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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Spain, v. 2 (of 2), by Edmondo de Amicis

-

-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most

-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions

-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of

-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at

-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have

-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.

-

-

-

-Title: Spain, v. 2 (of 2)

-

-Author: Edmondo de Amicis

-

-Translator: Stanley Rhoads Varnall

-

-Release Date: December 20, 2015 [EBook #50727]

-

-Language: English

-

-Character set encoding: UTF-8

-

-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPAIN, V. 2 (OF 2) ***

-

-

-

-

-Produced by Josep Cols Canals, Les Galloway and the Online

-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This

-file was produced from images generously made available

-by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-Transcriber's Notes

-

- Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected and

- inconsistencies of hyphenation have been removed. All other variations

- in spelling, punctuation and accents are unchanged from the original.

-

- The following corrections have been made to the Index.

- Rembrandt von changed to Rembrandt van Rijn

- Pousin, Nicola changed to Poussin, Nicolas

- Zorilla, Ruiz changed to Zorrilla, Ruiz

-

- Repetition of chapter titles on consecutive pages has been removed.

-

- Italics are indicated thus _italic_.

-

-

-       *       *       *       *       *

-

-

-                   SPAIN

-

-

-[Illustration: _Alcazar, Seville_]

-

-

-            _EDITION ARTISTIQUE_

-

-             The World's Famous

-             Places and Peoples

-

-

-[Illustration: Flower]

-

-

-                   SPAIN

-

-

-                     BY

-

-              EDMONDO DE AMICIS

-

-

-                _Translated

-        by Stanley Rhoads Yarnall, M.A._

-

-

-               In Two Volumes

-

-                  Volume II.

-

-

-             MERRILL AND BAKER

-           New York          London

-

-

-THIS EDITION ARTISTIQUE OF THE WORLD'S FAMOUS PLACES AND PEOPLES IS

-LIMITED TO ONE THOUSAND NUMBERED AND REGISTERED COPIES, OF WHICH THIS

-COPY IS NO. _______

-

-

-    Copyright, Henry T. Coates & Co., 1895

-

-

-

-

-CONTENTS.

-

-

-                                  PAGE

-

- ARANJUEZ                            7

-

- TOLEDO                             15

-

- CORDOVA                            53

-

- SEVILLE                            97

-

- CADIZ                             147

-

- MALAGA                            165

-

- GRANADA                           175

-

- VALENCIA                          257

-

-

-

-

-LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

-

-VOLUME II

-

-

-                                             PAGE

-

- ALCAZAR, SEVILLE                   _Frontispiece_

-

- GATE OF THE SUN, TOLEDO                       18

-

- ALCAZAR AND BRIDGE OF SAN MARTIN, TOLEDO      40

-

- COURT OF ORANGES, MOSQUE OF CORDOVA           68

-

- MOORISH ARCHES, ALCAZAR, SEVILLE             124

-

- CADIZ                                        158

-

- MALAGA                                       170

-

- COURT OF MYRTLES, ALHAMBRA                   194

-

- FOUNTAIN IN THE COURT OF LIONS, ALHAMBRA     200

-

- QUEEN'S BOUDOIR, ALHAMBRA                    212

-

- COURT OF GENERALIFE, GRANADA                 226

-

- THE ALHAMBRA AND THE VALLEY OF THE DARRO     250

-

-

-

-

-ARANJUEZ.

-

-

-As on arriving at Madrid by way of the north, so on leaving it by way

-of the south, one must pass through a desolate country that resembles

-the poorest provinces of Arragon and Old Castile. There are vast

-plains, parched and yellow, which look as though they would echo like a

-hollow passageway if one were to strike them, or crumble like the crust

-of a crisp tart. And through the plains are scattered a few wretched

-villages of the same color as the soil, which seem as though they would

-take fire like a pile of dry leaves if one were to touch a torch to

-the corner of one of the huts. After an hour of travel my shoulders

-sought the cushions of the carriage, my elbow sought for a support,

-my head sought my hand, and I fell into a deep sleep like a member of

-Leopardi's "Assembly of Listeners." A few minutes after I had closed

-my eyes I was rudely awakened by a desperate cry from the women and

-children, and leaped to my feet, demanding of my neighbors what had

-occurred.

-

-But before I had ended my question a general burst of laughter

-reassured me. A company of huntsmen, scattered over the plain, on

-noticing the approach of the train, had planned to give the travellers

-a little scare. At that time there was a rumor that a band of Carlists

-had appeared in the vicinity of Aranjuez. The huntsmen, pretending to

-be the vanguard of the band, had given a loud shout while the train

-was passing, as if to call the great body of their comrades to their

-assistance, and as they shouted they went through the motions of firing

-at the railway-carriages; hence arose the fright and the cries of my

-fellow-travellers. And then the huntsmen suddenly threw the butts of

-their guns into the air to show that it was all a joke.

-

-When the alarm, in which I too shared for a moment, had subsided, I

-fell once more into my academic doze, but was again awakened in a few

-moments in a manner much more pleasant than on the first occasion.

-

-I looked around: the vast barren plain had been transformed as by magic

-into a great garden full of the most charming groves, traversed in all

-directions by wide avenues, dotted with country-houses and cottages

-festooned with verdure; here and there the sparkling of fountains,

-shady grottoes, flowering meadows, vineyards, and bridle-paths--a

-verdure, a freshness, a vernal odor, an atmosphere of happiness and

-peace, that enchanted the soul. We had arrived at Aranjuez. I left the

-train, walked up a beautiful avenue shaded by two rows of noble trees,

-and after a few steps found myself in front of the royal palace.

-

-The minister Castelar had written in his memorandum a few days before

-that the fall of the ancient Spanish monarchy was predoomed on that

-day when a mob of the populace, with curses on their lips and hatred

-in their hearts, had invaded the palace of Aranjuez to disturb the

-majestic repose of their sovereigns. I had reached that square where

-on the 17th of March, 1808, occurred those events which were the

-prologue of the national war, and, as it were, the first word of the

-death-sentence of the ancient monarchy. My eyes quickly sought the

-windows of the apartments of the Prince of Peace; I imagined him,

-as he fled from room to room, pale and distracted, searching for a

-hiding-place as the echo of the cry followed him up the stairs; I saw

-poor Charles IV., as with trembling hands he placed the crown of Spain

-on the head of the prince of the Asturias; all the scenes of that

-terrible drama were enacted in fancy before my eyes, and the profound

-silence of the place and the sight of that palace, closed and desolate,

-sent a chill to my heart.

-

-The palace has the appearance of a castle: it is built of brick, with

-trimmings of light stone, and covered with a tile roof. Every one knows

-that it was built for Philip II. by the celebrated architect Herrera,

-and that it was adorned by all the later kings, who made it their

-summer residence. I enter: the interior is magnificent; there is the

-stupendous reception-hall of the ambassadors, the beautiful Chinese

-cabinet belonging to Charles V., the marvellous dressing-chamber of

-Isabella II., and a profusion of the most precious ornaments. But all

-the riches of the palace are as nothing to the beauty of the gardens.

-The expectation is not disappointed.

-

-The gardens of Aranjuez (Aranjuez is the name of a little town which

-lies a short distance from the palace) seem to have been laid out for

-a race of Titan kings, to whom the royal parks and gardens of our

-country would have seemed like the flower-beds on their terraces or

-the plots before their stables. Endless avenues, bordered by trees

-of measureless height with arched branches interlacing as if bent

-toward each other by contrary winds, extend in every direction like a

-forest whose boundaries one cannot see, and through this forest the

-Tagus, a wide, swift stream, flows in a majestic curve, forming here

-and there cascades and lakes: an abundant and luxuriant vegetation

-springs up amid a labyrinth of bypaths, crossways, and sylvan glades;

-and in every part gleam statues, vases, columns, and fountains rising

-to a great height and falling in spray, festoons, and drops of water,

-placed in the midst of all manner of flowers from Europe and America;

-and, mingling with the majestic roar of the cascades of the Tagus, a

-flood of song from innumerable nightingales, which make the mysterious

-gloom of the lonely paths ring with their mellow notes. In the depths

-of the gardens rises a small marble palace of modest proportions

-which contains all the wonders of the most magnificent royal abode;

-and here one may still breathe, so to speak, the air of the inmost

-life of the kings of Spain. Here are the small secret chambers whose

-ceilings one may touch with the hand, the billiard-room of Charles

-IV., his cue, the cushions embroidered by the hands of his queens, the

-musical clocks which enlivened the playtime of his children, the narrow

-staircases, the little windows about which cluster a hundred traditions

-of princely caprices, and, finally, the richest retiring-room in

-Europe, created at a whim of Charles V., containing in itself alone

-sufficient riches to adorn a palace, without depriving it of the noble

-primacy which it proudly holds among all other cabinets designed for

-the same use. Beyond this palace and all around the groves extend

-vineyards and olive-groves and orchards of fruit-bearing trees and

-smiling meadows. It is a veritable oasis in the midst of the desert--an

-oasis which Philip II. chose to create on a day when he was in good

-humor, as if to enliven with one cheerful image the black melancholy

-of the Escurial. On returning from the little marble palace toward

-the great royal palace through those endless avenues, in the shade of

-those noble trees, in that profound forest silence, I thought of the

-splendid trains of ladies and cavaliers who once wandered about in the

-footsteps of the gay young monarchs or the capricious and dissolute

-queens to the sound of amorous music and songs which told of the

-grandeur and glory of unconquered Spain; and I sadly repeated with the

-poet, Ricanati,

-

-    ... "All is peace and silence,

-        And their names are no longer heard."

-

-But as I looked at those marble seats, half hidden in the shrubbery,

-and fixed my eyes on the shadow of certain distant paths, and thought

-of those queens, those lovers, and those mad pranks, I could not

-refrain from a sigh, which was not one of pity, and a secret sense of

-bitterness stung me to the heart; and I said, like poor Adan in the

-poem _Diablo Mundo_, "How are these grand ladies made? How do they

-live? What do they do? Do they talk, make love, and enjoy like us?"

-And I left for Toledo, imagining the love of a queen like a young

-adventurer of the Arabian Nights.

-

-

-

-

-TOLEDO.

-

-

-When one approaches an unknown city one ought to have near by some one

-who has already seen it and is able to indicate the opportune moment to

-put one's head out of the window and get the first view. I had the good

-fortune to be informed in time. Some one said to me, "There is Toledo!"

-and I sprang to the window with an exclamation of wonder.

-

-Toledo rises on a sheer rocky height, at whose foot the Tagus describes

-a grand curve. From the plain one sees only the rocks and the walls

-of the fortress, and beyond the wall the tips of the belfries and

-the towers. The houses are hidden from view; the city seems to be

-closed and inaccessible, and presents the appearance of an abandoned

-stronghold rather than of a city. From the walls to the river-banks

-there is not a single house nor tree; all is bare, parched, craggy,

-precipitous; not a soul is in sight; you would say that to make the

-ascent it would be necessary to climb, and it seems that at the first

-appearance of a man on the face of those rocks a shower of arrows would

-fall upon him from the top of the wall.

-

-You leave the train, get into a carriage, and arrive at the entrance

-of a bridge. It is the famous bridge Alcantara, which spans the Tagus,

-surmounted by a beautiful Moorish gate in the form of a tower, which

-gives it a bold, severe appearance. Crossing the bridge, you turn

-into a wide roadway which winds up in large serpentine curves until

-it reaches the top of the mountain. Here it really seems that you are

-under a fortified city of the Middle Ages, and you imagine yourself in

-the guise of a Moor or a Goth or a soldier of Alfonso VI. From every

-part precipitous rocks hang over your head, crumbling walls, towers,

-and the ruins of ancient bastions, and higher up the last wall which

-encircles the city, black, crowned with enormous battlements, opened

-here and there by great breaches, behind which the imprisoned houses

-rear their heads; and as you climb higher and higher the city seems

-to draw back and hide itself. Halfway up the ascent you come to the

-_Puerto del Sol_, a jewel of Moorish architecture, consisting of two

-embattled towers which are joined over a very graceful double-arched

-colonnade, under which runs the ancient street; and from that point, if

-you look back, you may see at a glance the Tagus, the valley, and the

-hills. You go on and find other walls and other ruins, and finally the

-first houses of the city.

-

-What a city! At the first moment I caught my breath. The carriage had

-turned down a little street, so narrow that the hubs of the wheels

-almost touched the walls of the houses.

-

-[Illustration: _Gate of the Sun, Toledo_]

-

-"Why do you turn in here?" I asked the driver.

-

-He laughed and answered, "Because there is no wider street."

-

-"Is all Toledo like this?" I asked again.

-

-"It is all like this," he replied

-

-"Impossible!" I exclaimed.

-

-"You will see," he added.

-

-To tell the truth, I did not believe him. I entered a hotel, dropped my

-valise in a room, and ran headlong down the stairs to take a look at

-this very strange city. One of the hotel-porters stopped me at the door

-and asked with a smile,

-

-"Where are you going, _caballero_?"

-

-"To see Toledo," I replied.

-

-"Alone?"

-

-"Yes; why not?"

-

-"But have you ever been here before?"

-

-"Never."

-

-"Then you cannot go alone."

-

-"And why not?"

-

-"Because you will get lost."

-

-"Where?"

-

-"As soon as you go out."

-

-"For what reason?"

-

-"The reason is this," he answered, pointing to a wall on which hung a

-map of Toledo. I approached and saw a network of white lines on a black

-background that seemed like one of those flourishes which school-boys

-make on their slates to waste the chalk and vex their teacher.

-

-"No matter," said I; "I am going alone, and if I get lost, let them

-come and find me."

-

-"You will not go a hundred steps," observed the porter.

-

-I went out and turned down the first street I saw, so narrow that on

-extending my arms I touched both walls. After fifty paces I turned into

-another street, narrower than the first, and from this passed into a

-third, and so on.

-

-I seemed to be wandering not through the streets of the city, but

-through the corridors of a building, and I went forward, expecting

-momentarily to come out into an open place. It is impossible, I

-thought, that the whole city is built in this manner; no one could

-live in it. But as I proceeded the streets seemed to grow narrower and

-shorter; every moment I was obliged to turn; after a curving street

-came a zigzag one, and after this another in the form of a hook, which

-led me back into the first, and so I wandered on for a little while,

-always in the midst of the same houses. Now and then I came out at a

-crossway where several alleys ran off in opposite directions, one of

-which would lose itself in the dark shadow of a portico, another would

-end blindly in a few paces against the wall of a house, a third in

-a short distance would descend, as it were, into the bowels of the

-earth, while a fourth would clamber up a steep hill; some were hardly

-wide enough to give a man passage; others were confined between two

-walls without doors or windows; and all were flanked by buildings of

-great height, between whose roofs one could see a narrow streak of sky.

-

-One passed windows defended by heavy iron bars, great doors studded

-with enormous nails, and dark courtyards. I walked for some time

-without meeting anybody, until I came out into one of the principal

-streets, lined with shops and full of peasants, women, and children,

-but little larger than an ordinary corridor. Everything is in

-proportion to the streets: the doors are like windows, the shops like

-niches, and by glancing into them one sees all the secrets of the

-house--the table already spread, the babies in the cradle, the mother

-combing her hair, and the father changing his shirt; everything is

-on the street, and it does not seem like a city, but like a house

-containing a single great family.

-

-I turned into a less-frequented street, where I heard only the buzzing

-of a fly; my footsteps echoed to the fourth story of the houses and

-brought some old women to the windows. A horse passes; it seems like a

-squadron; everybody hurries to see what is going on. The least sound

-re-echoes in every direction; a book falls in a second story, an old

-man coughs in a courtyard, a woman blows her nose in some unknown

-place; one hears everything.

-

-Sometimes every sound will suddenly cease; you are alone, you see no

-sign of life: you seem to be surrounded by the houses of witches,

-crossways made for conspirators, blind alleys for traitors, narrow

-doorways suitable for any crime, windows for the whispers of guilty

-lovers, gloomy doorways suggestive of blood-stained steps. But yet in

-all this labyrinth of streets there are no two alike; each one has

-its individuality: here rises an arch, there a column, yonder a piece

-of statuary. Toledo is a storehouse of art-treasures. Every little

-while the walls crumble, and there are revealed in every part records

-of all the centuries--bas-reliefs, arabesques, Moorish windows, and

-statuettes. The palaces have doorways defended by plates of engraved

-metal, historical knockers, nails with carved heads, 'scutcheons and

-emblems; and they form a fine contrast to the modern houses painted

-with festoons, medallions, cupids, urns, and fantastic animals.

-

-But these embellishments detract in no way from the severe and gloomy

-aspect of Toledo. Wherever you look you see something to remind you of

-the city fortified by the Arabs; however little your imagination may

-exert itself, it will succeed in rearranging from the relics scattered

-here and there the whole fabric of that darkened image, and then the

-illusion is complete: you see again the glorious Toledo of the Middle

-Ages, and forget the solitude and silence of its streets. But it is a

-fleeting illusion, and you soon relapse into sad meditation and see

-only the skeleton of the ancient city, the necropolis of three empires,

-the great sepulchre of the glory of three races. Toledo reminds you of

-the dreams which come to young men after reading the romantic legends

-of the Middle Ages. You have seen many a time in your dreams dark

-cities encircled by deep moats, frowning walls, and inaccessible rocks;

-and you have crossed those draw-bridges and entered those tortuous,

-grass-grown streets, and have breathed that damp, sepulchral, prison

-air. Well, then, you have dreamed of Toledo.

-

-The first thing to see, after making a general survey of the city, is

-the cathedral, which is justly considered one of the most beautiful

-cathedrals in the world. The history of this cathedral, according to

-popular tradition, dates from the times of the apostle Saint James,

-first bishop of Toledo, who selected the place where it should be

-erected; but the construction of the edifice as it appears to-day

-was begun in 1227, during the reign of San Fernando, and was ended

-after twenty-five years of almost continuous labor. The exterior of

-this immense church is neither rich nor beautiful, as is that of

-the cathedral of Burgos. A little square extends in front of the

-façade, and is the only place from which one can get a view of any

-considerable part of the building. It is entirely surrounded by a

-narrow street, from which, however much you may twist your neck, you

-can see only the high outer walls which enclose the church like a

-fortress. The façade has three great doorways, the first of which is

-named _Pardon_, the second _Inferno_, and the third _Justice_. Over it

-rises a substantial tower which terminates in a beautiful octagonal

-cupola. Although in walking around the building one may have remarked

-its great size, on first entering one is struck by a profound sense of

-wonder, which quickly gives place to another keen sense of pleasure,

-the result of the freshness, the repose, the soft shadow, and the

-mysterious light which steals through the stained glass of innumerable

-windows and breaks in a thousand rays of blue, golden, and rosy light

-which glides here and there along the arches and columns like the

-bands of a rainbow. The church is formed of five great naves divided

-by eighty-eight enormous pilasters, each of which is composed of

-sixteen turned columns as close together as a bunch of spears. A sixth

-nave cuts the other five at right angles, extending from the great

-altar to the choir, and the vaulted roof of this principal nave rises

-majestically above the others, which seem to be bowing to it as if in

-homage. The many-colored light and the clear tone of the stone give

-the church an air of quiet cheerfulness which tempers the melancholy

-appearance of the Gothic architecture without depriving it of its

-austere and serious character. To pass from the streets of the city to

-the naves of this cathedral seems like coming out of a dungeon into an

-open square: one looks around, draws a deep breath, and begins to live

-again.

-

-The high altar, if one wished to examine it minutely, would require

-as much time as the interior of a church: it is itself a church--a

-miracle of little columns, statuettes, traceries, and ornaments of

-endless variety, creeping along the iron frames, rising above the

-architraves, winding about the niches, supporting one another, climbing

-and disappearing, presenting on every side a thousand outlines, groups,

-combinations, effects in gilding and color, every sort of grace that

-art can devise--giving to the whole an effect of magnificence, dignity,

-and beauty. Opposite the high altar rises the choir, divided into

-three orders of stalls, marvellously carved by Philip of Bourgogne

-and Berruguete, with bas-reliefs representing historical events,

-allegories, and sacred legends--one of the most famous monuments of art.

-

-In the centre, in the form of a throne, stands the seat of the

-archbishop surrounded by a circle of enormous jasper columns, with

-colossal statues of alabaster resting on the architraves; on either

-side rise enormous bronze pulpits provided with two great missals, and

-two gigantic organs, one in front of the other, from which it seems

-that at any moment a flood of melody may burst forth and make the vault

-tremble.

-

-The pleasure of one's admiration in these great cathedrals is almost

-always disturbed by importunate guides, who wish at any cost to amuse

-you after their fashion. And it was my misfortune to become convinced

-that the Spanish guides are the most persistent of their kind. When

-one of them has gotten it into his head that you are to spend the day

-with him, it is all over. You may shrug your shoulders, refuse to

-notice him, let him talk himself hoarse without so much as turning to

-look at him, wander about on your own account as though you had not

-seen him: it is all the same thing. In a moment of enthusiasm before

-some painting or statue a word escapes you, a gesture, a smile: it

-is enough. You are caught, you are his, you are the prey of this

-implacable human cuttle-fish, who, like the cuttle-fish of Victor Hugo,

-does not leave his victim until he has cut off his head. While I stood

-contemplating the statuary of the choir I saw one of these cuttle-fish

-out of the corner of my eye--a miserable old rake, who approached me

-with slow steps sidewise, like a cutthroat with the air of one who was

-saying, "Now I have got you!" I continued to look at the statues; the

-old man came up to my side, and he too began to look; then he suddenly

-asked me, "Do you wish my company?"

-

-"No," I replied, "I don't need you."

-

-And he continued, without any embarrassment,

-

-"Do you know who Elpidius was?"

-

-The question was so remarkable that I could not keep from asking in my

-turn,

-

-"Who was he?"

-

-"Elpidius," he replied, "was the second bishop of Toledo."

-

-"Well, what of him?

-

-"'What of him?' It was the bishop Elpidius who conceived the idea of

-consecrating the church to the Virgin, and that is the reason why the

-Virgin came to visit the church."

-

-"Ah! how do you know that?"

-

-"How do you know it? You see it."

-

-"Do you mean to say that it has been seen?"

-

-"I mean to say that it is still to be seen: have the goodness to come

-with me."

-

-So saying, he started off, and I followed him, very curious to

-learn what this visible form of the descent of the Virgin might be.

-We stopped in front of a sort of chapel close to one of the great

-pilasters of the central nave. The guide pointed out a white stone set

-in the wall covered by an iron net, and with this inscription running

-around it:

-

-    "Quando la reina del cielo

-    Puso los pies en el suelo,

-    En esta piedra los puso."

-

-    "When the Queen of heaven

-    Descended to the earth,

-    Her feet rested on this stone."

-

-"Then the Holy Virgin has actually placed her feet on this stone?" I

-asked.

-

-"On this very stone," he replied; and, thrusting a finger between the

-strands of the iron net, he touched the stone, kissed his finger, made

-the sign of the cross, and turned toward me as if to say, "Now it is

-your turn."

-

-"My turn?" I replied. "Oh, really, my friend, I cannot do it."

-

-"Why?"

-

-"Because I do not feel myself worthy to touch that sacred stone."

-

-The guide understood, and, looking hard at me with a serious aspect, he

-asked, "You do not believe?"

-

-I looked at a pilaster. Then the old man made a sign for me to follow,

-and started toward a corner of the church, murmuring with an air of

-sadness, "_Cadanno es dueño de su alma_" (Every man is master of his

-soul).

-

-A young priest who was standing near, and who had divined the cause of

-his words, cast a piercing glance at me, and went off in an opposite

-direction, muttering I know not what.

-

-The chapels correspond in style with that of the church: almost all of

-them contain some fine monuments. In the chapel of Santiago, behind

-the high altar, are two magnificent tombs of alabaster which contain

-the remains of the constable Alvaro de Luna and his wife; in the chapel

-of San Ildefonso, the tomb of the cardinal Gil Carrillo de Albornoz;

-in the chapel of the "New Kings," the tombs of Henry II., John II.,

-and Henry III.; in the chapel of the sacristy, a stupendous group of

-statues and busts of marble, silver, ivory, and gold, and a collection

-of crosses and relics of inestimable value, the remains of Saint

-Leucadia and Saint Eugenia preserved in two silver caskets exquisitely

-chased.

-

-The Chapel Mozarabe, which is under the tower of the church, and was

-erected to perpetuate the tradition of the primitive Christian rite,

-is probably the most worthy of attention. One of its walls is entirely

-covered with a fresco, in the Gothic style, representing a conflict

-between the Moors and the Toledans--marvellously preserved, even to

-the most delicate lines. It is a painting worth a volume of history.

-In it one sees the Toledo of those times with all its walls and its

-houses; the habiliments of the two armies; the arms, faces, everything

-portrayed with an admirable finish and an unspeakable harmony of color

-which answers perfectly to the vague and fantastic idea which one may

-have formed of those centuries and those races. Two other frescoes on

-either side of the first represent the fleet which bore the Arabs into

-Spain, and they offer a thousand minute details of the mediæval marine

-and the very air of those times, if one may so speak, which makes one

-think of and see a thousand things not represented in the painting, as

-one hears distant music on looking at a landscape.

-

-After the chapels one goes to see the sacristy, where are gathered

-enough riches to restore the finances of Spain to a sound basis. There

-is, among others, a vast room on the ceiling of which one sees a

-fresco by Luca Giordano, which represents a vision of paradise, with

-a myriad of angels, saints, and allegorical figures floating in the

-air or standing out like statues from the cornices of the walls in a

-thousand bold attitudes, with so much action and foreshortening that

-one is bewildered. The guide, pointing out this miracle of imagination

-and genius, which in the estimation of all artists, to use a very

-curious Spanish expression, is a work of _merito atroz_ (of atrocious

-merit),--the guide bids you to look attentively at the ray of light

-which falls upon the walls from the centre of the vaulted ceiling. You

-look at it and then make a circuit of the room, and wherever you find

-yourself that ray of light is falling directly upon your head.

-

-From this hall you pass into a room which is also beautifully painted

-in fresco by the nephew of Berruguete, and from it into a third, where

-a sacristan lays the treasures of the cathedral before your eyes--the

-enormous silver candlesticks; the pyxes flashing with rubies; the

-golden stands for the elevation of the Host, studded with diamonds;

-the damask vestments, embroidered in gold; the robes of the Virgin,

-covered with arabesques, garlands of flowers, and stars of pearl, which

-at every motion of the cloth flash forth in a thousand rays and colors

-and quite dazzle one's eyes. A hour is scarcely sufficient to see

-hurriedly all that display of treasures, which would certainly satisfy

-the ambition of ten queens and enrich the altars of ten cathedrals;

-and when, after he has shown you everything, the sacristan looks in

-your eyes for an expression of surprise, he finds only astonishment and

-stupefaction, which give evidence of an imagination wandering in far

-distant regions--in the realms of the Arabian legends where the kindly

-genii gather all the riches dreamed of by the glowing fancy of enamored

-sultans.

-

-It was the eve of _Corpus Domini_, and in the sacristy they were

-preparing the robes for the processional. Nothing can be more

-unpleasant or more at variance with the quiet and noble sadness of

-the church than the theatrical hurry-scurry which one sees on such

-occasions. It is like being behind the scenes on the evening of a

-dress rehearsal. From one room of the sacristy to another half-dressed

-boys were coming and going with a great clatter, carrying armfuls

-of surplices, stoles, and capes; here a sour-tempered sacristan was

-opening and banging the doors of a wardrobe; there a priest, all red

-in the face, was calling angrily to a chorister who did not hear him;

-yonder other priests were running through the room with their robes

-partly on their backs and partly trailing behind them; some laughing,

-some screaming, and some shouting from one room to another at the top

-of their voices; everywhere one heard a swish of skirts, a breathless

-panting, and an indescribable stamping and tramping.

-

-I went to see the cloister, but, as the door was open through which one

-reaches it from the church, I saw it before entering. From the middle

-of the church one gets a glimpse of a part of the cloister-garden, a

-group of fine leafy trees, a little grove, a mass of luxuriant plants

-which seem to close the doorway and look as though they are framed

-beneath a graceful arch and between the two slender columns of the

-portico which extends all around. It is a beautiful sight, which makes

-one think of Oriental gardens encircled by the columns of a mosque.

-The cloister, which is very large, is surrounded by a colonnade,

-graceful, though severe in form; the walls covered with great frescoes.

-The guide advised me to rest here a little while before ascending to

-the campanile. I leaned against a low wall in the shade of a tree,

-and remained there until I felt able to make another expedition, as

-the expression is. Meanwhile, my commander extolled in bombastic

-language the glories of Toledo, carrying his impudence so far, in his

-patriotism, as to call it "a great commercial city" which could buy

-and sell Barcelona and Valencia, and a city strong enough, if need be,

-to withstand ten German armies and a thousand batteries of Krupp guns.

-After each of his exaggerations I kept spurring him on, and the good

-man enjoyed himself to the full. What pleasure there is in knowing how

-to make others talk! Finally, when the proud Toledan was so swollen

-with glory that the cloister could no longer hold him, he said to me,

-"We may go now," and led the way toward the door of the campanile.

-

-When we were halfway up we stopped to take breath. The guide knocked at

-a little door, and out came a swaggering little sacristan, who opened

-another door, and made me enter a corridor where I saw a collection of

-gigantic puppets in very strange attire. Four of them, the guide told

-me, represented Europe, Asia, America, and Africa, and two others Faith

-and Religion; and they were so made that a man could hide in them and

-raise them from the ground.

-

-"They take them out on the occasions of the royal fêtes," the sacristan

-added, "and carry them around through the city;" and, to show me how

-it was done, he crept in under the robes of Asia. Then he led me to

-a corner where there was an enormous monster which when touched, I

-know not where, stretched out a very long neck and a horrible head

-and made a dreadful noise. But he could not tell me what this ugly

-creature signified, and so invited me instead to admire the marvellous

-imagination of the Spaniards, which creates so "many new things" to

-sell in all the known world. I admired, paid, and continued the ascent

-with my Toledan cuttle-fish. From the top of the tower one enjoys a

-splendid view--the city, the hills, the river, a vast horizon, and,

-below, the great mass of the cathedral, which seems like a mountain of

-granite. But there is another elevation, a short distance away, from

-which one sees everything to a better advantage, and consequently I

-remained in the campanile only a few moments, especially as at that

-hour the sun was shining very strongly, confusing all the colors of the

-city and country in a flood of light.

-

-From the cathedral my guide led me to see the famous church of _San

-Juan de los Reyes_, situated on the banks of the Tagus. My mind is

-still confused when I think of the windings and turnings which we were

-obliged to make in order to reach it. It was mid-day, the streets were

-deserted; gradually, as we went farther from the centre of the city,

-the solitude became more depressing; not a door or window was open, not

-the slightest sound was heard. For a moment I suspected that the guide

-was in league with some assassin to entice me into an out-of-the-way

-place and rob me; he had a suspicious face, and then he kept glancing

-here and there with a suspicious air, like one meditating a crime.

-

-"Is it much farther?" I would ask from time to time, and he would

-always answer: "It is right here," and yet we never reached it.

-

-At a certain point my uneasiness changed into fear: in a narrow,

-tortuous street a door opened; two bearded men came out, made a sign

-to the cuttle-fish, and fell in behind us. I thought it was all over

-with me. There was only one way of escape--to strike the guide, knock

-him down, jump over his body, and run. But which way? And on the other

-side there came into my mind the high praises which Thiers bestows

-on the "Spanish legs" in his _History of the War of Independence_;

-and I thought that flight would only prove an opportunity to plant a

-dagger in my back instead of my stomach, Alas! to die without seeing

-Andalusia! To die after taking so many notes, after giving so many

-tips--to die with pockets full of letters of introduction, with a purse

-fat with doubloons--to die with a passport covered with seals--to die

-by treachery! As God willed, the two bearded men disappeared at the

-first corner and I was saved. Then, overwhelmed by compunction for

-suspecting that the poor old man could be capable of a crime, I came

-over to his left side, offered him a cigar, said that Toledo was worth

-two Romes, and showed him a thousand courtesies. Finally we arrived at

-_San Juan de los Reyes_.

-

-It is a church which seems like a royal palace: the highest part is

-covered by a balcony surrounded with a honeycombed and sculptured

-breastwork, upon which rises a series of statues of kings, and in the

-middle stands a graceful hexagonal cupola which completes the beautiful

-harmony of the edifice. From the walls hang long iron chains which were

-suspended there by the Christian prisoners released at the conquest of

-Granada, and which, together with the dark color of the stone, give

-the church a severe and picturesque appearance. We entered, passed

-through two or three large, bare rooms, unpaved, cluttered with piles

-of dirt and heaps of rubbish, climbed a staircase, and came out upon

-a high gallery inside the church, which is one of the most beautiful

-and noblest of the monuments of Gothic architecture. It has a single

-great nave divided into four vaults, whose arches intersect under rich

-rosettes. The pilasters are covered with festoons and arabesques;

-the walls ornamented with a profusion of bas-reliefs, with enormous

-shields bearing the arms of Castile and Arragon, eagles, dragons,

-heraldic animals, trailing vines, and emblematic inscriptions; the

-gallery running all around the room is perforated and carved with great

-elegance; the choir is supported by a bold arch; the color of the stone

-is light gray, and everything is admirably finished and preserved, as

-if the church had been built but a few years ago, instead of at the

-end of the fifteenth century.

-

-From the church we descended to the cloister, which is, in truth,

-a miracle of architecture and sculpture. Graceful slender columns

-which could be broken in two by the stroke of a hammer, looking like

-the trunks of saplings, support capitals richly adorned like curving

-boughs; arches ornamented with flowers, birds, and grotesque animals

-in every sort of carving. The walls are covered with inscriptions

-in Gothic characters in a framework of leaves and very delicate

-arabesques. Wherever one looks one finds grace mingled with riches in

-enchanting harmony: it would not be possible to accumulate in an equal

-space and with more exquisite art a larger number of the most delicate

-and beautiful objects. It is a luxuriant garden of sculpture, a grand

-saloon embroidered, quilted, and brocaded in marble, a great monument,

-majestic as a temple, magnificent as a palace, delicate as a toy, and

-graceful as a flower.

-

-After the cloisters one goes to see a picture-gallery which contains

-only some paintings of little value, and then to the convent with its

-long corridors, its narrow stairs, and empty cells, almost on the point

-of falling into ruins, and in some parts already in ruins; throughout

-bare and squalid like a building gutted by fire.

-

-A little way from _San Juan de los Reyes_ there is another monument

-well worthy of attention, a curious record of the Judaic period--the

-synagogue now known by the name of Santa Maria la Blanca. One enters

-an untidy garden and knocks at the door of a wretched-looking house.

-The door opens. There is a delightful sense of surprise, a vision of

-the Orient, a sudden revelation of another religion and another world.

-There are five narrow alleys divided by four long rows of little

-octagonal pilasters, which support as many Moorish arches with stucco

-capitals of various forms; the ceiling is of cedar-wood divided into

-squares, and here and there on the walls are arabesques and Arabic

-inscriptions. The light falls from above, and everything is white. The

-synagogue was converted into a mosque by the Arabs, and the mosque into

-a church by the Christians, so that, properly, it is none of the three,

-although it still preserves the character of the mosque, and the eye

-surveys it with delight, and the imagination follows from arch to arch

-the fleeting images of a sensuous paradise.

-

-When I had seen Santa Maria la Blanca, I had not the strength to see

-anything else, and, refusing all the tempting propositions of the

-guide, I told him to lead me back to the hotel. After a long walk

-through a labyrinth of narrow, deserted streets we arrived there; I put

-a _peseta_ and a half in the hand of my innocent assassin, who found

-the fee too small, and asked (how I laughed at the word!) for a little

-_gratificacion_.

-

-I went into the dining-room to eat a chop or _chuleta_ (which is

-pronounced _cuileta_), as the Spanish call it--a name at which they

-would turn up their noses in some of the provinces of Italy.

-

-Toward evening I went to see the Alcazar. The name raises expectations

-of a Moorish palace, but there is nothing Moorish about it except the

-name. The building which one admires to-day was built in the reign of

-Charles V. on the ruins of a castle which was in existence as early

-as the eighth century, although the notices of it in contemporary

-chronicles are vague. This edifice rises upon a height overlooking the

-city, so that one sees its walls and towers from every point above the

-level of the streets, and the foreigner finds it a sure landmark amid

-the confusion and labyrinths of the city. I climbed the height by a

-broad winding street, like that one which runs from the plain up to

-the city, and found myself in front of the Alcazar. It is an immense

-square palace, at whose corners rise four great towers that give it the

-formidable appearance of a fortress. A vast square extends in front

-of the façade, and all around it runs a chain of embattled bulwarks

-of Oriental design. The entire building is of a decided chalky color,

-relieved by a thousand varied shades of that powerful painter of

-monuments, the burning sun of the South, and it appears even lighter

-against the very clear sky upon which the majestic form of the building

-is outlined.

-

-The façade is carved in arabesques in a manner at once dignified and

-elegant. The interior of the palace corresponds with the exterior: it

-is a vast court surrounded by two orders of graceful arches, one above

-the other, supported by slender columns, with a monumental marble

-staircase starting at the centre of the side opposite the door, and a

-little way above the pavement divides into two parts that lead to the

-interior of the palace, the one on the right, the other on the left.

-To enjoy the beauty of the courtyard it is necessary to stand on the

-landing where the staircase separates: from that point one comprehends

-at a glance the complete harmony of the edifice, which inspires a sense

-of cheerfulness and pleasure, like fine music performed by hidden

-musicians.

-

-Excepting the courtyard, the other parts of the building--the

-stairways, the rooms, the corridors--everything is in ruins or falling

-to ruins. They were at work turning the palace into a military school,

-whitewashing the walls, breaking down the partitions to make great

-dormitories, numbering the doors, and converting the palace into

-a barracks. Nevertheless, they left intact the great subterranean

-chambers which were used for stables at the time of Charles V., and

-which are still able to hold several thousand horses. The guide made

-me approach a window from which I looked down into an abyss that

-gave me an idea of their vastness. Then we climbed a series of unsteady

-steps into one of the four towers; the guide opened with pincers and a

-hammer a window that had been nailed fast, and with the air of one who

-was announcing a miracle said to me, "Look, sir!"

-

-[Illustration: _Alcazar and Bridge of San Martin, Toledo_]

-

-It was a wonderful panorama. One had a bird's-eye view of the city of

-Toledo, street by street and house by house, as if one were looking at

-a map spread upon a table: here the cathedral, rising above the city

-like a measureless castle, and making all the buildings around it seem

-as small as toy houses; there the balcony of _San Juan de las Reyes_,

-crowned with statues; yonder the embattled towers of the New Gate, the

-circus, the Tagus running at the foot of the city between its rocky

-banks; and beyond the river, opposite the bridge of Alcantara, on a

-precipitous crag, the ruins of the ancient castle of San Servando;

-still farther off a verdant plain, and then rocks, hills, and mountains

-as far as the eye can see; and over all a very clear sky and the

-setting sun, which gilded the summits of the old buildings and flashed

-on the river like a great silver scarf.

-

-While I was contemplating this magic spectacle the guide, who had

-read the _History of Toledo_ and wished me to know the fact, was

-telling all sorts of stories with that manner, half poetical and half

-facetious, which is distinctive of the Spaniards of the South. Above

-all, he wished to explain the history of the work of fortification,

-and although, where he said that he saw clear and unmistakable remains

-which he pointed out to me, I saw nothing at all, I succeeded,

-nevertheless, in learning something about it.

-

-He told me that Toledo had been thrice surrounded by a wall, and that

-the traces of all three walls were still clear. "Look!" he said;

-"follow the line which my finger indicates: that is the Roman wall,

-the innermost one, and its ruins are still visible. Now look a little

-farther on: that other one beyond it is the Gothic wall. Now let your

-glance describe a curve which embraces the first two: that is the

-Moorish wall, the most recent. But the Moors also built an inner wall

-on the ruins of the Roman wall: this you can easily see. Then observe

-the direction of the streets, which converge toward the highest point

-of the city; follow the line of the roofs--here, so; you will see that

-all the streets go up zigzag, and they were built purposely in this

-manner, so that the city could be defended even after the walls had

-been destroyed; and the houses were built so close one against another

-in order that it would be possible to jump from roof to roof, you

-see; and then the Arabs have left it in their writings. This is the

-reason that the Spanish gentlemen from Madrid make me laugh when they

-come here and say, 'Pooh! what streets!' You see, they do not know a

-particle of history: if they knew the least bit, if they read a little

-instead of spending their days on the Prado and in the Recoleto, they

-would understand that there is a reason for the narrow streets of

-Toledo, and that Toledo is not a city for ignoramuses."

-

-I began to laugh.

-

-"Do you not believe?" continued the custodian: "it is a sacred fact.

-Not a week ago, to cite a case, here comes a dandy from Madrid with

-his wife. Well, even as they were climbing the stairs they began to

-run down the city, the narrow streets, and the dark houses. When they

-came to this window and saw those two old towers down yonder on the

-plain on the left bank of the Tagus, they asked me what they were, and

-I answered, '_Los palacios de Galiana_.' 'Oh! what beautiful palaces!'

-they exclaimed, and began to laugh and looked in another direction.

-Why? Because they did not know their history. Now, I imagine that

-you do not know any better; but you are a stranger, and that makes a

-difference. Know, then, that the great emperor Charlemagne came to

-Toledo when he was a very young man. King Galafro was reigning then,

-and dwelt in that palace. King Galafro had a daughter Galiana, as

-beautiful as an angel; and, as Charlemagne was a guest of the king

-and saw the princess every day, he fell in love with her with all

-his heart, and so did the princess with him. But there was a rival

-between them, and this rival was the king of Guadalajara, a Moorish

-giant of herculean strength and the courage of a lion. This king, to

-see the princess without being seen, had a subterranean passage made

-all the way from the city of Guadalajara to the very foundation of the

-palace. But what good did it do? The princess could not even bear to

-see him, and as often as he came, so often did he return crestfallen;

-but not for this did the enamored king stop paying his court. And so

-much did he come hanging around that Charlemagne, who was not a man to

-be imposed upon, as you can imagine, lost his patience, and to end the

-matter challenged him. They fought: it was a terrible struggle, but the

-Moor, for all he was a giant, got the worst of it. When he was dead

-Charlemagne cut off his head and laid it at the feet of his love, who

-approved the delicacy of his offering, became a Christian, gave her

-hand to the prince, and went away with him to France, where she was

-proclaimed empress."

-

-"And the head of the Moor?"

-

-"You may laugh, but these are sacred facts. Do you see that old

-building down there at the highest point of the city? It is the church

-of San Ginés. And do you know what is inside of it? Nothing less than

-the door of an underground passage which extends three leagues beyond

-Toledo. You do not believe it? Listen! At the place where the church

-of San Ginés now stands there once was an enchanted palace before the

-Moors invaded Spain. No king had ever had the courage to enter it,

-and those who might possibly have been so bold did not do it because,

-according to the tradition, the first man who crossed that threshold

-would be the ruin of Spain. Finally King Roderic, before setting out

-for the battle of Guadalete, hoping to find in it some treasures which

-would furnish him means to resist the invasion of the Moors, had the

-doors broken open and entered, preceded by his warriors, who lighted

-the way. After a great deal of trouble to keep their torches lighted

-for the furious wind which came through the underground passages,

-they reached a mysterious room where they saw a chest which bore the

-inscription, 'He who opens me will see miracles.' The king commanded

-that it be opened: with incredible difficulty they succeeded in opening

-it, but, instead of gold or diamonds, they found only a roll of

-linen, on which were painted some armed Moors, with this inscription

-underneath: '_Spain will soon be destroyed by these_.' That very night

-a violent tempest arose, the enchanted palace fell, and a short time

-afterward the Moors entered Spain. You don't seem to believe it?"

-

-"What stuff you are talking! How can I believe it?"

-

-"But this history is connected with another. You know, without doubt,

-that Count Julian, the commandant of the fortress of Ceuta, betrayed

-Spain and allowed the Moors to pass when he might have barred the way.

-But you do not know why Count Julian turned traitor. He had a daughter

-at Toledo, and this daughter went every day with a number of her young

-friends to bathe in the Tagus. As misfortune willed it, the place

-where they went to bathe, which was called _Los Baños de la Cava_, was

-near a tower in which King Roderic was accustomed to pass the mid-day

-hours. One day Count Julian's daughter, who was called Florinda, tired

-of sporting in the water, sat down on the river-bank and said to her

-companions, 'Companions, let us see who is the most beautiful.'--'Let

-us see!' they cried, and as soon done as said. They seated themselves

-around Florinda, and each one revealed her beauty. But Florinda

-surpassed them all, and, unfortunately, just at the moment when she

-said to the others, 'Look!' King Roderic put his head out of the window

-and saw them. Young and dissolute, you may imagine he took fire like a

-match, paid his court to the beautiful Florinda, ruined and abandoned

-her; and from this followed the fury of the revenge of Count Julian,

-the treason, and the invasion."

-

-At this point it seemed that I had listened long enough: I gave the

-custodian two _reales_, which he took and put in his pocket with a

-dignified air, and, giving a last look at Toledo, I descended.

-

-It was the hour for promenading. The principal street, hardly wide

-enough for a carriage to pass through, was full of people; there may

-have been a few hundred persons, but they seemed like a great crowd;

-it was dusk, the shops were closing, and a few stray lights began to

-flicker here and there. I went to get my dinner, but came out quickly,

-so as not to lose sight of the promenade. It was night: there was

-no other illumination save the moonlight, and one could not see the

-faces of the people; I seemed to be in the midst of a procession

-of spectres, and was overwhelmed with sadness. "To think that I am

-alone!" I said--"that in all this city there is not a soul who knows

-me; that if I fall dead at this moment, there would not be a dog to

-say, 'Poor man! he was a good fellow!'" I saw joyous young men pass,

-fathers of families with their children, husbands or those who had

-the air of husbands with beautiful creatures on their arms; every one

-had a companion; they laughed and talked, and passed without so much

-as looking at me. How wretched I was! How happy I should have been if

-a boy, a beggar, or a policeman had come up and said, "It seems to

-me that I recognize you, sir"!--"It is impossible, I am a foreigner,

-I have never been in Toledo before; but it makes no matter; don't go

-away; stay here, and we will talk a while, for I am lonely."

-

-In a happy moment I remembered that at Madrid I had received a letter

-of introduction to a Toledan gentleman. I hurried to the hotel, took

-out my letter, and was at once shown to his house. The gentleman was

-at home and received me courteously. It was such a pleasure to hear my

-own name again that I could have thrown my arms around his neck. He was

-Antonio Gamero, the author of a highly esteemed _History of Toledo_. We

-spent the evening together. I asked him a hundred things; he told me a

-thousand, and read me some splendid passages from his book, which made

-me better acquainted with Toledo than I should otherwise have been in a

-month's residence there.

-

-The city is poor, and worse than poor: it is dead; the rich have

-abandoned it for Madrid; the men of genius have followed the rich; it

-has no commerce; the manufacture of cutlery, the only industry which

-flourishes, provides a livelihood for some hundreds of families, but

-not for the city; popular education is neglected; the people are lazy

-and miserable.

-

-But they have not lost their ancient character of nobility. Like all

-the peoples of great declining cities, they are proud and chivalrous;

-they abhor baseness, deal justice with their own hands, when they

-can, to assassins and thieves and murderers; and, although the poet

-Zorilla, in one of his ballads, has bluntly called them a silly

-people, they are not so; they are alert and bold. They combine the

-seriousness of the Spaniards of the North with the vivacity of the

-Spaniards of the South; they hold the middle ground between the

-Castilian and the Andalusian; they speak the language with refinement,

-with a greater variety of inflexion than the people of Madrid, and

-with greater precision than the people of Cordova and Seville; they

-love poetry and music; they are proud to number among their great men

-the gentle Garcilaso de la Vega, the reformer of Spanish poetry, and

-the illustrious Francisco de Rojas, the author of the _Garcia del

-Castañar_; and they take pride in welcoming within their walls artists

-and students from all the countries in the world who come to study the

-history of three nations and the monuments of three civilizations.

-But, whatever its people may be, Toledo is dead; the city of Wamba,

-of Alfonso the Brave, and of Padilla is nothing but a tomb. Since

-Philip II. took from it the crown of the capital, it has been steadily

-declining, and is still declining, and it is consuming itself little by

-little, solitary on the summit of its gloomy mountain, like a skeleton

-abandoned on a rock in the midst of the waves of the sea.

-

-I returned to the hotel shortly before midnight. Although the moon was

-shining brightly--for on moonlight nights they do not illuminate the

-streets, although the light of that silvery orb does not penetrate

-those narrow ways--I was obliged to grope my way along like a thief.

-With my head full, as it was, of fantastic ballads which describe the

-streets of Toledo traversed at night by cavaliers muffled in their

-cloaks, singing under the windows of their ladies, fighting and killing

-one another, climbing into palaces and stealing the maidens away, I

-imagined I should hear the tinkle of guitars, the clashing of swords,

-and the cries of the dying. Nothing of the kind: the streets were

-deserted and silent and the windows dark, and one heard faintly from

-time to time at the corners and crossways the light step of some one

-passing or a fugitive whisper, the source of which one could in no way

-discover. I reached the hotel without harming any fair Toledan, which

-might have caused me some annoyance, and also without having any holes

-made in my stomach, which was undoubtedly a consolation.

-

-The morning of the next day I visited the beautiful building of the

-hospital of San Cruz, the church of _Nuestra Señora del Transito_, an

-ancient synagogue, the ruins of an amphitheatre and of an arena where

-naval battles were fought in Roman times, and the famous manufactory

-of arms, where I bought a beautiful dagger with a silver handle and a

-blade covered with arabesques, which at this moment lies on my table,

-and when I shut my eyes and take it in my hand I seem to be still

-there, in the courtyard of the factory, a mile out of Toledo, under

-the mid-day sun, surrounded by a group of soldiers, and enveloped in a

-cloud of smoke from their cigarettes. I remember that as I was walking

-back to Toledo, as I was crossing a bit of country solitary as a

-desert and silent as the Catacombs, a terrible voice cried out, "Away

-with the foreigner!"

-

-The voice came from the city. I stopped--I was the foreigner, that cry

-was directed at me, and my blood curdled; the solitude and silence of

-the place increased my fear. I started forward and the voice cried

-again, "Away with the foreigner!"

-

-"Is it a dream?" I exclaimed, stopping again, "or am I awake? Who is

-shouting? Where is he? Why does he do it?"

-

-I started on again, and the voice came the third time, "Away with the

-foreigner!"

-

-I stopped the third time, and when, all disturbed, I cast my eyes

-around, I saw a boy sitting on the ground, who looked at me with a

-laugh and said, "He is a crazy man, who thinks he is living in the time

-of the War of Independence. Look, sir! that is the insane asylum."

-And he pointed out the place on a hill among the outermost houses of

-Toledo. I drew a long breath which would have blown out a torch.

-

-In the evening I left Toledo, regretting that I had not time to see

-once and again all that was ancient and wonderful in it: this regret

-was tempered, however, by my ardent desire for Andalusia, which had

-not allowed me a moment's peace. But how long I saw Toledo before my

-eyes! How long I remembered and dreamed of those headlong rocks, those

-enormous walls, those dark streets, that fantastic appearance of a

-mediæval city! Even to-day I review the picture with a sort of sombre

-pleasure and grave melancholy, and with this picture before me my mind

-wanders back in a thousand strange thoughts among distant times and

-marvellous events.

-

-

-

-

-CORDOVA.

-

-

-On arriving at Castillejo I was obliged to wait until midnight for

-the Andalusia train. I dined on hard-boiled eggs and oranges, with

-a little sprinkling of Val de Peñas, murmured a poem of Espronceda,

-chatted a little with a custom-house officer who between parentheses

-made me a confession of his political faith--Amadeus, liberty, an

-increase of wages to the custom-house officers, etc; finally I heard

-the long-desired whistle, entered a railway-carriage crowded full of

-women, children, civil guards, boxes, cushions, and wraps, and away

-with a speed unusual for the Spanish railways. It was a beautiful

-night; my travelling-companions talked of bulls and Carlists; a

-beautiful girl, whom more than one devoured with his eyes, pretended

-to sleep that she might still further heighten their curiosity; some

-were rolling cigarettes, some peeling oranges, others humming songs

-from the _Zarzuela_. Nevertheless, I fell asleep in a few minutes. I

-believe I had already dreamed of the mosque of Cordova and the Alcazar

-of Seville, when I was aroused by a hoarse cry, "Daggers!"

-

-"Daggers? Heavens! for whom?" Before I discovered who had shouted

-there flashed before my eyes a long sharp blade, and the unknown voice

-asked again,

-

-"Do you like it?"

-

-One must admit that there are pleasanter ways to be awakened. I

-looked in the faces of my travelling-companions with an expression of

-consternation, which made them all burst into a shout of laughter.

-Then they explained that at every railway-station there are vendors of

-knives and daggers who offer tourists their wares, just as the boys

-offer newspapers and refreshments in our country. Assured that my life

-was safe, I bought my scarecrow--five francs; a splendid dagger for a

-villain in a tragedy, with an ornamented handle, inscriptions on the

-blade, and a sheath of embroidered velvet; and I put it in my pocket,

-thinking that I might find it useful in Italy to settle difficulties

-with my publishers.

-

-The vendor must have had fifty of those knives in a great red sash

-tied around his waist. Other travellers bought them, the civil guards

-complimented one of my neighbors on the good selection he had made; the

-boys cried, "Buy me one too!" The mammas answered, "We will buy you a

-bigger one some other time." "O happy Spain!" I exclaimed, and thought

-with horror of our barbarous laws, which forbid the innocent amusement

-of a little cold steel.

-

-We crossed La Mancha, the celebrated La Mancha, the immortal

-theatre of the adventures of Don Quixote. It is such a place as I

-imagined--wide, bare plains, long tracts of sandy soil, here and there

-a windmill, a few wretched villages, lonely lanes, and forsaken huts.

-On seeing these places I felt that vague sense of melancholy which

-steals over me as I read the book of Cervantes, and repeated to myself

-what I always say on reading it: "This man cannot make one laugh

-without also making one's tears flow as the laughter dies away."

-

-Don Quixote is a sad and sombre figure: his madness is a lament;

-his life is the history of the dreams, illusions, awakenings, and

-aberrations of each of us; the struggle of reason with imagination, of

-truth with falsehood, of the ideal with the real. We all have something

-of Don Quixote in our nature; we all mistake windmills for giants; we

-are all now and then spurred on by the impulse of enthusiasm, only

-to be driven back by the laugh of scorn; we are each a mixture of

-the sublime and the ridiculous; we all feel bitterly and profoundly

-the eternal conflict between the grandeur of our aspirations and the

-impotence of our powers. O beautiful dreams of childhood and youth!

-Generous impulses to consecrate our life to the defence of virtue and

-justice, fond imaginations of dangers faced, of adventurous struggles,

-of magnanimous deeds, and sublime loves, fallen one by one, like the

-petals of a flower, in the narrow and uneventful paths of life! To what

-new life have they arisen in our soul, and what vague thoughts and

-profound inspirations have we derived from thee, O generous and hapless

-cavalier of the sad figure!

-

-We arrived at Argamasilla de Alba, where Don Quixote was born and died,

-and where poor Cervantes, the tax-gatherer of the great priory of San

-Juan, was arrested by angry debtors and imprisoned in a house which is

-said to be still in existence, and where he probably conceived the plan

-of his romance. We passed near the village of Val de Peñas, which gives

-its name to one of the most exquisite wines of Spain--dark, tingling,

-exhilarating, the only one, forsooth, which permits the foreigner from

-the North to indulge in copious libations at his meals; and finally we

-arrived at Santa Cruz de Mudela, a village famous for its manufactories

-of _navajas_ (knives and razors), near which the way begins to slope

-gently upward toward the mountain.

-

-The sun had risen, the women and children had left the carriage, and a

-number of peasants, officers, and _toreros_ had entered on their way

-to Seville. One saw in that small space a variety of costume which

-would not be seen even in an Italian market-place--the pointed caps of

-the peasants of the Sierra Morena, the red trousers of the soldiers,

-the great sombreros of the _picadores_, the shawls of the gypsies, the

-mantles of the Catalans, Toledo blades hanging from the walls, capes,

-belts, and finery of all the colors of a harlequin.

-

-The train entered the rocks of the Sierra Morena, which separate the

-valley of the Guadiana from that of the Guadalquivir, famous for the

-songs of poets and the deeds of brigands. The railway runs at times

-between two walls of rock sheer from the very peaks, so high that to

-see the top one must put one's head all the way out of the window

-and turn one's face up, as if to look at the roof of the carriage.

-Sometimes the rocks are farther away and rise one above the other, the

-first like enormous broken stones, the last straight and sharp like

-bold towers rising upon measureless bastions; between them a mass of

-boulders cut into teeth, steps, crests, and humps, some almost hanging

-in the air, others separated by deep caverns and frightful precipices,

-presenting a confusion of curious forms, of fantastic suggestions

-of houses, gigantic figures and ruins, and offering at every step a

-thousand outlines and surprising appearances; and, together with this

-infinite variety of form, an infinite variety of color, shadow, dancing

-and changing light. For long distances, to the right, to the left, and

-overhead, one sees nothing but stone, without a house, a path, or a

-patch of ground where a man could set his foot, and, as one advances,

-rocks, ravines, and precipices: everything grows larger, deeper, and

-higher until one reaches the summit of the Sierra, where the solemn

-majesty of the spectacle provokes a cry of wonder.

-

-The train stopped a few minutes, and all the travellers put their heads

-out of the window.

-

-"Here," said one in a loud voice,--"here Cardenio jumped from rock to

-rock to do penance for his sins" (Cardenio, one of the most remarkable

-characters in _Don Quixote_, who jumped about among the rocks of the

-Sierra in his shirt to do penance for his sins). "I wish," continued

-the traveller, "that Sagasta might have to do the same."

-

-They all laughed, and began to find, each one on his own account,

-some political enemy upon whom in imagination he might inflict this

-punishment: one proposed Serrano, another Topete, and a third another,

-and so on, until in a few minutes, if their desires had been realized,

-one might have seen the entire Sierra filled with ministers, generals,

-and deputies in their shirts skipping from crag to crag like the famous

-rock of Alessandro Manzoni.

-

-The train started, the rocks disappeared, and the delightful valley

-of the Guadalquivir, the garden of Spain, the Eden of the Arabs, the

-paradise of painters and of poets, blessed Andalusia, revealed herself

-to my eyes. I can still feel the thrill of childish joy with which I

-hurried to the window, saying to myself, "Let me enjoy it."

-

-For a long distance the country does not offer any new appearance to

-the ardent curiosity of the traveller. At Vilches there is a vast

-plain, and beyond it the level country of Tolosa, where Alfonso VIII.,

-king of Castile, won the celebrated victory of _de las Navas_ over the

-Mussulman army. The sky was as clear as air--in the distance rose the

-mountains of the Sierra de Segura. Suddenly I made one of those quick

-motions which seemed to correspond to an unuttered cry of astonishment:

-the first aloes with their broad heavy leaves, the unexpected

-harbingers of the tropical vegetation, rise beside the road. Beyond

-them the fields sprinkled with flowers begin to appear. The first

-fields sprinkled, those which follow almost covered, then vast tracts

-of country wholly clothed, with wild poppies, daisies, iris, mushrooms,

-cowslips, and buttercups, so that the country appears like a succession

-of vast carpets of purple and gold and snowy white, and far away, among

-the trees, innumerable streaks of blue, white, and yellow until the eye

-is lost; and hard by, on the edge of the ditches, the mounds, and the

-banks, even to the very track, flowers in beds, groups, and clusters,

-one above the other, fashioned like great bouquets, trembling on their

-stems, which one can almost touch with the hand. Then waving fields

-of grain with great heavy bearded heads, bordered by long gardens of

-roses; then orange-orchards and vast olive-groves; hillocks varied

-by a hundred shades of green, surmounted by ancient Moorish towers,

-dotted with many-colored cottages, with here and there white, graceful

-bridges, which span rivulets hidden by the trees. On the horizon rise

-the snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada, and below this white line other

-blue undulating lines of the nearer mountains. The country grows ever

-more various and blooming: Arjonilla, embowered in an orange-grove

-whose limits are lost in the distance; Pedro Abad, in the midst of a

-plain covered with vineyards and orchards; Ventas de Alcolea, on the

-hills of the Sierra Morena, crowned with villas and gardens. We are

-drawing near to Cordova: the train flies; one sees little stations half

-hidden among trees and flowers; the wind blows the rose-leaves into

-the cars, great butterflies sail past the windows, a delicious perfume

-fills the air, the travellers are singing, we pass through an enchanted

-garden, the aloes, oranges, palms, and villas become more frequent; one

-hears a cry: "Here is Cordova!"

-

-How many beautiful images and how many memories are recalled by that

-name!

-

-Cordova, the ancient pearl of the Occident, as the Moorish poets called

-her, the city of cities, Cordova of the thirty burgs and the three

-thousand mosques, which contained within her walls the greatest temple

-of Islam! Her fame spread through the Orient and obscured the glory

-of ancient Damascus,--from the remotest regions of Asia the faithful

-journeyed toward the banks of the Guadalquivir to prostrate themselves

-in the marvellous mihrab of her mosque, in the blaze of a thousand

-brazen lamps cast from the bells of the Spanish cathedrals. From every

-part of the Mohammedan world artists, scholars, and poets crowded to

-her flourishing schools, her vast libraries, and the magnificent courts

-of her caliphs. Hither flowed wealth and beauty, drawn by the fame of

-her splendor.

-

-And from here they separated, eager for knowledge, along the coasts of

-Africa, among the schools of Tunis, Cairo, Bagdad, and Cufa, as far as

-India and China, in search of books, inspiration, and memories; and the

-poems sung on the slopes of the Sierra Morena flew from harp to harp

-even to the valleys of the Caucasus, to make the hearts of pilgrims

-burn within them. The beautiful, the mighty, the wise Cordova, crowned

-with three thousand villages, proudly reared her white minarets among

-her orange-groves and spread through the divine valley a voluptuous air

-of gladness and glory.

-

-I descend from the train, cross a garden, and look around: I am

-alone; the travellers who came with me have disappeared in different

-directions; I still hear the rumble of the receding carriages; then all

-is silent.

-

-It is mid-day: the sky is very clear, the air burning. I see two white

-cottages; it is the opening of a street; I enter and go forward. The

-street is narrow, the houses small as the little villas built on the

-hillocks of artificial gardens; nearly all of them are one story in

-height, with windows a little way from the ground, roofs so low that

-one can almost touch them with a cane, and very white walls. The street

-makes a turn; I look down it; no one is in sight; I do not hear a

-step nor a voice. "It must be an abandoned street," I say, and turn

-in another direction: white cottages, closed windows, solitude, and

-silence. "Where am I?" I ask myself.

-

-I walk on: the street is so narrow and crooked that a carriage could

-not pass through it; to the right and left one sees other deserted

-streets, other white houses, and other closed windows; my step echoes

-as in a corridor; the white of the walls is so bright that the

-reflection almost blinds me, and I am obliged to walk with my eyes

-closed; I seem to be passing through snow. I reach a little square:

-everything is closed, there is no one about. Then a feeling of vague

-melancholy begins to steal into my heart, such as I have never felt

-before, a mingling of enjoyment and sorrow like that which children

-experience when after a long run they find themselves in a beautiful

-country-place and enjoy it, but with a tremor of fear at being so

-far away from home. Above the many roofs rise the palms of the inner

-gardens. O fantastic legends of odalisques and caliphs!

-

-On from street to street and square to square; I meet a few persons,

-but they all pass and disappear like phantoms. The streets are all

-alike, the houses have only two or four windows; and there is not a

-stain, not a scratch, not a crack in the walls, which are as smooth

-and white as a sheet of paper. Now and then I hear a whisper behind a

-venetian blind, and almost at the same moment see a dark head with a

-flower in the hair peep out and disappear. I approach a door.

-

-A _patio_! How shall I describe a _patio_? It is not a courtyard, it

-is not a garden, it is not a room; it is the three in one. Between the

-_patio_ and the street there is a vestibule. On the four sides of the

-_patio_ rise graceful columns which support a sort of balcony enclosed

-in glass at the height of the second story; over the balcony extends a

-canvas which shades the court. The vestibule is flagged with marble,

-the doorway supported by columns surmounted by bas-reliefs and closed

-by a delicate iron lattice of very beautiful design. At the back of

-the _patio_, opposite the doorway, stands a statue, in the centre a

-fountain, and all around chairs, work-tables, paintings, and vases of

-flowers. I run to another door. Another _patio_, its walls covered with

-ivy, and a line of niches containing statuettes and urns. I hurry to

-a third door. A _patio_ with its walls adorned with mosaic, a palm in

-the centre, and all around a mass of flowers. A fourth door. Behind

-the _patio_ another vestibule, and then a second _patio_, in which one

-sees other statues, columns, and fountains. And all these rooms and

-gardens are clean and tidy, so that you could pass your hands over the

-walls and along the floor without leaving a mark; and they are fresh

-and fragrant, lighted with a dim light which heightens their beauty and

-mystery.

-

-Still forward, from street to street, at random. Gradually, as I walk

-on, my curiosity increases and I hasten my steps. It seems impossible

-that the whole city can be like this: I am afraid of coming upon a

-house or finding a street which will remind me of other cities and

-rouse me from my pleasant dream.

-

-But, no: the dream is unbroken. Everything is small, graceful,

-mysterious. Every hundred paces a deserted little square, in which I

-stop breathless; now and then a crossway, and not a living soul; and

-everything always white--closed windows and silence. At every door

-there is a new spectacle: arches, columns, flowers, fountains, palms;

-a marvellous variety of design, color, light, perfume, here of roses,

-there of oranges, yonder of violets; and with the perfume a breath of

-fresh air, and borne on the air the subdued sound of women's voices,

-the rustling of leaves, and the singing of birds--a sweet and various

-harmony, which, without disturbing the silence of the street, soothes

-the ear like the echo of distant music. Ah! it is not a dream! Madrid,

-Italy, Europe, surely they are far, far away. Here one lives another

-life, here one breathes the air of another world; I am in the Orient.

-

-I remember that at a certain point I stopped in the middle of the

-street and suddenly discovered, I know not how, that I was sad

-and restless, and that in my heart there was a void which neither

-admiration nor enjoyment could fill. I felt an irrepressible necessity

-of entering those houses and those gardens, of tearing asunder, so to

-speak, the mysterious veil which concealed the life of the unknown

-people within; of sharing in that life; of grasping some hand and

-gazing into two pitying eyes, and saying, "I am a stranger, I am alone;

-I too want to be happy; let me linger among your flowers, let me enjoy

-all the secrets of your paradise, teach me who you are and how you

-live; smile on me and calm me, for my head is burning!"

-

-And this sadness grew upon me until I said to myself, "I cannot stay in

-this city; I am suffering here; I will leave it!"

-

-And I believe I should have left if at a happy moment I had not

-remembered that I carried in my pocket a letter of introduction to

-two young men of Cordova, brothers of a friend of mine in Florence. I

-dismissed the idea of leaving, and started at once to find them.

-

-How they laughed when I told them of the impression Cordova had made

-upon me! They proposed that we go at once to see the cathedral; so we

-turned down a narrow white street and were off.

-

-The mosque of Cordova, which was converted into a cathedral after the

-overthrow of the Moors, but which must always remain a mosque, was

-built on the ruins of the original cathedral, a little way back from

-the bank of the Guadalquivir. Abdurrahman commenced its construction

-in the year 785 or 786 A. D. "Let us rear a mosque," said he, "which

-shall surpass that of Bagdad, of Damascus, and of Jerusalem--a mosque

-which shall be the greatest temple of Islam, one which shall become the

-Mecca of the West." They undertook the work with great ardor. Christian

-slaves carried the stone for its foundations from their ruined

-churches; Abdurrahman himself worked an hour every day; in a few years

-the mosque was built, the caliphs who succeeded Abdurrahman embellished

-it, and after a century of almost continuous labor it was finished.

-

-"Here we are!" said one of my friends, stopping suddenly in front of a

-vast edifice.

-

-I thought it was a fortress, but it was the wall which surrounds the

-mosque--an old embattled wall in which there were at one time twenty

-great bronze doors ornamented with the most beautiful arabesques, and

-arched windows supported by graceful columns, now covered by a triple

-coat of plaster. A turn around this wall is a nice little walk to

-take after dinner: one may judge, therefore, of the vast size of the

-building.

-

-[Illustration: _Court of Oranges, Mosque of Cordova_]

-

-The principal door of the enclosure is north of the point where rises

-the minaret of Abdurrahman, from whose summit floated the Mohammedan

-standard. We entered: I expected to see at once the interior of the

-mosque, but found myself in a garden full of orange trees, cypresses,

-and palms, surrounded on three sides by a very beautiful portico and

-closed on the fourth side by the façade of the mosque. In the midst

-of this garden there was, in the time of the Moors, the fountain for

-their ablutions, and in the shade of these trees the faithful refreshed

-themselves before entering the sanctuary.

-

-I stood for some moments looking around and breathing in the fresh

-odorous air with the liveliest sense of pleasure, and my heart leaped

-at the thought of the famous mosque standing there before me, and I

-felt myself impelled toward the door by a boundless curiosity, and

-at the same time restrained by I know not what feeling of childish

-hesitation.

-

-"Let us enter," said my companions. "One moment more," I replied: "let

-me thoroughly enjoy the delight of anticipation." Finally I moved

-forward and entered, without so much as looking at the marvellous

-doorway which my companions pointed out.

-

-What I did or said on entering I do not know, but some strange

-exclamation must surely have escaped me or I must have made an odd

-gesture, for some persons who were just then coming toward me began to

-laugh and turned again to look around, as if to discover the reason of

-the profound emotion which I had manifested.

-

-Imagine a forest and suppose yourself in the thickest part, where

-you see only the trunks of trees. So in the mosque wherever you turn

-your gaze is lost among the columns. It is a forest of marble whose

-boundaries one cannot discover. One follows with the eye, one by one,

-those lengthening rows of columns crossed at every step by innumerable

-other rows, and perceives a dimly-lighted background in which one

-seems to see the gleaming of still other columns. There are nineteen

-naves which extend in the direction in which you enter, crossed by

-thirty-three other naves, and supported, in all, by more than nine

-hundred columns of porphyry, jasper, onyx, and marble of every color.

-Each column is surmounted by a pilaster, and between one column and

-the next bends an arch, and a second arch above the first extends from

-pilaster to pilaster, both of them in the form of a horseshoe; and so,

-imagining the columns to be the trunks of so many trees and the arches

-to represent the branches, the resemblance of the mosque to a forest is

-complete.

-

-The central nave, much larger than the others, leads to the Maksura,

-the most sacred part of the temple, where they worshipped the Koran.

-Here from the vaulted windows steals a faint ray of light which glides

-along a row of columns; there a dark place, and yonder another ray

-pierces the gloom of another nave. It is impossible to express the

-feeling of mystical wonder which fills one's mind at this spectacle.

-It is like the sudden revelation of a religion, a nature, and a life

-unknown, leading the fancy captive among the delights of that paradise

-of love and pleasure where the blessed, sitting in the shade of leafy

-plane trees and of thornless roses, drink from crystal beakers wine

-gleaming like pearls, mixed by immortal children, and repose in the

-embrace of lovely virgins with great dark eyes! All the images of

-that external pleasure, eager, warm, and glowing, which the Koran

-promises to the faithful, crowd upon the mind at the first sight of the

-mosque, and give one a delicious moment of intoxication which leaves

-in the heart an indescribable feeling of gentle melancholy. A brief

-tumult in the mind and a rapid thrill which goes tingling through the

-veins,--such is one's first sensation on entering the cathedral of

-Cordova.

-

-We began to wander from passage to passage, examining everything

-minutely. What a variety in that edifice which at first sight appears

-so uniform! The proportions of the columns, the design of the capitals,

-the form of the arches change, one may say, at every step. The greater

-part of the columns are old and were taken by the Moors from Northern

-Spain, Gaul, and Roman Africa, and one is said to have belonged

-to a temple of Janus, upon whose ruins stood the church which the

-Arabians destroyed to build the mosque. On several of the capitals

-one may still see the traces of the crosses carved upon them, which

-the Arabians broke off with their hammers. In some of the columns

-iron rings are fastened to which it is said the Arabians bound the

-Christians, and among the others there is one pointed out to which the

-popular tradition narrates a Christian was bound for many years, and

-in that time, by continually scratching with his nails, he succeeded

-in engraving a cross on the stone, which the guides show with profound

-veneration.

-

-We entered the Maksura, which is the most perfect and marvellous work

-of Moorish art of the twelfth century. At the entrance there are three

-continuous chapels, with vaulted roofs formed by indented arches, and

-walls covered with magnificent mosaics which represent wreaths and

-flowers and passages from the Koran. At the back of the middle chapel

-is the principal _mihrab_, the holy place, where dwelt the Spirit of

-God. It is a niche with an octagonal base enclosed above by a colossal

-marble shell. In the _mihrab_ was kept the Koran written by the hands

-of the caliph Othman, covered with gold, adorned with pearls, suspended

-above a seat of aloe-wood; and here came thousands of the faithful to

-make the circuit of it seven times on their knees. On approaching the

-wall I felt the pavement slipping from under me: the marble had been

-worn hollow!

-

-On leaving the niche I stood a long time contemplating the vault and

-the walls of the principal chapel, the only part of the mosque which

-has been preserved almost intact. It is a dazzling flash of crystals

-of a thousand colors, an interweaving of arabesques which confuse the

-mind, a mingling of bas-reliefs, gilding, ornaments, and minute details

-of design and coloring of a delicacy, grace, and perfection which would

-prove the despair of the most patient artist. It is impossible to

-retain in one's mind any part of that prodigious work: you might return

-a hundred times to look at it, but in reality it would only remain

-before your eyes as a tantalizing blur of blue, red, green, golden,

-and luminous shades of colors, or a very intricate piece of embroidery

-continually and rapidly changing in color and design. Only from the

-ardent and tireless imagination of the Moors could such a miracle of

-art have issued.

-

-We began to wander through the mosque again, observing here and there

-on the walls the arabesques of the ancient doorways which are now

-and then discovered under the detestable plaster of the Christians.

-My companions looked at me, laughed, and whispered something to each

-other. "Have you not seen it yet?" one of them asked me.

-

-"What do you mean?"

-

-They looked at me again and smiled.

-

-"You think you have seen all the mosque, do you?" continued my

-companion.

-

-"Yes, indeed," I replied, looking around.

-

-"Well," said the first, "you have not seen it all, and what remains to

-be seen is nothing less than a church."

-

-"A church?" I exclaimed stupefied, "but where is it?"

-

-"Look!" answered my other companion, pointing; "it is in the very

-centre of the mosque."

-

-"By the powers!" And I had not seen it!

-

-From this one may judge of the vastness of the mosque.

-

-We went to see the church. It is beautiful and very rich, with a

-magnificent high altar and a choir worthy to stand beside those in the

-cathedrals of Burgos and Toledo, but, like everything out of place,

-it moves one to anger rather than admiration. Without this church

-the appearance of the mosque would be much improved. Charles V., who

-himself gave the chapter permission to build it, repented when he saw

-the Mohammedan temple for the first time. Besides the church there is a

-sort of Moorish chapel in a good state of preservation, rich in mosaics

-not less varied and splendid than those of the Maksura, and where it is

-said the ministers of the faith used to assemble to discuss the book of

-the Prophet.

-

-Such is the mosque to-day. But what must it have been in the time of

-the Arabs! It was not entirely enclosed by a wall, but open, so that

-one could see the garden from every side, and from the garden one

-could look to the very end of the long naves, and the fragrance of

-orange-blossoms and flowers was wafted even to the vaulted roofs of the

-Maksura. The columns, which now number less than a thousand, were then

-fourteen hundred in number; the ceiling was of cedar-wood and larch,

-carved and enamelled with exquisite workmanship; the walls were lined

-with marble; the light of eight hundred lamps filled with fragrant oil

-made the crystals in the mosaic-work flash like pearls, and produced on

-the pavement, the arches, and the walls a marvellous play of color and

-reflection. "A sea of splendors," sang a poet, filled the mysterious

-enclosure, and the warm air was laden with perfume and harmony, and the

-thoughts of the faithful wandered and were lost in the labyrinth of

-columns gleaming like lances in the sun.

-

-Frederick Schrack, the author of a good work on the _Poetry and Art

-of the Moors in Spain and Sicily_, gives a description of the mosque

-on a day of solemn festival, which forms a very lively image of the

-Mohammedan religion and completes the picture of the monument.

-

-On both sides of the almimbar, or pulpit, wave two banners, to signify

-that Islam has triumphed over Judaism and Christianity and that the

-Koran has conquered both the Old and the New Testament. The _almnedani_

-ascend to the gallery of the high minaret and intone the salam, or

-salutation, to the Prophet. Then the aisles of the mosque are filled

-with believers, who with white vestments and in festal attire come

-together to worship. In a few moments, throughout the length and

-breadth of the edifice, one sees only kneeling people. The caliph

-enters by the secret way which leads from the Alcazar to the temple,

-and seats himself in his elevated station. A reader of the Koran reads

-a _sura_ from the low desk of the pulpit.

-

-The voice of the muezzin sounds again, calling men to mid-day prayer.

-All the faithful rise and murmur their prayers, bowing as they do so.

-An attendant of the mosque opens the doors of the pulpit and seizes a

-sword, and, holding it, he turns toward Mecca, admonishing the people

-to worship Mohammed, while the _mubaliges_ are chanting his praises

-from the gallery. Then the preacher mounts the pulpit, taking from

-the hand of the servant the sword, which calls to mind and symbolizes

-the subjection of Spain to the power of Islam. It is the day when

-the _Djihad_, or the holy war, must be proclaimed, the call for all

-able-bodied men to go to war and descend into the battlefield against

-the Christians. The multitude listens with silent devotion to the

-sermon, woven from texts of the Koran, which begins in this wise:

-

-"Praise be to Allah, who has increased the glory of Islam, thanks to

-the sword of the champion of the faith, who in his holy book has

-promised succor and victory to the believer.

-

-"Allah scatters his benefits over the world.

-

-"If he did not put it in the hearts of men to take up arms against

-their fellows, the world would be lost.

-

-"Allah has ordained to fight against the people until they know that

-there is but one God.

-

-"The torch of war will not be extinguished until the end of the world.

-

-"The blessing of God will fall upon the mane of the war-horse to the

-day of judgment.

-

-"Armed from head to foot or but lightly clad, it matters not--up and

-away!

-

-"O believers! what shall be done to you if, when called to the battle,

-you remain with face turned to the earth?

-

-"Do you prefer the life of this world to the life to come?

-

-"Believe me, the gates of paradise stand in the shadow of the sword.

-

-"He who dies in battle for the cause of God shall wash away with his

-blood all the defilement of his sins.

-

-"His body shall not be wasted like the other bodies of the dead, for on

-the day of judgment his wounds shall yield a fragrance like musk.

-

-"When the warriors present themselves at the gates of paradise, a voice

-within shall ask, 'What have you done in your life?'

-

-"And they shall answer, 'We have brandished the sword in the struggle

-for the cause of God.'

-

-"Then the eternal doors will swing open, and the warriors will enter

-forty years before the rest.

-

-"Up, then, ye faithful; leave your women, your children, your kindred,

-and your goods, and go out to the holy war!

-

-"And thou, God, Lord of this present world and of that which is to

-come, fight for the armies of those who recognize thy unity! Cast down

-the unbelievers, the idolaters, and the enemies of thy holy faith!

-Overwhelm their standards, and give them, with whatever they possess,

-as a prey to the Mussulman!"

-

-The preacher as he ends his discourse turns toward the congregation and

-exclaims, "Ask of God!" and begins to pray in silence.

-

-All the faithful, with heads bowed to the ground, follow his example.

-The _mubaliges_ chant, "Amen! Amen, O Lord of all being!" Burning like

-the heat which precedes the oncoming tempest, the enthusiasm of the

-multitude, restrained at first in awful silence, now breaks out into

-deep murmurs, which rise like the waves and swell through all parts of

-the temple, until finally the naves, the chapels, and the vaulted roofs

-resound to the echo of a thousand voices united in a single cry: "There

-is no God but Allah!"

-

-The mosque of Cordova is even to-day, by universal consent, the most

-beautiful temple of Islam and one of the most marvellous monuments in

-the world.

-

-When we left the mosque it was already long past the hour of the

-siesta, which everybody takes in the cities of Southern Spain, and

-which is a necessity by reason of the insupportable heat of the noon

-hours. The streets began to fill with people. "Alas!" said I to my

-companions, "how badly the silk hat looks in the streets of Cordova!

-How have you the heart to introduce the fashion-plates in this

-beautiful Oriental picture? Why do you not adopt the dress of the

-Moors?" Coxcombs pass, workmen, and girls: I looked at them all with

-great curiosity, hoping to find one of those fantastic figures which

-Doré has represented as examples of the Andalusian type, with that

-dark-brown complexion, those thick lips, and large eyes, but I saw

-none. Walking toward the centre of the city, I saw the first Andalusian

-women--ladies, girls and women of the middle classes--almost all small,

-graceful, and well-formed, some of them beautiful, many attractive in

-appearance, but the greater part neither one thing nor the other, as is

-the case in all countries. In their dress, with the exception of the

-so-called mantilla, they do not differ at all from the French women nor

-from those of our country--great masses of false hair in plaits, knots,

-and long curls, short petticoats, long plaited over-skirts, and boots

-with heels as sharp as daggers. The ancient Andalusian costume has

-disappeared from the city.

-

-I thought that in the evening the streets would be crowded, but I saw

-only a few people, and only in the streets of the principal quarters;

-the others remain as empty as at the hour of the siesta. And one must

-pass through those deserted streets at night to enjoy Cordova. One sees

-the light streaming from the _patios_; one sees in the dark corners

-fond lovers in close colloquy, the girls usually at the windows, with

-a hand resting lightly on the iron grating, and the young men close to

-the wall in poetic attitudes, with watchful eyes, but not so watchful,

-however, as to make them take their lips from those hands before

-they discover that some one is passing; and one hears the sound of

-guitars, the murmur of fountains, sighs, the laughter of children, and

-mysterious rustlings.

-

-The following morning, still stirred by the Oriental dreams of the

-night, I again began my wandering through the city. To describe all

-that is remarkable there one would require a volume: it is a very

-museum of Roman and Arabian antiquities, and one finds a profusion of

-martial columns and inscriptions in honor of the emperors; the remains

-of statues and bas-reliefs; six ancient gates; a great bridge over the

-Guadalquivir dating from the time of Octavius Augustus and restored

-by the Arabians; ruins of towers and walls; houses which belonged to

-the caliphs, and which still contain the columns and the subterranean

-arches of the bathing apartments; and everywhere there are doors,

-vestibules, and stairways that would delight a legion of archæologists.

-

-Toward noon, as I was passing through a lonely little street, I saw

-a sign on the wall of a house beside a Roman inscription, _Casa de

-huespedes. Almuerzos y comidas_, and as I read I felt the gnawing, as

-Giusti says, of such a desperate hunger that I determined to give it a

-quietus in this little shop upon which I had stumbled. I passed through

-a little vestibule, and found myself in a _patio_. It was a poor little

-_patio_, without marble floor and without fountains, but white as snow

-and fresh as a garden. As I saw neither tables nor chairs, I feared I

-had mistaken the door and started to go out. A little old woman bustled

-out from I know not where and stopped me.

-

-"Have you anything to eat?" I demanded.

-

-"Yes, sir," she answered.

-

-"What have you?"

-

-"Eggs, sausages, chops, peaches, oranges, and wine of Malaga."

-

-"Very good: you may bring everything you have."

-

-She commenced by bringing me a table and a chair, and I sat down and

-waited. Suddenly I heard a door open behind me and turned.... Angels

-of heaven! what a sight I saw!--the most beautiful of all the most

-beautiful Andalusians, not only of those whom I saw at Cordova, but

-of all those whom I afterward saw at Seville, Cadiz, and Granada: if

-I may be allowed to use the word, a superb girl, who would make one

-flee or commit some deviltry; one of those faces which make you cry,

-"O poor me!" like Giuseppe Baretti when he was travelling in Spain.

-For some moments she stood motionless with her eyes fixed on mine as

-if to say, "Admire me;" then she turned toward the kitchen and cried,

-"_Tia, despachate!_" ("Hurry up, aunty!") This gave me an opportunity

-of thanking her with a stammering tongue, and gave her a pretence for

-approaching me and replying, "It is nothing," with a voice so gentle

-that I was obliged to offer her a chair, whereupon she sat down. She

-was a girl about twenty years old, tall, straight as a palm, and dark,

-with two great eyes full of sweetness, lustrous and humid as though she

-had just been in tears: she wore a mass of wavy jet-black hair with a

-rose among her locks. She seemed like one of the Arabian virgins of the

-tribe of the Usras for whom men died of love.

