. It was founded originally by the Romans to control the +Cantabrian passes; and the massive walls which surround it still bear +witness to the solidity of their work. Unfortunately they are much +masked by the surrounding houses; but they are of most imposing +dimensions, about twenty feet in thickness, and strengthened by huge +_Cubos_ or solid semicircular bastions, spaced at very frequent +intervals, some two and a half diameters apart. + +The city is best viewed from the Pajares road to the northward, but as +it is situated on the level it does not show very conspicuously from +without. Its most prominent object is the delightfully elegant +cathedral; obviously French by inspiration, and of extraordinary +lightness of construction, more like a lantern of stained glass than a +monument of stone. It is step-sister to Beauvais and Amiens; and, on the +whole, it need not fear comparison. But the Spanish builders were not +quite at home in dealing with the unfamiliar style. One problem +evidently routed them, and they have left it still crying for an answer. +How on earth was it possible to reconcile the steep French gables with +the low-pitched Spanish roof? + +[Illustration: LEON + +From the Pajáres Road.] + +The cathedral has been recently restored (not before it was necessary, +according to Street's description); but this difficult work has been +admirably executed, though the newness of the stone still renders it +rather conspicuous to the eye. The interior is gorgeous with carving and +tapestry; and a word may be spared for the Gotho-Renaissance cloisters, +and for the great western portals with the Last Judgment graven over the +doors. Some of the details of the latter are not without suspicion of +humour. A monarch, walking delicately like Agag towards the gates of +Paradise, is remorselessly barred by St Peter, and directed to the +opposite road. One blessed spirit has been set to play the organ--and +another has been deputed to blow it! Truly "one star differeth from +another star in glory"; but an eternity of organ-blowing must rank low +in the scale of bliss! + +Scarcely less famous than the cathedral is the Collegiate Church of St +Isidore; not the shepherd saint of Madrid, but the Doctor of Spain who +compiled the Mozarabic ritual;[8] the "second Daniel" of Pope Gregory +the Great. It is a queer patchwork edifice, but mostly of the eleventh +century. The tower forms a bastion in the city rampart; and the little +_Panteon_ Chapel beneath it is the burial-place of the early monarchs of +Leon. + +Here in 1065 occurred the strange death scene of the founder, the +warrior monarch Fernando I. of Leon and Castile. Smitten with sore +disease while camping on the marches of Valencia, he had been borne back +to make his dying confession before the altar of his metropolitan +church. There he laid aside his crown and robes, and clad his wasted +limbs in sack-cloth, and for a full day and night lay writhing in ashes +on the pavement till his self-inflicted penance was at last ended by his +death. We are assured that his original sickness really had been mortal +from the first. + +[Illustration: LEON + +Church of San Isidoro.] + +Few capitals of Spain are without some memorial of Las Navas de Tolosa, +the great victory won by Alfonso VIII. in 1212, which crippled the +Spanish Moslems for offensive warfare, and paved the way for the +conquest of Andalusia by Ferdinand III. Búrgos and Pamplona have the +trophies of the fighting; but Leon has only a legend; and it is to +_San Isidoro_ and King Fernando that they are indebted for having +anything at all. For it came to pass on the eve of the battle that a +sound was heard at midnight in the streets of the slumbering city. A +sound as of the passage of a mighty army, the clang of armour and the +tramp of horse and man. The priest who was keeping vigil at the shrine +of St Isidore heard the phantom host halt before the portal and their +thundering summons beat upon the door. "Who knocks?" he cried; and the +ghostly captains answered him, "Ferdinand Gonzalez and Roderic of +Bivar![9] And we are come to call King Fernando the Great, who lies +buried in this holy temple, that he may rise and ride with us to deliver +Spain!" The terrified monk fell fainting on the pavement, and when he +revived the door stood open. The last great recruit had joined the +colours, and the spirit host had passed upon their way. + +No doubt we may read in this legend the rebuke of the Church against the +selfish policy of the Crown, for no soldier of Leon drew sword in that +great battle for the deliverance of Christendom. Castile and Navarre and +Aragon were the people that jeoparded their lives in the high places of +the Morena. Nay, the Leonese monarch was even mean enough to seize the +occasion for "rectifying his frontier" at the expense of his brother the +Castilian. And this at a crisis when the very dead could rise from their +graves and forget the feuds of their lifetime in the hour of national +stress! + +The main streets of the city are overshadowed by several fine _Solares_, +the mansions of the old _hidalgos_, and, beside all its churches and +monasteries, the town boasts an attractive Guildhall. But perhaps its +most interesting feature is supplied by the crowd that frequents them; +for Leon is the metropolis of a big agricultural population, a grave and +stalwart race attired in the most picturesque old-world costumes. The +dresses of the women are perhaps somewhat lacking in brightness; for +they have a taste for sombre shades, especially a mauve-coloured head +kerchief which does not accord nearly so well with their olive +complexions as the brilliant scarlets and yellows of the girls in +Galicia and the south. But this quakerish tinge in the individual does +not produce much effect in the aggregate, and they look bright enough in +the busy market beneath their forest of umbrella-shaped booths. +They are reputed to "wear _Carambas_ in their hair," but this we cannot +corroborate. They kept them discreetly covered with the +kerchief--perhaps from fear of the police. In any case it is to be hoped +that the fashion will not spread indiscriminately. Imagine a German lady +in a "_Donnerwetter_" _coiffure_! + +[Illustration: LEON + +The Market Place, and Casa del Ayuntamiento.] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE PILGRIM ROAD + + +"HE that is minded to go to _Santiago_ may fare thither in many ways +both by sea and land";--and to continue in Sir John Mandeville's vein we +might add "by the heavens also," for our old friend the Galaxy--Milk +Street as it has been irreverently nicknamed--masquerades in Spain as +the "Santiago road." The Holy Apostle himself stranded at El Padron +(after a rapid passage from Joppa in three days and in a stone coffin); +and the pious pilgrims of our own land were wont for the most part to +take ship to Coruña. But the main pilgrim stream poured along the old +Roman road through Leon and Astorga and the Vierzo passes; and perhaps +when the fame of the shrine was at its height there was no other spot in +Europe which drew so great a throng. + +Even to this day we may catch faint echoes of its ancient +celebrity:--"Please to remember the grotto!" our school-children's +August refrain. They do not know what they commemorate; but their date +(by the Julian calendar) and their grotto and candle-ends and +cockle-shells are all the prerogatives of St James. + +As we thread the long poplar avenues which radiate from the gates of +Leon, and climb from its fertile valley on to the bald bleak moors, we +might almost persuade ourselves that the days of pilgrimage are not over +even yet. The road is thronged for miles with a steady procession of +country-folk, trooping into the early market in the old Gothic +capital--as picturesque a medley as ever delighted the student of +costume. Market-women stride-legged between their donkey's panniers, +like Dulcinea del Toboso when she was enchanted; bronzed and tattered +countrymen with the sun glinting on their shouldered scythes; long teams +of mules jingling in gaudy trappings; and lumbering ox-carts with their +prodigious loads of chaff. Here and there we met substantial yeomen well +horsed and muffled, with their womenkind a-pillion; and sometimes a +broad-breeched _Maragato_ tramping along beside his loaded wain. The +clear crisp light of the early morning revealed all the landscape in its +brightest colours. To the southward the dun plain sweeps away unbroken +till it is lost in illimitable distance; and the view to the northward +is bounded by the long blue line of the Cantabrian mountains, peak +beyond peak in endless range, like a string of chevrons on the horizon. +No wonder the Spaniards call their mountain chains _Sierras_, "saws." + +The wide bed of the Orbigo river is crossed by a long uneven bridge; the +scene of the famous "Pass of Honour," dear to the heart of Don Quixote +and all the annalists of chivalry. In the year of the great Jubilee at +Santiago in 1439 Don Suero Quinones, a valiant Leonese, made a vow to +maintain that bridge for thirty days against all knights who refused to +admit the pre-eminent beauty of his lady-love. In token whereof an iron +collar was riveted round his neck, not to be removed till he had +redeemed his vow. He was a knight of the military order of Santiago, +hailing from what is now the convent of San Marcos.[10] But membership +of the Spanish military orders was no impediment to love-making, or even +to marriage (except in the case of widowers); so that Don Suero (a +Paladin of his day, who was wont to fight Moors with his right arm bare +like King Pentapolin of the Garamantas), was quite in order in paying +these courtesies to the fair. + +Now there were many knights going to Santiago for the Jubilee, and Don +Suero and his nine companions enjoyed an extremely busy time. Seven +hundred and thirty combats did they accomplish during those thirty +days--a daily working average of two and a half apiece. Don Suero, +however, duly got rid of his collar, to his eternal honour and glory; +and seeing that even Philip the Prudent had his story republished as a +perpetual example, perhaps it is not surprising that poor Don Quixote +should have taken the pamphlet _au pied de la lettre_. + +The bridge itself is long and narrow, with a pronounced kink in the +middle, and if the tilts were actually run upon it, it is easy to +understand the challenger's success. It needed but knowledge of the +ground and a little judicious timing, and he could cut into his +disordered opponent broadside as he rounded the bend. But doubtless this +unworthy suggestion is a libel on the gallant Suero. His lists would +have been fairly pitched in the open plain. + +When we crossed the venerable arches they were in the state described +by Mr Chucks as "precarious and not at all permanent." The ox-carts +preferred fording the river. But perhaps this has been "mitigated" by +now. + +Another stage across the moorland brings us up under the massive +ramparts of Astorga, standing "four square to all the winds that blow," +as it stood in the days of that Cæsar Augustus whose name it now so +barbarously mis-spells.[11] "It is absurd to speak of Astorga as a +fortress," wrote the impatient Duke; "it is merely a walled town." And a +walled town it is, most emphatically; but the "merely" seems rather +inadequate, for the walls of Astorga are a trifle of twenty-two feet +thick. They are sadly battered indeed, and mercilessly plundered of +their facing stones; yet their huge rugged nakedness, scowling +truculently across the plain from the crest of their natural _glacis_, +makes them a far more impressive spectacle than their house-encumbered +rivals at Lugo and Leon. They have at all events stood two artillery +sieges; for the citizens held them for two months against Junot in 1810, +and the French for three against Castaños in 1812; yet the old Roman +mason who built them might readily acknowledge them still. + +[Illustration: ASTORGA + +From the South-east.] + +My Santiago pilgrimage was not the first occasion of my visiting +Astorga. I had called the previous year--and incidentally had left my +heart there--but was not aware that my unobtrusive transit had sown any +tender memories to sprout at my return. No sooner, however, had my nose +inserted itself within the Fonda doorway than the señora swooped upon me +out of the kitchen like a hospitable avalanche, and welcomed me back +with as much fervour as if I had been a long-lost son. This pleasure at +the sight of an old face is a very engaging feature in Spanish +character. They are by no means forgetful to entertain strangers even at +first sight; and often upon quitting a café I have found that my bill +has been already paid by an unknown neighbour with whom I had exchanged +a few commonplace remarks. Yet these earlier courtesies are formal; they +are cordial to older acquaintances; and, like the Briton, they are +reserved in their intimacies, and rather inclined to resent a too rapid +advance. + +One worthy old gentleman indeed, a frequenter of the café at Astorga, +proved more insistently amiable even than mine hostess herself. He would +no longer have me as a guest, but wished to sign me on as a townsman; +there was no need for me to go further, I might stay and be naturalised +out of hand. He could even supply me with a wife, and would warrant her +"very beautiful!" Had Faustina been the guerdon, I doubt whether my +constancy could have endured! + +And Faustina: where meanwhile was Faustina? In vain had we come to +Astorga if we might not have sight of its belle! I remembered her curled +on the window settle, nursing her baby brother. Her raven tresses +flooded her shoulders like a mantle, and her great dark eyes and Cupid's +bow lips--the touchstones of Spanish beauty--were set off by the most +piquant features and the clearest olive skin. Faustina was quite +conscious of her attractions, and seemed by no means averse to +challenging a little flirtation; but this time she was away "in the +country," and the baby brother was as much aggrieved as ourselves. By +now, belike, she is another's. Spanish maidens grow early to womanhood. +Would that I could show future visitors how fair a sight they have +missed! + +The broad brown moors which environ the city tilt themselves up toward +the westward till they culminate at the Pass of Manzanal. Their interest +is principally due to their unique population, for they are the +recognised Reserve of the _Maragatos_, that strange self-centred tribe +who were long such a puzzle to ethnologists, but who now seem definitely +identified as direct descendants of the original Berbers who came over +with Tarik and Musa twelve hundred years ago. Astorga is regarded as +their centre, but they are now more readily met with in the neighbouring +villages; and the little hamlet of Combarros produced quite a +respectable crowd. They are carriers by caste: and their burly, +big-framed men, in their wide Zouave breeches and scarlet waistcoats and +garters, had already become familiar to us even on the remoter roads. +But this was the only place where we caught a glimpse of the women, who +were attired in short orange skirts and scarlet cross-overs, with their +hair drawn tight back from their foreheads and knit into trim little +buns. They wore, too, some striking jewelry in the shape of large +filigree earrings. But in point of physique the ladies were scarcely a +match for their lords. + +The ascent of the pass upon the eastern side is comparatively gentle, +and its height not very much above the general level of the moors; but +towards the west the ground breaks away more sharply, and the hillside +is scored with deep rocky gulches, which are a source of great +perplexity to the descending road. It is a savage bit of country, and a +fit scene for the thrilling adventure which is furnished to Gil Blas; +for near Ponferrada was the cave of the redoubtable Captain Rolando, who +interfered so masterfully with his intended scholastic career. Our hero +was kidnapped at Cacabellos; he reached Astorga the night after his +escape; and his distressed damsel, the unfortunate Doña Mencia, was +waylaid upon this very road. The robbers must have found it a more +profitable beat in those days than it would be at present, for then +there was no road at Pajares, and even travellers from Oviedo had to +come this way to the south. + +The Vierzo basin into which we are now descending is one of the most +interesting districts in the mountains of Northern Spain. It is a great +natural saucer some twenty-five miles in diameter, considerably below +the level of the plateau of Leon, and completely surrounded by a ring of +mountain peaks. Geologically it is the bed of a primeval lake, long +since emptied of its waters through the gorges of the Sil; and its many +ancient monastic establishments, the primitive character of its +peasantry, and the wild and picturesque scenery in the surrounding +mountains, render it an admirable hunting-ground for the vagrant +pleasure-seeker. Mere birds of passage like ourselves could see but +a tithe of its attractions. It should be explored with a guide and a +pack mule, a rod and a gun. And sportsmen need never complain of the +lack of sufficient variety:--the Nimrod whom we encountered was +combining "partridges and bears!" The hills are rugged and precipitous, +the birthplace of unnumbered rivulets, their flanks flooded chin deep +with oceans of white heather, and their feet hidden in primeval forests +wellnigh impenetrable to man. + +[Illustration: THE VIERZO + +From Ponferrada, looking towards the Pass of Piedrafita.] + +At our first view the country seemed hardly in holiday humour, for the +sky was dark and lowering; and though the cloud effects were +magnificent, the landscape beneath them looked eerie and morose. But, +like all southern landscapes, it woke up wonderfully under the witchery +of the sunshine, and donned its brightest colours next morning in honour +of its patroness, Our Lady of the Oak-tree, whose festival was to be +celebrated that day. + +Ponferrada, the centre and capital of the district, is a picturesque +little township, situated on a steep bank over the river Sil. Its most +prominent feature is an imposing castle once a preceptory of the Knights +Templar; but this was the evening of the Vigil, and the townfolk were +all thronging into the portals of the church. The vast, gloomy interior +was lit only by two or three tapers, which scarcely served to make +darkness visible; and at first we could discern nothing but the white +snoods of the women, who were kneeling in companies about the great +aisleless nave. But presently the spring blind over the Altar went up +with a sudden snap, and disclosed _Nuestra Señora de la Encina_ herself, +the little black wooden image which is the Palladium of the whole +Vierzo, clad in white satin and tinsel, and set in a halo of +incandescent lamps! This startling modern _finale_ gave a queer jar to +the old-world solemnity of the preliminaries; and the chant which burst +out at the signal scarcely helped to restore the effect. The men's +voices in Spain are frequently powerful and impressive; but here they +were relying entirely on their trebles, who are always terribly shrill +and grating, even to the least musical ear. + +The great road which passes through Ponferrada on its way across the +Vierzo has been the track followed by numberless armies from the days of +Rome to our own; and to Englishmen it has a special interest as being +the path of the ill-fated Moore. The second and more arduous stage of +the famous retreat began at Astorga, where Napoleon abandoned the +command of the French armies to Soult. Moore might very possibly have +checked his pursuers on the great natural _glacis_ of Manzanal; but it +was the aim of his strategy to entangle them as deeply as possible in +the Galician mountains, and he did not wish to make a stand too soon. +Accordingly the English army, with Soult hot upon their track, swept +swiftly through the Vierzo. They got abominably drunk in the +wine-cellars at Bembibre and Ponferrada. They had a sharp brush with the +enemy's cavalry at the hamlet of Cacabellos. Then at Villafranca they +were swallowed again by the mountains, and headed for Lugo by the long +and labyrinthine pass. + +The road across the Pass of Piedrafita is a very different thing +nowadays to what it was in the time of Moore; yet even now it would be +no pleasant journey in January, with the snow-drifts blocking the narrow +"prison vale." Gradually ascending the left bank of the river Valcarce, +we passed through several picturesque but grimy villages romantically +placed amid the rocky and wooded hills. The ascent became steeper and +more tortuous as the road climbed up towards the saddle; and at last, on +the very summit, we reached the "fixed stone" which is the boundary of +Leon and Galicia, and entered the head of the Návia valley, which guided +us down the long descent. + +The western portal of the Pass a little above Nogales is guarded by a +solitary watch-tower, perched upon the point of an isolated boulder in +the centre of the V-shaped vale. This outlet, however, does not get us +clear of the mountains; for another lofty ridge rises immediately beyond +it, and it was at this point that some of the most terrible scenes +occurred in the course of Moore's retreat. Hundreds lay dying of cold, +hunger, and exhaustion; and the army treasure-chests, containing 150,000 +dollars, were rolled down the hillside into the river gully, to save +them from falling into the hands of the French. The closeness of the +pursuit, however, was checked by Paget in a sharp action at the old +Roman bridge of Constantino, which spans a rocky gorge half-way up the +hill; and Moore was enabled to reach Lugo without much further loss. + +We spent the night at the mountain village of Becerrea, high up near the +summit of the ridge--a night of the most brilliant moonlight, which +showed up the distant mountains almost as clearly as the day. Next +morning, however, found the village buried in clouds; and through these +we laboriously groped our way, with the trained fog-craft of Londoners, +till at last we succeeded in rising above them, and emerging on the +summit of the ridge. The scene was such as seldom falls to the lot of a +cyclist, for the vapour choked all the valleys beneath us, and the +mountain peaks that reared themselves out of it showed like so many +islands in a sea of cotton-wool. The gorse and bracken around us were +silver with the webs of the gossamer spiders, and the moisture that +still hung to the tree-twigs sparkled like jewels in the rising sun. +Before us a great pale mist-bow was outlined upon a paler curtain; and +it cost us some regret to desert so striking a spectacle and plunge +again into the cold cloud-bath that awaited us on the other side. + +The series of parallel ridges which the road crosses upon its journey +westward sink gradually lower and lower, till the environs of Lugo +appear comparatively level. The valleys are green and well wooded with +tall timber trees; and as the sun got the better of the clouds some +hours before mid-day, we had good cause to remember them in a favourable +light. Many of the wayside cottages were extremely pretty--irregular +old stone shanties with shadowy eaves and balconies, and rude verandahs +heavily draped with vines; and the distant prospect of plain and +mountain forms a delightful background to the views. + +Lugo stands upon one of the minor ridges which help to compose what +Galicia calls a plain; and the river Miño, broad and placid like the +Thames at Richmond, flows far beneath it in a deep, well-wooded vale. +Like many of the Galician mountain townships, Lugo is roofed with rough, +grey slating, and this fact at the first glance gives it a curiously +un-Spanish air; yet there is no town in all the Peninsula more +thoroughly national in tone. + +The massive walls of the city are its greatest and most impressive +feature. They are probably of genuine Roman workmanship, for they are +built of square stones, instead of the random courses which were the +fashion in mediæval days, and of such portentous thickness as only a +Roman could conceive. At Astorga the walls are battered and incomplete: +but at Lugo the facing is still practically intact; and one might drive +a horse and trap round the top the full circuit of the town, without +apprehending any particular difficulty if one met another horse and trap +coming the other way. + +[Illustration: LUGO + +The Santiago Gate.] + +The cathedral is situated just inside the gate of Santiago. It is a +thirteenth century building, but--like many other Galician +churches--completely cased externally in late Renaissance days. Its +three tall towers form a very conspicuous group from all quarters of the +city; and it was a great grief of mind to my friends at the Santiago +gateway that I had not included them all in my sketch. It was evidently +a slight upon Lugo to insinuate that it had only one steeple. A +Spaniard's idea of a "fine view" is invariably a panorama. + +But the true charm of Lugo consists in its squares and fountains and the +picturesque Gallego peasantry eddying in the narrow streets. The +fountains in particular are a perpetual delight to an artist, and it is +in the last hour before dusk in the evening that they may really be seen +at their best. Then the entire feminine population of the city sally +forth to obtain their water supply,--a kaleidoscopic medley of colour, +and a babel of chattering tongues. An unfortunate _alguazil_ is usually +told off to keep order and preserve some kind of a _queue_. But no one +thinks of taking the _alguazil_ seriously except himself, for the girls +are all in the highest spirits, and regard the whole function as a sort +of glorified game of Tom Tiddler's ground, with the _alguazil_ as a +semi-official "he." The aim of every player is to slip in out of her +turn. And directly she scores her first point, and the exasperated +official rushes round to expel her, there is, of course, a gap left for +number two. The sparkle and gaiety of the crowd is a standing reproach +to us Northerners. It would be a very dour and drab-coloured assemblage +if it had to be managed by us. Macaulay's artistic New Zealander will +never make much of a picture out of the Hebes of Seven Dials filling +their buckets in Trafalgar Square. + +The pitchers which are seen at the fountains would require a monograph +all to themselves, for the designs are always strictly local, and in no +two districts are they ever fashioned alike. The big peg-top-shaped jars +of red earthenware are peculiar to Lugo itself. Vigo prefers them white, +and shapes them like an exaggerated teapot, with no lid and a very +rudimentary spout; their rude resemblance to a hen--(any relation, I +wonder, to the "tappit hen" of Scotland?)--is an idea which is often +exploited by a potter of artistic mind. The black oval keg shown in the +sketch of Rivadeo is monopolised by western Asturias; Pajares boasts an +elegant three-handled speciality; and the pitchers at Caceres are +of "Forty Thieves" design. The little wooden buckets are less +susceptible of variety, yet even of these there are several kinds. The +commonest type (much wider at the base than at the top) are hooped with +three metal bands about two and a half inches wide. In Asturias these +hoops become very broad indeed, leaving only about half an inch of wood +showing between; they are kept brightly polished, and make a very +handsome show on a cottage dresser, but must be rather heavy on the +head. At Pamplona the hoops are equally wide, but there are only two of +them; and at Pontevedra we saw a queer jug-shaped bucket which we never +encountered elsewhere. + +[Illustration: LUGO + +Fuente de San Vicente.] + +Next comes a great tribe of metal pitchers of various shapes and sizes, +used by the inhabitants of Villafranca, Plaséncia, and Leon; and the +very last ride I took on Spanish soil, in the neighbourhood of +Santander, introduced me to a round-bellied, long-necked bottle of rough +green glass, which opens a new vista of possibilities. Alas! that among +all these delightful old vessels one should see so many outsiders in the +shape of common cheap pails of galvanised and enamelled iron! One thinks +with a shudder of the lean kine in the vision which eventually devoured +all the rest. + +The three tall towers of Santiago de Compostela salute the traveller +from afar off across the wild moors that flank the Lugo road. The city +is deceitfully situated--for when we are once within it we imagine +ourselves on an eminence; but, viewed from without, it is undeniably in +a hole. Yet there is no lack of impressiveness in this first view of +"the city of our solemnities." The early pilgrim used to prostrate +himself at the sight of it, and many would finish the last stage of the +journey upon their knees. Such thoroughgoing devotion is probably very +rare nowadays, but we would not like to assert that it is yet entirely +extinct. For once in the little town of Briviesca, on the furthest +confines of Castile, we did indeed come across a genuine pilgrim, with +his "cockle hat" and rusty gabardine, his staff, his gourd, and his +"sandal shoon," all quite complete. The retinue of urchins which +followed him proved that he was not altogether a common spectacle; but +in what other country than Spain could one look for such a survival at +all? It is consoling to think that among his own people St James is not +quite without due honour even yet. + +[Illustration: SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA + +From the Lugo Road.] + +"Ballads are too old to lie," said Sancho Panza, and I love to think the +same of legends. The mere fact that they have passed current for +centuries should be a bar to further investigation of title; and a spot +which has been held sacred by fifty generations of pilgrims does not +need to be hall-marked by Dr Dryasdust. Nevertheless when a blind man is +bent upon going into a dark room to look for a black cat, it is but +charity to inform him that it isn't there, and the pedantically-minded +may be glad to receive the assurance that the whole proof of Santiago's +identity is entirely visionary. + +It is related by a monkish chronicler of the English Abbey of St Alban, +how one night in the fourteenth century it was revealed in a dream to +one of the brethren that the relics of Saint Amphibalus were awaiting +the quest of the faithful beneath a certain barrow on the Watling +Street. Which barrow being reverently opened, there were discovered +(sure enough) the bones of Amphibalus, and of sundry of his disciples, +and the axe where-with he was martyred, and various other articles of +great interest and sanctity. Whereby it came to pass that some grim old +neolithic chieftain, buried æons before amid his weapons and his wives, +was piously installed as a tutelary in the Abbey Sanctuary. And much +dumfoundered he must have been at it all, if he was present in spirit at +the ceremony. "Oh, Bottom! how thou art translated!" + +It was evidently something very similar that happened in the ninth +century at Santiago de Compostela. But the Spanish chroniclers have been +lacking in the Englishman's regard for circumstantial detail; so whether +it was an untamed Cantabrian or a Roman Centurion who was annexed as +_hero eponymus_ for the basilica of Iria Flavia it is now impossible to +guess. Be that as it may, the bones were certainly lost not long after +they were beatified, and the authorities had to account for their +disappearance by protesting that Archbishop Gelmirez had built them, for +safety's sake, into the foundations of his great cathedral. This +delightfully incontrovertible statement was the sole satisfaction +provided for the medieval pilgrims. But we are now no longer permitted +to build our faith upon such a stolid foundation. The relics were +rediscovered little more than a generation ago. + +This, however, is, of course, rank heresy. If any had ever doubted the +genuineness of the original relics, their cavilling was speedily +silenced by the direct interposition of Santiago himself. Sword in hand, +upon his white horse, he rallied the Christian host at the crisis of the +battle of Clavijo, mowing down the astonished Moslems ten thousand to a +swathe. That day made his fortune for ever: but it was by no means his +only exploit. Through many generations of warfare there was hardly a +battle contested without his appearance in the ranks. + +The warrior Saint, however, was not allowed to score all the tricks in +the rubber; and one fancies that the hated infidel must have fairly +wiped out the adverse balance on the day when Al Manzor, the great +Vizier of Córdova, led his ever-victorious army across the Vierzo +passes, and carried off the very bells from the steeple to adorn the +_Ceca_[12] of Mahound. None had ventured to bar his progress, for the +very name of "The Conqueror" spelt despair to the Christians of that +day. The walls were unguarded, the city deserted,--man, woman, and child +had escaped to the mountains lest they should be consumed. But as the +Vizier spurred his charger through the cathedral portal, behold, before +the tomb of the Apostle there knelt a solitary monk. "What dost thou +here?" the Moor demanded. The monk raised his eyes to the terrible +soldier whose face none else had dared to look upon. "I am praying," he +answered. And for the sake of that one brave simple-minded man, the +conqueror bade spare the shrine. Christian monarchs were not always +equally scrupulous; for Gelmirez himself had to use his cathedral as a +fortress; and Pedro the Cruel murdered Archbishop Suero on the very +steps of the sanctuary--his motive being solely robbery, as usual with +that royal ruffian. + +The interior of the cathedral is disappointing. It is a large and +imposing Romanesque building; but the furniture is tawdry and +uninteresting when judged by a Spanish standard; and the colossal image +of Santiago over the High Altar, though genuinely ancient, has rather a +heathenish air.[13] Externally the structure is completely cased in late +Spanish Renaissance or "_Churrigueresque_" work. This is not a beautiful +type,--overloaded, _bizarre_, and extravagant: but everything that +can be said in its favour may be said of the cathedral of Santiago; and +it must be a source of no little surprise to a purist that so poor a +style can produce such a splendid result. The west front is indeed +Churriguera's masterpiece; and a noble conception it is, had it but been +erected elsewhere! But it is almost a blot at Compostela, for it hides +the great Romanesque Portal "_de la Gloria_," which (as Ruskin might +say) is the only really perfect thing of its kind in the world. + +[Illustration: SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA + +The Cathedral from the North-east.] + +The cathedral is most admirably situated, for it forms the central mass +to four great quadrangles which keep a clear space in front of it on +each of the four façades. And colleges, hospitals, and palaces are +grouped around the quadrangles, like a party of lordly vassals assembled +to do honour to a king. + +The streets of the city are narrow, paved with great slabs of granite; +and in most cases arcaded, as protection against, not the sun, but the +rain. For Santiago is notoriously the rainiest spot in the Peninsula, +and is heartily bantered in consequence by all who are envious of its +complaint. There is a tale told of a preaching friar who was making a +round of the churches, and whose sermons upon the delights of Heaven +drew large congregations in every country-side. Beneath the _nebulæ +malusque Jupiter_ of Santiago he discoursed upon warmth and sunshine, +and won all the hearts of his hearers by the tale of such fabulous +bliss. But he needed a different bait when he reached the far end of his +circuit. The scene and the season were altered, and the unfortunate +Franciscan, _sub curru nimium propinqui solis_, was sizzling on the +fiery plains of Murcia. Like Horace, he was still faithful to his text, +but his reading of it had altered, and his song was now all of a Heaven +that was deliciously moist and cool! Our much-maligned English climate +has at all events got compensations. Let a man have a surfeit of +sunshine and he learns to think tenderly of the rain. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE CIRCUIT OF GALICIA + + +LUGO is the hub of Galicia. It lies at the mouth of the Pass of +Piedrafita, on the great main road which enters the province from Leon; +and which at this point trifurcates southward, westward, and northward +to Orense, Santiago, and Coruña. Sir John Moore had reserved his option +to the last, and up to this point his pursuers could not tell for +certain whether he were bound for Coruña or Vigo. Here then he paused to +re-form his straggling regiments, and boldly offered battle upon the +eastern front of the town. But Soult was too cautious to fight till he +had concentrated his whole army; and Moore having gained his two days' +rest, made a last spurt for Coruña after nightfall on the second day. We +shall come across his traces later, as we work our way around the +northern coast; but first we would see something further of Galicia, and +turn to chase the Miño to the sea. + +There are many parts of Galicia in which the scenery has an English +flavour, and the Miño valley at Lugo is one of the cases in point. The +fields are green and well-wooded, fenced with rough stone walls or +sometimes with slabs set edgewise. The hilltops, rounded and heathy, are +plentifully studded with Celtic and Roman earthworks; and when we mount +to their summits (an event which happens more frequently than is quite +agreeable to the cyclist) it is only like straying from Dorset to Exmoor +or the Yorkshire fells. The moist climate of Galicia gives the +vegetation a chance that it does not obtain in the interior, and of +which it avails itself enthusiastically. The trees in the village +_alamedas_ are planted so thickly that they would seem doomed to +suffocation. Yet they flourish luxuriantly, plaiting their branches +together till the foliage forms a thick matted blanket over the whole +area; and beneath them is "darkness that may be felt," so dense and +solid that one feels one might dig a way in. + +Our first stage from Lugo brought us to Monforte--a real "strong mount," +not unlike St Michael's, but standing in the centre of a great plain +encircled by a ring of lofty hills. Thence we proceeded up a long, +winding mountain roadway; through the vine-clad villages that covered +the lower slopes, and over the bare wild moorland that rose above them +to the crest of the ridge. + +A big Celtic camp was planted commandingly upon the summit, and here we +paused like mariners out of their bearings as we peered over into the +valley which yawned for us on the further side. Surely this could not be +the Miño! We had parted from it yesterday at Lugo--a domesticated and +navigable-looking river, quite different from the uncivilised little +torrent that we now saw far beneath us, tearing along the bottom of this +V-shaped glen. The map was a little ambiguous, but it offered no +plausible alternative; and when, after several very crooked miles, the +road at last succeeded in curling itself down alongside, behold! it was +the Miño, sure enough. + +The Miño is undoubtedly the most beautiful of all the great rivers in +Northern Spain, and the variety of its moods is, perhaps, its most +attractive feature. Nothing could be wilder than the glen by which it +forces the mountains, unless it be the sister-glen by which the Sil +comes down to unite with it, brimming with the waters from the Vierzo +springs. Yet from the confluence to Orense it flows through an Eden of +fertility, its hilly banks festooned with vine and olive, and the +meadows beneath them teeming with corn and maize. Then comes a sterner +stretch amid the mountains along the Portuguese frontier--more majestic, +yet scarcely less fertile,--till it emerges at last in the broad, rich +valley of Tuy, and circling under its ramparts glides slowly onward to +the sea. + +Orense, the capital of the district, lies a little back from the river +on the crest of a slight eminence, an offshoot of the neighbouring +hills. Its fine old Romanesque cathedral would of itself be enough to +dignify any town; but the great lion of Orense is its magnificent +bridge. This mammoth structure was the work of the mediæval bishops, +whose reverence for the memory of St Christopher did not entirely expend +itself in frescoes on their cathedral walls. It is the greatest of all +the gable bridges, and its main central span, one hundred and fifty feet +from pier to pier, is the widest of any in Spain. Neither Martorell nor +Toledo can quite equal it; but Almaraz is considered superior, and it +has neither the dizzy height nor the stupendous bulk that might rank it +as a rival to Alcántara. + +[Illustration: ORENSE + +The Bridge over the Miño.] + +The bridge of Orense was the pivot of the French operations when Soult +led his power from Coruña to renew the subjugation of Portugal. His +earlier attempts to cross the Miño at Tuy were foiled by the +flooded river, the bad watermanship of his landlubbers, and a little +plucky opposition from the further shore. Orense gave him an opening, +and the country was for a moment at his mercy. But the respite had been +invaluable--he had now but a short time. Within two months his army was +reeling back from Oporto, without hospital, baggage, or artillery, in a +worse plight even than Moore's. He had wrestled his first fall with the +great antagonist who was destined to beat him from the Douro to +Toulouse. + +And while he was clutching at Portugal, and Ney at western Asturias, +Galicia had slipped from their fingers and the heather was aflame. The +outlying garrisons were captured, the foragers waylaid and massacred, +even the camps and columns incessantly sniped from the hills. One noted +_guerrillero_ assured Freire that he had personally superintended the +drowning of seven hundred French in the waters of the Miño. Probably it +is permissible to discount his arithmetic; but the ugly boast is a +sufficient indication of the spirit in which the struggle was carried +on. + +The invaders were finally drawn away by Wellington's advance up the +Tagus valley; but indeed their whole scheme of occupation had been +foredoomed to failure from the first. "It is impossible for any army to +hold Galicia," wrote Soult to his imperial taskmaster. The mountains and +irreconcilables were too much for any force that could be spared. + +The Galician methods of viniculture have at least the merit of elegance, +and the Miño is still undisciplined by the stiff formal terraces of the +Rhine. The vines are trained over light rustic _pergolas_, the +horizontal sticks being fixed at a height of about six feet above the +ground, so that there is just room for a man to walk beneath them. The +whole area of the field is thus covered with a leafy awning, and in most +instances the old stone cottages are half surrounded with verandahs +constructed in similar style. These are certainly the prettiest +vineyards with which we have yet made acquaintance, but they are seldom +seen beyond the limits of Galicia. The vines of the Duero are ground +vines, and the landscape gets very little profit out of them. + +The local _vins ordinaires_ of the Northern Provinces are generally +somewhat similar to Burgundy, but their quality varies greatly in the +different districts. Often they are really excellent, but sometimes +exceedingly harsh and rough--attuned to the "hard stomachs of the +reapers," and flavoured with the pitch which is used in dressing the pig +skins in which they are stored. The most famous of all is Sancho's +beloved Valdepeñas from the arid plains of La Mancha; but the Miño wines +also are excellent, and our hostess had good reason for confidence when +she produced "her own wine" so proudly at La Cañiza. Old James Howell +refers very affectionately to the "gentle sort of white wine" which is +grown at Ribadávia; and he might without any injustice have extended his +approval to the red. At all events it was nobly thought of by Don +Francisco de Toledo, commandant of the _Tertia_ of the Miño, who sailed +in the Spanish Armada, for he shipped an ample stock of it on board the +_San Felipe_. Whereby it chanced that three hundred convivial Zeelanders +were carried incontinently to the bottom as they were carousing in the +battered derelict. + +The truly accommodative traveller should drink, like the natives, _a +trago_, out of the regulation glass teapot or time-honoured "leather +bottle." These experts hold the vessel well above their heads, and +squirt the thin jet of liquid straight into their open mouths. But the +art needs a long apprenticeship, and is painfully hazardous to a +novice. It should not be essayed before strangers, nor in any elaborate +get-up. + +We had hoped that our mountaineering experiences would cease for a while +at Orense--that our road would consent to abide by the Miño, and accept +its guidance to the sea. We had got no further than Ribadávia, however, +before we found ourselves again going up to the heavens, and the little +riverside towns between Ribadávia and Tuy are only to be approached by +branch roads which drop upon them from above. The hillsides are clothed +with pine woods, plentifully sugared with huge boulders as big as +ordinary cottages; and if (as seems probable) these are indeed _blocs +perchés_, the ancient glaciers of Galicia must have been of respectable +size. All over the lower slopes they are scattered in lavish profusion, +and the topmost are gingerly balanced on the very summits of the +_arrêtes_. + +[Illustration: TUY AND VALENCIA + +The Frontier Towns on the Miño.] + +The clouds were massing ominously upon the heights above us as we rose +clear of the pine woods, and our further impressions of the landscape +were merged in the universal deluge that swallowed us when we reached +the top. But the little mountain village of La Cañiza rescued us, and +fed us and dried us, and made itself agreeable to us next morning +ere it set us again on our way. La Cañiza was preparing a _Fiesta_; and +a fact that excited our interest was that fresh figs were selling in the +market at sixteen a penny--or indeed over twenty a penny, with allowance +for the rate of exchange. We hope they were favoured with fine weather, +but the outlook was not altogether assuring; and we were glad when we +found ourselves across the _Puerto_ and dropping once more into the +summer-like climate of the deep rich vale beyond. + +Tuy is the frontier town of the Miño, and the Portuguese fortress of +Valencia confronts it across the river like some "deadly opposite" in an +interrupted duel. But its quaint old houses and cathedral do not now +wear a very martial appearance; and as I was allowed to sketch +uninterrupted under the very nose of a sentry, it would seem that the +rival cities have agreed to differ without any unnecessary parade. + +Vigo (to our surprise) proved quite unknown to all the inhabitants of +Tuy. "Bigo" they knew; but they rejected any other designation. And that +with a firmness which would be warmly approved at "Balladolid." The +consonants _b_ and _v_ seem everywhere at odds for supremacy; and it +rather adds to the perplexity of the stranger that they often get +written as pronounced. "_Villar_," at the first glance, is not at all +suggestive of "Billiards"; and "_Aqui se bende bino_" would be so much +more comprehensible if it were "spelt with a we." "'_Vivere_' is the +same as '_bibere_' to a Spaniard," laughs Martial; so the provincialism +is at all events of respectable antiquity. Yet it is not countenanced in +the Cloisters of Toledo, where the "Sir Oracle" of classical Castilian +is reputed to hold his court. At the same time we must confess that when +we visited those hallowed precincts we did not hear so much as a +syllable of any language at all. + +Vigo lies about twenty miles from Tuy, on the further side of a wall of +pointed hills; and our first intimation of our approach to that famous +seaport was a procession of barelegged fishwives with their big dripping +baskets balanced upon their heads. Untrammelled by their burden, they +came swinging down the road towards us at a good five miles an hour, the +elderly and grizzled among them as upright and elastic as the girls. If +ever the craze for pedestrianism should culminate in an international +team race for ladies, the fishwives of Vigo would be a "very strong +tip." Indeed, if we felt quite sure that they would not get +disqualified for "lifting," we might even venture to pronounce them a +"moral cert." + +A Galician woman thinks nothing of a moderate-sized haystack as her +ordinary walking head-dress; and any article she may carry, from an +umbrella to a harmonium, is invariably poised upon her head. No doubt +they considered us extremely foolish not to do the same with our +knapsacks, for the theory of equilibrium comes as natural to them as +their breath. Walking or sitting, standing or stooping, they never so +much as raise a hand to steady their baskets or their pails. And the +lifelong habit has certainly given them a most stately carriage. A +duchess who is ambitious of walking worthy of her vocation could hardly +do better than go into training with them. + +The Spanish peasant girls may not be classically beautiful, but they are +well-built, strong and active; a healthy-looking, open-air race. The +chamber-maids of the hotel at Vigo seemed to spend the whole of their +existence carrying buckets of water upstairs on their heads to the +bedrooms. The hotel was five storeys high; and their labour was as the +"Well of Ronda."[14] Yet these cheerful Danaids were quite unconcerned +about their task. Even the peerless Dulcinea del Toboso, it may be +remembered (upon identification), proved capable of heaving the crowbar +as well as the lustiest young fellow of the village, and her remarks to +the reapers could be heard at a distance of half a league. + +Nature has dowered Vigo with the most magnificent natural harbour in +Europe; but Vigo is only a fishing port, "a place for the spreading of +nets." The economist who chances to wander thither will weep his eyes +out over neglected opportunities; but an artist may use his to better +purpose. Seldom can he feast them upon a more delightful spectacle than +that great landlocked mountain-girt firth, with its deep blue waters +bosomed amid the luxuriant vegetation of the hills. My sketch was taken +looking seaward from the extreme end of the inner harbour; where Admiral +Rooke sank the "Silver Fleet" in 1702, and where many generations of +treasure-seekers have since groped over the muddy bottom in their vain +endeavours to recover the "pieces of eight." Beyond the bottle-necked +entrance lies the outer harbour upon which the town is situated; and +further still, out of sight in the extreme distance, the natural +breakwater of the Islas de Cies repels the ocean from the bay. + +[Illustration: VIGO BAY + +The Inner Harbour, looking out towards the Sea.] + +But in the town itself the most attractive feature is indubitably the +fishing quarter. The throng of picturesque fishing craft elbowing each +other in the crowded basin; the crazy old arcaded houses that ring the +harbour round; the sailors staggering up the inclines with their baskets +full of gleaming silver; the women sitting along the quay and deftly +decapitating sardines with their thumbs. The mess, the noise, the crowd, +the bustle, the glitter, form one of the most brilliant pictures that a +painter could possibly conceive. And as for the smell, we do declare +upon our veracity that it is distinctly perceptible at a distance of +five miles. + +There are many such _Rias_ as Vigo along the coast to the northward; and +the road rising sharply over the intervening ridges, finds in each +successive valley a fresh garden of delight. The huge mountain groynes +push themselves far out into the ocean; and their precipitous headlands, +Vilano, Toriñana, and Finistierra, form the mighty spur stones of the +sea-borne traffic to the south. Between them lie the gleaming estuaries, +each a harbour fit for a navy, and the deep verdant valleys well watered +by the streams from the hills. Perhaps there is no plant in the world +which could not be induced to grow here with a little attention; for the +range from palms to heather is a wide one, but they flourish as if to +the country born. "It is the Paradise of Spain," exclaimed an +enthusiastic Astorgan. And one can well imagine how such a picture would +appeal to a native of the arid plateaus of Leon. + +Yet Galicia has a plague of its own lest the angels should prefer it to +heaven; for the Lord of that land is Beelzebub, and its children are +fodder for his flies. On the dry, lofty plains of the interior these +pests are less virulent than one might expect in a tropical country; but +in Galicia even the ordinary house-fly thinks nothing of transfixing a +worsted stocking, and our shanks were soon spotted like currant +dumplings with the scars of their innumerable bites. The chief +tormentors, however, are the horse-flies--the "clegs" of the Highlands +of Scotland--a terror even to the thick-skinned mule and pony, and +cordially anathematised by the Galician muleteer. Their only redeeming +quality is a certain bull-dog tenacity, which is all in favour of the +avenger; though death is no adequate penalty for such horribly venomous +bites. + +The village granaries in this district are a very insistent feature. +There is one in nearly every cottage garden--a little stone ark raised +on six lofty legs. In Asturias they are much larger, built of wood and +capped with a pyramidical roof. There no one could mistake them for +anything but what they are; but here their shape, and their size, and +the little stone crosses on their gables, are all so irresistibly +suggestive of a sarcophagus, that at first we could not imagine that +they had any other purpose to serve. The average Gallego's fancy seems +to turn on thoughts of funerals. His peculiar local type of bullock-cart +also was manifestly derived from a coffin on wheels. + +At El Padron we turned inland past the local shrine of _Nuestra Señora +de la Esclavitud_. (_Penal_ servitude, I regret to say, for it was a +noted sanctuary for criminals.) The west front is a modest imitation of +that of Santiago Cathedral, and the niche under its great stairway +enshrines a beautifully cool fountain, which we could recommend more +confidently if it did not issue from the churchyard. At this point it +was that Borrow left the main track on his weird journey to Corcuvion; +but we pushed straight ahead for Santiago de Compostela; and once more +threaded its arcaded _Ruas_ in search of the Coruña road. + +The coach that runs daily from Santiago to Coruña prides itself upon +possessing the most numerous team of any vehicle in Spain. We were +assured that sixteen mules were frequently requisitioned to drag it over +the snowy hills in winter-time; but from our own personal observation +(in August) we cannot vouch for more than ten. The passengers were just +stowing themselves into it as we passed them. They had a ten hours' +journey before them, and it promised to be a roasting day. Yet the +"insides" were packed like sardines in a basket; and some brave spirits +were even occupying the roof among the interstices of the baggage, where +they were all corded down together under a general tarpaulin! We +wondered what they would look like when they emerged from their +travelling oven at the other end! + +The road is rather homelike in character, remote alike from coast-line +and mountain: and more than one stage of the journey might have been +borrowed from Hindhead or Rake Hill. Yet we gleaned passing hints of our +latitude from the picturesque figures of the husbandmen, with their mild +little cream-coloured oxen, their mattocks, and their primitive +ploughs. + +[Illustration: NUESTRA SEÑORA DE LA ESCLAVITUD.] + +These last are of Adamite construction, made entirely of wood and so +light that the long-suffering women can carry them upon their heads. +Such was the pattern known to Hesiod and to Virgil. Such an one was +Wamba using when the lords of the Visigoths came to summon their +Cincinnatus to the throne of Toledo, and the haft blossomed in his hand +in token that their tidings were true. + +We have continued gradually rising for the greater part of our journey; +but the ground breaks away suddenly and sharply a few miles short of the +coast. The view from the crest is delightful. A wide expanse of green +undulating woodland maps itself out beneath us at the foot of the deep +descent; and beyond gleam the still blue waters of the ocean, and the +little saucepan-shaped city of Coruña standing out boldly in the centre +of its bay. + +What a welcome sight it must have presented to Moore and his soldiers as +they struggled over the Puerto Bello, a few miles along the ridge to the +east! Barefoot, ragged, and hungry, and drenched by the pelting tempest, +like Xenophon's harassed ten thousand, at last they were in sight of +the sea. The long night march from Lugo had been the most trying and +disastrous of any. Yet there was no slackness when they turned to bay; +and near Betánzos even the stragglers proved that they retained +sufficient cohesion to repulse a cavalry charge. + +Dropping in long steep sweeps from the heathery heights to the woodland, +the road gradually settles itself down beside the banks of the Mero +river; and just as the streamlet widens into an estuary we dip across +the mouth of a little lateral valley, where the village of Palávia +nestles between two parallel hills. The bones of three thousand men lie +buried along that little valley, and the trim villas and gay gardens of +the Coruña suburbanites cover the ground where French and English fought +out their desperate struggle a hundred years ago. The focus of the +fighting, however, was not at Palávia, but higher up the valley towards +our left, where the ground was more favourable to the assailants, and +where the defenders had no river to protect their flank. Here Soult made +his grand attack under the fire of his great battery; here Moore fell +mortally wounded on the slopes above Elviña at the very moment when he +felt assurance of success. + +Moore's grave is in the citadel of Coruña. An unpretentious monument, +but now well kept, and the centre of a charming little walled garden. +Like many another faithful servant of his country, he had been set to do +impossibilities, and was vilified by the impatient stay-at-homes, +because they could not grasp the measure of his success. They had sent +out a gallant army; and it was restored to them hungry and naked, broken +by cruel marches, and reeking from a stricken field. They had never +before realised what war was, and they blamed their general for +revealing it. Indeed, as even Condé admitted, the details are ugly in +Spain. + +Moore's famous victory was not the only one achieved by British arms in +this neighbourhood. Over two centuries before, in the year after the +Spanish Armada, Drake and Norreys landed an expeditionary force to +chastise the port from which it had sailed. They captured and plundered +the town, and upon the very margin of Moore's battle-field they stormed +the bridge of El Burgo and defeated the Spanish militia who had +assembled for its relief. Of these they slew "a thousand," while they +lost but three of their own men. From which it may be inferred that +Drake and Norreys had been reading the exploits of Santiago, and +thought that a little local colour in their dispatches would serve as a +guarantee of good faith. + +We had intended to make but one stage of it from Coruña, and encompass +the bay to Ferrol. But our plans were all blown to the winds when we +spied the little town of Betánzos clustered together upon its conical +hill in a loop of the Mendo river,--far too attractive a spectacle to be +skipped with a casual call. It won our hearts at first sight, as we +stooped to the vale from the uplands: and our affections were confirmed +the moment we entered the gates. A delightful little township, with none +of its lines parallel and none of its angles right angles; and a whole +population of models grouping themselves in its ramshackle arcades.[15] + +[Illustration: BETÁNZOS + +A Colonnaded Calle.] + +We had been commended to Betánzos by Valentina, the waitress at +Santiago. Betánzos was Valentina's _pueblo_, and "a very gay place" (so +said Valentina). Betánzos played up to its reputation by an improvised +ball in the evening; and few set ballets in a theatre could provide +so pretty a sight. The _Plaza_ is paved with cobbles, which are +disadvantageous for dancing. But the fountain which stands in the centre +acts as hub to a multitude of smooth flagged pathways; and up and down +these, in to the centre and out again, the couples swung unwearyingly in +a great vibrating star. The electric lamps (oh yes! they have electric +lamps in Betánzos) only partially illuminated the area; and the patches +of light and shadow gave an additional variety to the effect. + +The Galician peasant woman's costume is one of the prettiest in the +Peninsula. As usual, it is very simple; a skirt and bodice, a kerchief +tied over the head, and another crosswise over the shoulders. But the +charm is in the colouring, and the Galician women wear the brightest of +colours: brave reds and yellows for the kerchiefs, with something rather +quieter for the skirt. They almost all go barefoot; a spendthrift use of +commodities, but doubtless extremely convenient so long as the wear does +not tell. The foot will grow coarsened in time; but the girls have not +any misgivings,--and the beggar maid probably profited when she came +before King Cophetua. It is rather humiliating to compare the +square-toed natural foot with the narrow, artificially pointed article +which has been evolved for us by our boot-makers. Verily we have small +cause to laugh at the fashions of the Chinese! + +The men wear loose "white" shirts with dark-coloured breeches and +stockings, and a _cummerbund_ wrapped round the loins. Sometimes there +happens to be a waistcoat, or a cloak slung over the shoulder; and the +costume is usually completed by a battered broad-brimmed hat. + +"Capital stuff, this," cried Ferdinand the Catholic, with reference to +the royal jerkin, "it has worn out three pairs of sleeves!" And his +highness's predilection for patching still appeals to the lieges of +to-day. So piously do they practise his precept that it is often +difficult to determine whether any part of their garments was original; +and they all appear (justly enough) to have clung to a working +hypothesis that the matching of colours is hazardous, but there is +always safety in contrast. The picturesqueness of the result, however, +is as obvious as its economy. Perhaps some day an English Ferdinand will +revive the example for us. + +[Illustration: THE MASMA VALLEY + +Near Mondoñedo.] + +The beautiful bay of Coruña lay still within the curve of our advancing +roadway, and every re-entering angle was filled with a gleaming creek. +To our right rose rugged hills, plentifully besprinkled with +farmsteads; and more than one rustic township punctuated the stages of +the way. The last and most important of the inlets was the great +bottle-necked lagoon of Ferrol; and the famous arsenal itself lay half +concealed at the mouth of it, close under the guardian headlands that +form the gateway to the bay. + +Ferrol surrendered to Soult without a blow after Coruña, and the +pusillanimity of its governor probably robbed it of a creditable +success. With half the spirit of Gerona or Zaragoza it would have proved +impregnable, in the light of subsequent events. The Galicians were taken +unaware when Moore drew the war into their mountains, and were stunned +before they were aroused. The season, too, was winter, when a +_guerrilla_ was almost impracticable. They showed a better spirit when +their torpor was thawed in the spring. + +From Ferrol the road heaved us aloft to the crest of the great moorland +plateau where the Miño hoards its fountains, and from which we looked +out westward and northward over an almost limitless length of +coast-line, with the dark upland ridges running out between the creeks +like the ribs of a fan. How high we had risen we scarcely realised till +we came to descend again, and saw the long, deep, highland glen +dropping visibly before us mile beyond mile. Yet when we reached the +corner, the little cathedral town of Mondoñedo still lay far below us; +for what show as mountains over the Masma valley are really only the +edges of the moor. We eventually came down to the sea at the estuary of +Foz a little before sunset; and just as the dusk was turning to darkness +we ran into the narrow streets of Rivadeo, and the arms of the motherly +old hostesses who rule the "Castilian Hotel." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +WESTERN ASTURIAS + + +A BUXOM old lady who was occupying the shadow of a large umbrella in the +centre of Rivadeo marketp-lace greeted us volubly as we emerged from the +_Fonda_ door. "A good day to your honours! It seems then that they are +upon a journey? Ah! without doubt they are going to Castropol. Yes, +there is a road there, but it is a long way round the _Ria_. They will +save an hour,--two hours,--by taking a boat!" Our honours, indeed, had +already come to the same conclusion; neither were they altogether +surprised when their friend's eloquence culminated in the announcement +that she herself (thank God) was a Castropolitan, and her boat in +waiting at the quay below. A small black-eyed damsel was hastily +installed commandant of the big umbrella, and the old lady sallied forth +to rout out her boatman and steer us down to the shore. + +This spirited attempt to corner the entire passenger traffic was hotly +resented by a partner in a rival firm; an unprincipled operator who +endeavoured to gain control of the market by the most shameless +rate-cutting. He would take us across for six _reals_! for five _reals_! +for four!! He followed us down the street, waving his arms and +gesticulating and pitching his voice a tone higher at every bid. But the +old dame resolutely headed off all his attempts to get at her convoy; +silenced his feebler abuse with broadsides of the bitterest sarcasm; and +finally expressed her scorn for competition and equilibrium by a dance +of derision executed upon the poop as the boat shoved off into the bay. + +It was truly a lovely morning, and the view was worthy of the sunshine. +Behind were the white walls and shiny slate roofs of Rivadeo scrambling +one above the other up the steeply sloping cliff; before us Castropol +rose from the water's edge in a pyramid of purple shadow,--for the sun +was dead behind it,--and between the two lay the glassy _Ria_, a long +narrow fiord, winding away inland, reach beyond reach, till it lost +itself in the bosom of the hazy hills. Evidently the path before us was +at least cast in pleasant places. + +[Illustration: RIVADEO + +An Approach to the Harbour.] + +We had made bold to confide somewhat in fortune when we embarked on +this stage of our campaign. The map gave no pledge of a road, and the +guide-books were equally uncommitted. Borrow, indeed, had traversed the +province, with his honest guide, Martin of Rivadeo; but Borrow made his +journey on horseback, and his description did not lead one to infer that +there was any opening for wheels. Yet our trust in the chapter of +accidents brought a suitably generous reward. + +Take the mountains of the Lake District, and double their height; plant +them under an Italian sky behind a Cornish coast; add plenty of old +broad-eaved, balconied houses, not unlike Swiss chalets, a primitive +picturesque population clad in bright colours, and draught cattle, +ploughs, waggons, pack mules, and other appointments _en suite_. Such a +picture is fairly typical of the scenes that awaited us upon our way. +Here the road dipped to carry us past the end of a rocky inlet, where +the waves were breaking upon the chesil beach some fifty yards away. +Here it rose again to disclose a panorama of sea and mountain, with the +thin blue smoke of the charcoal burners' fires trailing lazily across +the plateau or wreathing itself around the shoulders of the hills. To +Borrow's eyes it had all seemed gloomy and desolate; but he had +traversed it in the mists of a stormy autumn, and beneath the halcyon +skies of summer it is a veritable fairyland. + +The _Ria_ at Návia is scarcely worthy of the name, for it is merely the +mouth of a little tidal river, not a harbour for sea-going ships, like +the firth of Rivadeo. Yet it is a beautiful valley, and the +queerly-cropped poplars give a very _bizarre_ effect to the view. A +little further on is a more striking feature. A huge serrated ridge, +known as the Sierra de Rañadoiro, flings itself out at right angles to +the _cordillera_, and stands like a wall across the plateau which +divides the mountains from the sea. Just before it reaches the coast it +branches off into a number of smaller ridges, ravelling out like the +strands of a cable; and the last group in the series are the seven +_Bellotas_, which proved such formidable obstacles to Borrow and his +guide. + +There is no chance of "shirking the fences." Each ridge terminates in a +bold and lofty headland, each valley in a rocky creek; and seventy years +ago those deep narrow gorges must have been ugly places enough. But +Borrow's stony bridle-path is now a fine broad roadway, his "miserable +venta" is a comfortable inn; and he certainly would not have +troubled to push on to Muros had he found such good entertainment as did +we. + +[Illustration: THE NAVIA VALLEY] + +Mine host was a stout and jovial yeoman with a loud voice and a hearty +laugh. He sat very wide at the head of the table, and promised us that +we should have our cutlets raw. "What! Were we not Englishmen? And +should he set cooked meat before Englishmen? No, indeed; that perfectly +comprehended itself. _Spaniards_ ate cooked meat, but _Englishmen_ +devoured it raw." Of course (as a special concession) _we_ might have +them cooked--"_á la Española_." But this without prejudice to the +eternal verity that "_á la Inglesa_" was "raw." We struggled in vain to +persuade him that we knew as much about England as he did. An Asturian +dalesman is commonly reputed capable of driving a nail into a wall with +his head. But so long as his principles were not controverted he +certainly was excellent company for his guests. He regaled us with a +capital white wine, "_Vino Castellano_" (I suppose from the Medina del +Campo district, which is the only place where I know of white wine in +Castile); he discoursed to us on the beauties of Právia and the +excellence of Asturian cider; and sped us at parting with the assurance +that there were very few hills on the road. But this last piece of +information (as we subsequently discovered) was to be accepted in a +strictly Asturian sense. + +Luarca and Cudillero, the two little coast towns of the district, are +twin brothers in situation, but moving in different sets. Luarca is +aspiring to the dignity of a watering-place:--it must have quite a dozen +visitors in the season even now. Cudillero is a fishing village pure and +simple, and is content to leave vanities alone. Each town lies nestling +in a deep narrow notch of the lofty coast-line, with its quaint shanties +spilling themselves pell-mell down the precipitous escarpments in all +shapes, sizes, and positions, like rubble shot out of a cart. The +brawling waters of a little brook go tumbling down the middle; and the +tiny creek at the bottom is lined with a sturdy array of quays and +breakwaters, where the fishing fleet can shelter itself from the +tempests of the Bay. Perhaps of the two Luarca has the prettier harbour; +but the unabashed raggedness and dilapidation of Cudillero, and the +old-world simplicity of its people, will appeal more strongly to an +artist's eye. + +The main road drops in to call at Luarca, but it is quite unaware of the +existence of Cudillero, and but for the directions of an auspicious +waggoner we might have strayed past it altogether. A break-neck descent +of a mile or so eventually brought us on to the roofs of some houses; +and it presently transpired that the town was "underneath." Down we +plunged into it by a ricketty corkscrew street, as steep as that at +Clovelly; ducked under the weather-beaten old church which is plugged +like a bung in the outlet; and eventually emerged at the waterside, +where the fishwives were sitting in a long parti-coloured fringe along +the edge of the quay, armed with their large flat baskets, and awaiting +the return of the boats. + +The _Fonda del Comércio_ was a poky and primitive little hostelry, but +they had plenty of fresh sardines; and his lot is not entirely pitiable +who sups upon fresh sardines. We slept in tiny alcoves curtained off +from our dining-room; and our last recollections were connected with +parties of happy fishermen in the street without, singing rollicking +ditties in honour of "_amor_." + +I was down in the harbour early in the morning for the purpose of +sketching, and so also were a goodly contingent of the townsfolk, intent +on their morning dip. It is a libel on the Spanish nation to imagine +that they do not wash. Perhaps it is true of the central plains,--poor +people, they lack the water, but all along the coast they are much +given to bathing. The women stroll unconcernedly down to the beach, +armed with a huge towel and a sort of glorified sack which serves as a +bathing costume. The huge towel, spread over their heads, envelopes them +completely, and under cover of it they make their toilet. At Cudillero +the beach where the boats were drawn up was reserved for the women, and +the men bathed off the rocks a little distance away. But neither party +made any pretence of privacy; and there is an air of primitive innocency +about the whole proceeding which forbids all notion of offence. + +Another primitive sight, though of a different character, was awaiting +me as I re-entered the town. It was Sunday morning, and the early Mass +was being celebrated in the church at the stairfoot of the roadway. The +building was crowded even beyond its utmost capacity, for a long _queue_ +of kneeling worshippers had thrust itself out from the open door, like +bees hanging from a hive when they are about to swarm. Whatever may be +the case in the cities, it is certain that the peasantry are as devout +as ever in their religious observances; and once or twice upon holy +days we have found the highway itself absolutely blocked with a crowd of +worshippers intent on their orisons before some wayside shrine. + +[Illustration: CUDILLERO + +The Harbour.] + +We regained the high road above Cudillero by a long winding ascent; and +leaving far below us on our left the beautiful estuary of Muros, bore up +into the mountains for the secluded vale of Právia at the confluence of +the Narcea and the Nalon. "Právia is better than Switzerland," our host +at Bellotas had informed us, and we do not wish to deny it. But the +comparison could only be made by one who had never seen Switzerland, for +there is nothing in common between the two. Our own Lake District would +supply a nearer parallel; but I know nothing quite like Právia except +Právia itself; a meeting-place of many valleys with vistas of mountain +scenery opening out on every side. Yet the heart of the range still +holds remote and invisible. It is not till we have progressed some +distance up the Nalon valley, and are drawing near to Oviedo, that we +get acquainted with the higher peaks. Then, indeed, the scale becomes +truly Alpine, and the valleys which lie across our path would not +discredit Piedmont or Savoy. + +Oviedo is not a town for which I have ever been able to acquire much +enthusiasm. A traveller newly landed from France might find it +delightfully Spanish, but to one who is fresh from the interior it has a +flavour of underdone French. It lies amid beautiful scenery, but just +out of sight of the best of it; and perhaps, as it is bent upon a career +of commercial enterprise, this retirement is creditable to its taste. +Yet its situation is by no means commonplace, its atmosphere not +generally smoky, and its fine old palaces and narrow cobbled _calles_ +must be allowed to weigh something in the balance against its boulevards +and tram-lines and plate-glass. + +The cathedral is a fine building, though it hardly can rank with the +finest; and it seems to be somewhat infected by the prevailing +Frenchified air. Yet in sanctity it is pre-eminent; for it boasts the +holiest relics in the Peninsula--all the miracle-working treasures which +the kings of the Visigoths had hoarded in their temple at Toledo, and +which the faithful bore away with them into the mountains when they fled +from the invading Moors. Some splendid specimens of early jewellery may +be seen among the caskets and monstrances; and the reredos behind the +High Altar is quite in the best Spanish style. + +The children seem afflicted with an uncontrollable mania for getting +their pictures taken. Perhaps there is thought to be luck in it, for +even their elders are not entirely exempt. This fact accounts for the +presence of the venerable _Sereno_ in the foreground of my drawing of +the cathedral. He insisted on shaking hands with me for my kindness in +putting him there, although I had conceived the obligation to be all on +my side. + +These quaint old watchmen are a sort of hall-mark of municipal +respectability. No Spanish city "of any degree of _ton_" would think of +dispensing with its _Serenos_. Indeed, in some instances the _Sereno_ +has survived where the city is now little more than a name. Fine +picturesque old figures clad in cloaks and slouch hats, and armed with +javelins and lanterns,--(the towns are all lighted by electricity, but +that is a detail),--they give a deliciously old-world flavour to the +deserted streets at night. It is questionable whether they would be much +use in a row; for like our own late lamented "Charlies," they are often +aged and infirm. But their pictorial effect is incomparable: and they +are real good Samaritans to the belated reveller, for they carry the +keys of all the street doors on their beat, so that the errant +householder can always steal quietly to cover, after he has awakened +half the parish in summoning "_Ser-êno-o!