-

-She herself opened the conversation:

-

-"You are a foreigner, I should think, sir?"

-

-"Yes."

-

-"French?"

-

-"Italian."

-

-"Italian? A fellow-countryman of the king?"

-

-"Yes."

-

-"Do you know him, sir?"

-

-"By sight!"

-

-"They say he is a handsome young fellow."

-

-I did not answer, and she began to laugh, and asked me, "What are you

-looking at, sir?" and, still laughing, she hid her foot, which on

-taking her seat she thrust well forward that I might see it. Ah! there

-is not a woman in that country who does not know that the feet of the

-Andalusians are famous throughout the world.

-

-I seized the opportunity of turning the conversation upon the fame of

-the Andalusian women, and expressed my admiration in the most fervent

-words of my vocabulary. She allowed me to talk on, looking with great

-attention at the crack in the table, then raising her face, she asked

-me, "And in Italy, how are the women there?"

-

-"Oh, there are beautiful women in Italy too."

-

-"But ... they are cold?"

-

-"Oh no, not at all," I hastened to respond; "but, you know, ... in

-every country the women have an _I-know-not-what_ which distinguishes

-them from the women of all other countries; and among them all the

-_I-know-not-what_ of the Andalusians is probably the most dangerous for

-a poor traveller whose hairs have not turned gray. There is a word to

-express what I mean: if I could remember it, I would say it to you; I

-would say, "_Señorita_, you are the most ..."

-

-"_Salada_," exclaimed the girl, covering her face with her hands.

-

-"_Salada!_ ... the most _salada_ Andalusian in Cordova."

-

-_Salada_ is the word commonly used in Andalusia to describe a woman

-beautiful, charming, affectionate, languid, ardent, what you will--a

-woman with two lips which say, "Drink me," and two eyes which make one

-close one's teeth.

-

-The aunt brought me the eggs, chops, sausage, and oranges, and the girl

-continued the conversation: "Sir, you are an Italian: have you seen the

-Pope?"

-

-"No, I am sorry to say."

-

-"Is it possible? An Italian who has not seen the Pope! And tell me,

-sir: why do the Italians make him suffer so much?"

-

-"Suffer in what way?"

-

-"Yes. They say that they have shut him up in his house and thrown

-stones at the windows."

-

-"Oh no! Don't believe it! There is not a particle of truth in it,"

-etc., etc.

-

-"Have you seen Venice, sir?"

-

-"Venice? oh yes."

-

-"Is it true that it is a city which floats on the sea?"

-

-And here she made a thousand requests that I would describe Venice,

-and that I would tell her what the people were like in that strange

-city, and what they do all the day long, and how they dress. And while

-I was talking besides the pains I took to express myself with a little

-grace, and to eat meanwhile the badly-cooked eggs and stale sausage--I

-was obliged to see her draw nearer and nearer to me, that she might

-hear me better perhaps, without being conscious of the act. She came

-so close that I could smell the fragrance of the rose in her hair and

-feel her warm breath; I was obliged, I may say, to make three efforts

-at once--one with my head, another with my stomach, and a third with

-both--especially when, now and then, she would say, "How beautiful!"--a

-compliment which applied to the Grand Canal, but which had upon me the

-effect a bag full of napoleons might have upon a beggar if swung under

-his nose by an insolent banker.

-

-"Ah, señorita!" I said at last, beginning to lose patience, "what

-matters it, after all, whether cities are beautiful or not? Those who

-are born in them think nothing of it, and the traveller still less. I

-arrived at Cordova yesterday: it is a beautiful city, without doubt.

-Well--will you believe it?--I have already forgotten all that I have

-seen; I no longer wish to see anything; I do not even know what city I

-am in. Palaces, mosques, they make me laugh. When you have a consuming

-fire in your heart, do you go to the mosque to quench it?--Excuse me,

-will you move back a little?--When you feel such a madness that you

-could grind up a plate with your teeth, do you go to look at palaces?

-Believe me, the traveller's life is a sad one. It is a penance of the

-hardest sort. It is torture. It is...." A prudent blow with her fan

-closed my mouth, which was going too far both in words and action. I

-attacked the chop.

-

-"Poor fellow!" murmured the Andalusian with a laugh after she had given

-a glance around. "Are all the Italians as ardent as you?"

-

-"How should I know? Are all the Andalusians as beautiful as you?"

-

-The girl laid her hand on the table.

-

-"Take that hand away," I said.

-

-"Why?" she asked.

-

-"Because I want to eat in peace."

-

-"Eat with one hand."

-

-"Ah!"

-

-I seemed to be pressing the little hand of a girl of six; my knife fell

-to the ground; a dark veil settled upon the chop.

-

-Suddenly my hand was empty: I opened my eyes, saw the girl all

-disturbed, and looked behind me. Gracious Heavens! There was a handsome

-young fellow, with a stylish little jacket, tight breeches, and a

-velvet cap. Oh terrors! a _torero_! I gave a start as if I had felt two

-_banderillas de fuego_ planted in my neck.

-

-"I see it at a glance," said I to myself, like the man at the comedy;

-and one could not fail to understand. The girl, slightly embarrassed,

-made the introduction: "An Italian passing through Cordova," and she

-hastened to add, "who wants to know when the train leaves for Seville."

-

-The _torero_, who had frowned at first sight of me, was reassured,

-told me the hour of departure, sat down, and entered into a friendly

-conversation. I asked for the news of the last bull-fight at Cordova:

-he was a _banderillero_, and he gave me a minute description of the

-day's sport. The girl in the mean time was gathering flowers from the

-vases in the _patio_. I finished my meal, offered a glass of Malaga to

-the _torero_, drank to the fortunate planting of all his _banderillas_,

-paid my bill (three _pesetas_, which included the beautiful eyes,

-you understand), and then, putting on a bold front, so as to dispel

-the least shadow of suspicion from the mind of my formidable rival,

-I said to the girl, "_Señorita!_ one can refuse nothing to those who

-are taking leave. To you I am like a dying man; you will never see

-me again; you will never hear my name spoken: then let me take some

-memento; give me that bunch of flowers."

-

-"Take it," said the girl; "I picked it for you."

-

-She glanced at the _torero_, who gave a nod of approval.

-

-"I thank you with all my heart," I replied as I turned to leave. They

-both accompanied me to the door.

-

-"Have you bull-fights in Italy?" asked the young man.

-

-"Oh heavens! no, not yet!"

-

-"Too bad! Try to make them popular in Italy also, and I will come to

-_banderillar_ at Rome."

-

-"I will do all in my power.--_Señorita_, have the goodness to tell me

-your name, so that I may bid you good-bye."

-

-"Consuelo."

-

-"God be with you, Consuelo!"

-

-"God be with you, _Señor Italiano_!"

-

-And I went out into the lonely little street.

-

-There are no remarkable Arabian monuments to be seen in the

-neighborhood of Cordova, although at one time the whole valley was

-covered with magnificent buildings. Three miles to the south of the

-city, on the side of the mountain, rose the Medina Az-Zahra, the

-city of flowers, one of the most marvellous architectural works of

-the caliph Abdurrahman, begun by the caliph himself in honor of his

-favorite Az-Zahra. The foundations were laid in the year 936, and ten

-thousand workmen labored on the edifice for twenty-five years. The

-Arabian poets celebrated Medina Az-Zahra as the most splendid of royal

-palaces and the most delightfullyl garden in the world. It was not an

-edifice, but a vast chain of palaces, gardens, courts, colonnades,

-and towers. There were rare plants from Syria--the fantastic playing

-of lofty fountains, streams of water flowing in the shade of palm

-trees, and great basins overflowing with quicksilver, which reflected

-the rays of the sun like lakes of fire; doors of ebony and ivory

-studded with gems; thousands of columns of the most precious marbles;

-great airy balconies; and between the innumerable multitudes of

-statues twelve images of animals of massy gold, gleaming with pearls,

-sprinkling sweetened water from their mouths and noses. In this vast

-palace swarmed thousands of servants, slaves, and women, and hither

-from every part of the world came poets and musicians. And yet this

-same Abdurrahman III., who lived among all these delights, who reigned

-for fifty years, who was powerful, glorious, and fortunate in every

-circumstance and enterprise, wrote before his death that during his

-long reign he had been happy only fourteen days, and his fabulous city

-of flowers seventy-four years after the laying of its first stone was

-invaded, sacked, and burned by a barbarian horde, and to-day there

-remain only a few stones which hardly recall its name.

-

-Of another splendid city, called Zahira, which rose to the east of

-Cordova, built by the powerful Almansur, governor of the kingdom, not

-even the ruins remain: a handful of rebels laid it in ashes a little

-while after the death of its founder.

-

-  "All returns to the great ancient mother."

-

-Instead of taking a drive around Cordova, I simply wandered here and

-there, weaving fancies from the names of the streets, which to me is

-one of the greatest pleasures in which a traveller may indulge in a

-foreign city. Cordova, _alma ingeniorum parens_, could write at every

-street-corner the name of an artist or an illustrious author born

-within her walls; to give her due honor, she has remembered them all

-with maternal gratitude. You find the little square of Seneca and the

-house where he may have been born; the street of Ambrosio Morales,

-the historian of Charles V., who continued the _Chronicle General of

-Spain_ commenced by Florian d'Ocampo; the street of Pablo de Cespedes,

-painter, architect, sculptor, antiquary, and the author of a didactic

-poem, "The Art of Painting," unfortunately not finished, though adorned

-with splendid passages. He was an ardent enthusiast of Michelangelo,

-whose works he had admired in Italy, and in his poem he addressed a

-hymn of praise to him which is one of the most beautiful passages in

-Spanish poetry, and, in spite of myself, the last verses have slipped

-from my pen, which every Italian, even if he does not know the sister

-language, can appreciate and understand. He believes, he tells the

-reader, that one cannot find the perfection of painting anywhere except

-

-    "Que en aquela escelente obra espantosa

-    Mayor de cuantas se han jamas pintado,

-    Que hizo el Buonarrota de su mano

-    Divina, en el etrusco Vaticano!

-

-    "Cual nuevo Prometeo en alto vuelo

-    Alzándose, estendiò los alas tanto,

-    Que puesto encima el estrellado cielo

-    Una parte alcanzò del fuego santo;

-    Con que tornando enriquecido al suelo

-    Con nueva maravilla y nuevo espanto,

-    Diò vida con eternos resplandores

-    À marmoles, à bronces, à colores.

-    ¡O mas que mortal hombre! ¿Angel divino

-    O cual te nomaré? No humano cierto

-    Es tu ser, que del cerco empireo vino

-    Al estilo y pincel vida y concierto:

-    Tu monstraste à los hombres el camino

-    Por mil edades escondido, incierto

-    De la reina virtud; a ti se debe

-    Honra que en cierto dia el sol renueve."

-

-"In that excellent marvellous work, greater than all that has ever been

-painted, which Buonarroti made with his divine hand in the Etruscan

-Vatican!

-

-"Look how the new Prometheus, rising in lofty flight, extends his

-wings so wide that above the starry sky he has obtained a part of

-the celestial fire; with it, returning, he enriched the earth with

-new marvels and new surprises, giving life, with eternal splendors,

-to marble, bronze, and colors. More than mortal man! angel divine!

-or what shall I call thee? Surely thou art not human, who from the

-empyrean circle came, bringing life and harmony to chisel and brush!

-Thou hast shown men the road hidden for a thousand ages, uncertain of

-the sovereign virtue; to thee belongs honor which one day the sun will

-bestow."

-

-Murmuring these lines, I came out into the street of Juan de Mena,

-the Ennius of Spain, as his compatriots call him, the author of a

-phantasmagorial poem called "The Labyrinth," an imitation of _The

-Divina Commedia_ very famous in its day, and in truth not without

-some pages of inspired and noble poetry, but, on the whole, cold and

-overloaded with pedantic mysticism. John II., king of Castile, went mad

-over this "Labyrinth," kept it beside the missal in his cabinet, and

-carried it with him to the hunt; but witness the caprice of a king! The

-poem had only three hundred stanzas, and to John II. this number seemed

-too small, and do you know the reason? It was this: the year contains

-three hundred and sixty-five days, and it seemed to him that there

-ought to be as many stanzas in the poem as there are days in the year,

-and so he besought the poet to compose sixty-five other stanzas, and

-the poet complied with his request--most cheerfully, the flatterer!--to

-gain an occasion for flattering still more, although he had already

-flattered his sovereign to the extent of asking him to correct the poem.

-

-From the street of Juan de Mena I passed into the street of Gongora,

-the Marini of Spain, and no less a genius than he, but perhaps one

-who corrupted the literature of his country even more than Marini

-corrupted that of Italy, for he spoiled, abused, and corrupted the

-language in a thousand ways: for this reason Lope de Vega wittily

-makes a poet of the Gongorist school ask one of his hearers, "Do you

-understand me?"--"Yes," he replies; and the poet retorts, "You lie! for

-I do not even understand myself." But Lope himself is not entirely free

-from Gongorism, for he has the courage to write that Tasso was only the

-rising of Marini's sun; nor is Calderon entirely free of it, nor some

-other great men. But enough of poetry: I must not digress.

-

-After the siesta I hunted up my two companions, who took me through

-the suburbs of the city, and here, for the first time, I saw men and

-women of the true Andalusian type as I had imagined them, with eyes,

-coloring, and attitudes like the Arabians, and here too, for the first

-time, I heard the real speech of the Andalusian people, softer and more

-musical than in the Castiles, and also gayer and more imaginative,

-and accompanied by livelier gestures. I asked my companions whether

-that report about Andalusia is true, affirming that with their early

-physical development vice is more common, manners more voluptuous, and

-passion less restrained. "Too true," they replied, giving explanations,

-descriptions, and citing cases which I forbear to repeat. On returning

-to the city they took me to a splendid casino, with gardens and

-magnificent rooms, in one of which, the largest and richest, adorned

-with paintings of all the illustrious men of Cordova, rises a sort of

-stage where the poets stand to read their works on evenings appointed

-for public contests of genius; and the victors receive a laurel crown

-from the hands of the most beautiful and cultured girls in the city,

-who, crowned with roses, look on from a semi-circle of seats. That

-evening I had the pleasure of meeting several young Cordovese ardently

-attached, as they say in Spain, to the cultivation of the Muses--frank,

-courteous, and vivacious, with a medley of verses in their heads,

-and a smattering of Italian literature; and so imagine how from dusk

-to midnight, through those mysterious streets, which from the first

-evening had made my head whirl, there was a constant, noisy interchange

-of sonnets, hymns, and ballads in the two languages, from Petrarch to

-Prati, from Cervantes to Zorilla; and a delightful conversation closed

-and sealed by many cordial hand-clasps and eager promises to write, to

-send books, to come to Italy, to visit Spain again, etc. etc.--merely

-words, as is always the case, but words not less dear on that account.

-

-In the morning I left for Seville. At the station I saw Frascuelo,

-Lagartijo, Cuco, and the whole band of _toreros_ from Madrid, who

-saluted me with a benevolent look of protection. I hurried into a dusty

-carriage, and as the train moved off and my eyes rested on Cordova

-for the last time, I bade the city adieu in the lines of the Arabian

-poet--a little too tropical, if you will, for the taste of a European,

-but, after all, admirable for the occasion:

-

-"Adieu, Cordova! Would that my life were as long as Noah's, that I

-might live for ever within thy walls! Would that I had the treasures

-of Pharaoh, to spend them upon wine and the beautiful women of Cordova

-with the gentle eyes which invite kisses!"

-

-

-

-

-SEVILLE.

-

-

-The journey from Cordova to Seville does not awaken a sense of

-astonishment, as does that from Toledo to Cordova, but it is even

-more beautiful: there are continuous orange-orchards, boundless

-olive-groves, hills clothed with vineyards, and meadows carpeted with

-flowers. A few miles from Cordova one sees the ruined towers of the

-frowning castle of Almodovar standing on a very high rock-platform,

-which overlooks a vast extent of the surrounding country; at

-Hornachuelos another old castle on the summit of a hill, in the midst

-of a lonely, melancholy landscape; and then, beyond, the white city of

-Palma, hidden in a dense orange-grove, which is surrounded in its turn

-by a circle of truck-farms and flower-gardens. As the train runs on

-one is carried through the midst of golden fields of grain, bordered

-by long hedges of Indian fig trees and rows of dwarf palms, and dotted

-with groves of pine and frequent orchards of fruit-bearing trees; and

-at short intervals there are hills and castles, roaring streams, the

-slender village belfries hidden among the trees, and the purple peaks

-of distant mountains.

-

-Most beautiful of all are the little country-houses scattered along the

-road. I do not remember to have seen a single one of them that was not

-as white as snow. The house was white, the neighboring well-curb was

-white, the little wall around the kitchen-garden was white, as were

-also the two posts of the garden-gate: everything seemed as if it had

-been whitewashed the day before. Some of these houses have one or two

-mullioned windows of Moorish design; others have arabesques over the

-door; and still others roofs covered with variegated tiles like Arabian

-houses. Here and there through the fields one sees the red-and-white

-capes of the peasants, velvet hats against the green grass, and sashes

-of all colors. The peasants whom one sees in the furrows and those who

-run to see the train pass are dressed in the costumes of forty years

-ago as they are represented in paintings: they wear velvet hats with

-very broad brims which roll slightly back, with little crowns like

-a sugar-loaf; short jackets, open waistcoats, breeches gathered in

-at the knee like those of the priests, gaiters which almost meet the

-breeches, and sashes around the waist. This style of dress, picturesque

-but inconvenient, is exceedingly becoming to the slender figures of

-these men, who prefer discomfort, if it be attended by beauty, to

-comfort without it, and who spend half an hour every morning adorning

-themselves, besides the time required to get into a pair of tight

-breeches which will display a shapely thigh and a well-turned leg.

-They have nothing in common with our Northern peasant of the hard face

-and dull eye. Their great black eyes meet your own with a smile, as

-if they would say, "Don't you remember me?" They cast daring glances

-at the ladies who put their heads out of the windows, run to fetch a

-match before you have so much as asked for it, sometimes answer your

-questions in rhyme, and are even capable of laughing to show their

-white teeth.

-

-At Rinconado the campanile of the cathedral of Seville comes into view

-in a line with the railroad, and to the right, beyond the Guadalquivir,

-one sees the beautiful low hills, covered with olive-groves, at the

-foot of which lie the ruins of Italica. The train rolled on, and I said

-to myself, under my breath, speaking faster and faster as the houses

-became thicker, with that suspense, full of longing and delight, which

-one feels on approaching the doorway of one's love, "Seville! this is

-Seville! The queen of Andalusia is at hand, the Athens of Spain, the

-mother of Murillo, the city of poets and lovers, the storied Seville,

-whose name I have pronounced from a child with a sentiment of loving

-sympathy! What should I have given a few years since to have seen

-it? No, it is not a dream! Those are really the houses of Seville;

-those peasants yonder are Sevillians; that campanile which I see is

-the Giralda! I am at Seville! How strange! It makes me laugh! What is

-my mother doing at this moment? Would that she were here! Would that

-this friend and that were here! It is a sin to be alone! See the white

-houses, the gardens, the streets.... We are in the city.... It is time

-to get out.... Ah! how beautiful is life!"

-

-I went to a hotel, threw down my valise in the _patio_, and began

-to stroll about the city. It seemed like seeing Cordova over again,

-on a large scale, embellished and enriched; the streets are wider,

-the houses higher, the _patios_ more spacious, but the general

-appearance of the city is the same: there is the same spotless white,

-the same intricate network of streets, everywhere the fragrance of

-orange-blossoms, that subtile air of mystery, that Oriental atmosphere,

-filling one's heart with a delicious sense of amorous melancholy, and

-calling to mind a thousand fancies, desires, and visions of a distant

-world, a new life, an unknown people, and an earthly paradise of

-love, pleasure, and content. In those streets one reads the history

-of the city: every balcony, every fragment of sculpture, every lonely

-crossway, recalls some nocturnal adventure of a king, the inspiration

-of a poet, the romance of a beauty, an amour, a duel, an abduction, a

-story, or a festival. Here a memento of Maria de Padilla, there one of

-Don Pedro; yonder of Cervantes, Columbus, Saint Theresa, Velasquez, or

-Murillo. A column tells of the Roman dominion; a tower, the splendor of

-Charles V.'s monarchy; and an alcazar, the magnificence of the Arabian

-court. Beside the modest white cottages rise sumptuous marble palaces;

-the little tortuous streets open into vast squares full of orange

-trees; from silent, deserted corners one enters with a short turn a

-street filled with a noisy crowd: and wherever one passes one sees

-on the opposite side the graceful lattices of the _patios_, flowers,

-statues, fountains, flights of stairs, walls covered with arabesques,

-small Moorish windows, and slender columns of costly marble; and

-at every window and in every garden little women clothed in white,

-half hidden, like timid nymphs, among the leaves of grapevines and

-rosebushes.

-

-Passing from street to street, I came at length to the bank of the

-Guadalquivir, close to the avenues of the Christina promenade, which

-is to Seville what the Lung d'arno is to Florence. Here one enjoys a

-charming spectacle.

-

-I first approached the famous Torre del Oro. This famous tower was

-called the Golden, either because it received the gold which the

-Spanish ships brought from America or because King Don Pedro hid his

-treasures there. It is an octagonal structure of three stories, growing

-smaller as they ascend, crowned with battlements and washed by the

-river. The story runs that this tower was built in Roman times, and

-that for a long period the king's most beautiful favorite dwelt there

-after it had been joined to the Alcazar by an edifice which was torn

-away to make room for the Christina promenade.

-

-This promenade extends from the ducal palace of Montpensier to the

-Torre del Oro. It is entirely shaded with Oriental plane trees, oaks,

-cypresses, willows, poplars, and other trees of northern latitudes,

-which the Andalusians admire, as we admire the palms and aloes of the

-plains of Piedmont and Lombardy. A great bridge spans the river and

-leads to the suburb of Triana, from which one sees the first houses on

-the opposite bank. A long line of ships, coasting vessels, and barges

-extends along the river, and from the Torre del Oro to the ducal palace

-there is a coming and going of rowboats. The sun was setting. A crowd

-of ladies filled the avenues, groups of workmen were crossing the

-bridge, the workmen on the ships labored more busily, a band of music

-was playing among the trees, the river was rose-colored, the air was

-fragrant with the perfume of flowers, the sky seemed all on fire.

-

-I returned to the city and enjoyed the marvellous spectacle of Seville

-by night. All the _patios_ were illuminated--those of the humble

-houses with a half light, which gave them an air of mysterious beauty,

-those of the palaces, full of little flames which were reflected in

-the mirrors and flashed like jets of quicksilver in the spray of the

-fountains, and shone with a thousand colors on the marbles of the

-vestibules, the mosaics of the walls, the glass of the doors, and

-the crystal of the candlesticks. Inside one saw a crowd of ladies,

-everywhere one heard the sound of laughter, low voices, and music;

-one seemed to be passing through so many ball-rooms; from every door

-flowed a stream of light, fragrance, and harmony; the streets were

-crowded; among the trees of the squares, in the avenues, at the end

-of the narrow streets, and on the balconies,--everywhere were seen

-white skirts fluttering, vanishing, and reappearing in the darkness,

-and little heads ornamented with flowers peeped coquettishly from

-the windows; groups of young men broke through the crowd with merry

-shouts; people called to each other and talked from window to street,

-and everywhere were rapid motion, shouting, laughter, and festal

-gaiety. Seville was simply an immense garden in which revelled a people

-intoxicated with youth and love.

-

-Such moments are very sad ones for a stranger. I remember that I could

-have struck my head against the wall. I wandered here and there almost

-abashed, with hanging head and sad heart, as if all that crowd was

-amusing itself for the sole purpose of insulting my loneliness and

-melancholy. It was too late to present my letters of introduction, too

-early to go to bed: I was the slave of that crowd and that gaiety, and

-was obliged to endure it for many hours. I found a solace in resolving

-not to look at the faces of the women, but I could not always keep my

-resolve, and when my eyes inadvertently met two black pupils the wound,

-because so unexpected, was more grievous than if I had encountered

-the danger more boldly. Yes, I was in the midst of those wonderfully

-famous women of Seville! I saw them pass on the arms of their husbands

-and lovers; I touched their dresses, breathed their perfume, heard the

-sound of their soft speech, and the blood leaped to my head like a

-flame of fire. Fortunately, I remembered to have heard from a Sevillian

-at Madrid that the Italian consul was in the habit of spending the

-evening at the shop of his son, a merchant; I sought out the shop,

-entered, and found the consul, and as I handed him a letter from a

-friend I said, with a dramatic air which made him laugh, "Dear sir,

-protect me; Seville has terrified me."

-

-At midnight the appearance of the city was unchanged: the crowd and

-light had not disappeared; I returned to the hotel and locked my door

-with the intention of going to bed. Worse and worse! The windows

-of my room opened on a square where crowds of people were swarming

-around an orchestra that played without interruption, when the music

-finally ended the guitars commenced, together with the cries of the

-water-carriers and snatches of song and laughter; the whole night

-through there was noise enough to wake the dead. I had a dream at

-once delightful and tantalizing, but rather more tantalizing than

-delightful. I seemed to be tied to the bed by a very long tress of dark

-hair twisted into a thousand knots, and felt on my lips a mouth of

-burning coals which sucked my breath, and around my neck two vigorous

-little hands which were crushing my head against the handle of a guitar.

-

-The following morning I went at once to see the cathedral.

-

-To adequately describe this measureless edifice one should have at

-hand a collection of the most superlative adjectives and all the most

-extravagant similes which have come from the pens of the grand writers

-of every country whenever they have described something of prodigious

-height, enormous size, appalling depth, and incredible grandeur. When

-I talk to my friends about it, I too, like the Mirabeau of Victor

-Hugo, involuntarily make _un colossal mouvement d'epaules_, puff out

-my throat, and gradually raise my voice, like Tommaso Salvini in the

-tragedy of _Samson_ when, in tones which make the parquet tremble, he

-says that he feels his strength returning to his limbs. To talk of the

-cathedral of Seville tires one like playing a great wind instrument or

-carrying on a conversation across a roaring torrent.

-

-The cathedral of Seville stands alone in the centre of a vast square,

-and consequently one can measure its vastness at a single glance. At

-the first moment I thought of the famous motto which the chapter of the

-primitive church adopted on the eighth of July, 1401, when they decreed

-the erection of the new cathedral: "Let us build a monument which will

-make posterity declare that we were mad." Those reverend canons did not

-fail in their intention. But one must enter to be sure of this.

-

-The exterior of the cathedral is grand and magnificent, but not to

-be compared with the interior. The façade is lacking: a high wall

-surrounds the entire building like a fortress. However much one walks

-around and looks at it, one cannot succeed in fixing in one's mind a

-single outline which, like the preface of a book, will give a clear

-conception of the design of the work; one admires and occasionally

-breaks out in the exclamation, "It is stupendous!" but it does not

-please, and one hurries into the church, hoping to feel a sentiment of

-deeper admiration.

-

-On first entering one is amazed, and feels as if one were lost in an

-abyss, and for some moments the eye can only describe immense curves

-through that vast space, as if to assure you that the sight is real

-and that fancy is not deceiving you. Then you approach one of the

-pilasters, measure it, and look at the others in the distance: they are

-as massive as towers, and yet they look so slender that one trembles

-to think the edifice is resting on them. You run from one to another

-with a rapid glance, follow their lines from pavement to vaulted

-arch, and seem to be able to count the moments which it would take

-for the eye to climb them. There are five naves, each of which would

-form a great church, and in the central nave one could build another

-high cathedral with its cupola and belfry. Altogether they form sixty

-light, noble vaults which seem to be slowly expanding and rising as

-one looks at them. Everything in this cathedral is enormous. The great

-chapel in the middle of the principal nave, so high that it almost

-touches the roof, seems like a chapel built for giant priests, to whose

-knees the common altars would scarcely reach; the Easter candle seems

-like the mast of a ship, the bronze candlestick which supports it,

-like the pilaster of a church; the organs are like houses; the choir

-is a museum of sculpture and carving which alone deserves a day's

-study. The chapels are worthy of the church: in them are scattered

-the masterpieces of sixty-seven sculptors and thirty-eight painters.

-Montegna, Zurbaran, Murillo, Valdes, Herrera, Boldan, Roelas, and

-Campana have left a thousand immortal traces of their handiwork. The

-chapel of Saint Ferdinand, which contains the tombs of this king,

-his wife Beatrice, Alfonso the Wise, the celebrated minister Florida

-Blanca, and other illustrious personages, is one of the richest and

-most beautiful. The body of King Ferdinand, who rescued Seville from

-the dominion of the Arabs, clothed in his coat-of-mail with crown and

-royal robe, rests in a crystal casket covered with a pall; on one side

-lies the sword which he wore on the day of his entrance into Seville;

-on the other, the staff, an emblem of authority. In this same chapel

-is preserved a little ivory Virgin which the sainted king carried with

-him to war, and other relics of great value. In the other chapels there

-are great marble altars, Gothic tombs, statues of stone, wood, and

-silver enclosed in large glass cases, with the breast and hands covered

-with diamonds and rubies; there are also magnificent paintings, but,

-unfortunately, the dim light which falls from the high windows does not

-make them clear enough to be enjoyed in all their beauty.

-

-From the examination of the chapels, paintings, and sculptures one

-returns unwearied to admire the cathedral in its grand and, if one

-may say, its formidable aspect. After climbing to those dizzy heights

-one's glance and thoughts, as if exhausted by the effort, fall back

-to the earth to gather new strength for another ascent. And the

-images which multiply in one's head correspond to the vastness of the

-basilica--measureless angels, heads of enormous cherubim, great wings

-like the sails of a ship, and the fluttering of immense white robes.

-The impression produced by this cathedral is wholly religious, but

-it is not depressing: it is that sentiment which bears the thought

-into interminable spaces and the awful silences where the thoughts of

-Leopardi lost themselves; it is a sentiment full of yearning and holy

-boldness, that delightful shudder which one feels on the brink of a

-precipice, the turbulence and confusion of great thoughts, the divine

-fear of the infinite.

-

-As the cathedral is the most various of Spain (since the Gothic,

-Germanic, Græco-Roman, Moorish, and, as it is vulgarly called, the

-plateresque styles of architecture, have each left their individual

-impress upon it), it is also the richest and has the greatest

-privileges. In the times of greater clerical power they burned in

-it every year twenty thousand pounds of wax; in it every day were

-celebrated five hundred masses on eighty altars; the wine consumed

-in the sacrifice amounted to the incredible quantity of eighteen

-thousand seven hundred and fifty litres. The canons had trains of male

-attendants like monarchs, came to church in splendid carriages drawn

-by superb horses, and while they were celebrating mass had priests to

-fan them with enormous fans adorned with feathers and pearls--a direct

-concession from the Pope of which some avail themselves even in this

-day. One need not speak of the festivals of Holy Week, which are still

-famous the world over, and to which people gather from all parts of

-Europe.

-

-But the most curious privilege of the cathedral of Seville is the

-so-called dance _de los seises_, which takes place every evening at

-dusk for eight consecutive days after the festival of _Corpus Domini_.

-I was in Seville during those days, and went to see it, and it seems

-to me worth describing. From what had been told me I expected to see

-a scandalous piece of buffoonery, and entered the church with my

-mind prepared for a feeling of indignation at the desecration of the

-sanctuary. The church was dark; only the great chapel was lighted; a

-crowd of kneeling women filled the space between the chapel and the

-choir. Some priests were sitting to the right and left of the altar; in

-front of the altar-steps was spread a great carpet; two lines of boys

-from eight to thirteen years of age, dressed like Spanish cavaliers

-of the Middle Ages, with plumed hats and white stockings, were drawn

-up, one before the other, facing the altar. At a signal from a priest

-a soft strain from violins broke the profound silence of the church,

-and the two rows of boys advanced with the step of a contra-dance, and

-began to divide, intermingle, separate, and come together again with a

-thousand graceful movements, and then all together they broke into a

-harmonious musical chant, which echoed through the gloom of the vast

-cathedral like the singing of an angelic choir; and a moment later

-they began to accompany the dance and the chant with tamborines. No

-religious ceremony has ever moved me like this. It is impossible to

-express the effect produced by those young voices under those immense

-domes, those little creatures at the foot of the towering altars, that

-dance, solemn and almost humble, the ancient costume, the kneeling

-crowd, and the surrounding gloom. I left the church with my soul calmed

-as if I had been praying.

-

-A very curious anecdote is related in connection with this ceremony.

-Two centuries ago an archbishop of Seville, who regarded the dance

-and tamborines as unworthy instruments of praising God, wished to

-prohibit the ceremony. Everything was thrown into confusion: the

-people protested; the canons made themselves heard; the archbishop was

-obliged to appeal to the Pope. The Pope, whose curiosity was aroused,

-wished to see this silly dance with his own eyes, that he might decide

-intelligently in the matter. The boys in their cavalier dress were

-taken to Rome, received at the Vatican, and made to dance and sing

-before His Holiness. His Holiness laughed, did not disapprove, and,

-wishing to give one knock on the hoop and another on the barrel, and so

-to satisfy the canons without offending the archbishop, decreed that

-the boys should continue to dance so long as the clothes which they

-then wore lasted; after that time the ceremony was to be abolished.

-The archbishop laughed in his beard, if he had one; the canons laughed

-too, as if they had already found the way to outwit both the Pope and

-the archbishop. And, in fact, they renew some part of the boys' dress

-every year, so that the whole garment can never be said to have worn

-out, and the archbishop, as a scrupulous man, who observed the commands

-of the Pope to the letter, could not oppose the repetition of the

-ceremony. So they continued to dance, and they dance and will dance so

-long as it pleases the canons and the Lord.

-

-As I was leaving the church a sacristan made me a sign, led me behind

-the choir, and pointed out a tablet in the pavement, upon which I read

-an inscription which stirred my heart. Under that stone lay the bones

-of Ferdinand Columbus, the son of Christopher, who was born at Cordova,

-and died at Seville on the twelfth of July, 1536, in the fiftieth

-year of his age. Under the inscription run some Latin verses with the

-following significance:

-

-"Of what avail is it that I have bathed the entire universe with my

-sweat, that I have three times passed through the New World discovered

-by my father, that I have adorned the banks of the gentle Beti, and

-preferred my simple taste to riches, that I might again draw around

-thee the divinities of the Castalian spring, and offer thee the

-treasures already gathered by Ptolemy,--if thou, passing this stone in

-silence, returnest no salute to my father and givest no thought to me?"

-

-The sacristan, who knew more about the inscription than I did,

-explained it to me. Ferdinand Columbus was in his early youth a page of

-Isabella the Catholic and of the prince Don Juan; he travelled to the

-Indies with his father and his brother the admiral Don Diego, followed

-the emperor Charles V. in his wars, made other voyages to Asia, Africa,

-and America, and everywhere collected with infinite care and at great

-expense the most precious books, from which he composed a library which

-passed after his death into the hands of the chapter of the cathedral,

-and remains intact under the famous name of the Columbian Library.

-Before his death he wrote these same Latin verses which are inscribed

-on the tablet of his tomb, and expressed a desire to be buried in the

-cathedral. In the last moments of his life he had a vessel full of

-ashes brought to him and sprinkled his face with them, pronouncing

-as he did so the words of Holy Writ, _Memento homo quia pulvis es_,

-chanted the _Te Deum_, smiled, and expired with the serenity of a

-saint. I was at once seized with a desire to visit the library and left

-the church.

-

-A guide stopped me on the threshold to ask me if I had seen the _Patio

-de los Naranjos_--the Court of Oranges--and, as I had not done so, he

-conducted me thither. The Court of Oranges lies to the north of the

-cathedral, surrounded by a great embattled wall. In the centre rises a

-fountain encircled by an orange-grove, and on one side along the wall

-is a marble pulpit, from which, according to the tradition, Vincenzo

-Ferrer is said to have preached. In the area of this court, which is

-very large, rose the ancient mosque, which is thought to have been

-built toward the end of the twelfth century. There is not the least

-trace of it now. In the shade of the orange trees around the margins of

-the basin the good Sevillians come to take the air in the burning noons

-of summer, and only the delightful verdure and the perfumed air remain

-as memorials of the voluptuous paradise of Mohammed, while now and then

-a beautiful girl with great dark eyes darts between the distant trees.

-

-The famous Giralda of the cathedral of Seville is an ancient Moorish

-tower, built, it is affirmed, in the year one thousand after the design

-of the architect Geber, the inventor of algebra. The upper part has

-been changed since Spain was reconquered, and has been rebuilt like a

-Christian bell-tower, but it will always retain its Moorish appearance,

-and, after all, is prouder of the banished standards of the vanquished

-than of the cross recently planted upon it by the victors. It is a

-monument which produces a strange sensation: it makes one smile; it is

-measureless and imposing as an Egyptian pyramid, and at the same time

-light and graceful as a summer-house. It is a square brick tower of a

-mellow rose-color, unadorned to a certain height, and from that point

-up ornamented with mullioned Moorish windows, which appear here and

-there like the windows of a house provided with balconies, and give

-it a very beautiful appearance. From the platform, which was formerly

-covered by a variegated roof surmounted by an iron pole which supported

-four enormous golden balls, now rises the Christian bell-tower in three

-stories, the first of which is taken up by the bells, the second is

-encircled by a balcony, and the third consists of a sort of cupola

-upon which, like a weather-vane, turns a colossal gilded statue which

-represents Faith, with a palm in one hand and a banner in the other.

-This statue is visible a long distance from Seville, and flashes when

-the sun strikes it like an enormous ruby in the crown of a gigantic

-king, who sweeps with his glance the entire valley of Andalusia.

-

-I climbed all the way to the top, and was there amply rewarded for

-the fatigue of the ascent. Seville, all white like a city of marble,

-encircled by a diadem of gardens, groves, and avenues, surrounded by a

-landscape dotted with villas, lay open to the view in all the wealth of

-its Oriental beauty. The Guadalquivir, freighted with ships, divides

-and embraces it in a majestic curve. Here the Torre del Oro casts its

-graceful shadow on the azure waters of the river; there the Alcazar

-rears its frowning towers; yonder the gardens of Montpensier raise

-above the roofs of the building an enormous mass of verdure: one's

-glance penetrates the bull-ring, the public gardens, the _patios_ of

-the homes, the cloisters of the churches, and all the streets which

-converge toward the cathedral; in the distance appear the villages

-of Santi Ponce, Algaba, and others which whiten the slopes of the

-hills; to the right of the Guadalquivir the great suburb of Triana;

-on one side along the horizon the broken peaks of the Sierra Morena;

-and in the opposite direction other mountains enlivened by infinite

-azure tints; and over all this marvellous panorama the clearest, most

-transparent, and entrancing sky which has ever smiled upon the face of

-man.

-

-I descended from the Giralda and went to see the Columbian Library,

-located in an old building beside the Court of Oranges. After I had

-seen a collection of missals, Bibles, and ancient manuscripts, one of

-which is attributed to Alfonso the Wise, entitled "The Book of the

-Treasure," written with the most scrupulous care in the ancient Spanish

-language, I saw--let me repeat it, I saw--I, with my own moist eyes,

-as I pressed my hand on my beating heart--I saw a book, a treatise

-on cosmography and astronomy in Latin, with the margins covered with

-notes written in the hand of Christopher Columbus! He had studied that

-book while he revolved his great design in his mind, had pored over

-its pages in the night-watches, had touched it perhaps with his divine

-forehead in those exhausting vigils when sometimes he bent over the

-parchments with utter weariness and bathed them with his sweat. It is

-a tremendous thought! But there is something better. I saw a writing

-in the hand of Columbus in which are collected all the prophecies of

-the ancient writers, sacred and profane, in regard to the discovery of

-the New World, written, it is said, to induce the sovereigns of Spain

-to provide the means to carry out his enterprise. There is, among

-others, a passage from the _Medea_ of Seneca, which runs: _Venient

-annis saecula seris, quibus oceanus vincula rerum laxet et ingens

-pateat tellus_. And in the volume of Seneca, which may also be found

-in the Columbian Library, alongside of this passage there is a note

-by Ferdinand Columbus, which says: "This prophecy was fulfilled by my

-father, the admiral Christopher Columbus, in the year 1492." My eyes

-filled with tears; I wished I were alone, that I might have kissed

-those books, have tired myself out turning and re-turning their leaves

-between my hands, have detached a tiny fragment, and carried it with me

-as a sacred thing. Christopher Columbus! I have seen his characters! I

-have touched the leaves which he has touched! I have felt him very near

-me! On leaving the library, I know not why--I could have leaped into

-the midst of the flames to rescue a child, I could have stripped myself

-to clothe a beggar, I could joyfully have made any sacrifice--I was so

-rich!

-

-After the library the Alcazar, but before reaching it, although it is

-in the same square as the cathedral, I felt for the first time what the

-Andalusian sun is like. Seville is the hottest city of Spain, it was

-the hottest hour of the day, and I found myself in the hottest part

-of the city; there was a flood of light; not a door, not a window,

-was open, not a soul astir; if I had been told that Seville was

-uninhabited, I should have believed it. I crossed the square slowly

-with half-shut eyes and wrinkled face, with the sweat coursing in great

-drops down my cheeks and breast, while my hands seemed to have been

-dipped in a bucket of water. On nearing the Alcazar I saw a sort of

-booth belonging to a water-carrier, and dashed under it headlong, like

-a man fleeing from a shower of stones. I took a little breathing-spell,

-and went on toward the Alcazar.

-

-The Alcazar, the ancient palace of the Moorish kings, is one of the

-best-preserved monuments in Spain. From the outside it looks like a

-fortress: it is entirely surrounded by high walls, embattled towers,

-and old houses, which form two spacious courtyards in front of the

-façade. The façade is bare and severe, like the rest of the exterior;

-the gate is adorned with gilded and painted arabesques, between which

-one sees a Gothic inscription which refers to the time when the Alcazar

-was restored by order of King Don Pedro. The Alcazar, in fact, although

-a Moorish palace, is the work of Christian rather than of Moorish

-kings. It is not known exactly in what year it was built: it was

-reconstructed by King Abdelasio toward the end of the twelfth century,

-conquered by King Ferdinand toward the middle of the thirteenth

-century; altered a second time, in the following century, by King Don

-Pedro; and then occupied for longer or shorter periods by nearly all

-the kings of Castile; and finally selected by Charles V. as the place

-for the celebration of his marriage with the infanta of Portugal. The

-Alcazar has witnessed the loves and crimes of three generations of

-kings; every stone awakens a memory and guards a secret.

-

-You enter, cross two or three rooms in which there remains little

-of the Moorish excepting the vaulted ceiling and the mosaics around

-the walls, and come out into a court where you stand speechless with

-wonder. A portico of very delicate arches extends along the four sides,

-supported by slender marble columns, joined two by two, and arches

-and walls and windows and doors are covered with carvings, mosaics,

-and arabesques most intricate and exquisite, here perforated like

-lace, there closely woven and elaborate like embroidered tapestry,

-yonder clinging and projecting like masses and garlands of flowers;

-and, except the mosaics, which are of a thousand colors, everything

-is white, clean, and smooth as ivory. On the four sides are four

-great doors, through which you enter the royal apartments. Here

-wonder becomes enchantment: whatever is richest, most various, and

-most splendid, whatever the most ardent fancy sees in its most ardent

-dreams, is to be found in these rooms. From pavement to the vaulted

-ceiling, around the doors, along the window-frames, in the most hidden

-corners, wherever one's glance falls, one sees such a luxuriance

-of ornaments in gold and precious stones, such a close network of

-arabesques and inscriptions, such a marvellous profusion of designs and

-colors, that one has scarcely taken twenty steps before one is amazed

-and confused, and the wearied eye wanders here and there searching for

-a hand's breadth of bare wall where it may flee and rest. In one of

-these rooms the guide pointed out a red spot which covered a good part

-of the marble pavement, and said in a solemn voice, "These are the

-blood-stains of Don Fadrique, grand master of the order of Santiago,

-who was killed on this very spot, in the year 1358, by order of his

-brother, King Don Pedro."

-

-I remember that when I heard these words I looked in the face of the

-custodian, as if to say, "Come, let us be going," and that good man

-answered in a dry tone,

-

-"_Caballero_, if I had told you to believe this thing on my word, you

-would have had every reason to doubt; but when you can see the thing

-with your very eyes, I may be wrong, but--it seems to me...."

-

-"Yes," I hastened to say--"yes, it is blood: I believe it, I see it;

-let's say no more about it."

-

-But if one can be playful over the blood-spots, one cannot be so over

-the story of the crime; the sight of the place revives in the mind all

-the most horrible details. Through the great gilded halls one seems

-to hear the echo of Don Fadrique's footsteps, followed by those of

-the bowmen armed with bludgeons; the palace is immersed in gloom; one

-hears no other sound save that of the executioners and their victim;

-Don Fadrique tries to enter the courtyard; Lopez de Padilla catches

-him; Fadrique throws him off and is in the court; he grasps his sword;

-curses on it! the cross of the hilt is held fast in the mantle of

-the order of Santiago; the bowmen gain upon him; he has not time to

-unsheath the sword; he flees here and there, groping his way; Fernandez

-de Roa overtakes him and fells him with a blow of his club; the others

-run up and set upon him, and Fadrique dies in a pool of blood....

-

-But this sad recollection is lost among the thousand images of the

-sensuous Moorish kings. Those graceful little windows, where it seems

-as if you ought to see every other moment the languid face of an

-odalisque; those secret doors, at which you pause in spite of yourself,

-as if you heard the rustle of garments; those sleeping chambers of

-the sultans, shrouded in mysterious gloom, where you seem to hear

-only the confused amorous lament of all the maidens who there lost

-the flower of their virgin purity; that prodigal variety of color and

-line, which like a tumultuous and ever-changing harmony arouses the

-senses to such fantastic flights that you doubt whether you are waking

-or sleeping; that delicate and lovely architecture, all of slender

-columns, that seem like the arms of women; capricious arches, little

-rooms, arched ceilings crowded with ornaments hanging in the form of

-stalactites, icicles, and clusters of grapes, of as many colors as a

-flower-garden;--all this stirs your desire to sit down in the middle of

-one of those rooms and to press to your heart a lovely brown Andalusian

-head which will make you forget the world and time, and, with one long

-kiss that drinks away your life, give you eternal sleep.

-

-On the ground floor the most beautiful room is the Hall of the

-Ambassadors, formed by four great arches which support a gallery

-with forty-four smaller arches, and above a beautiful cupola carved,

-painted, gilded, and chased with inimitable grace and fabulous splendor.

-

-On the upper floor, where were the winter apartments, there remain only

-an oratory of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic, and a little room in

-which the king Don Pedro is said to have slept. From it one descends by

-a narrow mysterious staircase to the rooms where dwelt the famous Maria

-de Padilla, the favorite of Don Pedro, whom popular tradition accuses

-of instigating the king to kill his brother.

-

-[Illustration: _Moorish Arches, Alcazar, Seville_]

-

-The gardens of the Alcazar are neither very large nor particularly

-beautiful, but the memories which they recall are of greater value than

-extent or beauty. In the shade of those orange trees and cypresses, to

-the murmur of those fountains, when the great white moon was shining in

-that limpid Andalusian sky, and the many groups of courtiers and slaves

-rested there, how many long sighs of ardent sultanas! how many lowly

-words from proud kings! what passionate loves and embraces! "Itimad, my

-love!" I murmured, thinking of the famous mistress of King Al-Motamid

-as I wandered from path to path as if following her phantom,--"Itimad,"

-I repeated, "do not leave me alone in this silent paradise! Dost

-thou remember how thou camest to me? Thy wealth of hair fell over my

-shoulder, and dearer than the sword to the warrior wert thou to me! How

-beautiful thou art! Thy neck is soft and white as the swan's, and like

-berries are thy red, red lips! How marvellous is the perfection of thy

-beauty! How dear thou art, Itimad, my love! Thy kisses are like wine,

-and thy eyes, like wine, steal away my reason!"

-

-While I was thus making my declarations of love with phrases and images

-stolen from the Arabian poets, at the very moment when I turned into

-a bypath all bordered with flowers, suddenly I felt a stream of water

-first on one leg and then on the other. I jumped aside, and received

-a spray in my face; I turned to the right, and felt another stream

-against my neck; to the left, another jet between my shoulders. I began

-to run: there was water under me and around me in every direction, in

-jets, streams, and spray; in a moment I was as wet as if I had been

-dipped in the bath-tub. Just as I opened my mouth to call for help it

-all subsided, and I heard a ringing laugh at the end of the garden. I

-turned and saw a young fellow leaning against a low wall looking at me

-as if he were saying, "How did you like it?" When I came out he showed

-me the spring he had touched to play this little joke, and comforted me

-with the assurance that the sun of Seville would not leave me long in

-that dripping condition, into which I had passed so rudely, alas! from

-the lovely arms of my sultana.

-

-That evening, in spite of the voluptuous images which the Alcazar had

-called to my mind, I was sufficiently calm to contemplate the beauty

-of the women of Seville without fleeing to the arms of the consul for

-safety. I do not believe that the women of any other country are so

-bewitching as the fair Andalusians, not only because they tempt one

-into all sorts of mischief, but because they seem to have been made to

-be seized and carried away, so small, graceful, plump, elastic, and

-soft are they. Their little feet could both be put easily into one's

-coat-pocket, and with an arm one could lift them by the waist like

-babies, and by the mere pressure of the finger could bend them like

-willow wands. To their natural beauty they add the art of walking and

-looking in a way to turn one's head. They fly along, glide, and walk

-with a wave-like motion, and in a single moment, as they pass, they

-show a little foot, make you admire an arm or a slender waist, reveal

-two rows of the whitest teeth, and dart at you a long veiled glance

-that melts and dies in your own; and on they go with an air of triumph,

-certain of having turned your blood topsy-turvy.

-

-To form an idea of the beauty of the women of the people and the

-picturesqueness of their dress you must go by day to visit the

-tobacco-manufactory, which is one of the largest establishments of

-the kind in Europe and employs not less than five thousand hands. The

-building faces the vast gardens of the duke of Montpensier: almost all

-of the women work in three immense rooms, each divided into three parts

-by as many rows of pillars. The first view is astounding: there, all

-at once, eight hundred girls present themselves before one's eyes in

-groups of five or six, sitting around work-tables as close as possible,

-the farthest indistinct and the last scarcely visible; all of them

-young and a few children--eight hundred jet-black heads and eight

-hundred brown faces from every province of Andalusia, from Jaen to

-Cadiz, from Granada to Seville!

-

-One hears a buzzing as of a square full of people. The walls, from one

-door to the other, in all three of the rooms are lined with skirts,

-shawls, kerchiefs, and scarfs; and--a very curious thing--that entire

-mass of garments, which would fill to overflowing a hundred old-clothes

-shops, presents two predominant colors, in two continuous lines one

-above the other, like the stripes of a very long flag--the black of the

-shawls above, and the red mixed with white, purple, and yellow--so that

-one seems to see an immense costumer's shop or an immense ball-room

-where the ballet-dancers, in order to be free, have hung on the walls

-every part of their dress which it is not absolutely necessary to wear.

-The girls put on these dresses when they go out, and wear old clothes

-to work in; but white and red predominate in those dresses also. The

-heat is insupportable, consequently they lighten their clothing as

-much as possible, and among those five thousand one will scarcely find

-fifty whose arms and shoulders the visitor may not contemplate at

-his pleasure, without counting the extraordinary cases which present

-themselves suddenly as one passes from room to room, behind the doors

-and columns, and around the distant corners. There are some very

-beautiful faces, and even those who are not beautiful have something

-about them which attracts one's glance and lingers in the memory--the

-complexion, the eyes, the brow, or the smile. Many of them, especially

-so-called _Gitane_, are as dark as dark mulattos and have protruding

-lips; others have eyes so large that a faithful picture of them would

-be considered a monstrous exaggeration; the greater part are small and

-well-formed, and all have a rose or carnation or some sort of wild

-flower in their hair. They are paid in proportion to the work they do,

-and the most skilful and industrious earn as much as three francs per

-day; the lazy ones--_las holgazanas_--sleep with their arms crossed on

-the table and their heads resting on their arms; mothers are working,

-and swinging a leg to which is bound a cord that rocks the cradle.

-From the cigar-room one passes to the cigarette-room, and from it to

-the box-factory, and from the box-factory to the packing-room, and in

-them all one sees the red skirts, black hair, and fine eyes. In each of

-those rooms how many stories of love, jealousy, despair, and misery!

-On leaving the factory one seems for some time to see black eyes in

-every direction regarding him with a thousand varying expressions

-of curiosity, indifference, sympathy, cheerfulness, sadness, and

-drowsiness.

-

-The same day I went to see the Museum of Painting. The Seville gallery

-does not contain very many paintings, but those few are worth a

-great museum. There are the masterpieces of Murillo, and among them

-his immortal _Saint Anthony of Padua_, which is said to be the most

-divinely inspired of his works, and one of the greatest achievements

-of human genius. I visited the gallery in the company of Señor Gonzalo

-Segovia and Ardizone, one of the most illustrious young men of Seville,

-and I wish he were here beside my table at this moment to testify in a

-foot-note that when my eyes first lit upon the picture I seized his arm

-and uttered a cry.

-

-Only once in my life have I felt such a profound stirring of my soul as

-that which I felt on seeing this picture. It was one beautiful summer

-night: the sky was bright with stars, and the vast plain lay extended

-before me from the high place where I stood in deep silence. One of

-the noblest creatures I have ever met in my life was at my side. A few

-hours before we had been reading some pages from one of Humboldt's

-works: we looked at the sky and talked of the motion of the earth, the

-millions of worlds, and the infinite with those suppressed tones as of

-distant voices which one unconsciously uses in speaking of such things

-in the silent night. Finally we were still, and each, with eyes fixed

-on the heavens, gave himself up to fancies. I know not by what train

-of thought I was led; I know not what mysterious chain of emotions was

-formed in my heart; I know not what I saw or felt or dreamed. I only

-know that suddenly a veil before my mind seemed to be rent asunder; I

-felt within me a perfect assurance of that which hitherto I had longed

-for rather than believed; my heart expanded with a feeling of supreme

-joy, angelic peace, and limitless hope; a flood of scalding tears

-suddenly filled my eyes, and, grasping the hand of my friend, which

-sought my own, I cried from the depths of my soul, "It is true! It is

-true!" and began to cry like a child.

-

-The _Saint Anthony of Padua_ brought back the emotions of that evening.

-The saint is kneeling in the middle of his cell; the child Jesus in

-a nebulous halo of white vaporous light, drawn by the power of his

-prayer, is descending into his arms. Saint Anthony, rapt in ecstasy,

-throws himself forward with all his power of body and soul, his head

-thrown back, radiant with an expression of supreme joy. So great was

-the shock which this picture gave me that when I had looked at it a few

-moments I was as exhausted as if I had visited a vast gallery, and a

-trembling seized me and continued so long as I remained in that room.

-

-Afterward I saw the other great paintings of Murillo--a _Conception_, a

-_Saint Francis embracing Christ_, another version of _Saint Anthony_,

-and others to the number of twenty or more, among them the famous and

-enchanting _Virgin of the Napkin_, painted by Murillo upon a real

-napkin in the Capuchin convent of Seville to gratify a desire of a lay

-brother who was serving him: it is one of his most delicate creations,

-in which is revealed all the magic of his inimitable coloring--but none

-of these paintings, although they are objects of wonder to all the

-artists of the world, drew my heart or thoughts from that divine _Saint

-Anthony_.

-

-There are also in this gallery paintings by the two Herreras, Pacheco,

-Alonzo Cano, Pablo de Cespedes, Valdes, Mulato, a servant of Murillo

-who ably imitated his style, and finally the large famous painting of

-the _Apotheosis of Saint Thomas of Aquinas_, by Francesco Zurbaran,

-one of the most eminent artists of the seventeenth century, called

-the Spanish Caravaggio, and possibly his superior in truth and moral

-sentiment,--a powerful naturalist, a strong colorist, and an inimitable

-painter of austere friars, macerated saints, brooding hermits, and

-terrible priests, and an unsurpassed poet of penitence, solitude, and

-meditation.

-

-After seeing the picture-gallery Señor Gonzalo Segovia led me through

-a succession of narrow streets to the street _Francos_, one of the

-principal ways of the city, and stopped me in front of a little

-draper's shop, saying with a laugh, "Look! Doesn't this shop make you

-think of something?"

-

-"Nothing at all," I replied.

-

-"Look at the number."

-

-"It is number fifteen: what of it?"

-

-"Oh! plague on it!" exclaimed my amiable guide,

-

-    "'Number fifteen,

-    On the left-hand side'!"

-

-"The shop of the _Barber of Seville_!" I cried.

-

-"Precisely!" he responded--"the shop of the Barber of Seville; but

-be on your guard when you speak of it in Italy; do not take your

-oath, for traditions are often misleading, and I would not assume the

-responsibility of confirming a fact of such importance."

-

-At that moment the merchant came to the door of the shop, and, divining

-why we were there, laughed and said, "_No esta_" ("Figaro is not

-here"), and with a gracious bow he retired.

-

-Then I besought Señor Gonzalo to show me a _patio_, one of those

-enchanting _patios_ which as I looked at them from the street made me

-imagine so many delightful things. "I want to see at least one," I said

-to him--"to penetrate once into the midst of those mysteries, to touch

-the walls, to assure myself that it is a real thing and not a vision."

-

-My desire was at once fulfilled: we entered the _patio_ of one of his

-friends. Señor Gonzalo told the servant the object of our visit, and we

-were left alone. The house was only two stories in height. The _patio_

-was no larger than an ordinary room, but all marble and flowers, and

-a little fountain in the middle, and paintings and statues around,

-and from roof to roof an awning which sheltered it from the sun. In

-a corner was a work-table, and here and there one saw low chairs and

-little benches whereon a few moments previously had doubtless rested

-the feet of some fair Andalusian, who at that moment was watching us

-from between the slats of a blind. I examined everything minutely, as

-I would have done in a house abandoned by the fairies: I sat down,

-closed my eyes, imagined I was the master, then arose, wet my hand with

-the spray of the fountain, touched a slender column, went to the door,

-picked a flower, raised my eyes to the windows, laughed, sighed, and

-said, "How happy must those be who live here!" At that moment I heard

-a low laugh, and saw two great black eyes flash behind a blind and

-instantly disappear. "Truly," I said, "I did not believe that it was

-possible to still live so poetically upon this earth. And to think that

-you enjoy these houses all your life! and that you have the inclination

-to rack your brains about politics!"

-

-Señor Gonzalo showed me the secrets of the house. "All this furniture,"

-said he, "these paintings, and these vases of flowers disappear on

-the approach of autumn and are taken to the second story, which is

-the living apartment from autumn to spring. When summer comes beds,

-wardrobes, tables, chairs--everything is brought down to the rooms on

-the ground floor, and here the family sleep and eat, receive their

-friends, and do their work, among the flowers and marbles to the murmur

-of the fountain. And at night they have the doors open, and from the

-sleeping-rooms one can see the _patio_ flooded with moonlight and

-smell the fragrance of roses."

-

-"Oh, stop!" I exclaimed, "stop, Señor Gonzalo! Have pity on strangers!"

-And, laughing heartily, we both went out on our way to see the famous

-_Casa de Pilato_.

-

-As we were passing along a lonely little street I looked in a window

-of a hardware-shop and saw an assortment of knives so long, broad,

-and unusual that I felt a desire to buy one. I entered: twenty were

-displayed before my eyes, and I had the salesman to open them one by

-one. As each knife was opened I took a step backward. I do not believe

-it is possible to imagine an instrument more barbarous and terrifying

-in appearance than one of them. The handles are of wood, copper, and

-horn, curved and carved in open patterns, so that one may see through

-their little pieces of isinglass. The knives open with a sound like a

-rattle, and out comes a large blade as broad as the palm of your hand,

-as long as both palms together, and as sharp as a dagger, in the form

-of a fish, ornamented with red inlaying, which suggests streaks of

-clotted blood, and adorned with fierce and threatening inscriptions.

-On the blade of one there will be written in Spanish, _Do not open

-me without reason, nor shut me without honor_; on another, _Where I

-strike, all is over_; on a third, _When this snake bites, there is

-nothing left for the doctor to do_; and other gallantries of the same

-sort. The proper name of these knives is _navaja_--a word which also

-has the meaning of razor--and the _navaja_ is the popular duelling

-weapon. Now it has fallen into disuse, but was at one time held in

-great honor; there were masters who taught its use, each of whom had

-his secret blow, and duels were fought in accordance with the rules

-of chivalry. I bought the most terrible _navaja_ in the shop, and we

-entered the street again.

-

-The _Casa de Pilato_, held by the Medina-Coeli family, is, after

-the Alcazar, the most beautiful monument of Moorish architecture in

-Seville. The name, _Casa de Pilato_, comes from the fact that its

-founder, Don Enriquez de Ribera, the first marquis of Tarifa, had

-it built, as the story goes, in imitation of the house of the Roman

-prætor, which he had seen in Jerusalem, where he went on a pilgrimage.

-The edifice has a modest exterior, but the interior is marvellous.

-One first enters a court not less beautiful than the enchanting court

-of the Alcazar, encircled by two orders of arches, supported by

-graceful marble columns, forming two very light galleries, one above

-the other, and so delicate that it seems as if the first puff of wind

-would cast them into ruins. In the centre is a lovely fountain resting

-on four marble dolphins and crowned by a bust of Janus. Around the

-lower part of the walls run brilliant mosaics, and above these every

-sort of fantastic arabesque, here and there framing beautiful niches

-containing busts of the Roman emperors. At the four corners of the

-court the ceilings, the walls, and the doors are carved, embroidered,

-and covered with flowers and historic tapestries with the delicacy of

-a miniature. In an old chapel, partly Moorish and partly Gothic in

-style, and most delicate in form, there is preserved a little column,

-scarcely more than three feet in height, the gift of Pius V. to a

-descendant of the founder of the palace, at one time viceroy of Naples:

-to that column, says the tradition, was bound Jesus of Nazareth to be

-scourged. This fact, even if it were true, would prove that Pius V. did

-not believe it in the slightest degree. For he would not lightly have

-committed the unpardonable mistake of depriving himself of a valuable

-relic to make a present to the first comer. The entire palace is full

-of sacred memories. On the first floor the custodian points out a

-window which corresponds to that by which Peter sat when he denied his

-Lord, and the little window from which the maid-servant recognized him.

-From the street one sees another window with a little stone balcony,

-which represents the exact position of the window where Jesus, wearing

-the crown of thorns, was shown to the people.

-

-The garden is full of fragments of ancient statuary brought from Italy

-by that same Don Pedro Afan de Ribera, viceroy of Naples. Among the

-other fables that are told about this mysterious garden is one to the

-effect that Don Pedro Afan de Ribera placed in it an urn brought

-from Italy containing the ashes of the emperor Trajan, and a curious

-person carelessly struck the urn and overturned it; the emperor's ashes

-were thus scattered over the grass, and no one has ever succeeded in

-collecting them. So this august monarch, born at Italica, by a very

-strange fate has returned to the vicinity of his natal city, not in the

-very best condition in which to meditate upon its ruins, to tell the

-truth, but he was near it, at any rate.

-

-In spite of all that I have described, I may say that I did not see

-Seville, but just commenced to see it. Nevertheless, I shall stop

-here, because everything must have an end. I pass by the promenaders,

-the squares, the gates, the libraries, the public buildings, the

-mansions of the grandees, the gardens and the churches; but allow

-me to say that, after several days' wandering through Seville from

-sunrise to sunset, I was obliged to leave the city under the weight of

-a self-accusing conscience. I did not know which way to turn. I had

-reached such a condition of weariness that the announcement of a new

-object to be seen filled me with foreboding rather than pleasure. The

-good Señor Gonzalo kept up my courage, comforted me, and shortened the

-journeys with his delightful company, but, nevertheless, I have only a

-very confused remembrance of all that I saw during those last days.

-

-Seville, although it no longer merits the glorious title of the

-Spanish Athens, as in the times of Charles V. and Philip II., when it

-was mother and patron of a large and chosen band of poets and artists,

-the seat of culture and of the arts in the vast empire of its monarchs,

-is even yet that one among the cities of Spain, with the exception

-of Madrid, in which the artistic life is most vigorously maintained,

-as is evidenced by the number of its men of genius, the liberality

-of its patrons, and the popular love of the fine arts. It contains a

-flourishing academy of literature, a society for the protection of the

-arts, a well-known university, and a colony of scholars and sculptors

-who enjoy an honorable distinction throughout Spain. But the highest

-literary fame in Seville belongs to a woman--Catharine Bohl, the

-author of the novels which bear the name of Fernan Caballero, widely

-read in Spain and America, translated into almost all the languages

-of Europe, and known also in Italy (where some of them were published

-not long since) by every one who at all occupies himself with foreign

-literature. They are admirable pictures of Andalusian manners, full

-of truth, passion, and grace, and, above all, possessing a vigor of

-faith and a religious enthusiasm so fearless and a Christian charity

-so broad that they would startle and confuse the most skeptical man

-in the world. Catharine Bohl is a woman who would undergo martyrdom

-with the firmness and serenity of a Saint Ignatius. The consciousness

-of her power is revealed in every page: she does not hesitate to

-defend her religion, and confronts, assails, threatens, and overthrows

-its enemies; and not only the enemies of religion, but every man and

-everything that, to use a common expression, conforms to the spirit

-of the age, for she never forgives the least sin which has been

-committed from the times of the Inquisition to our own day, and she is

-more inexorable than the Pope's syllabus. And herein perhaps lies her

-greatest defect as a writer--that her religious convictions and her

-invectives are entirely too frequent and grow tiresome, and disgust and

-prejudice the reader rather than convince him of her own beliefs. But

-there is not a shadow of bitterness in her heart, and as her books, so

-is her life, noble, upright, and charitable. In Seville she is revered

-as a saint. Born in that city, she married early in life, and is now a

-widow for the third time. Her last husband, who was Spanish ambassador

-at London, committed suicide, and from that day she has never laid

-aside her mourning. At the time of my visit she was almost seventy; she

-had been very beautiful, and her noble, placid face still preserved

-the impress of beauty. Her father, who was a man of considerable

-genius and great culture, taught her several languages in early life:

-she knows Latin thoroughly and speaks Italian, German, and French

-with admirable facility. At this time, however, she is not writing at

-all, although the editors and publishers of Europe and America are

-offering her large sums for her works. But she does not live a life of

-inactivity. From morning to night she reads all sorts of books, and

-while she reads she is either knitting or embroidering, for she very

-firmly believes that her literary studies ought not to take one minute

-from her feminine employments. She has no children, and lives in a

-lonely house, the best part of which has been given to a poor family;

-she spends a great part of her income in charity. A curious trait of

-her character is her great love of animals: she has her house full of

-birds, cats, and dogs, and her sensibilities are so delicate that she

-has never consented to enter a carriage, for fear of seeing the horse

-beaten on her account. All suffering affects her as if she herself

-were bearing it: the sight of a blind man or of a sick person or of a

-cripple of any sort distresses her for an entire day; she cannot close

-her eyes to sleep unless she has wiped away a tear; she would joyfully

-forego all her honors to save any unknown person a heartache. Before

-the Revolution her life was not so isolated: the Montpensier family

-received her with great honor, and the most illustrious families of

-Seville vied with each other in entertaining her at their homes: now

-she lives only among her books and a few friends.

-

-In Moorish times Cordova took the lead in literature and Seville in

-music. "When a scholar dies at Seville," said Averroes, "and they wish

-to sell his books, they send them to Cordova; but if a musician dies

-at Cordova, they send his instruments to Seville to be sold." Now

-Cordova has lost her literary primacy, and Seville holds first place

-both in literature and music. Truly the times are past in which a poet

-by singing of the beauty of a maiden draws around her a crowd of lovers

-from all parts of the realm, and when one prince envies another simply

-because a poet has sung in his praise a verse more beautiful than any

-which the other had inspired, and a caliph rewards the author of a

-noble hymn by a gift of a hundred camels, a troop of slaves, and a vase

-of gold--when a happy strophe improvised at an opportune time releases

-a slave from his chains or saves the life of one condemned to death,

-and when the musicians are followed through the streets of Seville by

-a train of monarchs, and the favor of poets is more sought than that

-of kings, and the lyre is more terrible than the sword. But the people

-of Seville are always the most poetic people of Spain. The _bon mot_,

-the word of love, the expression of joy and enthusiasm, fly from their

-lips with a fascinating spontaneity and grace. The common people of

-Seville improvise, and talk as though they are singing, gesticulate as

-if they are declaiming, laugh and play like children. One never grows

-old at Seville. It is a city where life melts away in a continuous

-smile, with no other thought than the enjoyment of the beautiful sky,

-the lovely little houses, and the delightful little gardens. It is

-the most peaceful city in Spain, and the only one which since the

-Revolution has not been agitated by those sad political commotions

-which have stirred the others: politics do not penetrate the surface;

-the Sevillians are content to make love; all else they take in jest.

-_Todo lo toman de broma_, say the other Spaniards of the Sevillians;

-and in truth with that fragrant air, with those little streets like

-those of an Oriental city, with those fiery little women, why should

-they trouble themselves? At Madrid they speak ill of them; they say

-they are vain, false, fickle, and silly. It is jealousy: they envy them

-their happy indolence, the sympathy which they inspire in strangers,

-their girls, their poets, their painters, their orators, their Giralda,

-their Alcazar, their Guadalquivir, their life, and their history. So

-say the Sevillians, striking their breasts with one hand and puffing

-into the air a cloud of smoke from the inseparable _cigaritto_; and

-their lovely little women revenge themselves upon their envious sisters

-and all the other women in the world, speaking with spiteful pity of

-long feet, large waists, and dull eyes, that in Andalusia would not

-receive the honor of a glance or the homage of a sigh. A charming and

-amiable people, in truth; but, alas! one must look at the reverse side

-of the medal: superstition reigns and schools are lacking, as is the

-case throughout all Southern Spain; this is partly their own fault and

-partly not; but the negative is probably the smaller part.

-

-The day of my departure arrived unexpectedly. It is strange: I remember

-scarcely any particulars of my life at Seville; it is remarkable if

-I can tell where I dined, what I talked about with the consul, how I

-spent the evenings, and why I chose any given day to take my departure.

-I was not myself; I lived, if I may use the expression, out of myself;

-all the while I remained in the city I was a little dazed. Apart from

-the art-gallery and the _patio_ my friend Segovia must have found that

-I knew very little; and now, I know not why, I think of those days

-as of a dream. Of no other city are my recollections so vague as of

-Seville. Even to-day, while I am certain of having been at Saragossa,

-Madrid, and Toledo, sometimes when I think of Seville a doubt steals

-upon me. It seems to me like a city much farther away than the most

-distant boundaries of Spain, and that to journey there again I must

-travel months and months, cross unknown continents and wide seas,

-among people totally different from our own. I think of the streets

-of Seville, of certain little squares and certain houses, as I would

-think of the spots on the moon. Sometimes the image of that city passes

-before my eyes like a white figure, and disappears almost before I

-can grasp it with my mind--sometimes in a breath of air, at certain

-hours of the day, at a garden-gate; in humming a song which I heard a

-boy sing on the steps of the Giralda. I cannot explain this secret to

-myself; I think of Seville as of a city which I have still to see, and

-I enjoy looking at the prints and thumbing the books which I bought

-there, for they are tangible things that convince me of my visit. A

-month ago I received a letter from Segovia which said, "Come back to

-us." It gave me untold pleasure, but at the same time I laughed as if

-he had written, "Make a voyage to Pekin." It is for this very reason

-that Seville is dearer to me than all the other cities of Spain; I

-love it as I might love a beautiful unknown woman who, crossing a

-mysterious wood, might look my way and throw me a flower. How often in

-the theatre or at the café, when a friend shakes me and asks, "What are

-you thinking about?" I am obliged to leave the little room of Maria de

-Padilla to return to him, or a boat that is gliding along in the shade

-of the Christina plane trees, or Figaro's shop, or the vestibule of a

-_patio_ full of flowers, fountains, and lights.

-

-I embarked on a boat of the Segovia Company, near the Torre del Oro, at

-an hour when Seville is wrapped in deep sleep and a burning sun covers

-it with a flood of light. I remember that a few moments before the

-boat started a young man came on board in search of me, and gave me a

-letter from Gonzalo Segovia, containing a sonnet which I still cherish

-as one of my most precious mementos of Seville. On the boat there was

-a company of Spanish singers, an English family, some laboring-men,

-and babies. The captain, being a good Andalusian, had a cheery word

-for everybody. I soon began a conversation with him. My friend Gonzalo

-was a son of the proprietor of the line, and we talked of the Segovia

-family, of Seville, the sea, and a thousand pleasant things. Ah! the

-poor man was far from thinking that a few days later the unlucky ship

-would founder in the midst of the sea and bring him to such a terrible

-end! It was the _Guadaira_, that was lost a short distance from

-Marseilles by the bursting of the boiler on the sixteenth day of June,

-1872.

-

-At three o'clock the boat started for Cadiz.

-

-

-

-

-CADIZ.

-

-

-That was the most delightful evening of all my journey.

-

-A little while after the ship had commenced to move there sprang up one

-of those gentle breezes which played with one as an infant plays with

-one's cravat or a lock of one's hair, and from stem to stern there was

-a sound of the voices of women and children, like that which one hears

-among a group of friends at the first crack of the whip announcing

-their departure for a merry outing. All the passengers gathered at the

-stern in the shade of a gayly-colored awning like a Chinese pavilion:

-some were sitting on coils of rope, others were stretched at full

-length on the benches, others were leaning against the rail--every one

-looked back in the direction of the Torre del Oro to enjoy the famous

-and enchanting spectacle of Seville as it faded away in the distance.

-Some of the women had not yet dried the tears of parting, and some of

-the children were still a little frightened by the sound of the engine.

-And some ladies were still quarrelling with the porters for abusing

-their baggage; but in a few moments all was serene again, and the

-passengers began to peel oranges, light cigars, pass little flasks of

-liquor, converse with their unknown neighbors, sing and laugh, and in a

-quarter of an hour we were all friends.

-

-The boat glided along as smoothly as a gondola over the still, limpid

-waters, which reflected the white dresses of the ladies like a mirror,

-and the breeze brought the delightful fragrance from the orange-groves

-of the villas scattered along the shore. Seville was hidden behind

-her circle of gardens, and we saw only an immense mass of trees of

-vivid green, and above them the black pile of the cathedral and the

-rose-colored Giralda surmounted by its statue flaming like a tongue

-of fire. As the distance widened the cathedral appeared grander and

-more majestic, as if it were following the vessel and gaining upon

-her: now, although still following, it seemed to retire a great way

-from the shore; now it would seem to be spanning the river; one

-moment it would appear suddenly to return to its place; a moment

-later it looked so close that we suspected the boat had turned back.

-The Guadalquivir wound along in short curves, and as the boat turned

-this way and that Seville appeared and disappeared, now peeping out

-in one place as if it had stolen beyond its boundaries, now raising

-its head suddenly behind a wood, gleaming like a snowclad mountain,

-now revealing some white streaks here and there amid the verdure, and

-suddenly disappearing from view and performing all sorts of fantastic

-wiles, like a coquettish woman. Finally it disappeared and we saw it

-no more: the cathedral alone remained. Then every one turned to look

-at the shore. We seemed to be sailing on the lake of a garden. Here

-was a hillside clothed with cypresses, here a hilltop all covered

-with flowers, yonder a village extending along the shore, and under

-the garden trellises and along the terraces of the villas sat ladies

-looking at us with spy-glasses; and here and there were peasants'

-families in brightly-colored dresses, sail-boats; and naked boys who

-plunged into the water and turned sommersaults, frisked about, shouted,

-and waved their hands toward the ladies on the boat, who covered their

-faces with their fans. Some miles from Seville we met three steamboats,

-one after the other. The first came upon us so suddenly at a turn of

-the river that, having had no experience in that sort of navigation,

-I was afraid, for a moment, that we should not have time to avoid a

-collision; the two boats almost grazed each other in passing, and the

-passengers of each saluted each other and threw across oranges and

-cigars, and charged each other with messages to be borne to Cadiz or

-Seville.

-

-My fellow-voyagers were almost all Andalusians, and so, after an

-hour of conversation, I knew them from first to last as well as if

-we had all been friends from infancy. Every one instantly told every

-one else, whether he wanted to know it or not, who he was, his age,

-occupation, and where he was going, and one even went so far as to tell

-how many sweethearts he had and how many pesetas were in his purse. I

-was taken for a singer; and this is not strange if one considers that

-in Spain the people think three-fourths of the Italians are trained to

-sing, dance, or declaim. One gentleman, noticing that I had an Italian

-book in my hand, asked me, point-blank, "Where did you leave the

-company?"

-

-"What company?" I demanded.

-

-"Weren't you singing with Fricci at the Zarzuela?"

-

-"I am sorry, but I have never appeared on the stage."

-

-"Well, I must say, then, that you and the second tenor look as much

-alike as two drops of water."

-

-"You don't say so?"

-

-"Pray excuse me."

-

-"It's of no consequence."

-

-"But you are an Italian?"

-

-"Yes."

-

-"Do you sing?"

-

-"I am sorry, but I do not sing."

-

-"How strange! To judge by your throat and breast, I should have said

-that you must have a splendid tenor voice."

-

-I put my hand to my chest and neck, and replied, "It may be so; I will

-try--one never knows. I have two of the necessary qualifications: I am

-an Italian and have the throat of a tenor; the voice ought to follow."

-

-At this point the prima donna of the company, who had overheard the

-dialogue, entered the conversation, and after her the entire company:

-

-"Is the gentleman an Italian?"

-

-"At your service, madam."

-

-"I ask the question because I wish him to do me a favor. What is the

-meaning of those short verses from _Il Trovatore_ which run--

-

-              "Non può nemmeno un Dio

-              Donna rapirti a me."

-    (Not even a god can steal my lady from me.)

-

-"Is the lady married?"

-

-They all began to laugh.

-

-"Yes," replied the prima donna; "but why do you ask me that?"

-

-"Because ... 'not even a god can steal you from me' is what your

-husband ought to say, if he has two good eyes in his head, every

-morning when he rises and every night when he goes to bed."

-

-The others laughed, but to the prima donna this imaginary presumption

-on the part of her husband in affirming that he was secure even against

-a god seemed too extravagant, possibly because she knew that she had

-not always been sufficiently wary in her regard for men; and so she

-scarcely deigned by so much as a smile to show that she had understood

-my compliment. She at once asked the meaning of another verse, and

-after her the baritone, and after the baritone the tenor, and after

-the tenor the second lady, and so on, until for a little while I did

-nothing but translate poor Italian verses into worse Spanish prose, to

-the great satisfaction of some of them, who for the first time were

-able to repeat intelligently a little of what they had so often sung

-with an air of perfect knowledge. When every one had learned as much

-as he wished to know, the conversation came to a close, and I stood

-talking a little while with the baritone, who hummed me an air from

-the _Zarzuela_; then I attached myself to one of the chorus, who told

-me that the tenor was making love to the prima donna; then I went off

-with the tenor, who told me about the baritone's wife; then I talked

-with the prima donna, who said disagreeable things about the whole

-company; but they were all good friends, and when they met, as they

-walked about the boat and gathered under the awning, the men pulled

-each other's beards and the women kissed each other, and one and all

-exchanged glances and smiles which revealed secret understandings. Some

-ran through the gamut here, some hummed yonder, others practised trills

-in a corner, and others again tried a guttural _do_ that ended in a

-wheezing sound in the throat; and meanwhile they all talked at once

-about a thousand trifles.

-

-Finally, the bell sounded and we rushed headlong to the table, like

-so many officials invited to a spread at the unveiling of a monument.

-At this dinner, amid the cries and songs of all those people, I drank

-for the first time an unmixed glass of that terrible wine of Xeres

-whose wonders are sung in the four corners of the earth. I had scarcely

-swallowed it before I seemed to feel a spark run through all my veins,

-and my head burned as if it was full of sulphur. All the others drank,

-and all were filled with unrestrained mirth and became irresistibly

-loquacious; the prima donna began to talk in Italian, the tenor in

-French, the baritone in Portuguese, the others in dialect, and I in

-every tongue; and there were toasts and snatches of song, shouts,

-arch glances, clasping of hands above table and the kicking of feet

-below, and declarations of good fellowship exchanged on all sides,

-like the personalities in Parliament when the opposing factions join

-battle. After dinner we all went on deck, flushed and in great spirits,

-breathless and enveloped in a cloud of smoke from our cigarettes, and

-then, in the light of the moon, whose silvery rays gleamed on the wide

-river and covered the hillsides and the groves with limpid light, we

-began again a noisy conversation, and after the conversation there

-was singing, not only the trifling airs of _Zarzuela_, but passages

-from operas, with solos, duets, trios, and choruses, with appropriate

-gestures and stage strides, diversified with declamations from

-the poets, stories, and anecdotes, hearty laughter, and tumultuous

-applause; finally, tired and breathless, we were all silent, and some

-fell asleep with upturned faces, others went to lie down under cover,

-and the prima donna seated herself in a corner to look at the moon.

-The tenor was snoring. I profited by the occasion to go and have an

-aria from the _Zarzuela_--_El Sargento Federico_--sung to me in a low

-voice. The courteous Andalusian did not wait to be pressed: she sang,

-but suddenly she was silent and hid her face. I looked at her: she

-was weeping. I asked her the cause of her distress, and she answered,

-sadly, "I am thinking of a perjury." Then she broke into a laugh and

-began to sing again. She had a melodious, flexible voice, and sang with

-a feeling of gentle sadness. The sky was all studded with stars, and

-the boat glided so smoothly through the water that it scarcely seemed

-to be moving; and I thought of the gardens of Seville, of the near

-African shore, and of the dear one waiting for me in Italy, and my eyes

-too were wet, and when the lady stopped singing, I said, "Sing on, for--

-

-    'Mortal tongue cannot express

-    That which I felt within my breast....'"

-

-At dawn the boat was just entering the ocean; the river was very wide.

-The right bank, scarcely visible in the distance, stretched along like

-a tongue of land, beyond which shone the waters of the sea. A moment

-later the sun rose above the horizon, and the vessel left the river.

-Then there unfolded before my eyes a sight that could not be described

-if it were possible to join poetry, painting, and music in one supreme

-art--a spectacle whose magnificence and enchantment I believe not even

-Dante could describe with his grandest images, nor Titian with his

-most brilliant colors, nor Rossini with his most perfect harmonies,

-nor even all three of them together. The sky was a miracle of sapphire

-light unflecked by a cloud, and the sea was so beautiful that it seemed

-like an immense carpet of shimmering silk; the sun was shining on the

-crests of the little ripples caused by a light breeze, and it seemed as

-if they were tipped with amethyst. The sea was full of reflections and

-luminous bands of light, and in the distance were streaks of silver,

-with here and there great white sails, like the trailing wings of

-gigantic fallen angels. I have never seen such brilliancy of color,

-such splendor of light, such freshness, such transparency, such limpid

-water and sky. It seemed like a daybreak of creation, which the fancy

-of poets had pictured so pure and effulgent that our dawns are only

-pale reflections in comparison. It was more than Nature's awakening and

-the recurring stir of life: it was a hallelujah, a triumph, a new birth

-of creation, growing into the infinite by a second inspiration of God.

-

-I went below deck to get my spyglass, and when I returned Cadiz was in

-sight.

-

-The first impression which it made upon me was a feeling of doubt

-whether it was a city or not. I first laughed, then turned toward my

-fellow-traveller with the air of one seeking to be assured that he is

-not deceived. Cadiz is like an island of chalk. It is a great white

-spot in the midst of the sea, without a cloud, without a black line,

-without a shadow--a white spot as clear and pure as a hilltop covered

-with untrodden snow, standing out against a sky of beryl and turquoise

-in the midst of a vast flooded plain. A long, narrow neck of land

-unites it to the continent; on all other sides it is surrounded by the

-sea, like a boat just ready to sail bound to the shore only by a cable.

-As we approached, the forms of the campaniles, the outlines of the

-houses, and the openings of the streets became clear, and everything

-seemed whiter, and, however much I looked through my spyglass, I could

-not have discovered the smallest spot in that whiteness, either on a

-building near the harbor or in the farthest suburbs. We entered the

-port, where there were but a few ships and those a great way apart. I

-stepped into a boat without even taking my valise with me, for I was

-obliged to leave for Malaga that same evening, and so eager was I to

-see the city that when the boat came to the bank, I jumped too soon

-and fell to the ground like a corpse, although, alas! I still felt the

-pains of a living body.

-

-[Illustration: _Cadiz_]

-

-Cadiz is the whitest city in the world; and it is of no use to

-contradict me by saying that I have not seen every other city, for

-my common sense tells me that a city whiter than this, which is

-superlatively and perfectly white, cannot exist. Cordova and Seville

-cannot be compared with Cadiz: they are as white as a sheet, but Cadiz

-is as white as milk. To give an idea of it, one could not do better

-than to write the word "white" a thousand times with a white pencil

-on blue paper, and make a note on the margin: "Impressions of Cadiz."

-Cadiz is one of the most extravagant and graceful of human caprices:

-not only the outer walls of the houses are white, but the stairs are

-white, the courts are white, the shop-walls are white, the stones are

-white, the pilasters are white, the most secret and darkest corners

-of the poorest houses and the loneliest streets are white; everything

-is white from roof to cellar wherever the tip of a brush can enter,

-even to the holes, cracks, and birds' nests. In every house there is

-a pile of chalk and lime, and every time the eagle eye of the inmates

-spies the least spot the brush is seized and the spot covered. Servants

-are not taken into families unless they know how to whitewash. A

-pencil-scratch on a wall is a scandalous thing, an outrage upon the

-public peace, an act of vandalism: you might walk through the entire

-city, look behind all the doors, and poke your nose into the very

-holes, and you would find white, only and always and eternally.

-

-But, for all this, Cadiz does not in the least resemble the other

-Andalusian cities. Its streets are long and straight, and the houses

-are high, and lack the _patios_ of Cordova and Seville. But, although

-the appearance is different, the city does not appear less interesting

-and pleasant to the eye of the stranger. The streets are straight, but

-narrow, and, moreover, they are very long, and many of them cross the

-entire city, and so one can see at the end, as through the crack in a

-door, a slender strip of sky, which makes it seem as if the city was

-built on the summit of a mountain cut on all sides in regular channels:

-moreover, the houses have a great many windows, and, as at Burgos,

-every window is provided with a sort of glass balcony which rises in

-tiers from story to story, so that in many streets the houses are

-completely covered with glass, and one sees scarcely any traces of the

-walls. It seems like walking through a passage in an immense museum.

-Here and there, between one house and the next, rise the graceful

-fronds of a palm; in every square there is a luxuriant mass of verdure,

-and at all the windows bunches of grass and bouquets of flowers.

-

-Really, I had been far from imagining that Cadiz could be so gay

-and smiling--that terrible, ill-fated Cadiz, burned by the English

-in the sixteenth century, bombarded at the end of the eighteenth,

-devastated by the pestilence, hostess of the fleets of Trafalgar, the

-seat of the revolutionary council during the War of Independence, the

-theatre of the horrible butchery of the Revolution of 1820, the target

-of the French bombs in 1823, the standard-bearer of the Revolution

-which hurled the Bourbons from the throne,--Cadiz always restless

-and turbulent and first of all to raise the battle-cry. But of such

-calamities and such struggles there remain only some cannon-balls

-half buried in the walls, for over all the traces of destruction has

-passed the inexorable brush, covering every dishonor with a white veil.

-And as it is with the latest wars, so too there remains not a trace

-of the Phœnicians who founded the city, nor of the Carthaginians and

-Romans who enlarged and beautified it, unless one wishes to consider

-as a trace the tradition which says, "Here rose a temple to Hercules,"

-"There rose a temple to Saturn." But time has done a worse thing than

-to deprive Cadiz of her ancient monuments: it has stolen away her

-commerce and her riches since Spain lost her possessions in America,

-and now Cadiz lies there inert on her solitary rock, waiting in vain

-for the thousand ships which once came with flags and festoons to offer

-her the tribute of the New World.

-

-I had a letter of introduction to the Italian consul, and after

-receiving it he courteously took me to the top of a tower from which I

-was able to get a bird's-eye view of the city. It was a novel sight and

-a very lively surprise: seen from above, Cadiz is white, entirely and

-perfectly white, just as it appears from the sea; there is not a roof

-in all the city; every house is covered on top by a terrace surrounded

-by a low whitewashed wall; on almost every terrace rises a little white

-tower, which is surmounted, in its turn, by another smaller terrace

-or by a little cupola or sort of sentry-box: everything is white; all

-these little cupolas, these pinnacles, and these towers, which give

-the city a very odd and uneven appearance, gleam and stand out white

-against the vivid blue of the sea. One's view extends over the entire

-length of the isthmus which connects Cadiz to the main land, embraces

-a far-off strip of distant coast whitened by the cities of Puerto Real

-and Puerto Santa Maria, dotted with villages, churches, and villas, and

-includes also the port and the clear and a very beautiful sky which

-vies with the sea in transparency and light. I could not look enough

-at that strange city. On closing my eyes it appeared as if covered

-by an immense sheet. Every house seemed to have been built for an

-astronomical observatory. The entire population, in case the sea should

-inundate the city, as in ancient times, might gather on the terraces

-and remain there in perfect ease, saving the fright.

-

-I was told that a few years ago, on the occasion of some eclipse

-of the sun, this very spectacle was witnessed: the seventy thousand

-inhabitants of Cadiz all ascended to the terraces to watch the

-phenomenon. The city changed its perfect whiteness for a thousand

-colors; every terrace was thick with heads; one saw at a single glance,

-quarter after quarter, and finally the entire population: a low murmur

-rose to heaven like the roar of the sea, and a great movement of arms,

-fans, and spy-glasses, pointing upward, made it seem as if the people

-were awaiting the descent of some angel from the solar sphere. At a

-certain moment there was a profound silence: when the phenomenon was

-over the entire population gave a shout, which sounded like a clap of

-thunder, and a few moments later the city was white again.

-

-I descended from the tower and went to see the cathedral, a vast

-marble edifice of the sixteenth century, not to be compared to the

-cathedrals of Burgos and Toledo, but nevertheless dignified and bold in

-architecture and enriched by every sort of treasure, like all the other

-Spanish churches. I went to see the convent where Murillo was painting

-a picture over a high altar when he fell from the scaffold and received

-the wound which caused his death. I passed through the picture-gallery,

-which contains some fine paintings of Zurbaran; entered the bull-ring,

-built entirely of wood, which was created in a few days to provide

-a spectacle for Queen Isabella. Toward evening I took a turn in the

-delightful promenade along the sea-shore, in the midst of orange trees

-and palms, where the most beautiful and elegant ladies of the city

-were pointed out to me, one by one. Whatever may be the judgment of

-the Spaniards, to me the feminine type of Cadiz did not seem at all

-inferior to the celebrated type of Seville. The women are a little

-taller, a little heavier, and are somewhat darker. Some observer has

-ventured to say that they closely resemble the Grecian type, but I do

-not know in what respect. I saw no difference from the Andalusian type

-except in stature, and that was enough to make me heave sighs which

-might have propelled a ship, and constrained me to return as soon as

-possible to the vessel as a place of refuge and peace.

-

-When I arrived on board it was night; the sky was all twinkling with

-stars, and the breeze bore faintly to my ears the music of a band

-playing on the promenade of Cadiz. The singers were asleep; I was

-alone, and the sight of the city lights and the recollection of the

-lovely faces filled me with melancholy. I did not know what to do

-with myself, so I went down to the cabin, took out my note-book, and

-commenced the description of Cadiz. But I only succeeded in writing ten

-times the words, "White, blue, snow, brightness, colors," after which I

-made a little sketch of a woman and then closed my eyes and dreamed of

-Italy.

-

-

-

-

-MALAGA.

-

-

-The next day, at sunset, the vessel was passing through the Straits of

-Gibraltar.

-

-Now, as I look at that point on the map, it seems so near home that

-when I am in the humor and my domestic finances permit I ought not to

-hesitate a moment to pack my valise and run down to Genoa on my way

-to enjoy a second time the most beautiful sight of two continents.

-But then it seemed to be so far away that when I had written a letter

-to my mother on the rail of the ship, intending to give it to one of

-the passengers for Gibraltar to post, as I was writing the address I

-laughed at my confidence, as if it were impossible for a letter to

-travel all the way to Turin. "From here!" I thought--"from the Pillars

-of Hercules!" and I pronounced the Pillars of Hercules as if I had said

-the Cape of Good Hope or Japan.

-

-"... I am on the ship Guadaira: behind me is the ocean, and in front

-the Mediterranean, on the left Europe and on the right Africa. On this

-side I see the cape of Tarifa, and on that the mountains of the African

-coast, which look indistinct like a gray cloud; I see Ceuta, and a

-little beyond it Tangiers like a white spot, and in a direct line with

-the ship rises the Rock of Gibraltar. The sea is as placid as a lake,

-and the sky is red and gold; all is serene, beautiful, and magnificent,

-and I feel in my mind an inexpressible and delightful stirring of great

-thoughts, which, if I could put them into words, would become a joyful

-prayer beginning and ending with thy name...."

-

-The vessel stopped in the Gulf of Algeciras: the entire company of

-singers got into a large boat from Gibraltar, and went off, waving fans

-and handkerchiefs as a parting salute. It was growing dark when the

-boat started again. Then I was able to measure the enormous mass of the

-Rock of Gibraltar at every turn. At first I thought we should leave

-it behind in a few moments, but the moments became hours. Gradually,

-as we approached, it towered above us, and presented a new appearance

-every instant--now the silhouette of some measureless monster, now the

-image of an immense staircase, now the outline of a fantastic castle,

-now a shapeless mass like a monstrous aërolite fallen from a world

-shivered in a battle of the spheres. Then, on nearer view, behind a

-high rock like an Egyptian pyramid, there came into sight a great

-projection as large as a mountain, with fissures and broken boulders

-and vast curves which lost themselves in the plain. It was night; the

-rock stood outlined against the moonlit sky as clear and sharp as a

-sheet of black paper on a pane of glass. One saw the lighted windows

-of the English barracks, the sentry-boxes on the summit of the dizzy

-crags, and a dim outline of trees which seemed little larger than a

-tuft of grass among the nearest rocks. For a long time the boat seemed

-motionless or else the rock was receding, so close and threatening did

-it always appear; then, little by little, it began to diminish, but our

-eyes were weary of gazing before the rock grew weary of threatening us

-with its fantastic transformations. At midnight I gave a final salute

-to that formidable, lifeless sentinel of Europe, and went to wrap

-myself up in my little corner.

-

-At break of day I awoke a few miles from the port of Malaga.

-

-The city of Malaga, seen from the port, presents a pleasing appearance

-not wholly without grandeur. On the right is a high rocky mountain,

-upon the top of which and down one side, even to the plain, are the

-enormous blackened ruins of the castle of Gibralfaro, and on the

-lower slopes stands the cathedral towering majestically above all the

-surrounding buildings, lifting toward heaven, as an inspired poet might

-say, two beautiful towers and a very high belfry. Between the castle

-and the church and on the face and sides of the mountain there is a

-mass--a _canaille_, as Victor Hugo would say--of smoky little houses,

-placed confusedly one above the other, as if they had been thrown down

-from above like stones. To the left of the cathedral, along the shore,

-is a row of houses, gray, violet, or pale yellow in color, with white

-window-and door-frames, that suggest the villages along the Ligurian

-Riviera. Beyond rises a circle of green and reddish hills enclosing the

-city like the walls of an amphitheatre, and to the right and left along

-the sea-shore extend other mountains, hills, and rocks as far as the

-eye can see. The port was almost deserted, the shore silent, and the

-sky very blue.

-

-Before landing I took my leave of the captain, who was going on to

-Marseilles, said good-bye to the boatswain and passengers, telling them

-all that I should arrive at Valencia a day ahead of the boat, and I

-should certainly join them again and go on to Barcelona and Marseilles,

-and the captain replied, "We shall look for you," and the steward

-promised that my place should be saved for me. How often since then

-have I remembered the last words of those poor people!

-

-[Illustration: _Malaga_]

-

-I stopped at Malaga with the intention of leaving that same evening

-for Granada. The city itself offers nothing worthy of note, excepting

-the new part, which occupies a tract of land formerly covered by

-the sea. This is built up in the modern style, with wide, straight

-streets and large, bare houses. The rest of the city is a labyrinth

-of narrow, winding streets and a mass of houses without color,

-without _patios_, and without grace. There are some spacious squares

-with gardens and fountains; columns and arches of Moorish buildings, no

-modern monuments; a great deal of dirt, and not a great many people.

-The environs are very beautiful, and the climate is milder than that of

-Seville.

-

-I had a friend at Malaga, and after finding him we passed the day

-together. He told me a curious fact: At Malaga there is a literary

-academy of more than eight hundred members, where they celebrate the

-birthdays of all the great writers, and hold twice a week a public

-lecture on some subject connected with literature or science. That same

-evening they were to celebrate a solemn function. Some months earlier

-the academy had offered a prize of three golden flowers, enamelled

-in different colors, to the three poets who should compose the best

-ode on "Progress," the best ballad on the "Recovery of Malaga," and

-the best satire on one of the most prevalent vices of modern society.

-The invitation had been extended to all the poets of Spain; poems had

-poured in in abundance; a board of judges had secretly considered them;

-and that very evening the choice was to be announced. The ceremony was

-to be conducted with great pomp. The bishop, the governor, the admiral,

-the most conspicuous personages of the city, with dress-coats, orders,

-and shoulder-scarfs, and a great number of ladies in evening dress,

-were to be present. The three most beautiful Muses of the city were

-to present themselves on a sort of stage adorned with garlands and

-flags, each of whom was to open the roll containing the prize poem

-and to proclaim three times the name of its author: if the author

-were present, he was to be invited to read his verses and receive his

-flower; if he were not present, his verses were to be read for him.

-Throughout the whole city they talked of nothing but the academy,

-guessed the names of the victors, predicted the wonders of the three

-poems, and extolled the decorations of the hall. This festival of

-poetry, called the _juegos floreales_, had not been celebrated for ten

-years. Others may judge whether such contests and displays benefit or

-injure poets and poetry. As for me, whatever may be the dubious and

-fleeting literary glory which is bestowed by the sentence of the jury

-and the homage of a bishop and a governor, I believe that to receive

-the gift of a golden flower from the hand of a most beautiful woman

-under the eyes of five hundred fair Andalusians, to the sound of soft

-music and amid the perfume of jessamine and roses, that would be a

-delight even truer and more lively than any which comes from real and

-enduring glory. No? Ah! we are sincere.

-

-One of my first thoughts was to taste a little of the genuine Malaga

-wine, for no other reason than to repay myself for the many headaches

-and stomachaches caused by the miserable concoctions sold in many

-Italian cities under the false recommendation of its name. But either

-I did not know how to ask or they did not wish to understand: the

-fact remains that the wine they gave me at the hotel burned my throat

-and made my head spin. I was not able to walk straight even to the

-cathedral, or from the cathedral to the castle of Gibralfaro, or to

-the other places, nor could I form an idea of the beauties of Malaga

-without seeing them double and unsteadily, as some spiteful person

-might suppose.

-

-On our walk my friend talked to me about the famous Republican people

-of Malaga, who are every moment doing something on their own account.

-They are a very fiery people, but fickle and yet tractable, like all

-people who feel much and think little; and they act upon the impulse

-of passion rather than the strength of conviction. The least trifle

-calls together an immense crowd and stirs up a tumult that turns

-the city topsy-turvy; but on most occasions a resolute act of a man

-in authority, an exhibition of courage, or a burst of eloquence is

-sufficient to quiet the tumult and disperse the crowd. The nature of

-the people is good on the whole, but superstition and passion have

-perverted them. And, above all, superstition is perhaps more firmly

-entrenched in Malaga than in any other city of Andalusia, by reason

-of the greater popular ignorance. Altogether, Malaga was the least

-Andalusian of the cities I had seen: even the very language has been

-corrupted, and they speak worse Spanish than at Cadiz, where, forsooth!

-they speak badly enough.

-

-I was still at Malaga, but my imagination was far away among the

-streets of Granada and in the gardens of the Alhambra and the

-Generalife. Shortly after the noon hour I took my leave from the only

-city in Spain, to tell the truth, that I left without a sigh of regret.

-When the train started, instead of turning for a last look, as I had

-done in all of its sister towns, I murmured the verses sung by Giovanni

-Prati at Granada when the duke d'Aosta was leaving for Spain:

-

-    "Non più Granata è sola

-      Sulle sur mute pietre;

-    L'inno in Alhambra vola

-      Sulle Moresche cetre."

-

-(_No more does Granada stand alone on her silent stones: the hymn flies

-to the Alhambra on Moorish lyres._)

-

-       *       *       *       *       *

-

-And now, as I write them again, it seems to me that the music of the

-band of the National Guard of Turin inspires peace and gladness more

-even surely than Moorish lyres, and that the pavement of the porticoes

-of the Po, although it be ever so silent, is better laid and smoother

-than the stones of Granada.

-

-

-

-

-GRANADA.

-

-

-GRANADA.

-

-

-The journey from Malaga to Granada was the most adventurous and

-unfortunate that I made in Spain.

-

-In order that my compassionate readers may pity me as much as I

-desire, they must know (I am ashamed to occupy people with these

-little details) that at Malaga I had eaten only the lightest sort of

-an Andalusian repast, of which at the moment of departure I retained

-a very vague recollection. But I started, feeling sure that I could

-alight at some railway-station where there would be one of those rooms

-or public choking-places where one enters at a gallop, eats until one

-is out of breath, pays as one scampers out to rush into a crowded

-carriage, suffocated and robbed, to curse the schedule, travel, and the

-minister of public works who deceives the country. I departed, and for

-the first hours it was delightful. The country was all gently sloping

-hills and green fields, dotted with villages crowned with palms and

-cypresses, and in the carriage, between two old men who rode with their

-eyes shut, there was a little Andalusian who kept looking around with

-a roguish smile which seemed to say, "Go on; your lovelorn glances

-do not offend me." But the train crept along as slowly as a worn-out

-diligence, and we stopped only a few moments at the stations. By sunset

-my stomach began to cry for help, and, to render the pangs of hunger

-even more severe, I was obliged to make a good part of the journey on

-foot. The train stopped at an unsafe bridge, and all the passengers got

-out and filed around, two by two, to meet the train on the other side

-of the river. We were surrounded by the rocks of the Sierra Nevada,

-in a wild, desert place, which made it seem as if we were a company

-of hostages led by a band of brigands. When we had clambered into the

-carriage the train crawled along no faster than before, and my stomach

-began to complain more desperately than at first. After a long time we

-arrived at a station all crowded with trains, where a large part of the

-travellers hurried out before I could reach the step.

-

-"Where are you going?" asked a railroad official, who had seen me

-alight.

-

-"To dine," I replied.

-

-"But aren't you going to Granada?"

-

-"Yes."

-

-"Then you won't have time; the train starts immediately."

-

-"But the others have gone."

-

-"You will see them come back on the run in a minute."

-

-The freight-trains in front prevented me from seeing the station; I

-thought it was a great way off, and so stayed where I was. Two minutes

-passed, five, eight; the tourists did not return and the train did not

-start. I jumped out, ran to the station, saw a café, and entered a

-large room. Great heavens! Fifty starving people were standing around

-a refreshment-table with their noses in their plates, elbows in the

-air, and their eyes on the clock, devouring and shouting; another fifty

-were crowding around a counter seizing and pocketing bread, fruit, and

-candies, while the proprietor and the waiters, panting like horses

-and streaming with sweat, ran about, tucked up their sleeves, howled,

-tumbled over the seats and upset the customers, and scattered here and

-there streams of soup and drops of sauce; and one poor woman, who must

-have been the mistress of the café, imprisoned in a little niche behind

-the besieged counter, ran her hands through her hair in desperation. At

-this sight my arms hung down helplessly. But suddenly I roused myself

-and made an onslaught. Driven back by a feminine elbow in my chest, I

-rushed in again; repulsed by a jab in the stomach, I gathered all my

-strength to make a third attack. At this point the bell rang. There was

-a burst of imprecations and then a falling of seats, a scattering of

-plates, a hurry-scurry, and a perfect pandemonium. One man, choking

-in the fury of his last mouthfuls, became livid and his eyes seemed

-bursting from his head as though he were being hanged; another in

-stretching out his hand to seize an orange, struck by some one rushing

-past, plunged it into a bowl of cream; another was running through the

-room in search of his valise with a great smear of sauce on his cheeks;

-another, who had tried to drink his wine at one gulp, had strangled

-and coughed as if he would tear open his stomach; the officials at the

-door cried, "Hurry!" and the travellers called back from the room,

-"Ahogate!" (choked), and the waiters ran after those who had not paid,

-and those who wanted to pay could not find the waiters; and the ladies

-swooned, and the children cried, and everything was upside down.

-

-By good fortune I was able to get into my carriage before the train

-started.

-

-But there a new punishment awaited me. The two old men and the little

-Andalusian, who must have been the daughter of the one and niece of

-the other, had been successful in securing a little booty in the midst

-of that accursed crowd at the counter, and they were eating right and

-left. I began to watch them with sorrowful eyes like a dog beside his

-master's table, counting the mouthfuls and the number of times they

-chewed. The little Andalusian noticed it, and, pointing to something

-which looked like a croquet, made a gracious bow as if to ask if I

-would take it.

-

-"Oh no, thank you," I replied with the smile of a dying man; "I have

-eaten."

-

-My angel, I continued to myself, if you only knew that at this moment

-I would prefer those two croquets to the bitter apples--as Sir Niccolo

-Machiavelli would generously say--even those bitter apples from the

-famous garden of the Hesperides!

-

-"Try a drop of liquor at least," said the old uncle.

-

-I do not know what childish pique against myself or against those good

-people took possession of me, but it was a feeling which other men

-experience on similar occasions; however, I replied this time too, "No,

-thank you; it would be bad for me."

-

-The good old man looked me over from head to foot as if to say that I

-did not appear like a man to be the worse for a drop of liquor, and the

-Andalusian smiled, and I blushed for shame.

-

-Night settled down, and the train went on at the pace of Sancho Panza's

-steed for I knew not how many hours. That night I felt for the first

-time in my life the pangs of hunger, which I thought I had felt already

-on the famous day of the twenty-fourth of June, 1866. To relieve these

-torments I obstinately thought of all the dishes which filled me with

-repugnance--raw tomatoes, snails in soup, roasted crabs, and snails

-in salad. Alas! a voice of derision told me, deep down in my vitals,

-that if I had any of them I should eat them and lick my fingers. Then I

-began to make imaginary messes of different dishes, as cream and fish,

-with a dash of wine, with a coat of pepper, and a layer of juniper

-preserves, to see if I could thus hold my stomach in check. Oh misery!

-my cowardly stomach did not repel even those. Then I made a final

-effort and imagined that I was at table in a Parisian hotel at the time

-of the siege, and that I gently lifted a mouse by the tail out of some

-pungent sauce, and the mouse, unexpectedly regaining life, bit my thumb

-and transfixed me with two wicked little eyes, and I, with raised fork,

-hesitated whether to let it go or to spit it without pity. But, thank

-Heaven! before I had settled this horrible question, to perform such an

-act as has never been recorded in the history of any siege, the train

-stopped and a ray of hope revived my drooping spirits.

-

-We had reached some nameless village, and while I was putting my head

-out of the window a voice cried, "All out for Granada!" I rushed

-headlong from the carriage and found myself face to face with a huge

-bearded fellow, who took my valise, telling me that he was going to put

-it in the diligence, for from that village to I know not how many miles

-from _imperial Granada_ there is no railway.

-

-"One moment!" I cried to the unknown man in a supplicating voice: "how

-long before you start?"

-

-"Two minutes," he replied.

-

-"Is there an inn here?"

-

-"There it is." I flew to the inn, bolted a hard-boiled egg, and rushed

-back to the diligence, crying, "How much time now?"

-

-"Two minutes more," answered the same voice.

-

-I flew back to the hotel, seized another egg, and ran again to the

-diligence with the question, "Are you off?"

-

-"In a minute."

-

-Back again to the inn, and a third egg, and then to the diligence: "Are

-we going?"

-

-"In half a minute."

-

-This time I heaved a mighty sigh, ran to the inn, swallowed a fourth

-egg and a glass of wine, and rushed toward the diligence. But before

-I had taken ten steps my breath gave out, and I stopped with the egg

-halfway down my throat. At this point the whip cracked.--"Wait!" I

-cried in a hoarse voice, waving my hands like a drowning man.

-

-"_Que hay?_" (What's the matter?) demanded the driver.

-

-I could not reply.

-

-"He has an egg stuck in his throat," some stranger answered for me.

-

-All the travellers burst into a laugh, the egg went down; I laughed

-too, overtook the diligence, which had already started, and, regaining

-my breath, gave my companions an account of my troubles, and they were

-much interested, and pitied me even more than I had dared to hope after

-that cruel laugh at my suffocation.

-

-But my troubles were not ended. One of those irresistible attacks

-of sleepiness which used to come upon me treacherously in the long

-night-marches among the soldiers seized me all at once, and tormented

-me as far as the railway-station without my being able to get a moment

-of sleep. I believe that a cannon-ball suspended by a cord from the

-roof of the diligence would have given less annoyance to my unfortunate

-companions than my poor nodding head gave as it bobbed on all sides as

-if it was attached to my neck by a single tendon. On one side of me sat

-a nun, on the other a boy, and opposite a peasant-woman, and throughout

-the entire journey I did nothing but strike my head against these three

-victims with the monotonous motion of a bell-clapper. The nun, poor

-creature! endured the strokes in silence, perhaps in expiation for her

-sins of thought; but the boy and peasant-woman muttered from time to

-time, "He is a barbarian!"--"This must stop!"--"His head is like lead!"

-Finally, a witticism from one of the passengers released all four of us

-from this suffering. The peasant-woman was lamenting a little louder

-than usual, and a voice from the end of the diligence exclaimed, "Be

-consoled; if your head is not yet broken, you may be sure it will

-not be, for it must certainly be proof against the hammer." They

-all laughed; I awakened, excused myself, and the three victims were

-so happy to find themselves released from that cruel thumping that,

-instead of taking revenge with bitter words, they said, "Poor fellow!

-you have slept badly. How you must have hurt your head!"

-

-We finally arrived at the railway, and behold what a perverse fate!

-Although I was alone in the railway-carriage, where I might have slept

-like a nabob, I could not close my eyes. A pang went through my heart

-at the thought of having made the journey by night when I could not see

-anything nor enjoy the distant view of Granada. And I remembered the

-lovely verses of Martinez de la Rosa:

-

-"O my dear fatherland! At last I see thee again! I see thy fair soil,

-thy joyful teeming fields, thy glorious sun, thy serene sky!

-

-"Yes! I see the fabled Granada stretching along the plain from hill to

-hill, her towers rising among her gardens of eternal green, the crystal

-streams kissing her walls, the noble mountains enclosing her valleys,

-and the Sierra Nevada crowning the distant horizon.

-

-"Oh, thy memory haunted me wherever I went, Granada! It destroyed my

-pleasures, my peace, and my glory, and oppressed my heart and soul! By

-the icy banks of the Seine and the Thames I remembered with a sigh the

-happy waters of the Darro and the Genil, and many times, as I carolled

-a gay ballad, my bitter grief overcame me, and weeping, not to be

-repressed, choked my voice.

-

-"In vain the delightful Arno displayed her flower-strewn banks, sweet

-seats of love and peace! 'The plain watered by the gentle Genil,' said

-I, 'is more flowery, the life of the lovely Granada is more dear.' And

-I murmured these words as one disconsolate, and, remembering the house

-of my fathers, I raised my sad eyes to heaven.

-

-"What is thy magic, what thy unspeakable spell, O fatherland! O sweet

-name! that thou art so dear? The swarthy African, far from his native

-desert, looks with sad disdain on fields of green; the rude Laplander,

-stolen from his mother-earth, sighs for perpetual night and snow; and

-I--I, to whom a kindly fate granted birth and nurture in thy bosom

-blest by so many gifts of God--though far from thee, could I forget

-thee, Granada?"

-

-When I reached Granada it was quite dark, and I could not see so much

-as the outlines of a house. A diligence drawn by two horses,

-

-    "... anzi due cavallette

-        Di quella de Mosé lá dell' Egitto,"

-

-landed me at a hotel, where I was kept waiting an hour while my bed was

-being made, and finally, just before three o'clock in the morning, I

-was at last able to lay my head on the pillow. But my troubles were not

-over: just as I was falling into a doze I heard an indistinct murmur in

-the next room, and then a masculine voice which said distinctly, "Oh,

-what a little foot!" You who have bowels of compassion, pity me. The

-pillow was torn a little; I pulled out two tufts of wool, stuffed them

-in my ears; and, rehearsing in thought the misfortunes of my journey, I

-slept the sleep of the just.

-

-In the morning I went out betimes and walked about through the streets

-of Granada until it was a decent hour to go and drag from his home

-a young gentleman of Granada whom I had met at Madrid at the house

-of Fernandez Guerra, Gongora by name, the son of a distinguished

-archeologist and a descendant of the famous Cordovan poet Luigi

-Gongora, of whom I spoke in passing. That part of the city which I

-saw in those few hours did not fulfil my expectation. I had expected

-to find narrow mysterious streets and white cottages like those of

-Cordova and Seville, but I found instead spacious squares and some

-handsome straight streets, and others tortuous and narrow enough, it is

-true, but flanked by high houses, for the most part painted in false

-bas-reliefs with cupids and garlands and flourishes and draperies, and

-hangings of a thousand colors, without the Oriental appearance of the

-other Andalusian cities.

-

-The lowest part of Granada is almost all laid out with the regularity

-of a modern city. As I passed along those streets I was filled with

-contempt, and should certainly have carried a gloomy face to Señor

-Gongora if by chance as I walked at random I had not come out into

-the famous _Alameda_, which enjoys the reputation of being the most

-beautiful promenade in the world, and it repaid me a thousand times for

-the detestable regularity of the streets which lead to it.

-

-Imagine a long avenue of unusual width, along which fifty carriages

-might pass abreast, flanked by other smaller avenues, along which run

-rows of measureless trees, which at a noble height form an immense

-green arch, so dense that not a sunbeam can penetrate it, and at the

-two ends of the central avenue two monumental fountains throwing up

-the water in two great streams which fall again in the finest vaporous

-spray, and between the many avenues crystal streams, and in the middle

-a garden all roses and myrtle and jessamine and delicate fountains; and

-on one side the river Genil, which flows between banks covered with

-laurel-groves, and in the distance the snowclad mountains, upon whose

-sides distant palms raise their fantastic fronds; and everywhere a

-brilliant green, dense and luxuriant, through which one sees here and

-there an enchanting strip of azure sky.

-

-As I turned off of the Alameda I met a great number of peasants

-going out of the city, two by two and in groups, with their wives and

-children, singing and jesting. Their dress did not seem to me different

-from that of the peasants in the neighborhood of Cordova and Seville.

-They wore velvet hats, some with very broad brims, others with high

-brims curved back; a little jacket made with bands of many-colored

-cloth; a scarf of red or blue; closely-fitting trousers buttoned along

-the hip; and a pair of leathern gaiters open at the side, so as to show

-the leg. The women were dressed like those in the other provinces, and

-even in their faces there was no noticeable difference.

-

-I reached my friend's house and found him buried in his archæological

-studies, sitting in front of a heap of old medals and historic stones.

-He received me with delight, with a charming Andalusian courtesy, and,

-after exchanging the first greetings, we both pronounced with one voice

-that magic word that in every part of the world stirs a tumult of great

-recollections in every heart and arouses a sense of secret longing;

-that gives a final spur toward Spain to one who has the desire to

-travel thither and has not yet finally resolved to start; that name at

-which hearts of poets and painters beat faster and the eyes of women

-flash--"The Alhambra!"

-

-We rushed out of the house.

-

-       *       *       *       *       *

-

-The Alhambra is situated upon a high hill which overlooks the city,

-and from a distance presents the appearance of a fortress, like almost

-all Oriental palaces. But when, with Gongora, I climbed the street of

-_Los Gomeles_ on our way toward the famous edifice, I had not yet seen

-the least trace of a distant wall, and I did not know in what part of

-the city we should find it. The street of _Los Gomeles_ slopes upward

-and describes a slight curve, so that for a good way one sees only

-houses ahead, and supposes the Alhambra to be far away. Gongora did not

-speak, but I read in his face that in his heart he was greatly enjoying

-the thought of the surprise and delight that I should experience. He

-looked at the ground with a smile, answering all my questions with a

-sign which seemed to say, "Wait a minute!" and now and then raised

-his eyes almost furtively to measure the remaining distance. And I so

-enjoyed his pleasure that I could have thrown my arms around his neck

-in gratitude.

-

-We arrived before a great gate that closed the street. "Here we are!"

-said Gongora. I entered.

-

-I found myself in a great grove of enormously high trees, leaning one

-toward another, on this side and on that, along a great avenue which

-climbs the hill and is lost in the shade: so close are the trees that

-a man could scarcely pass among them, and wherever one looks one sees

-only their trunks, which close the way like a continuous wall. The

-branches meet above the avenues; not a sunbeam penetrates the wood; the

-shade is very dense; on every side glide murmuring streams, and the

-birds sing, and one feels a vernal freshness in the air.

-

-"We are now in the Alhambra," said Gongora: "turn around, and you will

-see the towers and the embattled barrier-wall."

-

-"But where is the palace?" I demanded.

-

-"That is a mystery," he answered; "let us go forward at random."

-

-We climbed an avenue running along beside the great central avenue that

-winds up toward the summit. The trees form overhead a green pavilion

-through which not a particle of sky is visible, and the grass, the

-shrubbery, and the flowers make on either side a lovely border, bright

-and fragrant, sloping slightly toward each other, as if they are trying

-to unite, mutually attracted by the beauty of their colors and the

-fragrance of their perfume.

-

-"Let us rest a moment," I said: "I want to take a great breath of this

-air; it seems to contain some secret germs that if infused into the

-blood must prolong one's life; it is air redolent of youth and health."

-

-"Behold the door!" exclaimed Gongora.

-

-I turned as if I had been struck in the back, and saw a few steps ahead

-a great square tower, of a deep-red color, crowned with battlements,

-with an arched door, above which one sees a key and a hand cut in the

-stone.

-

-I questioned my guide, and he told me that this was the principal

-entrance of the Alhambra, and that it was called the Gate of Justice,

-because the Moorish kings used to pronounce sentence beneath that arch.

-The key signifies that this door is the key to the fortress, and the

-hand symbolizes the five cardinal virtues of Islam--Prayer, Fasting,

-Beneficence, Holy War, and the Pilgrimage to Mecca. The Arabian

-inscription attests that the edifice was erected four centuries ago

-by the Sultan Abul Hagag Yusuf, and another inscription, which one

-sees everywhere on the columns, says, "There is no God but Allah, and

-Mohammed is his Prophet! and there is no power, no strength, apart from

-Allah!"

-

-We passed under the arch and continued the ascent along an enclosed

-street until we found ourselves at the top of the hill, in the middle

-of an esplanade surrounded by a parapet and dotted with shrubs and

-flowers. I turned at once toward the valley to enjoy the view,

-but Gongora seized me by the arm and made me look in the opposite

-direction. I was standing in front of the great palace of the

-Renaissance, partly in ruins and flanked by some wretched little houses.

-

-"Is this a joke?" I demanded. "Have you brought me here to see a

-Moorish castle, for me to find the way closed by a modern palace?

-Whose abominable idea was it to run up this building in the gardens of

-the caliphs?"

-

-"Charles V.'s."

-

-"He was a vandal. I have not yet forgiven him for the Gothic church he

-planted in the middle of the mosque of Cordova, and now these barracks

-fill me with utter loathing of his crown and his glory. But, in the

-name of Heaven, where is the Alhambra?"

-

-"There it is."

-

-"Where?"

-

-"Among those huts."

-

-"Oh, fudge!"

-

-"I pledge you my word of honor."

-

-I folded my arms and looked at him, and he laughed."

-

-"Well, then," I exclaimed, "this great name of the Alhambra is only

-another of those usual false exaggerations of the poets. I, Europe, and

-the world have been shamefully deceived. Was it worth while to dream of

-the Alhambra for three hundred and sixty-five nights in succession, and

-then to come to see a group of ruins with some broken columns and smoky

-inscriptions?"

-

-"How I enjoy this!" answered Gongora with a peal of laughter. "Cheer up

-now; come and be persuaded that the world has not been deceived: let us

-enter this rubbish-pile."

-

-We entered by a little door, crossed a corridor, and found ourselves

-in a court. With a sudden cry I seized Gongora's hand, and he asked

-with a tone of triumph,

-

-"Are you persuaded?"

-

-I did not answer, I did not see him: I was already far away; the

-Alhambra had already begun to exercise upon me that mysterious and

-powerful fascination which no one can avoid nor any one express.

-

-We were in the _Patio de los Arrayanes_, the Court of the Myrtles,

-which is the largest in the edifice, and presents at once the

-appearance of a room, a courtyard, and a garden. A great rectangular

-basin full of water, surrounded by a myrtle hedge, extends from one

-side of the _patio_ to the other, and like a mirror reflects the

-arches, arabesques, and the mural inscriptions.

-

-To the right of the entrance there extend two orders of Moorish

-arches, one above the other, supported by slender columns, and on the

-opposite side of the court rises a tower with a door through which

-one sees the inner rooms in semi-darkness and the mullioned windows,

-and through the windows the blue sky and the summits of the distant

-mountains. The walls are ornamented to a certain height from the

-pavement with brilliant mosaics, and above the mosaics with arabesques

-of very intricate design that seem to tremble and change at every step,

-and here and there among the arabesques and along the arches they

-stretch and creep and intertwine, like garlands, Moorish inscriptions

-containing greetings, proverbs, and legends.

-

-[Illustration: _Court of Myrtles, Alhambra_]

-

-Beside the door of entrance is written in Cufic characters: Eternal

-Happiness!--Blessing!--Prosperity!--Felicity!--Praised be God for the

-blessing of Islam!

-

-In another place it is written: I seek my refuge in the Lord of the

-Morning.

-

-In another place: O God! to thee belong eternal thanksgiving and

-undying praise.

-

-Elsewhere there are verses from the Koran and entire poems in praise of

-the caliphs.

-

-We stood some minutes in silent admiration; not the buzz of a fly was

-heard; now and then Gongora started toward the tower, but I clutched

-him by the arm and felt that he was trembling with impatience.

-

-"But we must make haste," said he, finally, "or else we shall not get

-back to Granada before evening."

-

-"What do I know of Granada?" I answered; "what do I know of morning or

-evening or of myself? I am in the Orient!"

-

-"But this is only the antechamber of the Alhambra, my dear Arabian,"

-said Gongora, urging me forward. "Come, come with me where it will

-really seem like being in the Orient."

-

-And he led me, reluctant though I was, to the very threshold of the

-tower-door. There I turned to look once more at the Court of Myrtles

-and gave a cry of surprise. Between two slender columns of the arched

-gallery which faces the tower, on the opposite side of the courtyard,

-stood a girl, a beautiful dark Andalusian face, with a white mantle

-wound around her head and falling over her shoulder: she stood leaning

-upon the railing in a languid attitude, with her eyes fixed upon us.

-I cannot tell the fantastic effect produced by that figure at that

-moment--the grace imparted by the arch which curved above the girl's

-head and the two columns which formed a frame around her, and the

-beautiful harmony which she gave to the whole court, as if she were

-an ornament necessary to its architecture conceived in the mind of

-the architect at the moment he imagined the whole design. She seemed

-like a sultana awaiting her lord, thinking of another sky and another

-love. She continued looking at us, and my heart began to beat faster. I

-questioned my friend with my eyes, as if to be assured that I was not

-deceived. Suddenly the sultana laughed, dropped her white mantle, and

-disappeared.

-

-"She is a servant," said Gongora.

-

-Still I remained in the mist.

-

-She was, in fact, a servant of the custodian of the Alhambra who was in

-the habit of practising that joke upon strangers.

-

-We entered the tower called the Tower of Comares, or, vulgarly, the

-Tower of the Ambassadors. The interior forms two halls, the first of

-which is called the Hall of the Barca, and takes its name either from

-the fact that it is shaped like a boat or because it was called by the

-Moors the Hall of _Baraka_, or Blessing, a word which might have been

-contracted by the people into _barca_ (a boat.) This hall hardly seems

-the work of human hands: it is all a vast network of tracery in the

-form of garlands, rosettes, boughs of trees, and leaves, covering the

-vaulted ceiling, the arches, and the walls in every part and in every

-way--closely twining, checkered, climbing higher and higher, and yet

-marvellously distinct and combined in such a manner that the parts

-are presented to the eye altogether at a single glance, affording a

-spectacle of dazzling magnificence and enchanting grace. I approached

-one of the walls, fixed my eyes upon the extreme point of an arabesque,

-and tried to follow its windings and turnings: it was impossible; my

-eye was lost, my mind confused, and all the arabesques from pavement

-to ceiling seemed to be moving and blending, as if to conceal the

-thread of their inextricable network. You may make an effort not to

-look around, to centre your whole attention upon a single spot of the

-wall, to scan it closely and follow the thread with your finger: it

-is futile; in a moment the tracery is a tangled skein, a veil steals

-between you and the wall, and your arm falls. The wall seems woven

-like a web, wrought like brocade, netted like lace, and veined like a

-leaf; one cannot look at it closely nor fix its design in one's mind:

-it would be like trying to count the ants in an anthill: one must be

-content to look at the walls with a wandering glance, then to rest and

-look again later, and then to think of something else and talk. After I

-had looked around a little with the air of a man overcome with vertigo

-rather than admiration, I turned toward Gongora, so that he might read

-in my face what I would have spoken.

-

-"Let us enter the other pile of ruins," he answered with a smile as he

-drew me into the great Hall of the Ambassadors, which fills all the

-interior of the tower, for, really, the Hall of the _Barca_ belongs to

-a little building which does not form a part of the tower, although it

-is joined to it. The tower is square in form, spacious, and lighted

-with nine great arched windows in the form of doors, which present

-almost the appearance of so many alcoves, so great is the thickness of

-the wall; each one is divided down the middle toward the outside by a

-little marble column that supports two beautiful arches surmounted in

-their turn by two little arched windows. The walls are covered with

-mosaics and arabesques indescribably delicate and multiform, and with

-innumerable inscriptions extending like wide embroidered ribbons over

-the arches of the windows, up the massive cornices, along the friezes,

-and around the niches where once stood vases full of flowers and

-perfumed water. The ceiling, which rises to a great height, is inlaid

-with cedar-wood, white, gold, and azure, joined together in circles,

-stars, and crowns, and forming many little arches, cells, and vaulted

-windows, through which falls a wavering light, and from the cornice

-which joins the ceiling to the walls hang tablets of stucco-work cut in

-facets chiselled and moulded like stalactites and bunches of flowers.

-The throne stood at the central window on the side opposite the door of

-entrance. From the windows on that side one enjoys a stupendous view

-of the valley of the Darro, deep and silent, as if it too felt the

-fascination of the Alhambra's grandeur; from the windows on the other

-two sides one sees the boundary-wall and the towers of the fortress;

-and through the entrance the light arches of the Court of the Myrtles

-in the distance and the water of the basin, which reflects the blue of

-the sky.

-

-"Well!" Gongora demanded; "was it worth dreaming of the Alhambra for

-three hundred and sixty-five nights?"

-

-"There is a strange thought passing through my brain at this moment," I

-replied. "That court as it looks from here, that hall, those windows,

-those colors, everything that surrounds me, seems familiar; it seems to

-correspond with a picture which I have carried in my head I know not

-how long and I know not in what manner, confused with a thousand other

-things, perhaps born of a dream--how should I know? When I was sixteen

-years old I was a lover, and the young girl and I alone in a garden in

-the shade of a summer-house, as we gazed in each other's eyes, uttered

-unconsciously a cry of joy that stirred our blood as if it had come

-from the mouth of a third person who had discovered our secret. Well,

-since that time I have often longed to be a king and to have a palace;

-but in giving form to that desire my imagination did not rest merely in

-the grand gilded palaces of our country; it flew to distant lands, and

-there on the summit of a lofty mountain reared a castle of its own in

-which everything was small and graceful and illumined by a mysterious

-light; and there were long suites of rooms adorned with a thousand

-fanciful and delicate ornaments, with windows through which we two

-alone might look, and little columns behind which my little one might

-almost hide her face playfully as she listened to my step approaching

-from hall to hall, or heard my voice mingled with the murmur of the

-fountains in the garden. All unconsciously, in building that castle

-in fantasy, I was building the Alhambra; in those moments I imagined

-something like these halls, these windows, and this court that we see

-before us--so similar, indeed, that the more I look around the better

-I remember and seem to recognize the place just as I have seen it a

-thousand times. All lovers dream a little of the Alhambra, and

-if they were able to reproduce all their dreams in line and color,

-they would make pictures that would amaze us by their likeness to all

-one sees here. This architecture does not express power, glory, and

-grandeur; it expresses love and passion--love with its mysteries, its

-caprices, its fervor, its bursts of God-given gratitude; passion with

-its melancholy and its silences. There is, then, a close connection, a

-harmony, between the beauty of this Alhambra and the souls of those who

-have loved at sixteen, when longings are but dreams and visions. And

-hence arises the indescribable fascination exercised by this beauty,

-and hence the Alhambra, although deserted and ruined as it is, is

-still the most enchanting castle in the world, and to the end of time

-visitors will leave it with a tear. For in parting with the Alhambra

-we bid a last adieu to the most beautiful dreams of youth revived

-among these walls for the last time. We bid adieu to faces unspeakably

-dear that have broken the oblivion of many years to stand beside us a

-last time by the little columns of these windows. We bid adieu to all

-the fancies of youth. We bid adieu to that love which will never live

-again."

-

-[Illustration: _Fountain in the Court of Lions, Alhambra_]

-

-"It is true," answered my friend, "but what will you say when you have

-seen the Court of the Lions? Come, let us hurry."

-

-We left the tower with hasty steps, crossed the Court of Myrtles, and

-came to a little door opposite the door of entrance.

-

-"Stop!" cried Gongora.

-

-I stopped.

-

-"Do me a favor?"

-

-"A hundred."

-

-"Only one: shut your eyes and don't open them until I tell you."

-

-"Well, they are shut."

-

-"See that you keep them so; I sha'n't like it if you open them."

-

-"Never fear."

-

-Gongora took me by the hand and led me forward: I trembled like a leaf.

-

-We took about fifteen steps and stopped.

-

-"Look!" said Gongora in an agitated voice.

-

-I looked, and I swear by the head of my reader I felt two tears

-trickling down my cheeks.

-

-We were in the Court of the Lions.

-

-If at that moment I had been obliged to go out as I had come in, I

-could not have told what I had seen. A forest of columns, a vision of

-arches and tracery, an indefinable elegance, an unimaginable delicacy,

-prodigious wealth; an irrepressible sense of airiness, transparency,

-and wavy motion like a great pavilion of lace; an appearance as of

-an edifice which must dissolve at a breath; a variety of lights and

-mysterious shadows; a confusion, a capricious disorder, of little

-things; the grandeur of a castle, the gayety of a summer-house; an

-harmonious grace, an extravagance, a delight; the fancy of an enamored

-girl, the dream of an angel; a madness, a nameless something,--such is

-the first effect of the Court of the Lions.

-

-The court is not larger than a great ball-room; it is rectangular in

-form, with walls no higher than a two-storied Andalusian cottage.

-A light portico runs all around, supported by very slender white

-marble columns grouped in symmetrical disorder, two by two and three

-by three, almost without pedestals, so that they are like the trunks

-of trees standing on the ground: they have varied capitals, high and

-graceful, in the form of little pilasters, above which bend little

-arches of very graceful form, which do not seem to rest upon the

-columns, but rather to be suspended over them like curtains upholding

-the columns themselves and resembling ribbons and twining garlands.

-From the middle of the two shortest sides advance two groups of

-columns forming two little square temples of nine arches in the form

-of stalactites, fringes, pendants, and tassels that seem as though

-they ought to swing and become tangled with the slightest breeze.

-Large Arabian inscriptions run along the four walls, over the arches,

-around the capitals, and along the walls of the little temple. In the

-middle of the court rises a great marble basin supported by twelve

-lions and surrounded by a paved channel, from which flow four other

-smaller channels that make a cross between the four sides of the

-court, cross the portico, enter the adjoining rooms, and join the

-other water-courses which surround the entire edifice. Behind the two

-two little temples and in the middle of the other two sides there

-appear halls and suites of rooms with great open doors, through which

-one can see the dark background broken by the white columns, gleaming

-as if they stood at the mouth of a grotto. At every step the forest

-of columns seems to move and rearrange itself in a new way; behind

-a column that is apparently single spring up two, three, a row of

-columns; some fade away, others unite, and still others separate:

-on looking back from the end of one of the halls everything appears

-different; the arches on the opposite side seem very far away; the

-columns appear out of place; the little temples have changed their

-form; one sees new arches rising beyond the walls, and new columns

-gleaming here in the sunlight, there in the shadow, yonder scarcely

-visible by the dim light which sifts through the tracery of the stucco,

-and the farthest lost in the darkness. There is a constant variety of

-scene, distance, deceptive effects, mysteries, and playful tricks of

-the eye, produced by the architecture, the sun, and one's heightened

-imagination.

-

-"What must this _patio_ have been," said Gongora, "when the inner

-walls of the portico were resplendent with mosaics, the capitals of

-the columns flashed with gold, the ceilings and vaults were painted

-in a thousand colors, the doors hung with silken curtains, the niches

-full of flowers, and under the little temples and through the halls ran

-streams of perfumed water, and from the nostrils of the lions spurted

-twelve jets which fell into the basin, and the air was heavy with the

-most delicious perfumes of Arabia!"

-

-We remained in the court over an hour, and the time passed like a

-flash; and I too did what all have done in that place--Spaniards and

-foreigners alike, men and women, poets and those who are not poets. I

-ran my hand along the walls, touched all the little columns, clasped

-them one by one with my two hands like the waist of a child, hid among

-them, counted them, looked at them from a hundred directions, crossed

-the court in a hundred ways; tried if it were true that by speaking a

-word in a deep voice in the mouth of one of the lions you could hear

-it distinctly from the mouths of all the others; searched along the

-marbles for the blood-spots of the romantic legends, and wearied my

-eyes and brain in following the arabesques. There were a number of

-ladies present. In the Court of the Lions ladies show every sort of

-childish delight: they look out between two twin columns, hide in the

-dark corners, sit on the floor, and stand for hours motionless, resting

-their heads upon their hands, dreaming. These ladies did likewise.

-There was one dressed in white who, as she passed behind the distant

-columns, when she thought no one saw her assumed a certain majestic

-air, like a melancholy sultana, and then laughed with one of her

-friends: it was enchanting.

-

-"Let us go," said my friend.

-

-"Let us go," I replied, and could not move a step. I was experiencing

-not only a delightful sense of surprise, but I was trembling with

-pleasure, and was filled with a longing to touch, to probe, and in some

-way to see behind those walls and those columns, as if they were made

-of some secret material and ought to disclose in their inmost part the

-first cause of the fascination which the place exerts. In all my life I

-have never thought or said, or shall ever say, so many fond words, so

-many foolish expressions, so many pretty, happy, senseless things, as I

-thought and said at that hour.

-

-"But one must come here at sunrise," said Gongora, "one must come at

-sunset, or at night when the moon is full, to see the miracles of

-color, light, and shade. It is enough to make one lose one's head."

-

-We went to see the halls. On the eastern side is the Hall of Justice,

-which is reached by passing under three great arches, each of which

-corresponds with a door opening into the court. It is a long, narrow

-hall, with intricate arabesques and precious mosaics, and its vaulted

-ceiling all points and hollows and clusters of stucco that hang down

-from the arches and run along the walls, clustered together here and

-there, drooping, growing one out of the other, crowding and overtopping

-each other, so that they seem to dispute the space like the bubbles

-in boiling water, and still presenting in many parts traces of old

-colors that must have given the ceiling the appearance of a pavilion

-covered with flowers and hanging fruit. The hall has three little

-alcoves, in each of which one may see a Moorish painting, to which time

-and the extreme rarity of works remaining from the brush of Moorish

-artists have given a very high value. The paintings are on leather,

-and the leather is fastened to the wall. In the central alcove there

-are painted on a golden ground ten men, supposed to be ten kings of

-Granada, clothed in white, with cowls on their heads and scimitars in

-their hands, sitting on embroidered cushions. The paintings in the

-other two alcoves represent castles, ladies and cavaliers, hunting

-scenes, and love episodes whose significance it is difficult to

-understand. But the faces of the ten kings are marvellously true to

-the picture one has formed of their race: there is the dark olive

-complexion, the sensuous lips, the black eyes, with an intense

-mysterious glance that seems always to be shining in the dark corners

-of the halls of the Alhambra.

-

-On the north side of the court there is another hall, called the

-hall _De las dos Hermanas_ (of the two sisters), so called from two

-great marble slabs which form the pavement. It is the most beautiful

-hall in the Alhambra--a little square arched room, with one of those

-ceilings in the form of a cupola which the Spaniards call half oranges,

-supported by slender columns and arches arranged in a circle, all

-adorned, like a grotto full of stalactites, with an infinite number

-of points and hollows, colored and gilded, and so light to the view

-that it seems as if they are suspended in the air, and would tremble

-at a touch like a curtain or separate like a cloud or disappear like

-a cluster of soap-bubbles. The walls, like those of all the other

-halls, are bedecked with stucco and carved with arabesques incredibly

-intricate and delicate, forming one of the most marvellous works of

-human patience and imagination. The more one looks, the more numberless

-become the lines which blend and cross, and from one figure springs

-another, and from that a third, and all three produce a fourth that

-has escaped the eye, and this divides suddenly into ten other figures

-that have passed unnoticed, and then they mingle again and are again

-transformed; and one never ceases to discover new combinations, for

-when the first reappear they are already forgotten, and produce the

-same effect as at the beginning. One would lose sight and reason in

-trying to comprehend that labyrinth: it would require an hour to

-study the outlines of a window, the ornaments of a pilaster, and the

-arabesques of a frieze; an hour would not be sufficient to fix upon

-the mind the design of one of the stupendous cedar doors. On either

-side of the hall there are two little alcoves, and in the centre a

-little basin with a pipe for a fountain that empties into the channel

-that crosses the portico and flows to the Fountain of the Lions.

-

-Directly opposite the entrance there is another door, through which one

-passes into another long, narrow room called the Hall of the Oranges.

-And from this hall, through a third door, one enters a little chamber

-called the Cabinet of Lindaraja, very richly ornamented, at the end of

-which there is a graceful window with two arches overlooking a garden.

-

-To enjoy all the beauty of this magical architecture one must leave the

-Hall of the Two Sisters, cross the Court of the Lions, and enter a room

-called the Hall of the Abencerrages, which lies on the southern side,

-opposite the Hall of the Two Sisters, to which it is very similar in

-form and ornamentation. From the end of this hall one looks across the

-Court of the Lions through the Hall of the Two Sisters into the Hall

-of the Oranges and even into the Cabinet of Lindaraja and the garden

-beyond, where a mass of verdure appears under the arches of that jewel

-of a window. The two sides of this window, so diminutive and full of

-light when seen in the distance from the end of that suite of darkened

-rooms, look like two great open eyes, that look at you and make

-you imagine that beyond them must lie the unfathomable mysteries of

-paradise.

-

-After seeing the Hall of the Abencerrages we went to see the baths,

-which are situated between the Hall of the Two Sisters and the Court

-of the Myrtles. We descended a flight of stairs, passed a long narrow

-corridor, and came out into a splendid hall called the hall _De las

-Divans_, where the favorites of the king came to rest on their Persian

-rugs to the sound of the lyre after they had bathed in the adjoining

-rooms. This hall was reconstructed on the plans of the ancient ruins,

-and adorned with arabesques, gilded and painted, by Spanish artists

-after the ancient patterns; consequently one may consider it a room of

-the Moorish period remaining intact in every part. In the middle is a

-fountain, and in the opposite walls are two alcoves where the women

-reposed on divans, and overhead the galleries where the musicians

-played. The walls are laced, dotted, checkered, and mottled with a

-thousand brilliant hues, presenting the appearance of a tapestry of

-Chinese stuff shot with golden threads, with an endless interweaving of

-figures that must have maddened the most patient mosaic-worker on earth.

-

-Nevertheless, a painter was at work in the hall. He was a German who

-had worked for three months in copying the walls. Gongora knew him, and

-asked, "It is wearisome work, is it not?"

-

-And he answered with a smile, "I don't find it so," and bent again over

-his picture.

-

-I looked at him as if he had been a creature from another world.

-

-We entered the little bathing-chambers, vaulted and lighted from above

-by some star-and flower-shaped apertures in the wall. The bathing-tubs

-are very large, single blocks of marble enclosed between two walls. The

-corridors which lead from one room to the other are low and narrow,

-so that a man can scarcely pass through them; they are delightfully

-cool. As I stood looking into one of these little rooms I was suddenly

-impressed with a sad thought.

-

-"What makes you sad?" asked my friend.

-

-"I was thinking," I replied, "of how we live, summer and winter, in

-houses like barracks, in rooms on the third floor, which are either

-dark or else flooded with a torrent of light, without marble, without

-water, without flowers, without columns; I was thinking that we

-must live so all our lives and die between those walls without once

-experiencing the delights of these charmed palaces; I was thinking that

-even in this wretched earthly life one may enjoy vastly, and that I

-shall not share this enjoyment at all; I was thinking that I might have

-been born four centuries ago a king of Granada, and that I was born

-instead a poor man."

-

-My friend laughed, and, taking my arm between his thumb and finger, as

-if to give me a pinch, he said, "Don't think of that. Think of how much

-beauty, grace, and mystery these tubs must have seen; of the little

-feet that have played in their perfumed waters; of the long hair which

-has fallen over their rims; of the great languid eyes that have looked

-at the sky through the openings in the vaulted ceiling, while beneath

-the arches of the Court of the Lions sounded the hastening step of

-an impatient caliph, and the hundred fountains of the castle sighed

-with a quickening murmur, 'Come! come! come!' and in a perfumed hall

-a trembling slave reverently closed the windows with the rose-colored

-curtains."

-

-"Ah! leave my soul in peace!" I replied, shrugging my shoulders.

-

-We crossed the garden of the Cabinet of Lindaraja and a mysterious

-court called the _Patio de la Reja_, and by a long gallery that

-commands a view of the country reached the top of one of the farthest

-towers of the Alhambra, called the _Mirador de la Reina_ (the Queen's

-toilet), shaded by a little pavilion and open all round, hanging over

-an abyss like an eagle's nest. The view one enjoys from this point--one

-may say it without fear of contradiction--has not its equal on the face

-of the earth.

-

-[Illustration: _Queen's Boudoir, Alhambra_]

-

-Imagine an immense plain, green as a meadow, covered with young grass,

-crossed in all directions by endless rows of cypresses, pines, oaks,

-and poplars, dotted with dense orange-groves that in the distance look

-no larger than shrubs, and with great orchards and gardens so crowded

-with fruit trees that they look like green hillocks; and the river

-Xenil winding through this immense plain, gleaming among the groves

-and gardens like a great silver ribbon; and all around wooded hills,

-and beyond the hills lofty rocks of fantastic form, which complete the

-picture of a barrier-wall with gigantic towers separating that earthly

-paradise from the world; and there, just beneath one's eyes, the city

-of Granada, partly extending to the plain and partly on the slope of

-the hill, all interspersed with groups of trees, shapeless masses of

-verdure which rise and wave above the roofs of the houses like enormous

-plumes, until it seems as if they were striving to expand and unite

-and cover the entire city; and still nearer the deep valley of the

-Darro more than covered--yes, filled to overflowing and almost heaped

-full--with its prodigious growth of vegetation, rising like a mountain,

-and above it there rises yet again a grove of gigantic poplars tossing

-their topmost boughs so close under the windows of the tower that one

-can almost touch them; and to the right beyond the Darro, on a high

-hill towering toward heaven, bold and rounded like a cupola, the palace

-of the Generalife, encircled by its aërial gardens and almost hidden

-in a grove of laurels, poplars, and pomegranates; and in the opposite

-direction a marvellous spectacle, a thing incredible, a vision of a

-dream--the Sierra Nevada, after the Alps, the highest mountain-range in

-Europe crowned with snow, white even to a few miles from the gates of

-Granada, white even to the hills on whose sides spread the pomegranates

-and palms, and where a vegetation almost tropical expands in all its

-splendid pomp.

-

-Imagine now over this vast paradise, containing all the smiling graces

-of the Orient and all the severe beauties of the North, wedding Europe

-to Africa, and bringing to the nuptials all the choicest marvels of

-nature, and exhaling to heaven all the perfumes of the earth blended

-in one breath,--imagine above this happy valley the sky and sun of

-Andalusia, rolling on to its setting and tinting the peaks with a

-divine rose-color, and painting the mountain-sides of the Sierra

-with all the colors of the rainbow, and clothing them with all the

-reflections of the most limpid azure pearls, its rays breaking in a

-thousand mists of gold, purple, and gray upon the rocks encircling

-the plain, and, as it sinks in a flame of fire, casting like a last

-good-night a luminous crown about the gloomy towers of the Alhambra and

-the flower-crowned pinnacles of the Generalife, and tell me if this

-world can give anything more solemn, more glorious, more intoxicating

-than this love-feast of the earth and sky, before which for nine

-centuries Granada has trembled with delight and throbbed with pride?

-

-The roof of the _Mirador de la Reina_ is supported by little Moorish

-columns, between which extend flattened arches which give the pavilion

-an extremely fanciful and graceful appearance. The walls are frescoed,

-and one may see along the friezes the initials of Isabella and Philip

-interwoven with cupids and flowers. Close by the door there still

-remains a stone of the ancient pavement, all perforated, upon which

-it is said the sultanas sat to be enveloped in the clouds of perfumed

-vapor which arose from below.

-

-Everything in this place tells of love and happiness. There one

-breathes an air as pure as that on a mountain-peak, there one perceives

-a mingled fragrance of myrtles and roses, and no other sound reaches

-the ear save the murmur of the Darro as it dashes among the rocks of

-its stony bed, and the singing of a thousand birds hidden in the dense

-foliage of the valley; it is truly a nest of loves, a hanging alcove

-where to go and dream of an aërial balcony to which one might climb and

-thank God for being happy.

-

-"Ah, Gongora," I exclaimed after contemplating for some moments that

-enchanting spectacle, "I would give years of my life to be able to

-summon here, with a stroke of a magic wand, all the dear ones who are

-looking for me in Italy."

-

-Gongora pointed out a large space on the wall, all black with dates and

-names of visitors to the Alhambra, written with crayon and charcoal and

-cut with knives.

-

-"What is this written here?" he demanded.

-

-I approached and uttered a cry: "Chateaubriand!"

-

-"And here?"

-

-"Byron!"

-

-"And here?"

-

-"Victor Hugo!"

-

-After descending from the _Mirador de la Reina_ I thought I had seen

-the Alhambra, and was so imprudent as to tell my friend so. If he had

-had a stick in his hand, I verily believe he would have struck me; but,

-as he had not, he contented himself by regarding me with the air of one

-demanding whether or not I had lost my senses.

-

-We returned to the Court of the Myrtles and visited the rooms situated

-on the other side of the Tower of Comares, the greater part in ruins,

-the rest altered, some absolutely bare, without either pavement or

-roof, but all worth seeing, both in remembrance of what they had

-been and for the sake of understanding the plan of the edifice. The

-ancient mosque was converted into a chapel by Charles V., and a great

-Moorish hall was changed into an oratory; here and there one still

-sees the fragments of arabesques and carved ceilings of cedar-wood;

-the galleries, the courts, and the vestibules remind one of a palace

-dismantled by fire.

-

-After seeing that part of the Alhambra I really thought there was

-nothing else left to see, and a second time was imprudent enough to

-say so to Gongora: this time he could no longer contain himself, and,

-leading me into a vestibule of the Court of Myrtles and pointing to a

-map of the building hanging on the wall, he said, "Look, and you will

-see that all the rooms of the courts and the towers that we have so far

-visited do not occupy one-twentieth part of the space embraced within

-the walls of the Alhambra; you will see that we have not yet visited

-the remains of the three other mosques, the ruins of the House of Cadi,

-the water-tower, the tower of the Infantas, the tower of the Prisoner,

-the tower of Candil, the tower of the Picos, the tower of the Daggers,

-the tower of the _Siete Suelos_, the tower of the Captain, the tower of

-the Witch, the tower of the Heads, the tower of Arms, the tower of the

-Hidalgos, the tower of the Cocks, the tower of the Cube, the tower of

-Homage, the tower of Vela, the Powder Tower, the remains of the House

-of Mondejar, the military quarters, the iron gate, the inner walls, the

-cisterns, the promenades; for I would have you know that the Alhambra

-is not a palace: it is a city, and one could spend his life in studying

-its arabesques, reading its inscriptions, and every day discovering

-a new view of the hills and mountains, and going into ecstasies

-regularly once every twenty-four hours."

-

-And I thought I had seen the Alhambra!

-

-On that day I did not wish to learn anything more, and the dear

-knows how my head ached when I returned to the hotel. The day after,

-at the peep of dawn, I was back at the Alhambra, and again in the

-evening, and I continued to go there every day so long as I remained

-at Granada, with Gongora, with other friends, with guides, or alone;

-and the Alhambra always seemed vaster and more beautiful as I wandered

-through the courts and halls, and passed hour after hour sitting among

-the columns or gazing out of the windows with an ever-heightening

-pleasure, every time discovering new beauties, and ever abandoning

-myself to those vague and delightful fancies among which my mind had

-strayed on the first day. I cannot tell through which entrances my

-friends led me into the Alhambra, but I remember that every day on

-going there I saw walls and towers and deserted streets that I had not

-seen before, and the Alhambra seemed to me to have changed its site,

-to have been transformed, and surrounded as if by enchantment with new

-buildings that changed its original appearance. Who could describe

-the beauty of those sunset views; those fantastic groves flooded with

-moonlight; the immense plain and the snow-covered mountains on clear,

-serene nights; the imposing outlines of those enormous walls, superb

-towers, and those measureless trees under a starry sky; the prolonged

-rustling of those vast masses of verdure overflowing the valleys and

-climbing the hillsides? It was a spectacle before which my companions

-remained speechless, although they were born in Granada and accustomed

-from infancy to look upon these scenes. So we would walk along in

-silence, each buried in his own thoughts, with hearts oppressed by mild

-melancholy, and sometimes our eyes were wet with tears, and we raised

-our faces to heaven with a burst of gratitude and love.

-

-On the day of my arrival at Granada, when I entered the hotel at

-midnight, instead of finding silence and quiet, I found the _patio_

-illuminated like a ball-room, people sipping sherbet at the tables,

-coming and going along the galleries, laughing and talking, and I was

-obliged to wait an hour before going to sleep. But I passed that hour

-very pleasantly. While I stood looking at a map of Spain on the wall a

-great burly fellow, with a face as red as a beet and a great stomach

-extending nearly to his knees, approached me and, touching his cap,

-asked if I was an Italian. I replied that I was, and he continued with

-a smile, "And so am I; I am the proprietor of the hotel."

-

-"I am delighted to hear it, the more so because I see you are making

-money."

-

-"Great Heavens!" he replied in a tone which he wished to seem

-melancholy. "Yes, ... I cannot complain; but, ... believe me, my dear

-sir, however well things may go, when one is far from his native land

-one always feels a void here;" and he put his hand upon his enormous

-chest.

-

-I looked at his stomach.

-

-"A great void," repeated mine host; "one never forgets one's

-country.... From what province are you, sir?"

-

-"From Liguria. And you?"

-

-"From Piedmont. Liguria! Piedmont! Lombardy! They are countries!"

-

-"They are fine countries, there is no doubt of that, but, after all,

-you cannot complain of Spain. You are living in one of the most

-beautiful cities in the world, and are proprietor of one of the finest

-hotels in the city; you have a crowd of guests all the year round, and

-then I see you enjoy enviable health."

-

-"But the void?"

-

-I looked again at his stomach.

-

-"Oh, I see, sir; but you are deceived, you know, if you judge me by

-appearances. You cannot imagine what a pleasure it is when an Italian

-comes here. What you will? Weakness it may be.... I know not, ... but

-I should like to see him every day at table, and I believe that if my

-wife did not laugh at me I should send him a dozen dishes on my own

-account, as a foretaste."

-

-"At what hour do you dine to-morrow?"

-

-"At five. But, after all, ... one eats little here, ... hot country,

-... everybody lives lightly, ... whatever their nationality may be....

-That is the rule.... But you have not seen the other Italian who is

-here?"

-

-So saying, he turned around, and a man came forward from a corner of

-the court where he had been watching us. The proprietor, after a few

-words, left us alone. The stranger was a man of about forty, miserably

-dressed, who spoke through closed teeth, and kept continually clenching

-his hands with a convulsive motion as if he was making an effort to

-keep from using his fists. He told me he was a chorus-singer from

-Lombardy, and that he had arrived the day before at Granada with other

-artists booked to sing at the opera for the summer season.

-

-"A beastly country!" he exclaimed without any preamble, looking around

-as if he wished to make a speech.

-

-"Then you do not remain in Spain voluntarily?" I asked.

-

-"In Spain? I? Excuse me: it is just as if you had asked me whether I

-was staying voluntarily in a galley."

-

-"But why?"

-

-"Why? But can't you see what sort of people the Spaniards

-are--ignorant, superstitious, proud, bloodthirsty, impostors, thieves,

-charlatans, villains?"

-

-And he stood a moment motionless in a questioning attitude, with the

-veins of his neck so swollen that they seemed ready to burst.

-

-"Pardon me," I replied; "your judgment does not seem favorable enough

-to admit of my agreeing with you. When it comes to ignorance, excuse

-me, it will not do for us Italians, for us who still have cities where

-the schoolmasters are stoned and the professors are stabbed if they

-give a zero to their scholars,--it will not do for us, I say, to pick

-flaws in others. As for superstition, alas for us again! since we may

-still see in that city of Italy in which popular instruction is most

-widely diffused an unspeakable uproar over a miraculous image of the

-Madonna found by a poor ignorant woman in the middle of a street!

-As for crime, I frankly declare that if I were obliged to draw a

-comparison between the two countries before an audience of Spaniards,

-with the statistics now in hand, without first proving my data and

-conclusions, I should be very much alarmed.... I do not wish to say

-by this that we are not, on the whole, sailing in smoother water than

-is Spain. I wish to say that an Italian in judging the Spanish, if he

-would be just, must be indulgent."

-

-"Excuse me: I don't think so. A country without political direction!

-a country a prey to anarchy! a country--Come, now, cite me one great

-Spaniard of the present day."

-

-"I cannot, ... there are so few great men anywhere."

-

-"Cite me a Galileo."

-

-"Oh, there are no Galileos."

-

-"Cite me a Ratazzi."

-

-"Well, they have none."

-

-"Cite me ... But, really, they have nothing. And then, does the country

-seem beautiful to you?"

-

-"Ah! excuse me; that point I will not yield: Andalusia, to cite a

-single province, is a paradise; Seville, Cadiz, and Granada are

-splendid cities."

-

-"How? Do you like the houses of Seville and Cadiz, with walls that

-whiten a poor devil from head to foot whenever he happens to touch

-them? Do you like those streets along which one can hardly pass after

-a good dinner? And do you find the Andalusian women beautiful with

-their devilish eyes? Come, now, you are too indulgent. They are not a

-_serious_ people. They have summoned Don Amadeus, and now they don't

-want him. They are not worthy of being governed by a _civilized man_."

-(These were his actual words.)

-

-"Then you don't find any good in Spain?"

-

-"Not the least."

-

-"But why do you stay?"

-

-"I stay ... because I make my living here."

-

-"Well, that is something."

-

-"But what a living! It is a dog's life! Everybody knows what Spanish

-cooking is."

-

-"Excuse me: instead of living like a dog in Spain, why not go and live

-like a man in Italy?"

-

-Here the poor artist seemed somewhat disconcerted, and I, to relieve

-his annoyance, offered him a cigar, which he took and lighted without

-a word. And he was not the only Italian in Spain who had spoken to me

-in those terms of the country and its inhabitants, denying even the

-clearness of the sky and the grace of the Andalusian women. I do not

-know what enjoyment there can be in travelling after this fashion, with

-the heart closed to every kindly sentiment, and continually on the

-lookout to censure and despise, as if everything good and beautiful

-which one finds in a foreign country has been stolen from our own,

-and as if we are of no account unless we run down everybody else. The

-people who travel in such a mental attitude make me pity rather than

-condemn them, because they voluntarily deprive themselves of many

-pleasures and comforts. So it appears to me, at least, to judge others

-by myself, for wherever I go the first sentiment which the sights and

-the people inspire in me is a feeling of sympathy; a desire not to find

-anything which I shall be obliged to censure; an inclination to imagine

-every beautiful thing more beautiful; to conceal the unpleasant things,

-to excuse the defects, to be able to say candidly to myself and others

-that I am content with everything and everybody. And to arrive at this

-end I do not have to make any effort: everything presents itself

-almost spontaneously in its most pleasing aspect, and my imagination

-benignly paints the other aspects a delicate rose-color. I know well

-that one cannot study a country in this way, nor write sage essays, nor

-acquire fame as a profound thinker; but I know that one travels with a

-peaceful mind, and that such travels are of unspeakable benefit.

-

-The next day I went to see the Generalife, which was a sort of villa

-of the Moorish kings, and whose name is linked to that of the Alhambra

-as is that of the Alhambra to Granada; but now only a few arches and

-arabesques remain of the ancient Generalife. It is a small palace,

-simple and white, with few windows, and an arched gallery surrounded

-with a terrace, and half hidden in the midst of a grove of laurel and

-myrtles, standing on the summit of a mountain covered with flowers,

-rising upon the right bank of the Darro opposite the hill of the

-Alhambra. In front of the façade of the palace extends a little garden,

-and other gardens rise one above another almost in the form of a

-vast staircase to the very top of the mountain, where there extends

-a very high terrace that encloses the Generalife. The avenues of the

-gardens and the wide staircases that lead from one to another of the

-flower-beds are flanked by high espaliers surmounted by arches and

-divided by arbors of myrtle, curved and intertwined with graceful

-designs, and at every landing-place rise white summer-houses shaded by

-trellises and picturesque groups of orange trees and cypresses. Water

-is still as abundant as in Moorish times, and gives the place a grace,

-freshness, and luxuriance impossible to describe. From every part one

-hears the murmur of rivulets and fountains; one turns down an avenue

-and finds a jet of water; one approaches a window and sees a stream

-reaching almost to the window-sill; one enters a group of trees and

-the spray of a little waterfall strikes one's face; one turns and sees

-water leaping, running, and trickling through the grass and shrubbery.

-

-From the height of the terrace one commands a view of all those gardens

-as they slope downward in platforms and terraces; one peers down

-into the abyss of vegetation which separates the two mountains; one

-overlooks the whole enclosure of the Alhambra, with the cupolas of its

-little temples, its distant towers, and the paths winding among its

-ruins; the view extends over the city of Granada with its plain and

-its hills, and runs with a single glance along all the summits of the

-Sierra Nevada, that appear so near that one imagines they are not an

-hour's walk distant. And while you contemplate that spectacle your ear

-is soothed by the murmur of a hundred fountains and the faint sound of

-the bells of the city, which comes in waves scarcely audible, bearing

-with it the mysterious fragrance of this earthly paradise which makes

-you tremble and grow pale with delight.

-

-[Illustration: _Court of the Generalife, Granada_]

-

-Beyond the Generalife, on the summit of a higher mountain, now bleak

-and bare, there rose in Moorish times other royal palaces, with gardens

-connected with each other by great avenues lined with myrtle hedges.

-Now all these marvels of architecture encircled by groves, fountains,

-and flowers, those fabulous castles in the air, those magnificent and

-fragrant nests of love and delight, have disappeared, and scarcely

-a heap of rubbish or a short stretch of wall remains to tell their

-story to the passer-by. But these ruins, that elsewhere would arouse a

-feeling of melancholy, do not have such an influence in the presence

-of that glorious nature whose enchantment not even the most marvellous

-works of man have ever been able to equal.

-

-On re-entering the city I stopped at one end of the _Carrera

-del Darro_, in front of a house richly adorned with bas-reliefs

-representing heraldic shields, armor, cherubs, and lions, with a little

-balcony, over one corner of which, partly on one wall and partly on

-another, I read the following mysterious inscription stamped in great

-letters:

-

-          "ESPERANDO LA DEL CIELO,"

-

-which, literally translated, signifies "_Awaiting her in Heaven_."

-Curious to learn the hidden meaning of those words, I made a note of

-them, so that I might ask the learned father of my friend about them.

-He gave me two interpretations, the one almost certainly correct, but

-not at all romantic; the other romantic, but very doubtful. I give the

-last: The house belonged to Don Fernando de Zafra, the secretary of

-the Catholic kings. He had a very beautiful daughter. A young hidalgo,

-of a family hostile or inferior in rank to the house of Zafra, became

-enamored of the daughter, and, as his love was returned, he asked

-for her hand in marriage, but was refused. The refusal of her father

-stirred the love of the two young hearts to flame: the windows of the

-house were low; the lover one night succeeded in making the ascent

-and entered the maiden's room. Whether he upset a chair on entering,

-or coughed, or uttered a low cry of joy on seeing his beautiful love

-welcoming him with open arms, the tradition does not tell, and no one

-knows; but certain it is that Don Fernando de Zafra heard a noise, ran

-in, saw, and, blind with fury, rushed upon the ill-fated young man

-to put him to death. But he succeeded in making his escape, and Don

-Fernando in following him ran into one of his own pages, a partisan

-of the lovers, who had helped the hidalgo to enter the house: in his

-haste his master mistook him for the betrayer, and, without hearing his

-protests and prayers, he had him bound and hanged from the balcony. The

-tradition runs that while the poor victim kept crying, "Pity! pity!"

-the outraged father responded as he pointed toward the balcony, "Thou

-shalt stay there _esperando la del Cielo_!" (awaiting her in heaven)--a

-reply which he afterward had cut in the stone walls as a perpetual

-warning to evil-doers.

-

-I devoted the rest of the day to the churches and monasteries.

-

-The cathedral of Granada deserves to be described part by part in

-an even higher degree than the cathedral of Malaga, although it too

-is beautiful and magnificent; but I have already described enough

-churches. Its foundation was laid by the Catholic kings in 1529 upon

-the ruins of the principal mosque of the city, but it has never been

-finished. It has a great façade with three doorways, adorned with

-statues and bas-reliefs, and it consists of five naves, divided by

-twenty measureless pilasters, each composed of a bundle of slender

-columns. The chapels contain paintings by Boccanegra, sculptures by

-Torrigiano, and tombs and other precious ornaments. Admirable above all

-is the great chapel, supported by twenty Corinthian columns divided

-into two orders, upon the first of which rise colossal statues of

-the twelve apostles, and on the second an entablature covered with

-garlands and heads of cherubs. Overhead runs a circle of magnificent

-stained-glass windows, which represent the Passion, and from the frieze

-which crowns them leap ten bold arches forming the vault of the chapel.

-Within the arches that support the columns are six great paintings by

-Alonzo Cano, which are said to be his most beautiful and finished work.

-

-And since I have spoken of Alonzo Cano, a native of Granada, one of

-the strongest Spanish painters of the seventeenth century, although

-a disciple of the Sevillian school rather than the founder, as some

-assert, of a school of his own, but less original than his greatest

-contemporaries,--since I have spoken of him, I wish here to record some

-traits of his genius and anecdotes of his life little known outside

-of Spain, although exceedingly remarkable. Alonzo Cano was the most

-quarrelsome, the most irascible, and the most violent of the Spanish

-painters. He spent his life in contention. He was a priest. From 1652

-to 1658, for six consecutive years, without a day's intermission, he

-wrangled with the canons of the cathedral of Granada, of which he was

-steward, because he was not willing to become subdeacon in accordance

-with the stipulated agreement; before leaving Granada he broke into

-pieces with his own hands a statue of Saint Anthony of Padua which he

-had made to the order of an auditor of the chancery, because the man

-allowed himself to observe that the price demanded seemed a little

-dear. Chosen master of design to the royal prince, who, as it appears,

-was not born with a talent for painting, he so exasperated his pupil

-that the boy was obliged to have recourse to the king that he might

-be taken out of his hands. Remanded to Granada, to the neighborhood

-of the chapter of the cathedral, as an especial favor, he bore such a

-deep rancor from his old litigations with his canons that throughout

-his life he would not do a stroke of work for them. But this is a small

-matter. He nursed a blind, bestial, inextinguishable hatred against the

-Hebrews, and was firmly convinced that in any way to touch a Hebrew or

-any object that a Hebrew had touched would bring him misfortune. Owing

-to this conviction he did some of the most extravagant feats in the

-world. If in walking along the street he ran against a Jew, he would

-strip off the infected garment and return home in his shirt-sleeves.

-If by chance he succeeded in discovering that in his absence a servant

-had admitted a Jew into the house, he discharged the servant, threw

-away the shoes with which he had touched the pavement profaned by the

-circumcised, and sometimes even had the pavement torn up and reset. And

-he found something to find fault with even as he was dying. When he was

-approaching the end of life the confessor handed him a clumsily-made

-crucifix that he might kiss it, but he pushed it away with his hand,

-saying, "Father, give me a naked cross, that I may worship Jesus Christ

-as He Himself is and as I behold Him in my mind." But, after all, his

-was a rare, charitable nature which abhorred every vulgar action,

-and loved with a deep and very pure love the art in which he remains

-immortal.

-

-On returning to the church after I had made the round of all the

-chapels and was preparing to leave, I was impressed by a suspicion that

-there was something else still to be seen. I had not read the Guidebook

-and had been told nothing, but I heard an inner voice which said to

-me, "Seek!" and, in fact, I sought with my eyes in every direction,

-without knowing what I sought. A cicerone noticed me and sidled up to

-me, as all of his kind do, like an assassin, and asked me with an air

-of mystery, "_Quiere usted algo?_" (Do you wish something, sir?)

-

-"I should like to know," I replied, "if there is anything to see in

-this cathedral besides that which I have seen already?"

-

-"How!" exclaimed the cicerone; "you have not seen the royal chapel,

-have you, sir?"

-

-"What is there in the royal chapel?"

-

-"What is there? Caramba! Nothing less than the tombs of Ferdinand and

-Isabella the Catholics."

-

-I could have said so! I had in my mind a place ready for this idea,

-and the idea was lacking! The Catholic kings must certainly have been

-buried in Granada, where they fought the last great chivalrous war of

-the Middle Ages, and where they gave Christopher Columbus a commission

-to fit out ships which bore him to the New World. I ran rather than

-walked to the royal chapel, preceded by the limping cicerone; an old

-sacristan opened the door of the sacristy, and before he allowed me to

-enter and see the tombs he led me to a sort of glass cupboard full of

-precious objects, and said to me, "You will remember that Isabella the

-Catholic, to furnish Christopher Columbus with the money that he needed

-to supply the ships for the voyage, not knowing where to turn because

-the coffers of the state were empty, put her jewels in pawn."

-

-"Yes: well?" I demanded impatiently; and, divining the answer, felt my

-heart beat faster the while.

-

-"Well," replied the sacristan, "that is the box in which the queen

-locked her jewels to send them to be pawned."

-

-And so saying he opened the cupboard and took out the box and handed it

-to me.

-

-Oh! brave men may say what they will; as for me, there are things that

-make me tremble and weep. I have touched the box that contained the

-treasure by which Columbus was enabled to discover America. Every time

-I repeat those words my blood is stirred, and I add, "I have touched it

-with these hands," and I look at my hands.

-

-That cupboard contains also the sword of King Ferdinand, the crown and

-sceptre of Isabella, a missal and some other ornaments of the king and

-queen.

-

-We entered the chapel. Between the altar and a great iron chancel that

-separates it from the remaining space stand two great mausoleums of

-marble adorned with statuettes and bas-reliefs of great value. Upon

-one of them lie the statues of Ferdinand and Isabella in their royal

-robes, with crown, sword, and sceptre; on the other the statues of the

-other two princes of Spain, and around the statues lions, angels, and

-arms, and various ornaments, presenting a regal appearance, austere and

-magnificent.

-

-The sacristan lighted a flambeau, and, pointing out a sort of trap-door

-in the pavement between the two mausoleums, asked me to open it and

-descend into the subterranean chamber. With the cicerone's aid I opened

-the trap-door; the sacristan descended, and I followed him down a

-narrow little staircase until we reached a little room. There were five

-caskets of lead, bound with iron bands, each sealed with two initials

-under a crown. The sacristan lowered the torch, and, touching all five

-of them, one after another, with his hand, said in a slow, solemn voice,

-

-"Here rests the great queen Isabella the Catholic.

-

-"Here rests the great king Ferdinand V.

-

-"Here rests the king Philip I.

-

-"Here rests Queen Joanna the Mad.

-

-"Here rests Lady Maria, her daughter, who died at the age of nine years.

-

-"God keep them all in his holy peace!"

-

-And, placing the torch on the ground, he crossed his arms and closed

-his eyes, as if to give me time for meditation.

-

-One would become a hunchback at his desk if he were to describe all

-the religious monuments of Granada--the stupendous Cartuja; the Monte

-Sacro, containing the grottoes of the martyrs; the church of San

-Geronimo, where the great leader Gonzalez di Cordova is buried; the

-convent of Santo Domingo, founded by Torquemada the Inquisitor; the

-convent of the Angels, containing paintings by Cano and Murillo and

-many others; but I suppose that my readers may be even more weary than

-I am, and will consequently pardon me for passing by a mountain of

-description which probably would only give them a confused idea of the

-things described.