_" + +Light sleepers abominate the whole tribe; for they have powerful voices, +and their melodious bellow, "Twelve o'clock, and all serene!"--(the +refrain to which they owe their title)--is sure to arouse all the dogs +that happen to have stopped barking since eleven. It sounds such +gratuitous worry to make night hideous because the weather is fine. + +But it seems quite a passion with Spaniards to know how the time is +progressing--not from any regard of its monetary value, but merely from +an altruistic and dilettante point of view. They adopt at least three +bases of reckoning--the local time, the Madrid time, and the Western +European (by which the trains do _not_ start). All the clocks are at +variance with all of them: and the whole system seems solely contrived +for the bewilderment of the foreigner, for the _habitué_ impartially +ignores the lot. + +The people of Oviedo,--and, indeed, all Asturians and Gallegans,--are +esteemed an inferior race by your true Castilian. The prejudice is +rather puzzling: for "the mountains" are the cradle of the oldest and +bluest blood in Spain. But it is of very old standing; for even the Cid +Campeador, when administering the oath to Alfonso VI. (who was suspected +of complicity in King Sancho's murder[16]), could devise no more +humiliating adjuration than "If you swear falsely, may you be slain by +an Oviedan!" + +[Illustration: OVIEDO + +A Street near the Cathedral.] + +Perhaps the early warriors who sallied forth to achieve the reconquest +despised those who remained quietly behind in the mountains. And when in +later days royalty and chivalry made their home in the south, the +simpler northerners would come to be regarded as boors. Even to this day +the Asturian peasant seems to lack something of the formality of the +Castilian. He is less punctilious in enquiring "how you have passed the +night" of a morning; less prompt with the regular roadside greeting, +"May your honour go with God!" The slurring of these little niceties may +possibly be sufficient to brand him as a "bounder"; and there is no +stigma more hard to obliterate than this. + +For all these courteous trifles are the _shibboleth_ of high breeding to +a Spaniard, and a terrible stumbling-block to the blunt-spoken +Englishman,--so apt to give unwitting offence. The Spanish generals +always waited on Wellington to ask how he had slept, even when they knew +that he had watched all night in the trenches. If they omitted the +ceremony they feared he would deem himself slighted. "On the contrary," +quoth Alava drily, "he will be very much obliged." + +The Asturian monarchs had good reason for fixing their capital at +Oviedo; for it guards the main gateway of their kingdom, the chief of +the passes to the south. It lies not indeed at the actual mouth of the +valley, but a little on one side of it. Our road has to struggle over a +couple of thousand-foot ridges ere it can lay its course straight for +its goal. These two preliminary mountains we resolved to put behind us +in the evening, and keep a clear day for the Pass of Pajares itself. + +Our overture was by no means a trifle. It was dark when we began the +second descent, and the iron furnaces of Miéres glowed up out of the +black profundity beneath us like little volcano craters anxious to win +themselves fame. Miéres is a village of ironworkers, and rather shabby +and grimy in consequence: yet we were glad to gain its shelter, for the +sky had long been threatening, and the storm broke soon after our +arrival--a true mountain tempest, with the rain roaring on the roof like +a cataract, and incessant flashes of lightning illuminating the valley +with the brightness of day. + +Storm succeeded storm throughout the night, and the outlook next +morning was far from promising. But we took our courage in both hands +and started at the first break in the downpour. The valley was choked +with mist, and the road in a state of unutterable slabbiness: yet our +enterprise was soon rewarded, for the weather had done its worst in the +darkness, and the sunshine brought the vapours steaming up out of the +meadows and banished them with the clouds across the summits of the +hills. + +The symptoms of industrial activity do not extend far above Miéres, and +Lena is but the quiet head village of a peaceful mountain glen. Lena is +famous for the possession of the precious little eighth-century church +of Sta Cristina, perhaps the most notable of the group for which the +Oviedo district is renowned; and the scenery amid which it is situated +is very similar to that of our own Welsh or Cumberland Highlands, though +planned on a larger scale. + +Hitherto the ascent has been gradual; but now the road takes to the side +of the mountain, and heaves itself up from shoulder to shoulder in a +vast skein of steadily rising zigzags; while the railway which has so +far accompanied it wanders off by itself into remote lateral valleys, +groping for an easy gradient to help it up its four-thousand-foot +climb. Twenty miles by road from Lena, and over thirty by rail, the +approach to the summit is long and arduous, though redeemed by most +lovely views. We have a vivid recollection of the glass of water which +was bestowed upon us by the woman in charge of the level crossing at the +foot of the final ascent. She was a Navarrese woman, and the water was +the most delicious in the world! + +At the final pitch the railway takes to a tunnel; and the road scrambles +alone to the saddle, rewarding its clients with the most magnificent +panorama,--looking out over the abysmal valley to the wilderness of pike +and fell on the westward, where the rigid outlines of the Peña Ubiña are +seldom destitute of snow. A rock-climber might break his neck very +satisfactorily among these savage crags. One great _aiguille_ in +particular seems to challenge him by its sheer inaccessibility--a rocky +splinter torn apart from its parent precipice, like another Napes +Needle, but probably a thousand feet high. When the Alps have become +unbearably Roshervilled, perhaps these untrodden fastnesses may solace +the _blasé_ mountaineer. + +The step which carries us across the Pass of Pajares is one of the most +decisive of any we have yet taken. It spans the frontier of Leon and +Asturias, the boundary of the realms of cloud and sun. The ridge parts +not merely two provinces but two climates, and we seem to enter the +tropics at a stride. Behind lies the green and flowery valley, and the +heathery slopes half veiled in tender haze; before are the hot bare +rocks, and the parched grass toasting itself under the stare of the +sunshine; and though the Atlantic clouds bank thick upon the northward, +it is only an occasional straggler who ventures across to the south. + +The scenery is perhaps less attractive, but on the whole even more +striking; for the rocks, as in all Spanish landscapes, take most daring +and original forms. The most remarkable example is near the foot of the +descent, just before arriving at the village of Pola de Gordon. Here the +limestone strata have been tilted up absolutely vertical, hard layers +alternating with soft, like the fat and lean in a piece of streaky +bacon. The principal hard layer forms the precipitous face of a +mountain, and stretches for a mile or more along the river, like a huge +surcharged retaining wall. The complementary layers are at first buried +in the mass behind; but presently the ridge dips to give passage to the +river, and rises again beyond in a bold conical hill, so that all the +layers become at once exposed. The soft strata at this point are +entirely weathered away, and the hard remain, like huge parallel +cock's-combs, rising as straight and steep as the parapets of a gigantic +stairway. These razor-back limestone ridges are a very characteristic +feature of Spanish mountain scenery; but nowhere else have I seen them +quite so strongly marked as here. + +We were not to escape from the Pass without one final downpour, but +luckily it caught us within reach of shelter at Pola de Gordon. A black, +oily cloud glued itself onto the mountain above the village, the windows +of Heaven were opened, and the deluge fell. It only lasted some thirty +minutes; but by that time the village was paddling, and all the +bye-lanes had converted themselves into foaming torrents which had piled +great dykes of shingle at intervals across the street. Yet all the while +we had been able to see the sky clear and brilliant under the fringe of +the storm-rack towards the southward; and three miles away, the road was +dry and dusty, and even the river that ran beside it was unconscious of +the coming flood. + +[Illustration: IN THE PASS OF PAJÁRES + +Near Pola de Gordon.] + +We finally slipped from the valley at the village of La Robla, and +mounted onto the bare, brown moorlands that slope towards the city of +Leon. The mountains come to a halt behind us as abruptly as if they were +toeing a line; and the vast level sweeping away from their feet to the +southward is broken only by the deeply grooved valleys of the Esla's +tributary streams. The effect is somewhat similar to the line of the +Merionethshire mountains breaking down into the Morfa. But this +remarkable emphasising of primary physical features is specially +characteristic of the geology of Spain. Leon itself lies low beside the +river, and only comes into view when we are close upon it; but the +cathedral spires are just high enough to overtop the upland, and form a +solitary landmark for several miles around. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +BENAVENTE, ZAMORA, AND TORO + + +The Esla valley runs down broad and level from Leon towards the south; a +monotonous umber-coloured valley, very different from the wild glens +whence its waters are derived. The road is straight and featureless, +though its newly-planted acacia avenues give some promise of ultimate +redemption; and the mud-built wayside villages have a forlorn and +collapsible air. + +Occasionally one lights upon a regular troglodyte settlement, a group of +bee-hive cellars excavated in the hillside, with the chimneys struggling +out among the sparse herbage which covers them. These caves have no +windows, and are lit only through the open doors, yet they continued to +be the homes of the peasantry till within comparatively recent days. +Indeed, in some few instances they are still inhabited; but generally +they are utilised only as storehouses and stables, while the population +has migrated bodily into the more modern cottages which have sprung up +to form the village at their side. + +The Esla itself is the most interesting item in the scenery. It flows +parallel with the road some two or three miles to the left, close under +the crumbling yellow cliffs which overlook the vale. Its course is +marked by trees and greenery, chiefly the inevitable poplar; and its +thin line of verdure, shot with flashes of sparkling water, is a welcome +relief to the dun and dusty plain. The riverside hamlets plastered upon +the face of the cliffs are so weather-nibbled and irregular, and so +exactly the colour of the grounding, that they might be taken for some +weird growth of parasitic fungus; and the whole scene has a most +convincingly Nilotic air. + +A short distance from Benavente occurred one of the few mishaps which it +was our lot to occasion. An old countryman was jogging sleepily along +the road before us with a mule and a donkey, when the animals suddenly +took fright at our approach. A Spaniard is commonly a good +horseman--when he is riding a horse. But he does not think it worth +while to ride a donkey, so he merely sits on it,--sans reins, sans +stirrups, with both his legs on one side, and no more control over his +mount than a sack of turnips. For a few strides our victim bounded +wildly between his panniers like an animated shuttlecock; and then +toppled over in ruin, while his beasts stampeded across the fields. We +recaptured his fugitives for him, and purchased his broken eggs; but I +fear that it somewhat soured our sympathy when we found him doing +nothing but wring his hands and bewail his losses meanwhile. We could +not help feeling that the "language" of an English teamster would have +furnished a much more satisfactory solution of his woes. + +Benavente stands upon a tongue of high ground between the Esla and +Orbigo valleys. The extreme tip is occupied by the old castle of the +Counts of Benavente, one of whom is immortalized by Velasquez in the +Prado gallery, clad in suit of armour which seems capable of reflecting +your face. But his once splendid palace is now a ruin,--plundered and +burnt by the stragglers of Sir John Moore's army; and the poor old town +itself, though it contains some interesting churches, has grown wofully +battered and threadbare since its _seigneurs_ were driven from their +home. + +[Illustration: BENAVENTE + +From above the Bridge of Castro Gonzalo.] + +Yet Benavente is not without honour among us Englishmen. Its name +figures upon a clasp of the Peninsular medal, and upon the colours of +the 10th Hussars. Here the leading squadrons of Napoleon just got +into touch with the rearguard of the retreating Moore;--and received a +smart buffet for their forwardness, which was not at all to the +Emperor's taste. The cavalry of the Imperial Guard had unexpectedly +forded the river; and were wellnigh overwhelming the pickets, when Paget +and his horsemen swooped upon them from behind the houses, rolled them +up with the loss of half their number, and captured their general, +Lefebre Desnouettes. Had Napoleon been an hour or two earlier he might +himself have been an eye-witness of their discomfiture from the high +ground above the Esla, the point from which my sketch was made. And it +is a pity he missed the opportunity; for it was not till Waterloo that +he would again see British cavalry in action, and it was the same Paget +who was to lead them on that momentous day. + +The _mêlée_ took place on the broad poplared plain which lies between +the town and the river, and the old bridge of Castro Gonzalo spans the +torrent a little below the Frenchmen's ford. It is a long, uneven stone +structure, with three timbered spans to remind us of the work of Moore's +sappers; and the steep bank which rises above it is famed for a humbler +scuffle, but one which was no less creditable to the parties chiefly +concerned. Three days before the cavalry skirmish, when the French were +known to be approaching, Privates Walton and Jackson of the 43rd were +posted here at nightfall with orders that, if attacked, one should hold +his ground and the other run back to call the picket. The night was dark +and squally, and the flood of foemen poured over them before they were +aware. Jackson ran back: but the horsemen were close behind him, and he +was cut down even as he gave the alarm. But when the picket stormed up +and the assailants were swept back into the darkness, they had not yet +finished with Walton,--that sentry was still at his post. His uniform +was pierced in twenty places and his bayonet was twisted like a +corkscrew; but like the "brave Lord Willoughby"[17] he was scrupulously +holding his ground! + +A finger-post and a kilometre stone stood side by side on the branch +road at the summit. The former said "To Zamora," and the latter "38 +kilos"; whereat we rejoiced and set our pace more leisurely, for the +daylight would last us for nearly another three hours. Yet presently as +the tale of _kilos_ petered out we began to experience misgivings. The +bare wide plateau of the _Tierra de Campos_ still rolled away before us +fold beyond fold; the sun was already close upon the horizon; and where +was the Duero valley wherein Zamora lies? + +Three _kilos_ more,--and still no sign of our haven.--Two +_kilos_,--one,--and our hopes were dashed to the ground. Our road shot +us out into one of the most desolate stretches of the great highway from +Madrid to Vigo; and a venerable shepherd who suddenly materialised out +of the empty landscape blandly informed us that Zamora was just "four +leagues." Our mistake was obvious enough. The 38 _kilos_, had of course +been reckoned from the junction with the highway. But a couple of wary +continental travellers should have been on their guard against so stale +a trap. + +At the first blush it seemed as though we were destined to fare every +bit as badly as we merited. The last glow was dying out of the sky +behind us, and a grumbling thunderstorm was nursing its wrath for us +ahead. But our good luck came to our rescue, and found us a city of +refuge:--the little hamlet of Montamarta, which was ambushed in a dip of +the road. + +By this time we had learned not to be too dainty about our quarters; yet +the _Parador_ at Montamarta was so very unassuming that at first we gave +it the go-by; and the landlord was an unshaven ruffian who seemed fully +capable of the blackest crimes. But the dingy little den to which he +ushered us was full of familiar faces:--Velasquez' jolly "Topers" +beaming over their wine-cups, the matchless "Booby of Cória," and wild +ragged goatherds and vine dressers, with whom Salvator Rosa might have +joined in "painting _jabeques_."[18] Rough as they looked, they were all +in the mildest of humours. It was a sight to see our murderous-looking +landlord truculently dandling his infant; while the mother crouched upon +the great hearth in the centre, supervising a multitude of pipkins which +were simmering in the glowing embers of the fire. "It is good, isn't +it?" she asked eagerly, as we essayed her stew: and she watched every +mouthful down our throats with affectionate solicitude to be sure that +we did justice to our meal. The kitchen was both dining and +sitting-room, and our garret was shared with the children, but our hosts +were determined to make us comfortable, and we forgot their +deficiencies in their zeal. There is no gilded luxury in a _Parador_, +but at least we felt sure we were welcome. One barely obtains toleration +in a _Metropole_ or a _Grand_. + +With dawn we were again on our journey, dodging our way past the +cavalcade of country-folk who were pouring along to market from the +various villages around. It was an easy stage. We had nearly made port +yester even. Within a few miles we were at Zamora gates. + +In our Protestant ignorance of times and seasons we were unaware that +the day was the festival of Corpus Christi; consequently the apparition +of a fifteen-foot pasteboard giant lurching deviously down the main +thoroughfare occasioned us a little mild bewilderment. This wandering +ogre, however, was fully entitled to liberty. All respectable Spanish +cities retain a team of giants as part of their ordinary municipal +outfit, and Corpus Christi day is the great occasion for parading them. +The tourist should always arrange to spend that festival in some good +old-established city where the choicest breeds are preserved. + +Zamora itself is quite old enough for the purpose. Its fine old +Romanesque cathedral was built by no less a person than the Bishop Don +Hieronymo, "that good one with the shaven crown," who so ably +represented the Church militant among the companions of the Cid. But +long before his day the old frontier fortress had made itself a name by +many a desperate resistance to the Moor, and the boast that "Zamora was +not won in an hour," still clings to the old dismantled ramparts which +were once its justification.[19] + +Moreover, the story of the greatest leaguer of all, is it not written in +the book of the Chronicle of the Cid, and as famous in Spanish annals as +the siege of Troy? For it came to pass that in the eleventh century King +Fernando the Great,[20] on his deathbed, divided his kingdoms among his +children; and the immediate and obvious consequence was a five-cornered +family duel which set all the said kingdoms by the ears. Sancho of +Castile had quickly dispossessed his brothers Garcia and Alfonso of +Galicia and Leon; and his sister Elvira had yielded to him her town of +Toro. Only Urraca his elder sister still held her patrimony; and +Zamora was too important a pledge to be left in any hands but his own. + +[Illustration: ZAMORA + +From the banks of the Duero.] + +"So King Sancho drew near and beheld Zamora how strongly it was built, +upon a cliff, with many massy towers and the river Duero running at the +foot thereof." It was no light task to reduce it, and he proffered +Valladolid in exchange. But my lady was in no mood to barter her +beautiful stronghold for commonplace Valladolid, and doubtless regarded +the offer from the same standpoint as her practical councillors,--"He +who assails you on the rock would soon drive you from the plain." + +The Castilian army lacked the aid of its champion: for Ruy Diaz had been +bred up with the princess at Zamora in Don Arias Gonzalo's household, +and would not fight against her in person "for the sake of old times." +Yet King Sancho was very competent to manage his own battles; and though +his assaults were abortive, he soon began to feel more sanguine of +blockade. Zamora was reduced to the last extremity when Vellido Dolphos, +a knight of the princess's, put into practice against King Sancho the +old ruse of Gobryas and Sextus Tarquinius. He feigned desertion, won the +confidence of the king, and assassinated him under the walls in the +course of a pretended reconnaissance, escaping again to the city when +the deed was done. Less fortunate than his prototypes who gained credit +for their services, Vellido Dolphos has ever since been held up to +execration as the very type and pattern of a traitor; and Don Diego +Ordoñez gave voice to the wrath of the Castilians by issuing a formal +challenge to the whole city of Zamora,--man, woman, and child, the babe +unborn, and the fishes in the river:--which even Don Quixote considered +was going a trifle too far. Yet the city was saved; for the heir to the +throne was Alfonso, and his return from exile put an end to the civil +war. + +It is a shame to tell the story in prose. Yet we cannot refrain from +recalling how Don Arias Gonzalo, the princess' foster-father, pointed +out to Don Diego Ordoñez what a very serious thing he had done in +challenging a whole cathedral city. How (no doubt with a grim chuckle) +he produced the Rules for such case made and provided, whereby it +appeared that the challenger must meet five champions in succession, and +be declared disgraced if he failed against any one;--which was +considerably more than Don Diego had bargained for! Nevertheless he put +a bold face on the matter and gallantly met and slew his two first +antagonists. But the third contest was indecisive; so honour was +declared satisfied, and all imputations withdrawn. The old chivalrous +legend makes a capital sauce for our musings as we pace the still +formidable ramparts from which Doña Urraca once looked down upon her +foes; or gaze up from the fortified bridge at the rock-built city above +us, towering over the waters of the Duero like the very embodiment of +romance. + +But meanwhile it is still Corpus Christi day; and the giants are +becoming impatient. We found them all four at the bridge-head, attended +by a large retinue of loiterers, and waiting outside a church door, like +camels at the eye of a needle. The show had not really begun. But as we +approached to investigate, there suddenly gushed upon us out of the +church itself as strange a medley as that which encountered Don Quixote +on a similar anniversary in the chariot of the Cortes of Death. First, +four minor giants--great goggling pumpkin-headed Prince Bulbos--and the +drum and fife band of Falstaff's ragged regiment. Then the processional +cross and candlesticks, and Our Lady gorgeous in a white silk frock, +borne shoulder-high on a litter, with her canopy bucketting along behind +her about half a length to the bad. More saints, also on litters--the +boys struggling and fighting for the honour of acting as bearers, and +getting cuffed into a shortlived sobriety by their indignant elders. And +finally the Host itself in its silver ark surrounded by chanting priests +with banners and tapers. The giants closed in behind it as it issued +from the door and beamed serenely down the long procession from their +commanding elevation in the rear. + +Whether the spectacle were a sacrament or a circus, seemed at first an +open question; but it was soon resolved. At once every head was +uncovered and every knee was bowed, and "_His Majesty's_"[21] progress +through the kneeling throng seemed all the more impressive for its +incongruous trappings. + +Beyond the bridge the procession received its final embellishment in the +accession of a mounted guard of honour; and throughout the rest of the +day it continued to parade the streets and call at the various churches, +while the populace thronged the balconies, crossing themselves, and +cheering, and showering their paper flowers impartially upon saints and +giants and the bald heads of the accompanying priests--an attention +which did not appear at all gratifying to the cavalry horses of the +escort. + +[Illustration: ZAMORA + +Church of Sta. Maria de la Horta.] + +The last we saw of them was in the market square at evening. The giants +were standing at the corners; and in the centre sat Margaret of Antioch, +Virgin and Martyr, on a grand practicable dragon which could wag its own +head and tail. She was understood to be an "Extra," the exclusive +property of Zamora, and not to be met with in less favoured localities. +But precisely what she was doing in this galley we could not ascertain. +As for the giants, they are allegorical, and typify the four quarters of +the globe;--concerning which explanation one can only say that it is +little better than none. + +The very Highest of High Masses was celebrated in the cathedral in +honour of the occasion. The priests were in their most gorgeous +vestments; the altar almost buried under a pyramid of silver plate; and +the walls of the cloisters draped with magnificent pieces of old Spanish +tapestry--Corah, Dathan and Abiram going down into the pit on horseback +like true _caballeros_, and Pharaoh pursuing the Israelites in a coach +and four. The service as usual was rather of a go-as-you-please +character; for the _Coro_ and _Capilla Mayor_[22] being completely +enclosed, it is only possible to watch the proceedings from the +transepts at the intersection. The congregation generally seem to treat +the affair like a "Caucus Race." They look on when they like, and leave +off when they like, and spend the intervals strolling round the aisles. +You are of course requested not to spit, or wear wooden shoes (which +seem equally obnoxious to Roman Catholics and Orangemen[23]). But +otherwise there are no restrictions: and there are certainly great +attractions in the side shows; for the chapels are a museum of medieval +art. + +The silver ark in which the Host made its progress was on show in one of +the aisles. All Spanish cathedral bodies are inordinately proud of this +piece of furniture (which is generally modern and tawdry); and there is +no nearer way to the sacristan's heart than to tell him that his +specimen is a finer one than that which you saw last at some rival +town--Salamanca, for instance. There is a warm neighbourly hatred +between Zamora and Salamanca; and once when I incautiously admitted +that the Salamanca people had told me there was nothing to see here, I +thought I should have produced an _émeute_. + +Wherefore I would exhort future travellers not to be misled by those +Salamanca people. For Zamora is not merely ancient; it is even (in some +ways) up to date. It is somewhat of a shock to an antiquarian to +discover that the town is fully equipped with electric light; still more +so to realise that the power station is established in the old church of +Sta Maria de la Horta, with the dynamos purring among the arcades, and +the chimney tucked in behind the tower. But one soon gets reconciled to +these little incongruities. In Spain they are really so common that one +learns to expect them from the first. + +The town of Toro stands some twenty miles further up the river than +Zamora, and makes a capital partner for its neighbour. Indeed, at first +sight it seems even more imposingly situated, for it rises on a much +loftier hill. But its cliffs are only of soft alluvial deposit instead +of solid rock; and its walls built only of mud, which has now nearly +crumbled away. In other respects they are not ill-matched, for the +streets of Toro are fully as picturesque as those of Zamora, and its +great collegiate church not unworthy of comparison with the cathedral. + +The streets, as in most Spanish towns, are empty and deserted during the +heat of the afternoon; the houses closely shuttered, and the people +within doors. But as soon as the shadows have lengthened across the +roadway, they turn out unanimously on to the pavement, where they sit +spinning, sewing, and gossiping, in a sort of semi-publicity. In +unsophisticated districts the women (like mermaids) are much addicted to +combing each other's hair. The operator sits on a low chair or doorstep, +while her subject settles herself upon the ground at her feet, with her +head thrown back upon the other's lap, and her thick black mane flooding +out over her knees. A very pretty and poetical little group they +make--_if you do not pry too curiously into the details_. The younger +women have frequently magnificent hair; for they are quite innocent of +"transformations," yet their brows are most copiously crowned. One girl +at Salamanca wore a thick black pigtail that was positively tapping her +heels; and the beauty of Astorga (who was also of pigtail age) was not +many inches inferior. + +[Illustration: A SPANISH PATIO] + +The majority of the houses in the town are probably not more than a +couple of centuries old; but amongst them are a few genuine _Solares_, +once the homes of _hidalgos_ and grandees. It was to one of these that +the "_Conde Duque_" of Olivares, the celebrated minister of Philip IV., +retired upon his disgrace and banishment from court; philosophically +busying himself with the cultivation of cabbages,--those gawky +long-stalked abortions, uncannily suggestive of Encrinites, which still +fill all the gardens round the town. Here he was visited by Gil Blas, +his quondam secretary, who flattered him with smug allusions to +Diocletian. Here also he used occasionally to entertain a more worthy +guest,--the painter Velasquez, who was too high-minded to desert his old +patron merely because he was under the displeasure of the king. +Politically Olivares was as worthless and corrupt as any of his rivals, +yet he evidently had an attractive personality. Quevedo, imprisoned four +years in the Leonese dungeon for lampooning him, would probably remember +him in a less amiable light! + +The lofty situation of the city gives it an immensely extensive outlook; +for the left bank of the Duero is flat and low-lying, and but for the +interposition of the high heathy ground about Fuentesauco, one would +almost certainly be able to descry the spires of Salamanca itself. +Doubtless Marshal Marmont used frequently to pace the terrace of the +collegiate church when his headquarters were established here in the +summer of 1812; gazing out over his future battleground and planning +those intricate manoeuvres which were to close in disaster and +disgrace. + +The scene of that final catastrophe is too far distant to be visible. +But a scarcely less notable conflict actually takes its name from the +town. This was the famous battle of Toro, which put an end to the civil +war at the opening of the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, and seated +the Catholic kings firmly upon their throne. The rebellious nobles had +fortified themselves by an alliance with Alfonso of Portugal, and both +Toro and Zamora were in their hands. Alfonso's headquarters were at +Toro, but Zamora was besieged by Ferdinand, and Alfonso marched to its +relief. Seeing that both towns stand on the northern bank of the river, +it is difficult to understand what the Portuguese king could hope to +effect by advancing on the south. Perhaps he fancied that Zamora still +commanded the bridge and that he would thus be able to enter +unopposed. But Ferdinand's grip was too close; the bridge was in his +hands, and Alfonso had no choice but to return. + +[Illustration: TORO + +From the banks of the Duero.] + +Ferdinand hurried his forces across the river in pursuit. His own army, +as usual in medieval days, could not be maintained at fighting strength +for many weeks together, and he was now nowise loth "to put it to the +touch to gain or lose it all." He came up with his foe a little distance +short of Toro. Mendoza was leading; and headed the charge against the +troops of his brother prelate the Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo, with a +breezy vehemence worthy of old Picton at Vitória, "Come on, you +villains! I'm as good a Cardinal as he!" The weary, overmarched +Portuguese were unable to sustain the onset; and their only retreat to +Toro lay over the narrow patchwork bridge. Alfonso himself escaped, but +there was no further fighting. The Catholic kings commemorated their +victory by the erection of the great church of San Juan de los Reyes at +Toledo, and the revolted nobles hastened to "come in" upon the best +available terms. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +SALAMANCA + + +Spain is far poorer in lakes than in mountains: and the deficiency has +compensations, as it discourages the breeding of flies. But it offers a +rare opportunity for the disquisitions of a militant geologist, for the +lakes must have swamped all other physical features in the days when the +hills were young. Liebana and the Vierzo have been already conceded, but +he regards these as drops in the ocean. Now he claims the whole basin of +the Duero from the Cordillera of Cantabria to the Sierras of Grédos and +Guadarrama, from the highlands of la Demanda and Moncayo to the rocky +barrier on the frontiers of Portugal, through which the pent-up waters +at length cleft their passage to the sea. + +Now the dry bed of an ancient lake is not in itself an ideal foundation +for a landscape; particularly when its original conformation is +remorselessly emphasised by the entire omission of fences and of trees. +The mud which formed the bottom has settled unevenly; and the rivers +have eroded it into yawning channels, whose steep sides (so prominent at +Toro) are scarped and furrowed into myriads of wrinkles by the scouring +of the winter rains. The district is not unfertile, for it is a land of +corn and wine and oil-olive, and water may be found at no great depth; +yet the surface soil is parched and dusty, the villages few and far +between, and great tracts of the higher ground consist of untilled +heaths where the ilex and cistus make their profit out of the heritage +unclaimed by man. + +It scarcely seems an interesting district for a walking tour, yet we +were barely started before we fell in with one who thought otherwise. He +was English, of course:--mad as usual, despite his Spanish domicile; and +we fraternised with him at a wayside fountain where he recognised us as +compatriots (by our Spanish) directly we saluted him. Our programmes had +something in common, but his was by far the more onerous, and none but +the veriest devotee of the _Wanderlust_ could have ventured to undertake +it without some inward qualms. A long solitary tramp, and mostly +through desolate country, over mountain and moorland, from Toro, all the +way to Valéncia del Cid. True, he was a naturalist and an antiquary, and +could speak the language like a native; yet, if he was proof against +boredom, he must have been very good company to himself. It is not every +traveller who could rely so exclusively on his own resources. The ideal +tramp, like Don Quixote's ideal knight-errant, needs to be equipped with +"most of the sciences in the world." + +Fortunately the cyclist's self-sufficiency is not tested nearly so +highly. He moves both further and faster than the pedestrian,--covering +two days' march in a single morning's ride. For him the great Spanish +plains are shorn of half their monotony; and if he loves Spain he may +blame me for hinting at monotony even here. He finds something strangely +exhilarating in the gorgeous sunshine, the dry crisp air, the unrivalled +immensity of landscape, and the all-pervading silence, so grateful after +London's maddening din. Spain is pre-eminently a land of ample horizons, +of panoramas, and bird's-eye views. The hollow conformation of the +plains gives the widest of scope to the vision, and the pale blue peaks +which enclose them may be as much as one hundred miles away. Standing +on the summit of the Guadarrama passes, we were wellnigh able to +persuade ourselves that the peaks just above us might disclose a view +extending from the Cantabrian mountains even to the Sierra Nevada;--all +the kingdoms of Spain and the glory of them at a single _coup-d'oeil_. + +The purity of the atmosphere indeed is downright bewildering, and our +first preconceptions of distances went wandering wildly astray. Even as +far on our way as Madrid, a fortnight later, we found that we had not +yet been schooled to credit the milestones against the evidence of our +eyes. Madrid lay there before us: we could tell every house, every +window. It was absurd to try and convince us that it was ten kilometres +away! Yet we passed nine stony compurgators ere we reached the Toledo +gateway; and even our own cyclometers professed themselves "all of a +tale." The illusion is accentuated by the great distances which separate +the hamlets, and the absence of any intervening landmarks on the bare +red plains between. + +Meanwhile the details of the landscape are far from uninteresting. The +heath flowers are varied and plentiful and the butterflies brilliant in +the extreme. The whole air rings with the yelling of the cicadas or the +croaking of the frogs in the rare and starveling streams. Little brown +lizards are numerous even in the mountains, but here on the plains is a +more imposing breed; great green monsters fifteen inches in length, who +lie out sunning themselves in the dust of the roadway, and scuttle +wildly to cover as our shadows sweep silently by. The natives eat +them;--so possibly does the tourist also, for many are the unsuspected +ingredients which are involved in the meshes of a Spanish stew. + +The birds also, such as there are, seem exclusively decorative +specimens. First among these are the hoopoes, with their black and white +barred plumage, and their feather crowns, the gift of Solomon the Wise. +They have a strong fellow-feeling for the cyclist, and flit from tree to +tree along the road beside him with the most engaging _cameraderie_. If +they get too far ahead they will perch and await him, cocking their +crests and _hoo-poo-pooing_ encouragement; and once more resume their +swift drooping flight as soon as he draws level. Should these lines meet +their eyes they are assured that their companionship was much +appreciated. The little watery gullies where the frogs live are +generally picketted by the storks. Magpies too are alarmingly plentiful +in the wild stony districts along the feet of the mountains. Seven at a +time is all very well,--at least one knows Who to expect then,--but what +grislier horror is portended by thirteen? A Grand Inquisitor? + +[Illustration: SALAMANCA + +Arcades in the Plaza de la Verdura.] + +Men as a rule seem scarcely so numerous as magpies, and one may ride for +miles at a stretch without encountering a soul; but those whom you do +meet are admirably in rapport with their surroundings; and though their +pursuits may be prosaic their appearance would illustrate a romance. +This solitary horseman, for instance, is probably a most commonplace +personage in reality. We shall sit next to him at _comida_ in an hour or +two, and discover that he is an eminently innocuous bagman. But out here +in the midst of the wilderness, clad in his broad-brimmed hat and his +ample black cloak which muffles him up to the eyes, he might pass as a +living embodiment of Roque Guinart himself, and we rather plume +ourselves on our resolution in venturing to keep to the road. The +Spaniard as a rule wraps himself up amazingly when he goes a-travelling; +and the Scotch shepherd sallying out to visit his flock in a December +snowstorm is not more jealously plaided than the Castilian carrier +trudging along beside his pack mules, with his purple shadow blotting +the dusty roadway at his feet. By way of contrast one may occasionally +see the small children scampering about outside the cabin doors without +so much as a rag of any description whatever--an infinitely more +enviable costume. + +The greater number of the vehicles are ramshackle tilt-waggons, drawn by +a goodly array of mules, five or seven in a string. These have a horrid +habit of pulling _en échelon_, so that each beast has a clear view of +all the road ahead of him, and can make up his mind exactly what he +means to shy at. This formation occupies the whole width of the roadway, +and the driver (being a driver) is of course asleep; consequently, if +you have a rock wall on one side and an everlasting vertical precipice +on the other, you had better be careful how you pass. Indeed, it is well +to give them a wide berth in any case, for even the immortal Bayard +himself, "without fear and without reproach," professed himself anxious +about his shins in the neighbourhood of a Spanish mule. They are +harnessed with delightful inconsequence in all sorts of gay tags and +fringes, and scraps of old caparisons of yellow Cordovan leather; while +all deficiencies are eked out with string. This requires great +quantities of string. The waggons which they draw are equally +patchworky, with their cargoes bulging out on all sides in an imminently +precarious fashion. In the wine districts they generally carry an +"extra" in the shape of a huge tun slung under the axle between the +lofty wheels. + +It is worthy of remark that a Spanish "gee-upper"[24] is commonly unable +to think of any worse name for a mule than its own. "Arré! Mula!!" he +cries, and collapses impotently. What more can he call it? It _is_ a +mule. To do him justice, however, he seldom resorts to blows to +reinforce his vocabulary; and the cruelty so often inveighed against in +southern countries is not very noticeable in northern Spain. The beasts +are gaunt, bony, and ill-kempt, but herein they are no worse off than +their drivers: they are too often worked when galled or foundered; yet +this is but negative heedlessness, and positive misusage is rare. + +The temper of the beasts is uncertain. The ox and the ass are +phlegmatic, but the horse and mule (which have no understanding) have +decidedly fidgetty nerves. The mules are frequently gigantic animals, as +high-standing and big-boned as an English dray-horse, though much less +heavy and muscular. Mixed teams are frequently requisitioned in the +mountain districts. One sample that we met had a horse for leader, then +two mules tandem, a pair of oxen, and a mule in the shafts; another had +a mule for shafter, with two more mules outside the shafts, a fourth +ahead, and three yoke of oxen to lead the way. It is extremely +fashionable to finish off the string with a diminutive donkey (generally +the smaller the better) tacked on as a sort of afterthought at the head +of the whole cavalcade. He looks as though meant for a tassel, but is +really played as a pace-maker; for he is always the fastest walker and +the most enthusiastic worker in the team. + +There was a real "little Benjamin" of jackasses that we met on the road +near Segóvia. Two men were coming into the town in charge of a bull; and +by way of getting the hulk steered with as little personal attention as +might be, it had struck them to harness this trifle to the monster's +spreading horns. Had the bull really resented the arrangement it would +have cost him but a turn of the head to heave the whole equipage over +the parapet among the tops of the poplars below. Fortunately, however, +he was not actively annoyed--only rather grumpy and puzzled. Every +few steps he would stop, shaking his head and bellowing; while his +little pilot gathered himself together, drove in his toes, and flung +himself into the collar with the exalted enthusiasm that does not reck +of odds. He fairly squirmed with glee as his charge condescended to move +a step or two forward, and evidently considered that every yard of +progress was exclusively attributable to himself. + +[Illustration: SALAMANCA + +Church of San Martin.] + +We took our last look at the Cantabrian mountains from the crest of the +watershed between the Duero and Tormes; and the same hill that concealed +them brought us into full view of another equally imposing range to the +southward--the Sierra de Grédos, whose monarch, the Plaza Almanzor, is +only a few feet inferior even to the Rock of Ages which dominates Europa +Pikes. But it is to the fallows around us that our first attention is +owing;--a site which should stir the imagination of an Englishman as Don +Quixote's was stirred on the Campo de Montiel. + +Over these bleak, red plough lands for six long July days in 1812 the +armies of Marmont and of Wellington marched and countermarched and +circled round each other like dancers in some vast quadrille or chess +players fencing for an opening. Neither leader would risk a doubtful +action; for the French Army of the Centre was rapidly approaching, and +its junction might make or mar a victory. Almost within speaking +distance, they raced for advantage in position, and scarcely once did +they pause to exchange a blow. It was a repetition of the old drama +enacted centuries before by Cæsar and Afranius upon the plains of +Lérida. But the Cæsar of this production was playing Afranius' _rôle_. + +Marmont had the pace of his opponent, and Wellington pivoted round +Salamanca to guard his communications with Rodrigo. Foiled on the right, +Marmont dashed round to the left, forded the Tormes and thrust at +Salamanca from the south. Wellington still faced him; but King Joseph +was now close upon him, and within two days at furthest the English +would be hopelessly outnumbered by the junction of the hostile hosts. +Retreat was inevitable: had, indeed, already commenced; for the baggage +was on the move, and Wellington was but waiting for nightfall to cover +the withdrawal of his fighting line. + +"A silver bridge for a retreating enemy," saith the Spanish proverb; but +Napoleon's aspiring young marshal had been trained in a more aggressive +school. He knew that his troops were the speedier, that Joseph's +junction would bring a winning superiority of numbers. If he could but +hold the English to their position for another day the campaign might be +finished at a blow;--and he eagerly pushed on his left under Maucune to +command the Rodrigo road. Clausel's brigade, already wheeling in from +the rear, would link the left to the centre; and his foe would be in a +cleft stick. But Clausel's march was limed in the thick web of olive +woods which mantles the hills towards Alba; the fatal gap yawned +conspicuous behind the hurrying columns; and in an instant Wellington +pounced upon Maucune. + +Well was it for Marmont that the day was now far spent, and that the +fords of the Tormes had been left unguarded! For never was victory more +rapid or more complete. In forty minutes Marmont's magnificent army of +forty thousand men were a horde of disorganized fugitives; and the whole +of the central provinces lay defenceless at the feet of his foe. + +It seems a little strange that Salamanca should contain no monument of +the great battle which freed half Spain from the grasp of the invader, +and which, in after years, the mighty victor himself was wont to regard +as his masterpiece--the Austerlitz of his career. Its only memorials +nowadays are a few forgotten tablets on the walls of the great +cathedral: from the roof of which the anxious townsfolk once heard the +sudden roar of the closing battle, and watched the great column of smoke +and dust soaring up slowly over Arapiles into the placid evening sky. + +Salamanca shows itself off to best advantage when approached from the +southern side. It stands upon rising ground on the right bank of the +Tormes, with a fine old Roman bridge leading up to it across the stream. +The river banks are lined with voluble washerwomen,--at least a quarter +of a mile of them, fairly elbowing one another as they chatter over +their work; and behind them the red-roofed houses of the city are piled +up the slope in picturesque disarray. The most prominent object is the +great cathedral, a sixteenth century Gothic building of the type that is +only to be encountered in Spain. It is of imposing proportions, and +lavishly ornamented with a marvellous profusion of delicate carving +which could not possibly have stood the exposure to the weather in any +less favourable clime. Yet it lacks the deep mouldings and majestic +solidity of earlier works; and this somewhat academic pretentiousness +is not nearly so impressive as the stunted strength of the old +cathedral which nestles under the shadow of its more showy sister--a +typical Romanesque edifice, rude, massive, and solemn, like an oak +beside a poplar colonnade. + +[Illustration: SALAMANCA + +From the left bank of the Tormes.] + +No city suffered more than Salamanca from Napoleon's disastrous +invasion; and what that implies let her fellow victims testify! The +French are pleased to regard themselves as the modern Athenians;--the +modern Vandals is the name that their neighbours might prefer! Gaiseric +himself never systematised pillage like Napoleon; and who can wonder at +the savage retaliation of the _Partidas_ when he sees the havoc which +was wrought in unhappy Spain? "Twenty-five convents, twenty-five +colleges, and twenty-five arches to the bridge," was the boast of the +citizens of Salamanca before the days of their visitation. But no less +than twenty colleges and thirteen convents (amongst them some of the +noblest Renaissance monuments) were razed to the ground by the +remorseless Marmont when he built his three great redoubts to fortify +the town against Wellington in 1812; and a ghastly bald scar in the +midst of the crowded city still marks the spot where the tyrant's hand +was laid. It is but poor consolation to remember that the ramparts +erected at this frightful cost crumpled up like the pasteboard helmet +beneath the stroke of his mightier foe: and that Marmont himself reaped +a small instalment of his whirlwind within actual sight of the city +which he had marred. + +Perhaps it is hardly too much to assert that at the end of the +eighteenth century Salamanca must have been the most magnificently +housed university in the world. Even now, after all her losses, I can +think of no other on the Continent which can so well stand comparison +with our own. But, alas! she has fallen upon evil days. The famous Irish +college had a population of seven (Dons and Students included) at the +time of our visit; and the salaries of the professors are such as no +master of a board school would consider adequate in England. The +Augustan age of Salamanca commenced in the reign of Ferdinand and +Isabella; and was perhaps already declining when Gil Blas visited it +with his adventurous young mistress masquerading in her doublet and +hose. Then the city had more students than it has now inhabitants; and +even Paris and Bologna admitted the superiority of the Salamanca +schools. She was a progressive university too; and albeit she rejected +Columbus, she at least accepted Copernicus--a considerable step on the +way. In one respect her example might inspire present-day universities, +for here it was that a lady first held a professorial chair. + +The great gate of the Library is now the chief relic of these bygone +glories: and that gem of the early Renaissance is worthily supported by +the arcaded quadrangles of some of the colleges and schools. They are +built of the warm golden-brown stone which is common to most Salamancan +monuments, and their richly-carved parapets and fantastically-shaped +arches have an air of oriental opulence which is very taking to the eye. + +But even apart from its churches, convents, and colleges, Salamanca +would still remain notable by reason of its palaces alone. First among +these is the _Casa de las Conchas_,--spangled all over with the great +stone scallop shells from which it derives its name. It is even more +striking and original than its larger and lordlier rival, the famous +_Palacio de Monterey_; and I owe it a special acknowledgment for the +liberty which I have taken with it in pirating its façade to serve as +the cover of this volume. + +The Castilian and Leonese _casas_ have much in common with the typical +Florentine palaces; and even their cousins of Aragon only differ from +them in so far as they are brick instead of stone. Towards the street +they present a square and solemn façade, plain or heavily rusticated, +and pierced with but few windows, which are always stoutly barred. The +entrance is large and plain, and generally arched over with enormously +deep _voussoirs_, which have a very imposing effect. Within is an open +_patio_ surrounded by a double arcade. A fine staircase in a recess +gives access to the upper tier; and the rooms which are ranged around +the gallery all open direct into the air. The centre of the _patio_ is +occupied by a well or fountain, and is often filled with flowers. The +type seems exceptionally suitable to a semi-tropical country; yet modern +builders will have none of it; and, though common in all provincial +capitals, it is nowhere to be met with in Madrid. + +In a second and smaller type of house the great entrance doorway +occupies practically the whole of the ground-floor frontage. Obviously +it was generally entered on horseback, and the hall within (like that of +a village _posada_) served as antechamber both to the living rooms above +and to the stables behind. The family lived on the first and second +floors, while the third was originally a _belvedere_. But nowadays the +latter has been enclosed and the ground floor generally converted into a +shop. + +[Illustration: SALAMANCA + +The Puerta del Rio, with the Cathedral Tower.] + +It is one of the penalties of sketching in a crowded city that everybody +who has no immediate occupation of his own becomes consumingly +interested in yours. There is but one spot in Salamanca where one is +quite secure from surveillance, and that is opposite the porch of San +Martin, perhaps the most frequented corner in the town. Here, balanced +gingerly upon a narrow ledge, you overlook the heads of the bystanders, +and even the most agile urchin can find no foothold in your rear. + +Yet the immunity is hardly worth winning. At best it is very +uncomfortable; and if you submit to your heckling, the entertainment is +not all on one side. At the bridge head it even secured me the offer of +a commission. The Boniface of the little wine-shop was urgent with me to +reproduce my sketch enlarged upon the front of his bar. My recompense +was to comprise full board and lodging during the operation,--and that +would have been no trifle. But he must have had considerable faith in +the covering capacity of water colours to pit a little twenty-pan +paint-box against fifty square feet of deal boards. + +But it was at the _Puerta del Rio_ that I found my _entourage_ of most +practical utility. It had been snowing overnight in the mountains, and +the Sierra de Grédos was draped from base to summit in a mantle of +dazzling white. In spite of the brilliant sunshine the wind was +incredibly bitter, and the miserable sketcher would have been frozen +without his human screen. Truly "Winter is not over till the fortieth of +May" within reach of those icy summits. The Duke of Wellington asserted +that the coldest thing in his recollection was the wind at Salamanca in +July! + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +BÉJAR, ÁVILA, AND ESCORIAL + + +There were "Bulls at Salamanca" (so ran the placards) on the day when we +were to resume our journey towards the south; and the _Señor Patron_ +seemed quite crestfallen at realising that we had no intention of +deferring our departure in order to witness the fun. Bull-fighting was +_not_ cruel, he protested. That was all our inexplicable British +prejudice. And as patrons of prize-fights and football we ought to be +the last to throw stones. We were rather expected to sympathise with the +national sport of Spain. + +His conclusion was truer than his reasoning. There are certain thrilling +forms of playing with death amiably tolerated by the British public +which are logically no whit better than bull-fighting: and it is not +humanity but fashion that dictates to us which to condemn. Only a few +days earlier an unfortunate woman had been killed at Madrid while +"looping the loop" on a motor; and the Spanish papers (those eager +reporters of bull-fights) were all most properly indignant at the +dangerous and degrading character of this new-fangled foreign show. Our +British high-toned repugnance is distinctly less moral than squeamish. +But we did not want our feelings harrowed in the midst of a holiday +tour. + +Bull-fighting is one of the many sports that have been ruined by +professionalism. In the days when the young gallants of the court +encountered the bull themselves, on their own horses, before the eyes of +their lady-loves in the _Plaza Mayor_, there was a spice of chivalry +about the proceeding that half redeemed its brutality. It was truly a +sport then, albeit a savage one; but now it is merely a show. + +Moreover, even our host admitted that this time the _Corrida_ would be +shorn of its foremost attraction. It was to have been inaugurated by a +bull-fighting _Pierrot_ who was wont to await the first rush of the +monster motionless upon a tub in the centre of the arena. The bull would +charge headlong upon him,--check, sniff, and turn away. No doubt he owed +his immunity to his apparent lifelessness; but it was billed as the +"power of the human eye." Alas! on the last occasion his programme had +miscarried. Just at the critical moment a fly had settled on his nose; +and for one infinitesimal fraction of a second the entire voltage of the +human eye was switched upon that miserable insect. The effect on the fly +was not stated, but it markedly reassured the bull. Poor _Pierrot_ had +been tossed as high as a rocket, and apparently was not expected down +again in time for the performance to-day. + +The two English visitors to Salamanca also failed to figure at the +function. They had crossed the bridge very early in the morning, and +were heading for the mountains of Grédos by the highway leading to +Béjar. The actual battlefield was passed upon the left, about four miles +distant from Salamanca, subtending the angle formed by the roads to Alba +and Béjar; and the olive woods which so hampered Clausel spread wide +around us over the hills behind. It was a just Nemesis which overtook +the invaders on this occasion, for the destruction of olive trees for +fuel had been one of their most gratuitous outrages during the war. The +olive is a slow grower, and a few hours' reckless cutting might take +half a century to repair. + +At first the road rises gradually and the country is open and +undulating; but soon it gets deeply involved in a labyrinth of +mountains, and tacks despairingly backwards and forwards in vain +endeavours to twist itself free from the toils. Finally it extricates +itself by a frantic rush up a long steep hill, and resumes its journey +at first-floor level along the shoulders of the range. Some distance +further west it manages to discover a passage across the main ridge into +the province of Estremadura; but the town of Béjar itself lies four or +five miles upon the hither side. + +[Illustration: BÉJAR + +An Approach to the Town.] + +Hope had told us a flattering tale concerning the attractions of Béjar. +A Salamanca gentleman to whom we confided our intention of visiting it +had kissed his finger-tips ecstatically at the mere mention of its name. +"_Muy bonita!_"[25] he exclaimed. "_Preciosa!!_" And truly his +adjectives were excusable; for a more charming situation for a mountain +township it is almost impossible to conceive. A long knife-edged ridge +is thrown out from the range at right angles. The one street is carried +along its crest, and the houses cling to either side of it like panniers +on the back of a mule. A great snowclad peak, one of the minor +summits of the Sierra, towers above the head of the ridge and gravely +surveys the street from end to end; while the extreme point looks out +over the wild hummocky country towards Ciudad Rodrigo, with the great +masses of the Sierra de Gata and Peña de Francia surging up truculently +above the lower hills. Béjar is a fragment of Tyrolean scenery dropped +accidentally on the borders of Estremadura. Its buildings are nothing +remarkable, but its situation is irreproachably picturesque. + +The town was holding a little _Fiesta_ of its own upon the day of our +visit, and the advent of two pedlars with knapsacks was naturally +accepted as a part of the show. Several anxious enquirers stopped us in +the street to ascertain "what our honours were selling"; and the +prevalent notion appeared to be that we were vendors of edible snails! +Many of the country-folk had come in from the remoter villages and were +attired in the quaintest of costumes. The women wore very brief skirts, +which gave an exceedingly squat appearance to their sturdy thick-set +figures. The men had tight black breeches and jerkins adorned with +polished metal buttons; enormously broad leather belts something like +the cuirasses of the Roman legionaries, and forked leather aprons +loosely strapped down their thighs. This weird type of dress we had +already noticed at Salamanca; and for a hot climate it must be about the +most unsuitable ever conceived by man. + +The journey from Salamanca to Ávila entails a longer spell of Duero +valley scenery than that from Salamanca to Béjar; and for the best part +of a day we were perseveringly reeling off league after league of the +same dry red plough lands which had already wearied us in the North. It +was not till towards evening that the road at last began swerving and +plunging upon the great ground-swell which ripples out into the plain +from the feet of the Sierra de Guadarrama; and the huge granite boulders +littered about among the stunted ilex and gorse which clothed the shaggy +ridges apprised us that we had drawn within reach of the derelict +_moraines_. Still as we held our course each successive wave bore us +higher than its predecessor, till at last we looked down into a wide +upland basin, and beheld the towers of Ávila rising proudly upon their +daïs in the midst. + +[Illustration: BÉJAR + +A Corner in the Market-place.] + +There is no other walled town of my acquaintance that flaunts its +defences quite so defiantly as Ávila. Its circlet of tower and curtain +crests its great natural _glacis_ like the substantialised vision +of a mural crown. The walls themselves are only about twelve feet in +thickness, which is, of course, a mere trifle compared to Lugo and +Astorga; but it is height that tells, and their commanding situation +gives them an incomparably finer effect.[26] Only on the further side +has the city begun to overflow its ancient cincture; and with its core +of tightly-packed houses clustering round its great cathedral-fortress +which crowns the brow of the eminence, it still receives its latter-day +visitors in the same garb that it donned for the Cid. Doubtless the old +rebel barons had an eye to its scenic capabilities when they selected it +as the theatre for their mock deposition of Henrique IV. This thing was +not to be done in a corner, and the impudent pageant which they enacted +under its walls must have been visible for miles round. + +But the chief pride and glory of Ávila is the boast that it was the +birthplace of Sta Theresa, the "seraphic" lady whom a more emotional +epoch has preferred to the martial Santiago, and almost matched with the +Virgin herself as the modern patroness of Spain. + +Sta Theresa was quite a modern saint; and, like her contemporary +Ignatius Loyola, much more truly saintly than hagiologists would have us +infer. They would rather persist in belauding her visionary ecstasies +and ascetic self-mortification. Her practical common-sense and her +gentle resolution are dismissed as earthlier virtues: yet it was these +that made her a power. + +She certainly lost no time in beginning the practice of her profession, +for at the age of seven she persuaded her baby brother to run away with +her to Barbary to get martyred by the Moors. Being captured and brought +home by their distracted parents, they next decided upon becoming +hermits. But this notable scheme was also vetoed;--poor little mites! +Maybe we know other small children who have started somewhat similarly +on the road to canonization; but Theresa's romantic devotion outlasted +this fanciful stage. At the age of sixteen she assumed the veil--a step +which in wiser years she was not so eager to advocate, but in which she +found ample opportunity for the exercise of her piety and her zeal. Her +reform of the Carmelite nunneries was achieved in the teeth of great +opposition from the hierarchy of the day; and her literary work is of an +excellence that places her high among the classical writers of Spain. +It is to such as her and Loyola, rather than to Torquemada and Ximenes, +that the Roman Church owes its hold upon the people. And by these she is +dowered with the attributes which belong to Catherine of Siena in +another land. + +But perhaps the most remarkable honour ever accorded to her is the fact +that two hundred years after her death she was actually gazetted +commander-in-chief of the Spanish armies in the Peninsula war! Certainly +Louis XI. had previously honoured Our Lady of Embrun with the colonelcy +of his Scottish Guards. But here was a popular assembly, in the +nineteenth century, which could "see him and go one better"; a far more +deliberate extravagance than the whim of a fetish-cowed king. Of course +there was more method in their madness than appears on the surface. They +did not really want a commander-in-chief at all. What they did want was +a Name which should fire the enthusiasm of the peasantry, as the +citizens of Zaragoza had been fired by the name of Our Lady of the +Pillar. At the same time it must be admitted that matters seemed to move +more smoothly when she was superseded by the Duke of Wellington. + +The cathedral is a most massive structure of stern grey granite, with +its apse bulging out beyond the city walls--battlemented, loop-holed, +and machicolated like the profanest bastion of them all. It looks every +inch a castle, and has not served amiss when so utilised; for in the +great western tower the infant King Alfonso XI. (Father of Pedro the +Cruel) was kept safe from his would-be guardians during his long +minority, by the Bishop and people of Ávila. The interior of the +building is one of the noblest in Spain--severe, gloomy and solemn; but +furnished with that surpassing magnificence which only Spanish +cathedrals can boast. + +The old town itself is full of quaint nooks and corners, and most of its +streets and houses are as unalterably medieval as the walls. A county +council inspector would probably play sad havoc with them, for even if +they are sanitary they are terribly out of repair. There is a smell +which lingers distinctive in these old Spanish townships. Not indeed +altogether unpleasant, but rather grateful from association, like the +smell of the stone walls of the West country after a summer shower. It +is compounded of many simples, and its leading ingredient is garlic. But +it would be hard to prove its innocency before our stern courts of +hygiene. + +[Illustration: ÁVILA + +From the North-west.] + +A Spaniard, however, takes his risks more lightly than an Englishman. +Like Sancho Panza, he argues that the physician is worse than the +disease. Life is a shockingly hazardous business even on wafers and +_membrillo_, and perhaps, after all, roast partridge is not quite so +deadly as Hippocrates supposed. + +Perhaps the most notable of the many monasteries and churches of Ávila +is the Convent of San Tomas at the foot of the hill to the south. As in +many important Spanish churches, the choir is placed in a great stone +gallery at the west end, and in this instance the arrangement is +balanced by a similar gallery for the High Altar at the east. The floor +is occupied by the beautiful marble monument of Prince Juan, the only +son of Ferdinand and Isabella. The Catholic kings, fortunate in all +else, desired in vain that greatest blessing of all, the happiness of +their children. Juan, the hope of their kingdom, died a few months after +his marriage, and his posthumous child was still-born. Isabella, their +eldest daughter, torn from the cloister to give an heir to the crown, +was married to the Crown Prince of Portugal. Her young husband was +killed by a fall from his horse; and though she was again married to his +successor, she died in child-birth; and her infant son, heir to the +whole Peninsula, did not long survive. Poor mad Juana, crazed by the +neglect of her worthless husband, was the second daughter of the +ill-starred family, and the youngest was Catherine of Aragon. + +Ávila lies at an extremely lofty elevation, three thousand feet above +sea level; and both here and at Segóvia snow frequently falls as late as +the middle of May. The mountains immediately behind it, however, are but +the connecting link between the Sierras of Grédos and Guadarrama, and +all the loftier peaks lie at some distance east and west. A road leads +through the gap to Talavera de la Reyna (a circumstance, it may be +remembered, which was extremely fortunate for Sir John Moore).[27] But +we, being bound for Madrid, set our course along the north of the +mountains, heading eastward to join the main road from Vigo at the +little town of Villacastin. + +Our course lay over a brown and undulating moorland, with the Duero +plains to the left of us and the broken ridges of the Sierra rising up +boldly upon the right. The scene might well be matched in Scotland, +Donegal, or Connemara; for the granite mountains are very similar in +formation, and the purple hardhead which clothes them is an excellent +imitation of heather, though of a deeper shade, suggestive of royal +mourning. Here and there great tracts of the moorland, many acres in +extent, are thickly strewn with gigantic boulders, singly or in heaps, +like huge natural cairns. Doubtless these are _blocs perchés_, the +relics of extinct glaciers, like the similar blocks on the road from +Salamanca, or those near Ribadávia above the Miño vale. The road, as +usual, was almost deserted, but conscientiously patrolled by two very +large and splendid _carabineros_ mounted on humble asses, which could +scarcely raise their riders off the ground. + +At Villacastin we struck the great royal road for which we had been +making, and the mountains stretched out their arms to receive us as we +turned our faces towards the south. The day had been well advanced when +we quitted Ávila, and now it was nearly dusk. The mountains were of +indigo darkness, and the deep, closed valley into which we were plunging +was as black as the throat of a wolf. But the white road led us on +surely and steadily; and we knew that somewhere in the chasm before us +was the shelter upon which we were counting for the night. + +The _Fonda San Rafael_ is a long, low, straggling building, very similar +to our own old coaching inns, but much more primitive in style. The +village aristocracy were engaged at dominoes in the kitchen; and the +time which we wasted in dining they attempted to utilise more profitably +by mastering the English tongue. They borrowed our pocket dictionary and +started their task with enthusiasm. But this laudable access of energy +did not win the success it deserved. Unluckily they commenced operations +among the _sn's_--a combination which no Spaniard can ever pronounce +without an antecedent e. And they came such amazing croppers over +"_es-na-îl_," "_es-nâ-ké_" and "_es-ne-êzé_," that their bewildered +interpreters got as much at sea as themselves. + +[Illustration: ÁVILA + +A Posada Patio.] + +The ascent of the _Puerto de Guadarrama_ begins immediately beyond the +village; a series of long steep zigzags well shaded by slender pine +trees--the "spindles of Guadarrama," to which Don Quixote likened +Dulcinea. The climb in itself is not particularly arduous, but no doubt +it is an ugly place in a December snowstorm; and so Napoleon found +to his cost, when he forced the passage in 1808, rushing northwards from +Madrid to fall upon the adventurous Moore. Marbot has left us a grisly +description of its snow-drifts and precipices; and the furious eddies of +whirlwind which swept horse and man to destruction as they struggled up +the icy paths. But probably his account is a little over-painted; for +precipices should be perennial both in summer and winter; but the +steepest which we could identify were about of tobogganing pitch. + +Viewed from the north, the pass is a saddle at the end of a long deep +valley; but its southern face forms an embrasure in a great mountain +wall. The whole valley of the Tagus seemed spread beneath us as we gazed +down from the summit; the plains all shimmering in a sea of purple heat +haze, and the blue Toledan mountains rising faint and ethereal upon the +further shore. So "Lot lifted up his eyes and looked and beheld all the +Vale of Jordan." The text seems singularly appropriate to many of these +vistas of Spain. A little later in the day, when the haze had been +lifted by the sunshine, every detail of the country would have shown up +as clearly as on a map. + +At the foot of the descent we swung to the right along a pleasant +undulating road amid trees and meadows and hedgerows. And here, as in +private duty bound, let us record our gratitude to Don Fernando, who +erected the noble fountain whereat we refreshed ourselves by the way. +Don Fernando's fountain is a great stone cistern, with the water gushing +into it from an upright pillar behind. Verily his spirit is at rest if +the wayfarers' prayers may avail him; for nowhere is water more +appreciated than in this land of wine. + +Don Fernando (_requiescat in pace_) is by no means the only benefactor +who has conferred such a boon on his countrymen. Almost every village +near the mountains is dowered with a tank in the _plaza_, and a generous +jet of water beneath which you may seethe your hissing head. Would that +we were as well off in England! For our fountains can furnish no more +than a miserable trickle, and even that is frequently dry. How often +have we raged unsatisfied from one faithless nozzle to another, while +the yokels mocked our agonies with commendations of the beer! Beer is +excellent in its way--but not when one is thirsty. Then _on revient +toujours à ses premiers amours_. [Greek: ARISTON MEN UDÔR]. + +The famous palace of Escorial opened suddenly before us as we rounded a +shoulder of the mountain, and there can be few palaces in the world +which occupy so imposing a site. It is often referred to as standing +upon a plain, but the description is entirely misleading. It rises upon +the lap of the mountains, high above the level of Madrid. Our first +view, moreover, much discounted our preconceived notions regarding its +gloomy appearance; for bathed in a flood of southern sunshine, it had +rather a cheerful aspect. But the very sunshine itself grew chilled as +we narrowed the radius; and the bare rude walls, vast, grey, and +featureless, like an enormously exaggerated Newgate, seemed to crush out +all the gladness of nature with their cold, unalterable frown. + +"First a tomb, next a convent, last a palace," was the ideal at which +the founder was aiming; and the massive asceticism of the building is an +apt reflection of his mood. It boasts itself the finest of all the great +monasteries: and if tested by weight or by measure, the claim could +hardly be denied. But this vast gloomy prison is a thing which has +nothing in common with the staid beauty of Poblet,[28] or the +Aladdin-like brilliance of the Certosa at Pavia. Yet the extreme +severity of its style is by no means inappropriate to the great church +which forms the central feature; and none that remember its grim +associations would wish to see the Escorial other than it is. + +The memory of Philip the Prudent is still held in honour by Spaniards, +for he reigned in the days of their glory, and was probably the most +powerful autocrat who ever occupied the throne. But history's more +equable judgment has condemned the reign as a failure, and the monarch +as one of the scourges of mankind. True, he has not lacked apologists; +for there is an uncanny fascination about his grim personality; and it +is not difficult to show some redeeming quality even in a Louis XI. or a +Richard III. But most of us prefer our history broadly coloured, with +good strong lights and shadows. We must be allowed a real villain +occasionally; and, till such time as we get Iago incarnate, Philip II. +will do very sufficiently well. "A rake in his youth, a monster in his +manhood, a miser in his old age;"--the bitter epitaph scribbled up over +his deathbed paints his character in three lines. + +[Illustration: ESCORIAL + +From the East.] + +And yet none who has once visited the Escorial will thereafter think of +Philip without some glimmerings of respect. Our loathing for his +selfish and cruel tyranny is tempered with a kind of shuddering pity for +that other side of his character;--his gloomy religious mania, the taint +inherent in his blood. There was something of gruesome greatness in the +mind which could conceive such a building, "reserving for himself but a +cell in the house he was erecting for God." + +The Escorial was Philip's most cherished creation. Probably he had a +large share in designing it; certainly he watched it stone by stone as +it grew. Here he dwelt as "Brother Philip," a monk in his own monastery, +"ruling two worlds with a scrap of paper, from a cell on a mountain +side." Here he was worshipping when he received the news of Lepanto, and +of the destruction of the Armada. And it was with the same resolute +stoicism that he learned of the victory and of the defeat. Here he +died--the death of Herod Agrippa; sustaining his two months' agony with +a constancy worthy of de Seso himself.