-

-But as I have mentioned the sepulchre of the great commander, Gonzalez

-di Cordova, I cannot forbear translating a curious document in

-reference to him which was shown me in the church of San Geronimo by a

-sacristan who was an admirer of the deeds of that hero. The document,

-in the form of an anecdote, is as follows:

-

-"Every step of the great captain Don Gonzalez di Cordova was an

-assault, and every assault a victory; his sepulchre in the convent of

-the Geronomites at Granada was adorned with two hundred banners which

-he had taken. His envious rivals, and the treasurers of the kingdom of

-Naples in particular, induced the king in 1506 to demand a statement

-from Gonzalez of the use he had made of the great sums received from

-Spain for the conduct of the war in Italy; and, in fact, the king was

-so small as to consent, and even to be present on the occasion of the

-conference.

-

-"Gonzalez acceded to the demand with the haughtiest disdain, and

-proposed to give a severe lesson to the treasurers and the king upon

-the treatment and consideration to be accorded a conqueror of kingdoms.

-

-"He replied with great indifference and calmness that he would prepare

-his accounts for the following day, and would let it appear which was

-the debtor, himself or the exchequer, which demanded an account of one

-hundred and thirty thousand ducats delivered upon the first payment,

-eighty thousand crowns upon the second, three millions upon the third,

-eleven millions upon the fourth, thirteen millions upon the fifth,

-and so on as the solemn, nasal, foolish secretary who authorized so

-important an act continued to enumerate the sums.

-

-"The great Gonzalez kept his word, presented himself at the second

-audience, and, bringing out a voluminous book in which he had noted his

-justification, he began with the following words in a deep, sonorous

-voice:

-

-"'Two hundred thousand seven hundred and thirty-six ducats and nine

-reales to the fathers, the nuns, and the poor, to the end that they

-might pray God for the triumph of the Spanish arms.

-

-"'One hundred thousand ducats for powder and shot.

-

-"'Ten thousand ducats for perfumed gloves to protect the soldiers from

-the stench of the corpses of the enemy left on the field of battle.

-

-"'One hundred and seventy thousand ducats for renewing bells worn out

-by continuous ringing for constant new victories over the enemy.

-

-"'Fifty thousand ducats for brandy for the soldiers on the day of

-battle.

-

-"'A million and a half ducats for the maintenance of the prisoners and

-wounded.

-

-"'A million for returning thanks and Te Deums to the Omnipotent.

-

-"'Three hundred millions in masses for the dead.

-

-"'Seven hundred thousand four hundred and ninety-four ducats for spies

-and ...

-

-"'One hundred millions for the patience which I showed yesterday on

-hearing that the king demanded an account from the man who has given

-him his kingdom.'

-

-"These are the celebrated accounts of the great captain, the originals

-of which are in the possession of Count d'Altimira.

-

-"One of the original accounts, with the autograph seal of the great

-captain, exists in the Military Museum of London, where it is guarded

-with great care."

-

-On reading this document I returned to the hotel, making invidious

-comparisons between Gonzalez di Cordova and the Spanish generals of our

-times, which, for grave state reasons, as they say in the tragedies, I

-dare not repeat.

-

-In the hotel I saw something new every day. There were many university

-students who had come from Malaga and other Andalusian cities to take

-the examination for the doctor's degree at Granada, whether because

-they were a little easier there or for what other reason I do not

-know. We all ate at a round table. One morning at breakfast one of the

-students, a young man of about twenty, announced that at two o'clock

-he was to be examined in canon law, and that, not feeling very sure of

-himself, he had decided to take a glass of wine to refresh the springs

-of eloquence. He was accustomed to drink only wine weakened with water,

-and committed the imprudence of emptying at a single draught a glass

-of the vintage of Xerez. His face changed in an instant in so strange

-a manner that if I had not seen the transformation with my own eyes I

-should not have believed that he was the same person.

-

-"There! that is enough!" cried his friends.

-

-But the young man, who already felt that he had become suddenly strong,

-keen, and confident, cast a compassionate glance at his companions, and

-with a lordly gesture ordered the waiter to fetch him another glass.

-

-"You will be drunk," they said.

-

-His only response was to drain a second glass.

-

-Then he became wonderfully talkative. There was a score of persons

-at table: in a few minutes he was conversing with them all, and he

-revealed a thousand secrets of his past life and his plans for the

-future. He said that he was from Cadiz, that he had eight thousand

-francs a year to spend, and that he wished to devote himself to a

-diplomatic career, because with that revenue, added to something which

-his uncle would leave him, he should be able to cut a good figure

-wherever he might be; that he had decided to take a wife at thirty, and

-to marry a woman as tall as himself, because it was his opinion that

-the wife should be of the same stature as her husband, to keep either

-from getting the upper hand of the other; that when he was a boy he

-was in love with the daughter of an American consul as beautiful as a

-flower and strong as a pine, but she had a red birth-mark behind one

-ear, which looked badly, although she knew how to cover it very well

-with her scarf, and he showed us with his napkin how she covered it;

-and that Don Amadeus was too ingenuous a man to succeed in governing

-Spain; that of the poets Zorilla and Espronceda, he had always

-preferred Espronceda; that it would be folly to cede Cuba to America;

-that the examination on canon law made him laugh; and that he wished to

-drink another four fingers of Xerez, the finest wine in Europe.

-

-He drank a third glass in spite of the good counsel and disapprobation

-of his friends, and after prattling a little longer amid the laughter

-of his audience, he suddenly became silent, looked fixedly at a lady

-sitting opposite to him, dropped his head, and fell asleep. I thought

-that he could not present himself for the examination that day, but

-was mistaken. A short hour later they awakened him; he went up stairs

-to wash his face, ran off to the university still drowsy, took his

-examination, and was promoted, to the greater glory of the wine of

-Xerez and Spanish diplomacy.

-

-I devoted the following days to visiting the monuments, or, to be

-more accurate, the ruins of the Moorish monuments which besides the

-Alhambra and the Generalife attest the ancient splendor of Granada.

-Insomuch as it was the last bulwark of Islam, Granada is the city which

-presents the most numerous relics of all the cities of Spain. On the

-hill called the hill of _Dinadamar_ (the Fountain of Tears) one may

-still see the ruins of four towers rising at the four corners of a

-great cistern into which flowed the waters from the Sierra to supply

-the highest part of the city. There were baths, gardens, and villas of

-which not a trace remains: from that point one overlooked the city with

-its minarets, its terraces, and its mosques gleaming among the palms

-and cypresses. Near there one sees a Moorish gate called the gate of

-Elvira--a great arch crowned with battlements--and beyond it are the

-ruins of the palaces of the caliphs. Near the Alameda promenade stands

-a square tower in which there is a great hall ornamented with the usual

-Arabian inscriptions. Near the convent of San Domingo are the remains

-of gardens and palaces once joined to the Alhambra by a subterranean

-passage. Within the city is the Alcaiceria, a Moorish market almost

-perfectly preserved, formed of a few little streets as straight and

-narrow as corridors, lined with two rows of shops, one adjoining the

-other, and presenting the strange appearance of an Asiatic bazaar.

-In short, one cannot take a step in Granada without coming face to

-face with an arch, an arabesque, a column, or a pile of stones which

-suggests its fantastic, luxurious past.

-

-What turns and windings have I not made through those tortuous streets

-at the hottest hour of the day, under a sun that shrivelled my brain,

-without meeting a living soul! At Granada, as in the other cities of

-Andalusia, the people are alive only at night, and the night repays

-them for the imprisonment of the day; the public promenades are crowded

-and confused by the hurry and jostling of a multitude, one half of

-which seems to be seeking the other half upon urgent business. The

-crowd is densest in the Alameda, but, for all that, I spent my evenings

-on the Alameda with Gongora, who talked to me of Moorish monuments, and

-with a journalist who discoursed on politics, and also with another

-young man who talked of women, and frequently with all three of them

-together, to my infinite pleasure, because those cheery meetings, like

-those of school-boys, at odd times and places, refreshed my mind, to

-steal a beautiful simile, like a summer shower refreshes the grass as

-it falls faster and faster, dancing for joy.

-

-If I were obliged to say something about the people of Granada, I

-should be embarrassed, because I have not seen them. In the day-time

-I met no one in the streets, and at night I could not see them. The

-theatres were not open, and when I might have found some one in the

-city I was wandering through the halls or avenues of the Alhambra; and

-then I had so much to do to see everything in the short time which I

-had allowed myself that no unoccupied moments remained for those chance

-conversations, like the ones I had in the other cities, in the streets

-and the cafés, with whomever I happened to meet.

-

-But from what I learned from men who were in a position to give me

-trustworthy information, the people of Granada do not enjoy an enviable

-reputation in Spain. They are said to be ill-tempered, violent,

-vindictive, and bloodthirsty; and this arraignment is not disproved by

-the pages of the city newspapers. It is not publicly stated, but every

-one knows it for a fact, that popular instruction in Granada is at a

-lower ebb than even in Seville and the other smaller Spanish cities,

-and, as a rule, everything that cannot be produced by the sun and the

-soil, which produce so bountifully, goes to the bad, either through

-indolence or ignorance or shiftlessness. Granada is not connected

-by railway with any important city: she lives alone, surrounded by

-her gardens, enclosed by her mountains, happy with the fruits which

-Nature produces under her hand, gently lulling herself to sleep in the

-vanity of her beauty and the pride of her history--idle, drowsy, and

-fanciful, content to answer with a yawn to any one who reproves her

-for her condition: "I gave Spain the painter Alonzo Cano, the poet

-Louis de Leon, the historian Fernando de Castillo, the sacred orator

-Luis di Grenada, and the minister Martinez de la Rosas. I have paid

-my debt, leave me in peace;" and this is the reply made by almost all

-the southern cities of Spain, more beautiful, alas! than wise and

-industrious, and proud rather than civilized. Ah! one who has seen them

-can never have done exclaiming, "What a pity!"

-

-"Now that you have seen all the marvels of Moorish art and tropical

-vegetation there remains the suburb of the Albaicin to be seen before

-you can say that you know Granada. Prepare your mind for a new world,

-put your hand on your purse, and follow me."

-

-So said Gongora to me on the last evening of my sojourn in Granada.

-A Republican journalist was with us, Melchiorre Almago by name, the

-director of the _Idea_, a congenial, affable young man, who to

-accompany us sacrificed his dinner and a leading article that he had

-been cogitating since morning.

-

-We walked on until we came to the square of the _Audiencia_. There

-Gongora pointed out an alley winding up a hill, and said to me, "Here

-commences the Albaicin;" and Señor Melchiorre, touching a house with

-his cane, added, "Here commences the territory of the republic."

-

-We turned up the alley, passed from it into another, and from that into

-a third, always ascending, without my seeing anything extraordinary,

-although I looked curiously in every direction. Narrow streets, squalid

-houses, old women dozing on the doorsteps, mothers carefully inspecting

-their children's heads, gaping dogs, crowing cocks, ragged boys running

-and shouting, and the other things that one always sees in the suburbs;

-but in those streets nothing more. But gradually, as we ascended, the

-appearance of the houses and the people began to change; the roofs

-became lower, the windows fewer, the doors smaller, and the people more

-ragged. In the middle of every street ran a little stream in a walled

-gutter, in the Moorish style; here and there over the doors and around

-the windows one saw the remains of arabesques and fragments of columns,

-and in the corners of the squares fountains and well-curbs of the time

-of the Moorish dominion. At every hundred steps it seemed as if we had

-gone back fifty years toward the age of the caliphs. My two companions

-touched me on the elbow from time to time, saying as they did so, "Look

-at that old woman!"--"Look at that little girl!"--"Look at that man!"

-and I looked, and asked, "Who are these people?" If I had unexpectedly

-found myself in that place, I should have believed on seeing those men

-and women that I was in an African village, so strange were the faces,

-the dress, the manner of moving, talking, and looking, at so short a

-distance from the centre of Granada--so different were they from the

-people that I had seen up to that time. At every turn I stopped to look

-in the face of my companions, and they answered, "That is nothing; we

-are now in the civilized part of the Albaicin; this is the Parisian

-quarter of the suburb; let us go on."

-

-We went on, and the streets seemed like the bed of a torrent--paths

-hollowed out among the rocks, all banks and gullies, broken and

-stony--some so steep that a mule could not climb them, others so narrow

-that a man could scarcely pass; some blocked by women and children

-sitting on the ground, others grass-grown and deserted; and all so

-squalid, wild, and uncouth that the most wretched of our villages

-cannot give one an idea of them, because this is a poverty that bears

-the impress of another race and another continent. We turned into a

-labyrinth of streets, passing from time to time under a great Moorish

-arch or through a high square from which one commanded a view of the

-wide valleys, the snow-covered mountains, and a part of the lower city,

-until finally we arrived at a street rougher and narrower than any we

-had yet seen; and there we stopped to take breath.

-

-"Here commences the real Albaicin," said the young archeologist. "Look

-at that house!"

-

-I looked; it was a low, smoke-stained, ruinous house, with a door that

-seemed like the mouth of a cavern, before which one saw, under a mass

-of rags, a group, or rather a heap, of old women and little children,

-who upon our approach raised their eyes heavy with sleep, and with bony

-hands removed from the threshold some filth which impeded our passage.

-

-"Let us enter," said my friend.

-

-"Enter?" I demanded.

-

-If they had told me that beyond those walls there was a facsimile of

-the famous Court of Miracles which Victor Hugo has described, I should

-not have doubted their word. No door has ever said more emphatically

-than that, "Stand back!" I cannot find a better comparison than the

-gaping mouth of a gigantic witch breathing out pestilential vapors. But

-I took courage and entered.

-

-Oh, marvellous! It was the court of a Moorish house surrounded by

-graceful little columns surmounted by lovely arches, with those

-indescribable traceries of the Alhambra along the porticoes and around

-the mullioned windows, with the beams and ceiling carved and enamelled

-with little niches for vases of flowers and urns of perfume, with a

-pool in the middle, and all the traces and memorials of the delicate

-life of an opulent family. And in that house lived those wretched

-people!

-

-We went out and entered other houses, in all of which I found some

-fragments of Moorish architecture and sculpture. From time to time

-Gongora would say to me, "This was a harem. Those were the baths of

-the women; up yonder was the chamber of a favorite;" and I fixed my

-eyes upon every bit of the arabesqued wall and upon all the little

-columns of the windows, as if to ask them for a revelation of their

-secrets--only a name or a magic word with which I might reconstruct in

-an instant the ruined edifice and summon the beautiful Arabians who had

-dwelt there. But, alas! amid the columns and under the arches of the

-windows there were only rags and wrinkled faces.

-

-Among other houses, we entered one where we found a group of girls

-sewing under the shade of a tree in the courtyard, directed by an old

-woman. They were all working upon a great piece of cloth that seemed

-like a mat or a bed-spread, in black and gray stripes. I approached and

-asked one of the girls, "What is this?"

-

-They all looked up and with a concerted movement spread the cloth open,

-so that I could see their work plainly. Almost before I had seen it I

-cried, "I will buy it."

-

-They all began to laugh. It was the mantle of an Andalusian

-mountaineer, made to wear in the saddle, rectangular in form, with

-an opening in the middle to put one's head through, embroidered in

-bright-colored worsteds along the two shortest sides and around the

-opening. The design of the embroideries, which represented birds

-and fantastic flowers, green, blue, white, red, and yellow, all in

-a mass, was as crude as a pattern a child might make: the beauty of

-the work lay altogether in the harmony of the colors, which was truly

-marvellous. I cannot express the sensation produced by the sight of

-that mantle, except by saying that it laughed and filled one with its

-cheerfulness; and it seems to me impossible to imagine anything gayer,

-more festive, or more childishly and gracefully capricious. It was a

-thing to look upon in order to bring yourself out of a bad humor, or

-when you wish to write a pretty verse in a lady's album, or when you

-are expecting a person whom you wish to receive with your brightest

-smile.

-

-"When will you finish these embroideries?" I asked one of the girls.

-

-"_Hoy mismo_" (to-day), they all replied in chorus.

-

-"And what is the mantle worth?"

-

-"_Cinco_" (five), stammered one.

-

-The old women pierced her with a glance which seemed to say,

-"Blockhead!" and answered hastily, "Six _duros_."

-

-Six _duros_ are thirty francs; it did not seem much to me, and I put my

-hand in my pocket.

-

-Gongora cast a withering glance at me which seemed to say, "You

-simpleton!" and, drawing me back by the arm, said, "One moment: six

-_duros_ is an exorbitant price."

-

-The old woman shot him another glance which seemed to say, "Brigand!"

-and replied, "I cannot take less."

-

-Gongora gave her another glance, which seemed to say, "Liar!" and said,

-"Come, now; you can take four _duros_; you would not ask more from the

-country-people."

-

-The old woman insisted, and for a while we continued to exchange with

-our eyes the titles of simpleton, swindler, marplot, liar, pinch-penny,

-spend-thrift, until the mantle was sold to me for five duros, and I

-paid and left my address, and we went out blessed and commended to

-God by the old woman and followed a good way by the black eyes of the

-embroiderers.

-

-We went on from street to street, among houses increasingly wretched

-and growing blacker and blacker, and more revolting rags and faces. But

-we never came to the end, and I asked my companions, "Will you have the

-goodness to tell me if Granada has any limits, and if so where they

-are? May one ask where we are going and how we shall return home?" But

-they simply laughed and went forward.

-

-"Is there anything stranger than this to be seen?" I asked at a certain

-point.

-

-"Stranger?" they both replied. "This second part of the suburb which

-you have seen still belongs to civilization: if not the Parisian, it is

-at least the Madrid, quarter of the Albaicin, and there _is_ something

-else; let us go on."

-

-We passed through a very small street containing some scantily-clothed

-women, who looked like people fallen from the moon; crossed a little

-square full of babies and pigs in friendly confusion; passed through

-two or three other alleys, now climbing, now descending, now in the

-midst of houses, now among piles of rubbish, now between trees and

-now among rocks, until we finally arrived at the solitary place on a

-hillside from which we saw in front the Generalife, to the right the

-Alhambra, and below a deep valley filled with a dense wood.

-

-It was growing dark; no one was in sight and not a voice was heard.

-

-"Is this the end of the suburb?" I asked.

-

-My two companions laughed and said, "Look in that direction."

-

-[Illustration: _The Alhambra and the Valley of the Darro_]

-

-I turned and saw along the street that was lost in a distant grove

-an interminable row of houses. Of houses? Rather of dens dug in the

-earth, with a bit of wall in front, with holes for windows and

-crevices for doors, and wild plants of every sort on top and along

-the sides--veritable caves of beasts, in which by the glow of faint

-lights, scarcely visible, swarmed the gypsies by hundreds; a people

-multiplying in the bowels of the mountain, poorer, blacker, and more

-savage than any seen before; another city, unknown to the greater part

-of Granada, inaccessible to the police, closed to the census-officers,

-ignorant of every law and of all government, living one knows not

-how, how numerous no one knows, foreign to the city, to Spain, and to

-modern civilization, with a language and statutes and manners of their

-own--superstitious, false, thieving, beggarly, and fierce.

-

-"Button up your coat and look out for your watch," said Gongora to me,

-"and let us go forward."

-

-We had not taken a hundred steps when a half-naked boy, black as the

-walls of his hovel, ran out, gave a cry, and, making a sign to the

-other boys who followed him, dashed toward us; behind the boys came the

-women; behind the women the men, and then old men, old women, and more

-children; and in less time than it takes to tell it we were surrounded

-by a crowd. My two friends, recognized as Granadines, succeeded in

-saving themselves; I was left in the lurch. I can still see those

-horrid faces, still hear those voices, and still feel the pressure of

-those hands: gesticulating, shouting, saying a thousand things which I

-did not understand; dragging at my coat, my waistcoat, and my sleeves,

-they pressed upon me like a pack of famished people, breathed in my

-face, and cut off my very breath. They were, for the most part, half

-naked and emaciated--their garments falling in tatters, with unkempt

-hair, horrible to see; I seemed to be like Don Roderick in the midst of

-a crowd of the infected in that famous dream of the August night.

-

-"What do these people want?" I asked myself. "Where have I been

-brought? How shall I get out of this?" I felt almost a sense of fear,

-and looked around uneasily. Little by little I began to understand.

-

-"I have a sore on my shoulder," said one; "I cannot work; give me a

-penny."

-

-"I have a broken leg," said another.

-

-"I have a palsied arm."

-

-"I have had a long sickness."

-

-"_Un cuarto, Señorito!_"

-

-"_Un real, caballero!_"

-

-"_Una peseta para todos!_"

-

-This last request was received with a general cry of approval: "_Una

-peseta para todos!_" (a _peseta_ for us all).

-

-With some little trepidation I drew out my purse; they all stood on

-tiptoe; the nearest poked their chins into it; those behind put their

-chins on the heads of those in front; the farthest stretched out their

-arms.

-

-"One moment," I cried. "Who has the most authority among you all?"

-

-They all replied with one voice, stretching out their arms toward the

-same person, "That one."

-

-It was a terrible old hag, all nose and chin, with a great tuft of

-white hair standing straight above her head like a bunch of feathers,

-and a mouth which seemed like a letter-box, with little clothing save a

-chemise--black, shrivelled, and mummified; she approached me bowing and

-smiling, and held out her hands to take mine.

-

-"What do you want?" I demanded, taking a step backward.

-

-"Your fortune," they all cried.

-

-"Tell my fortune, then," I replied, holding out my hand.

-

-The old woman took my poor hand between her ten--I cannot say fingers,

-but shapeless bones--placed her sharp nose on it, raised her head,

-looked hard at me, pointed her finger toward me, and, swaying and

-pausing at every sentence as if she were reciting poetry, said to me in

-inspired accents, "Thou wert born upon a famous day.

-

-"Upon a famous day also shalt thou die.

-

-"Thou art the possessor of amazing riches."

-

-Here she muttered I know not what about sweethearts and marriage and

-felicity, from which I understood that she supposed I was married,

-and then she continued: "On the day of thy marriage there was great

-feasting in thy house; there were many to give and take.

-

-"And another woman wept.

-

-"And when thou seest her the wings of thy heart open."

-

-And so on in this strain, saying that I had sweethearts and friends

-and treasures and jewels in store for me every day of the year, in

-every country of the world. While the old woman was speaking they

-were all silent, as if they believed she had prophesied truly. She

-finally closed her prophecy with a formula of dismissal, and ended the

-formula by extending her arms and making a skip in a dancing attitude.

-I gave her the peseta, and the crowd broke into shouting, applause,

-and singing, making a thousand uncanny hops and gestures around me,

-saluting me with nudges and slaps of the hand on my back, as if I were

-an old friend, until finally, by dint of wriggling and striking now

-one and then another, I succeeded in opening a passage and rejoined

-my friends. But a new danger threatened us. The news of the arrival

-of a foreigner had spread, the tribes were in motion, the city of the

-gypsies was all in an uproar; from the neighboring houses and from the

-distant huts, from the top of the hill and the bottom of the valley,

-ran boys, women with babies about their necks, old men with canes,

-cripples, and professional imposters, septuagenarian prophetesses who

-wished to tell my fortune--an army of beggars coming upon us from every

-direction. It was night; there was no time for hesitation; we broke

-into a run toward the city like school-boys. Then a devilish cry broke

-out behind us, and the nimblest began to chase us. Thanks to Heaven!

-after a short race we found ourselves in safety--tired and breathless,

-and covered with dust, but safe.

-

-"It was necessary to escape at any cost," said Señor Melchiorre with a

-laugh; "otherwise we should have gone home without our shirts."

-

-"And take notice," added Gongora, "that we have seen only the door of

-Gypsy-town, the civilized part, not the Paris nor the Madrid, but at

-least the Granada, of the Albaicin. If we could only have gone on! if

-you could have seen the rest!"

-

-"But how many thousand are there of those people?" I demanded.

-

-"No one knows."

-

-"How do they live?"

-

-"No one can imagine."

-

-"What authority do they recognize?"

-

-"One only--_los reyes_ (the kings), the heads of families or of houses,

-those who have the most money and years. They never go out of their

-city; they know nothing, they live in the dark as to all that happens

-beyond the circle of their hovels. Dynasties fall, governments change,

-armies clash, and it is a miracle if the news ever reaches their ears.

-Ask them if Isabella is still on the throne; they do not know. Ask

-them who Amadeus is; they have never heard his name. They are born

-and perish like flies, and they live as they lived centuries ago,

-multiplying without leaving their own boundaries, ignorant and unknown,

-seeing nothing all their lives beyond the valleys lying below their

-feet and the Alhambra towering above their heads."

-

-We passed again through all the streets that we had traversed, now

-dark and deserted, and endless as it seemed to me; and, climbing and

-descending, turning and twisting, and turning again, we finally arrived

-at the square of the Audiencia in the middle of the city of Granada--in

-the civilized world. At the sight of the brightly-lighted cafés and

-shops I experienced a feeling of pleasure, as if I had just returned to

-city-life after a year's sojourn in an uninhabited wilderness.

-

-On the evening of the next day I left for Valencia. I remember that a

-few moments before starting, as I was paying my hotel-bill, I observed

-to the proprietor that there was an overcharge for one candle, and

-playfully asked him, "Will you deduct it for me?" The proprietor seized

-his pen, and, deducting twenty centimes from the total charge, replied

-in a voice which he wished to appear emotional, "The devil! among

-Italians!"

-

-

-

-

-VALENCIA.

-

-

-The journey from Granada to Valencia, made all _de un tiron_ (at one

-breath), as they say in Spain, is one of those recreations in which a

-rational man indulges only once in his life. From Granada to Menjibar,

-a village on the left bank of the Guadalquivir, between Jaen and

-Andujar, is a night's ride by diligence; from Menjibar to the Alcazar

-de San Juan is a half-day's journey by railway in an uncurtained

-carriage, through a plain as bare as the palm of one's hand, under

-a blazing sun; and from the Alcazar de San Juan to Valencia, taking

-account of an entire evening spent in the station of the Alcazar, makes

-another night and another morning before one reaches the longed-for

-city at noon, where Nature, as Emile Praga would say, is horrified at

-the dreadful idea that there are still four months of summer.

-

-But it must be said that the country through which one passes is

-so beautiful from beginning to the end that if one were capable of

-appreciation when one is dead with sleep and finds one's self turning

-into water by reason of the heat, one would go into ecstasies a

-thousand times. It is a journey of unexpected landscapes, sudden

-vistas, remarkable contrasts, theatrical effects of Nature, so to

-speak--marvellous and fantastic transformations, which leave in the

-mind an indescribable, vague illusion of having passed not through a

-part of Spain, but along an entire meridian of the earth across the

-most dissimilar countries. From the _vega_ of Granada, which you cross

-in the moonlight, almost opening a way among the groves and gardens,

-in the midst of a luxuriant vegetation that seems to crowd around

-you like a tossing sea, ready to overflow and engulf you with its

-billows of verdure,--from this you emerge into the midst of ragged

-and precipitous mountains, where not a trace of human habitation is

-to be seen; you graze the edge of precipices, wind along the banks of

-mountain-torrents, run along at the bottom of the ravines, and seem to

-be lost in a rocky labyrinth. Then you come out a second time among

-the green hills and flowery fields of upper Andalusia, and then, all

-suddenly, the fields and hills disappear and you find yourself in the

-midst of the rocky mountains of the Sierra Morena, that hang over

-your head from every direction and close the horizon all around like

-the walls of an immense abyss. You leave the Sierra Morena, and the

-desert plains of La Mancha stretch before you; you leave La Mancha and

-advance through the flowery plain of Almansa, varied by every sort of

-cultivation, presenting the appearance of a vast carpet of checkered

-pattern colored in all the shades of green that can be found upon the

-pallet of a landscape-painter. And, finally, the plain of Almansa opens

-into a delightful oasis, a land blest of God, a true earthly paradise,

-the kingdom of Valencia, from whose boundaries, even to the city

-itself, you pass through gardens, vineyards, fragrant orange-groves,

-white villas encircled by terraces, cheerful, brightly-colored

-villages, clusters, avenues, and groves of palms, pomegranates,

-aloes, and sugar-canes, interminable hedges of Indian fig, long

-chains of low hills, and conical mounds cultivated as kitchen-gardens

-and flower-beds, laid out with minute care from top to bottom, and

-variegated like great bunches of grass and flowers; and everywhere a

-vigorous vegetation which hides every bare spot, covers every height,

-clothes every projection, climbs, falls, trails along, marches forward,

-overflows, intertwines, shuts off the view, impedes the road, dazzles

-with its verdure, wearies with its beauty, confounds with its caprices

-and its frolics, and produces an effect as of a sudden parting of the

-earth raised to fever heat by the fires of a secret volcano.

-

-The first building which meets the eye on entering Valencia is an

-immense bull-ring situated to the right of the railway. The building

-consists of four orders of superimposed arches rising on stout

-pilasters, all of brick, and in the distance resembling the Colosseum.

-It is the bull-ring where on the fourth of September, 1871, King

-Amadeus, in the presence of thousands of spectators, shook hands with

-Tato, the celebrated one-legged _torero_, who as director of the

-spectacle had asked permission to render his homage in the royal box.

-Valencia is full of mementos of the duke d'Aosta. The sacristan of the

-cathedral has in his possession a gold chronometer bearing the duke's

-initials in diamonds, with a chain of pearls, which was presented by

-him when he went to pray in the chapel of Our Lady of the Desolate.

-In the hospice of the same name the poor remember that one day they

-received their daily bread from his hand. In the mosaic workshop of

-one Nolla they preserve two bricks, upon one of which he cut his own

-name with his sword, and upon the other the name of the queen. In the

-Plaza di Tetuan the people point out the house of Count di Cervellon,

-where he was entertained; it is the same house in which Ferdinand

-VII. signed the decrees annulling the constitution in 1814, in which

-Queen Christina abdicated the throne in 1840, in which Queen Isabella

-spent some days in 1858. In short, there is not a corner of the city

-of which it cannot be said, Here he shook hands with a working-man,

-here he visited a factory, there he passed on foot far from his suite,

-surrounded by a crowd, trustful, serene, and smiling.

-

-It was in Valencia, since I am speaking of the duke d'Aosta,--it was

-in the city of Valencia that a little girl of five years in reciting

-some verses touched upon that terrible subject of a _foreign king_

-with probably the noblest and most considerate words spoken in Spain

-for many years previous to that time--words which, if all Spain had

-remembered and pondered then, would perhaps have spared her many of

-those calamities which have befallen her, and others which still

-threaten; words which perhaps one day some Spaniard may repeat with

-a sigh, and which already at this time draw from events a marvellous

-light of truth and beauty. And, since these verses are graceful and

-simple, I transcribe them here. The poem is entitled "God and the

-King," and runs as follows:

-

-    "Dios, en todo soberano,

-    Creó un dia á los mortales,

-    Y á todos nos hizo iguales

-    Con su poderosa mano.

-

-    "No reconoció Naciones

-    Ni colores ni matices?

-    Y en ver los hombres felices

-    Cifró sus aspiraciones.

-

-    "El Rey, che su imágen es,

-    Su bondad debe imitar

-    Y el pueblo no ha de indagar

-    Si es aleman ó francés.

-

-    "Porqué con ceño iracundo

-    Rechazarle siendo bueno?

-    Un Rey de bondades lleno

-    Tiene por su patria el mundo.

-

-    "Vino de nacion estraña

-    Cárlos Quinto emperador,

-    Y conquistó su valor

-    Mil laureles para España.

-

-    "Y es un recuerdo glorioso

-    Aunque en guerra cimentado,

-    El venturoso reinado

-    De Felipe el Animoso.

-

-    "Hoy el tercero sois vos

-    Nacido en estraño suelo

-    Que viene á ver nuestro cielo

-    Puro destello de Dios.

-

-    "Al rayo de nuestro sol

-    Sed bueno, justo y leal,

-    Que á un Rey bueno y liberal

-    Adora el pueblo español.

-

-    "Y á vuestra frente el trofeo

-    Ceñid de perpetua gloria,

-    Para que diga la historia

-    --Fué grande el Rey Amadeo."

-

-"God, Ruler over all, created mortals one day, and made all equal

-with His mighty hand. He recognized neither nations nor colors nor

-divisions, and to behold men happy was His desire. The king, who is His

-image, ought to imitate His goodness, and the people have no need to

-ask whether he be German or French. Why, then, with angry frown repulse

-him if he be good? A king abounding in good deeds holds the world as

-his country. Charles V., the emperor, came from a foreign nation, and

-by his valor won a thousand laurels for Spain. And the fortunate reign

-of Philip the Courageous is a glorious memory even though founded upon

-war.

-

-"To-day a third king rules you born on a foreign soil, who comes to

-look upon our sky, a clear spark of God. His love is true and just and

-loyal to the light of our sun, and this is a good and liberal king

-Spanish people adore. And around your brows you shall wear the trophy

-of perpetual glory upon which history shall write, 'Great was King

-Amadeus.'"

-

-Oh, poor little girl! how many wise things you have said! and how many

-foolish things others have done!

-

-The city of Valencia, if one enters it with one's mind full of the

-ballads in which the poets sang of its marvels, does not seem to

-correspond to the lovely image formed of it; neither, on the other

-hand, does it offer that sinister appearance for which one is prepared

-if one considers its just fame as a turbulent, warlike city, the

-fomenter of civil strife--a city prouder of the smell of its powder

-than of the fragrance of its orange-groves. It is a city built in the

-midst of a vast flowery plain on the right bank of the Guadalquivir,

-which separates it from the suburbs, a little way from the roadstead

-which serves as a port, and consists all of tortuous streets lined with

-high, ungainly, many-colored houses, and on this account less pleasing

-in appearance than the streets of the Andalusian cities, and entirely

-devoid of that evasive Oriental grace which so strangely stirs one's

-fancy. Along the left bank of the river extends a magnificent promenade

-formed of majestic avenues and beautiful gardens. These one reaches by

-going out of the city through the gate of the Cid, a structure flanked

-by two great embattled towers named after the hero because he passed

-through it in 1094 after he had expelled the Moors from Valencia. The

-cathedral, built upon the spot where stood a temple of Diana in Roman

-times, then a church of San Salvador in the time of the Goths, then

-a mosque in Moorish times, afterward converted into a church by the

-Cid, changed a second time into a mosque by the Moors in 1101, and

-for the third time into a church by King Don Jayme after the final

-overthrow of the invaders, is a vast structure, exceedingly rich in

-ornaments and treasures, but it cannot bear comparison with the greater

-number of the other Spanish cathedrals. There are a few palaces worth

-seeing, besides the palace of the Audiencia, a beautiful monument of

-the sixteenth century in which the Cortes of the kingdom of Valencia

-assembled; the _Casa de Ayuntamiento_, built between the fifteenth and

-sixteenth centuries, in which are preserved the sword of Don Jayme, the

-keys of the city, and the banner of the Moors; and, above all, _the

-Lonja_--the Bourse of the merchants--notable for its celebrated hall

-consisting of three great naves divided by twenty-four spiral columns,

-above which curve the light arches of the vaulted roof in bold lines,

-the architecture imparting to the eye a pleasing impression of gayety

-and harmony. And, finally, there is the art-gallery, which is not one

-of the least in Spain.

-

-But, to tell the truth, in those few days that I remained at Valencia

-waiting for the boat I was more occupied by politics than by art. And

-I proved the truth of the words I heard an illustrious Italian say

-before I left Italy--one who knew Spain like his his own home: "The

-foreigner who lives even for a short time in Spain is drawn little

-by little, almost insensibly, to heat his blood and muddle his brain

-over politics, as if Spain were his own country or as if the fortunes

-of his country were depending upon those of Spain. The passions are

-so inflamed, the struggle is so furious, and in this struggle there

-is always so clearly at stake the future, the safety, and the life of

-the nation, that it is impossible for any one with the least tinge

-of the Latin blood in his imagination and his system to remain an

-indifferent spectator. You must needs grow excited, speak at party

-meetings, take the elections seriously, mingle with the crowd at the

-political demonstrations, break with your friends, form a clique of

-those who think as you think--make, in a word, a Spaniard of yourself,

-even to the whites of your eyes. And gradually, as you become Spanish,

-you forget Europe, as if it were at the antipodes, and end in seeing

-nothing beyond Spain, as if you were governing it, and as if all its

-interests were in your hands."

-

-Such is the case, and this was my experience. In those few days the

-Conservative ministry was shipwrecked and the Radicals had the wind

-behind them. Spain was all in a ferment; governors, generals, officials

-of all grades and of all administrations fell; a crowd of parvenus

-burst into the offices of the ministry with cries of joy: Zorilla was

-to inaugurate a new era of prosperity and peace; Don Amadeus had had an

-inspiration from heaven; liberty had conquered; Spain was saved. And

-I, as I listened to the band playing in front of the new governor's

-mansion under a clear starry sky in the midst of a joyous crowd,--I too

-had a ray of hope that the throne of Don Amadeus might finally extend

-its roots, and reproached myself for being too prone to predict evil.

-And that comedy which Zorilla played at his villa when he would by no

-means accept the presidency of the ministry, and sent back his friends

-and the members of the deputation, and finally, tired of continually

-saying no, fell into a swoon on saying yes, this, I say, gave me at

-the time a high opinion of the firmness of his character and led me to

-augur happily for the new government. And I said to myself that it was

-a sin to leave Spain just when the horizon was clearing and the royal

-palace of Madrid was tinted rose-color. And I had already considered

-the plan of returning to Madrid that I might have the satisfaction

-of sending some consoling news to Italy, and so be pardoned for the

-imprudence of sending unvarnished accounts of the situation up to that

-time. And I repeated the verses of Prati:

-

-    "Oh qual destin t'aspetta

-    Aquila giovenetta!"

-

-(Oh what a destiny awaits thee, young eagle!) And, save a little

-bombast in the appellation, it seemed to me that they contained a

-prophecy, and I imagined meeting the poet in the Piazza Colonna at

-Rome and running toward him to offer my congratulations and press his

-hand....

-

-The most beautiful sight in Valencia is the market. The Valencian

-peasants are the most artistic and bizarre in their dress of all the

-peasants of Spain. To cut a good figure in a group of maskers at one

-of our masquerades they need only enter the theatre dressed as they

-would be on a festival or market-day in the streets of Valencia and

-along the country roads. On first seeing them dressed in this style,

-one laughs, and cannot in any way be brought to believe that they are

-Spanish peasants. They have an indescribable air of Greeks, Bedouins,

-buffoons, tightrope-walkers, women partly undressed on their way to

-bed, the silent characters of a play not quite ready to make their

-appearance, or facetious people who wish to make themselves generally

-ridiculous. They wear a full white shirt that takes the place of a

-jacket; a parti-colored velvet waistcoat open at the breast; a pair of

-zouave linen breeches which do not reach the knee, looking like drawers

-and standing out like the skirts of a ballet-dancer; a red or blue sash

-around the waist; a sort of embroidered white woollen stockings that

-leave the knee bare; a pair of corded sandals like those of the Catalan

-peasants; and on their heads, which are almost all shaved like those

-of the Chinese, they wear a handkerchief, red, sky-blue, yellow, or

-white, bound around like a cornucopia, and knotted at the temples or

-at the nape of the neck. They sometimes wear small velvet hats similar

-in shape to those worn in the other provinces of Spain. When they go

-into the city they nearly all carry around their shoulders or on their

-arms, now like a shawl, now like a mantle, or again like a little

-cape, a woollen _capa_, long and narrow, in brightly-colored stripes

-in which white and red predominate, adorned with fringe and rosettes.

-One may easily imagine the appearance presented by a square where there

-are gathered some hundreds of men dressed after this fashion: it is a

-Carnival scene, a festival, a tumult of colors, that makes one feel as

-gay as a band of music; a spectacle at once clownish, pretty, imposing,

-and ridiculous, to which the haughty faces and the majestic bearing

-which distinguish the Valencian peasants add an air of gravity which

-heightens the extraordinary beauty of the scene.

-

-If there is an insolent, lying proverb, it is that old Spanish one

-which says, "In Valencia flesh is grass, grass is water, men are

-women, and the women nothing." Leaving that part about the flesh and

-the grass, which is a pun, the men, especially those of the lower

-classes, are tall and robust, and have the bold appearance of the

-Catalans and Arragonese, with a livelier and more luminous expression

-of the eye; and the women, by the consent of all the Spaniards and

-of as many foreigners as have travelled in Spain, are the most

-classically beautiful in the country. The Valencians, who know that

-the eastern coast of the Peninsula was originally settled by Greeks

-and Carthaginians, say, "It is a clear case. The Grecian type of

-beauty has lingered here." I do not venture to say yes or no to this

-assertion, for to describe the beauty of the women of a city where

-one has passed only a few hours would seem to me like a license to be

-taken only by the compiler of a "Guide." But one can easily discover

-a decided difference between the Andalusian and Valencian types of

-beauty. The Valencian is taller, more robust, and fairer, with more

-regular features, gentler eyes, and a more matronly walk and carriage.

-She does not possess the bewitching air of the Andalusian, which makes

-it necessary to bite one's finger as if to subdue the sudden and

-alarming insurrection of one's capricious desires at sight of her; but

-the Valencian is a woman whom one regards with a feeling of calmer

-admiration, and while one looks one says, as La Harpe said of the

-Apollo Belvidere, "_Notre tete se releve, notre maintien s'ennoblit_,"

-and instead of imagining a little Andalusian house to hide her from the

-eyes of the world, one longs for a marble palace to receive the ladies

-and cavaliers who will come to render her homage.

-

-If one is to believe the rest of the Spaniards, the Valencian people

-are fierce and cruel beyond all imagination. If one wishes to get rid

-of an enemy, he finds an obliging man who for a few crowns undertakes

-the business with as much indifference as he would accept a commission

-to carry a letter to the post. A Valencian peasant who finds that he

-has a gun in his hands as he passes an unknown man in a lonely street

-says to his companion, "See if I can aim straight?" and takes aim and

-fires. This actually occurred not many years ago: I was assured of its

-truth. In the cities and villages of Spain the boys and young men of

-the people are accustomed to play at being bulls, as they call it. One

-takes the place of the bull and does the butting; another, with a sharp

-stick under his arm like a lance, climbs on the back of a third, who

-represents the horse, and repulses the assaults of the first. Once a

-band of young Valencians thought they would introduce some innovations

-into this sport, and so make it seem a little more realistic and afford

-the spectators and the participants a little more amusement than the

-customary way of playing it; and the innovations were to substitute

-for the stick a long sharp-pointed knife, one of those formidable

-_navajas_ that we saw at Seville, and to give the man who took the part

-of the bull two other shorter knives, which, fastened firmly on either

-side of his head, answered the purpose of horns. It seems incredible,

-but it is true. They played with the knives, shed a sea of blood,

-several were killed, some were mortally wounded, and others badly hurt,

-without the game becoming a fight, without the rules of the sport

-being transgressed, and without any one raising his voice to end the

-slaughter.

-

-I tell these things as they were told to me, although I am far from

-believing all that is said against the Valencians; but it is certain

-that at Valencia the public safety, if not a myth, as our papers

-poetically say in speaking of Romagna and Sicily, is certainly not the

-first of the good things which one enjoys after the blessing of life. I

-was persuaded of this fact the first evening of my stay in the city. I

-did not know the way to the port, but thought I was near it, and asked

-a shop-woman which way I should take. She uttered a cry of astonishment:

-

-"Do you wish to go to the port, _caballero_?"

-

-"Yes."

-

-"_Ave Maria purissima!_ to the port at this hour?"

-

-And she turned toward a group of women who were standing by the door,

-and said to them in the Valencian dialect, "Women, do you answer for

-me: this gentleman is asking me the way to the port!"

-

-The women replied in one voice, "God save him!"

-

-"But from what?"

-

-"Don't risk yourself, sir."

-

-"What is your reason?"

-

-"A thousand reasons."

-

-"Tell me one of them?"

-

-"You would be murdered."

-

-One reason was enough for me, as any one can imagine, and I did not go

-to the port.

-

-For the rest, at Valencia as elsewhere, in whatever intercourse I had

-with the people I met only with courtesy as a foreigner and as an

-Italian--a friendly welcome even among those who would not hear foreign

-kings discussed in general, and princes of the house of Savoy in

-particular, and such men were numerous, but they were courteous enough

-to say at once, "Let us not harp on that string." To a foreigner who,

-when asked whence he comes, replies, "I am a Frenchman," they respond

-with an agreeable smile, as if to say, "We recognize each other." To

-one who answers, "I am a German or an Englishman," they make a slight

-inclination of the head, which implies, "I bow to you;" but when one

-replies, "I am an Italian," they eagerly extend the hand as if to

-say, "We are friends;" and they look at one with an air of curiosity,

-as you look for the first time at a person who is said to resemble

-you, and they smile pleasantly on hearing the Italian tongue, as you

-would smile on hearing some one, though in no mocking spirit, imitate

-your voice and accents. In no country in the world does an Italian

-feel nearer home than in Spain. The sky, the speech, the faces, and

-the dress remind him of his fatherland; the veneration with which

-the Spanish pronounce the names of our great poets and our great

-painters, that vague and pleasing sense of curiosity with which they

-speak of our famous cities, the enthusiasm with which they cultivate

-our music, the impulsiveness of their affections, the fire of their

-language, the rhythms of their poetry, the eyes of their women, the air

-and the sun,--oh! an Italian must be without a spark of love for his

-fatherland who does not feel an emotion of sympathy for this country,

-who does not feel inclined to excuse its errors, who does not sincerely

-deplore its misfortunes, who does not desire for it a happy future. O

-beautiful hills of Valencia, smiling banks of the Guadalquivir, charmed

-gardens of Granada, little white cottages of Seville, proud towers of

-Toledo, roaring streets of Madrid, and venerable walls of Saragossa!

-and you, kindly hosts and courteous companions of my travels--you who

-have spoken to me of Italy as of a second fatherland, who with your

-festal gayety have scattered my restless melancholy!--I shall always

-carry deep down in my heart a feeling of gratitude and love for you,

-and I shall cherish your images in my memory, as one of the dearest

-recollections of my youth, and shall always think of you as one of the

-loveliest dreams of my life.

-

-I repeated these words to myself at midnight as I looked over

-brightly-lighted Valencia, leaning against the rail of the good ship

-_Xenil_, which was on the point of sailing. Some young Spaniards had

-come on board with me. They were going to Marseilles to take ship from

-that port to the Antilles, where they expected to remain for some

-years. One of them stood alone weeping; suddenly he raised his head and

-looked toward the shore between two anchored vessels, and exclaimed in

-a tone of desolation, "Oh, my God! I hoped she would not come!"

-

-In a few moments a boat approached the ship; a little white figure,

-followed by a man enveloped in a cloak, hastily climbed the ladder, and

-with a deep sob threw herself into the arms of the young man, who had

-run to meet her.

-

-At that moment the boatswain called, "All off, gentlemen!"

-

-Then there followed a most distressing scene: the two young persons

-were torn apart, and the young lady was borne almost fainting to the

-boat, which pushed off a little and remained motionless.

-

-The ship started.

-

-The young man dashed madly forward toward the rail, and, sobbing, cried

-in a voice that pierced one's heart, "Adieu, darling! adieu! adieu!"

-

-The little white figure stretched out her arms and perhaps responded,

-but her voice was not heard. The boat was dropped behind and

-disappeared.

-

-One of the young men said to me in a whisper, "They are betrothed."

-

-It was a lovely night, but sad. Valencia was soon lost to view, and I

-thought I should never see Spain again, and wept.

-

-

-END OF VOL. II.

-

-

-

-

-INDEX.

-

-

-A.

-

-  Abdelasio reconstructs the Alcazar of Seville, ii. 121.

-

-  Abdurrahman I. builds the mosque of Cordova, ii. 68.

-

-  Abdurrahman I. builds Medina Az-Zahra, ii. 88;

-    his happy days, ii. 89.

-

-  Abencerrages, Hall of the, Alhambra, ii. 209.

-

-  Abrantes, duke d', at the bull-fights, 209.

-

-  Absolutist party, 96.

-

-  Academy, a dream of the, 280.

-

-  Academy of San Fernando, Madrid, 193.

-

-  Acquasola gardens, Genoa, 10.

-

-  Alameda, Granada, ii. 188, ii. 241.

-

-  Alarcon y Mendoza, Juan Ruiz de, dramatist, 169.

-

-  Alarmed travellers, ii. 9, ii. 55.

-

-  Albaicin at Granada, ii. 244;

-    courtyard in, ii. 246;

-    fortune-telling, ii. 253;

-    government of, ii. 255;

-    ignorance in, ii. 256;

-    Parisian quarter, ii. 245;

-    squalor of, ii. 251.

-

-  Albornoz, Gil Carillo de, tomb of, Toledo, ii. 29.

-

-  Alcaiceria, Granada, ii. 241.

-

-  Alcala street, Madrid, 156, 168.

-

-  Alcanadre, Roman aqueduct at, 91.

-

-  Alcantara, bridge of, Toledo, ii. 18.

-

-  Alcazar de San Juan, ii. 259;

-    of Seville, ii. 120;

-    of Toledo, ii. 39.

-

-  Alcayde of Saragossa's bold republicanism, 83.

-

-  Aleardi Gaetano, on the can-can, 171.

-

-  Alfonso and the Cid, 121.

-

-  Alfonso the Wise, MSS. of, ii. 118;

-    tomb of, ii. 109.

-

-  Alfonso VIII. defeats the Moors at las Navas de Tolosa, ii. 61.

-

-  Alfonso XII., favored by the Moderate party, 96.

-

-  Algaba, ii. 118.

-

-  Algeciras, Gulf of, ii. 168.

-

-  Alhambra, arabesques, ii. 197, 208, ii. 210, ii. 211;

-    baths, ii. 211;

-    cabinet of Linderaja, ii. 209;

-    Charles V.'s palace, ii. 192;

-    Court of Lions, ii. 201;

-    Court of Myrtles, ii. 194;

-    fascination of, ii. 205;

-    Gate of Justice, ii. 192;

-    grounds of ii. 190;

-    Hall of Abencerrages, ii. 209;

-    Hall of Barca, ii. 197;

-    Hall of Divans, ii. 210;

-    Hall of Justice, ii. 206;

-    Hall of Oranges, ii. 209;

-    Hall of the Ambassadors, ii. 198;

-    Hall of the Two Sisters, ii. 207;

-    Mirador de la Reina, ii. 212, ii, 215;

-    mosque, ii. 216;

-    paintings in, ii. 207;

-    Patio de la Reja, ii. 212;

-    realization of a dream, ii. 200;

-    situation of, ii. 190;

-    Tower of Commares, ii. 196;

-    Tower of the Ambassadors, ii. 196;

-    vastness of the, ii. 217;

-    view from, ii. 213.

-

-  Ali Pacha, relics of, 176.

-

-  Almago, Melchiorre, republican journalist, ii. 243.

-

-  Almansa, plain of, ii. 260.

-

-  Almansur builds Zahira, ii. 89.

-

-  Almodovar, castle of, ii. 99.

-

-  Altimura, Count d', possesses the fiscal accounts of Gonzalez di

-    Cordova, ii. 237.

-

-  Alvarez, Gen., house of, at Gerona, 16.

-

-  Amadeus at Gerona, 16;

-    at Logroño, 85;

-    at Madrid, 166, 194;

-    at Saragossa, 82;

-    at the bull-fights, 213;

-    at Valencia, ii. 262;

-    character of, 201;

-    courage of, 199;

-    court-life of, 194;

-    encourages bull-fights, 223, 235;

-    hostility of the newspapers to, 93, 200;

-    hostility of the soldiery to, 204;

-    prejudice against, 15, 33, 80.

-

-  Ambassadors, Hall of the, Alhambra, ii. 198;

-    at Seville, ii. 124;

-    Tower of the, Alhambra, ii. 196.

-

-  Amusements, 168.

-

-  Andalusian characteristics, 36;

-    dialect, ii. 93;

-    scenery, ii. 61, 100, ii. 177;

-    women, ii. 79, ii. 93, ii. 126.

-

-  Angels, convent of, Granada, ii. 238.

-

-  Ansurez, Pedro, tomb of, 137.

-

-  Aosta, duke d'. See Amadeus.

-

-  Aqueduct, Roman, at Segovia, 124.

-

-  Arabesques in the Alhambra, beauty of, ii. 197;

-    intricacy of design, ii. 197, ii. 208, ii. 210, ii. 211.

-

-  Aranjuez, arrival at, ii. 10;

-    gardens, ii. 12;

-    historic associations, ii. 11;

-    royal palace, ii. 11;

-    suburbs of, ii. 10.

-

-  Argamasilla de Alba, birthplace of Don Quixote, ii. 58.

-

-  Argensola, the brothers, 72;

-    sonnet by, 73.

-

-  Arjonilla, ii. 62.

-

-  Armory, royal, at Madrid, 174.

-

-  Arragon, decay of, 52;

-    dialect of, 54;

-    independence of, 49;

-    mountains of, 48.

-

-  Artillery museum at Madrid, 180.

-

-  Asturia, prince of, title instituted, 98.

-

-  Atocha, Church of Our Lady of, Madrid, 166, 204;

-    street of, Madrid, 174.

-

-  Avilo, 124.

-

-  "Awaiting her in heaven," ii. 227.

-

-  Ayala, d', dramatist, 169.

-

-

-  B.

-

-  Banderillas, de fuego, 226.

-

-  Barber of Seville, house of the, ii. 132.

-

-  Barcelona, arrival at, 20;

-    cafés, 30;

-    carnival masqueraders, 22;

-    Catalonian peculiarities, 35;

-    cathedral, 24;

-    cemetery, 27;

-    Cervantes on, 42;

-    circus, 235;

-    dialect, 21;

-    foreign hotel waiters, 20;

-    palaces, 26;

-    revolutionary proclivities, 35;

-    Roman ruins, 26;

-    streets, 22;

-    suburbs, 22;

-    theatre, 40;

-    women of, 41.

-

-  Baretti, Giuseppe, 206; ii. 82.

-

-  Barili, Anton Giulio, travelling companion, 10.

-

-  Batista, Juan, architect of the Escurial, 260.

-

-  Beatrice, Queen, tomb of, ii. 109.

-

-  Beggary, modest, 135.

-

-  Berruguete, Alonzo, carvings by, at Toledo, ii. 25;

-    at Valladolid, 146.

-

-  Berseo, poet, 283.

-

-  Blanca, Florida, tomb of, Seville, ii. 109.

-

-  Boabdil's helmet, 176.

-

-  Boccanegra, paintings by, at Granada, ii. 229.

-

-  Bohl, Catherine de Faber ("Fernan Caballero"), 281;

-    ascetic character of, ii. 140;

-    charity of, ii. 141;

-    genius of, ii. 139;

-    history of, ii. 140.

-

-  Boldan, painting by, at Seville, ii. 109.

-

-  Bollo, a delicious cake, 31.

-

-  Boscan, Juan, poet, influence on Spanish literature, 37.

-

-  Bosch, Jacob van den, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.

-

-  Bourse, the, at Saragossa, 74;

-    at Valencia, ii. 266.

-

-  Brazil, Dom Pedro, emperor of, arrives at Burgos, 123.

-

-  Breton de los Herreres, Manuel, dramatist, 169, 281.

-

-  Breughel, Jan, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.

-

-  Bridge of Alcantara, Toledo, ii. 18.

-

-  Briviesca, States-general, 98.

-

-  Brujola, mountain of, 98.

-

-  Buen Retiro garden at Madrid, 166, 174.

-

-  Bull-fights at Madrid, 206;

-    accidents, 225;

-    anticipations of, 207;

-    arena, the, 203;

-    attendance, 208;

-    banderillas, de fuego, 226;

-    banderilleros, 214, 219, 220;

-    brutality of, 227, 229;

-    capeadors, 214, 217, 219, 220;

-    chulos or apprentices, 214, 216, 217;

-    dangers of, 229;

-    death of the bull, 222, 228;

-    disgusting spectacle, 218;

-    entrance of the cuadrilla, 214;

-    entrance of the bull, 215;

-    espadas, 221;

-    excitement of audience, 215, 224;

-    exits, the, 232;

-    fights in the audience, 230;

-    final impressions, 231;

-    getting into position, 215;

-    history of, 234;

-    Homeric struggle, 221;

-    national amusement, the, 235;

-    picadores, 214, 216, 218;

-    picturesque scene, 214;

-    sale of tickets, 207;

-    torturing the bulls into fighting, 226;

-    trophies of victory, 223;

-    with other wild animals, 239.

-

-  Bull-fighters, amateur, 237;

-    artistic gradations, 241;

-    dress, 240;

-    female toreros, 238;

-    lucrative business, 241.

-

-  Burgos, arrival at, 98;

-    birthplace of the Cid, 119;

-    cathedral, 104;

-    Cid's coffer, 112;

-    gate of St. Maria, 104;

-    houses, 101;

-    municipal palace, 103;

-    "remains of the Cid," 103;

-    seats of the first judges, 103;

-    "The Christ," 111;

-    streets, 101;

-    tobacco-shops, 118;

-    undertaker's shop, 117;

-    women hotel servants, 99.

-

-  Byron, Lord, writing of, at the Alhambra, ii. 216.

-

-

-  C.

-

-  Caballero, Fernan. See Bohl, Catherine.

-

-  Cadiz, arrival at, ii. 158;

-    astronomical facilities, ii. 163;

-    bird's-eye view, ii. 162;

-    cathedral, ii. 163;

-    circus, 235;

-    commercial decay, ii. 161;

-    historical remains, ii. 161;

-    houses, ii. 160;

-    Murillo's last painting, ii. 163;

-    revolutionary tendencies, ii. 160;

-    streets, ii. 160;

-    whiteness, ii. 158;

-    women, ii. 164.

-

-  Cafés: Barcelona, 30;

-    Madrid, 173;

-    Miranda, 95.

-

-  Calahorra, battle of, 91.

-

-  Calderon de la Barca, Pedro, poet, 169;

-    ii. 93.

-

-  Calderon, Francesco, the matador, 207;

-    patronizes cock-fights, 249, 250.

-

-  Campana, Pedro, paintings by, at Seville, ii. 109.

-

-  Can-can at Madrid, 171.

-

-  Candan, political leader, 96.

-

-  Cano, Alonzo, character of, ii. 231;

-    hatred of Jews, ii. 231;

-    history of, ii. 230;

-    paintings by, at Granada, ii. 230, ii. 235;

-    at Madrid, 182, 193;

-    at Seville, ii. 132.

-

-  Canovas del Castillo, political leader, 96.

-

-  Canovist party, 96.

-

-  Carbajal, Bernardino, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 193.

-

-  Cardenas, paintings by, at Valladolid, 143.

-

-  Cardenio's penance, scene of, ii. 60.

-

-  Carducci, Vincenzo, paintings by, at Madrid, 182;

-    at Valladolid, 143.

-

-  Carlists, 32, 33, 96, 194.

-

-  Carlos I., Don, tomb of, 266.

-

-  Carlos II., Don, tomb of, 266.

-

-  Carlos III., Don, tomb of, 266.

-

-  Carnival masqueraders at Barcelona, 22;

-    at Saragossa, 65, 68.

-

-  Cartuja convent, Granada, ii. 245.

-

-  Castaños, Gen. Francisco Xavier, defeated at Tudela, 91.

-

-  Castelar, Emilio, as an orator, 279;

-    as a political leader, 80, 96;

-    eloquence, 276;

-    friendship, 291;

-    on Arragon, 50;

-    personal popularity, 277;

-    ruler of the Assembly, 279.

-

-  Castilian dialect, 39, 55;

-    scenery, 124.

-

-  Castillego, ii. 55.

-

-  Castles: Almodovar, ii. 99;

-    Hornachuelos, ii. 99;

-    Monzon, 51;

-    Pancorbo, 98;

-    San Servando, ii. 41.

-

-  Catalan characteristics, 35;

-    dialect, 15, 39;

-    dress, 18;

-    hospitality, 148;

-    school-boys, 46.

-

-  Catalonia, description of, 18, 48.

-

-  Cathedrals: Barcelona, 24;

-    Burgos, 104;

-    Cadiz, ii. 163;

-    Cordova, ii. 74;

-    Granada, ii. 329;

-    Our Lady of the Pillar, Saragossa, 60;

-    San Salvador, Saragossa, 65;

-    Seville, ii. 108;

-    Toledo, ii. 23;

-    Valencia, ii. 266;

-    Valladolid, 136.

-

-  Cava, Los Baños de la, at Toledo, ii. 46.

-

-  Cayetano, the matador, 214, 240.

-

-  Cellini, Benvenuto, crucifix by, at the Escurial, 263.

-

-  Cemetery, Barcelona, 27.

-

-  Cervantes, Saavedra Miguel de, at Seville, ii. 103;

-    house at Valladolid, 137;

-    imprisoned at Argamasilla de Alba, ii. 58;

-    naturalness of Don Quixote, ii. 57;

-    on Barcelona, 42;

-    popularity of, 286;

-    statue at Madrid, 156;

-    story of, 139.

-

-  Cervellon, Count di, entertains Amadeus at Valencia, ii. 262.

-

-  Cervera, 48.

-

-  Ceuta, ii. 168.

-

-  Cespedes, Pablo de, born at Cordova, ii. 90;

-    paintings by, at Seville, ii. 132;

-    quotation from, ii. 90.

-

-  Charlemagne and the Moor, ii. 43.

-

-  Charles I. (afterward Emperor Charles V. of Germany), altar at

-    the Escurial, 272;

-    anger at the destruction of mosque of Cordova, ii. 74;

-    apartments at Aranjuez, ii. 13;

-    a bull-fighter, 234;

-    converts mosque of the Alhambra into a chapel, ii. 216;

-    married in Alcazar of Seville, ii. 121;

-    monumental gate at Burgos, 104;

-    on the Spanish language, 160;

-    palace in the Alhambra, ii. 192;

-    relics of, 175, 176, ii. 112;

-    statue at the Escurial, 262;

-    tomb at the Escurial, 265, 267.

-

-  Charles II. encourages bull-fights, 234;

-    portrait at the Escurial, 264.

-

-  Charles III. forbids bull-fights, 235;

-    statue at Burgos, 102.

-

-  Charles IV.'s billiard-room in palace of Aranjuez, ii. 13;

-    resigns the crown, ii. 11.

-

-  Chateaubriaud, François Auguste, Viscount de, writing in the

-    Alhambra, ii. 216.

-

-  Chocolate, Spanish, 31.

-

-  Chorizos, 14, 162.

-

-  Christina abdicates the throne at Valencia, ii. 262;

-    promenade, Seville, ii. 104.

-

-  Chulos, 214.

-

-  Churches: Nuestra Señora, Toledo, ii. 50;

-    Our Lady of Atocha, Madrid, 166;

-    San Geronimo, Granada, ii. 235;

-    San Juan de los Reyes, Toledo, ii. 36;

-    Santiago, Saragossa, 74;

-    St. Agnes, Burgos, 121.

-

-  Cid Campeador, the, and King Alfonso, 121;

-    and the Jew, 120;

-    at Valencia, ii. 266;

-    birthplace, 120;

-    coffer, 112;

-    portrait of, 104;

-    remains, 103;

-    statue, 104;

-    sword, 176;

-    originator of bull-fights, 234.

-

-  Cigars and cigarettes, 118;

-    vs. pipes, 132.

-

-  Cimbrios party, 96.

-

-  Claude, Lorraine, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.

-

-  Clot, 19.

-

-  Cock-fighting at Madrid, 248;

-    arena, the, 249;

-    audience, 250;

-    disgusting spectacle, 256;

-    gambling on, 252, 254.

-

-  Coello, Claudio, paintings by, at Madrid, 193;

-    at the Escurial, 264.

-

-  Colantes as an orator, 276.

-

-  Collantes, Francisco, paintings by, at Madrid, 193.

-

-  College of San Gregorio, Valladolid, 135;

-    Santa Cruz, Valladolid, 443.

-

-  Columbian library at Seville, ii. 118.

-

-  Columbus, Christopher, annotations in books in library of

-    Seville, ii. 118;

-    armor of, 175;

-    portrait of, 178;

-    mementoes of, ii. 103.

-

-  Columbus, Ferdinand, history of, ii. 115;

-    library of, ii, 118;

-    note on his father's annotations, ii. 118;

-    tomb of, ii. 114.

-

-  Concerts at Madrid, 173.

-

-  Conde, Henry II. de Bourbon, prince de, sword of, 176.

-

-  Conservative party, 96.

-

-  Consuelo the beautiful, ii. 81.

-

-  Consul, seeking the protection of the, ii. 106.

-

-  Convents: Angels, Granada, ii. 235;

-    Cartuja, Granada, ii. 235;

-    of the Escurial, 268;

-    Santo Domingo, Granada, ii. 235;

-    San Pablo, Valladolid, 134.

-

-  Cook, Capt. James, cane of, 180.

-

-  Cookery, Spanish, 14, 160; ii. 223.

-

-  Cordova, arrival at, ii. 62;

-    at night, ii. 80;

-    cathedral, ii. 74;

-    Consuelo the beautiful, ii. 81;

-    departed glory, ii. 62;

-    impressions of, ii. 67;

-    mosque, ii. 68;

-    patio, a, ii. 65;

-    pearl of the Orient, ii. 66;

-    preaching the Holy War, ii. 75;

-    relics of the past, ii. 80;

-    streets of, ii. 64.

-

-  Cordova, General de, at Saragossa, 84.

-

-  Corregio, Antonio Allegri da, painting by, at Madrid, 182.

-

-  Cortes, the, 274;

-    deputies, 274;

-    oratorical displays, 275.

-

-  Cortez, Hernando, portrait of, 178;

-    sword of, 176.

-

-  Cosa, Juan de la, map by, at Madrid, 178.

-

-  Costumes of peasantry: Andalusian, ii. 100;

-    Catalan, 18;

-    Cordovan, ii. 58;

-    Granadan, ii. 189;

-    Madrid, 165;

-    Saragossan, 56;

-    Valencian, ii. 270.

-

-  Country houses, ii. 100.

-

-  Courts: Lions, Alhambra, ii. 201;

-    Myrtles, Alhambra, ii. 194;

-    Oranges, Seville, ii. 115.

-

-  Court-life under Amadeus, 198.

-

-  Courtesy inherent in the Spanish people, 53, 290.

-

-  Cuco the matador, 207; ii. 94.

-

-  Currency, Spanish, 118.

-

-  Custejon, 92.

-

-  Customs officials, 14, 95.

-

-  Cybele, fountain of, at Madrid, 166.

-

-

-  D.

-

-  "Daggers," ii. 55.

-

-  Daguet, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.

-

-  "Dance de los seises," ii. 112.

-

-  Darro, the, ii. 213.

-

-  Democratic party, 96.

-

-  Democratic Progressionist party, 96, 97.

-

-  Deronda, Francisco Romero, the torero, 235.

-

-  Dialects: Andalusian, ii. 93;

-    Arragonese, 55;

-    Barcelonian, 20;

-    Castilian, 55;

-    Catalan, 15, 39;

-    Madrid, 158;

-    Perpignan, 12;

-    Valencian, ii. 275;

-    Valladolid, 132.

-

-  Dinadamar, hill of, ii. 240.

-

-  Discoveries, cabinet of, Naval Museum, Madrid, 177.

-

-  Djihad, or Holy War, ii. 76.

-

-  Domenichino, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.

-

-  Dominoes, popularity of game of, 31.

-

-  Don Quixote on Barcelona, 42;

-    popularity of, 286;

-    true to life, ii. 57.

-

-  Door-keys in Madrid, 171.

-

-  Drama, 169.

-

-  Drunkenness rare in Spain, 162.

-

-  Dumas, Alexandre, on Spanish cookery, 160.

-

-  Dürer, Albert, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.

-

-

-  E.

-

-  Ebro, commerce on the, 51;

-    description of, 92.

-

-  Economist party, 96.

-

-  Education in Granada, ii. 242.

-

-  Egon ad Agoncilla, ruins of, 91.

-

-  Elpidius, bishop of Toledo, ii. 27.

-

-  Elvira Gate, Granada, ii. 240.

-

-  Escurial, the, arrival at, 258;

-    altar of Santa Forma, 264;

-    cell of Philip II., 261;

-    church, 262;

-    convent, 268;

-    courtyard, 261;

-    gardens, 272;

-    gloominess, 273;

-    history of, 260;

-    holy relics, 272;

-    horrible place, 267;

-    library, 268;

-    pantheon, 265;

-    picture-gallery, 268;

-    royal palace, 261;

-    sacristy, 264;

-    statues, 262;

-    tombs, 265;

-    view from, 153, 272;

-    village, 259.

-

-  Espadas, famous, 214;

-    dangerous life of, 230;

-    skill of, 221.

-

-  Espartero, Gen. Baldemero, addresses Amadeus, 85.

-

-  Esperondo la del Cielo, house of, ii. 227.

-

-  Esproncedo, Jose de, the Byron of Spain, 282;

-    popularity of, 287;

-    quotation from, 136.

-

-  Exaggeration, the national failing, 287.

-

-

-  F.

-

-  Fadrique, Don, blood of, ii. 122;

-    murdered by Don Pedro's orders, ii. 123.

-

-  Farcical revenge, a, 71.

-

-  Fatherly admonitions, 54.

-

-  Federalist party, 96, 97.

-

-  Ferdinand III. (the Saint) captures Seville, ii. 121;

-    relics of, ii. 110;

-    tomb of, 109.

-

-  Ferdinand V. (the Catholic), oratory in Alcazar of Seville, 124;

-    relics of, ii. 233;

-    tomb of, ii. 234.

-

-  Ferdinand VII. annuls the constitution, ii. 262;

-    encourages bull-fighting, 235;

-    tomb of, 266.

-

-  Ferrer, Vincenzo, in Seville cathedral, ii. 116.

-

-  Figueras, political leader, 80, 96.

-

-  First glimpses of Spain, 14.

-

-  Florinda, legend of, ii. 46.

-

-  Flor, Roger de, a typical Arragonese, 50.

-

-  Fomento picture-gallery, Madrid, 193.

-

-  Fortune-telling in the Albaicin, Granada, ii. 253.

-

-  Fountain of Cybele, Madrid, 166.

-

-  Fra Angelica, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.

-

-  Francis I., shield of, 176.

-

-  Frascuelo the matador, 207, 214, 221, 225, 240, 242; ii. 94;

-    interview with, 242.

-

-  Fricci in opera at Madrid, 168; ii. 152.

-

-  Fronterizos party, 96.

-

-  Fruit, Spanish, 162.

-

-  Fugitive wife, a, 69.

-

-  Funeral memorial ceremonies of the second of May, 243.

-

-

-  G.

-

-  Galafro, legend of King, ii. 43.

-

-  Galiana, palaces of, ii. 43.

-

-  Gallegos, Don Juan Nicasio, poet, 282.

-

-  Gamero, Antonio, historian of Toledo, ii. 48.

-

-  Garbanzos, 161.

-

-  Garcilaso de la Vega, poet, 37;

-    armor of, 176.

-

-  Gardens: Alcazar, Seville, ii. 125;

-    Aranjuez, ii. 12;

-    Buen Retiro, Madrid, 174;

-    Escurial, 271;

-    Montpensier, Seville, ii. 117.

-

-  Garrido, political leader, 96.

-

-  Gates: Elvira, Granada, ii. 240;

-    Justice, Alhambra, ii. 192;

-    Santa Maria, Burgos, 104.

-

-  Gayangos, Pascual y, the Orientalist, 281.

-

-  Geber, architect of the Giralda at Seville, ii. 116.

-

-  Generalife, Granada, ii. 213;

-    description of, ii. 225;

-    view from, ii. 226.

-

-  Genoa, 10.

-

-  Gerona, arrival at, 16;

-    Amadeus at, 16.

-

-  Gibraltar, rock of, ii. 168;

-    Straits of, ii. 167.

-

-  Giordano Luci, paintings by, at Madrid, 182;

-    frescoes by, at the Escurial, 262, 264, 268;

-    at Toledo, ii. 30.

-

-  Giralda of Seville, the, ii. 116;

-    first sight of, ii. 101;

-    view from, ii. 117.

-

-  Gitane of Seville, the, ii. 128.

-

-  Godoy, Alvarez de Faria Rios Sanches y Zarsoa, Prince of Peace, ii. 11.

-

-  Golden Tower, Seville, ii. 103.

-

-  Gongora y Argote, Luis, poet, 129;

-    birthplace at Cordova, ii. 92.

-

-  Gongora, Señor, ii. 187, _et seq._

-

-  Gonzales, Ferdinand (first Count of Castile), monument to, 119;

-    portrait of, 104;

-    statue of, 104;

-    sword of, 176;

-    tomb of, 114.

-

-  Gonzalez, Fernandez y, novelist, 282.

-

-  Gonzalez di Cordova, anecdote of, ii. 235;

-    tomb, ii. 235.

-

-  Goya, Francisco, criticism on, 185;

-    love of bull-fights, 184;

-    paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183;

-    sanguinary genius, a, 184;

-    tapestries by, in the Escurial, 261.

-

-  Granada, Alameda, ii. 188;

-    Albaicin, ii. 244;

-    Alcaiceria, ii. 241;

-    Alhambra, ii. 190;

-    arrival at, ii. 186;

-    Audiencia square, ii. 244;

-    birthplace of famous men, ii. 243;

-    Cartuja, ii. 235;

-    cathedral, ii. 229;

-    church of San Geronimo, ii. 235;

-    convent of Santa Domingo, ii. 235;

-    convent of The Angels, ii. 235;

-    education, ii. 242;

-    Generalife, ii. 213, ii. 225;

-    markets, ii. 241;

-    Monte Sacro, ii. 235;

-    royal chapel, ii. 232;

-    ruins, ii. 240;

-    streets, ii. 187, ii. 190, ii. 241;

-    Vega, ii. 260.

-

-  Granada, Fray Louis de, ii. 243.

-

-  Granallers, 19.

-

-  Gravina, Admiral Frederick de, relics of, 179.

-

-  Guadaira, ill-fated steamer, ii. 146.

-

-  Guadalquivir, the, ii. 59, ii. 60, ii. 101; ii. 118, ii. 150.

-

-  Guadiana, valley of the, ii. 59.

-

-  Guerra, Fernandez, archæologist, 281, 291; ii. 187.

-

-  Guides, Spanish, persistency of, ii. 26.

-

-  Guido, Reni, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.

-

-  Guest-houses, 157.

-

-  Gutierrez, Antonio Garcia, dramatist, 169.

-

-

-  H.

-

-  Halls: Abencerrages, Alhambra, ii. 209;

-    Ambassadors, Alhambra, ii. 198;

-    Barca, Alhambra, ii. 197;

-    Divans, Alhambra, ii. 210;

-    Justice, Alhambra, ii. 206;

-    Oranges, Alhambra, ii. 209;

-    Two Sisters, Alhambra, ii. 207.

-

-

-  Hartzenbusch, Juan Eugenio, dramatist, 169, 281, 291.

-

-  Heat, intense, ii. 260.

-

-  Henry II. (de Transtamare), defeated by Pedro the Cruel, 91;

-    tomb of, ii. 29

-

-  Henry III. and Papa Moscas, 113;

-    tomb of, ii. 29.

-

-  Hernandez, sculptures by, at Valladolid, 146.

-

-  Herrera, Francisco, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 193;

-    at Seville, ii. 109, ii. 132;

-    at the Escurial, 263.

-

-  Herrera, Juan de, architect of palace of Aranjuez, ii. 11;

-    of the Escurial, 260.

-

-  Historical Progressionist party, 96.

-

-  Holy Cross, relics of the, 272.

-

-  "Honor of Spain," 290.

-

-  Hornachuelos, castle of, ii. 99.

-

-  Hospitality, Catalan, 148.

-

-  Hospital of Santa Cruz, Toledo, ii. 44.

-

-  Hotel porters at Barcelona, 20;

-    women as, 99.

-

-  Huerva river, at Saragossa, 77.

-

-  Hugo Victor's Mirabeau, ii. 107;

-    at the Alhambra, ii. 216.

-

-

-  I.

-

-  "Il Trovatore," quotation from, ii. 153.

-

-  Inquisition, palaces of; at Barcelona, 26;

-    at Valladolid, 146.

-

-  International Socialist party, 96.

-

-  Isabella the Catholic opposed to bull-fights, 234;

-    oratory in the Alcazar of Seville, ii. 124;

-    relics of, ii. 233;

-    sword of, 176;

-    tomb of, ii. 234.

-

-  Isabella II. at Madrid, 197;

-    at Valencia, ii. 262;

-    dressing-chamber at Aranjuez, ii. 12;

-    encourages bull-fighting, 235;

-    favored by the Moderate party, 96.

-

-  Isabella, Empress, statue of, 262.

-

-  Italian, the language of opera, 171.

-

-  Italians, prejudice against, 34, 138.

-

-  Italica, ruins of, ii. 101.

-

-

-  Italy and Spain, compared, ii. 220.

-

-  Itimad, a dream of, ii. 125.

-

-

-  J.

-

-  Jerez, circus at, 235.

-

-  Joanes, Juan de, criticism on, 192;

-    paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.

-

-  Joanna the Mad, tomb of, ii. 234.

-

-  John, Don, of Austria, 25.

-

-  John I. of Castile and the States-General, 98.

-

-  John II. of Austria, heart of, 63;

-    sword of, 176.

-

-  John II., admiration of de Mena's "Labyrinth," ii. 92;

-    tomb of, ii. 29.

-

-  John Frederick, duke of Saxony, armor of, 176.

-

-  Jordaens, Jacob, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.

-

-  Juegos floreales, ii. 172.

-

-  Julian, Count, revenge of, ii. 46.

-

-  Juni, Juan de, sculptures by, at Valladolid, 146.

-

-

-  K.

-

-  Knives, ii. 135.

-

-

-  L.

-

-  La Costa, Gen., killed at Saragossa, 59.

-

-  La Cruz, Ramon de, dramatist, 170.

-

-  Lagartijo the matador, 214, 240, 241; ii. 94.

-

-  La Harpe, Jean François, on the Apollo Belvidere, ii. 272.

-

-  Lainus Calvo, judge of Castile, 103.

-

-  La Mancha, ii. 56, ii. 260.

-

-  Language, Italian, in opera, 171;

-    Spanish, allied to the Italian, 159;

-    pronunciation of, 159.

-    See also Dialect.

-

-  Lauria, Roger de, 50.

-

-  Leon, Louis de, 54;

-    born in Granada, ii. 243.

-

-  Leonardo, Lupercio, sonnet to, 73.

-

-  Leopardi Giacomo, Count, 283;

-  ii. 9;

-    in Seville cathedral, ii. 111;

-    on Spanish pride, 284.

-

-  Lepanto, relics of battle of, 25, 174, 176.

-

-  Lerida, 48.

-

-  Light-fingered gentry, 98.

-

-  Literature, discouragements of, 282;

-    dramatic, 283;

-    national pride in, 287;

-    present state of, 280;

-    contests of genius at Cordova, ii. 94.

-

-  Logroño, Amadeus at, 85;

-    Moorish ruins at, 91.

-

-  Loneliness of travel, ii. 47, ii. 67, ii. 105.

-

-  Lope de Vega's criticism of Gongorist poets, ii. 93;

-    houses at Madrid, 156;

-    popularity, ii. 9.

-

-  Lorraine. See Claude Lorraine.

-

-  Louis I., tomb of, 266.

-

-  Love, travelling for, 13.

-

-  Loyola, Ignatius, at Montserrat, 46.

-

-  Luna, Don Alvaro de, tomb of, ii. 29.

-

-  Lunatic asylum, Toledo, ii. 51.

-

-

-  M.

-

-  Madrazo, Federico de, paintings by, at Madrid, 183.

-

-  Madrid, academy of San Fernando, 193;

-    amusements, 168;

-    armory, 174;

-    arrival at, 154;

-    Buen Retiro garden, 174;

-    bull-fights, 206;

-    cafés, 173;

-    church of Our Lady of Atocha, 166;

-    Fomento art-gallery, 193;

-    guest-houses, 157;

-    language, 157;

-    markets, 174;

-    museum of artillery, 180;

-    museum of fine arts, 181;

-    naval museum, 177;

-    opera, 168;

-    Prado, 166;

-    Puerta del Sol, 155;

-    Recoletos promenade, 167;

-    royal palace, 154;

-    serenos, 172;

-    streets, 156, 163;

-    suburbs, 173.

-

-  Maksura of mosque of Cordova, ii. 69.

-

-  Malaga, ii. 170;

-    literary academy, ii. 171;

-    poetical contests, ii. 172;

-    popular characteristics, ii. 173;

-    streets, ii. 170;

-    wine of, ii. 172.

-

-  Manners of the Spaniards, 290.

-

-

-  Manzoni, Alessandro, 189.

-

-  Margall, Pi y, political leader, 96;

-    oratory of, 276.

-

-  Maria, granddaughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, tomb of, ii. 234.

-

-  Maria Louisa of Savoy, tomb of, 266.

-

-  Marini, Giambattista, influence on Italian poetry, ii. 92.

-

-  Markets: Granada, ii. 241;

-    Madrid, 174;

-    Valencia, ii. 269;

-    Valladolid, 132.

-

-  Marseilles, 11.

-

-  Martina the torera, 238.

-

-  Martinez de la Rosa, Francisco, 282, ii. 243;

-    exiled in London, 65;

-    quotation from, ii. 185.

-

-  Martos, political leader, 96;

-    oratory of, 226.

-

-  Mascagni, Donato, paintings by, at Valladolid, 143.

-

-  Masked balls, 86.

-

-  May, second of, funeral memorial ceremonies, 243;

-    monument to, 247.

-

-  Medina Az-Zahra, ii. 88.

-

-  Medina-Coeli, family, owners of the Casa de Pilato, ii. 136.

-

-  Mena, Juan de, "Labyrinth," ii. 92;

-    popularity of, 287;

-    street of, ii. 92.

-

-  Menendez, paintings by, at Madrid, 193.

-

-  Mengs, Anton Rafael, paintings by, at Madrid, 183.

-

-  Menjibar, ii. 259.

-

-  Merced, marquis de, 207.

-

-  Merriones, Gen., victories over Carlists, 288.

-

-  Michelangelo, Buonarroti, Cespedes's tribute to, ii. 90;

-    paintings by, at Burgos, 109;

-    at Madrid, 182.

-

-  Mihrab of mosque of Cordova, ii. 72.

-

-  Military Museum of London possesses Gonzalez di Cordova's fiscal

-    accounts, ii. 237.

-

-  Militia system, 202.

-

-  Mirabeau, Victor Hugo's description of, ii. 107.

-

-  Miranda, 94.

-

-  Moderate party, 96, 97.

-

-  Monastery of Montserrat, 46.

-

-

-  Monegro, Battista, statue by, 262.

-

-  Montegna, paintings by, at Seville, ii. 109.

-

-  Montpensier gardens, Seville, ii. 117, ii. 127;

-    palace, ii. 104.

-

-  Montpensier, duke of, at Madrid, 197;

-    party, 96, 97.

-

-  Montserrat, description of, 45;

-    excursion to, 46;

-    monastery of, 46.

-

-  Monzon, 50;

-    castle, 51.

-

-  Moorish art, ii. 207;

-    ruins, ii. 240.

-

-  Morales, Ambrosio, born in Cordova, ii. 90.

-

-  Moret, political leader, 96.

-

-  Moreto, Don Augustin, dramatist, 169.

-

-  Mosque of Cordova, ii. 68;

-    of the Alhambra, ii. 216.

-

-  Mozarabe chapel, Toledo, ii. 29.

-

-  Mulato, paintings by, at Seville, ii. 109, ii. 132.

-

-  Murat, Joachim, 50.

-

-  Murillo, Bartolomé Esteban, a painter of saints and virgins, 191;

-    death of, ii. 163;

-    estimate of his genius, 192;

-    last painting, ii. 163;

-    mementoes of, ii. 103;

-    painting by, at Granada, ii. 235;

-    at Madrid, 182, 183;

-    at Seville, ii. 109, ii. 129;

-    statue at Madrid, 156, 292.

-

-

-  N.

-

-  Naples, king of, demands an accounting from Gonzalez di Cordova, ii. 235.

-

-  Navagero, Andrea, influences poetry of Boscan, 37.

-

-  Navajas, ii. 136.

-

-  Navarrete, battle of, 91.

-

-  Navarrete, Juan Fernandez (El Mudo), paintings by, at Madrid, 193;

-    at the Escurial, 263.

-

-  News from Spain, 10.

-

-  Newspapers hostile to Amadeus, 93, 200.

-

-  Nun, the flirting, 53.

-

-  Nunes, Duke Ferdinand, at the bull-fight, 209.

-

-  Night journey to Aranjuez, ii. 9;

-    to Barcelona, 13;

-    to Burgos, 97;

-    to Cadiz, ii. 149;

-    to Cordova, ii. 55;

-    to Granada, ii. 181.

-

-

-

-  O.

-

-  O'Campo, Florian d', at Toledo, ii. 90.

-

-  O'Donnell, Gen. Leopold, Spanish estimate of, 288.

-

-  Olesa de Montserrat, 47.

-

-  Olivares, Duke de, portrait of, by Velasquez, 183, 188;

-    sword of, 176.

-

-  Opera at Madrid, 168.

-

-  Oranges, Court of, Cordova, ii. 69;

-    Court of Seville, ii. 15;

-    Hall of, Alhambra, ii. 207.

-

-  Our Lady of Atocha, church of, at Madrid, 166;

-    of the Pillar, Saragossa, 60.

-

-

-  P.

-

-  Pacheco, Francisco, paintings by, at Madrid, 193;

-    at Seville, ii. 132.

-

-  Padilla, Lopez de, assists in the murder of Don Fadrique, ii. 123.

-

-  Padilla, Maria de, apartments of, in the Alcazar of

-    Seville, ii. 124, 145;

-    mementoes of, ii. 102.

-

-  Painting, museums: Escurial, 268;

-    Fomento, Madrid, 193;

-    Madrid, 181;

-    Seville, ii. 129;

-    Toledo, ii. 37;

-    Valencia, ii. 260;

-    Valladolid, 143.

-

-  Palaces: Audiencia, Valencia, ii. 266;

-    Burgos, 102;

-    Charles V., Granada, ii. 192;

-    Consistorial, Barcelona, 26;

-    Deputation, Barcelona, 26;

-    Galiana, 43;

-    Inquisition, Barcelona, 26;

-    Inquisition, Valladolid, 146;

-    Royal, Aranjuez, ii. 11;

-    Royal, Escurial, 261;

-    Royal, Madrid, 154;

-    Royal, Valladolid, 133.

-

-  Palafox, José, at Saragossa, 77.

-

-  Palma, ii. 99.

-

-  Pancorbo, 98;

-    castle destroyed, 98.

-

-  Paolo Veronese, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.

-

-  Papal question, the, 12, 34, 138.

-

-  Papa Moscas, legend of, 113.

-

-  Pareja, Juan de, paintings by, at Cordova, ii. 58;

-    at Madrid, 193.

-

-  Party spirit, 96, 289, ii. 60.

-

-  Patio, described, ii. 65;

-    at Seville,

-  ii. 163;

-    de la Reja, Alhambra, ii. 212;

-    de los Arrayanes, Alhambra, ii. 194.

-

-  Patriotism vs. common sense, ii. 222.

-

-  Peasantry: Andalusian, ii. 100;

-    Catalan, 18;

-    Cordovan, ii. 58;

-    of Madrid, 165;

-    Saragossan, 56.

-

-  Pedro Abad, ii. 62.

-

-  Pedro the Cruel, apartments of, in the Alcazar of Seville, ii. 124;

-    defeats Henry of Transtamare, 91;

-    mementoes of, ii. 103;

-    murders Don Fadrique, ii. 122;

-    restores the Alcazar of Seville, ii. 120;

-    treasure-house, ii. 103.

-

-  Perpignan dialect, 12.

-

-  Pescara, Marquis de, armor of, 176.

-

-  Philibert, Emmanuel, armor of, 175, 176.

-

-  Philip I., tomb of, ii. 231.

-

-  Philip II., armor of, 175, 176;

-    birthplace at Valladolid, 134;

-    books in the library of the Escurial, 268;

-    builds palace of Aranjuez, ii. 11, ii. 13;

-    builds the Escurial, 260;

-    cell of, 261;

-    his personality pervades the Escurial, 271;

-    statue of, 262;

-    sword of, 176;

-    tomb of, 265, 266.

-

-  Philip III. encourages bull-fights, 234;

-    tomb of, 265, 266.

-

-  Philip IV., a royal bull-fighter, 235;

-    statue of, 156;

-    tomb of, 265, 266.

-

-  Philip V. encourages bull-fights, 235;

-    his garden of St. Ildefonso, 124.

-

-  Philip of Bourgoyne, carvings by, at Burgos, 111;

-    at Toledo, ii. 25.

-

-  Piedmontese waiters in hotel at Barcelona, 20.

-

-  Pilate's house, Seville, ii. 136.

-

-  Pillar, church of Our Lady of the, Saragossa, 60.

-

-  Pius V. presents holy relics to Ribera, ii. 137.

-

-  Pizarro, Francisco, as a bull-fighter, 234;

-    portrait of, 178;

-    sword of, 176.

-

-

-  Plazas: Alameda, Granada, ii. 188, ii. 241;

-    Campo Grande, Valladolid, 131;

-    Constitution, Saragossa, 74;

-    Cortez, Madrid, 156;

-    Mayor, Burgos, 123;

-    Mayor, Madrid, 156;

-    Mayor, Valladolid, 131;

-    Orient, Madrid, 156;

-    Puerto del Sol, Madrid, 155;

-    San Pablo, Valladolid, 133.

-

-  Poetical contests, ii. 171;

-    rivalry, 38.

-

-  Politeness, Spanish, 52.

-

-  Political leaders, 96.

-

-  Politics, absorbing interest in, 15, 32, 95, 147;

-    partisanship in, 289; ii. 267.

-

-  Pompey defeated by Sertorius at Calahorra, 91.

-

-  Poussin, Nicolas, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.

-

-  Prado, Madrid, 166.

-

-  Praga, Emile, on Nature, ii. 259.

-

-  Prati, Giovanni, quotation from, ii. 269.

-

-  Pride, national, characteristic of the Spanish, 284.

-

-  Priests, friendly, 46, 54.

-

-  Prim, Gen. Juan, assassination of, at Madrid, 156, 166;

-    high estimation of, 288.

-

-  Puchero, the national dish, 161.

-

-  Puerto del Sol, at Madrid, 155, 163;

-    at Toledo, ii. 18.

-

-  Puerto Real, ii. 162.

-

-  Puerto de Santa Maria, ii. 162;

-    circus at, 238.

-

-  Pyrenees, the, 48, 92;

-    crossing the, 13.

-

-

-  Q.

-

-  Quintana, Manuel José, poet of the Revolution, 282, 291.

-

-  Quevedo, Francisco Gomez, on Valladolid, 129.

-

-

-  R.

-

-  Radical party, 96.

-

-  Railway travel, 52; ii. 55; ii. 175.

-

-  Raphael, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.

-

-  Rasura, Nunnius, judge of Castile, 103.

-

-  Recoletos promenade at Madrid, 167.

-

-

-  Rembrandt von, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.

-

-  Republican opinions, 15, 16, 32, 80;

-    of the soldiers, 205;

-    party, 96, 97.

-

-  Restaurants, Cordova, ii. 81.

-

-  Revenge, a farcical, 71.

-

-  Ribera, Enriquez de, builds the Casa de Pilato, ii. 136.

-

-  Ribera, José, criticism of his genius, 186;

-    a lover of the horrible, 188;

-    paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183;

-    at the Escurial, 264.

-

-  Ribera, Pedro Afan de, viceroy of Naples, ii. 137.

-

-  Ribero, political leader, 96.

-

-  Ricanati, quotation from, ii. 14.

-

-  Rinconado, ii. 101.

-

-  Rios, Amador de los, critic, 281.

-

-  Rivas, Duke de, 282.

-

-  Rizzi, Francisco, paintings by, at Madrid, 193.

-

-  Roa, Ferdinand de, kills Don Fadrique, ii. 123.

-

-  Roderic and the enchanted tower, ii. 45;

-    and Florinda, ii. 46.

-

-  Roelas, Juan de las, paintings by, at Seville, ii. 109.

-

-  Rojas, Francisco de, 169;

-    native of Toledo, ii. 49

-

-  Rodriguez as an orator, 276, 291;

-    political leader, 96.

-

-  Roman aqueduct at Alcanadre, 91;

-    at Segovia, 124;

-    ruins at Barcelona, 26.

-

-  Ros de Olano invents the soldier cap, 24.

-

-  Rosas, Rios y, political leader, 96;

-    oratory of, 276.

-

-  Resell, Gen., at Saragossa, 84.

-

-  Rubens, Peter Paul, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183;

-    at Valladolid, 144.

-

-  Ruins of Alcanadre, 91;

-    Egon ad Agoncilla, 91;

-    Logroño, 91.

-

-  Ruiz Garcia, political leader, 96.

-

-

-  S.

-

-  Saavedra, Señor, 291, 292.

-

-  Sagasta, Praxedes Mateo, political leader, 79, 96, 97;

-    a modern Cardenio, ii. 60.

-

-  St. Agnes, church of, Burgos, 121.

-

-

-  St. Andrea de Palomar, 19.

-

-  St. Anthony of Padua, Murillo's, ii. 129.

-

-  St. Eugenia, tomb of, ii. 29.

-

-  St. Eulalia, tomb of, 28.

-

-  St. Ferdinand, chapel of, Seville, ii. 109.

-

-  St. George Chapel, Barcelona, 26.

-

-  St. Ildefonso, garden of Philip V., 124.

-

-  St. Isadore, memorial ceremony at church of, 244.

-

-  St. James, the first bishop of Toledo, ii. 23;

-    and the Virgin Mary, 61.

-

-  St. Lawrence, Philip II.'s vow to, 260;

-    relic of, 272.

-

-  St. Leucadia, tomb of, ii. 29.

-

-  St. Theresa, birthplace of, 124;

-    inkhorn of, 272;

-    mementoes of, ii. 103.

-

-  Salamanca, a suburb of Madrid, 167, 208.

-

-  Salvator Rosa, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.

-

-  Salvini, Tommaso, as Samson, ii. 107.

-

-  San Fernando, Madrid, academy of, 193.

-

-  San Geronimo, church of, ii. 235.

-

-  San Ginés, church of, ii. 44.

-

-  San Gregorio, college of, 135.

-

-  San José, church of, Madrid, 204.

-

-  San Juan de los Reyes, church of, ii. 36.

-

-  San Pablo, convent of, 134.

-

-  San Quentin, Philip II.'s vow at battle of, 260;

-    relics of, 174.

-

-  San Salvador, Saragossa, 65.

-

-  San Servando, castle of, ii. 41.

-

-  Santa Cruz, hospital of, ii. 50.

-

-  Santa Cruz de Mudela, ii. 58.

-

-  Santa Cruz, Marquis of, armor of, 176.

-

-  Santa Domingo, convent of, ii. 235.

-

-  Santa Maria, gate of, Burgos, 104.

-

-  Santa Maria la Blanca, synagogue of, ii. 38.

-

-  Santi Ponce, ii. 118.

-

-  Saragossa, 56;

-    alcayde's bold

-  speech, 82;

-    Amadeus enters, 82;

-    arrival at, 55;

-    Bourse, 74;

-    carnival maskers, 65, 68;

-    cathedral of Our Lady of the Pillar, 60;

-    cathedral of San Salvador, 65;

-    church of Santiago, 74;

-    costume of peasantry, 56;

-    masked balls, 87;

-    new tower, 75;

-    siege of, 59, 77;

-    streets, 58;

-    suburbs, 91.

-

-  Sarto, Andrea del, paintings by, at Burgos, 109;

-    at Madrid, 182.

-

-  Schoen, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.

-

-  School-boys, 46.

-

-  Shrack, Frederick, description of the Djihad, ii. 75.

-

-  Sea, beauty of the, ii. 157.

-

-  Sebastian of Portugal, a royal bull-fighter, 234.

-

-  Segovia, 124.

-

-  Segovia and Ardizone, Gonzalo, ii. 130, 132, 145;

-    sad fate of, ii. 146.

-

-  Seneca, born in Cordova, ii. 90.

-

-  Seo, Saragossa, 65.

-

-  Serenos, 172.

-

-  Serrano, Gen. Francesco, political leader, 96, 97;

-    reputation of, 288.

-

-  Sertorius defeats Pompey at Calahorra, 91.

-

-  Seville, Alcazar, ii. 120;

-    at night, ii. 106;

-    Barber of, ii. 132, 14;

-    cathedral, ii. 108;

-    Columbian library, ii. 118;

-    gaiety of, ii. 143;

-    gardens, ii. 125;

-    Giralda, ii. 101, ii. 116;

-    house of Pilate, ii. 136;

-    literary and artistic fame, ii. 139;

-    museum of painting, ii. 129;

-    Oriental character, ii. 102;

-    patios, ii. 133;

-    poetical character of, ii. 142;

-    streets, ii. 120;

-    Torre del Oro, ii. 103, 117;

-    tropical heat, ii. 120;

-    women of, ii. 126.

-

-  Sierra de Segura, ii. 61.

-

-  Sierra Morena, ii. 59, ii. 62, ii. 118, ii. 260.

-

-  Sierra Nevada, ii. 214, ii. 226.

-

-  Siestas necessary, ii. 79.

-

-  Socialist party, 96.

-

-  Soldiers, 23;

-    political feeling shown by, 204;

-    reviewed by Amadeus, 202.

-

-

-  Soria, 124.

-

-  Stagno in opera at Madrid, 168.

-

-  Streets of Barcelona, 22, 27;

-    Burgos, 101;

-    Cadiz, ii. 160;

-    Cordova, ii. 64;

-    Granada, ii. 187;

-    Madrid, 166;

-    Malaga, ii. 170;

-    Saragossa, 58;

-    Seville, ii. 102;

-    Toledo, ii. 17;

-    Valencia, ii. 265.

-

-  Studying for a degree, ii. 238.

-

-

-  T.

-

-  Tagus, the, at Aranjuez, ii. 12;

-    at Toledo, ii. 17.

-

-  Tamayo, dramatist, 169, 281, 291.

-

-  Tangiers, ii. 168.

-

-  Tarifa, Cape, ii. 167.

-

-  Tasso, Torquato, influence on Italian poetry, ii. 93.

-

-  Tato, the one-legged torero, ii. 262.

-

-  Teniers, David, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.

-

-  Theatres at Barcelona, 40;

-    at Madrid, 168;

-    and literature, 169, 282.

-

-  Tiepolo, Giovanni Battista, paintings by, at Madrid, 183.

-

-  Tintoretto, Giacomo, paintings by, at Madrid, 182;

-    at the Escurial, 264.

-

-  Tirso de Molina, dramatist, 169.

-

-  Titian, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.

-

-  Tobacco manufactories at Burgos, 118;

-    at Madrid, 173;

-    at Seville, ii. 127;

-    cigarettes vs. pipes, 132.

-

-  Toledo, Alcazar, ii. 39;

-    arrival at, ii. 17;

-    at night, ii. 47;

-    bridge of Alcantara, ii. 18;

-    cathedral, ii. 23;

-    church of San Juan de los Reyes, ii. 36;

-    church of San Ginés, ii. 44;

-    church of Nuestra Señora di Transito, ii. 50;

-    dead city, a, ii. 48;

-    historical, ii. 22;

-    hospital of Santa Cruz, ii. 50;

-    legends of, ii. 43;

-    lunatic asylum, ii. 51;

-    manufactory of arms, ii. 50;

-    popular characteristics, ii. 48;

-    Puerto del Sol, ii. 18;

-    Santa Maria la Blanca, ii. 38;

-    view from cathedral, ii. 34;

-    silent and gloomy, ii, 21;

-    streets, ii. 19.

-

-

-  Tolosa, Las Navas de, battlefield, ii. 60.

-

-  Topete, Juan, ii. 60.

-

-  Toreros, 213;

-    dangers of, 229;

-    dress of, 240;

-    highly respectable, 239;

-    lucrative business, 241.

-

-  Torrigiano, Pietro, sculptures by, at Granada, ii. 229.

-

-  Torquemada, Tomas de, founds the convent of Santa Domingo, ii. 235;

-    origin of, 235.

-

-  Torre del Oro, Seville, ii. 103.

-

-  Tower, new, Saragossa, 75;

-    Golden, Seville, ii. 103.

-

-  Trafalgar, relics of, 179.

-

-  Trajan's ashes brought to Seville, ii. 138.

-

-  Travelling for love, 13;

-    amenities of, 48, 52;

-    miseries of, ii. 177;

-    opera troupes, ii. 153;

-    philosophy of, ii. 224;

-    soldiers, ii.

-

-  Triana, ii. 118.

-

-  Tudela, battle of, 91;

-    canal, 51, 92.

-

-

-  U.

-

-  Undertaker's shop, 117.

-

-  Unionist party, 96, 97.

-

-  University students at Granada, ii. 238;

-    at Valladolid, 148.

-

-

-  V.

-

-  Val de Peñas, ii. 58;

-    wine of, 162; ii. 58.

-

-  Valencia, ii. 265;

-    Amadeus at, ii. 262;

-    art-gallery, ii. 267;

-    bull-ring, 235; ii. 262;

-    Casa de Ayuntamiento, ii. 266;

-    cathedral, ii. 266;

-    dress of peasantry, ii. 270;

-    historic houses, ii. 262;

-    Lonja, ii. 266;

-    market, ii. 269;

-    palace of the Audiencia, ii. 266;

-    popular characteristics, ii. 271;

-    streets, ii. 266;

-    women, ii. 271.

-

-  Valdes Leal, Juan de, paintings by, at Seville, ii. 109, 132.

-

-  Valera, Señor, 291.

-

-  Valladolid, 129;

-    cathedral, 136;

-    convent of San Pablo, 134;

-    college of San Gregorio, 135;

-    decay of, 131;

-    dialect of, 132;

-    hospitality, 148;

-    house of Cervantes, 137;

-    house of Zorilla, 141;

-    Inquisition, 146;

-    markets, 132;

-    picture-gallery, 143;

-    Plaza Major, 132;

-    polite beggary, 135;

-    royal palace, 133.

-

-  Van Dyke, Antonio, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.

-

-  Vega, Granada, ii. 260.

-

-  Vega, de Armijo, Marquis de, 207.

-

-  Vega, Garcilasso de la, armor of, 176;

-    native of Toledo, ii. 49.

-

-  Velasquez, Don Diego, masterpieces, 188;

-    mementoes of, ii. 103;

-    paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.

-

-  Ventas de Alcolea, ii. 62.

-

-  Ventura de la Vega, dramatist, 169.

-

-  Veragua, duke of, 207.

-

-  Victoria, at Madrid, 195;

-    charity of, 196;

-    learning of, 199;

-    universal respect for, 81, 200.

-

-  Vilches, ii. 61.

-

-  Villadomat, paintings by, at Barcelona, 26.

-

-  Villaseca, dowager of, 307.

-

-  Vinci, Leonardo da, paintings by, at Burgos, 109.

-

-  Virgin Mary appears to St. James at Toledo, ii. 27;

-    miraculous image of, 61;

-    robes of, ii. 31.

-

-

-  W.

-

-  Walk of the Spanish women, 136.

-

-  War of Independence influences Spanish national character, 35, 285;

-    relics of, 174.

-

-  Water abundant in the Alhambra, ii. 226.

-

-

-  Wife, a fugitive, 69.

-

-  Wine of Malaga, ii. 172;

-    Val de Peñas, 162; ii. 58;

-    Xeres, ii. 155.

-

-  Women of Barcelona, 41;

-    Cadiz, ii. 164;

-    Cordova, ii. 79;

-    Madrid, 165;

-    Saragossa, 57;

-    Seville, ii. 126;

-    Valencia, ii. 271;

-    Valladolid, 136;

-    toreros, 238;

-    walk of Spanish, 136.

-

-

-  X.

-

-  Xenil river, ii. 213.

-

-  Xeres, wine of, ii. 155.

-

-  Ximenes, wife of the Cid, remains of, 103.

-

-

-  Z.

-

-  Zafra, Don Fernando de, legend of, ii. 228.

-

-  Zahira, ii. 89.

-

-  Zainete, 170.

-

-  Zarzuela, the, 168, 170; ii. 154, ii. 156

-

-  Zorrilla, Ruiz, political leader, 86, 69, 97;

-    consents to accept office, ii. 268.

-

-  Zorrilla, José, 281;

-    birthplace at Valladolid, 141;

-    influence on Spanish literature, 141;

-    on people of Toledo, ii. 48;

-    popularity of, 142.

-

-  Zouave officers, 11.

-

-  Zuera, 54.

-

-  Zurbaran, Francisco de, paintings by, at Cadiz, ii. 163;

-    at Madrid, 193;

-    at the Escurial, 264;

-    at Seville, ii. 109, ii. 132.

-

-

-[Illustration: Map of SPAIN & PORTUGAL]