[29] And all that is left of him +rests in the little octagonal chapel beneath the High Altar, where his +sire and his successors share his tomb. His portrait by Pantoja hangs on +the walls of the library. A dreadful visage,--heartless, deceitful, +obstinate,--miserable beyond the power of words to express. But no +picture ever painted, no statue ever carved, could reveal his character +more vividly than the great gloomy pile of hard grey granite which he +himself has bequeathed as a legacy to posterity. + +Yet on one point the tyrant-hermit claims our unreserved approbation. He +displayed a most excellent taste in the matter of selecting a site. Here +we can feel no shadow of sympathy for his critics. His choice was +unexceptionable: and those who impugn it are blind. Indeed, this whole +range of Sierras is a region of singular beauty, and the charming old +towns which lie on the foot hills beneath it,--Béjar and Plaséncia, +Ávila and Segóvia,--give it an added interest which mountain districts +do not often possess. Charles V. was drawn hither to Yuste, as Philip to +Escorial: yet each held an ample dominion and neither was an incapable +_connoisseur_. The jaded soldier and statesman could wish for no +pleasanter resting-place than these grave highland solitudes which form +the backbone of Spain. + +The road which leads plainwards from Escorial to Madrid--"that splendid +road constructed regardless of cost for the gratification of a royal +caprice"--seems now scarce worthy of Macaulay's eulogies. Many of the +roads to the northward have had to encounter far greater engineering +difficulties, and show quite excellent results. Yet this and all other +Madrid roads are uniformly villanous; and when they amalgamate they +produce the Madrid paving, which is a thing to remember in bad dreams. + +The capital itself, however, does not show up badly when approached from +the northward; and the Royal Palace which dominates it, on the hill +above the Manzanares, is an exceedingly imposing pile. Aránjuez (we were +given to understand) considers itself equal to Windsor; but no one of +our acquaintance would dare mention Buckingham Palace in competition +with the _Palacio Real_ at Madrid. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +TOLEDO + + +There are but three reasons, that I know of, for anyone visiting Madrid. +First, that the roads (which are very bad) lead there; second, that the +Prado picture gallery (which was closed) is exceeding magnifical; and +third, that there is a bicycle repairer--which is an unsatisfactory +reason at best. Smart, well-groomed, busy cities with commodious +mansions and boulevards may be found (by such as have need of them) +within easier distances than this. And for those who seek old streets, +historic monuments, and that delightful aroma of medievalism which is +the true inward charm of the Peninsula,--are not the little crooked +_calles_ of Ávila and Segóvia and Toledo better than all the _carreras_ +of Madrid? + +To them the "Only Court" is no more than a convenient "jumping-off +place"; a head office of "Cooks'"; an _entrepôt_ of the central roads. +The Mecca of their pilgrimage lies fifty miles to the southward,--Toledo, +the ancient stronghold of the Moor, the Visigoth, and the Roman in the +days when none dreamed of such a kingdom as Castile. + +The map showed two roads to Toledo, and already I had sampled one of +them. "The Illescas road," I argued, "was as bad as possible"; and +"therefore the Aránjuez road is the best." My premise had been quite +unassailable, yet after all my deduction proved fallacious. More just, +and equally logical, was "therefore it has necessarily improved." + +The Aránjuez road, to do it justice, starts off with the most admirable +intentions; and as if it were really determined to arrive (as it +proposes) at Cadiz. But there is a sad slump in its prospects before it +has got far on the journey. It becomes stony and bumpy and hummocky, +with ruts like the furrows of a plough; and to steer a bicycle along the +narrow ribbon of practicable track at the margin is an operation of some +nicety, which is not at all facilitated by a heavy side wind. Presently +there is a lucid interval of good smooth surface, which lasts just long +enough to put the victim into good humour; and the final stage into +Aránjuez is like the shingle that is upon the sea-shore. + +Such are the habits of a Spanish road; and in a way its eccentricities +are consolatory. However bad it may be, you can always cherish the hope +that it will reform itself altogether round the next turn. There is no +reason why it should, but it often does. Of course, "in the alternative" +the converse is equally true, but that is a point which needs glossing. +Unless you foster a sanguine temperament you will make no progress at +all. + +I have dwelt at some length on the state of the road, but, indeed, at +this stage there is little else to dwell upon. A struggling avenue is +pluckily endeavouring to push a line of green pickets across the +dun-coloured plain; and here and there are a few miserly olives, each +perched upon the little hoard of soil clutched by its hungry roots. But +the only things that seem really to flourish are the gigantic six-foot +thistles, and I fear that is an ill-omened fertility. It is a greener +and leafier world when we descend into the Jarama valley. + +[Illustration: TOLEDO + +Bridge of Alcántara, from the Illescas Road.] + +Yet those who have heard Aránjuez described as a Garden of Eden in the +midst of a desolate wilderness are likely to find themselves somewhat +disillusioned by the reality. True, a tree is always a welcome object in +verdureless Castile; but the English elms which are the boast of King +Philip's oasis, "they grow best at home in the North Countree"; and +though they wear a brave face, they must envy the ample glades and rich +green turf which their brethren enjoy in the parks of England. That the +much-vaunted palace itself should prove rather a failure need surprise +no one. The Spanish nobles are town-dwellers, and a country seat such as +Haddon, or Hatfield, or Burleigh, is quite beyond their ken. Aránjuez +was a first attempt, and is not the right plant for the soil. Perhaps +Hampton Court, enlarged and remodelled in the style of an Alexandra +Palace, might convey some notion of its cheap tea-gardeny air: but even +the river is uninteresting--a reproach that can seldom be levelled at +the Tagus! + +I had been cheering my flagging spirits by the anticipation of a nice +shady road down the Tagus banks to Toledo: but now an old muleteer +regretfully mentioned that the road was dead, and truly it was the +spectre of a road to which he introduced me. The ox-carts had been +wallowing in it axle deep throughout the winter, and the spring sun had +baked it into a chaos of _seracs_ and _crevasses_ which might have been +practicable for a goat. It was wide and straight indeed, and it boasted +a noble avenue; but its sole saving feature, from a practical +standpoint, was a grassy footpath at the side. So long as the avenue +continued, the track maintained some semblance of coherency; but when +that also defaulted, it frankly abandoned all further interest in life. +As a guide it was luckily needless; I had simply to follow the valley, +and as there were no walls or hedges I could make a bee-line if I chose. +Moreover, on the further side of the river a lofty detached hill, with a +ruined castle on the summit, formed a prominent landmark by which to +gauge my progress; and with plenty of time before me, I was bound to +arrive in the end. + +A sympathetic bandit, who found me hauling my bicycle across a ploughed +field, dispassionately suggested that I might find the railroad better. +This opinion was loyally endorsed by Second Bandit a mile or so to the +rearward; and Third Bandit (ever the most practical of the trio) fairly +marched me up the embankment and launched me along the permanent way. +They were quite right--it was better; but sleepers and ballast are not a +desirable cycle track, and my well-regulated English mind revolted +against the scandalous impropriety of the whole proceeding. However, it +is sheer waste of one's scruples to squander them over the infraction of +Spanish bye-laws. They are humoured so long as convenient; but for +everything there is a season: and nobody dreams of enforcing them if +they chance to be inopportune. There was a wayside station to pass +before I reached Toledo; there was a train drawn up at the platform, +with all the officials _en evidence_, and the passengers, as usual, +profiting by the stoppage to indulge in a stroll and cigarettes. I +dismounted perforce at the points; but through the station I rode +unblushingly: and no one seemed to regard the circumstance as the least +unusual or reprehensible. No doubt from Aránjuez to Toledo all +bicyclists travel that way. + +Meanwhile I had been making fair progress, and my goal was nearly +gained. My castellated beacon had dropped out of sight behind me; and in +front, at the end of the valley, silhouetted against the western sky, +rose the great rocky knoll which is the seat of imperial Toledo. A bend +of the river had brought its waters within easy reach, and having washed +off the dust of travel, I was indulging in a few minutes' idleness +before resuming the road. Suddenly a herd of cattle plashed down into +the river a few yards away from me; and their diminutive Corydon--a +little brown wisp of humanity in the costume of a second-hand +scarecrow--came pattering happily at their heels. An English yokel +would have been hopelessly flabbergasted by such an unlooked-for +encounter; but not so my little Castilian. He bowed, sat down beside me, +and launched out into conversation with the most delicious confidence +and self-possession, as if it were all the most natural occurrence in +the world. He accepted a cigarette with becoming gravity, and made +sympathetic murmurs when the matches refused to light. Our final success +was acknowledged with a prim little "Blessed be God!" At the end of our +chat he escorted me back to the pathway, and made his adieu with a +quaint courtliness that conferred a dignity on his rags. Yet probably he +had never set foot outside his village, nor set eyes on a stranger in +his life. Good manners, like good looks, are sometimes bred in the bone. + +[Illustration: TOLEDO + +The Bridge of Alcántara.] + +Hitherto the valley has been wide and open; but now the river begins to +reveal itself in its true character,--_El Tajo_, the Gash,[30]--deep and +narrow between its riven walls. Across its path lies the massive granite +barrier of the mountains of Toledo. The stream drives squarely into them +and recoils away sullenly towards the west. But ere it turns it has +bitten deep, and a great outlying bastion is held in the hollow of its +curve. The sun at his creation shone first upon that rocky dais! The +dignity of Toledo demands no meaner site! + +It is indeed an ideal situation for a medieval fortress; in plan a rough +approximation to the shape of a rather square D. The curved line is +formed by the gorge of the Tagus, whose steep, rocky banks would alone +be an adequate defence; the straight by the landward face,--also lofty +and precipitous, and crowned with the remnants of Wamba's ancient walls. +And at the two corners the grand fortified medieval bridges of San +Martin and Alcántara throw their lofty arches across the stream. The +site is very similar to that of Durham: but the Toledo plateau is +larger; and the Tagus is all unwooded, and wilder and grander than the +Wear. + +The founder, of course, was Hercules. All Spanish cities were founded by +Hercules, except a few which had been previously founded by Tubal. No +doubt a large man with a club was a somewhat recurrent phenomenon; and +the tale of his legendary prowess was the sole evidence of identity that +an early Phoenician colonist was likely to require. After the +Phoenicians came the Romans. But the glory of Toledo first reached its +height in the Dark Ages which succeeded the Roman, when the Visigoth +dwelled in the land. Toledo was the capital of the Visigothic kingdom; +and that kingdom in the day of its power, during the reigns of Leovigild +and Wamba, was probably the most potent among all the nations of the +West. How dire must have been the consternation of Austrasia and +Neustria and Lombardy, when, scarcely a generation later, their +protagonist succumbed so utterly before the onset of the Moors!--when +the Jews opened the gates of the unwary capital to admit the hordes of +Tarik, and the fall of imperial Toledo set the seal on the disaster of +Guadalete. + +Neither Christian nor Moslem underrated the catastrophe of that fatal +Palm Sunday; and the meagre outline of history has been gaudily coloured +by romance. Who has not heard the tale of the enchanted Tower of +Hercules, wherein the self-willed Roderic sought and learned the secret +of his doom? The fascinating Shahrazad won a full night's respite from +her dangerous lord by her catalogue of the loot of the "City of +Labtayt"--the hundred and seventy crowns of pearl and jacinth, the +magical mirror, and the emerald table of Solomon! + +[Illustration: TOLEDO + +Puerta del Sol.] + +The Tower of Hercules is no longer alive to testify: but an old Moorish +ruin down by the water's edge, under the bridge of San Martin, is still +pointed out as the scene of the companion tale. Here the fair Florinda +was bathing in the Tagus when her beauty caught the eye of the royal +Roderic, and fired the passion which brought unnumbered woes to Spain. +It is, indeed, a little hard upon poor Florinda that she should never +have been forgiven for her share in the disaster. It was her father, not +she, who let loose the Moors to avenge her; and even the legend +describes her as more sinned against than sinning. Yet the ballads, +which can spare pity for Roderic, have nothing but contumely for her. It +is argued, I suppose, that all the trouble arose out of her unbridled +passion for bathing. But this is a failing which we northerners regard +more leniently. Arletta's ablutions were under a happier star! + +During the palmy days of Moslem dominion, Toledo had to yield pride of +place to Córdova. But after the fall of the western Caliphate it +disputed the _hegemony_ with Seville; and it was with considerable +equanimity that Mohammed, the king of Andalusia, saw his formidable +rival grappled by the Christians under Alfonso VI. The author of the +_Poema del Cid_ bitterly deplores the fact that there was no "sacred +bard" to immortalise the chivalrous incidents of that great two years' +leaguer; but, at least, the result was satisfactory, and three hundred +and seventy years after its capture Toledo was won again from the Moor. +Its fall was wellnigh fatal to the Spanish Moslems; for Mohammed himself +was now unable to resist the conqueror; and willing to live "a +camel-driver in the African deserts rather than a swineherd in Castile," +he despairingly summoned the Almoravides from Morocco to his aid. He had +sold his kingdom to save it; yet the newcomers beat back Alfonso: and +the Cid's newly-won kingdom of Valéncia went under in the flood. But +Toledo, once the stronghold of Paynimry, was now the bulwark of +Christendom; and against its iron ramparts the wave of Moslem reaction +spent itself in vain. + +Now began the second period of Toledo's greatness. The city became the +seat of the Spanish primate and the favourite residence of the Castilian +kings. Some of its importance leaked away southward when Córdova and +Seville were reconquered by Ferdinand III. in 1248. But the first great +blow to its prosperity was the inhuman expulsion of the Jews by +Ferdinand and Isabella at the end of the fifteenth century. Toledo had +been one of their chief asylums ever since the destruction of Jerusalem; +and though Goth and Moor and Christian had all alike persecuted them +whenever they became rich enough to make it worth while, yet they were +now a numerous colony, wealthy, honoured, and well affected to the +crown. But Torquemada's savage fanaticism overbore the scruples of the +queen. The whole nation was ruthlessly exiled at a bare six months' +notice; and perhaps it is no exaggeration to say that nearly all of +them, beggared and hopeless, perished of hardship by the way. + +Toledo was still important enough to play the leading rôle in the great +revolt of the _Communeros_ at the beginning of the reign of Charles V. +It was indeed the last city to succumb; and that resolute lady, Maria +Pacheco, the widow of Padilla, held it for many months against the +imperial forces before she finally abandoned the struggle and fled from +the realm. The thoroughness with which this rising was suppressed is +perhaps a matter for regret. The triumph of the crown was too complete; +and Spain, once the most democratic of medieval monarchies, was +henceforth an absolute autocracy. + +With this last effort Toledo's prominence upon the stage of history +comes practically to an end. Henceforth it retired upon its reputation, +and let the busy world go on without it as it chose. It still turns out +a few of those famous sword blades, "the ice brook's temper," which +Othello bore upon his thigh; but, for the rest, it is but a quiet +country town, dozing placidly under the _ægis_ of the great cathedral, +which now seems to furnish its only _raison d'être_. + +[Illustration: TOLEDO + +Calle del Comércio, with the Cathedral Tower.] + +Nearly a thousand years have elapsed since Toledo was recovered by the +Christians; and, though but few of its monuments are of genuine Moresco +workmanship,[31] yet to all outward appearance it remains a Moorish city +still. The trade-mark of the East is stamped indelibly upon it;--steep, +narrow, crooked streets; and square, sombre palaces, whose grim façades +give no hint of the lovely _patios_ within. Its mazy network of _calles_ +is spread all over the surface of the great domed rock upon which it +stands; and the fact that the Calle del Comércio is the widest, +longest and straightest of any, may serve as some indication of the +character of the rest. Street frankly admits that it is one of the few +cities where he could not find his way without a guide; and but that I +found all ways equally fascinating, it is highly probable that I should +have been in the same predicament myself. Every corner of the stage +seems still set exactly as it was quitted by the heroes and heroines of +Lope de Vega and Calderon. Lazarillo de Tormes might still be town +crier. It might be but yesterday that the horrified Gil Blas recognised +the comrades of his early escapades walking among the condemned in +the procession of the _Auto-da-fé_. One little alley that I discovered +in the course of my wanderings bore the remarkable title of +"_Calle del Diablo pertinece al Ayuntamiento_," +"The-Devil-belongs-to-the-Corporation Street." He does!--to many +Corporations! But few are ingenuous enough to proclaim the fact at the +street corners! And few have such slight cause to lament it;--he is +generally a Devil of Unrest. + +The great Alcázar,[32] which is the most prominent object in the city, +is too uncompromisingly cubical to be strictly picturesque; and the +cathedral, which is its chief glory, is singularly unobtrusive in a +general view. The houses shoulder up against it as though anxious to +keep it hidden; and when, after much circumnavigation, we do manage at +last to unmask it, behold! it is bare and featureless, only redeemed +from meanness by its noble western tower. + +But the moment we pass the portal all cavilling is awed to silence. Out +of the blaze of the southern sunshine we step into a vast, mysterious +twilight, lit only by the jewelled pictures in the clerestory overhead. +The air is heavy with the odour of incense; and the chant of the canons +thunders down the aisles. The style of this great temple is the purest +and most solemn of thirteenth-century Gothic. Built by the canonized +king, St Ferdinand, out of the spoils of Seville, it is equal to Rheims +in majesty, and ranks next to Cologne in point of size. But noble as is +the edifice itself, this is but the casket for its nobler treasures. No +other Cathedrals in the world can compete with the Spanish in the +richness of their furniture; and here, for more than three centuries, +the richest of all the great Chapters[33] lavished their wealth upon the +adornment of their shrine. The skilfulest craftsmen of the +Renaissance,--Copin and Rodrigo, de Arfe and Villalpando, Borgoña and +Berruguete,--spent the best years of their lives upon its stalls and +_rejas_ and _custodias_.[34] They were furnished with gold and silver, +jasper and alabaster, with a prodigality worthy of Solomon himself; and +we may well apply to them all the boast that is recorded of two of +them,--that no one can ever determine who best deserves the palm. + +The great masterpieces of the cathedral are concentrated in bewildering +profusion about the _Coro_ and _Capilla Mayor_; but each and all of the +score of chapels that surround it, is stored with relics of history and +gems of ancient art. Here lies Alvaro de Luna, the Cardinal Wolsey of +Spanish history. The great Constable died on the scaffold in the _Plaza_ +at Valladolid, and his vindictive enemies would not spare even his tomb; +but his beautiful marble monument shows that his daughter's piety was +respected in a later reign. Here lies the Grand Cardinal Mendoza, +_tertius rex_ to the wedded "kings" who made Spain a nation; and his +tomb is worthy of a king. Here lie the early monarchs of Castile,--their +sarcophagi caught up in the tangle of intricate tracery which encloses +the _Capilla Mayor_. And here, among all these kings and princes, are +the monuments of two others;--Abu Walid the Moslem, "the good _Alfaqui_" +who pled for his persecutors against the wrath of Alfonso VI.; and the +humble shepherd of the Morena, who led Alfonso VIII. by the secret pass +across the mountains, and died on the plains of Tolosa in the great +victory which his guidance gained.[35] "They buried them in the city of +David among the kings, because they had done good in Israel." The men of +the thirteenth century were no respecters of persons, and could +understand an honourable reward. + +[Illustration: TOLEDO + +The Gorge of the Tagus.] + +One of the chapels is specially reserved for the performance of the +Mozarabic[36] ritual, the ancient Use of St Isidore, which had been +preserved by the Toledan Christians throughout the period of their +subjection to the Moors. At the reconquest the Romanizers were anxious +to suppress it, and after much controversy the question was referred to +ordeal by battle. Two bulls were appointed champions for the rival +churches! but the defeat of the Roman representative left his clients +unconvinced, and two knights took the place of the bulls. Again the +Toledan was victorious, but again the argumentative Romanists refused to +accept the result. The arm of the flesh was a vain thing in such a +matter; "the God that answereth by fire, let Him be God!" The protests +of the _Mozárabes_ were overborne, and the arbitrary bonfire was kindled +in the triangular Toledan market-place. The Romanists astutely conceded +the privilege of "first go." They complacently watched their antagonists +commit St Isidore's precious Missal to the flames. _And, behold, it +would not burn!_ Had the Romanists kept their heads it might have +occurred to them that the old parchment tome, with its thick oak boards +and solid metal clasps, was about as unpromising a bit of fuel as mortal +bonfire could tackle. But this third defeat gave them a panic. There was +only a draw to be hoped for, and they dared not expose their own volume +to such an unprofitable risk. With desperate ingenuity they once more +tried to revive the controversy from the beginning; but their opponents +were now upon too firm ground, and their orthodoxy had to be conceded. + +In later years, however, the Mozarabic ritual fell into disuse, and was +only rescued from oblivion by the enterprise of Cardinal Ximenes, who +collated and republished it, and founded the chapel wherein it is still +performed. This sounds rather a broad-minded act for a Grand Inquisitor; +but Ximenes, an ascetic and a conqueror, a foe to knowledge and a patron +of learning, was one of those strange complex characters whose actions +seem consistent to no one but himself. + +One might readily fill a volume with a list of the glories of Toledo, +and not a tithe of its attractions can be mentioned in these meagre +notes. Its proximity to Madrid renders it somewhat better known than the +majority of Castilian cities, yet most visitors appear to imagine that +they can "do" it adequately in a day. A cheerful American whom I met +there had come over from Madrid in the morning, and was returning the +same afternoon. He was seeing Toledo in three hours, and was spending +one of them in dining! A month might well prove insufficient; but a +month was not to be spared. One further visit, however, is incumbent on +every Englishman. A pilgrimage down the Tagus to the battlefield of +Talavera is a duty that he may not ignore. + +The Tagus valley becomes more tame and domesticated below the grim +defiles of Toledo; and its mountain fences, the Sierras of Grédos and +Guadalupe, face one another at a distance of some fifty miles. Yet the +intervening plains have not nearly the amplitude of the Duero's, though +the ground is comparatively open and even comparatively green. It is a +very interesting district; for the Tagus was long a frontier river, and +its banks were as diligently fortified as those of our own Tweed. + +The roads from Madrid and Toledo unite at the castle of Magueda; and it +was at the brook beneath it that I made the acquaintance of _El Maestre_ +Pedro and his wife and family, a couple of Pyrenean bears and a Barbary +ape. What an ungainly group they looked as they came scrambling down the +road towards me! But they were all true Castilians (at least all the +human section), and offered me a share of their food when they stopped +to lunch at the water side, as all well-bred wayfarers should:--Would my +honour please to eat? "Many thanks! a good meal to your honours!" is the +correct reply to this courtesy: and therewith I went my way. + +And now the military tourist will begin to recognise that he is +approaching a classic neighbourhood. His ear is caught by the names of +the villages--Torrijos, Sta Olalla, Alcabon. They are humble little +hamlets enough, yet their names ring vaguely familiar. They each dropped +a card upon history one hundred years ago. + +Now, too, the landscape is pervaded by an additional feature, which was +likewise important enough to win historical mention on the +battlefield.[37] To wit, Pigs. Pigs and pigs and pigs. Pigs by single +spies, pigs in battalions. No fat and greasy citizens, like their +cousins in England, but sinewy, razor-backed racers of strong sporting +proclivities, who rioted along beside the bicycle in sheer exuberance of +athleticism. There was a big pig fair toward at Talavera on the morrow, +and its votaries were mustering from all points of the compass like the +sorcerers of Domdaniel when Eblis summoned them to doom. They were all +washed beautifully clean by a tremendous thunderstorm which caught us at +the bridge over the Alberche: but the streets and lanes of the city were +reduced to an indescribable state. + +[Illustration: TALAVERA DE LA REINA + +From the banks of the Tagus.] + +Talavera de la Reyna lies upon low ground on the right bank of the +Tagus, which here is comparatively wide and shallow, and is crossed by +a long and very crooked bridge. The town is not strictly fortified; +but it is walled, and well screened by its orchards; and as the plain is +here narrowed by outlying hummocks from the mountains, it forms an +effective position for disputing the passage of the road. + +All the main fighting in the battle took place upon the higher ground to +the northward. The town itself, with its enclosures and orchards, was +occupied by the Spaniards under their obstinate old Captain-General +Cuesta. They had nearly come to grief two days before in retreating +across the Alberche, but were now entrenched in a position too strong +for assault; and Jourdan and Victor directed all their efforts against +the left and centre where the English were drawn up. Here the ground is +more open and more elevated, sloping up from the flats by the river till +it culminates in the hill of Medellin. The position (as in most other +battlefields) does not seem very formidable to a layman. But then any +position that did would probably never be attacked. + +The battle was one of the bloodiest in the Peninsula; for the British +were heavily outnumbered, and their raw militia battalions lacked three +years' tempering of the Ironsides of Albuera and Badajoz. But what they +lacked in warcraft they redeemed in staunchness. For two days and a +night they were fighting, and then their assailants sullenly withdrew. +Yet, after all, Sir Arthur Wellesley had won merely a tactical victory. +His strategic position was too perilous to permit him to garner the +fruits. Soult's Galician army corps, already reorganised after the +_debacle_ of the Douro, was threatening his rear from Plaséncia; and it +was only by an adroit retreat across the Tagus at Arzobispo that he was +able to elude the stroke. + +One of the minor incidents of the battle was an extraordinary piece of +marching. The Light Division, under General Craufurd, was far in the +rear at the commencement of the fighting, and were eager to get up +before the close. The task was too great, but the attempt was something +Homeric. They covered sixty-two miles in twenty-six hours, all in full +marching order: and lost but seventeen stragglers by the way! This was +probably a record for the Peninsula; though Wellington himself thought +that it might be paralleled in India; and some of Marmont's marches +previous to Salamanca were not far behind. What manner of men were they +who could achieve such feats in July under a Spanish sun? + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A RAID INTO ESTREMADURA + + +The Estremadura road launches out boldly from the end of the Segóvia +bridge at Madrid, and the fingerpost which points along it laconically +observes that that way you will get to Badajos. But quite a lot of water +will flow under the Segóvia bridge first, even though it is only the +Manzanares which runs there. + +Wherefore, to avoid over-watering this narrative, we will not begin it +at Madrid, nor even at Talavera, but transport ourselves at one stride +right away to the other end of the long line of snowy mountains which +guards the northern side of the Estremadura road. Here the Sierra de +Grédos ends in a forked tail like one of its own falcons, and between +the forks a long, straight valley runs up into the centre of the range. +The great snow-peaks sit along either side of that long, straight valley +like a Parliament of Gods, with the shaggy ilex woods wrapped around +their knees; and at its mouth, on a slight eminence half encircled by +the new-born waters of the Jerte, stands the ancient city of Plaséncia. + +I were ungrateful not to retain a warm corner in my heart for pretty +little Plaséncia, for I arrived there limping and dog-wrecked, and +Plaséncia was kind to me. But he would be an unimpressionable mortal who +could not love her for her beauty alone; and I am not sure that even +I--such is man's gratitude--would remember her as kindly had she been +less fair. The crumbling walls, the solemn palaces, the quaint old +streets and beautiful situation, make this little Hesperian township one +of the most charming in Spain. Is she not rightly named "Pleasaunce"? +Queenly Segóvia herself need not disdain so fair a cousin. + +But Plaséncia should not strictly be included in the Castilian family +circle; she has married into Estremadura, and the mountains part her +from her kind. The picturesque Estremenian peasantry lounge about her +squares and _plazas_, but her site and her buildings seem still to +proclaim her kinship. Like other Spanish wives, she has not quite +dropped her maiden name. + +[Illustration: PLASÉNCIA + +Puente San Lazaro.] + +There is not much traffic in the streets of Plaséncia, neither is +much expected. The workmen patching the cathedral roof were heaving over +the broken tiles on to the pavement without so much as a prefatory +"Heads below!" Yet the place looks far from dead, for the balconies are +gay with flower-boxes, and the numerous old palaces still wear a +comparatively prosperous air. The cathedral stands right upon the +ancient walls, which form a sort of terrace to it upon the southern +side. Internally its effect is marred by a transverse partition; but +externally, though (like Mr Mantelini's countesses) it has no outline, +it is decked with a fanciful miscellaneous finery which makes it +inordinately picturesque. Moreover, it is an educational centre, and we +are indebted to it for constant processions of demure little students, +clad in black cassocks with a burning heart worked in crimson upon the +breast. They are beyond comparison the best-behaved children in the +Peninsula, and make most appropriate figures in the quiet and shady +square. + +The _Fonda_ where I brought myself to anchor was situated entirely upon +the first floor; and this waste of good space was gratuitous, for the +ground floor was all empty vaults. My bedroom was at the back. To reach +it I had to pass through the kitchen; and incidentally to make myself +amiable to the cook, who was manipulating her pots over a range of +strictly classical construction which might have been imported from +Pompeii. Beyond was a tiny _patio_ where Maria and the Señora were busy +at their household duties under the shade of the vines; and then came my +room. There was no window except the glazed upper panel of the door; and +no ventilation when the door was shut, so it was usually open. I could +shut it without getting out of bed. Our meals were served in the little +_comedor_ adjoining the kitchen. Maria waited, handing round the viands +in their native earthenware pipkins, piping hot from the fire. Also she +led the conversation, being a notable authority on all the latest gossip +and scandal; and the cook popped her head through the serving-hatch and +chimed in volubly at every suitable opening. There is a homeliness about +these little hostels which is very delightful; but it is always a puzzle +to me how the women get their meals. They seldom dine with their +men-folk, and, so far as my observation goes, must subsist entirely on +"tasters." + +[Illustration: PLASÉNCIA + +The Town Walls and Cathedral.] + +Of course you seldom get a bill. "This is no time o'night to use our +bills! With one word of my mouth I can tell them what is to +betall."