-

-

-

-

-

-

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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 50727 ***
+
+Transcriber's Notes
+
+ Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected and
+ inconsistencies of hyphenation have been removed. All other variations
+ in spelling, punctuation and accents are unchanged from the original.
+
+ The following corrections have been made to the Index.
+ Rembrandt von changed to Rembrandt van Rijn
+ Pousin, Nicola changed to Poussin, Nicolas
+ Zorilla, Ruiz changed to Zorrilla, Ruiz
+
+ Repetition of chapter titles on consecutive pages has been removed.
+
+ Italics are indicated thus _italic_.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+                   SPAIN
+
+
+[Illustration: _Alcazar, Seville_]
+
+
+            _EDITION ARTISTIQUE_
+
+             The World's Famous
+             Places and Peoples
+
+
+[Illustration: Flower]
+
+
+                   SPAIN
+
+
+                     BY
+
+              EDMONDO DE AMICIS
+
+
+                _Translated
+        by Stanley Rhoads Yarnall, M.A._
+
+
+               In Two Volumes
+
+                  Volume II.
+
+
+             MERRILL AND BAKER
+           New York          London
+
+
+THIS EDITION ARTISTIQUE OF THE WORLD'S FAMOUS PLACES AND PEOPLES IS
+LIMITED TO ONE THOUSAND NUMBERED AND REGISTERED COPIES, OF WHICH THIS
+COPY IS NO. _______
+
+
+    Copyright, Henry T. Coates & Co., 1895
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                  PAGE
+
+ ARANJUEZ                            7
+
+ TOLEDO                             15
+
+ CORDOVA                            53
+
+ SEVILLE                            97
+
+ CADIZ                             147
+
+ MALAGA                            165
+
+ GRANADA                           175
+
+ VALENCIA                          257
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+VOLUME II
+
+
+                                             PAGE
+
+ ALCAZAR, SEVILLE                   _Frontispiece_
+
+ GATE OF THE SUN, TOLEDO                       18
+
+ ALCAZAR AND BRIDGE OF SAN MARTIN, TOLEDO      40
+
+ COURT OF ORANGES, MOSQUE OF CORDOVA           68
+
+ MOORISH ARCHES, ALCAZAR, SEVILLE             124
+
+ CADIZ                                        158
+
+ MALAGA                                       170
+
+ COURT OF MYRTLES, ALHAMBRA                   194
+
+ FOUNTAIN IN THE COURT OF LIONS, ALHAMBRA     200
+
+ QUEEN'S BOUDOIR, ALHAMBRA                    212
+
+ COURT OF GENERALIFE, GRANADA                 226
+
+ THE ALHAMBRA AND THE VALLEY OF THE DARRO     250
+
+
+
+
+ARANJUEZ.
+
+
+As on arriving at Madrid by way of the north, so on leaving it by way
+of the south, one must pass through a desolate country that resembles
+the poorest provinces of Arragon and Old Castile. There are vast
+plains, parched and yellow, which look as though they would echo like a
+hollow passageway if one were to strike them, or crumble like the crust
+of a crisp tart. And through the plains are scattered a few wretched
+villages of the same color as the soil, which seem as though they would
+take fire like a pile of dry leaves if one were to touch a torch to
+the corner of one of the huts. After an hour of travel my shoulders
+sought the cushions of the carriage, my elbow sought for a support,
+my head sought my hand, and I fell into a deep sleep like a member of
+Leopardi's "Assembly of Listeners." A few minutes after I had closed
+my eyes I was rudely awakened by a desperate cry from the women and
+children, and leaped to my feet, demanding of my neighbors what had
+occurred.
+
+But before I had ended my question a general burst of laughter
+reassured me. A company of huntsmen, scattered over the plain, on
+noticing the approach of the train, had planned to give the travellers
+a little scare. At that time there was a rumor that a band of Carlists
+had appeared in the vicinity of Aranjuez. The huntsmen, pretending to
+be the vanguard of the band, had given a loud shout while the train
+was passing, as if to call the great body of their comrades to their
+assistance, and as they shouted they went through the motions of firing
+at the railway-carriages; hence arose the fright and the cries of my
+fellow-travellers. And then the huntsmen suddenly threw the butts of
+their guns into the air to show that it was all a joke.
+
+When the alarm, in which I too shared for a moment, had subsided, I
+fell once more into my academic doze, but was again awakened in a few
+moments in a manner much more pleasant than on the first occasion.
+
+I looked around: the vast barren plain had been transformed as by magic
+into a great garden full of the most charming groves, traversed in all
+directions by wide avenues, dotted with country-houses and cottages
+festooned with verdure; here and there the sparkling of fountains,
+shady grottoes, flowering meadows, vineyards, and bridle-paths--a
+verdure, a freshness, a vernal odor, an atmosphere of happiness and
+peace, that enchanted the soul. We had arrived at Aranjuez. I left the
+train, walked up a beautiful avenue shaded by two rows of noble trees,
+and after a few steps found myself in front of the royal palace.
+
+The minister Castelar had written in his memorandum a few days before
+that the fall of the ancient Spanish monarchy was predoomed on that
+day when a mob of the populace, with curses on their lips and hatred
+in their hearts, had invaded the palace of Aranjuez to disturb the
+majestic repose of their sovereigns. I had reached that square where
+on the 17th of March, 1808, occurred those events which were the
+prologue of the national war, and, as it were, the first word of the
+death-sentence of the ancient monarchy. My eyes quickly sought the
+windows of the apartments of the Prince of Peace; I imagined him,
+as he fled from room to room, pale and distracted, searching for a
+hiding-place as the echo of the cry followed him up the stairs; I saw
+poor Charles IV., as with trembling hands he placed the crown of Spain
+on the head of the prince of the Asturias; all the scenes of that
+terrible drama were enacted in fancy before my eyes, and the profound
+silence of the place and the sight of that palace, closed and desolate,
+sent a chill to my heart.
+
+The palace has the appearance of a castle: it is built of brick, with
+trimmings of light stone, and covered with a tile roof. Every one knows
+that it was built for Philip II. by the celebrated architect Herrera,
+and that it was adorned by all the later kings, who made it their
+summer residence. I enter: the interior is magnificent; there is the
+stupendous reception-hall of the ambassadors, the beautiful Chinese
+cabinet belonging to Charles V., the marvellous dressing-chamber of
+Isabella II., and a profusion of the most precious ornaments. But all
+the riches of the palace are as nothing to the beauty of the gardens.
+The expectation is not disappointed.
+
+The gardens of Aranjuez (Aranjuez is the name of a little town which
+lies a short distance from the palace) seem to have been laid out for
+a race of Titan kings, to whom the royal parks and gardens of our
+country would have seemed like the flower-beds on their terraces or
+the plots before their stables. Endless avenues, bordered by trees
+of measureless height with arched branches interlacing as if bent
+toward each other by contrary winds, extend in every direction like a
+forest whose boundaries one cannot see, and through this forest the
+Tagus, a wide, swift stream, flows in a majestic curve, forming here
+and there cascades and lakes: an abundant and luxuriant vegetation
+springs up amid a labyrinth of bypaths, crossways, and sylvan glades;
+and in every part gleam statues, vases, columns, and fountains rising
+to a great height and falling in spray, festoons, and drops of water,
+placed in the midst of all manner of flowers from Europe and America;
+and, mingling with the majestic roar of the cascades of the Tagus, a
+flood of song from innumerable nightingales, which make the mysterious
+gloom of the lonely paths ring with their mellow notes. In the depths
+of the gardens rises a small marble palace of modest proportions
+which contains all the wonders of the most magnificent royal abode;
+and here one may still breathe, so to speak, the air of the inmost
+life of the kings of Spain. Here are the small secret chambers whose
+ceilings one may touch with the hand, the billiard-room of Charles
+IV., his cue, the cushions embroidered by the hands of his queens, the
+musical clocks which enlivened the playtime of his children, the narrow
+staircases, the little windows about which cluster a hundred traditions
+of princely caprices, and, finally, the richest retiring-room in
+Europe, created at a whim of Charles V., containing in itself alone
+sufficient riches to adorn a palace, without depriving it of the noble
+primacy which it proudly holds among all other cabinets designed for
+the same use. Beyond this palace and all around the groves extend
+vineyards and olive-groves and orchards of fruit-bearing trees and
+smiling meadows. It is a veritable oasis in the midst of the desert--an
+oasis which Philip II. chose to create on a day when he was in good
+humor, as if to enliven with one cheerful image the black melancholy
+of the Escurial. On returning from the little marble palace toward
+the great royal palace through those endless avenues, in the shade of
+those noble trees, in that profound forest silence, I thought of the
+splendid trains of ladies and cavaliers who once wandered about in the
+footsteps of the gay young monarchs or the capricious and dissolute
+queens to the sound of amorous music and songs which told of the
+grandeur and glory of unconquered Spain; and I sadly repeated with the
+poet, Ricanati,
+
+    ... "All is peace and silence,
+        And their names are no longer heard."
+
+But as I looked at those marble seats, half hidden in the shrubbery,
+and fixed my eyes on the shadow of certain distant paths, and thought
+of those queens, those lovers, and those mad pranks, I could not
+refrain from a sigh, which was not one of pity, and a secret sense of
+bitterness stung me to the heart; and I said, like poor Adan in the
+poem _Diablo Mundo_, "How are these grand ladies made? How do they
+live? What do they do? Do they talk, make love, and enjoy like us?"
+And I left for Toledo, imagining the love of a queen like a young
+adventurer of the Arabian Nights.
+
+
+
+
+TOLEDO.
+
+
+When one approaches an unknown city one ought to have near by some one
+who has already seen it and is able to indicate the opportune moment to
+put one's head out of the window and get the first view. I had the good
+fortune to be informed in time. Some one said to me, "There is Toledo!"
+and I sprang to the window with an exclamation of wonder.
+
+Toledo rises on a sheer rocky height, at whose foot the Tagus describes
+a grand curve. From the plain one sees only the rocks and the walls
+of the fortress, and beyond the wall the tips of the belfries and
+the towers. The houses are hidden from view; the city seems to be
+closed and inaccessible, and presents the appearance of an abandoned
+stronghold rather than of a city. From the walls to the river-banks
+there is not a single house nor tree; all is bare, parched, craggy,
+precipitous; not a soul is in sight; you would say that to make the
+ascent it would be necessary to climb, and it seems that at the first
+appearance of a man on the face of those rocks a shower of arrows would
+fall upon him from the top of the wall.
+
+You leave the train, get into a carriage, and arrive at the entrance
+of a bridge. It is the famous bridge Alcantara, which spans the Tagus,
+surmounted by a beautiful Moorish gate in the form of a tower, which
+gives it a bold, severe appearance. Crossing the bridge, you turn
+into a wide roadway which winds up in large serpentine curves until
+it reaches the top of the mountain. Here it really seems that you are
+under a fortified city of the Middle Ages, and you imagine yourself in
+the guise of a Moor or a Goth or a soldier of Alfonso VI. From every
+part precipitous rocks hang over your head, crumbling walls, towers,
+and the ruins of ancient bastions, and higher up the last wall which
+encircles the city, black, crowned with enormous battlements, opened
+here and there by great breaches, behind which the imprisoned houses
+rear their heads; and as you climb higher and higher the city seems
+to draw back and hide itself. Halfway up the ascent you come to the
+_Puerto del Sol_, a jewel of Moorish architecture, consisting of two
+embattled towers which are joined over a very graceful double-arched
+colonnade, under which runs the ancient street; and from that point, if
+you look back, you may see at a glance the Tagus, the valley, and the
+hills. You go on and find other walls and other ruins, and finally the
+first houses of the city.
+
+What a city! At the first moment I caught my breath. The carriage had
+turned down a little street, so narrow that the hubs of the wheels
+almost touched the walls of the houses.
+
+[Illustration: _Gate of the Sun, Toledo_]
+
+"Why do you turn in here?" I asked the driver.
+
+He laughed and answered, "Because there is no wider street."
+
+"Is all Toledo like this?" I asked again.
+
+"It is all like this," he replied
+
+"Impossible!" I exclaimed.
+
+"You will see," he added.
+
+To tell the truth, I did not believe him. I entered a hotel, dropped my
+valise in a room, and ran headlong down the stairs to take a look at
+this very strange city. One of the hotel-porters stopped me at the door
+and asked with a smile,
+
+"Where are you going, _caballero_?"
+
+"To see Toledo," I replied.
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"Yes; why not?"
+
+"But have you ever been here before?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"Then you cannot go alone."
+
+"And why not?"
+
+"Because you will get lost."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"As soon as you go out."
+
+"For what reason?"
+
+"The reason is this," he answered, pointing to a wall on which hung a
+map of Toledo. I approached and saw a network of white lines on a black
+background that seemed like one of those flourishes which school-boys
+make on their slates to waste the chalk and vex their teacher.
+
+"No matter," said I; "I am going alone, and if I get lost, let them
+come and find me."
+
+"You will not go a hundred steps," observed the porter.
+
+I went out and turned down the first street I saw, so narrow that on
+extending my arms I touched both walls. After fifty paces I turned into
+another street, narrower than the first, and from this passed into a
+third, and so on.
+
+I seemed to be wandering not through the streets of the city, but
+through the corridors of a building, and I went forward, expecting
+momentarily to come out into an open place. It is impossible, I
+thought, that the whole city is built in this manner; no one could
+live in it. But as I proceeded the streets seemed to grow narrower and
+shorter; every moment I was obliged to turn; after a curving street
+came a zigzag one, and after this another in the form of a hook, which
+led me back into the first, and so I wandered on for a little while,
+always in the midst of the same houses. Now and then I came out at a
+crossway where several alleys ran off in opposite directions, one of
+which would lose itself in the dark shadow of a portico, another would
+end blindly in a few paces against the wall of a house, a third in
+a short distance would descend, as it were, into the bowels of the
+earth, while a fourth would clamber up a steep hill; some were hardly
+wide enough to give a man passage; others were confined between two
+walls without doors or windows; and all were flanked by buildings of
+great height, between whose roofs one could see a narrow streak of sky.
+
+One passed windows defended by heavy iron bars, great doors studded
+with enormous nails, and dark courtyards. I walked for some time
+without meeting anybody, until I came out into one of the principal
+streets, lined with shops and full of peasants, women, and children,
+but little larger than an ordinary corridor. Everything is in
+proportion to the streets: the doors are like windows, the shops like
+niches, and by glancing into them one sees all the secrets of the
+house--the table already spread, the babies in the cradle, the mother
+combing her hair, and the father changing his shirt; everything is
+on the street, and it does not seem like a city, but like a house
+containing a single great family.
+
+I turned into a less-frequented street, where I heard only the buzzing
+of a fly; my footsteps echoed to the fourth story of the houses and
+brought some old women to the windows. A horse passes; it seems like a
+squadron; everybody hurries to see what is going on. The least sound
+re-echoes in every direction; a book falls in a second story, an old
+man coughs in a courtyard, a woman blows her nose in some unknown
+place; one hears everything.
+
+Sometimes every sound will suddenly cease; you are alone, you see no
+sign of life: you seem to be surrounded by the houses of witches,
+crossways made for conspirators, blind alleys for traitors, narrow
+doorways suitable for any crime, windows for the whispers of guilty
+lovers, gloomy doorways suggestive of blood-stained steps. But yet in
+all this labyrinth of streets there are no two alike; each one has
+its individuality: here rises an arch, there a column, yonder a piece
+of statuary. Toledo is a storehouse of art-treasures. Every little
+while the walls crumble, and there are revealed in every part records
+of all the centuries--bas-reliefs, arabesques, Moorish windows, and
+statuettes. The palaces have doorways defended by plates of engraved
+metal, historical knockers, nails with carved heads, 'scutcheons and
+emblems; and they form a fine contrast to the modern houses painted
+with festoons, medallions, cupids, urns, and fantastic animals.
+
+But these embellishments detract in no way from the severe and gloomy
+aspect of Toledo. Wherever you look you see something to remind you of
+the city fortified by the Arabs; however little your imagination may
+exert itself, it will succeed in rearranging from the relics scattered
+here and there the whole fabric of that darkened image, and then the
+illusion is complete: you see again the glorious Toledo of the Middle
+Ages, and forget the solitude and silence of its streets. But it is a
+fleeting illusion, and you soon relapse into sad meditation and see
+only the skeleton of the ancient city, the necropolis of three empires,
+the great sepulchre of the glory of three races. Toledo reminds you of
+the dreams which come to young men after reading the romantic legends
+of the Middle Ages. You have seen many a time in your dreams dark
+cities encircled by deep moats, frowning walls, and inaccessible rocks;
+and you have crossed those draw-bridges and entered those tortuous,
+grass-grown streets, and have breathed that damp, sepulchral, prison
+air. Well, then, you have dreamed of Toledo.
+
+The first thing to see, after making a general survey of the city, is
+the cathedral, which is justly considered one of the most beautiful
+cathedrals in the world. The history of this cathedral, according to
+popular tradition, dates from the times of the apostle Saint James,
+first bishop of Toledo, who selected the place where it should be
+erected; but the construction of the edifice as it appears to-day
+was begun in 1227, during the reign of San Fernando, and was ended
+after twenty-five years of almost continuous labor. The exterior of
+this immense church is neither rich nor beautiful, as is that of
+the cathedral of Burgos. A little square extends in front of the
+façade, and is the only place from which one can get a view of any
+considerable part of the building. It is entirely surrounded by a
+narrow street, from which, however much you may twist your neck, you
+can see only the high outer walls which enclose the church like a
+fortress. The façade has three great doorways, the first of which is
+named _Pardon_, the second _Inferno_, and the third _Justice_. Over it
+rises a substantial tower which terminates in a beautiful octagonal
+cupola. Although in walking around the building one may have remarked
+its great size, on first entering one is struck by a profound sense of
+wonder, which quickly gives place to another keen sense of pleasure,
+the result of the freshness, the repose, the soft shadow, and the
+mysterious light which steals through the stained glass of innumerable
+windows and breaks in a thousand rays of blue, golden, and rosy light
+which glides here and there along the arches and columns like the
+bands of a rainbow. The church is formed of five great naves divided
+by eighty-eight enormous pilasters, each of which is composed of
+sixteen turned columns as close together as a bunch of spears. A sixth
+nave cuts the other five at right angles, extending from the great
+altar to the choir, and the vaulted roof of this principal nave rises
+majestically above the others, which seem to be bowing to it as if in
+homage. The many-colored light and the clear tone of the stone give
+the church an air of quiet cheerfulness which tempers the melancholy
+appearance of the Gothic architecture without depriving it of its
+austere and serious character. To pass from the streets of the city to
+the naves of this cathedral seems like coming out of a dungeon into an
+open square: one looks around, draws a deep breath, and begins to live
+again.
+
+The high altar, if one wished to examine it minutely, would require
+as much time as the interior of a church: it is itself a church--a
+miracle of little columns, statuettes, traceries, and ornaments of
+endless variety, creeping along the iron frames, rising above the
+architraves, winding about the niches, supporting one another, climbing
+and disappearing, presenting on every side a thousand outlines, groups,
+combinations, effects in gilding and color, every sort of grace that
+art can devise--giving to the whole an effect of magnificence, dignity,
+and beauty. Opposite the high altar rises the choir, divided into
+three orders of stalls, marvellously carved by Philip of Bourgogne
+and Berruguete, with bas-reliefs representing historical events,
+allegories, and sacred legends--one of the most famous monuments of art.
+
+In the centre, in the form of a throne, stands the seat of the
+archbishop surrounded by a circle of enormous jasper columns, with
+colossal statues of alabaster resting on the architraves; on either
+side rise enormous bronze pulpits provided with two great missals, and
+two gigantic organs, one in front of the other, from which it seems
+that at any moment a flood of melody may burst forth and make the vault
+tremble.
+
+The pleasure of one's admiration in these great cathedrals is almost
+always disturbed by importunate guides, who wish at any cost to amuse
+you after their fashion. And it was my misfortune to become convinced
+that the Spanish guides are the most persistent of their kind. When
+one of them has gotten it into his head that you are to spend the day
+with him, it is all over. You may shrug your shoulders, refuse to
+notice him, let him talk himself hoarse without so much as turning to
+look at him, wander about on your own account as though you had not
+seen him: it is all the same thing. In a moment of enthusiasm before
+some painting or statue a word escapes you, a gesture, a smile: it
+is enough. You are caught, you are his, you are the prey of this
+implacable human cuttle-fish, who, like the cuttle-fish of Victor Hugo,
+does not leave his victim until he has cut off his head. While I stood
+contemplating the statuary of the choir I saw one of these cuttle-fish
+out of the corner of my eye--a miserable old rake, who approached me
+with slow steps sidewise, like a cutthroat with the air of one who was
+saying, "Now I have got you!" I continued to look at the statues; the
+old man came up to my side, and he too began to look; then he suddenly
+asked me, "Do you wish my company?"
+
+"No," I replied, "I don't need you."
+
+And he continued, without any embarrassment,
+
+"Do you know who Elpidius was?"
+
+The question was so remarkable that I could not keep from asking in my
+turn,
+
+"Who was he?"
+
+"Elpidius," he replied, "was the second bishop of Toledo."
+
+"Well, what of him?
+
+"'What of him?' It was the bishop Elpidius who conceived the idea of
+consecrating the church to the Virgin, and that is the reason why the
+Virgin came to visit the church."
+
+"Ah! how do you know that?"
+
+"How do you know it? You see it."
+
+"Do you mean to say that it has been seen?"
+
+"I mean to say that it is still to be seen: have the goodness to come
+with me."
+
+So saying, he started off, and I followed him, very curious to
+learn what this visible form of the descent of the Virgin might be.
+We stopped in front of a sort of chapel close to one of the great
+pilasters of the central nave. The guide pointed out a white stone set
+in the wall covered by an iron net, and with this inscription running
+around it:
+
+    "Quando la reina del cielo
+    Puso los pies en el suelo,
+    En esta piedra los puso."
+
+    "When the Queen of heaven
+    Descended to the earth,
+    Her feet rested on this stone."
+
+"Then the Holy Virgin has actually placed her feet on this stone?" I
+asked.
+
+"On this very stone," he replied; and, thrusting a finger between the
+strands of the iron net, he touched the stone, kissed his finger, made
+the sign of the cross, and turned toward me as if to say, "Now it is
+your turn."
+
+"My turn?" I replied. "Oh, really, my friend, I cannot do it."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because I do not feel myself worthy to touch that sacred stone."
+
+The guide understood, and, looking hard at me with a serious aspect, he
+asked, "You do not believe?"
+
+I looked at a pilaster. Then the old man made a sign for me to follow,
+and started toward a corner of the church, murmuring with an air of
+sadness, "_Cadanno es dueño de su alma_" (Every man is master of his
+soul).
+
+A young priest who was standing near, and who had divined the cause of
+his words, cast a piercing glance at me, and went off in an opposite
+direction, muttering I know not what.
+
+The chapels correspond in style with that of the church: almost all of
+them contain some fine monuments. In the chapel of Santiago, behind
+the high altar, are two magnificent tombs of alabaster which contain
+the remains of the constable Alvaro de Luna and his wife; in the chapel
+of San Ildefonso, the tomb of the cardinal Gil Carrillo de Albornoz;
+in the chapel of the "New Kings," the tombs of Henry II., John II.,
+and Henry III.; in the chapel of the sacristy, a stupendous group of
+statues and busts of marble, silver, ivory, and gold, and a collection
+of crosses and relics of inestimable value, the remains of Saint
+Leucadia and Saint Eugenia preserved in two silver caskets exquisitely
+chased.
+
+The Chapel Mozarabe, which is under the tower of the church, and was
+erected to perpetuate the tradition of the primitive Christian rite,
+is probably the most worthy of attention. One of its walls is entirely
+covered with a fresco, in the Gothic style, representing a conflict
+between the Moors and the Toledans--marvellously preserved, even to
+the most delicate lines. It is a painting worth a volume of history.
+In it one sees the Toledo of those times with all its walls and its
+houses; the habiliments of the two armies; the arms, faces, everything
+portrayed with an admirable finish and an unspeakable harmony of color
+which answers perfectly to the vague and fantastic idea which one may
+have formed of those centuries and those races. Two other frescoes on
+either side of the first represent the fleet which bore the Arabs into
+Spain, and they offer a thousand minute details of the mediæval marine
+and the very air of those times, if one may so speak, which makes one
+think of and see a thousand things not represented in the painting, as
+one hears distant music on looking at a landscape.
+
+After the chapels one goes to see the sacristy, where are gathered
+enough riches to restore the finances of Spain to a sound basis. There
+is, among others, a vast room on the ceiling of which one sees a
+fresco by Luca Giordano, which represents a vision of paradise, with
+a myriad of angels, saints, and allegorical figures floating in the
+air or standing out like statues from the cornices of the walls in a
+thousand bold attitudes, with so much action and foreshortening that
+one is bewildered. The guide, pointing out this miracle of imagination
+and genius, which in the estimation of all artists, to use a very
+curious Spanish expression, is a work of _merito atroz_ (of atrocious
+merit),--the guide bids you to look attentively at the ray of light
+which falls upon the walls from the centre of the vaulted ceiling. You
+look at it and then make a circuit of the room, and wherever you find
+yourself that ray of light is falling directly upon your head.
+
+From this hall you pass into a room which is also beautifully painted
+in fresco by the nephew of Berruguete, and from it into a third, where
+a sacristan lays the treasures of the cathedral before your eyes--the
+enormous silver candlesticks; the pyxes flashing with rubies; the
+golden stands for the elevation of the Host, studded with diamonds;
+the damask vestments, embroidered in gold; the robes of the Virgin,
+covered with arabesques, garlands of flowers, and stars of pearl, which
+at every motion of the cloth flash forth in a thousand rays and colors
+and quite dazzle one's eyes. A hour is scarcely sufficient to see
+hurriedly all that display of treasures, which would certainly satisfy
+the ambition of ten queens and enrich the altars of ten cathedrals;
+and when, after he has shown you everything, the sacristan looks in
+your eyes for an expression of surprise, he finds only astonishment and
+stupefaction, which give evidence of an imagination wandering in far
+distant regions--in the realms of the Arabian legends where the kindly
+genii gather all the riches dreamed of by the glowing fancy of enamored
+sultans.
+
+It was the eve of _Corpus Domini_, and in the sacristy they were
+preparing the robes for the processional. Nothing can be more
+unpleasant or more at variance with the quiet and noble sadness of
+the church than the theatrical hurry-scurry which one sees on such
+occasions. It is like being behind the scenes on the evening of a
+dress rehearsal. From one room of the sacristy to another half-dressed
+boys were coming and going with a great clatter, carrying armfuls
+of surplices, stoles, and capes; here a sour-tempered sacristan was
+opening and banging the doors of a wardrobe; there a priest, all red
+in the face, was calling angrily to a chorister who did not hear him;
+yonder other priests were running through the room with their robes
+partly on their backs and partly trailing behind them; some laughing,
+some screaming, and some shouting from one room to another at the top
+of their voices; everywhere one heard a swish of skirts, a breathless
+panting, and an indescribable stamping and tramping.
+
+I went to see the cloister, but, as the door was open through which one
+reaches it from the church, I saw it before entering. From the middle
+of the church one gets a glimpse of a part of the cloister-garden, a
+group of fine leafy trees, a little grove, a mass of luxuriant plants
+which seem to close the doorway and look as though they are framed
+beneath a graceful arch and between the two slender columns of the
+portico which extends all around. It is a beautiful sight, which makes
+one think of Oriental gardens encircled by the columns of a mosque.
+The cloister, which is very large, is surrounded by a colonnade,
+graceful, though severe in form; the walls covered with great frescoes.
+The guide advised me to rest here a little while before ascending to
+the campanile. I leaned against a low wall in the shade of a tree,
+and remained there until I felt able to make another expedition, as
+the expression is. Meanwhile, my commander extolled in bombastic
+language the glories of Toledo, carrying his impudence so far, in his
+patriotism, as to call it "a great commercial city" which could buy
+and sell Barcelona and Valencia, and a city strong enough, if need be,
+to withstand ten German armies and a thousand batteries of Krupp guns.
+After each of his exaggerations I kept spurring him on, and the good
+man enjoyed himself to the full. What pleasure there is in knowing how
+to make others talk! Finally, when the proud Toledan was so swollen
+with glory that the cloister could no longer hold him, he said to me,
+"We may go now," and led the way toward the door of the campanile.
+
+When we were halfway up we stopped to take breath. The guide knocked at
+a little door, and out came a swaggering little sacristan, who opened
+another door, and made me enter a corridor where I saw a collection of
+gigantic puppets in very strange attire. Four of them, the guide told
+me, represented Europe, Asia, America, and Africa, and two others Faith
+and Religion; and they were so made that a man could hide in them and
+raise them from the ground.
+
+"They take them out on the occasions of the royal fêtes," the sacristan
+added, "and carry them around through the city;" and, to show me how
+it was done, he crept in under the robes of Asia. Then he led me to
+a corner where there was an enormous monster which when touched, I
+know not where, stretched out a very long neck and a horrible head
+and made a dreadful noise. But he could not tell me what this ugly
+creature signified, and so invited me instead to admire the marvellous
+imagination of the Spaniards, which creates so "many new things" to
+sell in all the known world. I admired, paid, and continued the ascent
+with my Toledan cuttle-fish. From the top of the tower one enjoys a
+splendid view--the city, the hills, the river, a vast horizon, and,
+below, the great mass of the cathedral, which seems like a mountain of
+granite. But there is another elevation, a short distance away, from
+which one sees everything to a better advantage, and consequently I
+remained in the campanile only a few moments, especially as at that
+hour the sun was shining very strongly, confusing all the colors of the
+city and country in a flood of light.
+
+From the cathedral my guide led me to see the famous church of _San
+Juan de los Reyes_, situated on the banks of the Tagus. My mind is
+still confused when I think of the windings and turnings which we were
+obliged to make in order to reach it. It was mid-day, the streets were
+deserted; gradually, as we went farther from the centre of the city,
+the solitude became more depressing; not a door or window was open, not
+the slightest sound was heard. For a moment I suspected that the guide
+was in league with some assassin to entice me into an out-of-the-way
+place and rob me; he had a suspicious face, and then he kept glancing
+here and there with a suspicious air, like one meditating a crime.
+
+"Is it much farther?" I would ask from time to time, and he would
+always answer: "It is right here," and yet we never reached it.
+
+At a certain point my uneasiness changed into fear: in a narrow,
+tortuous street a door opened; two bearded men came out, made a sign
+to the cuttle-fish, and fell in behind us. I thought it was all over
+with me. There was only one way of escape--to strike the guide, knock
+him down, jump over his body, and run. But which way? And on the other
+side there came into my mind the high praises which Thiers bestows
+on the "Spanish legs" in his _History of the War of Independence_;
+and I thought that flight would only prove an opportunity to plant a
+dagger in my back instead of my stomach, Alas! to die without seeing
+Andalusia! To die after taking so many notes, after giving so many
+tips--to die with pockets full of letters of introduction, with a purse
+fat with doubloons--to die with a passport covered with seals--to die
+by treachery! As God willed, the two bearded men disappeared at the
+first corner and I was saved. Then, overwhelmed by compunction for
+suspecting that the poor old man could be capable of a crime, I came
+over to his left side, offered him a cigar, said that Toledo was worth
+two Romes, and showed him a thousand courtesies. Finally we arrived at
+_San Juan de los Reyes_.
+
+It is a church which seems like a royal palace: the highest part is
+covered by a balcony surrounded with a honeycombed and sculptured
+breastwork, upon which rises a series of statues of kings, and in the
+middle stands a graceful hexagonal cupola which completes the beautiful
+harmony of the edifice. From the walls hang long iron chains which were
+suspended there by the Christian prisoners released at the conquest of
+Granada, and which, together with the dark color of the stone, give
+the church a severe and picturesque appearance. We entered, passed
+through two or three large, bare rooms, unpaved, cluttered with piles
+of dirt and heaps of rubbish, climbed a staircase, and came out upon
+a high gallery inside the church, which is one of the most beautiful
+and noblest of the monuments of Gothic architecture. It has a single
+great nave divided into four vaults, whose arches intersect under rich
+rosettes. The pilasters are covered with festoons and arabesques;
+the walls ornamented with a profusion of bas-reliefs, with enormous
+shields bearing the arms of Castile and Arragon, eagles, dragons,
+heraldic animals, trailing vines, and emblematic inscriptions; the
+gallery running all around the room is perforated and carved with great
+elegance; the choir is supported by a bold arch; the color of the stone
+is light gray, and everything is admirably finished and preserved, as
+if the church had been built but a few years ago, instead of at the
+end of the fifteenth century.
+
+From the church we descended to the cloister, which is, in truth,
+a miracle of architecture and sculpture. Graceful slender columns
+which could be broken in two by the stroke of a hammer, looking like
+the trunks of saplings, support capitals richly adorned like curving
+boughs; arches ornamented with flowers, birds, and grotesque animals
+in every sort of carving. The walls are covered with inscriptions
+in Gothic characters in a framework of leaves and very delicate
+arabesques. Wherever one looks one finds grace mingled with riches in
+enchanting harmony: it would not be possible to accumulate in an equal
+space and with more exquisite art a larger number of the most delicate
+and beautiful objects. It is a luxuriant garden of sculpture, a grand
+saloon embroidered, quilted, and brocaded in marble, a great monument,
+majestic as a temple, magnificent as a palace, delicate as a toy, and
+graceful as a flower.
+
+After the cloisters one goes to see a picture-gallery which contains
+only some paintings of little value, and then to the convent with its
+long corridors, its narrow stairs, and empty cells, almost on the point
+of falling into ruins, and in some parts already in ruins; throughout
+bare and squalid like a building gutted by fire.
+
+A little way from _San Juan de los Reyes_ there is another monument
+well worthy of attention, a curious record of the Judaic period--the
+synagogue now known by the name of Santa Maria la Blanca. One enters
+an untidy garden and knocks at the door of a wretched-looking house.
+The door opens. There is a delightful sense of surprise, a vision of
+the Orient, a sudden revelation of another religion and another world.
+There are five narrow alleys divided by four long rows of little
+octagonal pilasters, which support as many Moorish arches with stucco
+capitals of various forms; the ceiling is of cedar-wood divided into
+squares, and here and there on the walls are arabesques and Arabic
+inscriptions. The light falls from above, and everything is white. The
+synagogue was converted into a mosque by the Arabs, and the mosque into
+a church by the Christians, so that, properly, it is none of the three,
+although it still preserves the character of the mosque, and the eye
+surveys it with delight, and the imagination follows from arch to arch
+the fleeting images of a sensuous paradise.
+
+When I had seen Santa Maria la Blanca, I had not the strength to see
+anything else, and, refusing all the tempting propositions of the
+guide, I told him to lead me back to the hotel. After a long walk
+through a labyrinth of narrow, deserted streets we arrived there; I put
+a _peseta_ and a half in the hand of my innocent assassin, who found
+the fee too small, and asked (how I laughed at the word!) for a little
+_gratificacion_.
+
+I went into the dining-room to eat a chop or _chuleta_ (which is
+pronounced _cuileta_), as the Spanish call it--a name at which they
+would turn up their noses in some of the provinces of Italy.
+
+Toward evening I went to see the Alcazar. The name raises expectations
+of a Moorish palace, but there is nothing Moorish about it except the
+name. The building which one admires to-day was built in the reign of
+Charles V. on the ruins of a castle which was in existence as early
+as the eighth century, although the notices of it in contemporary
+chronicles are vague. This edifice rises upon a height overlooking the
+city, so that one sees its walls and towers from every point above the
+level of the streets, and the foreigner finds it a sure landmark amid
+the confusion and labyrinths of the city. I climbed the height by a
+broad winding street, like that one which runs from the plain up to
+the city, and found myself in front of the Alcazar. It is an immense
+square palace, at whose corners rise four great towers that give it the
+formidable appearance of a fortress. A vast square extends in front
+of the façade, and all around it runs a chain of embattled bulwarks
+of Oriental design. The entire building is of a decided chalky color,
+relieved by a thousand varied shades of that powerful painter of
+monuments, the burning sun of the South, and it appears even lighter
+against the very clear sky upon which the majestic form of the building
+is outlined.
+
+The façade is carved in arabesques in a manner at once dignified and
+elegant. The interior of the palace corresponds with the exterior: it
+is a vast court surrounded by two orders of graceful arches, one above
+the other, supported by slender columns, with a monumental marble
+staircase starting at the centre of the side opposite the door, and a
+little way above the pavement divides into two parts that lead to the
+interior of the palace, the one on the right, the other on the left.
+To enjoy the beauty of the courtyard it is necessary to stand on the
+landing where the staircase separates: from that point one comprehends
+at a glance the complete harmony of the edifice, which inspires a sense
+of cheerfulness and pleasure, like fine music performed by hidden
+musicians.
+
+Excepting the courtyard, the other parts of the building--the
+stairways, the rooms, the corridors--everything is in ruins or falling
+to ruins. They were at work turning the palace into a military school,
+whitewashing the walls, breaking down the partitions to make great
+dormitories, numbering the doors, and converting the palace into
+a barracks. Nevertheless, they left intact the great subterranean
+chambers which were used for stables at the time of Charles V., and
+which are still able to hold several thousand horses. The guide made
+me approach a window from which I looked down into an abyss that
+gave me an idea of their vastness. Then we climbed a series of unsteady
+steps into one of the four towers; the guide opened with pincers and a
+hammer a window that had been nailed fast, and with the air of one who
+was announcing a miracle said to me, "Look, sir!"
+
+[Illustration: _Alcazar and Bridge of San Martin, Toledo_]
+
+It was a wonderful panorama. One had a bird's-eye view of the city of
+Toledo, street by street and house by house, as if one were looking at
+a map spread upon a table: here the cathedral, rising above the city
+like a measureless castle, and making all the buildings around it seem
+as small as toy houses; there the balcony of _San Juan de las Reyes_,
+crowned with statues; yonder the embattled towers of the New Gate, the
+circus, the Tagus running at the foot of the city between its rocky
+banks; and beyond the river, opposite the bridge of Alcantara, on a
+precipitous crag, the ruins of the ancient castle of San Servando;
+still farther off a verdant plain, and then rocks, hills, and mountains
+as far as the eye can see; and over all a very clear sky and the
+setting sun, which gilded the summits of the old buildings and flashed
+on the river like a great silver scarf.
+
+While I was contemplating this magic spectacle the guide, who had
+read the _History of Toledo_ and wished me to know the fact, was
+telling all sorts of stories with that manner, half poetical and half
+facetious, which is distinctive of the Spaniards of the South. Above
+all, he wished to explain the history of the work of fortification,
+and although, where he said that he saw clear and unmistakable remains
+which he pointed out to me, I saw nothing at all, I succeeded,
+nevertheless, in learning something about it.
+
+He told me that Toledo had been thrice surrounded by a wall, and that
+the traces of all three walls were still clear. "Look!" he said;
+"follow the line which my finger indicates: that is the Roman wall,
+the innermost one, and its ruins are still visible. Now look a little
+farther on: that other one beyond it is the Gothic wall. Now let your
+glance describe a curve which embraces the first two: that is the
+Moorish wall, the most recent. But the Moors also built an inner wall
+on the ruins of the Roman wall: this you can easily see. Then observe
+the direction of the streets, which converge toward the highest point
+of the city; follow the line of the roofs--here, so; you will see that
+all the streets go up zigzag, and they were built purposely in this
+manner, so that the city could be defended even after the walls had
+been destroyed; and the houses were built so close one against another
+in order that it would be possible to jump from roof to roof, you
+see; and then the Arabs have left it in their writings. This is the
+reason that the Spanish gentlemen from Madrid make me laugh when they
+come here and say, 'Pooh! what streets!' You see, they do not know a
+particle of history: if they knew the least bit, if they read a little
+instead of spending their days on the Prado and in the Recoleto, they
+would understand that there is a reason for the narrow streets of
+Toledo, and that Toledo is not a city for ignoramuses."
+
+I began to laugh.
+
+"Do you not believe?" continued the custodian: "it is a sacred fact.
+Not a week ago, to cite a case, here comes a dandy from Madrid with
+his wife. Well, even as they were climbing the stairs they began to
+run down the city, the narrow streets, and the dark houses. When they
+came to this window and saw those two old towers down yonder on the
+plain on the left bank of the Tagus, they asked me what they were, and
+I answered, '_Los palacios de Galiana_.' 'Oh! what beautiful palaces!'
+they exclaimed, and began to laugh and looked in another direction.
+Why? Because they did not know their history. Now, I imagine that
+you do not know any better; but you are a stranger, and that makes a
+difference. Know, then, that the great emperor Charlemagne came to
+Toledo when he was a very young man. King Galafro was reigning then,
+and dwelt in that palace. King Galafro had a daughter Galiana, as
+beautiful as an angel; and, as Charlemagne was a guest of the king
+and saw the princess every day, he fell in love with her with all
+his heart, and so did the princess with him. But there was a rival
+between them, and this rival was the king of Guadalajara, a Moorish
+giant of herculean strength and the courage of a lion. This king, to
+see the princess without being seen, had a subterranean passage made
+all the way from the city of Guadalajara to the very foundation of the
+palace. But what good did it do? The princess could not even bear to
+see him, and as often as he came, so often did he return crestfallen;
+but not for this did the enamored king stop paying his court. And so
+much did he come hanging around that Charlemagne, who was not a man to
+be imposed upon, as you can imagine, lost his patience, and to end the
+matter challenged him. They fought: it was a terrible struggle, but the
+Moor, for all he was a giant, got the worst of it. When he was dead
+Charlemagne cut off his head and laid it at the feet of his love, who
+approved the delicacy of his offering, became a Christian, gave her
+hand to the prince, and went away with him to France, where she was
+proclaimed empress."
+
+"And the head of the Moor?"
+
+"You may laugh, but these are sacred facts. Do you see that old
+building down there at the highest point of the city? It is the church
+of San Ginés. And do you know what is inside of it? Nothing less than
+the door of an underground passage which extends three leagues beyond
+Toledo. You do not believe it? Listen! At the place where the church
+of San Ginés now stands there once was an enchanted palace before the
+Moors invaded Spain. No king had ever had the courage to enter it,
+and those who might possibly have been so bold did not do it because,
+according to the tradition, the first man who crossed that threshold
+would be the ruin of Spain. Finally King Roderic, before setting out
+for the battle of Guadalete, hoping to find in it some treasures which
+would furnish him means to resist the invasion of the Moors, had the
+doors broken open and entered, preceded by his warriors, who lighted
+the way. After a great deal of trouble to keep their torches lighted
+for the furious wind which came through the underground passages,
+they reached a mysterious room where they saw a chest which bore the
+inscription, 'He who opens me will see miracles.' The king commanded
+that it be opened: with incredible difficulty they succeeded in opening
+it, but, instead of gold or diamonds, they found only a roll of
+linen, on which were painted some armed Moors, with this inscription
+underneath: '_Spain will soon be destroyed by these_.' That very night
+a violent tempest arose, the enchanted palace fell, and a short time
+afterward the Moors entered Spain. You don't seem to believe it?"
+
+"What stuff you are talking! How can I believe it?"
+
+"But this history is connected with another. You know, without doubt,
+that Count Julian, the commandant of the fortress of Ceuta, betrayed
+Spain and allowed the Moors to pass when he might have barred the way.
+But you do not know why Count Julian turned traitor. He had a daughter
+at Toledo, and this daughter went every day with a number of her young
+friends to bathe in the Tagus. As misfortune willed it, the place
+where they went to bathe, which was called _Los Baños de la Cava_, was
+near a tower in which King Roderic was accustomed to pass the mid-day
+hours. One day Count Julian's daughter, who was called Florinda, tired
+of sporting in the water, sat down on the river-bank and said to her
+companions, 'Companions, let us see who is the most beautiful.'--'Let
+us see!' they cried, and as soon done as said. They seated themselves
+around Florinda, and each one revealed her beauty. But Florinda
+surpassed them all, and, unfortunately, just at the moment when she
+said to the others, 'Look!' King Roderic put his head out of the window
+and saw them. Young and dissolute, you may imagine he took fire like a
+match, paid his court to the beautiful Florinda, ruined and abandoned
+her; and from this followed the fury of the revenge of Count Julian,
+the treason, and the invasion."
+
+At this point it seemed that I had listened long enough: I gave the
+custodian two _reales_, which he took and put in his pocket with a
+dignified air, and, giving a last look at Toledo, I descended.
+
+It was the hour for promenading. The principal street, hardly wide
+enough for a carriage to pass through, was full of people; there may
+have been a few hundred persons, but they seemed like a great crowd;
+it was dusk, the shops were closing, and a few stray lights began to
+flicker here and there. I went to get my dinner, but came out quickly,
+so as not to lose sight of the promenade. It was night: there was
+no other illumination save the moonlight, and one could not see the
+faces of the people; I seemed to be in the midst of a procession
+of spectres, and was overwhelmed with sadness. "To think that I am
+alone!" I said--"that in all this city there is not a soul who knows
+me; that if I fall dead at this moment, there would not be a dog to
+say, 'Poor man! he was a good fellow!'" I saw joyous young men pass,
+fathers of families with their children, husbands or those who had
+the air of husbands with beautiful creatures on their arms; every one
+had a companion; they laughed and talked, and passed without so much
+as looking at me. How wretched I was! How happy I should have been if
+a boy, a beggar, or a policeman had come up and said, "It seems to
+me that I recognize you, sir"!--"It is impossible, I am a foreigner,
+I have never been in Toledo before; but it makes no matter; don't go
+away; stay here, and we will talk a while, for I am lonely."
+
+In a happy moment I remembered that at Madrid I had received a letter
+of introduction to a Toledan gentleman. I hurried to the hotel, took
+out my letter, and was at once shown to his house. The gentleman was
+at home and received me courteously. It was such a pleasure to hear my
+own name again that I could have thrown my arms around his neck. He was
+Antonio Gamero, the author of a highly esteemed _History of Toledo_. We
+spent the evening together. I asked him a hundred things; he told me a
+thousand, and read me some splendid passages from his book, which made
+me better acquainted with Toledo than I should otherwise have been in a
+month's residence there.
+
+The city is poor, and worse than poor: it is dead; the rich have
+abandoned it for Madrid; the men of genius have followed the rich; it
+has no commerce; the manufacture of cutlery, the only industry which
+flourishes, provides a livelihood for some hundreds of families, but
+not for the city; popular education is neglected; the people are lazy
+and miserable.
+
+But they have not lost their ancient character of nobility. Like all
+the peoples of great declining cities, they are proud and chivalrous;
+they abhor baseness, deal justice with their own hands, when they
+can, to assassins and thieves and murderers; and, although the poet
+Zorilla, in one of his ballads, has bluntly called them a silly
+people, they are not so; they are alert and bold. They combine the
+seriousness of the Spaniards of the North with the vivacity of the
+Spaniards of the South; they hold the middle ground between the
+Castilian and the Andalusian; they speak the language with refinement,
+with a greater variety of inflexion than the people of Madrid, and
+with greater precision than the people of Cordova and Seville; they
+love poetry and music; they are proud to number among their great men
+the gentle Garcilaso de la Vega, the reformer of Spanish poetry, and
+the illustrious Francisco de Rojas, the author of the _Garcia del
+Castañar_; and they take pride in welcoming within their walls artists
+and students from all the countries in the world who come to study the
+history of three nations and the monuments of three civilizations.
+But, whatever its people may be, Toledo is dead; the city of Wamba,
+of Alfonso the Brave, and of Padilla is nothing but a tomb. Since
+Philip II. took from it the crown of the capital, it has been steadily
+declining, and is still declining, and it is consuming itself little by
+little, solitary on the summit of its gloomy mountain, like a skeleton
+abandoned on a rock in the midst of the waves of the sea.
+
+I returned to the hotel shortly before midnight. Although the moon was
+shining brightly--for on moonlight nights they do not illuminate the
+streets, although the light of that silvery orb does not penetrate
+those narrow ways--I was obliged to grope my way along like a thief.
+With my head full, as it was, of fantastic ballads which describe the
+streets of Toledo traversed at night by cavaliers muffled in their
+cloaks, singing under the windows of their ladies, fighting and killing
+one another, climbing into palaces and stealing the maidens away, I
+imagined I should hear the tinkle of guitars, the clashing of swords,
+and the cries of the dying. Nothing of the kind: the streets were
+deserted and silent and the windows dark, and one heard faintly from
+time to time at the corners and crossways the light step of some one
+passing or a fugitive whisper, the source of which one could in no way
+discover. I reached the hotel without harming any fair Toledan, which
+might have caused me some annoyance, and also without having any holes
+made in my stomach, which was undoubtedly a consolation.
+
+The morning of the next day I visited the beautiful building of the
+hospital of San Cruz, the church of _Nuestra Señora del Transito_, an
+ancient synagogue, the ruins of an amphitheatre and of an arena where
+naval battles were fought in Roman times, and the famous manufactory
+of arms, where I bought a beautiful dagger with a silver handle and a
+blade covered with arabesques, which at this moment lies on my table,
+and when I shut my eyes and take it in my hand I seem to be still
+there, in the courtyard of the factory, a mile out of Toledo, under
+the mid-day sun, surrounded by a group of soldiers, and enveloped in a
+cloud of smoke from their cigarettes. I remember that as I was walking
+back to Toledo, as I was crossing a bit of country solitary as a
+desert and silent as the Catacombs, a terrible voice cried out, "Away
+with the foreigner!"
+
+The voice came from the city. I stopped--I was the foreigner, that cry
+was directed at me, and my blood curdled; the solitude and silence of
+the place increased my fear. I started forward and the voice cried
+again, "Away with the foreigner!"
+
+"Is it a dream?" I exclaimed, stopping again, "or am I awake? Who is
+shouting? Where is he? Why does he do it?"
+
+I started on again, and the voice came the third time, "Away with the
+foreigner!"
+
+I stopped the third time, and when, all disturbed, I cast my eyes
+around, I saw a boy sitting on the ground, who looked at me with a
+laugh and said, "He is a crazy man, who thinks he is living in the time
+of the War of Independence. Look, sir! that is the insane asylum."
+And he pointed out the place on a hill among the outermost houses of
+Toledo. I drew a long breath which would have blown out a torch.
+
+In the evening I left Toledo, regretting that I had not time to see
+once and again all that was ancient and wonderful in it: this regret
+was tempered, however, by my ardent desire for Andalusia, which had
+not allowed me a moment's peace. But how long I saw Toledo before my
+eyes! How long I remembered and dreamed of those headlong rocks, those
+enormous walls, those dark streets, that fantastic appearance of a
+mediæval city! Even to-day I review the picture with a sort of sombre
+pleasure and grave melancholy, and with this picture before me my mind
+wanders back in a thousand strange thoughts among distant times and
+marvellous events.
+
+
+
+
+CORDOVA.
+
+
+On arriving at Castillejo I was obliged to wait until midnight for
+the Andalusia train. I dined on hard-boiled eggs and oranges, with
+a little sprinkling of Val de Peñas, murmured a poem of Espronceda,
+chatted a little with a custom-house officer who between parentheses
+made me a confession of his political faith--Amadeus, liberty, an
+increase of wages to the custom-house officers, etc; finally I heard
+the long-desired whistle, entered a railway-carriage crowded full of
+women, children, civil guards, boxes, cushions, and wraps, and away
+with a speed unusual for the Spanish railways. It was a beautiful
+night; my travelling-companions talked of bulls and Carlists; a
+beautiful girl, whom more than one devoured with his eyes, pretended
+to sleep that she might still further heighten their curiosity; some
+were rolling cigarettes, some peeling oranges, others humming songs
+from the _Zarzuela_. Nevertheless, I fell asleep in a few minutes. I
+believe I had already dreamed of the mosque of Cordova and the Alcazar
+of Seville, when I was aroused by a hoarse cry, "Daggers!"
+
+"Daggers? Heavens! for whom?" Before I discovered who had shouted
+there flashed before my eyes a long sharp blade, and the unknown voice
+asked again,
+
+"Do you like it?"
+
+One must admit that there are pleasanter ways to be awakened. I
+looked in the faces of my travelling-companions with an expression of
+consternation, which made them all burst into a shout of laughter.
+Then they explained that at every railway-station there are vendors of
+knives and daggers who offer tourists their wares, just as the boys
+offer newspapers and refreshments in our country. Assured that my life
+was safe, I bought my scarecrow--five francs; a splendid dagger for a
+villain in a tragedy, with an ornamented handle, inscriptions on the
+blade, and a sheath of embroidered velvet; and I put it in my pocket,
+thinking that I might find it useful in Italy to settle difficulties
+with my publishers.
+
+The vendor must have had fifty of those knives in a great red sash
+tied around his waist. Other travellers bought them, the civil guards
+complimented one of my neighbors on the good selection he had made; the
+boys cried, "Buy me one too!" The mammas answered, "We will buy you a
+bigger one some other time." "O happy Spain!" I exclaimed, and thought
+with horror of our barbarous laws, which forbid the innocent amusement
+of a little cold steel.
+
+We crossed La Mancha, the celebrated La Mancha, the immortal
+theatre of the adventures of Don Quixote. It is such a place as I
+imagined--wide, bare plains, long tracts of sandy soil, here and there
+a windmill, a few wretched villages, lonely lanes, and forsaken huts.
+On seeing these places I felt that vague sense of melancholy which
+steals over me as I read the book of Cervantes, and repeated to myself
+what I always say on reading it: "This man cannot make one laugh
+without also making one's tears flow as the laughter dies away."
+
+Don Quixote is a sad and sombre figure: his madness is a lament;
+his life is the history of the dreams, illusions, awakenings, and
+aberrations of each of us; the struggle of reason with imagination, of
+truth with falsehood, of the ideal with the real. We all have something
+of Don Quixote in our nature; we all mistake windmills for giants; we
+are all now and then spurred on by the impulse of enthusiasm, only
+to be driven back by the laugh of scorn; we are each a mixture of
+the sublime and the ridiculous; we all feel bitterly and profoundly
+the eternal conflict between the grandeur of our aspirations and the
+impotence of our powers. O beautiful dreams of childhood and youth!
+Generous impulses to consecrate our life to the defence of virtue and
+justice, fond imaginations of dangers faced, of adventurous struggles,
+of magnanimous deeds, and sublime loves, fallen one by one, like the
+petals of a flower, in the narrow and uneventful paths of life! To what
+new life have they arisen in our soul, and what vague thoughts and
+profound inspirations have we derived from thee, O generous and hapless
+cavalier of the sad figure!
+
+We arrived at Argamasilla de Alba, where Don Quixote was born and died,
+and where poor Cervantes, the tax-gatherer of the great priory of San
+Juan, was arrested by angry debtors and imprisoned in a house which is
+said to be still in existence, and where he probably conceived the plan
+of his romance. We passed near the village of Val de Peñas, which gives
+its name to one of the most exquisite wines of Spain--dark, tingling,
+exhilarating, the only one, forsooth, which permits the foreigner from
+the North to indulge in copious libations at his meals; and finally we
+arrived at Santa Cruz de Mudela, a village famous for its manufactories
+of _navajas_ (knives and razors), near which the way begins to slope
+gently upward toward the mountain.
+
+The sun had risen, the women and children had left the carriage, and a
+number of peasants, officers, and _toreros_ had entered on their way
+to Seville. One saw in that small space a variety of costume which
+would not be seen even in an Italian market-place--the pointed caps of
+the peasants of the Sierra Morena, the red trousers of the soldiers,
+the great sombreros of the _picadores_, the shawls of the gypsies, the
+mantles of the Catalans, Toledo blades hanging from the walls, capes,
+belts, and finery of all the colors of a harlequin.
+
+The train entered the rocks of the Sierra Morena, which separate the
+valley of the Guadiana from that of the Guadalquivir, famous for the
+songs of poets and the deeds of brigands. The railway runs at times
+between two walls of rock sheer from the very peaks, so high that to
+see the top one must put one's head all the way out of the window
+and turn one's face up, as if to look at the roof of the carriage.
+Sometimes the rocks are farther away and rise one above the other, the
+first like enormous broken stones, the last straight and sharp like
+bold towers rising upon measureless bastions; between them a mass of
+boulders cut into teeth, steps, crests, and humps, some almost hanging
+in the air, others separated by deep caverns and frightful precipices,
+presenting a confusion of curious forms, of fantastic suggestions
+of houses, gigantic figures and ruins, and offering at every step a
+thousand outlines and surprising appearances; and, together with this
+infinite variety of form, an infinite variety of color, shadow, dancing
+and changing light. For long distances, to the right, to the left, and
+overhead, one sees nothing but stone, without a house, a path, or a
+patch of ground where a man could set his foot, and, as one advances,
+rocks, ravines, and precipices: everything grows larger, deeper, and
+higher until one reaches the summit of the Sierra, where the solemn
+majesty of the spectacle provokes a cry of wonder.
+
+The train stopped a few minutes, and all the travellers put their heads
+out of the window.
+
+"Here," said one in a loud voice,--"here Cardenio jumped from rock to
+rock to do penance for his sins" (Cardenio, one of the most remarkable
+characters in _Don Quixote_, who jumped about among the rocks of the
+Sierra in his shirt to do penance for his sins). "I wish," continued
+the traveller, "that Sagasta might have to do the same."
+
+They all laughed, and began to find, each one on his own account,
+some political enemy upon whom in imagination he might inflict this
+punishment: one proposed Serrano, another Topete, and a third another,
+and so on, until in a few minutes, if their desires had been realized,
+one might have seen the entire Sierra filled with ministers, generals,
+and deputies in their shirts skipping from crag to crag like the famous
+rock of Alessandro Manzoni.
+
+The train started, the rocks disappeared, and the delightful valley
+of the Guadalquivir, the garden of Spain, the Eden of the Arabs, the
+paradise of painters and of poets, blessed Andalusia, revealed herself
+to my eyes. I can still feel the thrill of childish joy with which I
+hurried to the window, saying to myself, "Let me enjoy it."
+
+For a long distance the country does not offer any new appearance to
+the ardent curiosity of the traveller. At Vilches there is a vast
+plain, and beyond it the level country of Tolosa, where Alfonso VIII.,
+king of Castile, won the celebrated victory of _de las Navas_ over the
+Mussulman army. The sky was as clear as air--in the distance rose the
+mountains of the Sierra de Segura. Suddenly I made one of those quick
+motions which seemed to correspond to an unuttered cry of astonishment:
+the first aloes with their broad heavy leaves, the unexpected
+harbingers of the tropical vegetation, rise beside the road. Beyond
+them the fields sprinkled with flowers begin to appear. The first
+fields sprinkled, those which follow almost covered, then vast tracts
+of country wholly clothed, with wild poppies, daisies, iris, mushrooms,
+cowslips, and buttercups, so that the country appears like a succession
+of vast carpets of purple and gold and snowy white, and far away, among
+the trees, innumerable streaks of blue, white, and yellow until the eye
+is lost; and hard by, on the edge of the ditches, the mounds, and the
+banks, even to the very track, flowers in beds, groups, and clusters,
+one above the other, fashioned like great bouquets, trembling on their
+stems, which one can almost touch with the hand. Then waving fields
+of grain with great heavy bearded heads, bordered by long gardens of
+roses; then orange-orchards and vast olive-groves; hillocks varied
+by a hundred shades of green, surmounted by ancient Moorish towers,
+dotted with many-colored cottages, with here and there white, graceful
+bridges, which span rivulets hidden by the trees. On the horizon rise
+the snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada, and below this white line other
+blue undulating lines of the nearer mountains. The country grows ever
+more various and blooming: Arjonilla, embowered in an orange-grove
+whose limits are lost in the distance; Pedro Abad, in the midst of a
+plain covered with vineyards and orchards; Ventas de Alcolea, on the
+hills of the Sierra Morena, crowned with villas and gardens. We are
+drawing near to Cordova: the train flies; one sees little stations half
+hidden among trees and flowers; the wind blows the rose-leaves into
+the cars, great butterflies sail past the windows, a delicious perfume
+fills the air, the travellers are singing, we pass through an enchanted
+garden, the aloes, oranges, palms, and villas become more frequent; one
+hears a cry: "Here is Cordova!"
+
+How many beautiful images and how many memories are recalled by that
+name!
+
+Cordova, the ancient pearl of the Occident, as the Moorish poets called
+her, the city of cities, Cordova of the thirty burgs and the three
+thousand mosques, which contained within her walls the greatest temple
+of Islam! Her fame spread through the Orient and obscured the glory
+of ancient Damascus,--from the remotest regions of Asia the faithful
+journeyed toward the banks of the Guadalquivir to prostrate themselves
+in the marvellous mihrab of her mosque, in the blaze of a thousand
+brazen lamps cast from the bells of the Spanish cathedrals. From every
+part of the Mohammedan world artists, scholars, and poets crowded to
+her flourishing schools, her vast libraries, and the magnificent courts
+of her caliphs. Hither flowed wealth and beauty, drawn by the fame of
+her splendor.
+
+And from here they separated, eager for knowledge, along the coasts of
+Africa, among the schools of Tunis, Cairo, Bagdad, and Cufa, as far as
+India and China, in search of books, inspiration, and memories; and the
+poems sung on the slopes of the Sierra Morena flew from harp to harp
+even to the valleys of the Caucasus, to make the hearts of pilgrims
+burn within them. The beautiful, the mighty, the wise Cordova, crowned
+with three thousand villages, proudly reared her white minarets among
+her orange-groves and spread through the divine valley a voluptuous air
+of gladness and glory.
+
+I descend from the train, cross a garden, and look around: I am
+alone; the travellers who came with me have disappeared in different
+directions; I still hear the rumble of the receding carriages; then all
+is silent.
+
+It is mid-day: the sky is very clear, the air burning. I see two white
+cottages; it is the opening of a street; I enter and go forward. The
+street is narrow, the houses small as the little villas built on the
+hillocks of artificial gardens; nearly all of them are one story in
+height, with windows a little way from the ground, roofs so low that
+one can almost touch them with a cane, and very white walls. The street
+makes a turn; I look down it; no one is in sight; I do not hear a
+step nor a voice. "It must be an abandoned street," I say, and turn
+in another direction: white cottages, closed windows, solitude, and
+silence. "Where am I?" I ask myself.
+
+I walk on: the street is so narrow and crooked that a carriage could
+not pass through it; to the right and left one sees other deserted
+streets, other white houses, and other closed windows; my step echoes
+as in a corridor; the white of the walls is so bright that the
+reflection almost blinds me, and I am obliged to walk with my eyes
+closed; I seem to be passing through snow. I reach a little square:
+everything is closed, there is no one about. Then a feeling of vague
+melancholy begins to steal into my heart, such as I have never felt
+before, a mingling of enjoyment and sorrow like that which children
+experience when after a long run they find themselves in a beautiful
+country-place and enjoy it, but with a tremor of fear at being so
+far away from home. Above the many roofs rise the palms of the inner
+gardens. O fantastic legends of odalisques and caliphs!
+
+On from street to street and square to square; I meet a few persons,
+but they all pass and disappear like phantoms. The streets are all
+alike, the houses have only two or four windows; and there is not a
+stain, not a scratch, not a crack in the walls, which are as smooth
+and white as a sheet of paper. Now and then I hear a whisper behind a
+venetian blind, and almost at the same moment see a dark head with a
+flower in the hair peep out and disappear. I approach a door.
+
+A _patio_! How shall I describe a _patio_? It is not a courtyard, it
+is not a garden, it is not a room; it is the three in one. Between the
+_patio_ and the street there is a vestibule. On the four sides of the
+_patio_ rise graceful columns which support a sort of balcony enclosed
+in glass at the height of the second story; over the balcony extends a
+canvas which shades the court. The vestibule is flagged with marble,
+the doorway supported by columns surmounted by bas-reliefs and closed
+by a delicate iron lattice of very beautiful design. At the back of
+the _patio_, opposite the doorway, stands a statue, in the centre a
+fountain, and all around chairs, work-tables, paintings, and vases of
+flowers. I run to another door. Another _patio_, its walls covered with
+ivy, and a line of niches containing statuettes and urns. I hurry to
+a third door. A _patio_ with its walls adorned with mosaic, a palm in
+the centre, and all around a mass of flowers. A fourth door. Behind
+the _patio_ another vestibule, and then a second _patio_, in which one
+sees other statues, columns, and fountains. And all these rooms and
+gardens are clean and tidy, so that you could pass your hands over the
+walls and along the floor without leaving a mark; and they are fresh
+and fragrant, lighted with a dim light which heightens their beauty and
+mystery.
+
+Still forward, from street to street, at random. Gradually, as I walk
+on, my curiosity increases and I hasten my steps. It seems impossible
+that the whole city can be like this: I am afraid of coming upon a
+house or finding a street which will remind me of other cities and
+rouse me from my pleasant dream.
+
+But, no: the dream is unbroken. Everything is small, graceful,
+mysterious. Every hundred paces a deserted little square, in which I
+stop breathless; now and then a crossway, and not a living soul; and
+everything always white--closed windows and silence. At every door
+there is a new spectacle: arches, columns, flowers, fountains, palms;
+a marvellous variety of design, color, light, perfume, here of roses,
+there of oranges, yonder of violets; and with the perfume a breath of
+fresh air, and borne on the air the subdued sound of women's voices,
+the rustling of leaves, and the singing of birds--a sweet and various
+harmony, which, without disturbing the silence of the street, soothes
+the ear like the echo of distant music. Ah! it is not a dream! Madrid,
+Italy, Europe, surely they are far, far away. Here one lives another
+life, here one breathes the air of another world; I am in the Orient.
+
+I remember that at a certain point I stopped in the middle of the
+street and suddenly discovered, I know not how, that I was sad
+and restless, and that in my heart there was a void which neither
+admiration nor enjoyment could fill. I felt an irrepressible necessity
+of entering those houses and those gardens, of tearing asunder, so to
+speak, the mysterious veil which concealed the life of the unknown
+people within; of sharing in that life; of grasping some hand and
+gazing into two pitying eyes, and saying, "I am a stranger, I am alone;
+I too want to be happy; let me linger among your flowers, let me enjoy
+all the secrets of your paradise, teach me who you are and how you
+live; smile on me and calm me, for my head is burning!"
+
+And this sadness grew upon me until I said to myself, "I cannot stay in
+this city; I am suffering here; I will leave it!"
+
+And I believe I should have left if at a happy moment I had not
+remembered that I carried in my pocket a letter of introduction to
+two young men of Cordova, brothers of a friend of mine in Florence. I
+dismissed the idea of leaving, and started at once to find them.
+
+How they laughed when I told them of the impression Cordova had made
+upon me! They proposed that we go at once to see the cathedral; so we
+turned down a narrow white street and were off.
+
+The mosque of Cordova, which was converted into a cathedral after the
+overthrow of the Moors, but which must always remain a mosque, was
+built on the ruins of the original cathedral, a little way back from
+the bank of the Guadalquivir. Abdurrahman commenced its construction
+in the year 785 or 786 A. D. "Let us rear a mosque," said he, "which
+shall surpass that of Bagdad, of Damascus, and of Jerusalem--a mosque
+which shall be the greatest temple of Islam, one which shall become the
+Mecca of the West." They undertook the work with great ardor. Christian
+slaves carried the stone for its foundations from their ruined
+churches; Abdurrahman himself worked an hour every day; in a few years
+the mosque was built, the caliphs who succeeded Abdurrahman embellished
+it, and after a century of almost continuous labor it was finished.
+
+"Here we are!" said one of my friends, stopping suddenly in front of a
+vast edifice.
+
+I thought it was a fortress, but it was the wall which surrounds the
+mosque--an old embattled wall in which there were at one time twenty
+great bronze doors ornamented with the most beautiful arabesques, and
+arched windows supported by graceful columns, now covered by a triple
+coat of plaster. A turn around this wall is a nice little walk to
+take after dinner: one may judge, therefore, of the vast size of the
+building.
+
+[Illustration: _Court of Oranges, Mosque of Cordova_]
+
+The principal door of the enclosure is north of the point where rises
+the minaret of Abdurrahman, from whose summit floated the Mohammedan
+standard. We entered: I expected to see at once the interior of the
+mosque, but found myself in a garden full of orange trees, cypresses,
+and palms, surrounded on three sides by a very beautiful portico and
+closed on the fourth side by the façade of the mosque. In the midst
+of this garden there was, in the time of the Moors, the fountain for
+their ablutions, and in the shade of these trees the faithful refreshed
+themselves before entering the sanctuary.
+
+I stood for some moments looking around and breathing in the fresh
+odorous air with the liveliest sense of pleasure, and my heart leaped
+at the thought of the famous mosque standing there before me, and I
+felt myself impelled toward the door by a boundless curiosity, and
+at the same time restrained by I know not what feeling of childish
+hesitation.
+
+"Let us enter," said my companions. "One moment more," I replied: "let
+me thoroughly enjoy the delight of anticipation." Finally I moved
+forward and entered, without so much as looking at the marvellous
+doorway which my companions pointed out.
+
+What I did or said on entering I do not know, but some strange
+exclamation must surely have escaped me or I must have made an odd
+gesture, for some persons who were just then coming toward me began to
+laugh and turned again to look around, as if to discover the reason of
+the profound emotion which I had manifested.
+
+Imagine a forest and suppose yourself in the thickest part, where
+you see only the trunks of trees. So in the mosque wherever you turn
+your gaze is lost among the columns. It is a forest of marble whose
+boundaries one cannot discover. One follows with the eye, one by one,
+those lengthening rows of columns crossed at every step by innumerable
+other rows, and perceives a dimly-lighted background in which one
+seems to see the gleaming of still other columns. There are nineteen
+naves which extend in the direction in which you enter, crossed by
+thirty-three other naves, and supported, in all, by more than nine
+hundred columns of porphyry, jasper, onyx, and marble of every color.
+Each column is surmounted by a pilaster, and between one column and
+the next bends an arch, and a second arch above the first extends from
+pilaster to pilaster, both of them in the form of a horseshoe; and so,
+imagining the columns to be the trunks of so many trees and the arches
+to represent the branches, the resemblance of the mosque to a forest is
+complete.
+
+The central nave, much larger than the others, leads to the Maksura,
+the most sacred part of the temple, where they worshipped the Koran.
+Here from the vaulted windows steals a faint ray of light which glides
+along a row of columns; there a dark place, and yonder another ray
+pierces the gloom of another nave. It is impossible to express the
+feeling of mystical wonder which fills one's mind at this spectacle.
+It is like the sudden revelation of a religion, a nature, and a life
+unknown, leading the fancy captive among the delights of that paradise
+of love and pleasure where the blessed, sitting in the shade of leafy
+plane trees and of thornless roses, drink from crystal beakers wine
+gleaming like pearls, mixed by immortal children, and repose in the
+embrace of lovely virgins with great dark eyes! All the images of
+that external pleasure, eager, warm, and glowing, which the Koran
+promises to the faithful, crowd upon the mind at the first sight of the
+mosque, and give one a delicious moment of intoxication which leaves
+in the heart an indescribable feeling of gentle melancholy. A brief
+tumult in the mind and a rapid thrill which goes tingling through the
+veins,--such is one's first sensation on entering the cathedral of
+Cordova.
+
+We began to wander from passage to passage, examining everything
+minutely. What a variety in that edifice which at first sight appears
+so uniform! The proportions of the columns, the design of the capitals,
+the form of the arches change, one may say, at every step. The greater
+part of the columns are old and were taken by the Moors from Northern
+Spain, Gaul, and Roman Africa, and one is said to have belonged
+to a temple of Janus, upon whose ruins stood the church which the
+Arabians destroyed to build the mosque. On several of the capitals
+one may still see the traces of the crosses carved upon them, which
+the Arabians broke off with their hammers. In some of the columns
+iron rings are fastened to which it is said the Arabians bound the
+Christians, and among the others there is one pointed out to which the
+popular tradition narrates a Christian was bound for many years, and
+in that time, by continually scratching with his nails, he succeeded
+in engraving a cross on the stone, which the guides show with profound
+veneration.
+
+We entered the Maksura, which is the most perfect and marvellous work
+of Moorish art of the twelfth century. At the entrance there are three
+continuous chapels, with vaulted roofs formed by indented arches, and
+walls covered with magnificent mosaics which represent wreaths and
+flowers and passages from the Koran. At the back of the middle chapel
+is the principal _mihrab_, the holy place, where dwelt the Spirit of
+God. It is a niche with an octagonal base enclosed above by a colossal
+marble shell. In the _mihrab_ was kept the Koran written by the hands
+of the caliph Othman, covered with gold, adorned with pearls, suspended
+above a seat of aloe-wood; and here came thousands of the faithful to
+make the circuit of it seven times on their knees. On approaching the
+wall I felt the pavement slipping from under me: the marble had been
+worn hollow!
+
+On leaving the niche I stood a long time contemplating the vault and
+the walls of the principal chapel, the only part of the mosque which
+has been preserved almost intact. It is a dazzling flash of crystals
+of a thousand colors, an interweaving of arabesques which confuse the
+mind, a mingling of bas-reliefs, gilding, ornaments, and minute details
+of design and coloring of a delicacy, grace, and perfection which would
+prove the despair of the most patient artist. It is impossible to
+retain in one's mind any part of that prodigious work: you might return
+a hundred times to look at it, but in reality it would only remain
+before your eyes as a tantalizing blur of blue, red, green, golden,
+and luminous shades of colors, or a very intricate piece of embroidery
+continually and rapidly changing in color and design. Only from the
+ardent and tireless imagination of the Moors could such a miracle of
+art have issued.
+
+We began to wander through the mosque again, observing here and there
+on the walls the arabesques of the ancient doorways which are now
+and then discovered under the detestable plaster of the Christians.
+My companions looked at me, laughed, and whispered something to each
+other. "Have you not seen it yet?" one of them asked me.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+They looked at me again and smiled.
+
+"You think you have seen all the mosque, do you?" continued my
+companion.
+
+"Yes, indeed," I replied, looking around.
+
+"Well," said the first, "you have not seen it all, and what remains to
+be seen is nothing less than a church."
+
+"A church?" I exclaimed stupefied, "but where is it?"
+
+"Look!" answered my other companion, pointing; "it is in the very
+centre of the mosque."
+
+"By the powers!" And I had not seen it!
+
+From this one may judge of the vastness of the mosque.
+
+We went to see the church. It is beautiful and very rich, with a
+magnificent high altar and a choir worthy to stand beside those in the
+cathedrals of Burgos and Toledo, but, like everything out of place,
+it moves one to anger rather than admiration. Without this church
+the appearance of the mosque would be much improved. Charles V., who
+himself gave the chapter permission to build it, repented when he saw
+the Mohammedan temple for the first time. Besides the church there is a
+sort of Moorish chapel in a good state of preservation, rich in mosaics
+not less varied and splendid than those of the Maksura, and where it is
+said the ministers of the faith used to assemble to discuss the book of
+the Prophet.
+
+Such is the mosque to-day. But what must it have been in the time of
+the Arabs! It was not entirely enclosed by a wall, but open, so that
+one could see the garden from every side, and from the garden one
+could look to the very end of the long naves, and the fragrance of
+orange-blossoms and flowers was wafted even to the vaulted roofs of the
+Maksura. The columns, which now number less than a thousand, were then
+fourteen hundred in number; the ceiling was of cedar-wood and larch,
+carved and enamelled with exquisite workmanship; the walls were lined
+with marble; the light of eight hundred lamps filled with fragrant oil
+made the crystals in the mosaic-work flash like pearls, and produced on
+the pavement, the arches, and the walls a marvellous play of color and
+reflection. "A sea of splendors," sang a poet, filled the mysterious
+enclosure, and the warm air was laden with perfume and harmony, and the
+thoughts of the faithful wandered and were lost in the labyrinth of
+columns gleaming like lances in the sun.
+
+Frederick Schrack, the author of a good work on the _Poetry and Art
+of the Moors in Spain and Sicily_, gives a description of the mosque
+on a day of solemn festival, which forms a very lively image of the
+Mohammedan religion and completes the picture of the monument.
+
+On both sides of the almimbar, or pulpit, wave two banners, to signify
+that Islam has triumphed over Judaism and Christianity and that the
+Koran has conquered both the Old and the New Testament. The _almnedani_
+ascend to the gallery of the high minaret and intone the salam, or
+salutation, to the Prophet. Then the aisles of the mosque are filled
+with believers, who with white vestments and in festal attire come
+together to worship. In a few moments, throughout the length and
+breadth of the edifice, one sees only kneeling people. The caliph
+enters by the secret way which leads from the Alcazar to the temple,
+and seats himself in his elevated station. A reader of the Koran reads
+a _sura_ from the low desk of the pulpit.
+
+The voice of the muezzin sounds again, calling men to mid-day prayer.
+All the faithful rise and murmur their prayers, bowing as they do so.
+An attendant of the mosque opens the doors of the pulpit and seizes a
+sword, and, holding it, he turns toward Mecca, admonishing the people
+to worship Mohammed, while the _mubaliges_ are chanting his praises
+from the gallery. Then the preacher mounts the pulpit, taking from
+the hand of the servant the sword, which calls to mind and symbolizes
+the subjection of Spain to the power of Islam. It is the day when
+the _Djihad_, or the holy war, must be proclaimed, the call for all
+able-bodied men to go to war and descend into the battlefield against
+the Christians. The multitude listens with silent devotion to the
+sermon, woven from texts of the Koran, which begins in this wise:
+
+"Praise be to Allah, who has increased the glory of Islam, thanks to
+the sword of the champion of the faith, who in his holy book has
+promised succor and victory to the believer.
+
+"Allah scatters his benefits over the world.
+
+"If he did not put it in the hearts of men to take up arms against
+their fellows, the world would be lost.
+
+"Allah has ordained to fight against the people until they know that
+there is but one God.
+
+"The torch of war will not be extinguished until the end of the world.
+
+"The blessing of God will fall upon the mane of the war-horse to the
+day of judgment.
+
+"Armed from head to foot or but lightly clad, it matters not--up and
+away!
+
+"O believers! what shall be done to you if, when called to the battle,
+you remain with face turned to the earth?
+
+"Do you prefer the life of this world to the life to come?
+
+"Believe me, the gates of paradise stand in the shadow of the sword.
+
+"He who dies in battle for the cause of God shall wash away with his
+blood all the defilement of his sins.
+
+"His body shall not be wasted like the other bodies of the dead, for on
+the day of judgment his wounds shall yield a fragrance like musk.
+
+"When the warriors present themselves at the gates of paradise, a voice
+within shall ask, 'What have you done in your life?'
+
+"And they shall answer, 'We have brandished the sword in the struggle
+for the cause of God.'
+
+"Then the eternal doors will swing open, and the warriors will enter
+forty years before the rest.
+
+"Up, then, ye faithful; leave your women, your children, your kindred,
+and your goods, and go out to the holy war!
+
+"And thou, God, Lord of this present world and of that which is to
+come, fight for the armies of those who recognize thy unity! Cast down
+the unbelievers, the idolaters, and the enemies of thy holy faith!
+Overwhelm their standards, and give them, with whatever they possess,
+as a prey to the Mussulman!"
+
+The preacher as he ends his discourse turns toward the congregation and
+exclaims, "Ask of God!" and begins to pray in silence.
+
+All the faithful, with heads bowed to the ground, follow his example.
+The _mubaliges_ chant, "Amen! Amen, O Lord of all being!" Burning like
+the heat which precedes the oncoming tempest, the enthusiasm of the
+multitude, restrained at first in awful silence, now breaks out into
+deep murmurs, which rise like the waves and swell through all parts of
+the temple, until finally the naves, the chapels, and the vaulted roofs
+resound to the echo of a thousand voices united in a single cry: "There
+is no God but Allah!"
+
+The mosque of Cordova is even to-day, by universal consent, the most
+beautiful temple of Islam and one of the most marvellous monuments in
+the world.
+
+When we left the mosque it was already long past the hour of the
+siesta, which everybody takes in the cities of Southern Spain, and
+which is a necessity by reason of the insupportable heat of the noon
+hours. The streets began to fill with people. "Alas!" said I to my
+companions, "how badly the silk hat looks in the streets of Cordova!
+How have you the heart to introduce the fashion-plates in this
+beautiful Oriental picture? Why do you not adopt the dress of the
+Moors?" Coxcombs pass, workmen, and girls: I looked at them all with
+great curiosity, hoping to find one of those fantastic figures which
+Doré has represented as examples of the Andalusian type, with that
+dark-brown complexion, those thick lips, and large eyes, but I saw
+none. Walking toward the centre of the city, I saw the first Andalusian
+women--ladies, girls and women of the middle classes--almost all small,
+graceful, and well-formed, some of them beautiful, many attractive in
+appearance, but the greater part neither one thing nor the other, as is
+the case in all countries. In their dress, with the exception of the
+so-called mantilla, they do not differ at all from the French women nor
+from those of our country--great masses of false hair in plaits, knots,
+and long curls, short petticoats, long plaited over-skirts, and boots
+with heels as sharp as daggers. The ancient Andalusian costume has
+disappeared from the city.
+
+I thought that in the evening the streets would be crowded, but I saw
+only a few people, and only in the streets of the principal quarters;
+the others remain as empty as at the hour of the siesta. And one must
+pass through those deserted streets at night to enjoy Cordova. One sees
+the light streaming from the _patios_; one sees in the dark corners
+fond lovers in close colloquy, the girls usually at the windows, with
+a hand resting lightly on the iron grating, and the young men close to
+the wall in poetic attitudes, with watchful eyes, but not so watchful,
+however, as to make them take their lips from those hands before
+they discover that some one is passing; and one hears the sound of
+guitars, the murmur of fountains, sighs, the laughter of children, and
+mysterious rustlings.
+
+The following morning, still stirred by the Oriental dreams of the
+night, I again began my wandering through the city. To describe all
+that is remarkable there one would require a volume: it is a very
+museum of Roman and Arabian antiquities, and one finds a profusion of
+martial columns and inscriptions in honor of the emperors; the remains
+of statues and bas-reliefs; six ancient gates; a great bridge over the
+Guadalquivir dating from the time of Octavius Augustus and restored
+by the Arabians; ruins of towers and walls; houses which belonged to
+the caliphs, and which still contain the columns and the subterranean
+arches of the bathing apartments; and everywhere there are doors,
+vestibules, and stairways that would delight a legion of archæologists.
+
+Toward noon, as I was passing through a lonely little street, I saw
+a sign on the wall of a house beside a Roman inscription, _Casa de
+huespedes. Almuerzos y comidas_, and as I read I felt the gnawing, as
+Giusti says, of such a desperate hunger that I determined to give it a
+quietus in this little shop upon which I had stumbled. I passed through
+a little vestibule, and found myself in a _patio_. It was a poor little
+_patio_, without marble floor and without fountains, but white as snow
+and fresh as a garden. As I saw neither tables nor chairs, I feared I
+had mistaken the door and started to go out. A little old woman bustled
+out from I know not where and stopped me.
+
+"Have you anything to eat?" I demanded.
+
+"Yes, sir," she answered.
+
+"What have you?"
+
+"Eggs, sausages, chops, peaches, oranges, and wine of Malaga."
+
+"Very good: you may bring everything you have."
+
+She commenced by bringing me a table and a chair, and I sat down and
+waited. Suddenly I heard a door open behind me and turned.... Angels
+of heaven! what a sight I saw!--the most beautiful of all the most
+beautiful Andalusians, not only of those whom I saw at Cordova, but
+of all those whom I afterward saw at Seville, Cadiz, and Granada: if
+I may be allowed to use the word, a superb girl, who would make one
+flee or commit some deviltry; one of those faces which make you cry,
+"O poor me!" like Giuseppe Baretti when he was travelling in Spain.
+For some moments she stood motionless with her eyes fixed on mine as
+if to say, "Admire me;" then she turned toward the kitchen and cried,
+"_Tia, despachate!_" ("Hurry up, aunty!") This gave me an opportunity
+of thanking her with a stammering tongue, and gave her a pretence for
+approaching me and replying, "It is nothing," with a voice so gentle
+that I was obliged to offer her a chair, whereupon she sat down. She
+was a girl about twenty years old, tall, straight as a palm, and dark,
+with two great eyes full of sweetness, lustrous and humid as though she
+had just been in tears: she wore a mass of wavy jet-black hair with a
+rose among her locks. She seemed like one of the Arabian virgins of the
+tribe of the Usras for whom men died of love.
+
+She herself opened the conversation:
+
+"You are a foreigner, I should think, sir?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"French?"
+
+"Italian."
+
+"Italian? A fellow-countryman of the king?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Do you know him, sir?"
+
+"By sight!"
+
+"They say he is a handsome young fellow."
+
+I did not answer, and she began to laugh, and asked me, "What are you
+looking at, sir?" and, still laughing, she hid her foot, which on
+taking her seat she thrust well forward that I might see it. Ah! there
+is not a woman in that country who does not know that the feet of the
+Andalusians are famous throughout the world.
+
+I seized the opportunity of turning the conversation upon the fame of
+the Andalusian women, and expressed my admiration in the most fervent
+words of my vocabulary. She allowed me to talk on, looking with great
+attention at the crack in the table, then raising her face, she asked
+me, "And in Italy, how are the women there?"
+
+"Oh, there are beautiful women in Italy too."
+
+"But ... they are cold?"
+
+"Oh no, not at all," I hastened to respond; "but, you know, ... in
+every country the women have an _I-know-not-what_ which distinguishes
+them from the women of all other countries; and among them all the
+_I-know-not-what_ of the Andalusians is probably the most dangerous for
+a poor traveller whose hairs have not turned gray. There is a word to
+express what I mean: if I could remember it, I would say it to you; I
+would say, "_Señorita_, you are the most ..."
+
+"_Salada_," exclaimed the girl, covering her face with her hands.
+
+"_Salada!_ ... the most _salada_ Andalusian in Cordova."
+
+_Salada_ is the word commonly used in Andalusia to describe a woman
+beautiful, charming, affectionate, languid, ardent, what you will--a
+woman with two lips which say, "Drink me," and two eyes which make one
+close one's teeth.
+
+The aunt brought me the eggs, chops, sausage, and oranges, and the girl
+continued the conversation: "Sir, you are an Italian: have you seen the
+Pope?"
+
+"No, I am sorry to say."
+
+"Is it possible? An Italian who has not seen the Pope! And tell me,
+sir: why do the Italians make him suffer so much?"
+
+"Suffer in what way?"
+
+"Yes. They say that they have shut him up in his house and thrown
+stones at the windows."
+
+"Oh no! Don't believe it! There is not a particle of truth in it,"
+etc., etc.
+
+"Have you seen Venice, sir?"
+
+"Venice? oh yes."
+
+"Is it true that it is a city which floats on the sea?"
+
+And here she made a thousand requests that I would describe Venice,
+and that I would tell her what the people were like in that strange
+city, and what they do all the day long, and how they dress. And while
+I was talking besides the pains I took to express myself with a little
+grace, and to eat meanwhile the badly-cooked eggs and stale sausage--I
+was obliged to see her draw nearer and nearer to me, that she might
+hear me better perhaps, without being conscious of the act. She came
+so close that I could smell the fragrance of the rose in her hair and
+feel her warm breath; I was obliged, I may say, to make three efforts
+at once--one with my head, another with my stomach, and a third with
+both--especially when, now and then, she would say, "How beautiful!"--a
+compliment which applied to the Grand Canal, but which had upon me the
+effect a bag full of napoleons might have upon a beggar if swung under
+his nose by an insolent banker.
+
+"Ah, señorita!" I said at last, beginning to lose patience, "what
+matters it, after all, whether cities are beautiful or not? Those who
+are born in them think nothing of it, and the traveller still less. I
+arrived at Cordova yesterday: it is a beautiful city, without doubt.
+Well--will you believe it?--I have already forgotten all that I have
+seen; I no longer wish to see anything; I do not even know what city I
+am in. Palaces, mosques, they make me laugh. When you have a consuming
+fire in your heart, do you go to the mosque to quench it?--Excuse me,
+will you move back a little?--When you feel such a madness that you
+could grind up a plate with your teeth, do you go to look at palaces?
+Believe me, the traveller's life is a sad one. It is a penance of the
+hardest sort. It is torture. It is...." A prudent blow with her fan
+closed my mouth, which was going too far both in words and action. I
+attacked the chop.
+
+"Poor fellow!" murmured the Andalusian with a laugh after she had given
+a glance around. "Are all the Italians as ardent as you?"
+
+"How should I know? Are all the Andalusians as beautiful as you?"
+
+The girl laid her hand on the table.
+
+"Take that hand away," I said.
+
+"Why?" she asked.
+
+"Because I want to eat in peace."
+
+"Eat with one hand."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+I seemed to be pressing the little hand of a girl of six; my knife fell
+to the ground; a dark veil settled upon the chop.
+
+Suddenly my hand was empty: I opened my eyes, saw the girl all
+disturbed, and looked behind me. Gracious Heavens! There was a handsome
+young fellow, with a stylish little jacket, tight breeches, and a
+velvet cap. Oh terrors! a _torero_! I gave a start as if I had felt two
+_banderillas de fuego_ planted in my neck.
+
+"I see it at a glance," said I to myself, like the man at the comedy;
+and one could not fail to understand. The girl, slightly embarrassed,
+made the introduction: "An Italian passing through Cordova," and she
+hastened to add, "who wants to know when the train leaves for Seville."
+
+The _torero_, who had frowned at first sight of me, was reassured,
+told me the hour of departure, sat down, and entered into a friendly
+conversation. I asked for the news of the last bull-fight at Cordova:
+he was a _banderillero_, and he gave me a minute description of the
+day's sport. The girl in the mean time was gathering flowers from the
+vases in the _patio_. I finished my meal, offered a glass of Malaga to
+the _torero_, drank to the fortunate planting of all his _banderillas_,
+paid my bill (three _pesetas_, which included the beautiful eyes,
+you understand), and then, putting on a bold front, so as to dispel
+the least shadow of suspicion from the mind of my formidable rival,
+I said to the girl, "_Señorita!_ one can refuse nothing to those who
+are taking leave. To you I am like a dying man; you will never see
+me again; you will never hear my name spoken: then let me take some
+memento; give me that bunch of flowers."
+
+"Take it," said the girl; "I picked it for you."
+
+She glanced at the _torero_, who gave a nod of approval.
+
+"I thank you with all my heart," I replied as I turned to leave. They
+both accompanied me to the door.
+
+"Have you bull-fights in Italy?" asked the young man.
+
+"Oh heavens! no, not yet!"
+
+"Too bad! Try to make them popular in Italy also, and I will come to
+_banderillar_ at Rome."
+
+"I will do all in my power.--_Señorita_, have the goodness to tell me
+your name, so that I may bid you good-bye."
+
+"Consuelo."
+
+"God be with you, Consuelo!"
+
+"God be with you, _Señor Italiano_!"
+
+And I went out into the lonely little street.
+
+There are no remarkable Arabian monuments to be seen in the
+neighborhood of Cordova, although at one time the whole valley was
+covered with magnificent buildings. Three miles to the south of the
+city, on the side of the mountain, rose the Medina Az-Zahra, the
+city of flowers, one of the most marvellous architectural works of
+the caliph Abdurrahman, begun by the caliph himself in honor of his
+favorite Az-Zahra. The foundations were laid in the year 936, and ten
+thousand workmen labored on the edifice for twenty-five years. The
+Arabian poets celebrated Medina Az-Zahra as the most splendid of royal
+palaces and the most delightfullyl garden in the world. It was not an
+edifice, but a vast chain of palaces, gardens, courts, colonnades,
+and towers. There were rare plants from Syria--the fantastic playing
+of lofty fountains, streams of water flowing in the shade of palm
+trees, and great basins overflowing with quicksilver, which reflected
+the rays of the sun like lakes of fire; doors of ebony and ivory
+studded with gems; thousands of columns of the most precious marbles;
+great airy balconies; and between the innumerable multitudes of
+statues twelve images of animals of massy gold, gleaming with pearls,
+sprinkling sweetened water from their mouths and noses. In this vast
+palace swarmed thousands of servants, slaves, and women, and hither
+from every part of the world came poets and musicians. And yet this
+same Abdurrahman III., who lived among all these delights, who reigned
+for fifty years, who was powerful, glorious, and fortunate in every
+circumstance and enterprise, wrote before his death that during his
+long reign he had been happy only fourteen days, and his fabulous city
+of flowers seventy-four years after the laying of its first stone was
+invaded, sacked, and burned by a barbarian horde, and to-day there
+remain only a few stones which hardly recall its name.
+
+Of another splendid city, called Zahira, which rose to the east of
+Cordova, built by the powerful Almansur, governor of the kingdom, not
+even the ruins remain: a handful of rebels laid it in ashes a little
+while after the death of its founder.
+
+  "All returns to the great ancient mother."
+
+Instead of taking a drive around Cordova, I simply wandered here and
+there, weaving fancies from the names of the streets, which to me is
+one of the greatest pleasures in which a traveller may indulge in a
+foreign city. Cordova, _alma ingeniorum parens_, could write at every
+street-corner the name of an artist or an illustrious author born
+within her walls; to give her due honor, she has remembered them all
+with maternal gratitude. You find the little square of Seneca and the
+house where he may have been born; the street of Ambrosio Morales,
+the historian of Charles V., who continued the _Chronicle General of
+Spain_ commenced by Florian d'Ocampo; the street of Pablo de Cespedes,
+painter, architect, sculptor, antiquary, and the author of a didactic
+poem, "The Art of Painting," unfortunately not finished, though adorned
+with splendid passages. He was an ardent enthusiast of Michelangelo,
+whose works he had admired in Italy, and in his poem he addressed a
+hymn of praise to him which is one of the most beautiful passages in
+Spanish poetry, and, in spite of myself, the last verses have slipped
+from my pen, which every Italian, even if he does not know the sister
+language, can appreciate and understand. He believes, he tells the
+reader, that one cannot find the perfection of painting anywhere except
+
+    "Que en aquela escelente obra espantosa
+    Mayor de cuantas se han jamas pintado,
+    Que hizo el Buonarrota de su mano
+    Divina, en el etrusco Vaticano!
+
+    "Cual nuevo Prometeo en alto vuelo
+    Alzándose, estendiò los alas tanto,
+    Que puesto encima el estrellado cielo
+    Una parte alcanzò del fuego santo;
+    Con que tornando enriquecido al suelo
+    Con nueva maravilla y nuevo espanto,
+    Diò vida con eternos resplandores
+    À marmoles, à bronces, à colores.
+    ¡O mas que mortal hombre! ¿Angel divino
+    O cual te nomaré? No humano cierto
+    Es tu ser, que del cerco empireo vino
+    Al estilo y pincel vida y concierto:
+    Tu monstraste à los hombres el camino
+    Por mil edades escondido, incierto
+    De la reina virtud; a ti se debe
+    Honra que en cierto dia el sol renueve."
+
+"In that excellent marvellous work, greater than all that has ever been
+painted, which Buonarroti made with his divine hand in the Etruscan
+Vatican!
+
+"Look how the new Prometheus, rising in lofty flight, extends his
+wings so wide that above the starry sky he has obtained a part of
+the celestial fire; with it, returning, he enriched the earth with
+new marvels and new surprises, giving life, with eternal splendors,
+to marble, bronze, and colors. More than mortal man! angel divine!
+or what shall I call thee? Surely thou art not human, who from the
+empyrean circle came, bringing life and harmony to chisel and brush!
+Thou hast shown men the road hidden for a thousand ages, uncertain of
+the sovereign virtue; to thee belongs honor which one day the sun will
+bestow."
+
+Murmuring these lines, I came out into the street of Juan de Mena,
+the Ennius of Spain, as his compatriots call him, the author of a
+phantasmagorial poem called "The Labyrinth," an imitation of _The
+Divina Commedia_ very famous in its day, and in truth not without
+some pages of inspired and noble poetry, but, on the whole, cold and
+overloaded with pedantic mysticism. John II., king of Castile, went mad
+over this "Labyrinth," kept it beside the missal in his cabinet, and
+carried it with him to the hunt; but witness the caprice of a king! The
+poem had only three hundred stanzas, and to John II. this number seemed
+too small, and do you know the reason? It was this: the year contains
+three hundred and sixty-five days, and it seemed to him that there
+ought to be as many stanzas in the poem as there are days in the year,
+and so he besought the poet to compose sixty-five other stanzas, and
+the poet complied with his request--most cheerfully, the flatterer!--to
+gain an occasion for flattering still more, although he had already
+flattered his sovereign to the extent of asking him to correct the poem.
+
+From the street of Juan de Mena I passed into the street of Gongora,
+the Marini of Spain, and no less a genius than he, but perhaps one
+who corrupted the literature of his country even more than Marini
+corrupted that of Italy, for he spoiled, abused, and corrupted the
+language in a thousand ways: for this reason Lope de Vega wittily
+makes a poet of the Gongorist school ask one of his hearers, "Do you
+understand me?"--"Yes," he replies; and the poet retorts, "You lie! for
+I do not even understand myself." But Lope himself is not entirely free
+from Gongorism, for he has the courage to write that Tasso was only the
+rising of Marini's sun; nor is Calderon entirely free of it, nor some
+other great men. But enough of poetry: I must not digress.
+
+After the siesta I hunted up my two companions, who took me through
+the suburbs of the city, and here, for the first time, I saw men and
+women of the true Andalusian type as I had imagined them, with eyes,
+coloring, and attitudes like the Arabians, and here too, for the first
+time, I heard the real speech of the Andalusian people, softer and more
+musical than in the Castiles, and also gayer and more imaginative,
+and accompanied by livelier gestures. I asked my companions whether
+that report about Andalusia is true, affirming that with their early
+physical development vice is more common, manners more voluptuous, and
+passion less restrained. "Too true," they replied, giving explanations,
+descriptions, and citing cases which I forbear to repeat. On returning
+to the city they took me to a splendid casino, with gardens and
+magnificent rooms, in one of which, the largest and richest, adorned
+with paintings of all the illustrious men of Cordova, rises a sort of
+stage where the poets stand to read their works on evenings appointed
+for public contests of genius; and the victors receive a laurel crown
+from the hands of the most beautiful and cultured girls in the city,
+who, crowned with roses, look on from a semi-circle of seats. That
+evening I had the pleasure of meeting several young Cordovese ardently
+attached, as they say in Spain, to the cultivation of the Muses--frank,
+courteous, and vivacious, with a medley of verses in their heads,
+and a smattering of Italian literature; and so imagine how from dusk
+to midnight, through those mysterious streets, which from the first
+evening had made my head whirl, there was a constant, noisy interchange
+of sonnets, hymns, and ballads in the two languages, from Petrarch to
+Prati, from Cervantes to Zorilla; and a delightful conversation closed
+and sealed by many cordial hand-clasps and eager promises to write, to
+send books, to come to Italy, to visit Spain again, etc. etc.--merely
+words, as is always the case, but words not less dear on that account.
+
+In the morning I left for Seville. At the station I saw Frascuelo,
+Lagartijo, Cuco, and the whole band of _toreros_ from Madrid, who
+saluted me with a benevolent look of protection. I hurried into a dusty
+carriage, and as the train moved off and my eyes rested on Cordova
+for the last time, I bade the city adieu in the lines of the Arabian
+poet--a little too tropical, if you will, for the taste of a European,
+but, after all, admirable for the occasion:
+
+"Adieu, Cordova! Would that my life were as long as Noah's, that I
+might live for ever within thy walls! Would that I had the treasures
+of Pharaoh, to spend them upon wine and the beautiful women of Cordova
+with the gentle eyes which invite kisses!"
+
+
+
+
+SEVILLE.
+
+
+The journey from Cordova to Seville does not awaken a sense of
+astonishment, as does that from Toledo to Cordova, but it is even
+more beautiful: there are continuous orange-orchards, boundless
+olive-groves, hills clothed with vineyards, and meadows carpeted with
+flowers. A few miles from Cordova one sees the ruined towers of the
+frowning castle of Almodovar standing on a very high rock-platform,
+which overlooks a vast extent of the surrounding country; at
+Hornachuelos another old castle on the summit of a hill, in the midst
+of a lonely, melancholy landscape; and then, beyond, the white city of
+Palma, hidden in a dense orange-grove, which is surrounded in its turn
+by a circle of truck-farms and flower-gardens. As the train runs on
+one is carried through the midst of golden fields of grain, bordered
+by long hedges of Indian fig trees and rows of dwarf palms, and dotted
+with groves of pine and frequent orchards of fruit-bearing trees; and
+at short intervals there are hills and castles, roaring streams, the
+slender village belfries hidden among the trees, and the purple peaks
+of distant mountains.
+
+Most beautiful of all are the little country-houses scattered along the
+road. I do not remember to have seen a single one of them that was not
+as white as snow. The house was white, the neighboring well-curb was
+white, the little wall around the kitchen-garden was white, as were
+also the two posts of the garden-gate: everything seemed as if it had
+been whitewashed the day before. Some of these houses have one or two
+mullioned windows of Moorish design; others have arabesques over the
+door; and still others roofs covered with variegated tiles like Arabian
+houses. Here and there through the fields one sees the red-and-white
+capes of the peasants, velvet hats against the green grass, and sashes
+of all colors. The peasants whom one sees in the furrows and those who
+run to see the train pass are dressed in the costumes of forty years
+ago as they are represented in paintings: they wear velvet hats with
+very broad brims which roll slightly back, with little crowns like
+a sugar-loaf; short jackets, open waistcoats, breeches gathered in
+at the knee like those of the priests, gaiters which almost meet the
+breeches, and sashes around the waist. This style of dress, picturesque
+but inconvenient, is exceedingly becoming to the slender figures of
+these men, who prefer discomfort, if it be attended by beauty, to
+comfort without it, and who spend half an hour every morning adorning
+themselves, besides the time required to get into a pair of tight
+breeches which will display a shapely thigh and a well-turned leg.
+They have nothing in common with our Northern peasant of the hard face
+and dull eye. Their great black eyes meet your own with a smile, as
+if they would say, "Don't you remember me?" They cast daring glances
+at the ladies who put their heads out of the windows, run to fetch a
+match before you have so much as asked for it, sometimes answer your
+questions in rhyme, and are even capable of laughing to show their
+white teeth.
+
+At Rinconado the campanile of the cathedral of Seville comes into view
+in a line with the railroad, and to the right, beyond the Guadalquivir,
+one sees the beautiful low hills, covered with olive-groves, at the
+foot of which lie the ruins of Italica. The train rolled on, and I said
+to myself, under my breath, speaking faster and faster as the houses
+became thicker, with that suspense, full of longing and delight, which
+one feels on approaching the doorway of one's love, "Seville! this is
+Seville! The queen of Andalusia is at hand, the Athens of Spain, the
+mother of Murillo, the city of poets and lovers, the storied Seville,
+whose name I have pronounced from a child with a sentiment of loving
+sympathy! What should I have given a few years since to have seen
+it? No, it is not a dream! Those are really the houses of Seville;
+those peasants yonder are Sevillians; that campanile which I see is
+the Giralda! I am at Seville! How strange! It makes me laugh! What is
+my mother doing at this moment? Would that she were here! Would that
+this friend and that were here! It is a sin to be alone! See the white
+houses, the gardens, the streets.... We are in the city.... It is time
+to get out.... Ah! how beautiful is life!"
+
+I went to a hotel, threw down my valise in the _patio_, and began
+to stroll about the city. It seemed like seeing Cordova over again,
+on a large scale, embellished and enriched; the streets are wider,
+the houses higher, the _patios_ more spacious, but the general
+appearance of the city is the same: there is the same spotless white,
+the same intricate network of streets, everywhere the fragrance of
+orange-blossoms, that subtile air of mystery, that Oriental atmosphere,
+filling one's heart with a delicious sense of amorous melancholy, and
+calling to mind a thousand fancies, desires, and visions of a distant
+world, a new life, an unknown people, and an earthly paradise of
+love, pleasure, and content. In those streets one reads the history
+of the city: every balcony, every fragment of sculpture, every lonely
+crossway, recalls some nocturnal adventure of a king, the inspiration
+of a poet, the romance of a beauty, an amour, a duel, an abduction, a
+story, or a festival. Here a memento of Maria de Padilla, there one of
+Don Pedro; yonder of Cervantes, Columbus, Saint Theresa, Velasquez, or
+Murillo. A column tells of the Roman dominion; a tower, the splendor of
+Charles V.'s monarchy; and an alcazar, the magnificence of the Arabian
+court. Beside the modest white cottages rise sumptuous marble palaces;
+the little tortuous streets open into vast squares full of orange
+trees; from silent, deserted corners one enters with a short turn a
+street filled with a noisy crowd: and wherever one passes one sees
+on the opposite side the graceful lattices of the _patios_, flowers,
+statues, fountains, flights of stairs, walls covered with arabesques,
+small Moorish windows, and slender columns of costly marble; and
+at every window and in every garden little women clothed in white,
+half hidden, like timid nymphs, among the leaves of grapevines and
+rosebushes.
+
+Passing from street to street, I came at length to the bank of the
+Guadalquivir, close to the avenues of the Christina promenade, which
+is to Seville what the Lung d'arno is to Florence. Here one enjoys a
+charming spectacle.
+
+I first approached the famous Torre del Oro. This famous tower was
+called the Golden, either because it received the gold which the
+Spanish ships brought from America or because King Don Pedro hid his
+treasures there. It is an octagonal structure of three stories, growing
+smaller as they ascend, crowned with battlements and washed by the
+river. The story runs that this tower was built in Roman times, and
+that for a long period the king's most beautiful favorite dwelt there
+after it had been joined to the Alcazar by an edifice which was torn
+away to make room for the Christina promenade.
+
+This promenade extends from the ducal palace of Montpensier to the
+Torre del Oro. It is entirely shaded with Oriental plane trees, oaks,
+cypresses, willows, poplars, and other trees of northern latitudes,
+which the Andalusians admire, as we admire the palms and aloes of the
+plains of Piedmont and Lombardy. A great bridge spans the river and
+leads to the suburb of Triana, from which one sees the first houses on
+the opposite bank. A long line of ships, coasting vessels, and barges
+extends along the river, and from the Torre del Oro to the ducal palace
+there is a coming and going of rowboats. The sun was setting. A crowd
+of ladies filled the avenues, groups of workmen were crossing the
+bridge, the workmen on the ships labored more busily, a band of music
+was playing among the trees, the river was rose-colored, the air was
+fragrant with the perfume of flowers, the sky seemed all on fire.
+
+I returned to the city and enjoyed the marvellous spectacle of Seville
+by night. All the _patios_ were illuminated--those of the humble
+houses with a half light, which gave them an air of mysterious beauty,
+those of the palaces, full of little flames which were reflected in
+the mirrors and flashed like jets of quicksilver in the spray of the
+fountains, and shone with a thousand colors on the marbles of the
+vestibules, the mosaics of the walls, the glass of the doors, and
+the crystal of the candlesticks. Inside one saw a crowd of ladies,
+everywhere one heard the sound of laughter, low voices, and music;
+one seemed to be passing through so many ball-rooms; from every door
+flowed a stream of light, fragrance, and harmony; the streets were
+crowded; among the trees of the squares, in the avenues, at the end
+of the narrow streets, and on the balconies,--everywhere were seen
+white skirts fluttering, vanishing, and reappearing in the darkness,
+and little heads ornamented with flowers peeped coquettishly from
+the windows; groups of young men broke through the crowd with merry
+shouts; people called to each other and talked from window to street,
+and everywhere were rapid motion, shouting, laughter, and festal
+gaiety. Seville was simply an immense garden in which revelled a people
+intoxicated with youth and love.
+
+Such moments are very sad ones for a stranger. I remember that I could
+have struck my head against the wall. I wandered here and there almost
+abashed, with hanging head and sad heart, as if all that crowd was
+amusing itself for the sole purpose of insulting my loneliness and
+melancholy. It was too late to present my letters of introduction, too
+early to go to bed: I was the slave of that crowd and that gaiety, and
+was obliged to endure it for many hours. I found a solace in resolving
+not to look at the faces of the women, but I could not always keep my
+resolve, and when my eyes inadvertently met two black pupils the wound,
+because so unexpected, was more grievous than if I had encountered
+the danger more boldly. Yes, I was in the midst of those wonderfully
+famous women of Seville! I saw them pass on the arms of their husbands
+and lovers; I touched their dresses, breathed their perfume, heard the
+sound of their soft speech, and the blood leaped to my head like a
+flame of fire. Fortunately, I remembered to have heard from a Sevillian
+at Madrid that the Italian consul was in the habit of spending the
+evening at the shop of his son, a merchant; I sought out the shop,
+entered, and found the consul, and as I handed him a letter from a
+friend I said, with a dramatic air which made him laugh, "Dear sir,
+protect me; Seville has terrified me."
+
+At midnight the appearance of the city was unchanged: the crowd and
+light had not disappeared; I returned to the hotel and locked my door
+with the intention of going to bed. Worse and worse! The windows
+of my room opened on a square where crowds of people were swarming
+around an orchestra that played without interruption, when the music
+finally ended the guitars commenced, together with the cries of the
+water-carriers and snatches of song and laughter; the whole night
+through there was noise enough to wake the dead. I had a dream at
+once delightful and tantalizing, but rather more tantalizing than
+delightful. I seemed to be tied to the bed by a very long tress of dark
+hair twisted into a thousand knots, and felt on my lips a mouth of
+burning coals which sucked my breath, and around my neck two vigorous
+little hands which were crushing my head against the handle of a guitar.
+
+The following morning I went at once to see the cathedral.
+
+To adequately describe this measureless edifice one should have at
+hand a collection of the most superlative adjectives and all the most
+extravagant similes which have come from the pens of the grand writers
+of every country whenever they have described something of prodigious
+height, enormous size, appalling depth, and incredible grandeur. When
+I talk to my friends about it, I too, like the Mirabeau of Victor
+Hugo, involuntarily make _un colossal mouvement d'epaules_, puff out
+my throat, and gradually raise my voice, like Tommaso Salvini in the
+tragedy of _Samson_ when, in tones which make the parquet tremble, he
+says that he feels his strength returning to his limbs. To talk of the
+cathedral of Seville tires one like playing a great wind instrument or
+carrying on a conversation across a roaring torrent.
+
+The cathedral of Seville stands alone in the centre of a vast square,
+and consequently one can measure its vastness at a single glance. At
+the first moment I thought of the famous motto which the chapter of the
+primitive church adopted on the eighth of July, 1401, when they decreed
+the erection of the new cathedral: "Let us build a monument which will
+make posterity declare that we were mad." Those reverend canons did not
+fail in their intention. But one must enter to be sure of this.
+
+The exterior of the cathedral is grand and magnificent, but not to
+be compared with the interior. The façade is lacking: a high wall
+surrounds the entire building like a fortress. However much one walks
+around and looks at it, one cannot succeed in fixing in one's mind a
+single outline which, like the preface of a book, will give a clear
+conception of the design of the work; one admires and occasionally
+breaks out in the exclamation, "It is stupendous!" but it does not
+please, and one hurries into the church, hoping to feel a sentiment of
+deeper admiration.
+
+On first entering one is amazed, and feels as if one were lost in an
+abyss, and for some moments the eye can only describe immense curves
+through that vast space, as if to assure you that the sight is real
+and that fancy is not deceiving you. Then you approach one of the
+pilasters, measure it, and look at the others in the distance: they are
+as massive as towers, and yet they look so slender that one trembles
+to think the edifice is resting on them. You run from one to another
+with a rapid glance, follow their lines from pavement to vaulted
+arch, and seem to be able to count the moments which it would take
+for the eye to climb them. There are five naves, each of which would
+form a great church, and in the central nave one could build another
+high cathedral with its cupola and belfry. Altogether they form sixty
+light, noble vaults which seem to be slowly expanding and rising as
+one looks at them. Everything in this cathedral is enormous. The great
+chapel in the middle of the principal nave, so high that it almost
+touches the roof, seems like a chapel built for giant priests, to whose
+knees the common altars would scarcely reach; the Easter candle seems
+like the mast of a ship, the bronze candlestick which supports it,
+like the pilaster of a church; the organs are like houses; the choir
+is a museum of sculpture and carving which alone deserves a day's
+study. The chapels are worthy of the church: in them are scattered
+the masterpieces of sixty-seven sculptors and thirty-eight painters.
+Montegna, Zurbaran, Murillo, Valdes, Herrera, Boldan, Roelas, and
+Campana have left a thousand immortal traces of their handiwork. The
+chapel of Saint Ferdinand, which contains the tombs of this king,
+his wife Beatrice, Alfonso the Wise, the celebrated minister Florida
+Blanca, and other illustrious personages, is one of the richest and
+most beautiful. The body of King Ferdinand, who rescued Seville from
+the dominion of the Arabs, clothed in his coat-of-mail with crown and
+royal robe, rests in a crystal casket covered with a pall; on one side
+lies the sword which he wore on the day of his entrance into Seville;
+on the other, the staff, an emblem of authority. In this same chapel
+is preserved a little ivory Virgin which the sainted king carried with
+him to war, and other relics of great value. In the other chapels there
+are great marble altars, Gothic tombs, statues of stone, wood, and
+silver enclosed in large glass cases, with the breast and hands covered
+with diamonds and rubies; there are also magnificent paintings, but,
+unfortunately, the dim light which falls from the high windows does not
+make them clear enough to be enjoyed in all their beauty.
+
+From the examination of the chapels, paintings, and sculptures one
+returns unwearied to admire the cathedral in its grand and, if one
+may say, its formidable aspect. After climbing to those dizzy heights
+one's glance and thoughts, as if exhausted by the effort, fall back
+to the earth to gather new strength for another ascent. And the
+images which multiply in one's head correspond to the vastness of the
+basilica--measureless angels, heads of enormous cherubim, great wings
+like the sails of a ship, and the fluttering of immense white robes.
+The impression produced by this cathedral is wholly religious, but
+it is not depressing: it is that sentiment which bears the thought
+into interminable spaces and the awful silences where the thoughts of
+Leopardi lost themselves; it is a sentiment full of yearning and holy
+boldness, that delightful shudder which one feels on the brink of a
+precipice, the turbulence and confusion of great thoughts, the divine
+fear of the infinite.
+
+As the cathedral is the most various of Spain (since the Gothic,
+Germanic, Græco-Roman, Moorish, and, as it is vulgarly called, the
+plateresque styles of architecture, have each left their individual
+impress upon it), it is also the richest and has the greatest
+privileges. In the times of greater clerical power they burned in
+it every year twenty thousand pounds of wax; in it every day were
+celebrated five hundred masses on eighty altars; the wine consumed
+in the sacrifice amounted to the incredible quantity of eighteen
+thousand seven hundred and fifty litres. The canons had trains of male
+attendants like monarchs, came to church in splendid carriages drawn
+by superb horses, and while they were celebrating mass had priests to
+fan them with enormous fans adorned with feathers and pearls--a direct
+concession from the Pope of which some avail themselves even in this
+day. One need not speak of the festivals of Holy Week, which are still
+famous the world over, and to which people gather from all parts of
+Europe.
+
+But the most curious privilege of the cathedral of Seville is the
+so-called dance _de los seises_, which takes place every evening at
+dusk for eight consecutive days after the festival of _Corpus Domini_.
+I was in Seville during those days, and went to see it, and it seems
+to me worth describing. From what had been told me I expected to see
+a scandalous piece of buffoonery, and entered the church with my
+mind prepared for a feeling of indignation at the desecration of the
+sanctuary. The church was dark; only the great chapel was lighted; a
+crowd of kneeling women filled the space between the chapel and the
+choir. Some priests were sitting to the right and left of the altar; in
+front of the altar-steps was spread a great carpet; two lines of boys
+from eight to thirteen years of age, dressed like Spanish cavaliers
+of the Middle Ages, with plumed hats and white stockings, were drawn
+up, one before the other, facing the altar. At a signal from a priest
+a soft strain from violins broke the profound silence of the church,
+and the two rows of boys advanced with the step of a contra-dance, and
+began to divide, intermingle, separate, and come together again with a
+thousand graceful movements, and then all together they broke into a
+harmonious musical chant, which echoed through the gloom of the vast
+cathedral like the singing of an angelic choir; and a moment later
+they began to accompany the dance and the chant with tamborines. No
+religious ceremony has ever moved me like this. It is impossible to
+express the effect produced by those young voices under those immense
+domes, those little creatures at the foot of the towering altars, that
+dance, solemn and almost humble, the ancient costume, the kneeling
+crowd, and the surrounding gloom. I left the church with my soul calmed
+as if I had been praying.
+
+A very curious anecdote is related in connection with this ceremony.
+Two centuries ago an archbishop of Seville, who regarded the dance
+and tamborines as unworthy instruments of praising God, wished to
+prohibit the ceremony. Everything was thrown into confusion: the
+people protested; the canons made themselves heard; the archbishop was
+obliged to appeal to the Pope. The Pope, whose curiosity was aroused,
+wished to see this silly dance with his own eyes, that he might decide
+intelligently in the matter. The boys in their cavalier dress were
+taken to Rome, received at the Vatican, and made to dance and sing
+before His Holiness. His Holiness laughed, did not disapprove, and,
+wishing to give one knock on the hoop and another on the barrel, and so
+to satisfy the canons without offending the archbishop, decreed that
+the boys should continue to dance so long as the clothes which they
+then wore lasted; after that time the ceremony was to be abolished.
+The archbishop laughed in his beard, if he had one; the canons laughed
+too, as if they had already found the way to outwit both the Pope and
+the archbishop. And, in fact, they renew some part of the boys' dress
+every year, so that the whole garment can never be said to have worn
+out, and the archbishop, as a scrupulous man, who observed the commands
+of the Pope to the letter, could not oppose the repetition of the
+ceremony. So they continued to dance, and they dance and will dance so
+long as it pleases the canons and the Lord.
+
+As I was leaving the church a sacristan made me a sign, led me behind
+the choir, and pointed out a tablet in the pavement, upon which I read
+an inscription which stirred my heart. Under that stone lay the bones
+of Ferdinand Columbus, the son of Christopher, who was born at Cordova,
+and died at Seville on the twelfth of July, 1536, in the fiftieth
+year of his age. Under the inscription run some Latin verses with the
+following significance:
+
+"Of what avail is it that I have bathed the entire universe with my
+sweat, that I have three times passed through the New World discovered
+by my father, that I have adorned the banks of the gentle Beti, and
+preferred my simple taste to riches, that I might again draw around
+thee the divinities of the Castalian spring, and offer thee the
+treasures already gathered by Ptolemy,--if thou, passing this stone in
+silence, returnest no salute to my father and givest no thought to me?"
+
+The sacristan, who knew more about the inscription than I did,
+explained it to me. Ferdinand Columbus was in his early youth a page of
+Isabella the Catholic and of the prince Don Juan; he travelled to the
+Indies with his father and his brother the admiral Don Diego, followed
+the emperor Charles V. in his wars, made other voyages to Asia, Africa,
+and America, and everywhere collected with infinite care and at great
+expense the most precious books, from which he composed a library which
+passed after his death into the hands of the chapter of the cathedral,
+and remains intact under the famous name of the Columbian Library.
+Before his death he wrote these same Latin verses which are inscribed
+on the tablet of his tomb, and expressed a desire to be buried in the
+cathedral. In the last moments of his life he had a vessel full of
+ashes brought to him and sprinkled his face with them, pronouncing
+as he did so the words of Holy Writ, _Memento homo quia pulvis es_,
+chanted the _Te Deum_, smiled, and expired with the serenity of a
+saint. I was at once seized with a desire to visit the library and left
+the church.
+
+A guide stopped me on the threshold to ask me if I had seen the _Patio
+de los Naranjos_--the Court of Oranges--and, as I had not done so, he
+conducted me thither. The Court of Oranges lies to the north of the
+cathedral, surrounded by a great embattled wall. In the centre rises a
+fountain encircled by an orange-grove, and on one side along the wall
+is a marble pulpit, from which, according to the tradition, Vincenzo
+Ferrer is said to have preached. In the area of this court, which is
+very large, rose the ancient mosque, which is thought to have been
+built toward the end of the twelfth century. There is not the least
+trace of it now. In the shade of the orange trees around the margins of
+the basin the good Sevillians come to take the air in the burning noons
+of summer, and only the delightful verdure and the perfumed air remain
+as memorials of the voluptuous paradise of Mohammed, while now and then
+a beautiful girl with great dark eyes darts between the distant trees.
+
+The famous Giralda of the cathedral of Seville is an ancient Moorish
+tower, built, it is affirmed, in the year one thousand after the design
+of the architect Geber, the inventor of algebra. The upper part has
+been changed since Spain was reconquered, and has been rebuilt like a
+Christian bell-tower, but it will always retain its Moorish appearance,
+and, after all, is prouder of the banished standards of the vanquished
+than of the cross recently planted upon it by the victors. It is a
+monument which produces a strange sensation: it makes one smile; it is
+measureless and imposing as an Egyptian pyramid, and at the same time
+light and graceful as a summer-house. It is a square brick tower of a
+mellow rose-color, unadorned to a certain height, and from that point
+up ornamented with mullioned Moorish windows, which appear here and
+there like the windows of a house provided with balconies, and give
+it a very beautiful appearance. From the platform, which was formerly
+covered by a variegated roof surmounted by an iron pole which supported
+four enormous golden balls, now rises the Christian bell-tower in three
+stories, the first of which is taken up by the bells, the second is
+encircled by a balcony, and the third consists of a sort of cupola
+upon which, like a weather-vane, turns a colossal gilded statue which
+represents Faith, with a palm in one hand and a banner in the other.
+This statue is visible a long distance from Seville, and flashes when
+the sun strikes it like an enormous ruby in the crown of a gigantic
+king, who sweeps with his glance the entire valley of Andalusia.
+
+I climbed all the way to the top, and was there amply rewarded for
+the fatigue of the ascent. Seville, all white like a city of marble,
+encircled by a diadem of gardens, groves, and avenues, surrounded by a
+landscape dotted with villas, lay open to the view in all the wealth of
+its Oriental beauty. The Guadalquivir, freighted with ships, divides
+and embraces it in a majestic curve. Here the Torre del Oro casts its
+graceful shadow on the azure waters of the river; there the Alcazar
+rears its frowning towers; yonder the gardens of Montpensier raise
+above the roofs of the building an enormous mass of verdure: one's
+glance penetrates the bull-ring, the public gardens, the _patios_ of
+the homes, the cloisters of the churches, and all the streets which
+converge toward the cathedral; in the distance appear the villages
+of Santi Ponce, Algaba, and others which whiten the slopes of the
+hills; to the right of the Guadalquivir the great suburb of Triana;
+on one side along the horizon the broken peaks of the Sierra Morena;
+and in the opposite direction other mountains enlivened by infinite
+azure tints; and over all this marvellous panorama the clearest, most
+transparent, and entrancing sky which has ever smiled upon the face of
+man.
+
+I descended from the Giralda and went to see the Columbian Library,
+located in an old building beside the Court of Oranges. After I had
+seen a collection of missals, Bibles, and ancient manuscripts, one of
+which is attributed to Alfonso the Wise, entitled "The Book of the
+Treasure," written with the most scrupulous care in the ancient Spanish
+language, I saw--let me repeat it, I saw--I, with my own moist eyes,
+as I pressed my hand on my beating heart--I saw a book, a treatise
+on cosmography and astronomy in Latin, with the margins covered with
+notes written in the hand of Christopher Columbus! He had studied that
+book while he revolved his great design in his mind, had pored over
+its pages in the night-watches, had touched it perhaps with his divine
+forehead in those exhausting vigils when sometimes he bent over the
+parchments with utter weariness and bathed them with his sweat. It is
+a tremendous thought! But there is something better. I saw a writing
+in the hand of Columbus in which are collected all the prophecies of
+the ancient writers, sacred and profane, in regard to the discovery of
+the New World, written, it is said, to induce the sovereigns of Spain
+to provide the means to carry out his enterprise. There is, among
+others, a passage from the _Medea_ of Seneca, which runs: _Venient
+annis saecula seris, quibus oceanus vincula rerum laxet et ingens
+pateat tellus_. And in the volume of Seneca, which may also be found
+in the Columbian Library, alongside of this passage there is a note
+by Ferdinand Columbus, which says: "This prophecy was fulfilled by my
+father, the admiral Christopher Columbus, in the year 1492." My eyes
+filled with tears; I wished I were alone, that I might have kissed
+those books, have tired myself out turning and re-turning their leaves
+between my hands, have detached a tiny fragment, and carried it with me
+as a sacred thing. Christopher Columbus! I have seen his characters! I
+have touched the leaves which he has touched! I have felt him very near
+me! On leaving the library, I know not why--I could have leaped into
+the midst of the flames to rescue a child, I could have stripped myself
+to clothe a beggar, I could joyfully have made any sacrifice--I was so
+rich!
+
+After the library the Alcazar, but before reaching it, although it is
+in the same square as the cathedral, I felt for the first time what the
+Andalusian sun is like. Seville is the hottest city of Spain, it was
+the hottest hour of the day, and I found myself in the hottest part
+of the city; there was a flood of light; not a door, not a window,
+was open, not a soul astir; if I had been told that Seville was
+uninhabited, I should have believed it. I crossed the square slowly
+with half-shut eyes and wrinkled face, with the sweat coursing in great
+drops down my cheeks and breast, while my hands seemed to have been
+dipped in a bucket of water. On nearing the Alcazar I saw a sort of
+booth belonging to a water-carrier, and dashed under it headlong, like
+a man fleeing from a shower of stones. I took a little breathing-spell,
+and went on toward the Alcazar.
+
+The Alcazar, the ancient palace of the Moorish kings, is one of the
+best-preserved monuments in Spain. From the outside it looks like a
+fortress: it is entirely surrounded by high walls, embattled towers,
+and old houses, which form two spacious courtyards in front of the
+façade. The façade is bare and severe, like the rest of the exterior;
+the gate is adorned with gilded and painted arabesques, between which
+one sees a Gothic inscription which refers to the time when the Alcazar
+was restored by order of King Don Pedro. The Alcazar, in fact, although
+a Moorish palace, is the work of Christian rather than of Moorish
+kings. It is not known exactly in what year it was built: it was
+reconstructed by King Abdelasio toward the end of the twelfth century,
+conquered by King Ferdinand toward the middle of the thirteenth
+century; altered a second time, in the following century, by King Don
+Pedro; and then occupied for longer or shorter periods by nearly all
+the kings of Castile; and finally selected by Charles V. as the place
+for the celebration of his marriage with the infanta of Portugal. The
+Alcazar has witnessed the loves and crimes of three generations of
+kings; every stone awakens a memory and guards a secret.
+
+You enter, cross two or three rooms in which there remains little
+of the Moorish excepting the vaulted ceiling and the mosaics around
+the walls, and come out into a court where you stand speechless with
+wonder. A portico of very delicate arches extends along the four sides,
+supported by slender marble columns, joined two by two, and arches
+and walls and windows and doors are covered with carvings, mosaics,
+and arabesques most intricate and exquisite, here perforated like
+lace, there closely woven and elaborate like embroidered tapestry,
+yonder clinging and projecting like masses and garlands of flowers;
+and, except the mosaics, which are of a thousand colors, everything
+is white, clean, and smooth as ivory. On the four sides are four
+great doors, through which you enter the royal apartments. Here
+wonder becomes enchantment: whatever is richest, most various, and
+most splendid, whatever the most ardent fancy sees in its most ardent
+dreams, is to be found in these rooms. From pavement to the vaulted
+ceiling, around the doors, along the window-frames, in the most hidden
+corners, wherever one's glance falls, one sees such a luxuriance
+of ornaments in gold and precious stones, such a close network of
+arabesques and inscriptions, such a marvellous profusion of designs and
+colors, that one has scarcely taken twenty steps before one is amazed
+and confused, and the wearied eye wanders here and there searching for
+a hand's breadth of bare wall where it may flee and rest. In one of
+these rooms the guide pointed out a red spot which covered a good part
+of the marble pavement, and said in a solemn voice, "These are the
+blood-stains of Don Fadrique, grand master of the order of Santiago,
+who was killed on this very spot, in the year 1358, by order of his
+brother, King Don Pedro."
+
+I remember that when I heard these words I looked in the face of the
+custodian, as if to say, "Come, let us be going," and that good man
+answered in a dry tone,
+
+"_Caballero_, if I had told you to believe this thing on my word, you
+would have had every reason to doubt; but when you can see the thing
+with your very eyes, I may be wrong, but--it seems to me...."
+
+"Yes," I hastened to say--"yes, it is blood: I believe it, I see it;
+let's say no more about it."
+
+But if one can be playful over the blood-spots, one cannot be so over
+the story of the crime; the sight of the place revives in the mind all
+the most horrible details. Through the great gilded halls one seems
+to hear the echo of Don Fadrique's footsteps, followed by those of
+the bowmen armed with bludgeons; the palace is immersed in gloom; one
+hears no other sound save that of the executioners and their victim;
+Don Fadrique tries to enter the courtyard; Lopez de Padilla catches
+him; Fadrique throws him off and is in the court; he grasps his sword;
+curses on it! the cross of the hilt is held fast in the mantle of
+the order of Santiago; the bowmen gain upon him; he has not time to
+unsheath the sword; he flees here and there, groping his way; Fernandez
+de Roa overtakes him and fells him with a blow of his club; the others
+run up and set upon him, and Fadrique dies in a pool of blood....
+
+But this sad recollection is lost among the thousand images of the
+sensuous Moorish kings. Those graceful little windows, where it seems
+as if you ought to see every other moment the languid face of an
+odalisque; those secret doors, at which you pause in spite of yourself,
+as if you heard the rustle of garments; those sleeping chambers of
+the sultans, shrouded in mysterious gloom, where you seem to hear
+only the confused amorous lament of all the maidens who there lost
+the flower of their virgin purity; that prodigal variety of color and
+line, which like a tumultuous and ever-changing harmony arouses the
+senses to such fantastic flights that you doubt whether you are waking
+or sleeping; that delicate and lovely architecture, all of slender
+columns, that seem like the arms of women; capricious arches, little
+rooms, arched ceilings crowded with ornaments hanging in the form of
+stalactites, icicles, and clusters of grapes, of as many colors as a
+flower-garden;--all this stirs your desire to sit down in the middle of
+one of those rooms and to press to your heart a lovely brown Andalusian
+head which will make you forget the world and time, and, with one long
+kiss that drinks away your life, give you eternal sleep.
+
+On the ground floor the most beautiful room is the Hall of the
+Ambassadors, formed by four great arches which support a gallery
+with forty-four smaller arches, and above a beautiful cupola carved,
+painted, gilded, and chased with inimitable grace and fabulous splendor.
+
+On the upper floor, where were the winter apartments, there remain only
+an oratory of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic, and a little room in
+which the king Don Pedro is said to have slept. From it one descends by
+a narrow mysterious staircase to the rooms where dwelt the famous Maria
+de Padilla, the favorite of Don Pedro, whom popular tradition accuses
+of instigating the king to kill his brother.
+
+[Illustration: _Moorish Arches, Alcazar, Seville_]
+
+The gardens of the Alcazar are neither very large nor particularly
+beautiful, but the memories which they recall are of greater value than
+extent or beauty. In the shade of those orange trees and cypresses, to
+the murmur of those fountains, when the great white moon was shining in
+that limpid Andalusian sky, and the many groups of courtiers and slaves
+rested there, how many long sighs of ardent sultanas! how many lowly
+words from proud kings! what passionate loves and embraces! "Itimad, my
+love!" I murmured, thinking of the famous mistress of King Al-Motamid
+as I wandered from path to path as if following her phantom,--"Itimad,"
+I repeated, "do not leave me alone in this silent paradise! Dost
+thou remember how thou camest to me? Thy wealth of hair fell over my
+shoulder, and dearer than the sword to the warrior wert thou to me! How
+beautiful thou art! Thy neck is soft and white as the swan's, and like
+berries are thy red, red lips! How marvellous is the perfection of thy
+beauty! How dear thou art, Itimad, my love! Thy kisses are like wine,
+and thy eyes, like wine, steal away my reason!"
+
+While I was thus making my declarations of love with phrases and images
+stolen from the Arabian poets, at the very moment when I turned into
+a bypath all bordered with flowers, suddenly I felt a stream of water
+first on one leg and then on the other. I jumped aside, and received
+a spray in my face; I turned to the right, and felt another stream
+against my neck; to the left, another jet between my shoulders. I began
+to run: there was water under me and around me in every direction, in
+jets, streams, and spray; in a moment I was as wet as if I had been
+dipped in the bath-tub. Just as I opened my mouth to call for help it
+all subsided, and I heard a ringing laugh at the end of the garden. I
+turned and saw a young fellow leaning against a low wall looking at me
+as if he were saying, "How did you like it?" When I came out he showed
+me the spring he had touched to play this little joke, and comforted me
+with the assurance that the sun of Seville would not leave me long in
+that dripping condition, into which I had passed so rudely, alas! from
+the lovely arms of my sultana.
+
+That evening, in spite of the voluptuous images which the Alcazar had
+called to my mind, I was sufficiently calm to contemplate the beauty
+of the women of Seville without fleeing to the arms of the consul for
+safety. I do not believe that the women of any other country are so
+bewitching as the fair Andalusians, not only because they tempt one
+into all sorts of mischief, but because they seem to have been made to
+be seized and carried away, so small, graceful, plump, elastic, and
+soft are they. Their little feet could both be put easily into one's
+coat-pocket, and with an arm one could lift them by the waist like
+babies, and by the mere pressure of the finger could bend them like
+willow wands. To their natural beauty they add the art of walking and
+looking in a way to turn one's head. They fly along, glide, and walk
+with a wave-like motion, and in a single moment, as they pass, they
+show a little foot, make you admire an arm or a slender waist, reveal
+two rows of the whitest teeth, and dart at you a long veiled glance
+that melts and dies in your own; and on they go with an air of triumph,
+certain of having turned your blood topsy-turvy.
+
+To form an idea of the beauty of the women of the people and the
+picturesqueness of their dress you must go by day to visit the
+tobacco-manufactory, which is one of the largest establishments of
+the kind in Europe and employs not less than five thousand hands. The
+building faces the vast gardens of the duke of Montpensier: almost all
+of the women work in three immense rooms, each divided into three parts
+by as many rows of pillars. The first view is astounding: there, all
+at once, eight hundred girls present themselves before one's eyes in
+groups of five or six, sitting around work-tables as close as possible,
+the farthest indistinct and the last scarcely visible; all of them
+young and a few children--eight hundred jet-black heads and eight
+hundred brown faces from every province of Andalusia, from Jaen to
+Cadiz, from Granada to Seville!
+
+One hears a buzzing as of a square full of people. The walls, from one
+door to the other, in all three of the rooms are lined with skirts,
+shawls, kerchiefs, and scarfs; and--a very curious thing--that entire
+mass of garments, which would fill to overflowing a hundred old-clothes
+shops, presents two predominant colors, in two continuous lines one
+above the other, like the stripes of a very long flag--the black of the
+shawls above, and the red mixed with white, purple, and yellow--so that
+one seems to see an immense costumer's shop or an immense ball-room
+where the ballet-dancers, in order to be free, have hung on the walls
+every part of their dress which it is not absolutely necessary to wear.
+The girls put on these dresses when they go out, and wear old clothes
+to work in; but white and red predominate in those dresses also. The
+heat is insupportable, consequently they lighten their clothing as
+much as possible, and among those five thousand one will scarcely find
+fifty whose arms and shoulders the visitor may not contemplate at
+his pleasure, without counting the extraordinary cases which present
+themselves suddenly as one passes from room to room, behind the doors
+and columns, and around the distant corners. There are some very
+beautiful faces, and even those who are not beautiful have something
+about them which attracts one's glance and lingers in the memory--the
+complexion, the eyes, the brow, or the smile. Many of them, especially
+so-called _Gitane_, are as dark as dark mulattos and have protruding
+lips; others have eyes so large that a faithful picture of them would
+be considered a monstrous exaggeration; the greater part are small and
+well-formed, and all have a rose or carnation or some sort of wild
+flower in their hair. They are paid in proportion to the work they do,
+and the most skilful and industrious earn as much as three francs per
+day; the lazy ones--_las holgazanas_--sleep with their arms crossed on
+the table and their heads resting on their arms; mothers are working,
+and swinging a leg to which is bound a cord that rocks the cradle.
+From the cigar-room one passes to the cigarette-room, and from it to
+the box-factory, and from the box-factory to the packing-room, and in
+them all one sees the red skirts, black hair, and fine eyes. In each of
+those rooms how many stories of love, jealousy, despair, and misery!
+On leaving the factory one seems for some time to see black eyes in
+every direction regarding him with a thousand varying expressions
+of curiosity, indifference, sympathy, cheerfulness, sadness, and
+drowsiness.
+
+The same day I went to see the Museum of Painting. The Seville gallery
+does not contain very many paintings, but those few are worth a
+great museum. There are the masterpieces of Murillo, and among them
+his immortal _Saint Anthony of Padua_, which is said to be the most
+divinely inspired of his works, and one of the greatest achievements
+of human genius. I visited the gallery in the company of Señor Gonzalo
+Segovia and Ardizone, one of the most illustrious young men of Seville,
+and I wish he were here beside my table at this moment to testify in a
+foot-note that when my eyes first lit upon the picture I seized his arm
+and uttered a cry.
+
+Only once in my life have I felt such a profound stirring of my soul as
+that which I felt on seeing this picture. It was one beautiful summer
+night: the sky was bright with stars, and the vast plain lay extended
+before me from the high place where I stood in deep silence. One of
+the noblest creatures I have ever met in my life was at my side. A few
+hours before we had been reading some pages from one of Humboldt's
+works: we looked at the sky and talked of the motion of the earth, the
+millions of worlds, and the infinite with those suppressed tones as of
+distant voices which one unconsciously uses in speaking of such things
+in the silent night. Finally we were still, and each, with eyes fixed
+on the heavens, gave himself up to fancies. I know not by what train
+of thought I was led; I know not what mysterious chain of emotions was
+formed in my heart; I know not what I saw or felt or dreamed. I only
+know that suddenly a veil before my mind seemed to be rent asunder; I
+felt within me a perfect assurance of that which hitherto I had longed
+for rather than believed; my heart expanded with a feeling of supreme
+joy, angelic peace, and limitless hope; a flood of scalding tears
+suddenly filled my eyes, and, grasping the hand of my friend, which
+sought my own, I cried from the depths of my soul, "It is true! It is
+true!" and began to cry like a child.
+
+The _Saint Anthony of Padua_ brought back the emotions of that evening.
+The saint is kneeling in the middle of his cell; the child Jesus in
+a nebulous halo of white vaporous light, drawn by the power of his
+prayer, is descending into his arms. Saint Anthony, rapt in ecstasy,
+throws himself forward with all his power of body and soul, his head
+thrown back, radiant with an expression of supreme joy. So great was
+the shock which this picture gave me that when I had looked at it a few
+moments I was as exhausted as if I had visited a vast gallery, and a
+trembling seized me and continued so long as I remained in that room.
+
+Afterward I saw the other great paintings of Murillo--a _Conception_, a
+_Saint Francis embracing Christ_, another version of _Saint Anthony_,
+and others to the number of twenty or more, among them the famous and
+enchanting _Virgin of the Napkin_, painted by Murillo upon a real
+napkin in the Capuchin convent of Seville to gratify a desire of a lay
+brother who was serving him: it is one of his most delicate creations,
+in which is revealed all the magic of his inimitable coloring--but none
+of these paintings, although they are objects of wonder to all the
+artists of the world, drew my heart or thoughts from that divine _Saint
+Anthony_.
+
+There are also in this gallery paintings by the two Herreras, Pacheco,
+Alonzo Cano, Pablo de Cespedes, Valdes, Mulato, a servant of Murillo
+who ably imitated his style, and finally the large famous painting of
+the _Apotheosis of Saint Thomas of Aquinas_, by Francesco Zurbaran,
+one of the most eminent artists of the seventeenth century, called
+the Spanish Caravaggio, and possibly his superior in truth and moral
+sentiment,--a powerful naturalist, a strong colorist, and an inimitable
+painter of austere friars, macerated saints, brooding hermits, and
+terrible priests, and an unsurpassed poet of penitence, solitude, and
+meditation.
+
+After seeing the picture-gallery Señor Gonzalo Segovia led me through
+a succession of narrow streets to the street _Francos_, one of the
+principal ways of the city, and stopped me in front of a little
+draper's shop, saying with a laugh, "Look! Doesn't this shop make you
+think of something?"
+
+"Nothing at all," I replied.
+
+"Look at the number."
+
+"It is number fifteen: what of it?"
+
+"Oh! plague on it!" exclaimed my amiable guide,
+
+    "'Number fifteen,
+    On the left-hand side'!"
+
+"The shop of the _Barber of Seville_!" I cried.
+
+"Precisely!" he responded--"the shop of the Barber of Seville; but
+be on your guard when you speak of it in Italy; do not take your
+oath, for traditions are often misleading, and I would not assume the
+responsibility of confirming a fact of such importance."
+
+At that moment the merchant came to the door of the shop, and, divining
+why we were there, laughed and said, "_No esta_" ("Figaro is not
+here"), and with a gracious bow he retired.
+
+Then I besought Señor Gonzalo to show me a _patio_, one of those
+enchanting _patios_ which as I looked at them from the street made me
+imagine so many delightful things. "I want to see at least one," I said
+to him--"to penetrate once into the midst of those mysteries, to touch
+the walls, to assure myself that it is a real thing and not a vision."
+
+My desire was at once fulfilled: we entered the _patio_ of one of his
+friends. Señor Gonzalo told the servant the object of our visit, and we
+were left alone. The house was only two stories in height. The _patio_
+was no larger than an ordinary room, but all marble and flowers, and
+a little fountain in the middle, and paintings and statues around,
+and from roof to roof an awning which sheltered it from the sun. In
+a corner was a work-table, and here and there one saw low chairs and
+little benches whereon a few moments previously had doubtless rested
+the feet of some fair Andalusian, who at that moment was watching us
+from between the slats of a blind. I examined everything minutely, as
+I would have done in a house abandoned by the fairies: I sat down,
+closed my eyes, imagined I was the master, then arose, wet my hand with
+the spray of the fountain, touched a slender column, went to the door,
+picked a flower, raised my eyes to the windows, laughed, sighed, and
+said, "How happy must those be who live here!" At that moment I heard
+a low laugh, and saw two great black eyes flash behind a blind and
+instantly disappear. "Truly," I said, "I did not believe that it was
+possible to still live so poetically upon this earth. And to think that
+you enjoy these houses all your life! and that you have the inclination
+to rack your brains about politics!"
+
+Señor Gonzalo showed me the secrets of the house. "All this furniture,"
+said he, "these paintings, and these vases of flowers disappear on
+the approach of autumn and are taken to the second story, which is
+the living apartment from autumn to spring. When summer comes beds,
+wardrobes, tables, chairs--everything is brought down to the rooms on
+the ground floor, and here the family sleep and eat, receive their
+friends, and do their work, among the flowers and marbles to the murmur
+of the fountain. And at night they have the doors open, and from the
+sleeping-rooms one can see the _patio_ flooded with moonlight and
+smell the fragrance of roses."
+
+"Oh, stop!" I exclaimed, "stop, Señor Gonzalo! Have pity on strangers!"
+And, laughing heartily, we both went out on our way to see the famous
+_Casa de Pilato_.
+
+As we were passing along a lonely little street I looked in a window
+of a hardware-shop and saw an assortment of knives so long, broad,
+and unusual that I felt a desire to buy one. I entered: twenty were
+displayed before my eyes, and I had the salesman to open them one by
+one. As each knife was opened I took a step backward. I do not believe
+it is possible to imagine an instrument more barbarous and terrifying
+in appearance than one of them. The handles are of wood, copper, and
+horn, curved and carved in open patterns, so that one may see through
+their little pieces of isinglass. The knives open with a sound like a
+rattle, and out comes a large blade as broad as the palm of your hand,
+as long as both palms together, and as sharp as a dagger, in the form
+of a fish, ornamented with red inlaying, which suggests streaks of
+clotted blood, and adorned with fierce and threatening inscriptions.
+On the blade of one there will be written in Spanish, _Do not open
+me without reason, nor shut me without honor_; on another, _Where I
+strike, all is over_; on a third, _When this snake bites, there is
+nothing left for the doctor to do_; and other gallantries of the same
+sort. The proper name of these knives is _navaja_--a word which also
+has the meaning of razor--and the _navaja_ is the popular duelling
+weapon. Now it has fallen into disuse, but was at one time held in
+great honor; there were masters who taught its use, each of whom had
+his secret blow, and duels were fought in accordance with the rules
+of chivalry. I bought the most terrible _navaja_ in the shop, and we
+entered the street again.
+
+The _Casa de Pilato_, held by the Medina-Coeli family, is, after
+the Alcazar, the most beautiful monument of Moorish architecture in
+Seville. The name, _Casa de Pilato_, comes from the fact that its
+founder, Don Enriquez de Ribera, the first marquis of Tarifa, had
+it built, as the story goes, in imitation of the house of the Roman
+prætor, which he had seen in Jerusalem, where he went on a pilgrimage.
+The edifice has a modest exterior, but the interior is marvellous.
+One first enters a court not less beautiful than the enchanting court
+of the Alcazar, encircled by two orders of arches, supported by
+graceful marble columns, forming two very light galleries, one above
+the other, and so delicate that it seems as if the first puff of wind
+would cast them into ruins. In the centre is a lovely fountain resting
+on four marble dolphins and crowned by a bust of Janus. Around the
+lower part of the walls run brilliant mosaics, and above these every
+sort of fantastic arabesque, here and there framing beautiful niches
+containing busts of the Roman emperors. At the four corners of the
+court the ceilings, the walls, and the doors are carved, embroidered,
+and covered with flowers and historic tapestries with the delicacy of
+a miniature. In an old chapel, partly Moorish and partly Gothic in
+style, and most delicate in form, there is preserved a little column,
+scarcely more than three feet in height, the gift of Pius V. to a
+descendant of the founder of the palace, at one time viceroy of Naples:
+to that column, says the tradition, was bound Jesus of Nazareth to be
+scourged. This fact, even if it were true, would prove that Pius V. did
+not believe it in the slightest degree. For he would not lightly have
+committed the unpardonable mistake of depriving himself of a valuable
+relic to make a present to the first comer. The entire palace is full
+of sacred memories. On the first floor the custodian points out a
+window which corresponds to that by which Peter sat when he denied his
+Lord, and the little window from which the maid-servant recognized him.
+From the street one sees another window with a little stone balcony,
+which represents the exact position of the window where Jesus, wearing
+the crown of thorns, was shown to the people.
+
+The garden is full of fragments of ancient statuary brought from Italy
+by that same Don Pedro Afan de Ribera, viceroy of Naples. Among the
+other fables that are told about this mysterious garden is one to the
+effect that Don Pedro Afan de Ribera placed in it an urn brought
+from Italy containing the ashes of the emperor Trajan, and a curious
+person carelessly struck the urn and overturned it; the emperor's ashes
+were thus scattered over the grass, and no one has ever succeeded in
+collecting them. So this august monarch, born at Italica, by a very
+strange fate has returned to the vicinity of his natal city, not in the
+very best condition in which to meditate upon its ruins, to tell the
+truth, but he was near it, at any rate.
+
+In spite of all that I have described, I may say that I did not see
+Seville, but just commenced to see it. Nevertheless, I shall stop
+here, because everything must have an end. I pass by the promenaders,
+the squares, the gates, the libraries, the public buildings, the
+mansions of the grandees, the gardens and the churches; but allow
+me to say that, after several days' wandering through Seville from
+sunrise to sunset, I was obliged to leave the city under the weight of
+a self-accusing conscience. I did not know which way to turn. I had
+reached such a condition of weariness that the announcement of a new
+object to be seen filled me with foreboding rather than pleasure. The
+good Señor Gonzalo kept up my courage, comforted me, and shortened the
+journeys with his delightful company, but, nevertheless, I have only a
+very confused remembrance of all that I saw during those last days.
+
+Seville, although it no longer merits the glorious title of the
+Spanish Athens, as in the times of Charles V. and Philip II., when it
+was mother and patron of a large and chosen band of poets and artists,
+the seat of culture and of the arts in the vast empire of its monarchs,
+is even yet that one among the cities of Spain, with the exception
+of Madrid, in which the artistic life is most vigorously maintained,
+as is evidenced by the number of its men of genius, the liberality
+of its patrons, and the popular love of the fine arts. It contains a
+flourishing academy of literature, a society for the protection of the
+arts, a well-known university, and a colony of scholars and sculptors
+who enjoy an honorable distinction throughout Spain. But the highest
+literary fame in Seville belongs to a woman--Catharine Bohl, the
+author of the novels which bear the name of Fernan Caballero, widely
+read in Spain and America, translated into almost all the languages
+of Europe, and known also in Italy (where some of them were published
+not long since) by every one who at all occupies himself with foreign
+literature. They are admirable pictures of Andalusian manners, full
+of truth, passion, and grace, and, above all, possessing a vigor of
+faith and a religious enthusiasm so fearless and a Christian charity
+so broad that they would startle and confuse the most skeptical man
+in the world. Catharine Bohl is a woman who would undergo martyrdom
+with the firmness and serenity of a Saint Ignatius. The consciousness
+of her power is revealed in every page: she does not hesitate to
+defend her religion, and confronts, assails, threatens, and overthrows
+its enemies; and not only the enemies of religion, but every man and
+everything that, to use a common expression, conforms to the spirit
+of the age, for she never forgives the least sin which has been
+committed from the times of the Inquisition to our own day, and she is
+more inexorable than the Pope's syllabus. And herein perhaps lies her
+greatest defect as a writer--that her religious convictions and her
+invectives are entirely too frequent and grow tiresome, and disgust and
+prejudice the reader rather than convince him of her own beliefs. But
+there is not a shadow of bitterness in her heart, and as her books, so
+is her life, noble, upright, and charitable. In Seville she is revered
+as a saint. Born in that city, she married early in life, and is now a
+widow for the third time. Her last husband, who was Spanish ambassador
+at London, committed suicide, and from that day she has never laid
+aside her mourning. At the time of my visit she was almost seventy; she
+had been very beautiful, and her noble, placid face still preserved
+the impress of beauty. Her father, who was a man of considerable
+genius and great culture, taught her several languages in early life:
+she knows Latin thoroughly and speaks Italian, German, and French
+with admirable facility. At this time, however, she is not writing at
+all, although the editors and publishers of Europe and America are
+offering her large sums for her works. But she does not live a life of
+inactivity. From morning to night she reads all sorts of books, and
+while she reads she is either knitting or embroidering, for she very
+firmly believes that her literary studies ought not to take one minute
+from her feminine employments. She has no children, and lives in a
+lonely house, the best part of which has been given to a poor family;
+she spends a great part of her income in charity. A curious trait of
+her character is her great love of animals: she has her house full of
+birds, cats, and dogs, and her sensibilities are so delicate that she
+has never consented to enter a carriage, for fear of seeing the horse
+beaten on her account. All suffering affects her as if she herself
+were bearing it: the sight of a blind man or of a sick person or of a
+cripple of any sort distresses her for an entire day; she cannot close
+her eyes to sleep unless she has wiped away a tear; she would joyfully
+forego all her honors to save any unknown person a heartache. Before
+the Revolution her life was not so isolated: the Montpensier family
+received her with great honor, and the most illustrious families of
+Seville vied with each other in entertaining her at their homes: now
+she lives only among her books and a few friends.
+
+In Moorish times Cordova took the lead in literature and Seville in
+music. "When a scholar dies at Seville," said Averroes, "and they wish
+to sell his books, they send them to Cordova; but if a musician dies
+at Cordova, they send his instruments to Seville to be sold." Now
+Cordova has lost her literary primacy, and Seville holds first place
+both in literature and music. Truly the times are past in which a poet
+by singing of the beauty of a maiden draws around her a crowd of lovers
+from all parts of the realm, and when one prince envies another simply
+because a poet has sung in his praise a verse more beautiful than any
+which the other had inspired, and a caliph rewards the author of a
+noble hymn by a gift of a hundred camels, a troop of slaves, and a vase
+of gold--when a happy strophe improvised at an opportune time releases
+a slave from his chains or saves the life of one condemned to death,
+and when the musicians are followed through the streets of Seville by
+a train of monarchs, and the favor of poets is more sought than that
+of kings, and the lyre is more terrible than the sword. But the people
+of Seville are always the most poetic people of Spain. The _bon mot_,
+the word of love, the expression of joy and enthusiasm, fly from their
+lips with a fascinating spontaneity and grace. The common people of
+Seville improvise, and talk as though they are singing, gesticulate as
+if they are declaiming, laugh and play like children. One never grows
+old at Seville. It is a city where life melts away in a continuous
+smile, with no other thought than the enjoyment of the beautiful sky,
+the lovely little houses, and the delightful little gardens. It is
+the most peaceful city in Spain, and the only one which since the
+Revolution has not been agitated by those sad political commotions
+which have stirred the others: politics do not penetrate the surface;
+the Sevillians are content to make love; all else they take in jest.
+_Todo lo toman de broma_, say the other Spaniards of the Sevillians;
+and in truth with that fragrant air, with those little streets like
+those of an Oriental city, with those fiery little women, why should
+they trouble themselves? At Madrid they speak ill of them; they say
+they are vain, false, fickle, and silly. It is jealousy: they envy them
+their happy indolence, the sympathy which they inspire in strangers,
+their girls, their poets, their painters, their orators, their Giralda,
+their Alcazar, their Guadalquivir, their life, and their history. So
+say the Sevillians, striking their breasts with one hand and puffing
+into the air a cloud of smoke from the inseparable _cigaritto_; and
+their lovely little women revenge themselves upon their envious sisters
+and all the other women in the world, speaking with spiteful pity of
+long feet, large waists, and dull eyes, that in Andalusia would not
+receive the honor of a glance or the homage of a sigh. A charming and
+amiable people, in truth; but, alas! one must look at the reverse side
+of the medal: superstition reigns and schools are lacking, as is the
+case throughout all Southern Spain; this is partly their own fault and
+partly not; but the negative is probably the smaller part.
+
+The day of my departure arrived unexpectedly. It is strange: I remember
+scarcely any particulars of my life at Seville; it is remarkable if
+I can tell where I dined, what I talked about with the consul, how I
+spent the evenings, and why I chose any given day to take my departure.
+I was not myself; I lived, if I may use the expression, out of myself;
+all the while I remained in the city I was a little dazed. Apart from
+the art-gallery and the _patio_ my friend Segovia must have found that
+I knew very little; and now, I know not why, I think of those days
+as of a dream. Of no other city are my recollections so vague as of
+Seville. Even to-day, while I am certain of having been at Saragossa,
+Madrid, and Toledo, sometimes when I think of Seville a doubt steals
+upon me. It seems to me like a city much farther away than the most
+distant boundaries of Spain, and that to journey there again I must
+travel months and months, cross unknown continents and wide seas,
+among people totally different from our own. I think of the streets
+of Seville, of certain little squares and certain houses, as I would
+think of the spots on the moon. Sometimes the image of that city passes
+before my eyes like a white figure, and disappears almost before I
+can grasp it with my mind--sometimes in a breath of air, at certain
+hours of the day, at a garden-gate; in humming a song which I heard a
+boy sing on the steps of the Giralda. I cannot explain this secret to
+myself; I think of Seville as of a city which I have still to see, and
+I enjoy looking at the prints and thumbing the books which I bought
+there, for they are tangible things that convince me of my visit. A
+month ago I received a letter from Segovia which said, "Come back to
+us." It gave me untold pleasure, but at the same time I laughed as if
+he had written, "Make a voyage to Pekin." It is for this very reason
+that Seville is dearer to me than all the other cities of Spain; I
+love it as I might love a beautiful unknown woman who, crossing a
+mysterious wood, might look my way and throw me a flower. How often in
+the theatre or at the café, when a friend shakes me and asks, "What are
+you thinking about?" I am obliged to leave the little room of Maria de
+Padilla to return to him, or a boat that is gliding along in the shade
+of the Christina plane trees, or Figaro's shop, or the vestibule of a
+_patio_ full of flowers, fountains, and lights.
+
+I embarked on a boat of the Segovia Company, near the Torre del Oro, at
+an hour when Seville is wrapped in deep sleep and a burning sun covers
+it with a flood of light. I remember that a few moments before the
+boat started a young man came on board in search of me, and gave me a
+letter from Gonzalo Segovia, containing a sonnet which I still cherish
+as one of my most precious mementos of Seville. On the boat there was
+a company of Spanish singers, an English family, some laboring-men,
+and babies. The captain, being a good Andalusian, had a cheery word
+for everybody. I soon began a conversation with him. My friend Gonzalo
+was a son of the proprietor of the line, and we talked of the Segovia
+family, of Seville, the sea, and a thousand pleasant things. Ah! the
+poor man was far from thinking that a few days later the unlucky ship
+would founder in the midst of the sea and bring him to such a terrible
+end! It was the _Guadaira_, that was lost a short distance from
+Marseilles by the bursting of the boiler on the sixteenth day of June,
+1872.
+
+At three o'clock the boat started for Cadiz.
+
+
+
+
+CADIZ.
+
+
+That was the most delightful evening of all my journey.
+
+A little while after the ship had commenced to move there sprang up one
+of those gentle breezes which played with one as an infant plays with
+one's cravat or a lock of one's hair, and from stem to stern there was
+a sound of the voices of women and children, like that which one hears
+among a group of friends at the first crack of the whip announcing
+their departure for a merry outing. All the passengers gathered at the
+stern in the shade of a gayly-colored awning like a Chinese pavilion:
+some were sitting on coils of rope, others were stretched at full
+length on the benches, others were leaning against the rail--every one
+looked back in the direction of the Torre del Oro to enjoy the famous
+and enchanting spectacle of Seville as it faded away in the distance.
+Some of the women had not yet dried the tears of parting, and some of
+the children were still a little frightened by the sound of the engine.
+And some ladies were still quarrelling with the porters for abusing
+their baggage; but in a few moments all was serene again, and the
+passengers began to peel oranges, light cigars, pass little flasks of
+liquor, converse with their unknown neighbors, sing and laugh, and in a
+quarter of an hour we were all friends.
+
+The boat glided along as smoothly as a gondola over the still, limpid
+waters, which reflected the white dresses of the ladies like a mirror,
+and the breeze brought the delightful fragrance from the orange-groves
+of the villas scattered along the shore. Seville was hidden behind
+her circle of gardens, and we saw only an immense mass of trees of
+vivid green, and above them the black pile of the cathedral and the
+rose-colored Giralda surmounted by its statue flaming like a tongue
+of fire. As the distance widened the cathedral appeared grander and
+more majestic, as if it were following the vessel and gaining upon
+her: now, although still following, it seemed to retire a great way
+from the shore; now it would seem to be spanning the river; one
+moment it would appear suddenly to return to its place; a moment
+later it looked so close that we suspected the boat had turned back.
+The Guadalquivir wound along in short curves, and as the boat turned
+this way and that Seville appeared and disappeared, now peeping out
+in one place as if it had stolen beyond its boundaries, now raising
+its head suddenly behind a wood, gleaming like a snowclad mountain,
+now revealing some white streaks here and there amid the verdure, and
+suddenly disappearing from view and performing all sorts of fantastic
+wiles, like a coquettish woman. Finally it disappeared and we saw it
+no more: the cathedral alone remained. Then every one turned to look
+at the shore. We seemed to be sailing on the lake of a garden. Here
+was a hillside clothed with cypresses, here a hilltop all covered
+with flowers, yonder a village extending along the shore, and under
+the garden trellises and along the terraces of the villas sat ladies
+looking at us with spy-glasses; and here and there were peasants'
+families in brightly-colored dresses, sail-boats; and naked boys who
+plunged into the water and turned sommersaults, frisked about, shouted,
+and waved their hands toward the ladies on the boat, who covered their
+faces with their fans. Some miles from Seville we met three steamboats,
+one after the other. The first came upon us so suddenly at a turn of
+the river that, having had no experience in that sort of navigation,
+I was afraid, for a moment, that we should not have time to avoid a
+collision; the two boats almost grazed each other in passing, and the
+passengers of each saluted each other and threw across oranges and
+cigars, and charged each other with messages to be borne to Cadiz or
+Seville.
+
+My fellow-voyagers were almost all Andalusians, and so, after an
+hour of conversation, I knew them from first to last as well as if
+we had all been friends from infancy. Every one instantly told every
+one else, whether he wanted to know it or not, who he was, his age,
+occupation, and where he was going, and one even went so far as to tell
+how many sweethearts he had and how many pesetas were in his purse. I
+was taken for a singer; and this is not strange if one considers that
+in Spain the people think three-fourths of the Italians are trained to
+sing, dance, or declaim. One gentleman, noticing that I had an Italian
+book in my hand, asked me, point-blank, "Where did you leave the
+company?"
+
+"What company?" I demanded.
+
+"Weren't you singing with Fricci at the Zarzuela?"
+
+"I am sorry, but I have never appeared on the stage."
+
+"Well, I must say, then, that you and the second tenor look as much
+alike as two drops of water."
+
+"You don't say so?"
+
+"Pray excuse me."
+
+"It's of no consequence."
+
+"But you are an Italian?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Do you sing?"
+
+"I am sorry, but I do not sing."
+
+"How strange! To judge by your throat and breast, I should have said
+that you must have a splendid tenor voice."
+
+I put my hand to my chest and neck, and replied, "It may be so; I will
+try--one never knows. I have two of the necessary qualifications: I am
+an Italian and have the throat of a tenor; the voice ought to follow."
+
+At this point the prima donna of the company, who had overheard the
+dialogue, entered the conversation, and after her the entire company:
+
+"Is the gentleman an Italian?"
+
+"At your service, madam."
+
+"I ask the question because I wish him to do me a favor. What is the
+meaning of those short verses from _Il Trovatore_ which run--
+
+              "Non può nemmeno un Dio
+              Donna rapirti a me."
+    (Not even a god can steal my lady from me.)
+
+"Is the lady married?"
+
+They all began to laugh.
+
+"Yes," replied the prima donna; "but why do you ask me that?"
+
+"Because ... 'not even a god can steal you from me' is what your
+husband ought to say, if he has two good eyes in his head, every
+morning when he rises and every night when he goes to bed."
+
+The others laughed, but to the prima donna this imaginary presumption
+on the part of her husband in affirming that he was secure even against
+a god seemed too extravagant, possibly because she knew that she had
+not always been sufficiently wary in her regard for men; and so she
+scarcely deigned by so much as a smile to show that she had understood
+my compliment. She at once asked the meaning of another verse, and
+after her the baritone, and after the baritone the tenor, and after
+the tenor the second lady, and so on, until for a little while I did
+nothing but translate poor Italian verses into worse Spanish prose, to
+the great satisfaction of some of them, who for the first time were
+able to repeat intelligently a little of what they had so often sung
+with an air of perfect knowledge. When every one had learned as much
+as he wished to know, the conversation came to a close, and I stood
+talking a little while with the baritone, who hummed me an air from
+the _Zarzuela_; then I attached myself to one of the chorus, who told
+me that the tenor was making love to the prima donna; then I went off
+with the tenor, who told me about the baritone's wife; then I talked
+with the prima donna, who said disagreeable things about the whole
+company; but they were all good friends, and when they met, as they
+walked about the boat and gathered under the awning, the men pulled
+each other's beards and the women kissed each other, and one and all
+exchanged glances and smiles which revealed secret understandings. Some
+ran through the gamut here, some hummed yonder, others practised trills
+in a corner, and others again tried a guttural _do_ that ended in a
+wheezing sound in the throat; and meanwhile they all talked at once
+about a thousand trifles.
+
+Finally, the bell sounded and we rushed headlong to the table, like
+so many officials invited to a spread at the unveiling of a monument.
+At this dinner, amid the cries and songs of all those people, I drank
+for the first time an unmixed glass of that terrible wine of Xeres
+whose wonders are sung in the four corners of the earth. I had scarcely
+swallowed it before I seemed to feel a spark run through all my veins,
+and my head burned as if it was full of sulphur. All the others drank,
+and all were filled with unrestrained mirth and became irresistibly
+loquacious; the prima donna began to talk in Italian, the tenor in
+French, the baritone in Portuguese, the others in dialect, and I in
+every tongue; and there were toasts and snatches of song, shouts,
+arch glances, clasping of hands above table and the kicking of feet
+below, and declarations of good fellowship exchanged on all sides,
+like the personalities in Parliament when the opposing factions join
+battle. After dinner we all went on deck, flushed and in great spirits,
+breathless and enveloped in a cloud of smoke from our cigarettes, and
+then, in the light of the moon, whose silvery rays gleamed on the wide
+river and covered the hillsides and the groves with limpid light, we
+began again a noisy conversation, and after the conversation there
+was singing, not only the trifling airs of _Zarzuela_, but passages
+from operas, with solos, duets, trios, and choruses, with appropriate
+gestures and stage strides, diversified with declamations from
+the poets, stories, and anecdotes, hearty laughter, and tumultuous
+applause; finally, tired and breathless, we were all silent, and some
+fell asleep with upturned faces, others went to lie down under cover,
+and the prima donna seated herself in a corner to look at the moon.
+The tenor was snoring. I profited by the occasion to go and have an
+aria from the _Zarzuela_--_El Sargento Federico_--sung to me in a low
+voice. The courteous Andalusian did not wait to be pressed: she sang,
+but suddenly she was silent and hid her face. I looked at her: she
+was weeping. I asked her the cause of her distress, and she answered,
+sadly, "I am thinking of a perjury." Then she broke into a laugh and
+began to sing again. She had a melodious, flexible voice, and sang with
+a feeling of gentle sadness. The sky was all studded with stars, and
+the boat glided so smoothly through the water that it scarcely seemed
+to be moving; and I thought of the gardens of Seville, of the near
+African shore, and of the dear one waiting for me in Italy, and my eyes
+too were wet, and when the lady stopped singing, I said, "Sing on, for--
+
+    'Mortal tongue cannot express
+    That which I felt within my breast....'"
+
+At dawn the boat was just entering the ocean; the river was very wide.
+The right bank, scarcely visible in the distance, stretched along like
+a tongue of land, beyond which shone the waters of the sea. A moment
+later the sun rose above the horizon, and the vessel left the river.
+Then there unfolded before my eyes a sight that could not be described
+if it were possible to join poetry, painting, and music in one supreme
+art--a spectacle whose magnificence and enchantment I believe not even
+Dante could describe with his grandest images, nor Titian with his
+most brilliant colors, nor Rossini with his most perfect harmonies,
+nor even all three of them together. The sky was a miracle of sapphire
+light unflecked by a cloud, and the sea was so beautiful that it seemed
+like an immense carpet of shimmering silk; the sun was shining on the
+crests of the little ripples caused by a light breeze, and it seemed as
+if they were tipped with amethyst. The sea was full of reflections and
+luminous bands of light, and in the distance were streaks of silver,
+with here and there great white sails, like the trailing wings of
+gigantic fallen angels. I have never seen such brilliancy of color,
+such splendor of light, such freshness, such transparency, such limpid
+water and sky. It seemed like a daybreak of creation, which the fancy
+of poets had pictured so pure and effulgent that our dawns are only
+pale reflections in comparison. It was more than Nature's awakening and
+the recurring stir of life: it was a hallelujah, a triumph, a new birth
+of creation, growing into the infinite by a second inspiration of God.
+
+I went below deck to get my spyglass, and when I returned Cadiz was in
+sight.
+
+The first impression which it made upon me was a feeling of doubt
+whether it was a city or not. I first laughed, then turned toward my
+fellow-traveller with the air of one seeking to be assured that he is
+not deceived. Cadiz is like an island of chalk. It is a great white
+spot in the midst of the sea, without a cloud, without a black line,
+without a shadow--a white spot as clear and pure as a hilltop covered
+with untrodden snow, standing out against a sky of beryl and turquoise
+in the midst of a vast flooded plain. A long, narrow neck of land
+unites it to the continent; on all other sides it is surrounded by the
+sea, like a boat just ready to sail bound to the shore only by a cable.
+As we approached, the forms of the campaniles, the outlines of the
+houses, and the openings of the streets became clear, and everything
+seemed whiter, and, however much I looked through my spyglass, I could
+not have discovered the smallest spot in that whiteness, either on a
+building near the harbor or in the farthest suburbs. We entered the
+port, where there were but a few ships and those a great way apart. I
+stepped into a boat without even taking my valise with me, for I was
+obliged to leave for Malaga that same evening, and so eager was I to
+see the city that when the boat came to the bank, I jumped too soon
+and fell to the ground like a corpse, although, alas! I still felt the
+pains of a living body.
+
+[Illustration: _Cadiz_]
+
+Cadiz is the whitest city in the world; and it is of no use to
+contradict me by saying that I have not seen every other city, for
+my common sense tells me that a city whiter than this, which is
+superlatively and perfectly white, cannot exist. Cordova and Seville
+cannot be compared with Cadiz: they are as white as a sheet, but Cadiz
+is as white as milk. To give an idea of it, one could not do better
+than to write the word "white" a thousand times with a white pencil
+on blue paper, and make a note on the margin: "Impressions of Cadiz."
+Cadiz is one of the most extravagant and graceful of human caprices:
+not only the outer walls of the houses are white, but the stairs are
+white, the courts are white, the shop-walls are white, the stones are
+white, the pilasters are white, the most secret and darkest corners
+of the poorest houses and the loneliest streets are white; everything
+is white from roof to cellar wherever the tip of a brush can enter,
+even to the holes, cracks, and birds' nests. In every house there is
+a pile of chalk and lime, and every time the eagle eye of the inmates
+spies the least spot the brush is seized and the spot covered. Servants
+are not taken into families unless they know how to whitewash. A
+pencil-scratch on a wall is a scandalous thing, an outrage upon the
+public peace, an act of vandalism: you might walk through the entire
+city, look behind all the doors, and poke your nose into the very
+holes, and you would find white, only and always and eternally.
+
+But, for all this, Cadiz does not in the least resemble the other
+Andalusian cities. Its streets are long and straight, and the houses
+are high, and lack the _patios_ of Cordova and Seville. But, although
+the appearance is different, the city does not appear less interesting
+and pleasant to the eye of the stranger. The streets are straight, but
+narrow, and, moreover, they are very long, and many of them cross the
+entire city, and so one can see at the end, as through the crack in a
+door, a slender strip of sky, which makes it seem as if the city was
+built on the summit of a mountain cut on all sides in regular channels:
+moreover, the houses have a great many windows, and, as at Burgos,
+every window is provided with a sort of glass balcony which rises in
+tiers from story to story, so that in many streets the houses are
+completely covered with glass, and one sees scarcely any traces of the
+walls. It seems like walking through a passage in an immense museum.
+Here and there, between one house and the next, rise the graceful
+fronds of a palm; in every square there is a luxuriant mass of verdure,
+and at all the windows bunches of grass and bouquets of flowers.
+
+Really, I had been far from imagining that Cadiz could be so gay
+and smiling--that terrible, ill-fated Cadiz, burned by the English
+in the sixteenth century, bombarded at the end of the eighteenth,
+devastated by the pestilence, hostess of the fleets of Trafalgar, the
+seat of the revolutionary council during the War of Independence, the
+theatre of the horrible butchery of the Revolution of 1820, the target
+of the French bombs in 1823, the standard-bearer of the Revolution
+which hurled the Bourbons from the throne,--Cadiz always restless
+and turbulent and first of all to raise the battle-cry. But of such
+calamities and such struggles there remain only some cannon-balls
+half buried in the walls, for over all the traces of destruction has
+passed the inexorable brush, covering every dishonor with a white veil.
+And as it is with the latest wars, so too there remains not a trace
+of the Phœnicians who founded the city, nor of the Carthaginians and
+Romans who enlarged and beautified it, unless one wishes to consider
+as a trace the tradition which says, "Here rose a temple to Hercules,"
+"There rose a temple to Saturn." But time has done a worse thing than
+to deprive Cadiz of her ancient monuments: it has stolen away her
+commerce and her riches since Spain lost her possessions in America,
+and now Cadiz lies there inert on her solitary rock, waiting in vain
+for the thousand ships which once came with flags and festoons to offer
+her the tribute of the New World.
+
+I had a letter of introduction to the Italian consul, and after
+receiving it he courteously took me to the top of a tower from which I
+was able to get a bird's-eye view of the city. It was a novel sight and
+a very lively surprise: seen from above, Cadiz is white, entirely and
+perfectly white, just as it appears from the sea; there is not a roof
+in all the city; every house is covered on top by a terrace surrounded
+by a low whitewashed wall; on almost every terrace rises a little white
+tower, which is surmounted, in its turn, by another smaller terrace
+or by a little cupola or sort of sentry-box: everything is white; all
+these little cupolas, these pinnacles, and these towers, which give
+the city a very odd and uneven appearance, gleam and stand out white
+against the vivid blue of the sea. One's view extends over the entire
+length of the isthmus which connects Cadiz to the main land, embraces
+a far-off strip of distant coast whitened by the cities of Puerto Real
+and Puerto Santa Maria, dotted with villages, churches, and villas, and
+includes also the port and the clear and a very beautiful sky which
+vies with the sea in transparency and light. I could not look enough
+at that strange city. On closing my eyes it appeared as if covered
+by an immense sheet. Every house seemed to have been built for an
+astronomical observatory. The entire population, in case the sea should
+inundate the city, as in ancient times, might gather on the terraces
+and remain there in perfect ease, saving the fright.
+
+I was told that a few years ago, on the occasion of some eclipse
+of the sun, this very spectacle was witnessed: the seventy thousand
+inhabitants of Cadiz all ascended to the terraces to watch the
+phenomenon. The city changed its perfect whiteness for a thousand
+colors; every terrace was thick with heads; one saw at a single glance,
+quarter after quarter, and finally the entire population: a low murmur
+rose to heaven like the roar of the sea, and a great movement of arms,
+fans, and spy-glasses, pointing upward, made it seem as if the people
+were awaiting the descent of some angel from the solar sphere. At a
+certain moment there was a profound silence: when the phenomenon was
+over the entire population gave a shout, which sounded like a clap of
+thunder, and a few moments later the city was white again.
+
+I descended from the tower and went to see the cathedral, a vast
+marble edifice of the sixteenth century, not to be compared to the
+cathedrals of Burgos and Toledo, but nevertheless dignified and bold in
+architecture and enriched by every sort of treasure, like all the other
+Spanish churches. I went to see the convent where Murillo was painting
+a picture over a high altar when he fell from the scaffold and received
+the wound which caused his death. I passed through the picture-gallery,
+which contains some fine paintings of Zurbaran; entered the bull-ring,
+built entirely of wood, which was created in a few days to provide
+a spectacle for Queen Isabella. Toward evening I took a turn in the
+delightful promenade along the sea-shore, in the midst of orange trees
+and palms, where the most beautiful and elegant ladies of the city
+were pointed out to me, one by one. Whatever may be the judgment of
+the Spaniards, to me the feminine type of Cadiz did not seem at all
+inferior to the celebrated type of Seville. The women are a little
+taller, a little heavier, and are somewhat darker. Some observer has
+ventured to say that they closely resemble the Grecian type, but I do
+not know in what respect. I saw no difference from the Andalusian type
+except in stature, and that was enough to make me heave sighs which
+might have propelled a ship, and constrained me to return as soon as
+possible to the vessel as a place of refuge and peace.
+
+When I arrived on board it was night; the sky was all twinkling with
+stars, and the breeze bore faintly to my ears the music of a band
+playing on the promenade of Cadiz. The singers were asleep; I was
+alone, and the sight of the city lights and the recollection of the
+lovely faces filled me with melancholy. I did not know what to do
+with myself, so I went down to the cabin, took out my note-book, and
+commenced the description of Cadiz. But I only succeeded in writing ten
+times the words, "White, blue, snow, brightness, colors," after which I
+made a little sketch of a woman and then closed my eyes and dreamed of
+Italy.
+
+
+
+
+MALAGA.
+
+
+The next day, at sunset, the vessel was passing through the Straits of
+Gibraltar.
+
+Now, as I look at that point on the map, it seems so near home that
+when I am in the humor and my domestic finances permit I ought not to
+hesitate a moment to pack my valise and run down to Genoa on my way
+to enjoy a second time the most beautiful sight of two continents.
+But then it seemed to be so far away that when I had written a letter
+to my mother on the rail of the ship, intending to give it to one of
+the passengers for Gibraltar to post, as I was writing the address I
+laughed at my confidence, as if it were impossible for a letter to
+travel all the way to Turin. "From here!" I thought--"from the Pillars
+of Hercules!" and I pronounced the Pillars of Hercules as if I had said
+the Cape of Good Hope or Japan.
+
+"... I am on the ship Guadaira: behind me is the ocean, and in front
+the Mediterranean, on the left Europe and on the right Africa. On this
+side I see the cape of Tarifa, and on that the mountains of the African
+coast, which look indistinct like a gray cloud; I see Ceuta, and a
+little beyond it Tangiers like a white spot, and in a direct line with
+the ship rises the Rock of Gibraltar. The sea is as placid as a lake,
+and the sky is red and gold; all is serene, beautiful, and magnificent,
+and I feel in my mind an inexpressible and delightful stirring of great
+thoughts, which, if I could put them into words, would become a joyful
+prayer beginning and ending with thy name...."
+
+The vessel stopped in the Gulf of Algeciras: the entire company of
+singers got into a large boat from Gibraltar, and went off, waving fans
+and handkerchiefs as a parting salute. It was growing dark when the
+boat started again. Then I was able to measure the enormous mass of the
+Rock of Gibraltar at every turn. At first I thought we should leave
+it behind in a few moments, but the moments became hours. Gradually,
+as we approached, it towered above us, and presented a new appearance
+every instant--now the silhouette of some measureless monster, now the
+image of an immense staircase, now the outline of a fantastic castle,
+now a shapeless mass like a monstrous aërolite fallen from a world
+shivered in a battle of the spheres. Then, on nearer view, behind a
+high rock like an Egyptian pyramid, there came into sight a great
+projection as large as a mountain, with fissures and broken boulders
+and vast curves which lost themselves in the plain. It was night; the
+rock stood outlined against the moonlit sky as clear and sharp as a
+sheet of black paper on a pane of glass. One saw the lighted windows
+of the English barracks, the sentry-boxes on the summit of the dizzy
+crags, and a dim outline of trees which seemed little larger than a
+tuft of grass among the nearest rocks. For a long time the boat seemed
+motionless or else the rock was receding, so close and threatening did
+it always appear; then, little by little, it began to diminish, but our
+eyes were weary of gazing before the rock grew weary of threatening us
+with its fantastic transformations. At midnight I gave a final salute
+to that formidable, lifeless sentinel of Europe, and went to wrap
+myself up in my little corner.
+
+At break of day I awoke a few miles from the port of Malaga.
+
+The city of Malaga, seen from the port, presents a pleasing appearance
+not wholly without grandeur. On the right is a high rocky mountain,
+upon the top of which and down one side, even to the plain, are the
+enormous blackened ruins of the castle of Gibralfaro, and on the
+lower slopes stands the cathedral towering majestically above all the
+surrounding buildings, lifting toward heaven, as an inspired poet might
+say, two beautiful towers and a very high belfry. Between the castle
+and the church and on the face and sides of the mountain there is a
+mass--a _canaille_, as Victor Hugo would say--of smoky little houses,
+placed confusedly one above the other, as if they had been thrown down
+from above like stones. To the left of the cathedral, along the shore,
+is a row of houses, gray, violet, or pale yellow in color, with white
+window-and door-frames, that suggest the villages along the Ligurian
+Riviera. Beyond rises a circle of green and reddish hills enclosing the
+city like the walls of an amphitheatre, and to the right and left along
+the sea-shore extend other mountains, hills, and rocks as far as the
+eye can see. The port was almost deserted, the shore silent, and the
+sky very blue.
+
+Before landing I took my leave of the captain, who was going on to
+Marseilles, said good-bye to the boatswain and passengers, telling them
+all that I should arrive at Valencia a day ahead of the boat, and I
+should certainly join them again and go on to Barcelona and Marseilles,
+and the captain replied, "We shall look for you," and the steward
+promised that my place should be saved for me. How often since then
+have I remembered the last words of those poor people!
+
+[Illustration: _Malaga_]
+
+I stopped at Malaga with the intention of leaving that same evening
+for Granada. The city itself offers nothing worthy of note, excepting
+the new part, which occupies a tract of land formerly covered by
+the sea. This is built up in the modern style, with wide, straight
+streets and large, bare houses. The rest of the city is a labyrinth
+of narrow, winding streets and a mass of houses without color,
+without _patios_, and without grace. There are some spacious squares
+with gardens and fountains; columns and arches of Moorish buildings, no
+modern monuments; a great deal of dirt, and not a great many people.
+The environs are very beautiful, and the climate is milder than that of
+Seville.
+
+I had a friend at Malaga, and after finding him we passed the day
+together. He told me a curious fact: At Malaga there is a literary
+academy of more than eight hundred members, where they celebrate the
+birthdays of all the great writers, and hold twice a week a public
+lecture on some subject connected with literature or science. That same
+evening they were to celebrate a solemn function. Some months earlier
+the academy had offered a prize of three golden flowers, enamelled
+in different colors, to the three poets who should compose the best
+ode on "Progress," the best ballad on the "Recovery of Malaga," and
+the best satire on one of the most prevalent vices of modern society.
+The invitation had been extended to all the poets of Spain; poems had
+poured in in abundance; a board of judges had secretly considered them;
+and that very evening the choice was to be announced. The ceremony was
+to be conducted with great pomp. The bishop, the governor, the admiral,
+the most conspicuous personages of the city, with dress-coats, orders,
+and shoulder-scarfs, and a great number of ladies in evening dress,
+were to be present. The three most beautiful Muses of the city were
+to present themselves on a sort of stage adorned with garlands and
+flags, each of whom was to open the roll containing the prize poem
+and to proclaim three times the name of its author: if the author
+were present, he was to be invited to read his verses and receive his
+flower; if he were not present, his verses were to be read for him.
+Throughout the whole city they talked of nothing but the academy,
+guessed the names of the victors, predicted the wonders of the three
+poems, and extolled the decorations of the hall. This festival of
+poetry, called the _juegos floreales_, had not been celebrated for ten
+years. Others may judge whether such contests and displays benefit or
+injure poets and poetry. As for me, whatever may be the dubious and
+fleeting literary glory which is bestowed by the sentence of the jury
+and the homage of a bishop and a governor, I believe that to receive
+the gift of a golden flower from the hand of a most beautiful woman
+under the eyes of five hundred fair Andalusians, to the sound of soft
+music and amid the perfume of jessamine and roses, that would be a
+delight even truer and more lively than any which comes from real and
+enduring glory. No? Ah! we are sincere.
+
+One of my first thoughts was to taste a little of the genuine Malaga
+wine, for no other reason than to repay myself for the many headaches
+and stomachaches caused by the miserable concoctions sold in many
+Italian cities under the false recommendation of its name. But either
+I did not know how to ask or they did not wish to understand: the
+fact remains that the wine they gave me at the hotel burned my throat
+and made my head spin. I was not able to walk straight even to the
+cathedral, or from the cathedral to the castle of Gibralfaro, or to
+the other places, nor could I form an idea of the beauties of Malaga
+without seeing them double and unsteadily, as some spiteful person
+might suppose.
+
+On our walk my friend talked to me about the famous Republican people
+of Malaga, who are every moment doing something on their own account.
+They are a very fiery people, but fickle and yet tractable, like all
+people who feel much and think little; and they act upon the impulse
+of passion rather than the strength of conviction. The least trifle
+calls together an immense crowd and stirs up a tumult that turns
+the city topsy-turvy; but on most occasions a resolute act of a man
+in authority, an exhibition of courage, or a burst of eloquence is
+sufficient to quiet the tumult and disperse the crowd. The nature of
+the people is good on the whole, but superstition and passion have
+perverted them. And, above all, superstition is perhaps more firmly
+entrenched in Malaga than in any other city of Andalusia, by reason
+of the greater popular ignorance. Altogether, Malaga was the least
+Andalusian of the cities I had seen: even the very language has been
+corrupted, and they speak worse Spanish than at Cadiz, where, forsooth!
+they speak badly enough.
+
+I was still at Malaga, but my imagination was far away among the
+streets of Granada and in the gardens of the Alhambra and the
+Generalife. Shortly after the noon hour I took my leave from the only
+city in Spain, to tell the truth, that I left without a sigh of regret.
+When the train started, instead of turning for a last look, as I had
+done in all of its sister towns, I murmured the verses sung by Giovanni
+Prati at Granada when the duke d'Aosta was leaving for Spain:
+
+    "Non più Granata è sola
+      Sulle sur mute pietre;
+    L'inno in Alhambra vola
+      Sulle Moresche cetre."
+
+(_No more does Granada stand alone on her silent stones: the hymn flies
+to the Alhambra on Moorish lyres._)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now, as I write them again, it seems to me that the music of the
+band of the National Guard of Turin inspires peace and gladness more
+even surely than Moorish lyres, and that the pavement of the porticoes
+of the Po, although it be ever so silent, is better laid and smoother
+than the stones of Granada.
+
+
+
+
+GRANADA.
+
+
+GRANADA.
+
+
+The journey from Malaga to Granada was the most adventurous and
+unfortunate that I made in Spain.
+
+In order that my compassionate readers may pity me as much as I
+desire, they must know (I am ashamed to occupy people with these
+little details) that at Malaga I had eaten only the lightest sort of
+an Andalusian repast, of which at the moment of departure I retained
+a very vague recollection. But I started, feeling sure that I could
+alight at some railway-station where there would be one of those rooms
+or public choking-places where one enters at a gallop, eats until one
+is out of breath, pays as one scampers out to rush into a crowded
+carriage, suffocated and robbed, to curse the schedule, travel, and the
+minister of public works who deceives the country. I departed, and for
+the first hours it was delightful. The country was all gently sloping
+hills and green fields, dotted with villages crowned with palms and
+cypresses, and in the carriage, between two old men who rode with their
+eyes shut, there was a little Andalusian who kept looking around with
+a roguish smile which seemed to say, "Go on; your lovelorn glances
+do not offend me." But the train crept along as slowly as a worn-out
+diligence, and we stopped only a few moments at the stations. By sunset
+my stomach began to cry for help, and, to render the pangs of hunger
+even more severe, I was obliged to make a good part of the journey on
+foot. The train stopped at an unsafe bridge, and all the passengers got
+out and filed around, two by two, to meet the train on the other side
+of the river. We were surrounded by the rocks of the Sierra Nevada,
+in a wild, desert place, which made it seem as if we were a company
+of hostages led by a band of brigands. When we had clambered into the
+carriage the train crawled along no faster than before, and my stomach
+began to complain more desperately than at first. After a long time we
+arrived at a station all crowded with trains, where a large part of the
+travellers hurried out before I could reach the step.
+
+"Where are you going?" asked a railroad official, who had seen me
+alight.
+
+"To dine," I replied.
+
+"But aren't you going to Granada?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then you won't have time; the train starts immediately."
+
+"But the others have gone."
+
+"You will see them come back on the run in a minute."
+
+The freight-trains in front prevented me from seeing the station; I
+thought it was a great way off, and so stayed where I was. Two minutes
+passed, five, eight; the tourists did not return and the train did not
+start. I jumped out, ran to the station, saw a café, and entered a
+large room. Great heavens! Fifty starving people were standing around
+a refreshment-table with their noses in their plates, elbows in the
+air, and their eyes on the clock, devouring and shouting; another fifty
+were crowding around a counter seizing and pocketing bread, fruit, and
+candies, while the proprietor and the waiters, panting like horses
+and streaming with sweat, ran about, tucked up their sleeves, howled,
+tumbled over the seats and upset the customers, and scattered here and
+there streams of soup and drops of sauce; and one poor woman, who must
+have been the mistress of the café, imprisoned in a little niche behind
+the besieged counter, ran her hands through her hair in desperation. At
+this sight my arms hung down helplessly. But suddenly I roused myself
+and made an onslaught. Driven back by a feminine elbow in my chest, I
+rushed in again; repulsed by a jab in the stomach, I gathered all my
+strength to make a third attack. At this point the bell rang. There was
+a burst of imprecations and then a falling of seats, a scattering of
+plates, a hurry-scurry, and a perfect pandemonium. One man, choking
+in the fury of his last mouthfuls, became livid and his eyes seemed
+bursting from his head as though he were being hanged; another in
+stretching out his hand to seize an orange, struck by some one rushing
+past, plunged it into a bowl of cream; another was running through the
+room in search of his valise with a great smear of sauce on his cheeks;
+another, who had tried to drink his wine at one gulp, had strangled
+and coughed as if he would tear open his stomach; the officials at the
+door cried, "Hurry!" and the travellers called back from the room,
+"Ahogate!" (choked), and the waiters ran after those who had not paid,
+and those who wanted to pay could not find the waiters; and the ladies
+swooned, and the children cried, and everything was upside down.
+
+By good fortune I was able to get into my carriage before the train
+started.
+
+But there a new punishment awaited me. The two old men and the little
+Andalusian, who must have been the daughter of the one and niece of
+the other, had been successful in securing a little booty in the midst
+of that accursed crowd at the counter, and they were eating right and
+left. I began to watch them with sorrowful eyes like a dog beside his
+master's table, counting the mouthfuls and the number of times they
+chewed. The little Andalusian noticed it, and, pointing to something
+which looked like a croquet, made a gracious bow as if to ask if I
+would take it.
+
+"Oh no, thank you," I replied with the smile of a dying man; "I have
+eaten."
+
+My angel, I continued to myself, if you only knew that at this moment
+I would prefer those two croquets to the bitter apples--as Sir Niccolo
+Machiavelli would generously say--even those bitter apples from the
+famous garden of the Hesperides!
+
+"Try a drop of liquor at least," said the old uncle.
+
+I do not know what childish pique against myself or against those good
+people took possession of me, but it was a feeling which other men
+experience on similar occasions; however, I replied this time too, "No,
+thank you; it would be bad for me."
+
+The good old man looked me over from head to foot as if to say that I
+did not appear like a man to be the worse for a drop of liquor, and the
+Andalusian smiled, and I blushed for shame.
+
+Night settled down, and the train went on at the pace of Sancho Panza's
+steed for I knew not how many hours. That night I felt for the first
+time in my life the pangs of hunger, which I thought I had felt already
+on the famous day of the twenty-fourth of June, 1866. To relieve these
+torments I obstinately thought of all the dishes which filled me with
+repugnance--raw tomatoes, snails in soup, roasted crabs, and snails
+in salad. Alas! a voice of derision told me, deep down in my vitals,
+that if I had any of them I should eat them and lick my fingers. Then I
+began to make imaginary messes of different dishes, as cream and fish,
+with a dash of wine, with a coat of pepper, and a layer of juniper
+preserves, to see if I could thus hold my stomach in check. Oh misery!
+my cowardly stomach did not repel even those. Then I made a final
+effort and imagined that I was at table in a Parisian hotel at the time
+of the siege, and that I gently lifted a mouse by the tail out of some
+pungent sauce, and the mouse, unexpectedly regaining life, bit my thumb
+and transfixed me with two wicked little eyes, and I, with raised fork,
+hesitated whether to let it go or to spit it without pity. But, thank
+Heaven! before I had settled this horrible question, to perform such an
+act as has never been recorded in the history of any siege, the train
+stopped and a ray of hope revived my drooping spirits.
+
+We had reached some nameless village, and while I was putting my head
+out of the window a voice cried, "All out for Granada!" I rushed
+headlong from the carriage and found myself face to face with a huge
+bearded fellow, who took my valise, telling me that he was going to put
+it in the diligence, for from that village to I know not how many miles
+from _imperial Granada_ there is no railway.
+
+"One moment!" I cried to the unknown man in a supplicating voice: "how
+long before you start?"
+
+"Two minutes," he replied.
+
+"Is there an inn here?"
+
+"There it is." I flew to the inn, bolted a hard-boiled egg, and rushed
+back to the diligence, crying, "How much time now?"
+
+"Two minutes more," answered the same voice.
+
+I flew back to the hotel, seized another egg, and ran again to the
+diligence with the question, "Are you off?"
+
+"In a minute."
+
+Back again to the inn, and a third egg, and then to the diligence: "Are
+we going?"
+
+"In half a minute."
+
+This time I heaved a mighty sigh, ran to the inn, swallowed a fourth
+egg and a glass of wine, and rushed toward the diligence. But before
+I had taken ten steps my breath gave out, and I stopped with the egg
+halfway down my throat. At this point the whip cracked.--"Wait!" I
+cried in a hoarse voice, waving my hands like a drowning man.
+
+"_Que hay?_" (What's the matter?) demanded the driver.
+
+I could not reply.
+
+"He has an egg stuck in his throat," some stranger answered for me.
+
+All the travellers burst into a laugh, the egg went down; I laughed
+too, overtook the diligence, which had already started, and, regaining
+my breath, gave my companions an account of my troubles, and they were
+much interested, and pitied me even more than I had dared to hope after
+that cruel laugh at my suffocation.
+
+But my troubles were not ended. One of those irresistible attacks
+of sleepiness which used to come upon me treacherously in the long
+night-marches among the soldiers seized me all at once, and tormented
+me as far as the railway-station without my being able to get a moment
+of sleep. I believe that a cannon-ball suspended by a cord from the
+roof of the diligence would have given less annoyance to my unfortunate
+companions than my poor nodding head gave as it bobbed on all sides as
+if it was attached to my neck by a single tendon. On one side of me sat
+a nun, on the other a boy, and opposite a peasant-woman, and throughout
+the entire journey I did nothing but strike my head against these three
+victims with the monotonous motion of a bell-clapper. The nun, poor
+creature! endured the strokes in silence, perhaps in expiation for her
+sins of thought; but the boy and peasant-woman muttered from time to
+time, "He is a barbarian!"--"This must stop!"--"His head is like lead!"
+Finally, a witticism from one of the passengers released all four of us
+from this suffering. The peasant-woman was lamenting a little louder
+than usual, and a voice from the end of the diligence exclaimed, "Be
+consoled; if your head is not yet broken, you may be sure it will
+not be, for it must certainly be proof against the hammer." They
+all laughed; I awakened, excused myself, and the three victims were
+so happy to find themselves released from that cruel thumping that,
+instead of taking revenge with bitter words, they said, "Poor fellow!
+you have slept badly. How you must have hurt your head!"
+
+We finally arrived at the railway, and behold what a perverse fate!
+Although I was alone in the railway-carriage, where I might have slept
+like a nabob, I could not close my eyes. A pang went through my heart
+at the thought of having made the journey by night when I could not see
+anything nor enjoy the distant view of Granada. And I remembered the
+lovely verses of Martinez de la Rosa:
+
+"O my dear fatherland! At last I see thee again! I see thy fair soil,
+thy joyful teeming fields, thy glorious sun, thy serene sky!
+
+"Yes! I see the fabled Granada stretching along the plain from hill to
+hill, her towers rising among her gardens of eternal green, the crystal
+streams kissing her walls, the noble mountains enclosing her valleys,
+and the Sierra Nevada crowning the distant horizon.
+
+"Oh, thy memory haunted me wherever I went, Granada! It destroyed my
+pleasures, my peace, and my glory, and oppressed my heart and soul! By
+the icy banks of the Seine and the Thames I remembered with a sigh the
+happy waters of the Darro and the Genil, and many times, as I carolled
+a gay ballad, my bitter grief overcame me, and weeping, not to be
+repressed, choked my voice.
+
+"In vain the delightful Arno displayed her flower-strewn banks, sweet
+seats of love and peace! 'The plain watered by the gentle Genil,' said
+I, 'is more flowery, the life of the lovely Granada is more dear.' And
+I murmured these words as one disconsolate, and, remembering the house
+of my fathers, I raised my sad eyes to heaven.
+
+"What is thy magic, what thy unspeakable spell, O fatherland! O sweet
+name! that thou art so dear? The swarthy African, far from his native
+desert, looks with sad disdain on fields of green; the rude Laplander,
+stolen from his mother-earth, sighs for perpetual night and snow; and
+I--I, to whom a kindly fate granted birth and nurture in thy bosom
+blest by so many gifts of God--though far from thee, could I forget
+thee, Granada?"
+
+When I reached Granada it was quite dark, and I could not see so much
+as the outlines of a house. A diligence drawn by two horses,
+
+    "... anzi due cavallette
+        Di quella de Mosé lá dell' Egitto,"
+
+landed me at a hotel, where I was kept waiting an hour while my bed was
+being made, and finally, just before three o'clock in the morning, I
+was at last able to lay my head on the pillow. But my troubles were not
+over: just as I was falling into a doze I heard an indistinct murmur in
+the next room, and then a masculine voice which said distinctly, "Oh,
+what a little foot!" You who have bowels of compassion, pity me. The
+pillow was torn a little; I pulled out two tufts of wool, stuffed them
+in my ears; and, rehearsing in thought the misfortunes of my journey, I
+slept the sleep of the just.
+
+In the morning I went out betimes and walked about through the streets
+of Granada until it was a decent hour to go and drag from his home
+a young gentleman of Granada whom I had met at Madrid at the house
+of Fernandez Guerra, Gongora by name, the son of a distinguished
+archeologist and a descendant of the famous Cordovan poet Luigi
+Gongora, of whom I spoke in passing. That part of the city which I
+saw in those few hours did not fulfil my expectation. I had expected
+to find narrow mysterious streets and white cottages like those of
+Cordova and Seville, but I found instead spacious squares and some
+handsome straight streets, and others tortuous and narrow enough, it is
+true, but flanked by high houses, for the most part painted in false
+bas-reliefs with cupids and garlands and flourishes and draperies, and
+hangings of a thousand colors, without the Oriental appearance of the
+other Andalusian cities.
+
+The lowest part of Granada is almost all laid out with the regularity
+of a modern city. As I passed along those streets I was filled with
+contempt, and should certainly have carried a gloomy face to Señor
+Gongora if by chance as I walked at random I had not come out into
+the famous _Alameda_, which enjoys the reputation of being the most
+beautiful promenade in the world, and it repaid me a thousand times for
+the detestable regularity of the streets which lead to it.
+
+Imagine a long avenue of unusual width, along which fifty carriages
+might pass abreast, flanked by other smaller avenues, along which run
+rows of measureless trees, which at a noble height form an immense
+green arch, so dense that not a sunbeam can penetrate it, and at the
+two ends of the central avenue two monumental fountains throwing up
+the water in two great streams which fall again in the finest vaporous
+spray, and between the many avenues crystal streams, and in the middle
+a garden all roses and myrtle and jessamine and delicate fountains; and
+on one side the river Genil, which flows between banks covered with
+laurel-groves, and in the distance the snowclad mountains, upon whose
+sides distant palms raise their fantastic fronds; and everywhere a
+brilliant green, dense and luxuriant, through which one sees here and
+there an enchanting strip of azure sky.
+
+As I turned off of the Alameda I met a great number of peasants
+going out of the city, two by two and in groups, with their wives and
+children, singing and jesting. Their dress did not seem to me different
+from that of the peasants in the neighborhood of Cordova and Seville.
+They wore velvet hats, some with very broad brims, others with high
+brims curved back; a little jacket made with bands of many-colored
+cloth; a scarf of red or blue; closely-fitting trousers buttoned along
+the hip; and a pair of leathern gaiters open at the side, so as to show
+the leg. The women were dressed like those in the other provinces, and
+even in their faces there was no noticeable difference.
+
+I reached my friend's house and found him buried in his archæological
+studies, sitting in front of a heap of old medals and historic stones.
+He received me with delight, with a charming Andalusian courtesy, and,
+after exchanging the first greetings, we both pronounced with one voice
+that magic word that in every part of the world stirs a tumult of great
+recollections in every heart and arouses a sense of secret longing;
+that gives a final spur toward Spain to one who has the desire to
+travel thither and has not yet finally resolved to start; that name at
+which hearts of poets and painters beat faster and the eyes of women
+flash--"The Alhambra!"
+
+We rushed out of the house.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Alhambra is situated upon a high hill which overlooks the city,
+and from a distance presents the appearance of a fortress, like almost
+all Oriental palaces. But when, with Gongora, I climbed the street of
+_Los Gomeles_ on our way toward the famous edifice, I had not yet seen
+the least trace of a distant wall, and I did not know in what part of
+the city we should find it. The street of _Los Gomeles_ slopes upward
+and describes a slight curve, so that for a good way one sees only
+houses ahead, and supposes the Alhambra to be far away. Gongora did not
+speak, but I read in his face that in his heart he was greatly enjoying
+the thought of the surprise and delight that I should experience. He
+looked at the ground with a smile, answering all my questions with a
+sign which seemed to say, "Wait a minute!" and now and then raised
+his eyes almost furtively to measure the remaining distance. And I so
+enjoyed his pleasure that I could have thrown my arms around his neck
+in gratitude.
+
+We arrived before a great gate that closed the street. "Here we are!"
+said Gongora. I entered.
+
+I found myself in a great grove of enormously high trees, leaning one
+toward another, on this side and on that, along a great avenue which
+climbs the hill and is lost in the shade: so close are the trees that
+a man could scarcely pass among them, and wherever one looks one sees
+only their trunks, which close the way like a continuous wall. The
+branches meet above the avenues; not a sunbeam penetrates the wood; the
+shade is very dense; on every side glide murmuring streams, and the
+birds sing, and one feels a vernal freshness in the air.
+
+"We are now in the Alhambra," said Gongora: "turn around, and you will
+see the towers and the embattled barrier-wall."
+
+"But where is the palace?" I demanded.
+
+"That is a mystery," he answered; "let us go forward at random."
+
+We climbed an avenue running along beside the great central avenue that
+winds up toward the summit. The trees form overhead a green pavilion
+through which not a particle of sky is visible, and the grass, the
+shrubbery, and the flowers make on either side a lovely border, bright
+and fragrant, sloping slightly toward each other, as if they are trying
+to unite, mutually attracted by the beauty of their colors and the
+fragrance of their perfume.
+
+"Let us rest a moment," I said: "I want to take a great breath of this
+air; it seems to contain some secret germs that if infused into the
+blood must prolong one's life; it is air redolent of youth and health."
+
+"Behold the door!" exclaimed Gongora.
+
+I turned as if I had been struck in the back, and saw a few steps ahead
+a great square tower, of a deep-red color, crowned with battlements,
+with an arched door, above which one sees a key and a hand cut in the
+stone.
+
+I questioned my guide, and he told me that this was the principal
+entrance of the Alhambra, and that it was called the Gate of Justice,
+because the Moorish kings used to pronounce sentence beneath that arch.
+The key signifies that this door is the key to the fortress, and the
+hand symbolizes the five cardinal virtues of Islam--Prayer, Fasting,
+Beneficence, Holy War, and the Pilgrimage to Mecca. The Arabian
+inscription attests that the edifice was erected four centuries ago
+by the Sultan Abul Hagag Yusuf, and another inscription, which one
+sees everywhere on the columns, says, "There is no God but Allah, and
+Mohammed is his Prophet! and there is no power, no strength, apart from
+Allah!"
+
+We passed under the arch and continued the ascent along an enclosed
+street until we found ourselves at the top of the hill, in the middle
+of an esplanade surrounded by a parapet and dotted with shrubs and
+flowers. I turned at once toward the valley to enjoy the view,
+but Gongora seized me by the arm and made me look in the opposite
+direction. I was standing in front of the great palace of the
+Renaissance, partly in ruins and flanked by some wretched little houses.
+
+"Is this a joke?" I demanded. "Have you brought me here to see a
+Moorish castle, for me to find the way closed by a modern palace?
+Whose abominable idea was it to run up this building in the gardens of
+the caliphs?"
+
+"Charles V.'s."
+
+"He was a vandal. I have not yet forgiven him for the Gothic church he
+planted in the middle of the mosque of Cordova, and now these barracks
+fill me with utter loathing of his crown and his glory. But, in the
+name of Heaven, where is the Alhambra?"
+
+"There it is."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Among those huts."
+
+"Oh, fudge!"
+
+"I pledge you my word of honor."
+
+I folded my arms and looked at him, and he laughed."
+
+"Well, then," I exclaimed, "this great name of the Alhambra is only
+another of those usual false exaggerations of the poets. I, Europe, and
+the world have been shamefully deceived. Was it worth while to dream of
+the Alhambra for three hundred and sixty-five nights in succession, and
+then to come to see a group of ruins with some broken columns and smoky
+inscriptions?"
+
+"How I enjoy this!" answered Gongora with a peal of laughter. "Cheer up
+now; come and be persuaded that the world has not been deceived: let us
+enter this rubbish-pile."
+
+We entered by a little door, crossed a corridor, and found ourselves
+in a court. With a sudden cry I seized Gongora's hand, and he asked
+with a tone of triumph,
+
+"Are you persuaded?"
+
+I did not answer, I did not see him: I was already far away; the
+Alhambra had already begun to exercise upon me that mysterious and
+powerful fascination which no one can avoid nor any one express.
+
+We were in the _Patio de los Arrayanes_, the Court of the Myrtles,
+which is the largest in the edifice, and presents at once the
+appearance of a room, a courtyard, and a garden. A great rectangular
+basin full of water, surrounded by a myrtle hedge, extends from one
+side of the _patio_ to the other, and like a mirror reflects the
+arches, arabesques, and the mural inscriptions.
+
+To the right of the entrance there extend two orders of Moorish
+arches, one above the other, supported by slender columns, and on the
+opposite side of the court rises a tower with a door through which
+one sees the inner rooms in semi-darkness and the mullioned windows,
+and through the windows the blue sky and the summits of the distant
+mountains. The walls are ornamented to a certain height from the
+pavement with brilliant mosaics, and above the mosaics with arabesques
+of very intricate design that seem to tremble and change at every step,
+and here and there among the arabesques and along the arches they
+stretch and creep and intertwine, like garlands, Moorish inscriptions
+containing greetings, proverbs, and legends.
+
+[Illustration: _Court of Myrtles, Alhambra_]
+
+Beside the door of entrance is written in Cufic characters: Eternal
+Happiness!--Blessing!--Prosperity!--Felicity!--Praised be God for the
+blessing of Islam!
+
+In another place it is written: I seek my refuge in the Lord of the
+Morning.
+
+In another place: O God! to thee belong eternal thanksgiving and
+undying praise.
+
+Elsewhere there are verses from the Koran and entire poems in praise of
+the caliphs.
+
+We stood some minutes in silent admiration; not the buzz of a fly was
+heard; now and then Gongora started toward the tower, but I clutched
+him by the arm and felt that he was trembling with impatience.
+
+"But we must make haste," said he, finally, "or else we shall not get
+back to Granada before evening."
+
+"What do I know of Granada?" I answered; "what do I know of morning or
+evening or of myself? I am in the Orient!"
+
+"But this is only the antechamber of the Alhambra, my dear Arabian,"
+said Gongora, urging me forward. "Come, come with me where it will
+really seem like being in the Orient."
+
+And he led me, reluctant though I was, to the very threshold of the
+tower-door. There I turned to look once more at the Court of Myrtles
+and gave a cry of surprise. Between two slender columns of the arched
+gallery which faces the tower, on the opposite side of the courtyard,
+stood a girl, a beautiful dark Andalusian face, with a white mantle
+wound around her head and falling over her shoulder: she stood leaning
+upon the railing in a languid attitude, with her eyes fixed upon us.
+I cannot tell the fantastic effect produced by that figure at that
+moment--the grace imparted by the arch which curved above the girl's
+head and the two columns which formed a frame around her, and the
+beautiful harmony which she gave to the whole court, as if she were
+an ornament necessary to its architecture conceived in the mind of
+the architect at the moment he imagined the whole design. She seemed
+like a sultana awaiting her lord, thinking of another sky and another
+love. She continued looking at us, and my heart began to beat faster. I
+questioned my friend with my eyes, as if to be assured that I was not
+deceived. Suddenly the sultana laughed, dropped her white mantle, and
+disappeared.
+
+"She is a servant," said Gongora.
+
+Still I remained in the mist.
+
+She was, in fact, a servant of the custodian of the Alhambra who was in
+the habit of practising that joke upon strangers.
+
+We entered the tower called the Tower of Comares, or, vulgarly, the
+Tower of the Ambassadors. The interior forms two halls, the first of
+which is called the Hall of the Barca, and takes its name either from
+the fact that it is shaped like a boat or because it was called by the
+Moors the Hall of _Baraka_, or Blessing, a word which might have been
+contracted by the people into _barca_ (a boat.) This hall hardly seems
+the work of human hands: it is all a vast network of tracery in the
+form of garlands, rosettes, boughs of trees, and leaves, covering the
+vaulted ceiling, the arches, and the walls in every part and in every
+way--closely twining, checkered, climbing higher and higher, and yet
+marvellously distinct and combined in such a manner that the parts
+are presented to the eye altogether at a single glance, affording a
+spectacle of dazzling magnificence and enchanting grace. I approached