[38] The Señora confined herself literally to one word when I +asked her, and responded "thirty-two," but I suppose my face must have +betrayed some uncertainty, for "_reals_[39] not _pesetas_!" added the +Señora hastily, knocking seventy-five per cent. off my mental +calculation, and bringing her charges for full board and lodging down to +about three shillings a day. I wonder who was responsible for the libel +that Spanish innkeepers cheat; any attempt at overcharging is an almost +unprecedented event. + +The borderland character of Plaséncia is reflected in its surroundings. +The Castilian sierras wall it in upon the east; but away to the west +stretches the wilderness of Estremadura--vast rugged moors interlaced +with wide belts of olive and ilex, or small rare patches of cultivated +ground. The lonely road holds steadily upon its way till it reaches the +lip of the Tagus ravine, and then plunges abruptly down to the level of +the river. + +There is a marked contrast in the scenery along the two great rivers of +northern Spain. The Duero valley is wide and tame, a great unfenced +expanse of vineyard and cornfield, edged by low hills of petrified +earth; but the Tagus rift is narrow and savage, walled in by bare black +rock, and showing few traces of the hand of man. The road swings down +the hill in admirable style, but startles the traveller by coming to an +abrupt and untimely end about half a mile short of the river; and I had +to plough my way down through the shingle to the water's edge to +prospect for a continuation. Far away up stream a few shattered piers +and arches testify to the neglected munificence of some old _Pontifex +Maximus_ of Toledo; and overhead the great lattice girders of the +railway spring from pier to pier across the gulf; but where is there a +passage for a wayfaring man? "It strictly prohibits itself" to use the +railway line; moreover, the sleepers are laid directly upon the naked +girders, so that the passenger gets a fine bird's-eye view of the +landscape between his toes; but there is neither ferry nor ford,--at +least none where a stranger can see them; and why strain at the strict +prohibition if you can swallow the bird's-eye view? + +Some little way up the further shore I stumble across the road again. It +is getting along capitally, thank you, and tackles the steep ascent in a +most business-like system of curves and gradients without bestowing a +thought upon the lamentable _hiatus_ in the rear. Elsewhere one might +reprobate such conduct, but here one accepts it as natural. "_Cosas de +España_,"--It's the way with Spain. + +At the top is a wilderness of rocky pasture powdered with flocks of +merino sheep, the great nomad hordes that migrate every winter into +these southern latitudes, and are now working their way north again +towards the mountains of Leon. Among them stand the cloaked figures of +their shepherds, tall and motionless,--a hermit race; and the pale peaks +of Almanzor and his brother giants far away in the background, survey +with complacent approval a picture as antiquated as themselves. +Presently this desert gives way to olive woods, and the olive woods to +more cultivated ground. Thick cactus hedges, fringed round with an +edging of blossom, begin to hint at a southern climate; and the +peasantry are already reaping the barley harvest, though it is yet but +the middle of May. At last a cluster of towers planted in the saddle of +a low serrated ridge marks the goal of my day's journey, and with a wide +sweep to the right, to outflank an intervening valley, I enter the town +of Cáceres. + +The tourist who wishes to explore Estremadura will find that the +inexorable laws of geography have fixed his headquarters at Cáceres. But +he need have no grudge against the inexorable laws aforesaid; they might +have chosen a much worse place. To begin with, Cáceres is a town of +resources; there is a man in it who owns a bicycle, and who did own till +recently a tube of rubber solution, but this rare and costly curio has +since been acquired by a foreign collector. Moreover, it is the capital +of its province, and it rejoices in a picturesque and busy little +market; but the gem of the whole, to an artist's eyes, is the "old town" +which crowns the rising ground in the centre, a delightful relic of +antiquity all untainted by the contact of to-day. + +Nobody seems to go into the old town of Cáceres except the girls with +their water pitchers _en route_ for the Fountain of Council on the +further side. The streets are so steep that they are all stepped, and so +narrow that it is impossible for two loaded mules to pass. No sound is +heard in them but the clattering of the storks, and the grim old palaces +which wall them in have an indescribable air of mystery and romance. I +am convinced that any bold spirit who dared to penetrate into their +flowery _patios_ would find them still inhabited by the old +comrades of Cortes and Pizarro and Diego Garcia de Paredes, the great +Estremenian warriors of yore. No mere modern mortals can dwell behind +those changeless walls. The grey old ramparts which enclose them must +have checked the march of time. + +[Illustration: CÁCERES + +Within the old Town Walls.] + +Four main roads diverge from Cáceres towards the four points of the +compass. That towards the east leads to Trujillo, the birthplace of +Pizarro, and the mountain sanctuary of Guadalupe, which the Estremenian +conquerors enriched with the spoils of Mexico and Peru. I was scheming +in vain to attain to them, but my fate was most resolutely hostile. Two +sallies resulted in breakdowns, and at last I reluctantly succumbed. My +first successful foray was towards the south. + +This road leads over a queer wild country, half common, half moor, +sparsely inhabited, and fringed with the low, rugged ridges which are +such a feature of the district. It was a notable haunt of robbers a +couple of generations ago. Towards the south-east rises the Sierra de +Montanchez, which at this point forms the watershed between the Tagus +and Guadiana, and the road gradually rises to pass over its tail. The +Sierra piles itself up into fine bold masses on the left of the road; +and beneath it on the further side lies the hamlet of Arroyo Molinos, +where three thousand French soldiers, reputed the best in Spain, were +surprised and crushed by General Hill in 1811. + +Girard was retreating before Hill from Cáceres, and had halted here for +the night, leaving pickets along the road to the northward to give +warning of pursuit. But the pursuers he dreaded had already outstripped +and intercepted him. Hill had followed the parallel road (which is now +the main one) and lay unsuspected at Alcuesca, three miles to the south. +Not a Spaniard in either village but knew of the intended _coup_; but +who would betray it to a Frenchman? And no whisper of his danger reached +Girard till the 71st and 92nd regiments swept the street with fixed +bayonets in the grey of the stormy dawn. Estremadura was Hill's +province, and his other most notable exploit, the seizing of the bridge +of Almaraz, was also achieved in this locality. Two victories of which +Wellington himself might have been proud. + +From the summit of the pass the ground sweeps away to the southward, an +ocean of white-flowered cistus bushes interspersed with the vivid yellow +of the broom. But this brilliant spectacle does not continue for many +miles; it soon gives way to the usual jumble of rock and grass and +olive; and at last from this stony upland one looks down across the +sloping cornfields to the distant Guadiana and the town of Mérida. + +A big red-roofed village with no special feature, built beside the broad +and sandy bed of a great river, Mérida from a distance looks commonplace +enough. Yet the wide, smooth cornfields around it might disclose a +different scene. Time was when the garrison of Augusta Emerita was +fifteen-fold more numerous than her present population, when her walls +were twenty miles in circumference, and even in her decay her astonished +conqueror could confess that it was "impossible to enumerate" the +marvels she contained. Comparing what she is with what she was, the +wonder is not that so much has survived, but that so much has +disappeared; and yet in good truth the remains are ample enough, "equal +to Rome" say the Meridans, and who should know better than they? + +First the great aqueduct (the greatest of three); the bridge of +sixty-four[40] arches which spans the Guadiana, and the mighty castle +which guards its townward end. The theatre, still almost perfect; the +ruins of the Temple of Diana, and of the massive Arch of Trajan. The +amphitheatre is now but an heap, and the hippodrome can only be traced +by its foundations; but the whole soil teems with coins and fragments of +pottery, and if ever systematic excavation could be hoped for in this +happy-go-lucky country, who can guess what treasures might be revealed? +It is at least an encouraging symptom that the Meridans are very proud +of their "_antiguedades_," and are always eager to act as showmen; in +which capacity they are equipped with the most startling archæological +heresies that have ever been foisted upon an astonished world. + +It was a hard-worked little room that was assigned to me for my lodging +at Mérida. At night I slept there, but by day it was a tailor's shop, +and between times it was borrowed by Juanita for the conduct of her +little _affaires du coeur_. Its many-sidedness was the result of its +situation, for it was on the ground floor, with a large French window +opening direct on to the pavement, and guarded with a stout iron grille. +To myself this entailed a rather embarrassing publicity, but it just +suited Juanita, who could interview her lover comfortably through the +bars. + +[Illustration: CÁCERES + +Calle de la Cuesta de Aldana.] + +Each night as I returned from the café I beheld the same little +picture (it was being produced in replica in half the streets of the +town); the moonlight bright upon the _Fonda_ walls, and the black +cloaked figure clinging like a bat to the rails. I am proud to remember +that I always tried to play the game properly, and glided off +unobtrusively into a side street before I got near enough to interfere. +But I doubt if I ever really escaped observation, for at my next round +the pavement would be untenanted, and Juanita waiting at the street door +to let me in. + +It might be supposed that there was no ostensible motive why she should +not have kept tryst at the door instead of the window, or "gone out +walking" with her lover as an English girl would have done. But no! that +would not be "proper." La Señora Grundy insists upon a barred window. +Perhaps that is one of the reasons why all Spanish windows are barred. + +"Marriage is honourable to all." But in Spain it is considered expedient +to give an elaborately clandestine flavour to the indispensable +preliminary of courtship; and during the whole of that period Romeo is +officially tabooed by Juliet's kin. He may be a most desirable _parti_, +and the bosom friend of all her brothers. But now he is remorselessly +"cut." When they meet, they never see him;--neither (logically enough) +do they ever notice that cryptic enigma who is "feeding on iron" at the +lattice every evening soon after dark. So matters continue until the +courtship has ripened and the happy lover can formally demand his lady's +hand. Then he is at once received into all honour and affection, and the +lovers are put on a regular footing by being formally betrothed, a +ceremony scarcely less binding than marriage itself. + +Mérida was my southernmost limit, and detained me somewhat longer than I +had intended. But, indeed, the very origin of the city seems to +constitute an invitation to repose. First invaded and last subdued of +all the Roman provinces, Spain was just witnessing the dawn of her early +millennium when Augustus founded this home of rest for the veterans of +the final campaign. If rest was his intention, it would rejoice his +heart to see how diligently it is still practised by the descendants of +his original colonists. But my own sojourn was not entirely voluntary. I +had tried once more for Trujillo, and been forced to put back for +repairs. Even a fate-compelled idleness, however, may sometimes be found +opportune. + +[Illustration: MÉRIDA + +"Los Milagros," the ruins of the Great Aqueduct.] + +The great ruined aqueduct, the headquarters of all the storks of +the Guadiana, towered over the Cáceres road to the right of me as I +again bore away to the northward. It had been the first object to greet +my arrival, and was the last to haunt me as I left. The huge gaunt piers +and crumbling arches seem more imposing in their ruin even than the +complete structure at Segóvia, though I believe actual measurements +place the latter first by a short head. "The Miracles," the townsfolk +call them; and the title is well bestowed. Yet Estremadura can boast one +other miracle more stupendous even than these. + +Once more I sallied forth from Cáceres, and set my face towards the +west; and surely in all the solitudes of Estremadura there are none more +solitary than this. Mile after mile the straight, white road heaves its +long line across the ridges of the rolling moor. Its dust is seamed with +the trail of the viper, and here and there the eagle hangs poised above +his hunting-ground; but other life or landmark there is none for leagues +together, till one feels one has been riding there for ever, and will +probably continue till the end of time. Sometimes a ruined watch-tower +will afford a distant beacon; sometimes a well-ambushed hamlet, whose +swine are reputed to develop a specially succulent bacon by a strict +adherence to a viper dietary. They appear like the phases in a dream, +and are swallowed in the immensity of their surroundings. As well seek a +pin in a haystack as a homestead in this boundless waste. + +If there be any faith in the milestones, Alcántara cannot lie beyond +that great purple combe ahead of me. Yet how can there be room for the +Tagus valley on the hither side? But even as I am flouting their +promise, the road dives gracefully over the lip of an unsuspected +hollow, and the fragments of a crumbling rampart resolve themselves into +the long-sought town. The gateway admits me to a forlorn and grimy +street; the houses are ruinous and neglected; everywhere is dirt and +misery and dilapidation. What went ye out into the wilderness to see? + +Just beyond the town, and far below the level of the moors, the Tagus +has carved its deep and savage glen. Right and left, as far as the eye +can reach, the bare bluff headlands stoop down into the abyss like the +tors on the Devonshire coast; and at the bottom, pent between its walls +of rock, the tawny river swirls down the ravine. All is vast and huge +and desolate; the town itself hardly shows in such a picture; yet in the +midst one object catches the eye which seems to challenge comparison +even with nature itself,--the work of Titans rather than men,--THE +BRIDGE--_Al Kántarah_. + +Spain is the land of bridges. In all Europe they have few rivals, but +here they own a King. Since the day when Caius Julius Lacer finished his +great work for the Emperor Trajan, and was laid to rest beside it, no +other bridge has ever challenged comparison with his;--a work to vie +with the pyramids of Egypt, or the Flavian Amphitheatre at Rome. + +It is long before the eye can learn to grasp its full dimensions; all +around it is rock and mountain, there is nothing to give scale. We are +warned of it first by the camera, for the lens will not look at so wide +an angle; and then by the size of the archway flung across the road at +the centre pier. Presently, as we peer over the parapet into the depths +of the gulf below us, we realise that there is a man down there walking +by the waterside, and a dog which seems to bark though we cannot hear +the sound. Our eye slowly sizes up the _voussoir_ above which we are +standing; it is a twelve-ton block of granite; and the huge vault with +its eighty such _voussoirs_ seems to widen and deepen beneath us as we +gaze; for the brook that it spans is the river Tagus, whose waters have +their source three hundred miles away. + +Thus hint by hint we have pieced together the astonishing conclusion +that the span of each of the two great central arches is rather wider, +and nearly as high as the interior of the dome of St Paul's; and that +the height of the railway lines above the Firth of Forth is sixty feet +less than that of the road above the Tagus! What must the scene be like +in winter, when the waters are foaming against the springer stones one +hundred and fifty feet above their summer level! How vast the strength +of these massive piers which for eighteen hundred years have defied the +fury of the floods! + +Where now is the great _Via Lata_ that ran from Gades to Rome? Where are +the famous cities which it threaded on the way? The vine and olive grow +in the forum of Italica, and the Miracles of Mérida are a dwelling for +the stork. But here at the wildest point of all its wild journey our +eyes may still behold a memorial which nature has assailed in +vain:--"Pontem perpetui mansurum in sæcula mundi,"--the monument of +Caius Julius Lacer, more enduring even than Wren's. + +[Illustration: ALCÁNTARA] + +We English, I regret to say, were responsible for blowing up one of +the smaller arches in 1809; and our makeshift restoration,--a suspension +bridge made out of ships' cables, probably the earliest introduction of +the type to Europe,--lasted till the time of the Carlist wars. Then it +was again destroyed, and the Spaniards were long content with a ferry. +Now, however, they have restored it in its native granite, a feat of +which they are justly proud. Only, seeing that no cement at all was used +in the original building, it was really a little too bad of them to +insist upon pointing the joints! + +It seems rather farcical to make a parade of military secrecy about a +structure that has been famous for eighteen centuries; but there is a +sentry assigned to it to make sure of preserving its privacy, and I +think I acted kindly towards him in providing one culprit for the year. +Our re-arrival in the town to interview the _Teniente_ created quite a +little sensation, particularly as that official was not to be found at +his office, and had to be hunted through the parish by packs of +importunate boys. The _Teniente_ was eventually run to earth in his +bedroom, in a state of great deshabille, but as polite as if he had been +attired in full court uniform. His house and his goods were at my +service, and himself only too anxious to do anything in the world to +oblige me; but I must not sketch within twenty-five miles of the +frontier without a special permit from the Minister of War at Madrid! +The travelling Englishman (when not admittedly mad) is always an object +of suspicion. But it must be confessed that his vagaries are generally +humoured in Spain. He only gets gently restrained in remote and +inaccessible places, where the official (never having seen a stranger +before) naturally feels it incumbent upon him to do something, but it is +not quite certain what. I made no attempt to protest. It would, of +course, have been entirely useless; and my Spanish had been already +heavily strained in compliments. Moreover, in this instance the _genius +loci_ had benignantly decreed that I should have got the horse before +they locked the stable door. + +Meanwhile I had been left some consolation. The bridge is not quite the +only lion at Alcántara, and the grand Benedictine convent of its old +military monks rises most imposingly upon the edge of the impending +moors. It is now ruinous and dismantled, its fine church perfect but +empty, and its cloisters used as a cart-shed by the thrifty usurpers of +its halls. Beyond this feature, however, the town has little attraction. +It was mercilessly sacked in the spring of 1809 by General +Lapisse,--killed three months later while striving to rally his division +during the great assault at Talavera,--and since that crushing disaster +it has never had spirit to raise its head. There comes a stage when ruin +ceases to be picturesque and becomes only depressing. It is rather in +this connection that I remember Alcántara and Sahagun.[41] + +It is not altogether surprising, in such an inconsequent country, to +discover that by crossing Alcántara you will arrive--Nowhere! and that +the only traffic across that stupendous edifice is limited to a few +flocks of sheep and some casual mules. I had hoped to return to +Plaséncia by way of Cória. It is no great distance. Alcántara is in +Cória diocese, and there are no special obstacles beyond the river; but +there is no vestige of a road. No, I must return from Alcántara to +Cáceres, and from Cáceres to Plaséncia, and from Plaséncia I might find +a road to Cória--perhaps. Which is the reason why Cória is now +bracketted with Trujillo and Guadalupe as one of the places I hope to +see some day. I returned, therefore, to Plaséncia the same way that I +had come; and passing round the end of the Sierra de Grédos, took my +farewell of these "extrema Durii"[42] from the summit of the Pass of +Béjar. + +I have since learned that "nothing but a lively historical curiosity, +and a keen sympathy with the lonely melancholy of the heaths, could have +enabled me to endure with equanimity the privations to which I was +exposed." + +It is astonishing how little I realised my fortitude at the time. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +SEGÓVIA + + +Few streams are so mercilessly bantered as the hapless Manzanares, and +it is rough on an honest little river to rag it because it is poor. It +is "navigable at all seasons for a coach and six"; it is mockingly urged +"to sell its bridges for water"; and it labours under a gross imputation +(not to be whispered in the presence of touchy Madrilenos), that upon +one occasion when it happened to be sufficiently copious to float a +mule's pack-saddle, the enthusiastic citizens turned out to capture the +"whale." Even its few partisans show a calculated _gaucherie_ in their +compliments. "Duke of streams and viscount of rivers" is quite a +preposterous flight. But perhaps the bitterest tribute is the gibe of a +jealous young sportsman (a Toledan, and consequently part-proprietor of +the Tagus) who had fainted from heat at a bull-fight, and to whom his +neighbours were kindly proffering a pitcher of water:--"Pour it into +the Manzanares," gasped the Spanish Sidney, "it needs it more than I." + +No one would have had an ill word to say of it had it clung to its +lowlier destiny. It reaps the reward of the tuft-hunting which sent it +to visit Madrid. A mile above the Iron Gate it is as pretty and secluded +a little brooklet as anyone need desire;--a clean shingly bed, and +broken banks fringed with brushwood and poplars, beneath whose shade we +very contentedly dozed through the hot hours of siesta-time, cooling our +toes in the water and restfully contemplating the distant summits of the +Sierra de Guadarrama,--faint opalescent outlines above the tree-tops in +the glen. We had ridden in that morning from Toledo; and to push on +across the mountains the same afternoon was too heavy a task to be +seriously contemplated. No; we would take matters easily during the +heat, and drift on in the evening towards the foot of the pass. We +should find lodging--of a sort--at some little village _posada_, and +could tackle the long ascent in the cool of the early dawn. + +[Illustration: SEGÓVIA + +Church of San Miguel.] + +The sun was sinking as we passed las Rozas, but there was still an hour +of daylight before us, and it seemed a pity to waste such a beautiful +evening, so we launched out venturously on to the moors. At first +we had fellow-voyagers;--a homeward ploughman with his yoke of oxen,--a +shepherd with his whip--(is there any other region where shepherds use +whips?)--and his droop-necked flock earing the ground towards their +fold. But soon the dusk won its will, and the darkling track lay empty. +The only survivor astir was the habitual belated _arriero_, with his +team outspanned for the night and his waggon beached upon the margin of +the road. The stars had already begun to flicker up in the heavens, and +we could see that Torrelodones, the next village, must be Hobson's +choice for ourselves. + +At Torrelodones, saith the proverb, are twenty-four burgesses and +twenty-five thieves (the twenty-fifth being the curate); yet there is no +innkeeper among so many. Bread and wine, however, were forthcoming at +one of the cabins, and eggs at a second, which we got cooked at a third; +and if anyone wanted to wash himself, was there not the fountain on the +village green? Beds, however, were a different matter. A muleteer would +have rolled himself up on the floor in his blanket; but we had no +blankets, and did not fancy the floor. As for the reputation of the +villagers, no doubt that was wholly unmerited; but we thought of the +fresh air of heaven, and the scent of the clean sweet herbage was borne +in to us upon the breeze. + +It was already dark when we quitted the hamlet, and the distant lights +of Madrid were twinkling up at us from the misty plain below. But +another beacon rose in sight as we breasted the surge of the moorland--a +large brilliantly-lighted building, apparently right in front of us and +only a few hundred yards away. What was it? Evidently no ordinary +farmstead--the lights were so many and so small. But anyway it would not +do to camp right under its windows, so the question was shelved +unanswered. We wheeled aside from the roadway, and picked out a bedroom +under the lee of a huge boulder which promised us shelter from the wind. + +Anyone who has ever tried the experiment must be perfectly well aware +that the delights of an extemporary bivouac are better imagined than +endured; but we had not bargained to take our discomfort in exactly the +form that it came. The last few nights we had spent at Toledo kicking +the last sheets off our beds in a vain endeavour to get reposefully +cool.[43] But the boot was on the other leg up here in the lap of the +mountains. In vain did we empty our knapsacks; we could not get the +clothes to keep us warm. About midnight the wind veered. Our faithless +boulder no longer gave us shelter; and as we rose to shift our berth, +behold, there was that brilliantly lighted building still shining in +front of us as steadily as before. What could it be, keeping this +night-long vigil when all the rest of the world was asleep? But now the +mist had cleared and our eyes had grown accustomed to the starlight, and +the true solution of the riddle flashed suddenly across our minds. A +dozen miles off at the least, on the further side of the intervening +valley, the thousand windows of the Escorial were staring out +unwinkingly into the night! + +The stars seemed to travel very slowly across the zenith as we dozed +through the dog-watches in our chilly nest. But at last a lightening in +the east heralded the approach of dawn; and no sooner was there enough +light to swear by than we were again upon the road, thankful for the +excuse to work some warmth into our shivering limbs. Our teeth fairly +chattered as we dipped into the cold shadowy hollows; but the level rays +of the rising sun caught us as we topped the ridges, and cheered us with +an ample promise of a warm time to come. It was not long before our +troubles were forgotten, and a big bowl of hot coffee at Villalba sent +us to the pass like giants refreshed. + +The Puerto de Navacerrada is one thousand feet higher than that of +Guadarrama, and the road, being less frequented, is unfortunately not so +well kept. But for all that it can be cordially recommended to the +traveller, for it boasts far finer scenery as a reward for the extra +toil. To our right the shadowy dome of the Great Iron Head cut a bold +arc of purple out of the glowing eastern sky, while to our front and +left lay the long serrated ridge of the Seven Pikes, a prominent +landmark to travellers across the northern plains. The hillsides were +draped from foot to summit with the rich purple mantle of the flowering +hard-head, variegated with vivid splashes of gold where the broom had +ousted its hardier rival; and every here and there the slope was broken +by groves of pine, or jutting crags of grey granite, with the cool blue +shadows sleeping at their feet. Looking back over our left shoulders +along the southern face of the mountains, our eyes were caught by the +towers of the Escorial rising up nobly from the lower slopes, and +scarcely dwarfed even by their mountain background; while, a little +nearer, the Vigo road--a pyramid of persevering zigzags--was struggling +up the face of the range to reach the Puerto de Guadarrama. + +Our own pass rejoices in the possession of a multitude of summits, and +the sixth or seventh of these (upon which we had really pinned our +faith) disappointed us bitterly by abdicating in favour of another, +distant at least an hour away. This last, however, was guaranteed +genuine by the inevitable hall-mark of a _caminero's_ hut, and was, +moreover, on such intimate terms with the Seven Pikes that we felt there +was no room for deception. + +The gradient of the northern face is distinctly steeper than the +southern, and the road zigzags down sharply through the shadowy +pine-woods which clothe all this portion of the range. Not a soul +crossed our path as we threaded their silent alleys; and the only house +is a solitary _Venta_ midway down the descent, which rejoices in the +ominous title of Mosquito Tavern. We thought of Polonius at supper and +did not risk a meal. Deep down in the dingle beneath us a mountain +stream was chattering towards the plain; and as we neared the outlet of +the valley, and felt that we had broken the back of our day's journey, +we began to cast envious glances at the inviting waters. + +Our bedroom had not proved altogether a success, but our bathroom was +worthy of Diana. The clear cold stream gushed smoothly over its pebbly +bed, and the pines which thronged its mossy banks spread a green network +against the blaze of the noonday sun. A skein of brilliant blue +dragon-flies flashed to and fro across the ripples; and at the head of +the glade a solitary peak rose clear and sharp against the sky. The +beautiful Dorothea cooling her crystal feet in the limpid water was the +sole thing lacking to complete the picture. And even she would have been +an embarrassment from a practical point of view. How much they miss who +travel through Spain by railway, and grumble (legitimately enough) at +the difficulty of obtaining baths at their hotels! The wayfarer has +happier fortune;--but not an Eresma every day! + +At the mouth of the valley stands the royal palace of La Granja, built +by Philip IV. as a rival to Versailles. The structure is not nearly so +fine, though the site and the fountains are finer. But who goes to Spain +to see copies of things French? And we swung disdainfully past the +gateway, and headed our course for the great cathedral tower that marks +the position of Segóvia. + +[Illustration: SEGÓVIA + +Arco San Estéban.] + +We were drawing quite close to the city when we overtook a party of +four,--two _carabineros_ and two civilians,--sauntering arm in arm along +the roadway and amicably sharing cigarettes. But a hideous blight +descended upon this innocent idyll when they drew up with us at the +_Fielato_.[44] The _carabineros_ shouldered their rifles and gave an +extra twirl to their mustachios,--the civilians meekly held out their +wrists for the handcuffs,--and Law and Order with their miserable +captives strutted inspiringly into public view. Evidently Segóvia +demanded a certain amount of style, and we two vagabonds eyed each other +dubiously. But the Eresma had given us a "clean slate." No one would +have guessed from our looks that we had spent the night in the open and +ridden across the mountains since the dawn. "Nevertheless," quoth one of +us sententiously, "what with the bad night, and the early start, and the +long ride, and the hot sun, and the bathe, and the pine-woods, and the +_comida_ which we are going to eat, I expect there'll be more _siesta_ +than sight-seeing for us this afternoon." + +There are a certain number of towns in Europe which form a class by +themselves--a class of professional models for the delectation of the +artist. They do not necessarily possess the most interesting monuments, +but they are blessed with a certain genius for assuming graceful poses, +for wearing harmonious colours, and framing themselves into pictures +from whatever point they are viewed. They are a very select +company,--even Florence and Nuremburg can scarcely be included,--but +Venice is one, and Bruges, and Rothenburg-a-Tauber; and Segóvia ranks +with them. + +The principal lion of the city was lying in wait at the gates +thereof,--the huge granite Aqueduct, one of the wonders of Spain. Its +mighty piers go striding like colossi across the valley, and the little +puny houses "peep about under their huge legs." By whom it was built is +a matter of some question; possibly by Augustus,--more probably by +Trajan[45]; so at least say the learned, who are wofully wrong-headed +about such things. The true story is that it was erected by the Devil in +a single night, out of his love and affection for a fair damsel of +Segóvia, to save her the trouble of going down the hill to draw water. +Her townswomen unto this hour are profiting by her sumptuous love-token. +But her poor suitor was not so fortunate. His Delilah found one stone +a-missing, and took advantage of the flaw to repudiate her contract. + +Beneath its broad shadow we dived in among the crazy patchwork houses of +the _Azoquejo_, the once disreputable "Little Market" where Don +Quixote's rascally innkeeper had been wont to "practise knight-errantry" +in his callow days. A steep crooked street led us up under the toppling +balconies, past the beautiful Romanesque arcades of the Church of San +Martin, and the heavily rusticated façade of the sombre Palace of Pikes. +Truly this was a captivating city; we made the confession immediately. +And as yet all the grounds of our verdict were a few steps inside the +back door. + +Segóvia is Queen of Castilian cities, as Toledo is the King of them. But +Segóvia does not lend her countenance to those who approach from the +south. She sits with her face to the northward towering over the road +from Valladolid:--an unforgettable vision, the fairy city of our dreams. + +Spain seems to take a delight in concentrating her fascinations. For +mile after mile she will trail you over a dull and spirit-quelling +country, till all your enthusiasm is properly subdued. Then she will +suddenly overwhelm you with a whole cargo of accumulated perfections, an +extravagance of beauty which leaves admiration aghast. And never was +_coup de théâtre_ more artfully developed than this great spectacle of +Segóvia. A far-distant glimpse of a little group of turrets bristling +upon the base of the mountains at the foot of the Seven Pikes; a tardy +approach up the valley of the Eresma, whose trees and rocks impede all +further view. The valley becomes a trench; and a vision of towers and +cliffs begins to stir our anticipation; while the trench narrows down to +a gullet, with sides so straight and smooth that they might have been +cut by hand. Then comes a sudden turn; the rock gates swing wide open, +and all in a moment the marvel stands revealed. + +Perched upon the precipitous cliffs of a long wedge-shaped promontory +between two confluent gorges, Segóvia has been aptly likened to a ship +stranded sidelong on the mountains with its bows slanting towards the +plain. The sharp prow and lofty forecastle are formed by the heights of +the _Alcázar_; a little further aft is the "bridge,"--the high ground +round the _Plaza Mayor_, where stands the cathedral, the central feature +of the whole. And if one is to run the comparison to death, I +suppose the funnel would be represented by the cathedral campanile, and +the stern galleries by the aqueduct arcades. The likeness is undeniable, +but altogether too prim and pedantic. As well might one picture a fairy +in a tailor-made costume. + +[Illustration: SEGÓVIA + +The Alcázar] + +There is something almost life-like in the sweep of the tilted strata as +the great cliff leaps above the summit of the poplars. It seems like the +"station of the herald Mercury";--arrested motion rather than repose;--a +great wave petrified in the act of breaking, with spires and gables for +the spray upon the crest. Beneath it curves the green and fertile +valley, the "terrestrial Paradise" of the Monks of El Parral[46]; and +the richness, brilliance and daring of the whole wonderful composition +form a theme which is the despair both of pen and pencil alike. + +The _Alcázar_, which is poised upon the extremity of the precipice, was +gutted by fire some forty years ago, and is consequently largely a +restoration; but it harmonises so admirably with the lines of nature +that one hardly realises that it has not grown of its own accord. It has +always been a royal stronghold, but never played any very important part +in the tumultuous drama of Spanish history; our friend the enemy, with +commendable discretion, having commonly preferred to gather his laurels +from some less inaccessible bough. It has, however, attained a minor +celebrity through the carelessness of a nursemaid. This sounds but a +threadbare method of achieving greatness; but the girl who accidentally +dropped an heir-apparent out of a window of the _Alcázar_ at Segóvia +must be allowed to have fixed the standard at the very highest +conceivable peg. + +But the proudest day in its annals was that upon which Isabella the +Catholic (newly apprised of the death of her brother King Henry) rode +forth from its gateway to claim the homage of Castile and Leon. The +moment was critical, for her succession was disputed; but Segóvia stood +firmly in her favour,--a worthy birthplace for the worthiest era of +Spain. The site seems designed for such a pageant; but it bore its own +bane in the setting: for from the little convent of Sta Cruz, below the +gateway of San Estéban, Torquemada was drawn to sway his nobler Queen. + +Torquemada was Isabella's evil genius--the demon who was to turn all her +blessings to a curse. It is but just to him to admit that he was honest +in his wrong-headedness; that he believed as sincerely in the +wickedness of an unauthorised conscience as in the righteousness of +persecution, and would have gone to the stake himself in support of his +tenets with as much resolution as any of his victims. It is the standing +puzzle with such men how they could fail to recognise in their own +spirit the condemnation of their own methods. Persecution they would +have derided if applied to them by others. Why should they credit its +efficacy when applied to others by them? And an even saner thought they +might have gleaned from the old essayist[47]:--"When all is done it is +an over-valuing of one's convictions by them to cause that a man be +burned alive." + +The cruelty for which we chiefly condemn them is a crime for which they +were not wholly responsible. The age was cruel,--"the most cruel of all +ages," wrote the grave Montaigne:--and the Inquisition did but deal with +heresy as treason was dealt with by the State. Its secrecy was its new +and horrible feature and the one most deeply resented at the time. + +For at first, even in Spain, the Inquisition was not tamely accepted; +and some of the noblest churchmen were loudest in its rebuke.[48] It +sinned against the light. It was a thing of devils; an atrocity only to +be paralleled by the witch-doctors of Ashanti and Benin. + +These grisly reflections are the inevitable Nemesis of all romantic and +chivalrous associations; but they seem as sadly out of place in this +sunny Eden as the trail of the serpent in its prototype. Isabella was a +generous patroness to the little convent, and her own mottoes and badges +figure in its delicate carving. She needed no such piety to keep her +memory green. + +[Illustration: SEGÓVIA + +Arco Santiago.] + +The Valladolid road skirts the foot of the precipice on the larboard +side and doubles back into the city, where the slope is easiest at the +stern. But the straight path is taken by an irresponsible little +bye-way, which rushes the steep ascent along the feet of the beetling +ramparts, and succeeds in winning a footing inside the Santiago gate. +Here the elegant horse-shoe arches look as if they might have been +borrowed from the Alhambra; and as we issued from under their shadow we +were confronted by the graceful campanile of the Church of San Estéban, +a work of the thirteenth century, and unique in Spanish +architecture, though it may be mated in Provence. _Were_ confronted, +alas! for I fear it now stands no longer. The tower was badly cracked +when first we saw it, and on the occasion of my second visit was being +taken down as dangerous. As to its ultimate destiny it is quite +impossible to prophesy: but Spaniards are capable restorers should they +happen to think it worth while. It may be as reverently revived as the +work at Leon Cathedral, or (_Di meliora!_) razed with as little +compunction as the late leaning tower at Zaragoza. + +The gateway of San Estéban is a little abaft the church, and, like its +neighbour of Santiago, has distinctly a Moorish air. Not so the Arco San +Andres, the other great gate, to the starboard. That is uncompromisingly +Gothic, and large and massive enough to balance both the other two. + +Upon this side the city is bounded by the little bourn of the Clamores, +a scantier stream than the Eresma, but equally romantic and picturesque. +It flows in a straight-sided gully like a natural moat, the upper +reaches becoming gradually shallower and wider till they expand into the +broad valley which is crossed by the aqueduct arcade. Here the most +prominent feature is the cathedral, which surges up out of the medley +of houses, overtopping even the pinnacles of the _Alcázar_. It is the +latest important Gothic monument ever erected upon Spanish soil, a +sister church to the new cathedral of Salamanca, and, like it, of +imposing and elegant proportions, though its details are less +elaborately ornate. + +We are far from exhausting the subject, but it is vain to continue the +catalogue. The true fascination of the town must be felt and not +described. I am afraid that even the Segóvians are not fully +appreciative; for our host considered that we were wasting our time +there, and wished to pack us off to la Granja to see the fountains play. +"It was a shame," he said, "to spend every day in Segóvia." +Segóvia!--where every street corner is worth a wilderness of fountains! + +[Illustration: SEGÓVIA + +Church of San Estéban.] + +When Gil Blas was imprisoned in the "tower of Segóvia," his kind-hearted +gaoler assured him that he would find the view from his window very +fine--when he cared to look. This casual remark gains significance from +the fact that it is about the only allusion to scenery in all that +veracious biography.[49] For any hint to the contrary the +Cantabrian mountains might be mole-hills, and Grenada itself as +commonplace as Valladolid. Le Sage dealt with men, not with scenery, and +no doubt, like Dr Johnson, would have preferred Fleet Street; but +Segóvia wrings a tiny tribute even from him. + +Gil Blas, it may be remembered, was not impressed by the prospect. He +had a very bad fit of the blues, and could only observe that there were +nettles by the stream. But doubtless he saw better ere leaving. His +character (never much to boast of) was at least vastly improved by his +involuntary sojourn, and perhaps it is not too fanciful to suggest that +"the view from the window" may deserve some of the credit of the cure. + +"There are none of beauty's daughters with a magic like thee," sings +Byron to one of his _houris_; and the same whole-hearted allegiance to +Segóvia will be paid by most of those who have once come under her +spell. Grenada, perhaps, may equal her. So does Albarracin, in +tertio-decimo: and the situation of Cuenca is probably the grandest of +all. But even Grenada herself will not steal her admirers from Segovia; +and Cuenca, for all its brilliance, is a gem of fewer facets than this. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +BÚRGOS + + +Last but not the least among the merits of Segóvia is to be reckoned the +fact that it pays some attention to its roads, for these are decidedly +the best in all the central provinces. No doubt they owe something to +their proximity to the Sierra de Guadarrama, which supplies them with +their granite metalling, and even vouchsafes them an occasional shower. +Yet there is a balance of credit to be shared among the worthy +_camineros_,--those humble "pawns" who are posted at long intervals +along the roadway (each with his donkey and his dog), diligently +trimming the margins and spreading the tags of herbage over the surface +of the road. The method seems somewhat original, but at least it has the +merit of success; for the scraps of turf serve to catch the dews at +night-time--and moisture is the chief desideratum upon every Spanish +road. + +The wide tawny plains which spread themselves northward from Segóvia are +chequered with mighty pine-forests, the homes of solitude and shade. +These rich green masses form a striking contrast to the bare red earth +around them, and the pale blue of the distant mountains which show +faintly upon the horizon beyond. For miles at a stretch the road burrows +through these colonnades of tree-stems,--all plentifully blazed for +resin, and festooned with the little earthenware pipkins in which it is +collected;--and seldom indeed is either man or beast encountered to give +a touch of life to the shadowy depths around. At one point we passed a +venerable _padre_, faithfully conning his breviary as he trudged behind +his mule; at another a small brown damsel lording it over a herd of +gigantic kine. But the only other living creature was a large snake +dusting itself in the roadway, over whom we narrowly escaped riding, for +we were right upon him before we saw what he was. + +Once clear of the pine-belt, the country quickly relapses into the +monotony typical of the Duero vale. One may partly avoid it by taking +the road to the eastward, and making straight for Búrgos by Sepúlveda +and Aranda de Duero across a region of wild and lofty moors. But of the +two roads to Valladolid there is little to choose between Olmedo and +Medina del Campo, and we may as well follow the more direct. + +It is easy to understand, as we cross these great limitless levels, in +what manner the Moors were so long able to maintain their supremacy +against the hardier races of the North. The whole district is an ideal +battle-field for the light-armed cavalry in which their strength +consisted; and to set a medieval man-at-arms, cased in full panoply, to +do a hard day's fighting under that roasting sun is a conception worthy +of Perillus himself. The battles with which History concerns itself, +however, are of a later age. The disconsolate little walled town of +Olmedo (once one of the keys of Castile) has given its name to two +desperate conflicts in the interminable civil wars which ravaged the +peninsula in the middle of the fifteenth century. Here it was that +Alvaro de Luna[50] gained his great victory over his confederate enemies +in the reign of John II. Here, too, in the following reign, was fought a +bloody fratricidal action between Henrique IV. and Alfonso, the brothers +of Isabella the Catholic. + +On the eve of this latter battle, Archbishop Carillo of Toledo[51] (as +usual "agin the government") sent a courteous message to his special +enemy, the king's favourite, apprising him that forty knights had bound +themselves by an oath to fight neither with small nor great, but only +with him, the following day. Don Beltran de la Cueva, however, though he +might not deserve his honours, at least knew how to wear them gallantly. +He countered by remitting a full description of his horse and armour, so +that the forty knights might make no mistake;--rode into battle as +advertised;--and escaped unscathed. His spirit deserved no +less:--perhaps even Carillo thought so. But one would like to know what +became of the forty knights. + +Olmedo figures also in fiction, but not in so martial a vein. Hither, in +fear of his life along the road from Valladolid, fled our old friend Gil +Bias--ex-assistant to Dr Sangrado--with more murders on his conscience +than even that seasoned article felt quite easy under, and the avenger +of blood at his heels in the shape of an enraged Biscayan. We followed +the track of his agitated _Hegira_, but, of course, in the reverse +direction, dropping gradually down to the level of the Duero by a bare +and undulating road. The broad river-basin looks comparatively green and +well-wooded when viewed from the heights above Simancas; yet as one +crosses it, it is arid enough; and the steep, flat-topped hills which +bound it seem absolutely Saharan, whether looked at from above or below. +The Duero itself at this point flows in a trench between crumbling +yellow banks; and the village near it, where Gil Blas struck up +acquaintance with the barber and the strolling actor, lingers in our +memory as the scene of our most decisive victory over our enemies the +dogs. Our pockets were fairly bulging with ammunition as we descended +into the _mêlée_, and whatever we missed on the volley seemed fated to +catch the _ricochet_. Our last missile was expended absolutely at random +on the sound of a dog behind us. But to judge from the yell which +followed it, it was none the less effective for that. + +Valladolid has the general unfinished air befitting a town that has made +several unsuccessful attempts to establish itself as a Capital; and its +failure to support that dignity is perhaps less surprising than the fact +that it should have been cast for the _rôle_. It stands upon no +important river, on no commanding hill. There is hardly a village in the +plain around it but might equally well have drawn a prize in the lottery +which decreed its eminence. + +[Illustration: BÚRGOS + +Arco San Martin.] + +In strategical position it is inferior to Búrgos--to Toledo in +historical prestige. + +Its memories, too (even apart from Dr Sangrado), are none of the most +cheerful; for it was one of the chief seats of the dreaded Inquisition, +and no city save Seville can boast a blacker fame. The wretched Jews and +Moors fill up the roll of the _Quemadero_,[52] but there were many +scholars and nobles among the victims of the _Plaza Mayor_ at +Valladolid. Here died the noble San Roman, the first of the Spanish +reformers. His ashes were collected by the very soldiers that guarded +his pyre and were brought to London by the English Ambassador,--a +foretaste of evil to come. Here it was that Don Carlos de Seso, his +limbs mangled by torture and disfigured by the ghastly _San Benito_, +paused as he passed the royal daïs, and sternly demanded of Philip, "as +one gentleman of another," how he could have the heart to tolerate such +atrocities in his domain. "I would slay mine own son were he as thou +art," was the bigot's answer. And so, to do him justice, he would;--on +even less provocation;--as a certain grave in the Escorial can testify +unto this day. But surely even Philip's conscience can not have been +appeased by such a rejoinder. The memory of that awful indictment must +have haunted him years afterwards in the long terrible days when he was +himself meeting a yet more hideous death with equally resolute +fortitude. + +There was one at least of the judges who sickened at his share in that +day's butchery: for when, many years afterwards, Carranza, Archbishop of +Toledo, himself fell under the suspicion of the Holy Office, the remorse +which he felt for de Seso was imputed to him for a crime. And the spirit +which such a man could inspire in his fellows may be judged from young +Julian Sanchez, who suffered the same day. The flames burnt the cords +which bound him, and in his agony he wrenched himself free. The friars +sprang forward to hear his recantation. But Julian's eye fell upon the +heroic figure of his leader, still steadfast amid his sufferings, and +with the cry, "Let me die like de Seso!" he flung himself back into the +flames. + +Nowhere in Europe had Protestantism nobler martyrs than the Spaniards: +and numbers of them were men of eminence; for their very judges lamented +that the learned men whom they had sent to confute foreign heretics were +returning to preach the faith which they were commissioned to destroy. +But against such persecutors their cause was hopeless. Philip and Valdez +were men with hands of iron. + +Valladolid has many fine monuments, but they are scattered and lost +among newer and less interesting surroundings. Even the old arcaded +_plaza_ is becoming deplorably modernised; and the old-world charm of +Toledo and Segóvia may here be sought in vain. The Pisuerga river (upon +which the city stands) forms the eastern boundary of the _Tierra de +Campos_, as the Esla forms the western.[53] And the scenery of the two +valleys is so nearly identical that a traveller dropped unexpectedly in +either might be puzzled to say which. There are the same wide basin, the +same crumbling yellow cliffs, the same troglodyte villages, the same +Nilotic-looking stream. The only speciality of the Pisuerga is the +extreme dustiness of the roads. + +Dueñas is one of the most typical little towns of the district. Perched +in full sunshine on one of the bare hills that flank the valley, it +looks as thoroughly baked as a pie-crust, in spite of the poplared +meadows at its feet. Here Ferdinand and Isabella first started their +housekeeping, on a very modest scale indeed, with scarcely enough +capital to guarantee to-morrow's dinner. "Saving a crown, he had nothing +else beside," sings the Scottish lassie of her suitor in the old ballad. +But the royal lovers' crowns were still in abeyance; and the then wearer +of the Castilian diadem had very different matrimonial plans for his +high-spirited sister. Wherefore he, whom History remembers as the +austere and politic Ferdinand, stole secretly across the hostile +frontier, disguised as groom to his own attendants, at the imminent risk +of a broken head; and the knot was safely tied in the cathedral at +Valladolid, with the connivance of a few of Isabella's staunchest +partisans. + +[Illustration: DUEÑAS] + +The little cathedral town of Paléncia lies a little off the direct road; +but it is most conveniently situated as a half-way house to Búrgos. The +cathedral is a singularly fine one, though rather ramshackle externally; +and, like a true Spanish cathedral, it is crammed with works of art. The +streets are all quaintly colonnaded; but we were somewhat taken aback +when we were shown the entrance to the _Fonda_, a miserable rat-hole in +a blank and dirty wall. We had expected something better of +Paléncia:--yet nothing quite so good as the delicious shady _patio_ +which we found at the end of the passage; for the hotel is really +an excellent one, and its true entrance is from a street at the back. On +the whole, we have nothing but commendation for Paléncia. Only we wish +that the little sisterhood, "_Siervas de Maria, ministras para los +enfermos_,"[54] would mind--not their p's and q's, but their m's and +n's. A little ambiguity in the final syllable is so extremely +compromising! + +We quitted Paléncia early on midsummer morning, and soon regained the +Búrgos road. The villages that lay before us were vomiting such volumes +of smoke that we concluded Torquemada must be justifying its title by +the celebration of an _Auto-da-fé_. But it proved to be only lime-kilns; +and Torquemada is pretty enough to deserve a gentler name. Here the +Pisuerga is crossed by a long crooked old bridge; and in the fields near +by occurred the incident which forms the subject of Pradilla's famous +picture, when poor mad Juana, escorting her husband's body from Búrgos +to Grenada, elected to spend the night in the open sooner than shelter +the faithless corpse in a convent of nuns. An incident worthy of Lear! + +Now we deserted the Pisuerga to follow the Arlanzon, a greener and +narrower valley, though still somewhat dreary at times. The poppies were +blazing in the brilliant sunshine with a splendour that dazzled the eye. +They grow best where blood has been spilled, if we are to credit old +folklore; and the Arlanzon valley may well bear out the assertion, for +every stage in the journey--Torquemada, Quintana del Puente, Venta del +Pozo--was the scene of some fierce skirmish during Wellington's retreat +from Búrgos in 1812. His army suffered terribly hereabouts; for the +roads were wellnigh impassable in that rainy autumn, and the sulky +troops broke out of all control. At one time there were twelve thousand +of them all drunk together in the wine-vaults at Torquemada! The result +was almost disaster. But fortunately the stock of wine was a large one, +and they left enough for the French. It may be urged in extenuation that +the country vintages are more heady than one would think, especially for +exhausted and starving men. + +[Illustration: BÚRGOS + +Hospital del Rey.] + +Our own difficulties arose not from rain but from sunshine, and the last +few miles over the hilly ground were distinctly exhausting. But at these +high levels even the sultriest sun is tempered by a crisp and bracing +air. The traveller who starts early can generally ride out the +morning, and the leafy avenues of Búrgos were our haven at mid-day. + +Búrgos shows itself off at best advantage when seen from the eastern +side, but the approach from the west is not unworthy of the Capital of +Old Castile. First we pass the beautiful _Plateresque_[55] gateway of +the Hospital del Rey. Then the towers of Las Huelgas, the most famous +Nunnery in Spain. The convent was founded by Alfonso VIII.,--a trespass +offering after his great defeat by the _Miramamolin_[56] at Alarcon. And +his atonement was accepted; for twenty years later he was able to hang +up over the High Altar the sacred banner captured at Las Navas de +Tolosa, the great victory which extinguished for ever the long +domination of the Moor. + +Under its folds the young Prince Edward of England knelt watching his +arms on the eve of his knighthood in 1254. Here he was married--a boy +bridegroom--to his girl-bride, the Princess Leonora of Castile; and +hence he carried her away with him to his home in his northern island, +where as the "dear Queen" of the Eleanor Crosses her name is held in +honour to this day. + +"Laws go as Kings wish," says the Spanish proverb; otherwise it is +difficult to imagine how the nuns could have ever permitted such a +shocking thing as a wedding in their own Conventual Church. When we +peeped into it, the very effigies of the kings on the royal tombs were +jealously shrouded--for propriety's sake! Formerly ten thousand dollars +dowry and sixteen quarterings were indispensable to the lady who wished +to renounce the vanities of the world in this exclusive cloister! But +now the sisterhood is sadly reduced, and takes in "paying guests,"--to +wit, another sisterhood, with whom they live (it is said) in peace and +amity. I mention this because an old French curé, who visited the +convent with us, seemed to regard it as the most astounding miracle that +Búrgos had to boast. + +[Illustration: BÚRGOS + +Arco Sta Maria.] + +The main entrance to the city is formed by the magnificent Arco de Sta +Maria at the head of the bridge over the Arlanzon. It was erected to +propitiate Charles V. after the revolt of the _Communeros_; and that +monarch's effigy consequently occupies the most conspicuous niche. He is +surrounded by all the local heroes of Búrgos;--Diego de Porcelos, +_Fundator noster_, whose German son-in-law erected the _Burg_,--Lain +Calvo, chief of the early "Judges,"--and Fernan Gonzalez, the great +count who founded the kingdom of Castile. But of course the greatest of +all the city demi-gods is their "Champion Chief," my Cid Ruy Diaz of +Bivar. Doubtless he would have been their patron saint if the Pope could +have been induced to canonize him;--a queer type of saint perhaps;--but +there are queer types in the Calendar. + +"My Cid" flourished about the time of our Norman Conquest, and from his +youth upward was recognised as the doughtiest warrior in Spain. He was +the sword-arm (according to legend) of three successive Castilian +sovereigns; and his services culminated in the conquest of Toledo, where +(again according to legend) he was commander-in-chief. Afterwards he +fell into disgrace;--chiefly owing to his invincible ignorance of the +dogma that you ought to stop killing Moors as soon as your king has made +peace with them; and Alfonso VI. arranged the difficulty by banishing +him from Castile,--to kill more Moors. "My Cid" now obtained letters of +marque (or their equivalent) from the Moorish King of Zaragoza, and +proceeded to carve out a kingdom for himself by the conquest of +Valéncia. This enterprise required money, and "My Cid" raised it from +the Jews, leaving in pawn a sealed chest full of gravel, which purported +to contain his family gems. Apparently he was indignant with the Hebrews +because they would not accept his bare word; and it never occurred to +either party that they were, in fact, accepting his bare word in the +matter of the sealed chest. As a commercial transaction it seems a +little bewildering; but it all came right in the end; and "My Cid" +loyally redeemed his chest of gravel at full face value when Valéncia +was subdued. + +At Valéncia he reigned in great glory, reconciled to the king and +victorious against all assaults of the Moors. There he made an edifying +end, serenely indifferent to the gathering of the mighty host which his +foes were assembling for their final effort. Thence he sallied for the +last time at the head of his comrades,--a ghastly figure, stiff in +death, but clad in full armour, and mounted on Bavieca, as he was wont +to ride of yore; and all the Moors that beleaguered him fled at the +sight of him, so that the spoil that he took at his death was more than +he had ever taken in his life. Ximena, his widow, bore back his body to +Búrgos, as he had bidden her; and his bones are exhibited to +inquisitive strangers in the Town Hall at a _peseta_ a head! How could +the Burgalese have the heart to ravish them from his own monastery of +San Pedro de Cardena, where he slept with Ximena and Bavieca, like the +tough old Berseker that he was? + +Of all the cities of Northern Spain, Búrgos is probably the best known +to the average tourist; but though the English language (for which one +acquires a very keen ear after a month's abstinence) may be occasionally +heard in the environs of the cathedral, yet the quaint old _calles_ and +palaces are still much less visited than they deserve. Many of the +latter are particularly fine examples of their class, especially the +stern old _Casa del Cordon_, which takes its name from the great cord of +St Francis, sculptured over the portal,--a common embellishment in the +palaces of that date; and the more graceful _Casa Miranda_, built (as we +may surmise) by some relative of the "prudent" Don Diego, Don Quixote's +hospitable host. This last is a lovely old building of Italian delicacy +of ornament, but, now, alas! sadly mutilated and partitioned off into +squalid tenements, not entirely innocent of fleas. + +"It is never hot at Búrgos," we had been told by a friendly mentor: and +I can testify that it is often cold there, for the place stands high, +and the mountains of la Demanda rear their snowy crests at no great +distance away. Yet the local saying, "Nine months of Winter, and three +of H--l"[57] is distinctly a more impartial summary, and this month was +apparently one of the three. The narrow streets blazed white and +scintillating under the flood of sunshine. The wayfarer edged his way +gingerly along the shady margin, and picked out the narrowest point +before he would venture to cross. Then, after a timid pause, he would +draw a deep breath and make a bolt for it. The sun caught him in transit +like the blast from the mouth of a furnace; and he scuttled gasping into +shelter, and cooled off on the further side. The Spanish shade +temperature may perhaps be matched on a hot day in England, but it needs +the _Piazza_ at Venice to rival the fury of the sun. + +[Illustration: BÚRGOS + +Patio of the Casa de Miranda.] + +There are, indeed, some few Salamanders who do not appear to mind it. A +party of tonsured Franciscans were unconcernedly challenging it to do +its worst. But most of the saner inhabitants wisely keep indoors till +the evening; and whoso wishes to see Búrgos Society taking its airing, +let him seat himself after dusk in front of the Café Suizo upon the +Espolon. Then all the beauty and fashion turn out to promenade upon a +regulation hundred yards of pavement, under the eyes of their fathers +and brothers, who sit sipping their coffee and _anis_ beneath the trees. +A very handsome company they are; but, alas! their hats and frocks are +mostly Parisian creations. That most graceful of all head-dresses, the +_mantilla_, is reserved for state occasions, such as High Masses and +Bull-fights. "Nothing is sacred to a sapper,"--nor to a milliner, unless +it is new. + +There is a cathedral at Búrgos; and we feel ourselves justified in +mentioning it, because we heard it frankly admitted that it was "a vurry +fine church _for such a small town_." Our Amurrican Ruskin seemed to +think it hardly class enough for Chicago; but in contests of this +description the battle is not to the millionaire. The builder of the +Escorial, for all his great possessions, knew that it was not for his +craftsmen to rival the Cartuja tombs.[58] + +Indeed, there is something overwhelming about the magnificence of +Búrgos. It is rather German in character, as Leon is rather French. Yet +though Juan de Colónia was a Rhinelander and Archbishop Maurice an +Englishman, there is too much pure Spanish at Búrgos to assign all the +credit to them. The building ranks as one of the wonders of Europe:--a +cathedral perhaps as large as Canterbury, but finished throughout with +the delicate extravagance of the _bijou_ chapel of Roslin;--which, of +course, is really Spanish also, if Scotchmen will excuse my saying so. + +And, moreover, the splendour of the furniture is fully in keeping with +the fabric: particularly the gorgeous metal _rejas_,--for what other +craftsmen in Europe could vie with the Spanish smiths? Riches which +might deck out a whole church among us lovers of bare walls are here +found packed within the compass of a single chapel; and little gems of +carving and inlay are thrust aside like lumber into corners where they +can be scarcely seen. The whole is a dream of magnificence unsurpassable +even in Italy: yet it is the gorgeous gloom of Toledo which still +springs first to the memory when we contrast our own chaste chilly +churches with the opulence of the shrines of Spain. + +The cathedral stands upon steeply sloping ground well above the level of +the Arlanzon. A long broad flight of steps leads up from the street to +the south transeptal entrance; and from the pavement of the northern +transept the noble staircase of Diego de Silöe climbs up to another +street level upon the further side. Beyond it and above are piled the +quaint red-roofed houses, clambering tier upon tier up the flanks of the +escarpment; yet for all their aspirations the bare steep mound draws +clear of them, and "Dubreton's thundering citadel" frowns alone upon the +crest. + +This castle has rather an unsatisfactory interest for Englishmen, for it +was the obstacle which checked the advance of Wellington in his great +campaign of 1812. It stands at the tip of a long tongue of high ground +which runs up to the river almost at right angles; and this extreme end +is separated from the rest of the ridge by a deep depression, so that it +forms a sort of semi-detached hillock, shaped like a gigantic mole-hill +some three hundred and fifty feet high. The castle is included within +the circuit of the city walls; and the cathedral is so close beneath it +that it is wonderful that it escaped destruction during the bombardment. +Yet even the stained glass which once adorned the clerestory was only +destroyed by the explosion which occurred the following year. The castle +was once the royal residence of Castile: but nothing now remains of it +except a few lines of grass-grown earthworks, which are utilised as +rope-walks by the peaceful Burgalese. The modern fortress is on the hill +of San Miguel, on the other side of the depression. + +In Wellington's day San Miguel was merely an outwork. Its capture was a +preliminary operation, and it was stormed early in the siege. With +modern artillery such a _coup_ would have been decisive. The citadel +itself would have been blown over the pinnacles of the cathedral without +more ado. But in those times the old line-of-battle ships fought their +thirty-two pounders muzzle to muzzle, and "three or four feet between +the mouths of your pistols" was considered "as good as a mile." + +Wellington was, moreover, miserably provided with artillery, and the +guns of the castle were far superior to his own. His troops were +endeavouring to "tear down the ramparts with their naked hands"; and the +conspicuous pillar which overlooks three counties from the lonely +heights of Malvern, records the fate of the young heir of Eastnor who +was killed while directing the approaches. A month's siege and five +desperate assaults left the castle still unwon when the French +armies had gathered to relieve it: and the besiegers with muffled wheels +stole away over the bridges in the night-time. The campaign which began +so gloriously at Salamanca[59] had ended in another retreat. + +[Illustration: BÚRGOS + +From the East.] + +Yet the labour and carnage were not wasted. Joseph had neither time nor +money to spend upon repairing the battered fortress, and next year the +tide of war rolled back like the surge of the sea. Wellington, riding at +the head of his troops across the hills from the westward, was saluted +by the thunder of a terrific explosion which darkened the heavens above +him and shook the ground beneath his feet. Then first, with stern +elation, he recognised the presage of Vitória. His foes had despaired of +resisting him. The castle of Búrgos was no more. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +ACROSS NAVARRE + + +It must give some flavour of unreality to our impressions of the +Peninsula that we should not allude to the beggars until the ultimate +chapter of all. And our only excuse for our negligence will sound like +an aggravation of the error; for we hold that the Spanish beggar has +been much over-advertised and does not (on his merits) deserve any more +prominent place. The number of beggars in Spain varies directly in +proportion to the number of tourists. They are most persistent at +Búrgos; there is a moderate superfluity at Segóvia and Toledo: but in +the out-of-the-way districts there is only the fundamental residue, and +that (to speak frankly) we should be rather loth to spare. + +"His honour the beggar, your brother"--the authorised official +beggar--is a gentleman. He is frequently distinguished by a badge, like +old Edie Ochiltree; and his resemblance to that worthy philosopher does +not terminate with the badge. He is seldom unduly importunate. He begs +"in God's name"; and when "in God's name" you implore him to excuse you, +he seems to resignedly argue that such an adjuration would never be +refused on insufficient grounds. His station is in the church porches; +but he sometimes goes stumping the _calles_, and breathing a +supplicating "_Ave Maria_" into every open door--an invocation which +generally brings a very peppery blessing rattling down the staircase +from the busy housewife overhead. And in fine, his entire demeanour is +so eminently high-bred and dignified that it seems a privilege to oblige +him. You feel as if you were conferring an obol on Belisarius, and are +consequently on the best of terms with yourself for all the rest of the +day. + +This "Lord High Vagabond of the Stocks" is, however, not quite pushing +enough for the era. In be-touristed cities he is swamped by an army of +interlopers. These are perhaps most frequently children; but the tribe +is bewrayed by their cry,--"_Perrita por pan![60]--Señor-e-e-to! una +perr-e-e-ta!_" a capital phrase for a beggar's whine! A small initiate +was squatting beside me all the time I was sketching the Casa Miranda. +She was engaged in coaching the baby--these were to be his first words. +The baby being unresponsive, she maintained the refrain herself, at +intervals of five minutes, in an uninterested semi-detached tone. If she +got the _perrita_, that would be so much profit; but she would not be +depressed if she didn't--she was not so keen about the _pan_. The +benevolent stranger is misled by their bare feet and rags and +persistency, and imagines that they are all on the brink of starvation; +but if he wants to see real poverty let him penetrate to the remoter +villages--and he will find no beggars there. There more than once I have +been humbled to the dust at having my "tip" politely spurned by the +dignified ragamuffins who have rendered me some trifling service. And +lest I should ruin their self-respect with coppers, I have been forced +to undermine their constitutions with cigarettes. + +The last beggars whom we encountered at Búrgos, however, were "right" +beggars. They were clustering round the entrance of the great monastery +of La Cartuja[61] de Miraflores, awaiting their daily dole. Everybody +visits La Cartuja to see the marvellous tombs which Isabella erected for +her father and brother--the masterpieces of _el mæstre_ Gil; yet not the +least attractive feature are the white-robed Carthusian brethren +themselves, and the ragged mendicants "coming for their soup" according +to the immemorial usage of old. + +The convent stands about two miles from Búrgos, on a slight eminence to +the right of the Pancorvo road, and was the last of the great monuments +of the city that we passed on our departure towards the east. The road +had been rising almost imperceptibly all the way from Valladolid. +Gradually the fields had got greener and the trees more plentiful as we +left the dun plains behind; and now a fine row of big shady elms +introduced a welcome variety to the everlasting poplars and half-grown +acacias which had been our only solace for many a sultry mile. The +country, moreover, now begins to assume a more mountainous character. +Away to the right rises the desolate Sierra de la Demanda, the northern +outpost of the rugged ranges round Sória,--perhaps one of the wildest +districts in all western Europe at the present day. The wolf and the +boar still roam at will through its untrodden valleys, though I believe +the bear now only survives in the Western Cantabrians and the Pyrenees. +Here the venerable monastery of Silos lay securely hidden even from the +sacrilegious Moors; and here in later years the dreaded _partidas_ of +Mina the _guerillero_ were able to defy the utmost efforts of the +French. + +Our road passes only over the merest outskirts of these mountains, and +leads us on through Briviesca by a long, gradual, and monotonous +descent. Yet the gates of Castile are still before us, and we do not +quit that most Spanish of provinces without seeing it once more in its +sternest and wildest mood. North of the road lies the long level-topped +ridge of the Montes Obarenes, a range not dissimilar to our own Mendips, +and, like them, cleft with an unsuspected pass. For some distance we +skirt the base of the hills; and then with a sharp turn to the left we +dive suddenly into the grim defile of Pancorvo, a Deva gorge in +miniature, where road, river, and railway jostle each other through a +maze of fantastic limestone crags. + +[Illustration: THE GORGE OF PANCORVO] + +These mountain ramparts, pierced with their deep natural posterns, are a +most characteristic feature of the Castilian frontiers; and probably +that "Land of Castles" owes its name as much to them as to its +man-built donjons and citadels. Indeed, it requires no very vivid +imagination to discover the outlines of towers and battlements among the +sheer bare weather-beaten stones. One magnificent imitation overshadowed +our road in the _Serranía_ of Cuenca, with keep and watch-tower and +ballium as complete as a _Château Gaillard_. Another more ambiguous +specimen we caught sight of in this very district;--one of those +isolated conical hills crowned with a square rocky tooth, which are not +uncommon in the neighbourhood of Pamplona. First it seemed that it was a +rock,--then that it was a castle; and the balance of probability +appeared to change every half mile. The road led straight up to our +landmark and circled around the base, so that we saw it fairly close, +and from three different sides; but whether it was really a rock or a +castle we are not quite positive even to this day. There can be little +doubt that it is to some of these _Fate Morgane_ that we owe the old +proverb concerning castles in Spain. + +The northern face of the Montes Obarenes is much more broken than the +southern; and as we run down from the pass into the pretty little town +of Miranda, we may see, far away on our right, that other great notch +to the eastward where the Ebro forces its passage out into the Rioja +plains. The Ebro is but young up here in the Vizcayan highlands; yet it +is already a fine broad river; and the massive old stone bridge of +Miranda, flanked by quaint houses and churches, makes a singularly +attractive sample of Spanish scenery to the tourist newly arrived from +Bayonne. + +The river breaks through the mountains some ten miles lower, by a gap +between two rocky headlands, known as the cliffs of Bilibio and Buradon; +and beyond are the tawny undulating plains around Haro,--a famous +wine-growing district, whose vintages usually reach the English market +under the name of Bordeaux, though they taste just as good under their +own. The view (given in the illustrations as La Rioja Alavesa) is one +which is very typical of Spanish inland scenery. But a special local +touch is given by the Navarrese villages bunched together at the tops of +their conical hills, like so many hedgehogs with their bristles out. +Navarre was a buffer state in medieval times, and anyone who had nothing +else to do used to kill time by invading it. The Navarrese villages were +always upon the defensive, and evidently acquired the habit of +arranging themselves to suit. + +[Illustration: LA RIOJA ALAVESA + +Looking Northwards across the Ebro.] + +Meanwhile our road to Pamplona keeps still to the northward of the +mountains, and, crossing the Ebro at Miranda, makes straight for the +heights of Puebla and Morillas, which answer to the Montes Obarenes on +the opposite side of the vale. The little river Zadora comes rippling +out to meet us; and the gap from which it issues admits us into a wide +level basin some ten miles in diameter, to which the Zadora itself forms +a somewhat irregular chord. The ground on the left bank of the river +rises considerably higher than on the right, and culminates in a little +shaggy knoll which stands close beside our road. Watch for it, and do +not pass it unnoticed; it is the "Englishmen's Hill." Well has it earned +that name, for it has been twice baptized in the blood of our nation. +Once when a detachment of the Black Prince's army, under the command of +Sir Thomas Felton, fell fighting valiantly against thirty times their +number on the eve of the battle of Navarrete.[62] Again when Picton's +"fighting devils" came like a storm against it in the crisis of the +battle of Vitória, cutting their path through the centre of King +Joseph's tottering array. + +Salamanca was Wellington's most brilliant victory, but Vitória was +unquestionably the ablest of his campaigns. This invasion was not like +those that had gone before it--no mere sally from his impregnable +mountain lines. At last he could wield an undivided command and an army +as numerous as his opponents; and as he crossed the little frontier +river Agueda, he had looked back to Portugal with a confident "adieu." +Hill to the right and Graham to the left had already been slipped on +their quarry; and against such a sweeping combination neither Tormes, +Duero, nor Carrion could provide any adequate defence. Madrid was +abandoned before him,--Búrgos was dismantled. And the retreating French +convoys, with all their baggage, plunder, and munitions, were jammed in +the city of Vitória at the head of the road to Bayonne. + +Joseph sought to bar the advance at Pancorvo, and thought the defile was +impregnable. He looked for assault from the southward, but the storm +broke upon him from behind. Wellington had shifted his base by sea from +Lisbon to Santander; and sweeping Reille and Maucune before him, came +pouring down the Ebro from the north. The stroke was a _coup de Jarnac_, +as fatal as it was unexpected. The heights of Obarenes and Morillas were +no longer barring the way; and Joseph hastily fell back to the hills +behind the Zadora, the only remaining position which he could possibly +hope to defend. + +As it was in the days of Las Navas de Tolosa, so was it also in this +"crowning mercy" of the Peninsular War. It was a peasant who led Kempt's +brigade over the unguarded bridge at Tres Pontes, and fell, like his +prototype of the Morena, at the moment of the victorious attack. +Clinging in desperation to each successive thicket and farmstead, the +French were pushed remorselessly backward into the chaos of transport +behind. And even more fatal than the frontal onset was the blow struck +far to the left on the very confines of the plain. There Graham stormed +the village of Gamarra Mayor, and shut off the flying army from the use +of the great royal road. Nothing that ran upon wheels could go along the +branch road to Pamplona. Guns, ammunition, treasure, baggage, and +plunder all fell entire into the hands of the victors; and probably at +the moment Joseph was very well contented that the prize was +sufficiently valuable to effectually hamper the pursuit. + +The battle was the ruin of Napoleon, as well as of his cause in the +Peninsula. The struggle had sapped his strength for years, and the +catastrophe came at the very crisis of his fate.[63] Among all his +enterprises there had been none more thoroughly inexcusable;--wantonly +conceived, treacherously undertaken, ruthlessly carried out. As great a +blunder in statecraft as it was an outrage on humanity. "The Spanish +canker destroyed him"; and so in bare justice it should. + +Our route follows the track of the flying army along a deep green +Navarrese valley between lofty and cliff-like hills. By its side runs +the single line which connects Madrid with the frontier; but this turns +off to the north about halfway to Pamplona, making for San Sebástien and +Irun. + +[Illustration: MIRANDA DEL EBRO + +A Corner in the Town.] + +The villages are much devoted to _Pelota_[64]; and few are too poor to +possess some species of primitive court. Those in the larger towns are +most imposing erections; but any bare wall will do, and some of the +churches have hoisted pathetic petitions that the parishioners will not +practise against the walls _during the hours of divine service_. +The houses themselves seem almost built with a view to the pastime, for +they are solid square stone buildings, shouldering close up against the +roadway; and their blank expanses of ashlar are persistently +commandeered by the boys. + +_Pelota_ is exclusively a Basque game. In Castile and Leon the men are +content with skittles, and the boys are generally engrossed in the +enacting of miniature bull-fights--a game in which the star performer +invariably elects to play bull. Dancing is, of course, an amusement +which is common to all provinces and to both sexes: but a game in the +English significance is an institution which seldom appeals to the +southern mind. + +In this district, however, the cyclist provides a good deal of salutary +exercise for the conscientious toll-keeper. For the Basque roads are not +national but provincial, and the provinces maintain them by taking +tolls. The stranger, however, is not generally aware of this custom; and +as the toll-bars are quite unobtrusive, he rides innocently past them on +his way. His first intimation takes the shape of a breathless and +howling _caminero_ sprinting desperately along the road behind him, and +smarting under the conviction that he is being wilfully bilked. + +Some little distance before we reach Pamplona we pass one of the most +remarkable examples of rock formation that is to be met with even in +Spanish hills. Here the deep glen of Larraun debouches upon the main +valley, and across its mouth is drawn a huge natural wall of precipitous +limestone which can hardly be less than a thousand feet high. The top is +serrated, but both faces are equally sheer; and the thickness at the +base is not relatively greater than one would expect in an artificial +masonry dam. Probably, indeed, it was a natural dam originally, +retaining a vast reservoir in the vale behind; but now it is cleft in +the centre from top to base with a huge gash, clean-cut and narrow; and +through this stupendous portal the little river issues from the vale. + +[Illustration: PAMPLONA + +From the Road to the Frontier.] + +Pamplona stands in the centre of an amphitheatre of mountains, rising +out of the level arena on a sort of daïs covered with walls and spires. +It is the chief of the northern frontier fortresses; but its bastions +date mostly from the days of Vauban, and its strength (from a modern +military standpoint) must depend on the forts which cap the neighbouring +hills. The cathedral is an interesting building, and possesses a +most lovely cloister; but the town generally is not very attractive to +the artist, though it forms a good "jumping-off place" for exploring the +country around. + +The bare, windy wastes that stretch away from the city towards the +Pyrenean foot-hills are not altogether so tenantless as they seem to a +casual view. Several of the villages still bear traces of ancient +prosperity;--Estella, charmingly situated in a rocky hollow; Sangüesa, +with its noble monastery; Olite, once the Windsor of Navarre. The +last-named might almost rank as a working model for an antiquarian. Its +lanes are packed with the decaying mansions of the long-departed +courtiers, and dominated by the huge ruined castle which was the home of +the warrior kings. This palatial stronghold is noted as one of the +finest examples in the Peninsula: a match for our own Bamburgh or +Warkworth, and consequently with few rivals in the world. + +As the capital of Navarre, Pamplona has, of course, been pre-eminent for +its sieges; and it was in one of these that Ignatius Loyola received the +wound which converted him from a dandy into an ascetic, and led to the +foundation of the Order of Jesuits. But the siege which possesses the +greatest interest for an Englishman is that undertaken by the Duke of +Wellington after Vitória; the enterprise which led to that series of +desperate struggles usually lumped together vaguely as "the Battles of +the Pyrenees." + +The sieges of San Sebástien and Pamplona had been undertaken +simultaneously; but neither made very rapid progress, and Soult was not +the man to let them fall without an attempt to come to their aid. He had +re-formed the wrecks of Joseph's army on the French side of the +frontier; and advancing towards the passes of Maya and Roncesvalles, he +assailed them both suddenly the same day. The detachments which guarded +them were overpowered after a most resolute resistance, and Soult pushed +down the valleys towards Pamplona, reuniting his forces on the road. +Wellington had expected that the blow would be aimed at San Sebástien. +He was momentarily outwitted; but he recovered just in time. Soult found +his path barred at the fatal ridge of Saurauren,--just outside the +Pamplona basin, and literally within sight of his goal. The beleaguered +garrison heard the roar of that furious battle; they could watch the +smoke-wreaths curling above the intervening ridge. But no French +standards appeared in the mouth of the pass in the evening. When +the battle was renewed two days later, the English were the assailants; +and Soult and his beaten army could barely find safety in flight. + +[Illustration: OLITE + +The Castle.] + +Saurauren was Wellington's last great battle on Spanish soil. A few +weeks later the two great fortresses had fallen, and--first of all the +allied Generals--he carried the war into France. Five years previously +he had landed in Portugal--a "Sepoy General," little more distinguished +than Cornwallis or Eyre Coote. But those five years in the Peninsula had +fixed his reputation for ever; and the giant who crossed the Bidassoa +had but little to add to his stature on the field of Waterloo. + +There is a choice of two roads from Pamplona to the frontier. The +_kilos_ are reckoned from Maya; but Roncesvalles bears the more historic +name. In point of scenery there is little to choose between them; but +perhaps Maya is the harder journey, for Maya includes Vellate, and this +extra pass is the loftiest of the three. + +The country towards Roncesvalles is at first much less mountainous in +character than that towards Vitória; for the high peaks of the Pyrenees +lie in the centre of the range, to the eastward; and those immediately +before us, though wild and rugged, do not show up very imposingly above +the lofty levels upon the Spanish side. Near Pamplona the meadows are +green and civilised, but the view becomes sterner and more barren as we +draw near to the feet of the hills; and presently we enter a long, +narrow, rocky gully--the bed of a mountain river--whose steep, bare +sides are dotted with trim little bushes of box. How hot it was in that +narrow gully! The sun's rays poured vertically into the breathless +hollow, and their heat was radiated by every burning stone. Even the +six-inch shadows of the box bushes were quoted at fancy values; and +shedding our outer garments one after another, we eventually emerged at +the further end in an almost aboriginal state. + +"Are you thinking of resuming the garb of civilisation?" enquired one +vagabond of another, as we halted for a moment on the little bridge near +the village of Burguete. "I am thinking of resuming the garb of Adam," +retorted his comrade desperately, as he glared into the pool beneath. It +was rather a public place for a bathe; but there are no passengers on a +Spanish road at _Comida_ time. And as that meal is invariably +unpunctual, we knew that the little _Fonda_ could be reached in plenty +of time. + +Burguete stands in the centre of a little cup-like valley; and prominent +upon the further lip rises a big domed hill, one of the flankers of the +pass. It is a sleek, smooth mountain, upholstered with green turf, and +spangled with grazing sheep; and the big round beeches and chestnuts +herd together all over its crest, as domesticated as on an English lawn. +Yet the little hillock beneath it was the scene of one of the greatest +of tragedies; for there stood the abbey of Roncesvalles, the sepulchre +of Charlemagne's slaughtered Peers. + +A good deal of controversial ink has been spilt over Charlemagne's +famous Spanish expedition: and all the confusion of history has been +worse confounded by romance. The French Epics tell of it as a glorious +and successful crusade, undertaken in the cause of Christendom against +the insolence of the Moors. The Emperor dictated his own terms in his +enemy's palace at Córdova, and it was only the treachery of Ganelon that +led to the regrettable incident at the end. Very different is the story +of the Spanish ballads. Their bards were most wofully sceptical of +religious and disinterested invasion; they wished to be left to fight +out their own quarrels with their own infidels, and felt no sort of +satisfaction at the prospect of Spain becoming a province of the +Franks. It was their own native heroes, Bernardo del Carpio and the +chivalry of Leon, who overthrew the Paladins at Roncesvalles. Is not +Roland's "Durandal" in the armoury of Madrid to this day, to prove that +the Spaniard was the better man? + +[Illustration: PAMPLONA + +A Patio near the Cathedral.] + +In truth the expedition was directed against the newly-established +Caliphate of Córdova, in alliance with Suleiman Ibn-al-Arabi, the +Moorish king of Barcelona, who was jealous of Abderahman's growing +power. Charlemagne captured Pamplona (which was Christian), and obtained +some acknowledgment of suzerainty from the Sheikhs of Gerona and Huesca. +But Zaragoza held out against him with all its traditional obstinacy: +the ill-matched allies could by no means pull together; and the campaign +fizzled out abortively without any substantial gain. As for the dolorous +rout which concluded it, that was the work of neither Goth nor Moor, but +of the angry Basques of the mountains, a nation whom Charlemagne had not +regarded, and whom he probably despised. They had seen their country +pillaged, their capital Pamplona taken; and now, when the rearguard was +entangled in the mountains, they at last got the chance of plunder and +revenge. No doubt they trapped them in that long rocky defile--straggling, +way-worn, and cumbered with plunder and baggage--a position as hopeless +as Elphinstone's in the Koord Kabul. The disjointed line was toiling +painfully along the gullet; the slippery screes rose unscalable on +either side; and the jutting crags that frowned at every corner +afforded both ramparts and missiles to the unweariable mountaineers. +None but the doughtiest warriors could have succeeded in breaking out +into the basin of Burguete. And here their superior arms and discipline +would enable them to fight their way across to the further side. Only +one short ascent still remained to be surmounted; but their active +enemy was before them, and the task was beyond their power. Wounded +and exhausted, they drew together in a rallying square upon the little +hillock; and there, fighting desperately, they were cut down to a man. + +The course of that fight is retold in the very conformation of the +valley, yet somehow the picture is inadequate. The drama is not quite +worthily staged. The place is too homely and pastoral for the scene of +that great Saga which Taillefer chanted between the embattled hosts at +Hastings; and which has since thrilled the hearts of generations of +warriors, as Sidney's was thrilled by the tale of Chevy Chase. We need a +more rugged environment for the memory of a departed demi-god. "He who +aspires to be a hero," said Dr Johnson, "should drink brandy!" And +perhaps, while he is about it, he might get killed in a Deva gorge. + +There is a softer lay for the minstrel who would linger by the braes of +Burguete; a tale of two true lovers, who, as usual, were distressingly +ill-starred. Their story is even more ancient than the doughty deeds of +arms that we have just been rehearsing; for it relates to the days of +Charlemagne's illustrious grand-sire, Charles Martel. Othman ben Abu +Neza, the Moorish warden of the marches, had espoused a Christian bride, +Lampegia, daughter of Duke Eudo of Aquitaine; and fleeing with her +across the mountains to seek refuge from his indignant suzerain, was +overtaken in the pass of Roncesvalles, and slain in his lady's arms. The +unemotional historian is convinced that the marriage was political, and +hints that both Eudo and Othman were conspiring against their respective +liege lords. But at least he will grant us a certificate as to the +authenticity of the final catastrophe: and he flatly declines to go +further even for Roland and his Peers. + +Battlefields lie thick in Navarre, and even the Vale of Thorns is not +absolutely the last of them. A second battle of Roncesvalles was +contested upon the heights of Altobiscar, at the very crest of the Pass, +in 1813. Here the British had been posted for six weeks, covering the +blockade of Pamplona; and had greatly vexed the soul of their general by +persistently deserting in twos and threes every night. + +Why these seasoned soldiers, at this very hour of their triumph, should +have been seized with so strange an epidemic, is a problem which might +take a good deal of arguing. The only contemporary theory was the +suggestion that they were finding things slow! But their fighting +qualities did not seem to have got much affected. Soult finally attacked +them in person with much superior numbers: and they offered a most +resolute resistance, only giving ground after night-fall, when it was +evident they were being outflanked. Cole, the hero of Albuera, led them +stubbornly back along the mountain ridges towards Pamplona; and the act +was played out at Saurauren, where he arrived just in time to seize the +hill. + +The ascent of the Pass upon the Spanish side is but trifling. A few +brisk turns in the track, and we have climbed from the abbey ruins to +the summit of the _col_ behind. Before us the road to France drops coil +below coil into the deep green valley, a long descent of over three +thousand feet. The actual frontier is some dozen miles further, at the +village of Valcarlos; where a modest little bridge, shepherded by a +horde of sentries, spans the waters of the infant Nive. But the spirit +of Spain lags behind us up here upon this breezy saddle. Here is the +true parting of the nations; and as we turn our faces plainwards, we +feel that we are taking our leave. + +Farewell and adieu to you, fair Spanish ladies! + Farewell and adieu to you, ladies of Spain! +For we've received orders to cross the salt waters; + _We hope before long we shall see you again_! + + + + +INDEX + + +PAGE + + +Abándames, 21, 28, 30, 39, 42 + +Abderahman I., Caliph of Córdova, 296 + +Abu Walid, Alfaqui of Toledo, 208 + +Alarcon, Battle of, 267 + +Alba de Tormes, 163, 173 + +Albarracin, 255 + +Alberche, River, 212-213 + +ALCÁNTARA, 230-235 + Bridge, 92, 231-235 + Monastery, 53, 234 + +Alfonso VI. of Castile and Leon, 124-125, 140, 142, 202, 208, 269 + +Alfonso VIII. of Castile, 60, 208, 267 + +Alfonso XI. of Castile and Leon, 180 + +Alfonso V. of Portugal, 150-151 + +Alfonso, Prince of Castile, 258, 281 + +_Alguazils_, 53, 79, 80 + +Al Manzor, Vizier of Córdova, 85-86 + Mountain, 161, 221 + +Almaraz, Bridge, 92, 224 + +_Almoravides_, 202 + +Altobiscar, Mountain Ridge, 299 + +Alxaman, Moorish Emir, 35 + +Andalusia, 60, 202 + +Aragon, 61, 168 + +Aránjuez, 191, 193-195 + +Arapiles, 164 + +Arlanzon, River, 266, 268, 274 + +Armada, The, 95, 107, 189 + +Arriondas, 37-38, 42 + +Arroyo Molinos, Battle of, 224 + +Arzobispo, Bridge, 214 + +ASTORGA, 68-71, 75, 78, 177 + +Asturias, Eastern, 15-16, 24-42 + Western, 93, 113-131 + +Augustus, Emperor, 68, 228, 246 + +_Autos da Fé_, 205, 261-262 + +ÁVILA, 176-183, 190, 192 + + +Barcelona, 296 + +Basques, 289, 296 + +Bathers, 120 + +Bavieca, 270-271 + +Becerrea, 76-77 + +Beggars, 278-280 + +BÉJAR, 173-176, 235 + +Bellotas, 116 + +Bembibre, 75 + +BENAVENTE, 133-136 + Battle of, 134-135 + +Berruguete, Alonzo, Sculptor, 207 + +BETÁNZOS, 106, 108-110 + +Bidassoa, River, 6, 293 + +BILBAO, 5-7, 9 + +Birds (Wild). Eagles, 21, 229; + Falcons, 213; + Hoopoes, 156; + Magpies, 157; + Ospreys, 22-23; + Partridges, 73; + Storks, 157, 222, 229, 232 + +Biscay, Bay of, 5-7, 39 + +Bivar, Rodrigo Diaz de. _See_ Cid. + +Borgoña, Felipe de, Sculptor, 207 + +Borrow, George, 54, 103, 108 _note_, 115-117 + +Briviesca, 82, 282 + +Buenavista, 46, 48, 50 + +Bull Fights, 171-173, 208, 273, 289 + +BÚRGOS, 60, 257, 264-277, 280-281, 286 + Castle, 275-277 + Cathedral, 273-274 + Monasteries, 267-268, 280-281 + Palaces, 270 + Siege, 275-277 + +Burguete, 294-295, 297-298 + + +Cabezon, 19, 42 + +Cacabellos, 72, 75 + +CÁCERES, 81, 221-224, 229, 235 + +_Cafés_, 13-14, 69-70, 273 + +Calderon, Pedro, Dramatist, 205 + +Camps, Celtic and Roman, 90-91 + +CÁNGAS DE ONIS, 30-33, 37, 39 + +CANTABRIAN MOUNTAINS, 15, 19-20, 43, 66, 152, 161, 282 + +Cares, River, 28-29 + +Cardena, San Pedro de, Monastery, 271 + +Carillo, Archbishop of Toledo, 151, 258-259 + +Carlists, 54-55 + +Carpio, Bernardo del, 296 + +Carranza, Archbishop of Toledo, 262 + +Carreño, 29-30 + +Carrion, River, 51, 286 + +Castaños, General, 68 + +Castile, Kingdom, 60-61, 202, 207 + Old, 7-23, 43-45, 176-185, 243-258, 266-284 + New, 185-214, 237-243 + +Castles. Benavente, 134; + Búrgos, 275-276; + Magueda, 211; + Mérida, 225; + Olite, 291; + Ponferrada, 73; + Segóvia, 249-250; + Toledo, 205 + in Spain, 282-283 + +Castro Gonzalo, Bridge, 135-136 + +Castropol, 113-114 + +CASTRO URDIALES, 7-10, 19 + +Cathedrals. Avila, 180; + Búrgos, 273-275; + Leon, 58-59; + Lugo, 79; + Orense, 92; + Oviedo, 122; + Paléncia, 264; + Pamplona, 290-291; + Plaséncia, 217; + Salamanca, 164-165; + Santiago, 86-87; + Segóvia, 253-254; + Toledo, 205-208; + Tuy, 97; + Zamora, 145-146 + +Catharine of Aragon, Queen of England, 182 + +Cervera del Pisuerga, 45 + +Cervantes, Miguel. _See_ Quixote, Don. + +Charlemagne, Emperor, 295-298 + +Charles V., King of Spain and Emperor of Germany, 190, 203, 268 + +Charles, Prince of Wales (Charles I.), 48 + +Charles Martel, Mayor of the Franks, 298 + +Churriguera, Architect, 87 + +_Cicadas_, 156 + +CID, The. Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar, 61, 124-125, 140-143, 177, 202, 269-271 + +Cies, Islas de, 101 + +Clamores, River, 253 + +Clausel, General, 163, 173 + +Clavijo, Battle of, 85 + +Climate, 129, 170, 182, 266-267, 272, 294 + +Cole, General, 299 + +Colonia, Juan de, Architect, 274 + +Combarros, 71 + +COMMUNEROS, Revolt of, 203-204, 268 + +Constantino, Bridge, 76 + +Corcuvion, 103 + +Córdova, 85, 201, 295-296 + +Cória, 235 + +_Corpus Christi_, Festival of, 139, 143-146 + +Cortes, Hernando, 223 + +CORUÑA, 64, 89, 104-105, 108, 110 + Battle of, 92, 106-108, 111 + +Costume, 49, 62-63, 65, 71, 109-110, 157-158, 175-176 + +Courtship, 226-228 + +COVADONGA, 25, 33-37 + Battle of, 24-25, 34-37 + Nuestra Señora de, 24-25, 34, 37 + +Craufurd, General, 214 + +_Cubos_, 22, 58 + +CUDILLERO, 118-121 + +Cuenca, 255, 283 + +CUERA, Sierra de, 30, 38-39 + +Cuesta, Captain General, 213 + +Cueva, Don Beltran de la, 259 + +Cuidad Rodrigo, 162-163, 175 + + +Dancing, 40, 48, 108-109, 289 + +De Arfe, Metal worker, 207 + +DEVA, River, 20-21, 28, 42 + Gorge, 22-23, 25-28, 42, 43, 298 + +Dogs, 17-19, 216, 260 + +Dorothea. _See_ Quixote, Don. + +Douro, Battle of the, 93, 214 + +Drake, Sir Francis, 107 + +Dubreton, General, 275 + +DUEÑAS, 263-264 + +DUERO, River, 94, 141, 149, 259-260 + Valley, 137, 152-153, 176, 182, 211, 220, 257 + +Dulcinea del Toboso. _See_ Quixote, Don. + + +Ebro, River, 284-285, 287 + +Edward, Prince of England (Edward I.), 267 + "The Black Prince", 285 + +El Burgo, Bridge, 107 + +Eleanor of Castile, Queen of England, 267-268 + +Electric Lighting, 109, 147 + +El Padron, 64, 103 + +Elviña, 106 + +Elvira, Princess, 140 + +Encina, Nuestra Señora de la, 73-74 + +Eresma, River, 243-245, 248 + +ESCLAVITUD, Nuestra Señora de la, 103 + +ESCORIAL, 186-190, 240-242, 261 + +Esla, River, 57, 131, 132-135, 263 + +Estella, 291 + +Estremadura, 175, 215-236 + +Eudo, Duke of Aquitaine, 298 + +EUROPA, Picos de, 20-21, 27-29, 30, 33, 161 + + +Felton, Sir Thomas, 285 + +Ferdinand I. of Leon and Castile, 60-61, 140 + III. of Castile and Leon, 60, 202, 206 + of Aragon (The Catholic), 110, 150, 263-264 + and Isabella of Castile, "The Catholic Kings", 150, + 166, 181-182, 203, 263-264 + +Ferrol, 108, 111 + +Finistierra, Cape, 101 + +Fishing Ports, 9-10, 19-20, 40-41, 100-101, 118-119 + Rivers, 38 + +Fishwives, 98, 101, 119 + +Flies, 31, 102 + +Florinda (La Cava), 201 + +Flowers (Wild). Broom, 224, 242; + Cactus, 221; + Cistus, 153, 224; + Hardhead, 183, 242; + Heather, 73, 102; + Poppy, 266 + +Fountains, 79-81, 108, 186, 222, 239 + +Foz, 112 + +Francia, Peña de, 175 + + +Galicia, 15, 24, 62, 76-112, 140 + +Gamarra Mayor, 287 + +Ganelon, 295 + +Garlic, 13, 180 + +Gata, Sierra de, 175 + +Gelmirez, Archbishop of Santiago, 84, 86 + +Gerona, 111, 296 + +_Gigantes_, 139, 143-145 + +Gijon, 20, 35-36 + +GIL BLAS de Santillana. Birth-place, 19; + Captain Rolando, 72; + Dr Sangrado, 259-261; + Flight from Valladolid, 259-260; + Don Bernardo de Castel Blazo, 53; + at Salamanca, 166; + Imprisonment, 254-255; + at Toledo, 205; + Visit to Olivares, 149; + Liria, 254 _note_ + +Girard, General, 224 + +Gonzalez, Count Fernando, 61, 269 + +Gonzalo, Don Arias, 141-142 + +Graham, General, 286-287 + +GRÉDOS, Sierra de, 161, 170, 173-174, 182, 211, 215, 221, 235 + +Grenada, 255, 265 + +Guadalete, Battle of the, 200 + +Guadalupe, Monastery, 223, 235 + Sierra de, 211 + +GUADARRAMA, Sierra de, 18, 155, 176, 182, 238, 256 + Puerto de, 184-185, 242-243 + +Guadiana, River, 223, 225, 229 + +_Guardia Civil_, 53-54, 183, 245 + +_Guerrilleros_, 93-94, 111, 282 + + +Haro, 284 + +Henrique IV. of Castile, 177, 250, 258 + +Hercules (at Toledo), 199-201 + +Hieronymo, Bishop of Zamora, 139 + +Hill, General, 224, 286 + +Howell, James, 48, 95, 206 _note_ + +Huesca, 296 + + +Illescas, 193 + +Inns, 8-9, 25-27, 29, 46-48, 50, 69, 138-139, 184, 217-219, 226-227, 264-265 + +Inquisition, 250-252, 261-263 + +Isabella of Castile (The Catholic), 250, 252, 281. + _See also_ Ferdinand. + Princess, 181 + +Isidoro, San, 59-61, 208-209 + + +Jackson, Private, 136 + +Jarama, River, 194 + +Jerte, River, 216 + +Jews, 200, 203, 261, 270 + +Joseph Buonaparte, 162-163, 277, 286-288 + +Jourdan, Marshal, 213 + +Juan II. of Castile, 258, 281 + Prince of Spain, 181 + +Juana, Queen of Spain, 182, 265 + +Junot, Marshal, 68 + + +La Cañiza, 95-97 + +Lacer, Caius Julius, Engineer, 231-232 + +La Demanda, Sierra de, 152, 281-282 + +La Granja, 244, 254 + +LA HERMIDA, 23 + +La Mancha, 95 + +Lampegia, 298 + +Lapisse, General, 235 + +Laredo, 10-11, 15 + +La Robla, 130 + +Las Huelgas, Convent, 267-268 + +Las Rozas, 238 + +Lefebre Desnouettes, General, 135 + +Lena, 127-128 + +LEON Province (Old Kingdom), 43, 45-76, 89, 102, 128-176, 258-266, 296 + City, 36, 45, 50, 57-65, 66 _note_, 68, 81, 131 + Cathedral, 58-59 + Church of San Isidoro, 59-61 + +Leovigild, King of the Goths, 200 + +Le Sage, 255. + _See also_ Gil Blas. + +Liebana, Vale of, 23, 42-44, 152 + +LLANES, 40-41 + +Lobsters, 8-10, 19-20 + +Lope de Vega, Dramatist, 205 + +Loyola, Ignatius, 178-179, 291 + +Luarca, 118 + +LUGO 68, 75-82, 89-90, 106, 177 + +Luna, Don Alvaro de, 207, 258 + + +Madrid, 190-193, 215, 238, 240 + +Mansilla de las Mulas, 57 + +_Mantillas_, 273 + +Manzanal, Puerto de, 70-71, 75 + +Manzanares, River, 215, 237-238 + +_Maragatos_, 65, 70-71 + +Marbot, General, 185 + +Maritornes. _See_ Quixote, Don. + +Marmont, Marshal, 149-150, 161-163, 165-166, 214 + +Martorell, Bridge, 92 + +MASMA, River, 112 + +Maucune, General, 163, 287 + +Maurice, Archbishop of Búrgos, 274 + +Maya, Puerto de, 292-293 + +Mayorga, 57 + +Meals, 8-9, 11-13, 41, 119, 138, 218 + +Medellin, Hill of, 213 + +Medina del Campo, 117, 258 + +_Membrillo_, 12, 181 + +Mendo, River, 108 + +Mendoza, Cardinal, 151, 207 + +MÉRIDA, 225-229, 232 + +Mero, River, 106 + +Mexico, 20, 223 + +Miéres, 126-127 + +Military Orders, 53, 66, 73, 234 + +Mina, General, 282 + +MIÑO, River, 6, 78, 89-97 + +Miraflores, La Cartuja de, 273, 280-281 + +MIRANDA DEL EBRO, 283-285 + Casa de, 271, 280 + +Mondoñedo, 111 + +Money, 219, 279 _note_ + +Monforte, 90 + +Montamarta, 137-139 + +Montanchez, Sierra de, 223 + +MOORE, Sir John, at Salamanca, 182 _note_; + at Sahagun, 54-55; + assailed by Napoleon, 184-185; + Benavente, 134-136; + Retreat across the Vierzo, 74-75; + Pass of Piedrafita, 76; + Lugo, 89; + March to Coruña, 105-106; + Battle of Coruña, 106-107 + +Moors. Conquest of Spain, 200, 282; + repulsed from Asturias, 34-37; + Caliphate of Córdova, 201, 296; + Charlemagne's Invasion, 295-296; + Clavijo, 85; + Al Manzor, 85-86; + Sieges of Zamora, 140; + Reconquest of Toledo, 202; + The Cid, 269-270; + Fresh irruption, 202; + Battle of Alarcon, 267; + Battle of las Navas de Tolosa, 60, 267; + Reconquest of Andalusia, 60, 202; + Persecuted, 261 + +Morena, Sierra, 46, 61, 208 + +Morillas Mountains, 285 + +_Mozarabes_, 208-210 + +_Mudejares_, 204 _note_, 208 _note_ + +Mules, 42, 65, 104, 158-160 + +Munuza, Emir, 36 + +Muros, 117, 121 + + +Nalon, River, 121 + +Napoleon Buonaparte. Pursuit of Sir John Moore, 55, 184-185, 135, 75 + Spanish War, 165, 288 + +Narcea, River, 121 + +Navacerrada, Puerto de, 242-244 + +Navarre, 61, 284-300 + +Navarrete, Battle of, 285 + +Navas de Tolosa, Battle of, 60-61, 208, 267, 287 + +NÁVIA, River, 76, 116 + +Nervion, River, 5 + +Ney, Marshal, 93 + +Nive, River, 300 + +Nogales, 76 + +Norreys, Sir John, 107-108 + + +Obarenes, Montes, 282-285 + +Olivares, Conde Duque de, 148-149 + +OLITE, 291 + +Olmedo, 258-259 + +Orbigo, River, 66-67, 134 + +Ordoñez, Don Diego, 142 + +ORENSE, Bridge, 32, 92 + City, 89, 91-92 + +Othman ben Abu Neza, Emir, 298 + +OVIEDO, 121-127 + Cathedral, 122 + +Oxen, 15-17, 30-31, 44-45, 103, 105, 159 + + +Pacheco, Doña Maria, 203 + +Paget, General, 76, 135 + +PAJARES, Puerto de, 36, 58, 80, 126-130 + +Palaces. Búrgos, 271; + Cáceres, 222-223; + Leon, 62; + Olite, 291; + Oviedo, 122; + Plaséncia, 216-217; + Salamanca, 167-169; + Santiago, 87; + Segóvia, 247; + Toledo, 204; + Toro, 148 + +Palávia, 106 + +Paléncia, 264-265 + +PAMPLONA, 60, 81, 283, 290-294, 296 + Siege, 291-293, 298 + +PANCORVO, Defile, 281-282, 286 + +Pantoja, Painter, 189 + +Paredes, Don Diego Garcia de, 32, 223 + +Peasantry, 26-27, 31, 40, 48-50, 62, 65, 79, 99, 109-110, + 120, 138, 147-148, 175-176, 197-198, 216, 280, 287 + +Pedro, the Cruel, of Castile, 86, 180 + _El Maestre._ _See_ Quixote, Don. + +Pelayo, King of Asturias, 24, 31-32, 34-37 + +_Pelota_, 288-289 + +_Peones Camineros_, 243, 256 + +Philip II. of Spain, 67, 188-190, 194, 261-262, 273 + IV. of Spain, 148, 244 + +Phoenicians, 199-200 + +Picton, General, 151, 285-286 + +Piedrafita, Puerto de, 75-76, 89 + +Pigs, 212, 229-230 + +Pilar, Nuestra Señora del, 179 + +Pilgrimages, 24-25, 64-65, 82-84 + +Pilona, River, 38 + +Pisuerga, River, 263, 265 + +Pizarro, 223 + +PLASÉNCIA, 81, 214, 216-219 + +Ploughs, 105 + +Poblet, Monastery, 187 + +Pola de Gordon, 129-130 + +Ponferrada, 72-75 + +Pontevedra, 81 + +Porcelos, Diego de, 269 + +Portugal, 92-93, 97, 150, 181, 286 + +Portugalete, 5, 9 + +Potes, 26, 42, 43 + +Právia, 117, 121 + +Pyrenees, Mountains, 282, 293-300 + Battles of the, 292-293, 299 + + +Quevedo, Francisco, Satirist, 149 + +Quinones, Don Suero, 66-67 + +QUIXOTE, Don. Tales of Chivalry, 2-3, 32, 66-67, 142, 161; + Ideal Knight Errant, 154; + Company at the Inn, 46; + Innkeeper, 247; + Dorothea, 244; + Dulcinea del Toboso, 65, 100, 184; + Sancho Panza, 8, 49, 83, 95, 181; + Maritornes, 9; + The Cortes of Death, 143; + Don Diego Miranda, 271; + _El Maestre_ Pedro, 211; + Roque Guinart, 157 + + +Rañadoiro, Sierra de, 116 + +Reille, General, 287 + +Religious Observances, 120-121, 143-146, 273 + +Reptiles, Frogs, 46, 156 + Lizards, 156 + Snakes, 229-230, 257 + +Ribadávia, 95-96, 183 + +RIOJA, The, 29, 284 + +RIVADEO, 80, 112-116 + +Rivadesella, 39-40 + +Rock Formations, 22-23, 28, 129-130, 282-283, 290 + +Roderic, King of the Visigoths, 24, 200-201 + +Roland, 296-298 + +Roman Remains. Aqueducts, 225, 228-229, 246 + Bridges, 76, 225, 231-232 + Camps, 90 + Theatres, 225 + Walls, 58, 68, 78, 164, 225 + +Roncesvalles. Puerto de, 292-300 + Battles of, 292, 295-299 + +Ronda, Well of, 99 + +Rooke, Admiral, 100 + +Roque Guinart. _See_ Quixote, Don. + + +Sahagun, 32, 54-56, 235 + +SALAMANCA 146-147, 149, 163-171, 176 + Cathedrals, 164-165, 254 + Colleges and Palaces, 165-169 + Battle of, 150, 161-164, 214, 277, 286 + +Saldaña, 51, 55 + +Sanchez, Julian, 262 + +Sancho II. of Castile, 124-125, 140-142 + Panza. _See_ Quixote, Don. + +Sangüesa, Monastery, 291 + +San Rafael, Fonda, 184 + +San Roman, 261 + +San Sebástien, 6, 288, 292 + +Santander, 15, 20, 81, 287 + +SANTIAGO (St James the Greater), 64, 83-86, 177 + de Compostela, 64, 82-89, 104 + Cathedral, 82, 84, 86-87, 103 + +Santillana, 19 + +SANTOÑA, 10-11 + +SAN VICENTE DE LA BARQUERA, 19-20, 41 + +Sardines, 9-10, 101, 119 + +Sauráuren, Battle of, 292-293, 299 + +SEGÓVIA, 182, 192, 216, 229, 244-257 + Alcázar, 248-250 + Aqueduct, 246-247 + Cathedral, 253-254 + +SELLA, River, 32, 37-39 + +_Serenos_, 123-124 + +Seso, Don Carlos de, 189, 261 + +Seville, 201, 206 + +Shepherds, 137, 208, 221, 239 + +Siete Picos, Mountain, 242-243, 248 + +Sil, River, 72-73, 91 + +Silöe, Diego de, Sculptor, 275 + Gil de, Sculptor, 281 + +Silos, San Domingo de, Monastery, 282 + +Simancas, 260 + +Somers Cocks, Major, 276 + +Sontres, 26 + +Sória, 281 + +SOULT, Marshal. Pursuit of Sir John Moore, 55, 75-76, 89; + at Coruña, 106; + Conquest of Galicia, 92-94, 111; + Repulsed from the Douro, 93; + Advance upon Talavera, 93-94, 214; + Battles of the Pyrenees, 292-293, 299 + +Stage Coaches, 41-42, 104 + +Street, G. E., Architect, 59, 205 + +Suero, Archbishop of Santiago, 86 + +Suleiman Ibn-al-Arabi, Emir, 296 + + +TAGUS, River, 195, 197-199, 201, 212, 214, 220, 230-232 + Valley, 93, 185, 210-211, 219-220, 230-231 + +TALAVERA DE LA REINA, 182, 210-214 + Battle of, 210-214, 235 + +Tarik, 71, 200 + +Theresa de Ávila, Sta, 177-179 + +Tierra de Campos, 137, 263 + +Tina Mayor, River. _See_ Deva, River. + +TOLEDO, 98, 105, 151, 192-193, 197-210, 240, 269 + Bridges, 92, 199 + Cathedral, 122, 205-210, 274 + +Toledo, Montes de, 185, 198 + Don Francisco de, 95 + +Toriñana, Cape, 101 + +Tormes, River, 161-163 + Lazarillo de, 205 + +TORO 140, 147-151, 153 + Battle of, 150-151 + +Torquemada, 265-266 + Tomas de, Inquisitor, 179, 203, 250-251 + +Torrelavega, 15, 19 + +Torrelodones, 239-240 + +Trajan, Emperor, 226, 231, 246 + +Trees. Acacia, 132, 281; + Box, 294; + Beech, 44, 295; + Chestnut, 44, 295; + Elm, 194-195, 281; + Ilex, 153, 215-216, 219; + Olive, 173, 194, 221; + Palm, 102; + Pine, 184, 242-244, 257; + Poplar, 57, 65, 133, 281 + +Tresviso, 26-27 + +Troglodyte villages, 132-133, 263 + +Trujillo, 223, 235 + +TUY, 92-93, 96-98 + + +Ubiña, Peña, 128 + +Unquera, 20-21, 39, 42 + +URDON, 25-27 + +Urraca, Princess, 140-143 + + +Valcarce, 75 + +Valcarlos, 300 + +Valdepeñas, 95 + +Valdeprado, 44 + +Valdez, Inquisitor, 263 + +Valéncia del Cid, 60, 154, 202, 270 + do Minho (Portugal) 97 + +VALLADOLID, 97, 141, 207, 259-264, 281 + +Velasquez, Painter, 134, 138, 149 + +Vellate, Puerto de, 293 + +Vellido Dolphos, 141-142 + +Verney, Sir Edmund, 48 + +Victor, Marshal, 213 + +VIERZO, The, 72-75, 91, 152 + +VIGO, 80, 97-101 + Bay, Battle of, 100 + +Vilano, Cape, 101 + +Villacastin, 182-183 + +Villafranca, 75, 81 + +Villalba, 242 + +Villalpando, Francisco de, Metal Worker, 207 + +Vineyards, 94, 153, 220 + +Visigoths, 105, 122, 200 + +VITÓRIA, Battle of, 151, 277, 286-288, 292 + +Vizcaya, 5-7, 24 + + +Walton, Private, 136 + +Wamba, King of the Visigoths, 105, 199-200 + +Water pitchers, 13, 80-82, 222 + +WELLINGTON, Duke of. Campaign of the Douro, 93; + Campaign of Talavera, 93, 212-214; + at Salamanca, 165-166, 170; + Battle of Salamanca, 161-164; + Criticises Siege of Astorga, 68; + Siege of Búrgos, 275-277; + Retreat from Búrgos, 266; + Generalissimo of Spanish armies, 179; + Campaign and Battle of Vitória, 277, 286-288; + Battles of the Pyrenees, 292-293; + Allusions to Spanish character, 49, 125-126 + +Wines, 12-13, 94-96, 266, 284 + + +Ximena, 270-271 + +Ximenes, Cardinal, 179, 210 + + +Yakub aben Yussef of Morocco, 267 + +Yuste, 190 + + +Zadora, River, 285, 287 + +ZAMORA, 136-137, 139-147, 150 + Cathedral, 139-140, 145-146 + +Zaragoza, 253 + Sieges of, 111, 179, 296 + +[Illustration: MAP NORTHERN SPAIN] + +PRINTED BY NEILL AND CO., LTD., EDINBURGH. + + * * * * * + +BLACK'S BEAUTIFUL BOOKS + +ALL WITH FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR + +By Post. Price 20s. 6d. THE 20s. NET SERIES Size 9 x 6-1/4 ins. + + +Algeria and Tunis + + Painted and Described by FRANCES E. 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Containing 32 Full-Page Plates in + Colour, Tipped on Grey Mounts. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] "Infernal _anis_," says the advertisement, "made from the worst +wines of the Priorato, is neither tonic, digestive, nor restorative, +and has never been commended at any exhibition." + +[2] Literally "Tubs", the solid semicircular bastions of Spanish town +walls. + +[3] A collegiate church, intermediate in dignity between a parish +church and a cathedral. + +[4] A public promenade, thickly planted with trees. + +[5] A Spanish league is about an hour's march, say 3-3/4 miles. + +[6] At one place it consisted of a huge earthenware bowl, 3 feet high +and 4 feet in diameter, filled up solid with earth to within 4 inches +of the rim. + +[7] Here died ----. + +[8] See p. 140. + +[9] See p. 140. + +[10] This monastery is a very notable Leonese monument, a masterpiece +of _Plateresque_, somewhat similar to the _Otto Heinrichs Bau_ at +Heidelberg, and formerly the property of the knights of Santiago. + +[11] Astorga = _Ast_urica _Aug_usta. + +[12] Literally the "House of Purification," _i.e._ the Great Mosque of +Córdova. + +[13] There is something of the same flavour about the inscription on +the Gates of the _Hospital del Rey_ at Burgos; "Blessed is the man that +provideth for the sick and needy, St James (!) shall deliver him in the +time of trouble." + +[14] The fate most dreaded by the Spanish prisoners in the Moorish wars. + +[15] Borrow stigmatises Betánzos as a filthy and evil-smelling +pest-house. But then his horse broke down there. So much depends upon +the point of view! + +[16] See page 142. + +[17] /p "Who would not give a foot of ground For all the Devils in +Hell."--_Ballad of Lord Willoughby._ p/ + +[18] A cant term for knifing. The Neapolitan had a standing feud with +Spain. + +[19] The proverb is still quite current. A carrier of whom we inquired +the distance to Zamora oracularly answered that "It could never be +gained in an hour." + +[20] See p. 60. + +[21] The recognised Spanish title for the Host. + +[22] Presbytery. + +[23] "Here's to the glorious, pious and immortal memory of the great +and good King William, who delivered us from Popery, brass money, _and +wooden shoes_!" + +[24] _Arriero_, from _arré_! gee-up! + +[25] As in Italian, the diminutive is a sort of endearing form of +superlative. + +[26] They were built at the end of the eleventh century. A singularly +fine bit of work for so early a date. + +[27] Moore was at Salamanca and his artillery at Talavera when Napoleon +reached Madrid. + +[28] The burial-place of the Kings of Aragon. + +[29] See p. 261. + +[30] Such is the meaning of the word, but I would not like to vouch for +the etymology. The derivation is possibly the other way. + +[31] The tiny mosque of _San Cristo de la Luz_ is the only genuine +Moorish fragment. The _Puerta del Sol_, the church of _Sta Maria la +Blanca_, etc., are _Mudéjar_ work. Cp. note on p. 208. + +[32] _I.e._ "Citadel," _Cæsareum_. + +[33] James Howell in 1620 estimates the annual income of Toledo at +£100,000, a sum equivalent to nearly half a million to-day. + +[34] Metal screens and reliquaries. + +[35] He has only a statue at Toledo; but his actual grave has a +scarcely less honourable site in _las Huelgas_ at Búrgos. + +[36] The _Mozárabes_ were Christians under the dominion of the Moors, +as _Mudéjares_ were Moors under the dominion of the Christians. + +[37] Several such herds were seized by the hungry regiments in the +course of the retreat. + +[38] Heywood, _Fair Maid of the West_. + +[39] The country people invariably reckon in _reals_--the old coinage. +The piece is no longer struck, but its value is one-fourth of a +_peseta_. + +[40] Some call it eighty-one. But this includes some arches of +construction in the spandrils, and is not fair counting. + +[41] Cp. p. 55. + +[42] The province derives its name from the conquests "beyond the +Duero" won in the earlier stages of the struggle with the Moors. + +[43] _Noche Toledana_ is proverbial in Spanish as equivalent to a +sleepless night. + +[44] The _Octroi_ office, to receive the city tolls. + +[45] Trajan was a Spaniard born, and his reign an extremely prosperous +period for Spain. + +[46] "The Vineyard," a lovely dismantled monastery planted beside the +Eresma, just underneath the town. + +[47] Montaigne. + +[48] _E.g._ Talavera, first Archbishop of Grenada, and Peter Martyr, +the Confessor and Biographer of Isabella. + +[49] The beautiful _Huerta_ of Liria is the only district actually +praised. + +[50] Cp. p. 207. + +[51] Cp. p. 151. + +[52] The place of execution at Seville. + +[53] Cp. p. 132. + +[54] The ambiguity would not be apparent to a Spaniard. To him +_Invierno_, "Winter," is the assonym to _Infierno_, "Hell." + +[55] The "Silversmith style," or early Spanish Renaissance. So called +from the Cellini-like carving which is its leading characteristic. + +[56] The Emperor of Morocco; at this time the martial Yakub aben Yussef. + +[57] Cp. note on p. 265. + +[58] See p. 281. + +[59] See p. 161. + +[60] "A ha'penny for bread." The _perrita_ or "little dog" = a +halfpenny, and the _perro gordo_ or fat dog = a penny. Thus "Two reals +minus a little dog" is 45 _centimos_. The animal irrelevantly called a +"dog" is the lion on the reverse of the coin. + +[61] _Certosa._ Charterhouse. + +[62] This incident has been utilised by Conan Doyle in his _White +Company_. But that story rather exaggerates the height and steepness of +the hill. + +[63] During the sitting of the Congress of Dresden. + +[64] A highly developed form of Fives. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Northern Spain, by Edgar T. A. Wigram + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44490 *** |