+one of the walls, fixed my eyes upon the extreme point of an arabesque,
+and tried to follow its windings and turnings: it was impossible; my
+eye was lost, my mind confused, and all the arabesques from pavement
+to ceiling seemed to be moving and blending, as if to conceal the
+thread of their inextricable network. You may make an effort not to
+look around, to centre your whole attention upon a single spot of the
+wall, to scan it closely and follow the thread with your finger: it
+is futile; in a moment the tracery is a tangled skein, a veil steals
+between you and the wall, and your arm falls. The wall seems woven
+like a web, wrought like brocade, netted like lace, and veined like a
+leaf; one cannot look at it closely nor fix its design in one's mind:
+it would be like trying to count the ants in an anthill: one must be
+content to look at the walls with a wandering glance, then to rest and
+look again later, and then to think of something else and talk. After I
+had looked around a little with the air of a man overcome with vertigo
+rather than admiration, I turned toward Gongora, so that he might read
+in my face what I would have spoken.
+
+"Let us enter the other pile of ruins," he answered with a smile as he
+drew me into the great Hall of the Ambassadors, which fills all the
+interior of the tower, for, really, the Hall of the _Barca_ belongs to
+a little building which does not form a part of the tower, although it
+is joined to it. The tower is square in form, spacious, and lighted
+with nine great arched windows in the form of doors, which present
+almost the appearance of so many alcoves, so great is the thickness of
+the wall; each one is divided down the middle toward the outside by a
+little marble column that supports two beautiful arches surmounted in
+their turn by two little arched windows. The walls are covered with
+mosaics and arabesques indescribably delicate and multiform, and with
+innumerable inscriptions extending like wide embroidered ribbons over
+the arches of the windows, up the massive cornices, along the friezes,
+and around the niches where once stood vases full of flowers and
+perfumed water. The ceiling, which rises to a great height, is inlaid
+with cedar-wood, white, gold, and azure, joined together in circles,
+stars, and crowns, and forming many little arches, cells, and vaulted
+windows, through which falls a wavering light, and from the cornice
+which joins the ceiling to the walls hang tablets of stucco-work cut in
+facets chiselled and moulded like stalactites and bunches of flowers.
+The throne stood at the central window on the side opposite the door of
+entrance. From the windows on that side one enjoys a stupendous view
+of the valley of the Darro, deep and silent, as if it too felt the
+fascination of the Alhambra's grandeur; from the windows on the other
+two sides one sees the boundary-wall and the towers of the fortress;
+and through the entrance the light arches of the Court of the Myrtles
+in the distance and the water of the basin, which reflects the blue of
+the sky.
+
+"Well!" Gongora demanded; "was it worth dreaming of the Alhambra for
+three hundred and sixty-five nights?"
+
+"There is a strange thought passing through my brain at this moment," I
+replied. "That court as it looks from here, that hall, those windows,
+those colors, everything that surrounds me, seems familiar; it seems to
+correspond with a picture which I have carried in my head I know not
+how long and I know not in what manner, confused with a thousand other
+things, perhaps born of a dream--how should I know? When I was sixteen
+years old I was a lover, and the young girl and I alone in a garden in
+the shade of a summer-house, as we gazed in each other's eyes, uttered
+unconsciously a cry of joy that stirred our blood as if it had come
+from the mouth of a third person who had discovered our secret. Well,
+since that time I have often longed to be a king and to have a palace;
+but in giving form to that desire my imagination did not rest merely in
+the grand gilded palaces of our country; it flew to distant lands, and
+there on the summit of a lofty mountain reared a castle of its own in
+which everything was small and graceful and illumined by a mysterious
+light; and there were long suites of rooms adorned with a thousand
+fanciful and delicate ornaments, with windows through which we two
+alone might look, and little columns behind which my little one might
+almost hide her face playfully as she listened to my step approaching
+from hall to hall, or heard my voice mingled with the murmur of the
+fountains in the garden. All unconsciously, in building that castle
+in fantasy, I was building the Alhambra; in those moments I imagined
+something like these halls, these windows, and this court that we see
+before us--so similar, indeed, that the more I look around the better
+I remember and seem to recognize the place just as I have seen it a
+thousand times. All lovers dream a little of the Alhambra, and
+if they were able to reproduce all their dreams in line and color,
+they would make pictures that would amaze us by their likeness to all
+one sees here. This architecture does not express power, glory, and
+grandeur; it expresses love and passion--love with its mysteries, its
+caprices, its fervor, its bursts of God-given gratitude; passion with
+its melancholy and its silences. There is, then, a close connection, a
+harmony, between the beauty of this Alhambra and the souls of those who
+have loved at sixteen, when longings are but dreams and visions. And
+hence arises the indescribable fascination exercised by this beauty,
+and hence the Alhambra, although deserted and ruined as it is, is
+still the most enchanting castle in the world, and to the end of time
+visitors will leave it with a tear. For in parting with the Alhambra
+we bid a last adieu to the most beautiful dreams of youth revived
+among these walls for the last time. We bid adieu to faces unspeakably
+dear that have broken the oblivion of many years to stand beside us a
+last time by the little columns of these windows. We bid adieu to all
+the fancies of youth. We bid adieu to that love which will never live
+again."
+
+[Illustration: _Fountain in the Court of Lions, Alhambra_]
+
+"It is true," answered my friend, "but what will you say when you have
+seen the Court of the Lions? Come, let us hurry."
+
+We left the tower with hasty steps, crossed the Court of Myrtles, and
+came to a little door opposite the door of entrance.
+
+"Stop!" cried Gongora.
+
+I stopped.
+
+"Do me a favor?"
+
+"A hundred."
+
+"Only one: shut your eyes and don't open them until I tell you."
+
+"Well, they are shut."
+
+"See that you keep them so; I sha'n't like it if you open them."
+
+"Never fear."
+
+Gongora took me by the hand and led me forward: I trembled like a leaf.
+
+We took about fifteen steps and stopped.
+
+"Look!" said Gongora in an agitated voice.
+
+I looked, and I swear by the head of my reader I felt two tears
+trickling down my cheeks.
+
+We were in the Court of the Lions.
+
+If at that moment I had been obliged to go out as I had come in, I
+could not have told what I had seen. A forest of columns, a vision of
+arches and tracery, an indefinable elegance, an unimaginable delicacy,
+prodigious wealth; an irrepressible sense of airiness, transparency,
+and wavy motion like a great pavilion of lace; an appearance as of
+an edifice which must dissolve at a breath; a variety of lights and
+mysterious shadows; a confusion, a capricious disorder, of little
+things; the grandeur of a castle, the gayety of a summer-house; an
+harmonious grace, an extravagance, a delight; the fancy of an enamored
+girl, the dream of an angel; a madness, a nameless something,--such is
+the first effect of the Court of the Lions.
+
+The court is not larger than a great ball-room; it is rectangular in
+form, with walls no higher than a two-storied Andalusian cottage.
+A light portico runs all around, supported by very slender white
+marble columns grouped in symmetrical disorder, two by two and three
+by three, almost without pedestals, so that they are like the trunks
+of trees standing on the ground: they have varied capitals, high and
+graceful, in the form of little pilasters, above which bend little
+arches of very graceful form, which do not seem to rest upon the
+columns, but rather to be suspended over them like curtains upholding
+the columns themselves and resembling ribbons and twining garlands.
+From the middle of the two shortest sides advance two groups of
+columns forming two little square temples of nine arches in the form
+of stalactites, fringes, pendants, and tassels that seem as though
+they ought to swing and become tangled with the slightest breeze.
+Large Arabian inscriptions run along the four walls, over the arches,
+around the capitals, and along the walls of the little temple. In the
+middle of the court rises a great marble basin supported by twelve
+lions and surrounded by a paved channel, from which flow four other
+smaller channels that make a cross between the four sides of the
+court, cross the portico, enter the adjoining rooms, and join the
+other water-courses which surround the entire edifice. Behind the two
+two little temples and in the middle of the other two sides there
+appear halls and suites of rooms with great open doors, through which
+one can see the dark background broken by the white columns, gleaming
+as if they stood at the mouth of a grotto. At every step the forest
+of columns seems to move and rearrange itself in a new way; behind
+a column that is apparently single spring up two, three, a row of
+columns; some fade away, others unite, and still others separate:
+on looking back from the end of one of the halls everything appears
+different; the arches on the opposite side seem very far away; the
+columns appear out of place; the little temples have changed their
+form; one sees new arches rising beyond the walls, and new columns
+gleaming here in the sunlight, there in the shadow, yonder scarcely
+visible by the dim light which sifts through the tracery of the stucco,
+and the farthest lost in the darkness. There is a constant variety of
+scene, distance, deceptive effects, mysteries, and playful tricks of
+the eye, produced by the architecture, the sun, and one's heightened
+imagination.
+
+"What must this _patio_ have been," said Gongora, "when the inner
+walls of the portico were resplendent with mosaics, the capitals of
+the columns flashed with gold, the ceilings and vaults were painted
+in a thousand colors, the doors hung with silken curtains, the niches
+full of flowers, and under the little temples and through the halls ran
+streams of perfumed water, and from the nostrils of the lions spurted
+twelve jets which fell into the basin, and the air was heavy with the
+most delicious perfumes of Arabia!"
+
+We remained in the court over an hour, and the time passed like a
+flash; and I too did what all have done in that place--Spaniards and
+foreigners alike, men and women, poets and those who are not poets. I
+ran my hand along the walls, touched all the little columns, clasped
+them one by one with my two hands like the waist of a child, hid among
+them, counted them, looked at them from a hundred directions, crossed
+the court in a hundred ways; tried if it were true that by speaking a
+word in a deep voice in the mouth of one of the lions you could hear
+it distinctly from the mouths of all the others; searched along the
+marbles for the blood-spots of the romantic legends, and wearied my
+eyes and brain in following the arabesques. There were a number of
+ladies present. In the Court of the Lions ladies show every sort of
+childish delight: they look out between two twin columns, hide in the
+dark corners, sit on the floor, and stand for hours motionless, resting
+their heads upon their hands, dreaming. These ladies did likewise.
+There was one dressed in white who, as she passed behind the distant
+columns, when she thought no one saw her assumed a certain majestic
+air, like a melancholy sultana, and then laughed with one of her
+friends: it was enchanting.
+
+"Let us go," said my friend.
+
+"Let us go," I replied, and could not move a step. I was experiencing
+not only a delightful sense of surprise, but I was trembling with
+pleasure, and was filled with a longing to touch, to probe, and in some
+way to see behind those walls and those columns, as if they were made
+of some secret material and ought to disclose in their inmost part the
+first cause of the fascination which the place exerts. In all my life I
+have never thought or said, or shall ever say, so many fond words, so
+many foolish expressions, so many pretty, happy, senseless things, as I
+thought and said at that hour.
+
+"But one must come here at sunrise," said Gongora, "one must come at
+sunset, or at night when the moon is full, to see the miracles of
+color, light, and shade. It is enough to make one lose one's head."
+
+We went to see the halls. On the eastern side is the Hall of Justice,
+which is reached by passing under three great arches, each of which
+corresponds with a door opening into the court. It is a long, narrow
+hall, with intricate arabesques and precious mosaics, and its vaulted
+ceiling all points and hollows and clusters of stucco that hang down
+from the arches and run along the walls, clustered together here and
+there, drooping, growing one out of the other, crowding and overtopping
+each other, so that they seem to dispute the space like the bubbles
+in boiling water, and still presenting in many parts traces of old
+colors that must have given the ceiling the appearance of a pavilion
+covered with flowers and hanging fruit. The hall has three little
+alcoves, in each of which one may see a Moorish painting, to which time
+and the extreme rarity of works remaining from the brush of Moorish
+artists have given a very high value. The paintings are on leather,
+and the leather is fastened to the wall. In the central alcove there
+are painted on a golden ground ten men, supposed to be ten kings of
+Granada, clothed in white, with cowls on their heads and scimitars in
+their hands, sitting on embroidered cushions. The paintings in the
+other two alcoves represent castles, ladies and cavaliers, hunting
+scenes, and love episodes whose significance it is difficult to
+understand. But the faces of the ten kings are marvellously true to
+the picture one has formed of their race: there is the dark olive
+complexion, the sensuous lips, the black eyes, with an intense
+mysterious glance that seems always to be shining in the dark corners
+of the halls of the Alhambra.
+
+On the north side of the court there is another hall, called the
+hall _De las dos Hermanas_ (of the two sisters), so called from two
+great marble slabs which form the pavement. It is the most beautiful
+hall in the Alhambra--a little square arched room, with one of those
+ceilings in the form of a cupola which the Spaniards call half oranges,
+supported by slender columns and arches arranged in a circle, all
+adorned, like a grotto full of stalactites, with an infinite number
+of points and hollows, colored and gilded, and so light to the view
+that it seems as if they are suspended in the air, and would tremble
+at a touch like a curtain or separate like a cloud or disappear like
+a cluster of soap-bubbles. The walls, like those of all the other
+halls, are bedecked with stucco and carved with arabesques incredibly
+intricate and delicate, forming one of the most marvellous works of
+human patience and imagination. The more one looks, the more numberless
+become the lines which blend and cross, and from one figure springs
+another, and from that a third, and all three produce a fourth that
+has escaped the eye, and this divides suddenly into ten other figures
+that have passed unnoticed, and then they mingle again and are again
+transformed; and one never ceases to discover new combinations, for
+when the first reappear they are already forgotten, and produce the
+same effect as at the beginning. One would lose sight and reason in
+trying to comprehend that labyrinth: it would require an hour to
+study the outlines of a window, the ornaments of a pilaster, and the
+arabesques of a frieze; an hour would not be sufficient to fix upon
+the mind the design of one of the stupendous cedar doors. On either
+side of the hall there are two little alcoves, and in the centre a
+little basin with a pipe for a fountain that empties into the channel
+that crosses the portico and flows to the Fountain of the Lions.
+
+Directly opposite the entrance there is another door, through which one
+passes into another long, narrow room called the Hall of the Oranges.
+And from this hall, through a third door, one enters a little chamber
+called the Cabinet of Lindaraja, very richly ornamented, at the end of
+which there is a graceful window with two arches overlooking a garden.
+
+To enjoy all the beauty of this magical architecture one must leave the
+Hall of the Two Sisters, cross the Court of the Lions, and enter a room
+called the Hall of the Abencerrages, which lies on the southern side,
+opposite the Hall of the Two Sisters, to which it is very similar in
+form and ornamentation. From the end of this hall one looks across the
+Court of the Lions through the Hall of the Two Sisters into the Hall
+of the Oranges and even into the Cabinet of Lindaraja and the garden
+beyond, where a mass of verdure appears under the arches of that jewel
+of a window. The two sides of this window, so diminutive and full of
+light when seen in the distance from the end of that suite of darkened
+rooms, look like two great open eyes, that look at you and make
+you imagine that beyond them must lie the unfathomable mysteries of
+paradise.
+
+After seeing the Hall of the Abencerrages we went to see the baths,
+which are situated between the Hall of the Two Sisters and the Court
+of the Myrtles. We descended a flight of stairs, passed a long narrow
+corridor, and came out into a splendid hall called the hall _De las
+Divans_, where the favorites of the king came to rest on their Persian
+rugs to the sound of the lyre after they had bathed in the adjoining
+rooms. This hall was reconstructed on the plans of the ancient ruins,
+and adorned with arabesques, gilded and painted, by Spanish artists
+after the ancient patterns; consequently one may consider it a room of
+the Moorish period remaining intact in every part. In the middle is a
+fountain, and in the opposite walls are two alcoves where the women
+reposed on divans, and overhead the galleries where the musicians
+played. The walls are laced, dotted, checkered, and mottled with a
+thousand brilliant hues, presenting the appearance of a tapestry of
+Chinese stuff shot with golden threads, with an endless interweaving of
+figures that must have maddened the most patient mosaic-worker on earth.
+
+Nevertheless, a painter was at work in the hall. He was a German who
+had worked for three months in copying the walls. Gongora knew him, and
+asked, "It is wearisome work, is it not?"
+
+And he answered with a smile, "I don't find it so," and bent again over
+his picture.
+
+I looked at him as if he had been a creature from another world.
+
+We entered the little bathing-chambers, vaulted and lighted from above
+by some star-and flower-shaped apertures in the wall. The bathing-tubs
+are very large, single blocks of marble enclosed between two walls. The
+corridors which lead from one room to the other are low and narrow,
+so that a man can scarcely pass through them; they are delightfully
+cool. As I stood looking into one of these little rooms I was suddenly
+impressed with a sad thought.
+
+"What makes you sad?" asked my friend.
+
+"I was thinking," I replied, "of how we live, summer and winter, in
+houses like barracks, in rooms on the third floor, which are either
+dark or else flooded with a torrent of light, without marble, without
+water, without flowers, without columns; I was thinking that we
+must live so all our lives and die between those walls without once
+experiencing the delights of these charmed palaces; I was thinking that
+even in this wretched earthly life one may enjoy vastly, and that I
+shall not share this enjoyment at all; I was thinking that I might have
+been born four centuries ago a king of Granada, and that I was born
+instead a poor man."
+
+My friend laughed, and, taking my arm between his thumb and finger, as
+if to give me a pinch, he said, "Don't think of that. Think of how much
+beauty, grace, and mystery these tubs must have seen; of the little
+feet that have played in their perfumed waters; of the long hair which
+has fallen over their rims; of the great languid eyes that have looked
+at the sky through the openings in the vaulted ceiling, while beneath
+the arches of the Court of the Lions sounded the hastening step of
+an impatient caliph, and the hundred fountains of the castle sighed
+with a quickening murmur, 'Come! come! come!' and in a perfumed hall
+a trembling slave reverently closed the windows with the rose-colored
+curtains."
+
+"Ah! leave my soul in peace!" I replied, shrugging my shoulders.
+
+We crossed the garden of the Cabinet of Lindaraja and a mysterious
+court called the _Patio de la Reja_, and by a long gallery that
+commands a view of the country reached the top of one of the farthest
+towers of the Alhambra, called the _Mirador de la Reina_ (the Queen's
+toilet), shaded by a little pavilion and open all round, hanging over
+an abyss like an eagle's nest. The view one enjoys from this point--one
+may say it without fear of contradiction--has not its equal on the face
+of the earth.
+
+[Illustration: _Queen's Boudoir, Alhambra_]
+
+Imagine an immense plain, green as a meadow, covered with young grass,
+crossed in all directions by endless rows of cypresses, pines, oaks,
+and poplars, dotted with dense orange-groves that in the distance look
+no larger than shrubs, and with great orchards and gardens so crowded
+with fruit trees that they look like green hillocks; and the river
+Xenil winding through this immense plain, gleaming among the groves
+and gardens like a great silver ribbon; and all around wooded hills,
+and beyond the hills lofty rocks of fantastic form, which complete the
+picture of a barrier-wall with gigantic towers separating that earthly
+paradise from the world; and there, just beneath one's eyes, the city
+of Granada, partly extending to the plain and partly on the slope of
+the hill, all interspersed with groups of trees, shapeless masses of
+verdure which rise and wave above the roofs of the houses like enormous
+plumes, until it seems as if they were striving to expand and unite
+and cover the entire city; and still nearer the deep valley of the
+Darro more than covered--yes, filled to overflowing and almost heaped
+full--with its prodigious growth of vegetation, rising like a mountain,
+and above it there rises yet again a grove of gigantic poplars tossing
+their topmost boughs so close under the windows of the tower that one
+can almost touch them; and to the right beyond the Darro, on a high
+hill towering toward heaven, bold and rounded like a cupola, the palace
+of the Generalife, encircled by its aërial gardens and almost hidden
+in a grove of laurels, poplars, and pomegranates; and in the opposite
+direction a marvellous spectacle, a thing incredible, a vision of a
+dream--the Sierra Nevada, after the Alps, the highest mountain-range in
+Europe crowned with snow, white even to a few miles from the gates of
+Granada, white even to the hills on whose sides spread the pomegranates
+and palms, and where a vegetation almost tropical expands in all its
+splendid pomp.
+
+Imagine now over this vast paradise, containing all the smiling graces
+of the Orient and all the severe beauties of the North, wedding Europe
+to Africa, and bringing to the nuptials all the choicest marvels of
+nature, and exhaling to heaven all the perfumes of the earth blended
+in one breath,--imagine above this happy valley the sky and sun of
+Andalusia, rolling on to its setting and tinting the peaks with a
+divine rose-color, and painting the mountain-sides of the Sierra
+with all the colors of the rainbow, and clothing them with all the
+reflections of the most limpid azure pearls, its rays breaking in a
+thousand mists of gold, purple, and gray upon the rocks encircling
+the plain, and, as it sinks in a flame of fire, casting like a last
+good-night a luminous crown about the gloomy towers of the Alhambra and
+the flower-crowned pinnacles of the Generalife, and tell me if this
+world can give anything more solemn, more glorious, more intoxicating
+than this love-feast of the earth and sky, before which for nine
+centuries Granada has trembled with delight and throbbed with pride?
+
+The roof of the _Mirador de la Reina_ is supported by little Moorish
+columns, between which extend flattened arches which give the pavilion
+an extremely fanciful and graceful appearance. The walls are frescoed,
+and one may see along the friezes the initials of Isabella and Philip
+interwoven with cupids and flowers. Close by the door there still
+remains a stone of the ancient pavement, all perforated, upon which
+it is said the sultanas sat to be enveloped in the clouds of perfumed
+vapor which arose from below.
+
+Everything in this place tells of love and happiness. There one
+breathes an air as pure as that on a mountain-peak, there one perceives
+a mingled fragrance of myrtles and roses, and no other sound reaches
+the ear save the murmur of the Darro as it dashes among the rocks of
+its stony bed, and the singing of a thousand birds hidden in the dense
+foliage of the valley; it is truly a nest of loves, a hanging alcove
+where to go and dream of an aërial balcony to which one might climb and
+thank God for being happy.
+
+"Ah, Gongora," I exclaimed after contemplating for some moments that
+enchanting spectacle, "I would give years of my life to be able to
+summon here, with a stroke of a magic wand, all the dear ones who are
+looking for me in Italy."
+
+Gongora pointed out a large space on the wall, all black with dates and
+names of visitors to the Alhambra, written with crayon and charcoal and
+cut with knives.
+
+"What is this written here?" he demanded.
+
+I approached and uttered a cry: "Chateaubriand!"
+
+"And here?"
+
+"Byron!"
+
+"And here?"
+
+"Victor Hugo!"
+
+After descending from the _Mirador de la Reina_ I thought I had seen
+the Alhambra, and was so imprudent as to tell my friend so. If he had
+had a stick in his hand, I verily believe he would have struck me; but,
+as he had not, he contented himself by regarding me with the air of one
+demanding whether or not I had lost my senses.
+
+We returned to the Court of the Myrtles and visited the rooms situated
+on the other side of the Tower of Comares, the greater part in ruins,
+the rest altered, some absolutely bare, without either pavement or
+roof, but all worth seeing, both in remembrance of what they had
+been and for the sake of understanding the plan of the edifice. The
+ancient mosque was converted into a chapel by Charles V., and a great
+Moorish hall was changed into an oratory; here and there one still
+sees the fragments of arabesques and carved ceilings of cedar-wood;
+the galleries, the courts, and the vestibules remind one of a palace
+dismantled by fire.
+
+After seeing that part of the Alhambra I really thought there was
+nothing else left to see, and a second time was imprudent enough to
+say so to Gongora: this time he could no longer contain himself, and,
+leading me into a vestibule of the Court of Myrtles and pointing to a
+map of the building hanging on the wall, he said, "Look, and you will
+see that all the rooms of the courts and the towers that we have so far
+visited do not occupy one-twentieth part of the space embraced within
+the walls of the Alhambra; you will see that we have not yet visited
+the remains of the three other mosques, the ruins of the House of Cadi,
+the water-tower, the tower of the Infantas, the tower of the Prisoner,
+the tower of Candil, the tower of the Picos, the tower of the Daggers,
+the tower of the _Siete Suelos_, the tower of the Captain, the tower of
+the Witch, the tower of the Heads, the tower of Arms, the tower of the
+Hidalgos, the tower of the Cocks, the tower of the Cube, the tower of
+Homage, the tower of Vela, the Powder Tower, the remains of the House
+of Mondejar, the military quarters, the iron gate, the inner walls, the
+cisterns, the promenades; for I would have you know that the Alhambra
+is not a palace: it is a city, and one could spend his life in studying
+its arabesques, reading its inscriptions, and every day discovering
+a new view of the hills and mountains, and going into ecstasies
+regularly once every twenty-four hours."
+
+And I thought I had seen the Alhambra!
+
+On that day I did not wish to learn anything more, and the dear
+knows how my head ached when I returned to the hotel. The day after,
+at the peep of dawn, I was back at the Alhambra, and again in the
+evening, and I continued to go there every day so long as I remained
+at Granada, with Gongora, with other friends, with guides, or alone;
+and the Alhambra always seemed vaster and more beautiful as I wandered
+through the courts and halls, and passed hour after hour sitting among
+the columns or gazing out of the windows with an ever-heightening
+pleasure, every time discovering new beauties, and ever abandoning
+myself to those vague and delightful fancies among which my mind had
+strayed on the first day. I cannot tell through which entrances my
+friends led me into the Alhambra, but I remember that every day on
+going there I saw walls and towers and deserted streets that I had not
+seen before, and the Alhambra seemed to me to have changed its site,
+to have been transformed, and surrounded as if by enchantment with new
+buildings that changed its original appearance. Who could describe
+the beauty of those sunset views; those fantastic groves flooded with
+moonlight; the immense plain and the snow-covered mountains on clear,
+serene nights; the imposing outlines of those enormous walls, superb
+towers, and those measureless trees under a starry sky; the prolonged
+rustling of those vast masses of verdure overflowing the valleys and
+climbing the hillsides? It was a spectacle before which my companions
+remained speechless, although they were born in Granada and accustomed
+from infancy to look upon these scenes. So we would walk along in
+silence, each buried in his own thoughts, with hearts oppressed by mild
+melancholy, and sometimes our eyes were wet with tears, and we raised
+our faces to heaven with a burst of gratitude and love.
+
+On the day of my arrival at Granada, when I entered the hotel at
+midnight, instead of finding silence and quiet, I found the _patio_
+illuminated like a ball-room, people sipping sherbet at the tables,
+coming and going along the galleries, laughing and talking, and I was
+obliged to wait an hour before going to sleep. But I passed that hour
+very pleasantly. While I stood looking at a map of Spain on the wall a
+great burly fellow, with a face as red as a beet and a great stomach
+extending nearly to his knees, approached me and, touching his cap,
+asked if I was an Italian. I replied that I was, and he continued with
+a smile, "And so am I; I am the proprietor of the hotel."
+
+"I am delighted to hear it, the more so because I see you are making
+money."
+
+"Great Heavens!" he replied in a tone which he wished to seem
+melancholy. "Yes, ... I cannot complain; but, ... believe me, my dear
+sir, however well things may go, when one is far from his native land
+one always feels a void here;" and he put his hand upon his enormous
+chest.
+
+I looked at his stomach.
+
+"A great void," repeated mine host; "one never forgets one's
+country.... From what province are you, sir?"
+
+"From Liguria. And you?"
+
+"From Piedmont. Liguria! Piedmont! Lombardy! They are countries!"
+
+"They are fine countries, there is no doubt of that, but, after all,
+you cannot complain of Spain. You are living in one of the most
+beautiful cities in the world, and are proprietor of one of the finest
+hotels in the city; you have a crowd of guests all the year round, and
+then I see you enjoy enviable health."
+
+"But the void?"
+
+I looked again at his stomach.
+
+"Oh, I see, sir; but you are deceived, you know, if you judge me by
+appearances. You cannot imagine what a pleasure it is when an Italian
+comes here. What you will? Weakness it may be.... I know not, ... but
+I should like to see him every day at table, and I believe that if my
+wife did not laugh at me I should send him a dozen dishes on my own
+account, as a foretaste."
+
+"At what hour do you dine to-morrow?"
+
+"At five. But, after all, ... one eats little here, ... hot country,
+... everybody lives lightly, ... whatever their nationality may be....
+That is the rule.... But you have not seen the other Italian who is
+here?"
+
+So saying, he turned around, and a man came forward from a corner of
+the court where he had been watching us. The proprietor, after a few
+words, left us alone. The stranger was a man of about forty, miserably
+dressed, who spoke through closed teeth, and kept continually clenching
+his hands with a convulsive motion as if he was making an effort to
+keep from using his fists. He told me he was a chorus-singer from
+Lombardy, and that he had arrived the day before at Granada with other
+artists booked to sing at the opera for the summer season.
+
+"A beastly country!" he exclaimed without any preamble, looking around
+as if he wished to make a speech.
+
+"Then you do not remain in Spain voluntarily?" I asked.
+
+"In Spain? I? Excuse me: it is just as if you had asked me whether I
+was staying voluntarily in a galley."
+
+"But why?"
+
+"Why? But can't you see what sort of people the Spaniards
+are--ignorant, superstitious, proud, bloodthirsty, impostors, thieves,
+charlatans, villains?"
+
+And he stood a moment motionless in a questioning attitude, with the
+veins of his neck so swollen that they seemed ready to burst.
+
+"Pardon me," I replied; "your judgment does not seem favorable enough
+to admit of my agreeing with you. When it comes to ignorance, excuse
+me, it will not do for us Italians, for us who still have cities where
+the schoolmasters are stoned and the professors are stabbed if they
+give a zero to their scholars,--it will not do for us, I say, to pick
+flaws in others. As for superstition, alas for us again! since we may
+still see in that city of Italy in which popular instruction is most
+widely diffused an unspeakable uproar over a miraculous image of the
+Madonna found by a poor ignorant woman in the middle of a street!
+As for crime, I frankly declare that if I were obliged to draw a
+comparison between the two countries before an audience of Spaniards,
+with the statistics now in hand, without first proving my data and
+conclusions, I should be very much alarmed.... I do not wish to say
+by this that we are not, on the whole, sailing in smoother water than
+is Spain. I wish to say that an Italian in judging the Spanish, if he
+would be just, must be indulgent."
+
+"Excuse me: I don't think so. A country without political direction!
+a country a prey to anarchy! a country--Come, now, cite me one great
+Spaniard of the present day."
+
+"I cannot, ... there are so few great men anywhere."
+
+"Cite me a Galileo."
+
+"Oh, there are no Galileos."
+
+"Cite me a Ratazzi."
+
+"Well, they have none."
+
+"Cite me ... But, really, they have nothing. And then, does the country
+seem beautiful to you?"
+
+"Ah! excuse me; that point I will not yield: Andalusia, to cite a
+single province, is a paradise; Seville, Cadiz, and Granada are
+splendid cities."
+
+"How? Do you like the houses of Seville and Cadiz, with walls that
+whiten a poor devil from head to foot whenever he happens to touch
+them? Do you like those streets along which one can hardly pass after
+a good dinner? And do you find the Andalusian women beautiful with
+their devilish eyes? Come, now, you are too indulgent. They are not a
+_serious_ people. They have summoned Don Amadeus, and now they don't
+want him. They are not worthy of being governed by a _civilized man_."
+(These were his actual words.)
+
+"Then you don't find any good in Spain?"
+
+"Not the least."
+
+"But why do you stay?"
+
+"I stay ... because I make my living here."
+
+"Well, that is something."
+
+"But what a living! It is a dog's life! Everybody knows what Spanish
+cooking is."
+
+"Excuse me: instead of living like a dog in Spain, why not go and live
+like a man in Italy?"
+
+Here the poor artist seemed somewhat disconcerted, and I, to relieve
+his annoyance, offered him a cigar, which he took and lighted without
+a word. And he was not the only Italian in Spain who had spoken to me
+in those terms of the country and its inhabitants, denying even the
+clearness of the sky and the grace of the Andalusian women. I do not
+know what enjoyment there can be in travelling after this fashion, with
+the heart closed to every kindly sentiment, and continually on the
+lookout to censure and despise, as if everything good and beautiful
+which one finds in a foreign country has been stolen from our own,
+and as if we are of no account unless we run down everybody else. The
+people who travel in such a mental attitude make me pity rather than
+condemn them, because they voluntarily deprive themselves of many
+pleasures and comforts. So it appears to me, at least, to judge others
+by myself, for wherever I go the first sentiment which the sights and
+the people inspire in me is a feeling of sympathy; a desire not to find
+anything which I shall be obliged to censure; an inclination to imagine
+every beautiful thing more beautiful; to conceal the unpleasant things,
+to excuse the defects, to be able to say candidly to myself and others
+that I am content with everything and everybody. And to arrive at this
+end I do not have to make any effort: everything presents itself
+almost spontaneously in its most pleasing aspect, and my imagination
+benignly paints the other aspects a delicate rose-color. I know well
+that one cannot study a country in this way, nor write sage essays, nor
+acquire fame as a profound thinker; but I know that one travels with a
+peaceful mind, and that such travels are of unspeakable benefit.
+
+The next day I went to see the Generalife, which was a sort of villa
+of the Moorish kings, and whose name is linked to that of the Alhambra
+as is that of the Alhambra to Granada; but now only a few arches and
+arabesques remain of the ancient Generalife. It is a small palace,
+simple and white, with few windows, and an arched gallery surrounded
+with a terrace, and half hidden in the midst of a grove of laurel and
+myrtles, standing on the summit of a mountain covered with flowers,
+rising upon the right bank of the Darro opposite the hill of the
+Alhambra. In front of the façade of the palace extends a little garden,
+and other gardens rise one above another almost in the form of a
+vast staircase to the very top of the mountain, where there extends
+a very high terrace that encloses the Generalife. The avenues of the
+gardens and the wide staircases that lead from one to another of the
+flower-beds are flanked by high espaliers surmounted by arches and
+divided by arbors of myrtle, curved and intertwined with graceful
+designs, and at every landing-place rise white summer-houses shaded by
+trellises and picturesque groups of orange trees and cypresses. Water
+is still as abundant as in Moorish times, and gives the place a grace,
+freshness, and luxuriance impossible to describe. From every part one
+hears the murmur of rivulets and fountains; one turns down an avenue
+and finds a jet of water; one approaches a window and sees a stream
+reaching almost to the window-sill; one enters a group of trees and
+the spray of a little waterfall strikes one's face; one turns and sees
+water leaping, running, and trickling through the grass and shrubbery.
+
+From the height of the terrace one commands a view of all those gardens
+as they slope downward in platforms and terraces; one peers down
+into the abyss of vegetation which separates the two mountains; one
+overlooks the whole enclosure of the Alhambra, with the cupolas of its
+little temples, its distant towers, and the paths winding among its
+ruins; the view extends over the city of Granada with its plain and
+its hills, and runs with a single glance along all the summits of the
+Sierra Nevada, that appear so near that one imagines they are not an
+hour's walk distant. And while you contemplate that spectacle your ear
+is soothed by the murmur of a hundred fountains and the faint sound of
+the bells of the city, which comes in waves scarcely audible, bearing
+with it the mysterious fragrance of this earthly paradise which makes
+you tremble and grow pale with delight.
+
+[Illustration: _Court of the Generalife, Granada_]
+
+Beyond the Generalife, on the summit of a higher mountain, now bleak
+and bare, there rose in Moorish times other royal palaces, with gardens
+connected with each other by great avenues lined with myrtle hedges.
+Now all these marvels of architecture encircled by groves, fountains,
+and flowers, those fabulous castles in the air, those magnificent and
+fragrant nests of love and delight, have disappeared, and scarcely
+a heap of rubbish or a short stretch of wall remains to tell their
+story to the passer-by. But these ruins, that elsewhere would arouse a
+feeling of melancholy, do not have such an influence in the presence
+of that glorious nature whose enchantment not even the most marvellous
+works of man have ever been able to equal.
+
+On re-entering the city I stopped at one end of the _Carrera
+del Darro_, in front of a house richly adorned with bas-reliefs
+representing heraldic shields, armor, cherubs, and lions, with a little
+balcony, over one corner of which, partly on one wall and partly on
+another, I read the following mysterious inscription stamped in great
+letters:
+
+          "ESPERANDO LA DEL CIELO,"
+
+which, literally translated, signifies "_Awaiting her in Heaven_."
+Curious to learn the hidden meaning of those words, I made a note of
+them, so that I might ask the learned father of my friend about them.
+He gave me two interpretations, the one almost certainly correct, but
+not at all romantic; the other romantic, but very doubtful. I give the
+last: The house belonged to Don Fernando de Zafra, the secretary of
+the Catholic kings. He had a very beautiful daughter. A young hidalgo,
+of a family hostile or inferior in rank to the house of Zafra, became
+enamored of the daughter, and, as his love was returned, he asked
+for her hand in marriage, but was refused. The refusal of her father
+stirred the love of the two young hearts to flame: the windows of the
+house were low; the lover one night succeeded in making the ascent
+and entered the maiden's room. Whether he upset a chair on entering,
+or coughed, or uttered a low cry of joy on seeing his beautiful love
+welcoming him with open arms, the tradition does not tell, and no one
+knows; but certain it is that Don Fernando de Zafra heard a noise, ran
+in, saw, and, blind with fury, rushed upon the ill-fated young man
+to put him to death. But he succeeded in making his escape, and Don
+Fernando in following him ran into one of his own pages, a partisan
+of the lovers, who had helped the hidalgo to enter the house: in his
+haste his master mistook him for the betrayer, and, without hearing his
+protests and prayers, he had him bound and hanged from the balcony. The
+tradition runs that while the poor victim kept crying, "Pity! pity!"
+the outraged father responded as he pointed toward the balcony, "Thou
+shalt stay there _esperando la del Cielo_!" (awaiting her in heaven)--a
+reply which he afterward had cut in the stone walls as a perpetual
+warning to evil-doers.
+
+I devoted the rest of the day to the churches and monasteries.
+
+The cathedral of Granada deserves to be described part by part in
+an even higher degree than the cathedral of Malaga, although it too
+is beautiful and magnificent; but I have already described enough
+churches. Its foundation was laid by the Catholic kings in 1529 upon
+the ruins of the principal mosque of the city, but it has never been
+finished. It has a great façade with three doorways, adorned with
+statues and bas-reliefs, and it consists of five naves, divided by
+twenty measureless pilasters, each composed of a bundle of slender
+columns. The chapels contain paintings by Boccanegra, sculptures by
+Torrigiano, and tombs and other precious ornaments. Admirable above all
+is the great chapel, supported by twenty Corinthian columns divided
+into two orders, upon the first of which rise colossal statues of
+the twelve apostles, and on the second an entablature covered with
+garlands and heads of cherubs. Overhead runs a circle of magnificent
+stained-glass windows, which represent the Passion, and from the frieze
+which crowns them leap ten bold arches forming the vault of the chapel.
+Within the arches that support the columns are six great paintings by
+Alonzo Cano, which are said to be his most beautiful and finished work.
+
+And since I have spoken of Alonzo Cano, a native of Granada, one of
+the strongest Spanish painters of the seventeenth century, although
+a disciple of the Sevillian school rather than the founder, as some
+assert, of a school of his own, but less original than his greatest
+contemporaries,--since I have spoken of him, I wish here to record some
+traits of his genius and anecdotes of his life little known outside
+of Spain, although exceedingly remarkable. Alonzo Cano was the most
+quarrelsome, the most irascible, and the most violent of the Spanish
+painters. He spent his life in contention. He was a priest. From 1652
+to 1658, for six consecutive years, without a day's intermission, he
+wrangled with the canons of the cathedral of Granada, of which he was
+steward, because he was not willing to become subdeacon in accordance
+with the stipulated agreement; before leaving Granada he broke into
+pieces with his own hands a statue of Saint Anthony of Padua which he
+had made to the order of an auditor of the chancery, because the man
+allowed himself to observe that the price demanded seemed a little
+dear. Chosen master of design to the royal prince, who, as it appears,
+was not born with a talent for painting, he so exasperated his pupil
+that the boy was obliged to have recourse to the king that he might
+be taken out of his hands. Remanded to Granada, to the neighborhood
+of the chapter of the cathedral, as an especial favor, he bore such a
+deep rancor from his old litigations with his canons that throughout
+his life he would not do a stroke of work for them. But this is a small
+matter. He nursed a blind, bestial, inextinguishable hatred against the
+Hebrews, and was firmly convinced that in any way to touch a Hebrew or
+any object that a Hebrew had touched would bring him misfortune. Owing
+to this conviction he did some of the most extravagant feats in the
+world. If in walking along the street he ran against a Jew, he would
+strip off the infected garment and return home in his shirt-sleeves.
+If by chance he succeeded in discovering that in his absence a servant
+had admitted a Jew into the house, he discharged the servant, threw
+away the shoes with which he had touched the pavement profaned by the
+circumcised, and sometimes even had the pavement torn up and reset. And
+he found something to find fault with even as he was dying. When he was
+approaching the end of life the confessor handed him a clumsily-made
+crucifix that he might kiss it, but he pushed it away with his hand,
+saying, "Father, give me a naked cross, that I may worship Jesus Christ
+as He Himself is and as I behold Him in my mind." But, after all, his
+was a rare, charitable nature which abhorred every vulgar action,
+and loved with a deep and very pure love the art in which he remains
+immortal.
+
+On returning to the church after I had made the round of all the
+chapels and was preparing to leave, I was impressed by a suspicion that
+there was something else still to be seen. I had not read the Guidebook
+and had been told nothing, but I heard an inner voice which said to
+me, "Seek!" and, in fact, I sought with my eyes in every direction,
+without knowing what I sought. A cicerone noticed me and sidled up to
+me, as all of his kind do, like an assassin, and asked me with an air
+of mystery, "_Quiere usted algo?_" (Do you wish something, sir?)
+
+"I should like to know," I replied, "if there is anything to see in
+this cathedral besides that which I have seen already?"
+
+"How!" exclaimed the cicerone; "you have not seen the royal chapel,
+have you, sir?"
+
+"What is there in the royal chapel?"
+
+"What is there? Caramba! Nothing less than the tombs of Ferdinand and
+Isabella the Catholics."
+
+I could have said so! I had in my mind a place ready for this idea,
+and the idea was lacking! The Catholic kings must certainly have been
+buried in Granada, where they fought the last great chivalrous war of
+the Middle Ages, and where they gave Christopher Columbus a commission
+to fit out ships which bore him to the New World. I ran rather than
+walked to the royal chapel, preceded by the limping cicerone; an old
+sacristan opened the door of the sacristy, and before he allowed me to
+enter and see the tombs he led me to a sort of glass cupboard full of
+precious objects, and said to me, "You will remember that Isabella the
+Catholic, to furnish Christopher Columbus with the money that he needed
+to supply the ships for the voyage, not knowing where to turn because
+the coffers of the state were empty, put her jewels in pawn."
+
+"Yes: well?" I demanded impatiently; and, divining the answer, felt my
+heart beat faster the while.
+
+"Well," replied the sacristan, "that is the box in which the queen
+locked her jewels to send them to be pawned."
+
+And so saying he opened the cupboard and took out the box and handed it
+to me.
+
+Oh! brave men may say what they will; as for me, there are things that
+make me tremble and weep. I have touched the box that contained the
+treasure by which Columbus was enabled to discover America. Every time
+I repeat those words my blood is stirred, and I add, "I have touched it
+with these hands," and I look at my hands.
+
+That cupboard contains also the sword of King Ferdinand, the crown and
+sceptre of Isabella, a missal and some other ornaments of the king and
+queen.
+
+We entered the chapel. Between the altar and a great iron chancel that
+separates it from the remaining space stand two great mausoleums of
+marble adorned with statuettes and bas-reliefs of great value. Upon
+one of them lie the statues of Ferdinand and Isabella in their royal
+robes, with crown, sword, and sceptre; on the other the statues of the
+other two princes of Spain, and around the statues lions, angels, and
+arms, and various ornaments, presenting a regal appearance, austere and
+magnificent.
+
+The sacristan lighted a flambeau, and, pointing out a sort of trap-door
+in the pavement between the two mausoleums, asked me to open it and
+descend into the subterranean chamber. With the cicerone's aid I opened
+the trap-door; the sacristan descended, and I followed him down a
+narrow little staircase until we reached a little room. There were five
+caskets of lead, bound with iron bands, each sealed with two initials
+under a crown. The sacristan lowered the torch, and, touching all five
+of them, one after another, with his hand, said in a slow, solemn voice,
+
+"Here rests the great queen Isabella the Catholic.
+
+"Here rests the great king Ferdinand V.
+
+"Here rests the king Philip I.
+
+"Here rests Queen Joanna the Mad.
+
+"Here rests Lady Maria, her daughter, who died at the age of nine years.
+
+"God keep them all in his holy peace!"
+
+And, placing the torch on the ground, he crossed his arms and closed
+his eyes, as if to give me time for meditation.
+
+One would become a hunchback at his desk if he were to describe all
+the religious monuments of Granada--the stupendous Cartuja; the Monte
+Sacro, containing the grottoes of the martyrs; the church of San
+Geronimo, where the great leader Gonzalez di Cordova is buried; the
+convent of Santo Domingo, founded by Torquemada the Inquisitor; the
+convent of the Angels, containing paintings by Cano and Murillo and
+many others; but I suppose that my readers may be even more weary than
+I am, and will consequently pardon me for passing by a mountain of
+description which probably would only give them a confused idea of the
+things described.
+
+But as I have mentioned the sepulchre of the great commander, Gonzalez
+di Cordova, I cannot forbear translating a curious document in
+reference to him which was shown me in the church of San Geronimo by a
+sacristan who was an admirer of the deeds of that hero. The document,
+in the form of an anecdote, is as follows:
+
+"Every step of the great captain Don Gonzalez di Cordova was an
+assault, and every assault a victory; his sepulchre in the convent of
+the Geronomites at Granada was adorned with two hundred banners which
+he had taken. His envious rivals, and the treasurers of the kingdom of
+Naples in particular, induced the king in 1506 to demand a statement
+from Gonzalez of the use he had made of the great sums received from
+Spain for the conduct of the war in Italy; and, in fact, the king was
+so small as to consent, and even to be present on the occasion of the
+conference.
+
+"Gonzalez acceded to the demand with the haughtiest disdain, and
+proposed to give a severe lesson to the treasurers and the king upon
+the treatment and consideration to be accorded a conqueror of kingdoms.
+
+"He replied with great indifference and calmness that he would prepare
+his accounts for the following day, and would let it appear which was
+the debtor, himself or the exchequer, which demanded an account of one
+hundred and thirty thousand ducats delivered upon the first payment,
+eighty thousand crowns upon the second, three millions upon the third,
+eleven millions upon the fourth, thirteen millions upon the fifth,
+and so on as the solemn, nasal, foolish secretary who authorized so
+important an act continued to enumerate the sums.
+
+"The great Gonzalez kept his word, presented himself at the second
+audience, and, bringing out a voluminous book in which he had noted his
+justification, he began with the following words in a deep, sonorous
+voice:
+
+"'Two hundred thousand seven hundred and thirty-six ducats and nine
+reales to the fathers, the nuns, and the poor, to the end that they
+might pray God for the triumph of the Spanish arms.
+
+"'One hundred thousand ducats for powder and shot.
+
+"'Ten thousand ducats for perfumed gloves to protect the soldiers from
+the stench of the corpses of the enemy left on the field of battle.
+
+"'One hundred and seventy thousand ducats for renewing bells worn out
+by continuous ringing for constant new victories over the enemy.
+
+"'Fifty thousand ducats for brandy for the soldiers on the day of
+battle.
+
+"'A million and a half ducats for the maintenance of the prisoners and
+wounded.
+
+"'A million for returning thanks and Te Deums to the Omnipotent.
+
+"'Three hundred millions in masses for the dead.
+
+"'Seven hundred thousand four hundred and ninety-four ducats for spies
+and ...
+
+"'One hundred millions for the patience which I showed yesterday on
+hearing that the king demanded an account from the man who has given
+him his kingdom.'
+
+"These are the celebrated accounts of the great captain, the originals
+of which are in the possession of Count d'Altimira.
+
+"One of the original accounts, with the autograph seal of the great
+captain, exists in the Military Museum of London, where it is guarded
+with great care."
+
+On reading this document I returned to the hotel, making invidious
+comparisons between Gonzalez di Cordova and the Spanish generals of our
+times, which, for grave state reasons, as they say in the tragedies, I
+dare not repeat.
+
+In the hotel I saw something new every day. There were many university
+students who had come from Malaga and other Andalusian cities to take
+the examination for the doctor's degree at Granada, whether because
+they were a little easier there or for what other reason I do not
+know. We all ate at a round table. One morning at breakfast one of the
+students, a young man of about twenty, announced that at two o'clock
+he was to be examined in canon law, and that, not feeling very sure of
+himself, he had decided to take a glass of wine to refresh the springs
+of eloquence. He was accustomed to drink only wine weakened with water,
+and committed the imprudence of emptying at a single draught a glass
+of the vintage of Xerez. His face changed in an instant in so strange
+a manner that if I had not seen the transformation with my own eyes I
+should not have believed that he was the same person.
+
+"There! that is enough!" cried his friends.
+
+But the young man, who already felt that he had become suddenly strong,
+keen, and confident, cast a compassionate glance at his companions, and
+with a lordly gesture ordered the waiter to fetch him another glass.
+
+"You will be drunk," they said.
+
+His only response was to drain a second glass.
+
+Then he became wonderfully talkative. There was a score of persons
+at table: in a few minutes he was conversing with them all, and he
+revealed a thousand secrets of his past life and his plans for the
+future. He said that he was from Cadiz, that he had eight thousand
+francs a year to spend, and that he wished to devote himself to a
+diplomatic career, because with that revenue, added to something which
+his uncle would leave him, he should be able to cut a good figure
+wherever he might be; that he had decided to take a wife at thirty, and
+to marry a woman as tall as himself, because it was his opinion that
+the wife should be of the same stature as her husband, to keep either
+from getting the upper hand of the other; that when he was a boy he
+was in love with the daughter of an American consul as beautiful as a
+flower and strong as a pine, but she had a red birth-mark behind one
+ear, which looked badly, although she knew how to cover it very well
+with her scarf, and he showed us with his napkin how she covered it;
+and that Don Amadeus was too ingenuous a man to succeed in governing
+Spain; that of the poets Zorilla and Espronceda, he had always
+preferred Espronceda; that it would be folly to cede Cuba to America;
+that the examination on canon law made him laugh; and that he wished to
+drink another four fingers of Xerez, the finest wine in Europe.
+
+He drank a third glass in spite of the good counsel and disapprobation
+of his friends, and after prattling a little longer amid the laughter
+of his audience, he suddenly became silent, looked fixedly at a lady
+sitting opposite to him, dropped his head, and fell asleep. I thought
+that he could not present himself for the examination that day, but
+was mistaken. A short hour later they awakened him; he went up stairs
+to wash his face, ran off to the university still drowsy, took his
+examination, and was promoted, to the greater glory of the wine of
+Xerez and Spanish diplomacy.
+
+I devoted the following days to visiting the monuments, or, to be
+more accurate, the ruins of the Moorish monuments which besides the
+Alhambra and the Generalife attest the ancient splendor of Granada.
+Insomuch as it was the last bulwark of Islam, Granada is the city which
+presents the most numerous relics of all the cities of Spain. On the
+hill called the hill of _Dinadamar_ (the Fountain of Tears) one may
+still see the ruins of four towers rising at the four corners of a
+great cistern into which flowed the waters from the Sierra to supply
+the highest part of the city. There were baths, gardens, and villas of
+which not a trace remains: from that point one overlooked the city with
+its minarets, its terraces, and its mosques gleaming among the palms
+and cypresses. Near there one sees a Moorish gate called the gate of
+Elvira--a great arch crowned with battlements--and beyond it are the
+ruins of the palaces of the caliphs. Near the Alameda promenade stands
+a square tower in which there is a great hall ornamented with the usual
+Arabian inscriptions. Near the convent of San Domingo are the remains
+of gardens and palaces once joined to the Alhambra by a subterranean
+passage. Within the city is the Alcaiceria, a Moorish market almost
+perfectly preserved, formed of a few little streets as straight and
+narrow as corridors, lined with two rows of shops, one adjoining the
+other, and presenting the strange appearance of an Asiatic bazaar.
+In short, one cannot take a step in Granada without coming face to
+face with an arch, an arabesque, a column, or a pile of stones which
+suggests its fantastic, luxurious past.
+
+What turns and windings have I not made through those tortuous streets
+at the hottest hour of the day, under a sun that shrivelled my brain,
+without meeting a living soul! At Granada, as in the other cities of
+Andalusia, the people are alive only at night, and the night repays
+them for the imprisonment of the day; the public promenades are crowded
+and confused by the hurry and jostling of a multitude, one half of
+which seems to be seeking the other half upon urgent business. The
+crowd is densest in the Alameda, but, for all that, I spent my evenings
+on the Alameda with Gongora, who talked to me of Moorish monuments, and
+with a journalist who discoursed on politics, and also with another
+young man who talked of women, and frequently with all three of them
+together, to my infinite pleasure, because those cheery meetings, like
+those of school-boys, at odd times and places, refreshed my mind, to
+steal a beautiful simile, like a summer shower refreshes the grass as
+it falls faster and faster, dancing for joy.
+
+If I were obliged to say something about the people of Granada, I
+should be embarrassed, because I have not seen them. In the day-time
+I met no one in the streets, and at night I could not see them. The
+theatres were not open, and when I might have found some one in the
+city I was wandering through the halls or avenues of the Alhambra; and
+then I had so much to do to see everything in the short time which I
+had allowed myself that no unoccupied moments remained for those chance
+conversations, like the ones I had in the other cities, in the streets
+and the cafés, with whomever I happened to meet.
+
+But from what I learned from men who were in a position to give me
+trustworthy information, the people of Granada do not enjoy an enviable
+reputation in Spain. They are said to be ill-tempered, violent,
+vindictive, and bloodthirsty; and this arraignment is not disproved by
+the pages of the city newspapers. It is not publicly stated, but every
+one knows it for a fact, that popular instruction in Granada is at a
+lower ebb than even in Seville and the other smaller Spanish cities,
+and, as a rule, everything that cannot be produced by the sun and the
+soil, which produce so bountifully, goes to the bad, either through
+indolence or ignorance or shiftlessness. Granada is not connected
+by railway with any important city: she lives alone, surrounded by
+her gardens, enclosed by her mountains, happy with the fruits which
+Nature produces under her hand, gently lulling herself to sleep in the
+vanity of her beauty and the pride of her history--idle, drowsy, and
+fanciful, content to answer with a yawn to any one who reproves her
+for her condition: "I gave Spain the painter Alonzo Cano, the poet
+Louis de Leon, the historian Fernando de Castillo, the sacred orator
+Luis di Grenada, and the minister Martinez de la Rosas. I have paid
+my debt, leave me in peace;" and this is the reply made by almost all
+the southern cities of Spain, more beautiful, alas! than wise and
+industrious, and proud rather than civilized. Ah! one who has seen them
+can never have done exclaiming, "What a pity!"
+
+"Now that you have seen all the marvels of Moorish art and tropical
+vegetation there remains the suburb of the Albaicin to be seen before
+you can say that you know Granada. Prepare your mind for a new world,
+put your hand on your purse, and follow me."
+
+So said Gongora to me on the last evening of my sojourn in Granada.
+A Republican journalist was with us, Melchiorre Almago by name, the
+director of the _Idea_, a congenial, affable young man, who to
+accompany us sacrificed his dinner and a leading article that he had
+been cogitating since morning.
+
+We walked on until we came to the square of the _Audiencia_. There
+Gongora pointed out an alley winding up a hill, and said to me, "Here
+commences the Albaicin;" and Señor Melchiorre, touching a house with
+his cane, added, "Here commences the territory of the republic."
+
+We turned up the alley, passed from it into another, and from that into
+a third, always ascending, without my seeing anything extraordinary,
+although I looked curiously in every direction. Narrow streets, squalid
+houses, old women dozing on the doorsteps, mothers carefully inspecting
+their children's heads, gaping dogs, crowing cocks, ragged boys running
+and shouting, and the other things that one always sees in the suburbs;
+but in those streets nothing more. But gradually, as we ascended, the
+appearance of the houses and the people began to change; the roofs
+became lower, the windows fewer, the doors smaller, and the people more
+ragged. In the middle of every street ran a little stream in a walled
+gutter, in the Moorish style; here and there over the doors and around
+the windows one saw the remains of arabesques and fragments of columns,
+and in the corners of the squares fountains and well-curbs of the time
+of the Moorish dominion. At every hundred steps it seemed as if we had
+gone back fifty years toward the age of the caliphs. My two companions
+touched me on the elbow from time to time, saying as they did so, "Look
+at that old woman!"--"Look at that little girl!"--"Look at that man!"
+and I looked, and asked, "Who are these people?" If I had unexpectedly
+found myself in that place, I should have believed on seeing those men
+and women that I was in an African village, so strange were the faces,
+the dress, the manner of moving, talking, and looking, at so short a
+distance from the centre of Granada--so different were they from the
+people that I had seen up to that time. At every turn I stopped to look
+in the face of my companions, and they answered, "That is nothing; we
+are now in the civilized part of the Albaicin; this is the Parisian
+quarter of the suburb; let us go on."
+
+We went on, and the streets seemed like the bed of a torrent--paths
+hollowed out among the rocks, all banks and gullies, broken and
+stony--some so steep that a mule could not climb them, others so narrow
+that a man could scarcely pass; some blocked by women and children
+sitting on the ground, others grass-grown and deserted; and all so
+squalid, wild, and uncouth that the most wretched of our villages
+cannot give one an idea of them, because this is a poverty that bears
+the impress of another race and another continent. We turned into a
+labyrinth of streets, passing from time to time under a great Moorish
+arch or through a high square from which one commanded a view of the
+wide valleys, the snow-covered mountains, and a part of the lower city,
+until finally we arrived at a street rougher and narrower than any we
+had yet seen; and there we stopped to take breath.
+
+"Here commences the real Albaicin," said the young archeologist. "Look
+at that house!"
+
+I looked; it was a low, smoke-stained, ruinous house, with a door that
+seemed like the mouth of a cavern, before which one saw, under a mass
+of rags, a group, or rather a heap, of old women and little children,
+who upon our approach raised their eyes heavy with sleep, and with bony
+hands removed from the threshold some filth which impeded our passage.
+
+"Let us enter," said my friend.
+
+"Enter?" I demanded.
+
+If they had told me that beyond those walls there was a facsimile of
+the famous Court of Miracles which Victor Hugo has described, I should
+not have doubted their word. No door has ever said more emphatically
+than that, "Stand back!" I cannot find a better comparison than the
+gaping mouth of a gigantic witch breathing out pestilential vapors. But
+I took courage and entered.
+
+Oh, marvellous! It was the court of a Moorish house surrounded by
+graceful little columns surmounted by lovely arches, with those
+indescribable traceries of the Alhambra along the porticoes and around
+the mullioned windows, with the beams and ceiling carved and enamelled
+with little niches for vases of flowers and urns of perfume, with a
+pool in the middle, and all the traces and memorials of the delicate
+life of an opulent family. And in that house lived those wretched
+people!
+
+We went out and entered other houses, in all of which I found some
+fragments of Moorish architecture and sculpture. From time to time
+Gongora would say to me, "This was a harem. Those were the baths of
+the women; up yonder was the chamber of a favorite;" and I fixed my
+eyes upon every bit of the arabesqued wall and upon all the little
+columns of the windows, as if to ask them for a revelation of their
+secrets--only a name or a magic word with which I might reconstruct in
+an instant the ruined edifice and summon the beautiful Arabians who had
+dwelt there. But, alas! amid the columns and under the arches of the
+windows there were only rags and wrinkled faces.
+
+Among other houses, we entered one where we found a group of girls
+sewing under the shade of a tree in the courtyard, directed by an old
+woman. They were all working upon a great piece of cloth that seemed
+like a mat or a bed-spread, in black and gray stripes. I approached and
+asked one of the girls, "What is this?"
+
+They all looked up and with a concerted movement spread the cloth open,
+so that I could see their work plainly. Almost before I had seen it I
+cried, "I will buy it."
+
+They all began to laugh. It was the mantle of an Andalusian
+mountaineer, made to wear in the saddle, rectangular in form, with
+an opening in the middle to put one's head through, embroidered in
+bright-colored worsteds along the two shortest sides and around the
+opening. The design of the embroideries, which represented birds
+and fantastic flowers, green, blue, white, red, and yellow, all in
+a mass, was as crude as a pattern a child might make: the beauty of
+the work lay altogether in the harmony of the colors, which was truly
+marvellous. I cannot express the sensation produced by the sight of
+that mantle, except by saying that it laughed and filled one with its
+cheerfulness; and it seems to me impossible to imagine anything gayer,
+more festive, or more childishly and gracefully capricious. It was a
+thing to look upon in order to bring yourself out of a bad humor, or
+when you wish to write a pretty verse in a lady's album, or when you
+are expecting a person whom you wish to receive with your brightest
+smile.
+
+"When will you finish these embroideries?" I asked one of the girls.
+
+"_Hoy mismo_" (to-day), they all replied in chorus.
+
+"And what is the mantle worth?"
+
+"_Cinco_" (five), stammered one.
+
+The old women pierced her with a glance which seemed to say,
+"Blockhead!" and answered hastily, "Six _duros_."
+
+Six _duros_ are thirty francs; it did not seem much to me, and I put my
+hand in my pocket.
+
+Gongora cast a withering glance at me which seemed to say, "You
+simpleton!" and, drawing me back by the arm, said, "One moment: six
+_duros_ is an exorbitant price."
+
+The old woman shot him another glance which seemed to say, "Brigand!"
+and replied, "I cannot take less."
+
+Gongora gave her another glance, which seemed to say, "Liar!" and said,
+"Come, now; you can take four _duros_; you would not ask more from the
+country-people."
+
+The old woman insisted, and for a while we continued to exchange with
+our eyes the titles of simpleton, swindler, marplot, liar, pinch-penny,
+spend-thrift, until the mantle was sold to me for five duros, and I
+paid and left my address, and we went out blessed and commended to
+God by the old woman and followed a good way by the black eyes of the
+embroiderers.
+
+We went on from street to street, among houses increasingly wretched
+and growing blacker and blacker, and more revolting rags and faces. But
+we never came to the end, and I asked my companions, "Will you have the
+goodness to tell me if Granada has any limits, and if so where they
+are? May one ask where we are going and how we shall return home?" But
+they simply laughed and went forward.
+
+"Is there anything stranger than this to be seen?" I asked at a certain
+point.
+
+"Stranger?" they both replied. "This second part of the suburb which
+you have seen still belongs to civilization: if not the Parisian, it is
+at least the Madrid, quarter of the Albaicin, and there _is_ something
+else; let us go on."
+
+We passed through a very small street containing some scantily-clothed
+women, who looked like people fallen from the moon; crossed a little
+square full of babies and pigs in friendly confusion; passed through
+two or three other alleys, now climbing, now descending, now in the
+midst of houses, now among piles of rubbish, now between trees and
+now among rocks, until we finally arrived at the solitary place on a
+hillside from which we saw in front the Generalife, to the right the
+Alhambra, and below a deep valley filled with a dense wood.
+
+It was growing dark; no one was in sight and not a voice was heard.
+
+"Is this the end of the suburb?" I asked.
+
+My two companions laughed and said, "Look in that direction."
+
+[Illustration: _The Alhambra and the Valley of the Darro_]
+
+I turned and saw along the street that was lost in a distant grove
+an interminable row of houses. Of houses? Rather of dens dug in the
+earth, with a bit of wall in front, with holes for windows and
+crevices for doors, and wild plants of every sort on top and along
+the sides--veritable caves of beasts, in which by the glow of faint
+lights, scarcely visible, swarmed the gypsies by hundreds; a people
+multiplying in the bowels of the mountain, poorer, blacker, and more
+savage than any seen before; another city, unknown to the greater part
+of Granada, inaccessible to the police, closed to the census-officers,
+ignorant of every law and of all government, living one knows not
+how, how numerous no one knows, foreign to the city, to Spain, and to
+modern civilization, with a language and statutes and manners of their
+own--superstitious, false, thieving, beggarly, and fierce.
+
+"Button up your coat and look out for your watch," said Gongora to me,
+"and let us go forward."
+
+We had not taken a hundred steps when a half-naked boy, black as the
+walls of his hovel, ran out, gave a cry, and, making a sign to the
+other boys who followed him, dashed toward us; behind the boys came the
+women; behind the women the men, and then old men, old women, and more
+children; and in less time than it takes to tell it we were surrounded
+by a crowd. My two friends, recognized as Granadines, succeeded in
+saving themselves; I was left in the lurch. I can still see those
+horrid faces, still hear those voices, and still feel the pressure of
+those hands: gesticulating, shouting, saying a thousand things which I
+did not understand; dragging at my coat, my waistcoat, and my sleeves,
+they pressed upon me like a pack of famished people, breathed in my
+face, and cut off my very breath. They were, for the most part, half
+naked and emaciated--their garments falling in tatters, with unkempt
+hair, horrible to see; I seemed to be like Don Roderick in the midst of
+a crowd of the infected in that famous dream of the August night.
+
+"What do these people want?" I asked myself. "Where have I been
+brought? How shall I get out of this?" I felt almost a sense of fear,
+and looked around uneasily. Little by little I began to understand.
+
+"I have a sore on my shoulder," said one; "I cannot work; give me a
+penny."
+
+"I have a broken leg," said another.
+
+"I have a palsied arm."
+
+"I have had a long sickness."
+
+"_Un cuarto, Señorito!_"
+
+"_Un real, caballero!_"
+
+"_Una peseta para todos!_"
+
+This last request was received with a general cry of approval: "_Una
+peseta para todos!_" (a _peseta_ for us all).
+
+With some little trepidation I drew out my purse; they all stood on
+tiptoe; the nearest poked their chins into it; those behind put their
+chins on the heads of those in front; the farthest stretched out their
+arms.
+
+"One moment," I cried. "Who has the most authority among you all?"
+
+They all replied with one voice, stretching out their arms toward the
+same person, "That one."
+
+It was a terrible old hag, all nose and chin, with a great tuft of
+white hair standing straight above her head like a bunch of feathers,
+and a mouth which seemed like a letter-box, with little clothing save a
+chemise--black, shrivelled, and mummified; she approached me bowing and
+smiling, and held out her hands to take mine.
+
+"What do you want?" I demanded, taking a step backward.
+
+"Your fortune," they all cried.
+
+"Tell my fortune, then," I replied, holding out my hand.
+
+The old woman took my poor hand between her ten--I cannot say fingers,
+but shapeless bones--placed her sharp nose on it, raised her head,
+looked hard at me, pointed her finger toward me, and, swaying and
+pausing at every sentence as if she were reciting poetry, said to me in
+inspired accents, "Thou wert born upon a famous day.
+
+"Upon a famous day also shalt thou die.
+
+"Thou art the possessor of amazing riches."
+
+Here she muttered I know not what about sweethearts and marriage and
+felicity, from which I understood that she supposed I was married,
+and then she continued: "On the day of thy marriage there was great
+feasting in thy house; there were many to give and take.
+
+"And another woman wept.
+
+"And when thou seest her the wings of thy heart open."
+
+And so on in this strain, saying that I had sweethearts and friends
+and treasures and jewels in store for me every day of the year, in
+every country of the world. While the old woman was speaking they
+were all silent, as if they believed she had prophesied truly. She
+finally closed her prophecy with a formula of dismissal, and ended the
+formula by extending her arms and making a skip in a dancing attitude.
+I gave her the peseta, and the crowd broke into shouting, applause,
+and singing, making a thousand uncanny hops and gestures around me,
+saluting me with nudges and slaps of the hand on my back, as if I were
+an old friend, until finally, by dint of wriggling and striking now
+one and then another, I succeeded in opening a passage and rejoined
+my friends. But a new danger threatened us. The news of the arrival
+of a foreigner had spread, the tribes were in motion, the city of the
+gypsies was all in an uproar; from the neighboring houses and from the
+distant huts, from the top of the hill and the bottom of the valley,
+ran boys, women with babies about their necks, old men with canes,
+cripples, and professional imposters, septuagenarian prophetesses who
+wished to tell my fortune--an army of beggars coming upon us from every
+direction. It was night; there was no time for hesitation; we broke
+into a run toward the city like school-boys. Then a devilish cry broke
+out behind us, and the nimblest began to chase us. Thanks to Heaven!
+after a short race we found ourselves in safety--tired and breathless,
+and covered with dust, but safe.
+
+"It was necessary to escape at any cost," said Señor Melchiorre with a
+laugh; "otherwise we should have gone home without our shirts."
+
+"And take notice," added Gongora, "that we have seen only the door of
+Gypsy-town, the civilized part, not the Paris nor the Madrid, but at
+least the Granada, of the Albaicin. If we could only have gone on! if
+you could have seen the rest!"
+
+"But how many thousand are there of those people?" I demanded.
+
+"No one knows."
+
+"How do they live?"
+
+"No one can imagine."
+
+"What authority do they recognize?"
+
+"One only--_los reyes_ (the kings), the heads of families or of houses,
+those who have the most money and years. They never go out of their
+city; they know nothing, they live in the dark as to all that happens
+beyond the circle of their hovels. Dynasties fall, governments change,
+armies clash, and it is a miracle if the news ever reaches their ears.
+Ask them if Isabella is still on the throne; they do not know. Ask
+them who Amadeus is; they have never heard his name. They are born
+and perish like flies, and they live as they lived centuries ago,
+multiplying without leaving their own boundaries, ignorant and unknown,
+seeing nothing all their lives beyond the valleys lying below their
+feet and the Alhambra towering above their heads."
+
+We passed again through all the streets that we had traversed, now
+dark and deserted, and endless as it seemed to me; and, climbing and
+descending, turning and twisting, and turning again, we finally arrived
+at the square of the Audiencia in the middle of the city of Granada--in
+the civilized world. At the sight of the brightly-lighted cafés and
+shops I experienced a feeling of pleasure, as if I had just returned to
+city-life after a year's sojourn in an uninhabited wilderness.
+
+On the evening of the next day I left for Valencia. I remember that a
+few moments before starting, as I was paying my hotel-bill, I observed
+to the proprietor that there was an overcharge for one candle, and
+playfully asked him, "Will you deduct it for me?" The proprietor seized
+his pen, and, deducting twenty centimes from the total charge, replied
+in a voice which he wished to appear emotional, "The devil! among
+Italians!"
+
+
+
+
+VALENCIA.
+
+
+The journey from Granada to Valencia, made all _de un tiron_ (at one
+breath), as they say in Spain, is one of those recreations in which a
+rational man indulges only once in his life. From Granada to Menjibar,
+a village on the left bank of the Guadalquivir, between Jaen and
+Andujar, is a night's ride by diligence; from Menjibar to the Alcazar
+de San Juan is a half-day's journey by railway in an uncurtained
+carriage, through a plain as bare as the palm of one's hand, under
+a blazing sun; and from the Alcazar de San Juan to Valencia, taking
+account of an entire evening spent in the station of the Alcazar, makes
+another night and another morning before one reaches the longed-for
+city at noon, where Nature, as Emile Praga would say, is horrified at
+the dreadful idea that there are still four months of summer.
+
+But it must be said that the country through which one passes is
+so beautiful from beginning to the end that if one were capable of
+appreciation when one is dead with sleep and finds one's self turning
+into water by reason of the heat, one would go into ecstasies a
+thousand times. It is a journey of unexpected landscapes, sudden
+vistas, remarkable contrasts, theatrical effects of Nature, so to
+speak--marvellous and fantastic transformations, which leave in the
+mind an indescribable, vague illusion of having passed not through a
+part of Spain, but along an entire meridian of the earth across the
+most dissimilar countries. From the _vega_ of Granada, which you cross
+in the moonlight, almost opening a way among the groves and gardens,
+in the midst of a luxuriant vegetation that seems to crowd around
+you like a tossing sea, ready to overflow and engulf you with its
+billows of verdure,--from this you emerge into the midst of ragged
+and precipitous mountains, where not a trace of human habitation is
+to be seen; you graze the edge of precipices, wind along the banks of
+mountain-torrents, run along at the bottom of the ravines, and seem to
+be lost in a rocky labyrinth. Then you come out a second time among
+the green hills and flowery fields of upper Andalusia, and then, all
+suddenly, the fields and hills disappear and you find yourself in the
+midst of the rocky mountains of the Sierra Morena, that hang over
+your head from every direction and close the horizon all around like
+the walls of an immense abyss. You leave the Sierra Morena, and the
+desert plains of La Mancha stretch before you; you leave La Mancha and
+advance through the flowery plain of Almansa, varied by every sort of
+cultivation, presenting the appearance of a vast carpet of checkered
+pattern colored in all the shades of green that can be found upon the
+pallet of a landscape-painter. And, finally, the plain of Almansa opens
+into a delightful oasis, a land blest of God, a true earthly paradise,
+the kingdom of Valencia, from whose boundaries, even to the city
+itself, you pass through gardens, vineyards, fragrant orange-groves,
+white villas encircled by terraces, cheerful, brightly-colored
+villages, clusters, avenues, and groves of palms, pomegranates,
+aloes, and sugar-canes, interminable hedges of Indian fig, long
+chains of low hills, and conical mounds cultivated as kitchen-gardens
+and flower-beds, laid out with minute care from top to bottom, and
+variegated like great bunches of grass and flowers; and everywhere a
+vigorous vegetation which hides every bare spot, covers every height,
+clothes every projection, climbs, falls, trails along, marches forward,
+overflows, intertwines, shuts off the view, impedes the road, dazzles
+with its verdure, wearies with its beauty, confounds with its caprices
+and its frolics, and produces an effect as of a sudden parting of the
+earth raised to fever heat by the fires of a secret volcano.
+
+The first building which meets the eye on entering Valencia is an
+immense bull-ring situated to the right of the railway. The building
+consists of four orders of superimposed arches rising on stout
+pilasters, all of brick, and in the distance resembling the Colosseum.
+It is the bull-ring where on the fourth of September, 1871, King
+Amadeus, in the presence of thousands of spectators, shook hands with
+Tato, the celebrated one-legged _torero_, who as director of the
+spectacle had asked permission to render his homage in the royal box.
+Valencia is full of mementos of the duke d'Aosta. The sacristan of the
+cathedral has in his possession a gold chronometer bearing the duke's
+initials in diamonds, with a chain of pearls, which was presented by
+him when he went to pray in the chapel of Our Lady of the Desolate.
+In the hospice of the same name the poor remember that one day they
+received their daily bread from his hand. In the mosaic workshop of
+one Nolla they preserve two bricks, upon one of which he cut his own
+name with his sword, and upon the other the name of the queen. In the
+Plaza di Tetuan the people point out the house of Count di Cervellon,
+where he was entertained; it is the same house in which Ferdinand
+VII. signed the decrees annulling the constitution in 1814, in which
+Queen Christina abdicated the throne in 1840, in which Queen Isabella
+spent some days in 1858. In short, there is not a corner of the city
+of which it cannot be said, Here he shook hands with a working-man,
+here he visited a factory, there he passed on foot far from his suite,
+surrounded by a crowd, trustful, serene, and smiling.
+
+It was in Valencia, since I am speaking of the duke d'Aosta,--it was
+in the city of Valencia that a little girl of five years in reciting
+some verses touched upon that terrible subject of a _foreign king_
+with probably the noblest and most considerate words spoken in Spain
+for many years previous to that time--words which, if all Spain had
+remembered and pondered then, would perhaps have spared her many of
+those calamities which have befallen her, and others which still
+threaten; words which perhaps one day some Spaniard may repeat with
+a sigh, and which already at this time draw from events a marvellous
+light of truth and beauty. And, since these verses are graceful and
+simple, I transcribe them here. The poem is entitled "God and the
+King," and runs as follows:
+
+    "Dios, en todo soberano,
+    Creó un dia á los mortales,
+    Y á todos nos hizo iguales
+    Con su poderosa mano.
+
+    "No reconoció Naciones
+    Ni colores ni matices?
+    Y en ver los hombres felices
+    Cifró sus aspiraciones.
+
+    "El Rey, che su imágen es,
+    Su bondad debe imitar
+    Y el pueblo no ha de indagar
+    Si es aleman ó francés.
+
+    "Porqué con ceño iracundo
+    Rechazarle siendo bueno?
+    Un Rey de bondades lleno
+    Tiene por su patria el mundo.
+
+    "Vino de nacion estraña
+    Cárlos Quinto emperador,
+    Y conquistó su valor
+    Mil laureles para España.
+
+    "Y es un recuerdo glorioso
+    Aunque en guerra cimentado,
+    El venturoso reinado
+    De Felipe el Animoso.
+
+    "Hoy el tercero sois vos
+    Nacido en estraño suelo
+    Que viene á ver nuestro cielo
+    Puro destello de Dios.
+
+    "Al rayo de nuestro sol
+    Sed bueno, justo y leal,
+    Que á un Rey bueno y liberal
+    Adora el pueblo español.
+
+    "Y á vuestra frente el trofeo
+    Ceñid de perpetua gloria,
+    Para que diga la historia
+    --Fué grande el Rey Amadeo."
+
+"God, Ruler over all, created mortals one day, and made all equal
+with His mighty hand. He recognized neither nations nor colors nor
+divisions, and to behold men happy was His desire. The king, who is His
+image, ought to imitate His goodness, and the people have no need to
+ask whether he be German or French. Why, then, with angry frown repulse
+him if he be good? A king abounding in good deeds holds the world as
+his country. Charles V., the emperor, came from a foreign nation, and
+by his valor won a thousand laurels for Spain. And the fortunate reign
+of Philip the Courageous is a glorious memory even though founded upon
+war.
+
+"To-day a third king rules you born on a foreign soil, who comes to
+look upon our sky, a clear spark of God. His love is true and just and
+loyal to the light of our sun, and this is a good and liberal king
+Spanish people adore. And around your brows you shall wear the trophy
+of perpetual glory upon which history shall write, 'Great was King
+Amadeus.'"
+
+Oh, poor little girl! how many wise things you have said! and how many
+foolish things others have done!
+
+The city of Valencia, if one enters it with one's mind full of the
+ballads in which the poets sang of its marvels, does not seem to
+correspond to the lovely image formed of it; neither, on the other
+hand, does it offer that sinister appearance for which one is prepared
+if one considers its just fame as a turbulent, warlike city, the
+fomenter of civil strife--a city prouder of the smell of its powder
+than of the fragrance of its orange-groves. It is a city built in the
+midst of a vast flowery plain on the right bank of the Guadalquivir,
+which separates it from the suburbs, a little way from the roadstead
+which serves as a port, and consists all of tortuous streets lined with
+high, ungainly, many-colored houses, and on this account less pleasing
+in appearance than the streets of the Andalusian cities, and entirely
+devoid of that evasive Oriental grace which so strangely stirs one's
+fancy. Along the left bank of the river extends a magnificent promenade
+formed of majestic avenues and beautiful gardens. These one reaches by
+going out of the city through the gate of the Cid, a structure flanked
+by two great embattled towers named after the hero because he passed
+through it in 1094 after he had expelled the Moors from Valencia. The
+cathedral, built upon the spot where stood a temple of Diana in Roman
+times, then a church of San Salvador in the time of the Goths, then
+a mosque in Moorish times, afterward converted into a church by the
+Cid, changed a second time into a mosque by the Moors in 1101, and
+for the third time into a church by King Don Jayme after the final
+overthrow of the invaders, is a vast structure, exceedingly rich in
+ornaments and treasures, but it cannot bear comparison with the greater
+number of the other Spanish cathedrals. There are a few palaces worth
+seeing, besides the palace of the Audiencia, a beautiful monument of
+the sixteenth century in which the Cortes of the kingdom of Valencia
+assembled; the _Casa de Ayuntamiento_, built between the fifteenth and
+sixteenth centuries, in which are preserved the sword of Don Jayme, the
+keys of the city, and the banner of the Moors; and, above all, _the
+Lonja_--the Bourse of the merchants--notable for its celebrated hall
+consisting of three great naves divided by twenty-four spiral columns,
+above which curve the light arches of the vaulted roof in bold lines,
+the architecture imparting to the eye a pleasing impression of gayety
+and harmony. And, finally, there is the art-gallery, which is not one
+of the least in Spain.
+
+But, to tell the truth, in those few days that I remained at Valencia
+waiting for the boat I was more occupied by politics than by art. And
+I proved the truth of the words I heard an illustrious Italian say
+before I left Italy--one who knew Spain like his his own home: "The
+foreigner who lives even for a short time in Spain is drawn little
+by little, almost insensibly, to heat his blood and muddle his brain
+over politics, as if Spain were his own country or as if the fortunes
+of his country were depending upon those of Spain. The passions are
+so inflamed, the struggle is so furious, and in this struggle there
+is always so clearly at stake the future, the safety, and the life of
+the nation, that it is impossible for any one with the least tinge
+of the Latin blood in his imagination and his system to remain an
+indifferent spectator. You must needs grow excited, speak at party
+meetings, take the elections seriously, mingle with the crowd at the
+political demonstrations, break with your friends, form a clique of
+those who think as you think--make, in a word, a Spaniard of yourself,
+even to the whites of your eyes. And gradually, as you become Spanish,
+you forget Europe, as if it were at the antipodes, and end in seeing
+nothing beyond Spain, as if you were governing it, and as if all its
+interests were in your hands."
+
+Such is the case, and this was my experience. In those few days the
+Conservative ministry was shipwrecked and the Radicals had the wind
+behind them. Spain was all in a ferment; governors, generals, officials
+of all grades and of all administrations fell; a crowd of parvenus
+burst into the offices of the ministry with cries of joy: Zorilla was
+to inaugurate a new era of prosperity and peace; Don Amadeus had had an
+inspiration from heaven; liberty had conquered; Spain was saved. And
+I, as I listened to the band playing in front of the new governor's
+mansion under a clear starry sky in the midst of a joyous crowd,--I too
+had a ray of hope that the throne of Don Amadeus might finally extend
+its roots, and reproached myself for being too prone to predict evil.
+And that comedy which Zorilla played at his villa when he would by no
+means accept the presidency of the ministry, and sent back his friends
+and the members of the deputation, and finally, tired of continually
+saying no, fell into a swoon on saying yes, this, I say, gave me at
+the time a high opinion of the firmness of his character and led me to
+augur happily for the new government. And I said to myself that it was
+a sin to leave Spain just when the horizon was clearing and the royal
+palace of Madrid was tinted rose-color. And I had already considered
+the plan of returning to Madrid that I might have the satisfaction
+of sending some consoling news to Italy, and so be pardoned for the
+imprudence of sending unvarnished accounts of the situation up to that
+time. And I repeated the verses of Prati:
+
+    "Oh qual destin t'aspetta
+    Aquila giovenetta!"
+
+(Oh what a destiny awaits thee, young eagle!) And, save a little
+bombast in the appellation, it seemed to me that they contained a
+prophecy, and I imagined meeting the poet in the Piazza Colonna at
+Rome and running toward him to offer my congratulations and press his
+hand....
+
+The most beautiful sight in Valencia is the market. The Valencian
+peasants are the most artistic and bizarre in their dress of all the
+peasants of Spain. To cut a good figure in a group of maskers at one
+of our masquerades they need only enter the theatre dressed as they
+would be on a festival or market-day in the streets of Valencia and
+along the country roads. On first seeing them dressed in this style,
+one laughs, and cannot in any way be brought to believe that they are
+Spanish peasants. They have an indescribable air of Greeks, Bedouins,
+buffoons, tightrope-walkers, women partly undressed on their way to
+bed, the silent characters of a play not quite ready to make their
+appearance, or facetious people who wish to make themselves generally
+ridiculous. They wear a full white shirt that takes the place of a
+jacket; a parti-colored velvet waistcoat open at the breast; a pair of
+zouave linen breeches which do not reach the knee, looking like drawers
+and standing out like the skirts of a ballet-dancer; a red or blue sash
+around the waist; a sort of embroidered white woollen stockings that
+leave the knee bare; a pair of corded sandals like those of the Catalan
+peasants; and on their heads, which are almost all shaved like those
+of the Chinese, they wear a handkerchief, red, sky-blue, yellow, or
+white, bound around like a cornucopia, and knotted at the temples or
+at the nape of the neck. They sometimes wear small velvet hats similar
+in shape to those worn in the other provinces of Spain. When they go
+into the city they nearly all carry around their shoulders or on their
+arms, now like a shawl, now like a mantle, or again like a little
+cape, a woollen _capa_, long and narrow, in brightly-colored stripes
+in which white and red predominate, adorned with fringe and rosettes.
+One may easily imagine the appearance presented by a square where there
+are gathered some hundreds of men dressed after this fashion: it is a
+Carnival scene, a festival, a tumult of colors, that makes one feel as
+gay as a band of music; a spectacle at once clownish, pretty, imposing,
+and ridiculous, to which the haughty faces and the majestic bearing
+which distinguish the Valencian peasants add an air of gravity which
+heightens the extraordinary beauty of the scene.
+
+If there is an insolent, lying proverb, it is that old Spanish one
+which says, "In Valencia flesh is grass, grass is water, men are
+women, and the women nothing." Leaving that part about the flesh and
+the grass, which is a pun, the men, especially those of the lower
+classes, are tall and robust, and have the bold appearance of the
+Catalans and Arragonese, with a livelier and more luminous expression
+of the eye; and the women, by the consent of all the Spaniards and
+of as many foreigners as have travelled in Spain, are the most
+classically beautiful in the country. The Valencians, who know that
+the eastern coast of the Peninsula was originally settled by Greeks
+and Carthaginians, say, "It is a clear case. The Grecian type of
+beauty has lingered here." I do not venture to say yes or no to this
+assertion, for to describe the beauty of the women of a city where
+one has passed only a few hours would seem to me like a license to be
+taken only by the compiler of a "Guide." But one can easily discover
+a decided difference between the Andalusian and Valencian types of
+beauty. The Valencian is taller, more robust, and fairer, with more
+regular features, gentler eyes, and a more matronly walk and carriage.
+She does not possess the bewitching air of the Andalusian, which makes
+it necessary to bite one's finger as if to subdue the sudden and
+alarming insurrection of one's capricious desires at sight of her; but
+the Valencian is a woman whom one regards with a feeling of calmer
+admiration, and while one looks one says, as La Harpe said of the
+Apollo Belvidere, "_Notre tete se releve, notre maintien s'ennoblit_,"
+and instead of imagining a little Andalusian house to hide her from the
+eyes of the world, one longs for a marble palace to receive the ladies
+and cavaliers who will come to render her homage.
+
+If one is to believe the rest of the Spaniards, the Valencian people
+are fierce and cruel beyond all imagination. If one wishes to get rid
+of an enemy, he finds an obliging man who for a few crowns undertakes
+the business with as much indifference as he would accept a commission
+to carry a letter to the post. A Valencian peasant who finds that he
+has a gun in his hands as he passes an unknown man in a lonely street
+says to his companion, "See if I can aim straight?" and takes aim and
+fires. This actually occurred not many years ago: I was assured of its
+truth. In the cities and villages of Spain the boys and young men of
+the people are accustomed to play at being bulls, as they call it. One
+takes the place of the bull and does the butting; another, with a sharp
+stick under his arm like a lance, climbs on the back of a third, who
+represents the horse, and repulses the assaults of the first. Once a
+band of young Valencians thought they would introduce some innovations
+into this sport, and so make it seem a little more realistic and afford
+the spectators and the participants a little more amusement than the
+customary way of playing it; and the innovations were to substitute
+for the stick a long sharp-pointed knife, one of those formidable
+_navajas_ that we saw at Seville, and to give the man who took the part
+of the bull two other shorter knives, which, fastened firmly on either
+side of his head, answered the purpose of horns. It seems incredible,
+but it is true. They played with the knives, shed a sea of blood,
+several were killed, some were mortally wounded, and others badly hurt,
+without the game becoming a fight, without the rules of the sport
+being transgressed, and without any one raising his voice to end the
+slaughter.
+
+I tell these things as they were told to me, although I am far from
+believing all that is said against the Valencians; but it is certain
+that at Valencia the public safety, if not a myth, as our papers
+poetically say in speaking of Romagna and Sicily, is certainly not the
+first of the good things which one enjoys after the blessing of life. I
+was persuaded of this fact the first evening of my stay in the city. I
+did not know the way to the port, but thought I was near it, and asked
+a shop-woman which way I should take. She uttered a cry of astonishment:
+
+"Do you wish to go to the port, _caballero_?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"_Ave Maria purissima!_ to the port at this hour?"
+
+And she turned toward a group of women who were standing by the door,
+and said to them in the Valencian dialect, "Women, do you answer for
+me: this gentleman is asking me the way to the port!"
+
+The women replied in one voice, "God save him!"
+
+"But from what?"
+
+"Don't risk yourself, sir."
+
+"What is your reason?"
+
+"A thousand reasons."
+
+"Tell me one of them?"
+
+"You would be murdered."
+
+One reason was enough for me, as any one can imagine, and I did not go
+to the port.
+
+For the rest, at Valencia as elsewhere, in whatever intercourse I had
+with the people I met only with courtesy as a foreigner and as an
+Italian--a friendly welcome even among those who would not hear foreign
+kings discussed in general, and princes of the house of Savoy in
+particular, and such men were numerous, but they were courteous enough
+to say at once, "Let us not harp on that string." To a foreigner who,
+when asked whence he comes, replies, "I am a Frenchman," they respond
+with an agreeable smile, as if to say, "We recognize each other." To
+one who answers, "I am a German or an Englishman," they make a slight
+inclination of the head, which implies, "I bow to you;" but when one
+replies, "I am an Italian," they eagerly extend the hand as if to
+say, "We are friends;" and they look at one with an air of curiosity,
+as you look for the first time at a person who is said to resemble
+you, and they smile pleasantly on hearing the Italian tongue, as you
+would smile on hearing some one, though in no mocking spirit, imitate
+your voice and accents. In no country in the world does an Italian
+feel nearer home than in Spain. The sky, the speech, the faces, and
+the dress remind him of his fatherland; the veneration with which
+the Spanish pronounce the names of our great poets and our great
+painters, that vague and pleasing sense of curiosity with which they
+speak of our famous cities, the enthusiasm with which they cultivate
+our music, the impulsiveness of their affections, the fire of their
+language, the rhythms of their poetry, the eyes of their women, the air
+and the sun,--oh! an Italian must be without a spark of love for his
+fatherland who does not feel an emotion of sympathy for this country,
+who does not feel inclined to excuse its errors, who does not sincerely
+deplore its misfortunes, who does not desire for it a happy future. O
+beautiful hills of Valencia, smiling banks of the Guadalquivir, charmed
+gardens of Granada, little white cottages of Seville, proud towers of
+Toledo, roaring streets of Madrid, and venerable walls of Saragossa!
+and you, kindly hosts and courteous companions of my travels--you who
+have spoken to me of Italy as of a second fatherland, who with your
+festal gayety have scattered my restless melancholy!--I shall always
+carry deep down in my heart a feeling of gratitude and love for you,
+and I shall cherish your images in my memory, as one of the dearest
+recollections of my youth, and shall always think of you as one of the
+loveliest dreams of my life.
+
+I repeated these words to myself at midnight as I looked over
+brightly-lighted Valencia, leaning against the rail of the good ship
+_Xenil_, which was on the point of sailing. Some young Spaniards had
+come on board with me. They were going to Marseilles to take ship from
+that port to the Antilles, where they expected to remain for some
+years. One of them stood alone weeping; suddenly he raised his head and
+looked toward the shore between two anchored vessels, and exclaimed in
+a tone of desolation, "Oh, my God! I hoped she would not come!"
+
+In a few moments a boat approached the ship; a little white figure,
+followed by a man enveloped in a cloak, hastily climbed the ladder, and
+with a deep sob threw herself into the arms of the young man, who had
+run to meet her.
+
+At that moment the boatswain called, "All off, gentlemen!"
+
+Then there followed a most distressing scene: the two young persons
+were torn apart, and the young lady was borne almost fainting to the
+boat, which pushed off a little and remained motionless.
+
+The ship started.
+
+The young man dashed madly forward toward the rail, and, sobbing, cried
+in a voice that pierced one's heart, "Adieu, darling! adieu! adieu!"
+
+The little white figure stretched out her arms and perhaps responded,
+but her voice was not heard. The boat was dropped behind and
+disappeared.
+
+One of the young men said to me in a whisper, "They are betrothed."
+
+It was a lovely night, but sad. Valencia was soon lost to view, and I
+thought I should never see Spain again, and wept.
+
+
+END OF VOL. II.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+A.
+
+  Abdelasio reconstructs the Alcazar of Seville, ii. 121.
+
+  Abdurrahman I. builds the mosque of Cordova, ii. 68.
+
+  Abdurrahman I. builds Medina Az-Zahra, ii. 88;
+    his happy days, ii. 89.
+
+  Abencerrages, Hall of the, Alhambra, ii. 209.
+
+  Abrantes, duke d', at the bull-fights, 209.
+
+  Absolutist party, 96.
+
+  Academy, a dream of the, 280.
+
+  Academy of San Fernando, Madrid, 193.
+
+  Acquasola gardens, Genoa, 10.
+
+  Alameda, Granada, ii. 188, ii. 241.
+
+  Alarcon y Mendoza, Juan Ruiz de, dramatist, 169.
+
+  Alarmed travellers, ii. 9, ii. 55.
+
+  Albaicin at Granada, ii. 244;
+    courtyard in, ii. 246;
+    fortune-telling, ii. 253;
+    government of, ii. 255;
+    ignorance in, ii. 256;
+    Parisian quarter, ii. 245;
+    squalor of, ii. 251.
+
+  Albornoz, Gil Carillo de, tomb of, Toledo, ii. 29.
+
+  Alcaiceria, Granada, ii. 241.
+
+  Alcala street, Madrid, 156, 168.
+
+  Alcanadre, Roman aqueduct at, 91.
+
+  Alcantara, bridge of, Toledo, ii. 18.
+
+  Alcazar de San Juan, ii. 259;
+    of Seville, ii. 120;
+    of Toledo, ii. 39.
+
+  Alcayde of Saragossa's bold republicanism, 83.
+
+  Aleardi Gaetano, on the can-can, 171.
+
+  Alfonso and the Cid, 121.
+
+  Alfonso the Wise, MSS. of, ii. 118;
+    tomb of, ii. 109.
+
+  Alfonso VIII. defeats the Moors at las Navas de Tolosa, ii. 61.
+
+  Alfonso XII., favored by the Moderate party, 96.
+
+  Algaba, ii. 118.
+
+  Algeciras, Gulf of, ii. 168.
+
+  Alhambra, arabesques, ii. 197, 208, ii. 210, ii. 211;
+    baths, ii. 211;
+    cabinet of Linderaja, ii. 209;
+    Charles V.'s palace, ii. 192;
+    Court of Lions, ii. 201;
+    Court of Myrtles, ii. 194;
+    fascination of, ii. 205;
+    Gate of Justice, ii. 192;
+    grounds of ii. 190;
+    Hall of Abencerrages, ii. 209;
+    Hall of Barca, ii. 197;
+    Hall of Divans, ii. 210;
+    Hall of Justice, ii. 206;
+    Hall of Oranges, ii. 209;
+    Hall of the Ambassadors, ii. 198;
+    Hall of the Two Sisters, ii. 207;
+    Mirador de la Reina, ii. 212, ii, 215;
+    mosque, ii. 216;
+    paintings in, ii. 207;
+    Patio de la Reja, ii. 212;
+    realization of a dream, ii. 200;
+    situation of, ii. 190;
+    Tower of Commares, ii. 196;
+    Tower of the Ambassadors, ii. 196;
+    vastness of the, ii. 217;
+    view from, ii. 213.
+
+  Ali Pacha, relics of, 176.
+
+  Almago, Melchiorre, republican journalist, ii. 243.
+
+  Almansa, plain of, ii. 260.
+
+  Almansur builds Zahira, ii. 89.
+
+  Almodovar, castle of, ii. 99.
+
+  Altimura, Count d', possesses the fiscal accounts of Gonzalez di
+    Cordova, ii. 237.
+
+  Alvarez, Gen., house of, at Gerona, 16.
+
+  Amadeus at Gerona, 16;
+    at Logroño, 85;
+    at Madrid, 166, 194;
+    at Saragossa, 82;
+    at the bull-fights, 213;
+    at Valencia, ii. 262;
+    character of, 201;
+    courage of, 199;
+    court-life of, 194;
+    encourages bull-fights, 223, 235;
+    hostility of the newspapers to, 93, 200;
+    hostility of the soldiery to, 204;
+    prejudice against, 15, 33, 80.
+
+  Ambassadors, Hall of the, Alhambra, ii. 198;
+    at Seville, ii. 124;
+    Tower of the, Alhambra, ii. 196.
+
+  Amusements, 168.
+
+  Andalusian characteristics, 36;
+    dialect, ii. 93;
+    scenery, ii. 61, 100, ii. 177;
+    women, ii. 79, ii. 93, ii. 126.
+
+  Angels, convent of, Granada, ii. 238.
+
+  Ansurez, Pedro, tomb of, 137.
+
+  Aosta, duke d'. See Amadeus.
+
+  Aqueduct, Roman, at Segovia, 124.
+
+  Arabesques in the Alhambra, beauty of, ii. 197;
+    intricacy of design, ii. 197, ii. 208, ii. 210, ii. 211.
+
+  Aranjuez, arrival at, ii. 10;
+    gardens, ii. 12;
+    historic associations, ii. 11;
+    royal palace, ii. 11;
+    suburbs of, ii. 10.
+
+  Argamasilla de Alba, birthplace of Don Quixote, ii. 58.
+
+  Argensola, the brothers, 72;
+    sonnet by, 73.
+
+  Arjonilla, ii. 62.
+
+  Armory, royal, at Madrid, 174.
+
+  Arragon, decay of, 52;
+    dialect of, 54;
+    independence of, 49;
+    mountains of, 48.
+
+  Artillery museum at Madrid, 180.
+
+  Asturia, prince of, title instituted, 98.
+
+  Atocha, Church of Our Lady of, Madrid, 166, 204;
+    street of, Madrid, 174.
+
+  Avilo, 124.
+
+  "Awaiting her in heaven," ii. 227.
+
+  Ayala, d', dramatist, 169.
+
+
+  B.
+
+  Banderillas, de fuego, 226.
+
+  Barber of Seville, house of the, ii. 132.
+
+  Barcelona, arrival at, 20;
+    cafés, 30;
+    carnival masqueraders, 22;
+    Catalonian peculiarities, 35;
+    cathedral, 24;
+    cemetery, 27;
+    Cervantes on, 42;
+    circus, 235;
+    dialect, 21;
+    foreign hotel waiters, 20;
+    palaces, 26;
+    revolutionary proclivities, 35;
+    Roman ruins, 26;
+    streets, 22;
+    suburbs, 22;
+    theatre, 40;
+    women of, 41.
+
+  Baretti, Giuseppe, 206; ii. 82.
+
+  Barili, Anton Giulio, travelling companion, 10.
+
+  Batista, Juan, architect of the Escurial, 260.
+
+  Beatrice, Queen, tomb of, ii. 109.
+
+  Beggary, modest, 135.
+
+  Berruguete, Alonzo, carvings by, at Toledo, ii. 25;
+    at Valladolid, 146.
+
+  Berseo, poet, 283.
+
+  Blanca, Florida, tomb of, Seville, ii. 109.
+
+  Boabdil's helmet, 176.
+
+  Boccanegra, paintings by, at Granada, ii. 229.
+
+  Bohl, Catherine de Faber ("Fernan Caballero"), 281;
+    ascetic character of, ii. 140;
+    charity of, ii. 141;
+    genius of, ii. 139;
+    history of, ii. 140.
+
+  Boldan, painting by, at Seville, ii. 109.
+
+  Bollo, a delicious cake, 31.
+
+  Boscan, Juan, poet, influence on Spanish literature, 37.
+
+  Bosch, Jacob van den, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Bourse, the, at Saragossa, 74;
+    at Valencia, ii. 266.
+
+  Brazil, Dom Pedro, emperor of, arrives at Burgos, 123.
+
+  Breton de los Herreres, Manuel, dramatist, 169, 281.
+
+  Breughel, Jan, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Bridge of Alcantara, Toledo, ii. 18.
+
+  Briviesca, States-general, 98.
+
+  Brujola, mountain of, 98.
+
+  Buen Retiro garden at Madrid, 166, 174.
+
+  Bull-fights at Madrid, 206;
+    accidents, 225;
+    anticipations of, 207;
+    arena, the, 203;
+    attendance, 208;
+    banderillas, de fuego, 226;
+    banderilleros, 214, 219, 220;
+    brutality of, 227, 229;
+    capeadors, 214, 217, 219, 220;
+    chulos or apprentices, 214, 216, 217;
+    dangers of, 229;
+    death of the bull, 222, 228;
+    disgusting spectacle, 218;
+    entrance of the cuadrilla, 214;
+    entrance of the bull, 215;
+    espadas, 221;
+    excitement of audience, 215, 224;
+    exits, the, 232;
+    fights in the audience, 230;
+    final impressions, 231;
+    getting into position, 215;
+    history of, 234;
+    Homeric struggle, 221;
+    national amusement, the, 235;
+    picadores, 214, 216, 218;
+    picturesque scene, 214;
+    sale of tickets, 207;
+    torturing the bulls into fighting, 226;
+    trophies of victory, 223;
+    with other wild animals, 239.
+
+  Bull-fighters, amateur, 237;
+    artistic gradations, 241;
+    dress, 240;
+    female toreros, 238;
+    lucrative business, 241.
+
+  Burgos, arrival at, 98;
+    birthplace of the Cid, 119;
+    cathedral, 104;
+    Cid's coffer, 112;
+    gate of St. Maria, 104;
+    houses, 101;
+    municipal palace, 103;
+    "remains of the Cid," 103;
+    seats of the first judges, 103;
+    "The Christ," 111;
+    streets, 101;
+    tobacco-shops, 118;
+    undertaker's shop, 117;
+    women hotel servants, 99.
+
+  Byron, Lord, writing of, at the Alhambra, ii. 216.
+
+
+  C.
+
+  Caballero, Fernan. See Bohl, Catherine.
+
+  Cadiz, arrival at, ii. 158;
+    astronomical facilities, ii. 163;
+    bird's-eye view, ii. 162;
+    cathedral, ii. 163;
+    circus, 235;
+    commercial decay, ii. 161;
+    historical remains, ii. 161;
+    houses, ii. 160;
+    Murillo's last painting, ii. 163;
+    revolutionary tendencies, ii. 160;
+    streets, ii. 160;
+    whiteness, ii. 158;
+    women, ii. 164.
+
+  Cafés: Barcelona, 30;
+    Madrid, 173;
+    Miranda, 95.
+
+  Calahorra, battle of, 91.
+
+  Calderon de la Barca, Pedro, poet, 169;
+    ii. 93.
+
+  Calderon, Francesco, the matador, 207;
+    patronizes cock-fights, 249, 250.
+
+  Campana, Pedro, paintings by, at Seville, ii. 109.
+
+  Can-can at Madrid, 171.
+
+  Candan, political leader, 96.
+
+  Cano, Alonzo, character of, ii. 231;
+    hatred of Jews, ii. 231;
+    history of, ii. 230;
+    paintings by, at Granada, ii. 230, ii. 235;
+    at Madrid, 182, 193;
+    at Seville, ii. 132.
+
+  Canovas del Castillo, political leader, 96.
+
+  Canovist party, 96.
+
+  Carbajal, Bernardino, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 193.
+
+  Cardenas, paintings by, at Valladolid, 143.
+
+  Cardenio's penance, scene of, ii. 60.
+
+  Carducci, Vincenzo, paintings by, at Madrid, 182;
+    at Valladolid, 143.
+
+  Carlists, 32, 33, 96, 194.
+
+  Carlos I., Don, tomb of, 266.
+
+  Carlos II., Don, tomb of, 266.
+
+  Carlos III., Don, tomb of, 266.
+
+  Carnival masqueraders at Barcelona, 22;
+    at Saragossa, 65, 68.
+
+  Cartuja convent, Granada, ii. 245.
+
+  Castaños, Gen. Francisco Xavier, defeated at Tudela, 91.
+
+  Castelar, Emilio, as an orator, 279;
+    as a political leader, 80, 96;
+    eloquence, 276;
+    friendship, 291;
+    on Arragon, 50;
+    personal popularity, 277;
+    ruler of the Assembly, 279.
+
+  Castilian dialect, 39, 55;
+    scenery, 124.
+
+  Castillego, ii. 55.
+
+  Castles: Almodovar, ii. 99;
+    Hornachuelos, ii. 99;
+    Monzon, 51;
+    Pancorbo, 98;
+    San Servando, ii. 41.
+
+  Catalan characteristics, 35;
+    dialect, 15, 39;
+    dress, 18;
+    hospitality, 148;
+    school-boys, 46.
+
+  Catalonia, description of, 18, 48.
+
+  Cathedrals: Barcelona, 24;
+    Burgos, 104;
+    Cadiz, ii. 163;
+    Cordova, ii. 74;
+    Granada, ii. 329;
+    Our Lady of the Pillar, Saragossa, 60;
+    San Salvador, Saragossa, 65;
+    Seville, ii. 108;
+    Toledo, ii. 23;
+    Valencia, ii. 266;
+    Valladolid, 136.
+
+  Cava, Los Baños de la, at Toledo, ii. 46.
+
+  Cayetano, the matador, 214, 240.
+
+  Cellini, Benvenuto, crucifix by, at the Escurial, 263.
+
+  Cemetery, Barcelona, 27.
+
+  Cervantes, Saavedra Miguel de, at Seville, ii. 103;
+    house at Valladolid, 137;
+    imprisoned at Argamasilla de Alba, ii. 58;
+    naturalness of Don Quixote, ii. 57;
+    on Barcelona, 42;
+    popularity of, 286;
+    statue at Madrid, 156;
+    story of, 139.
+
+  Cervellon, Count di, entertains Amadeus at Valencia, ii. 262.
+
+  Cervera, 48.
+
+  Ceuta, ii. 168.
+
+  Cespedes, Pablo de, born at Cordova, ii. 90;
+    paintings by, at Seville, ii. 132;
+    quotation from, ii. 90.
+
+  Charlemagne and the Moor, ii. 43.
+
+  Charles I. (afterward Emperor Charles V. of Germany), altar at
+    the Escurial, 272;
+    anger at the destruction of mosque of Cordova, ii. 74;
+    apartments at Aranjuez, ii. 13;
+    a bull-fighter, 234;
+    converts mosque of the Alhambra into a chapel, ii. 216;
+    married in Alcazar of Seville, ii. 121;
+    monumental gate at Burgos, 104;
+    on the Spanish language, 160;
+    palace in the Alhambra, ii. 192;
+    relics of, 175, 176, ii. 112;
+    statue at the Escurial, 262;
+    tomb at the Escurial, 265, 267.
+
+  Charles II. encourages bull-fights, 234;
+    portrait at the Escurial, 264.
+
+  Charles III. forbids bull-fights, 235;
+    statue at Burgos, 102.
+
+  Charles IV.'s billiard-room in palace of Aranjuez, ii. 13;
+    resigns the crown, ii. 11.
+
+  Chateaubriaud, François Auguste, Viscount de, writing in the
+    Alhambra, ii. 216.
+
+  Chocolate, Spanish, 31.
+
+  Chorizos, 14, 162.
+
+  Christina abdicates the throne at Valencia, ii. 262;
+    promenade, Seville, ii. 104.
+
+  Chulos, 214.
+
+  Churches: Nuestra Señora, Toledo, ii. 50;
+    Our Lady of Atocha, Madrid, 166;
+    San Geronimo, Granada, ii. 235;
+    San Juan de los Reyes, Toledo, ii. 36;
+    Santiago, Saragossa, 74;
+    St. Agnes, Burgos, 121.
+
+  Cid Campeador, the, and King Alfonso, 121;
+    and the Jew, 120;
+    at Valencia, ii. 266;
+    birthplace, 120;
+    coffer, 112;
+    portrait of, 104;
+    remains, 103;
+    statue, 104;
+    sword, 176;
+    originator of bull-fights, 234.
+
+  Cigars and cigarettes, 118;
+    vs. pipes, 132.
+
+  Cimbrios party, 96.
+
+  Claude, Lorraine, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Clot, 19.
+
+  Cock-fighting at Madrid, 248;
+    arena, the, 249;
+    audience, 250;
+    disgusting spectacle, 256;
+    gambling on, 252, 254.
+
+  Coello, Claudio, paintings by, at Madrid, 193;
+    at the Escurial, 264.
+
+  Colantes as an orator, 276.
+
+  Collantes, Francisco, paintings by, at Madrid, 193.
+
+  College of San Gregorio, Valladolid, 135;
+    Santa Cruz, Valladolid, 443.
+
+  Columbian library at Seville, ii. 118.
+
+  Columbus, Christopher, annotations in books in library of
+    Seville, ii. 118;
+    armor of, 175;
+    portrait of, 178;
+    mementoes of, ii. 103.
+
+  Columbus, Ferdinand, history of, ii. 115;
+    library of, ii, 118;
+    note on his father's annotations, ii. 118;
+    tomb of, ii. 114.
+
+  Concerts at Madrid, 173.
+
+  Conde, Henry II. de Bourbon, prince de, sword of, 176.
+
+  Conservative party, 96.
+
+  Consuelo the beautiful, ii. 81.
+
+  Consul, seeking the protection of the, ii. 106.
+
+  Convents: Angels, Granada, ii. 235;
+    Cartuja, Granada, ii. 235;
+    of the Escurial, 268;
+    Santo Domingo, Granada, ii. 235;
+    San Pablo, Valladolid, 134.
+
+  Cook, Capt. James, cane of, 180.
+
+  Cookery, Spanish, 14, 160; ii. 223.
+
+  Cordova, arrival at, ii. 62;
+    at night, ii. 80;
+    cathedral, ii. 74;
+    Consuelo the beautiful, ii. 81;
+    departed glory, ii. 62;
+    impressions of, ii. 67;
+    mosque, ii. 68;
+    patio, a, ii. 65;
+    pearl of the Orient, ii. 66;
+    preaching the Holy War, ii. 75;
+    relics of the past, ii. 80;
+    streets of, ii. 64.
+
+  Cordova, General de, at Saragossa, 84.
+
+  Corregio, Antonio Allegri da, painting by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Cortes, the, 274;
+    deputies, 274;
+    oratorical displays, 275.
+
+  Cortez, Hernando, portrait of, 178;
+    sword of, 176.
+
+  Cosa, Juan de la, map by, at Madrid, 178.
+
+  Costumes of peasantry: Andalusian, ii. 100;
+    Catalan, 18;
+    Cordovan, ii. 58;
+    Granadan, ii. 189;
+    Madrid, 165;
+    Saragossan, 56;
+    Valencian, ii. 270.
+
+  Country houses, ii. 100.
+
+  Courts: Lions, Alhambra, ii. 201;
+    Myrtles, Alhambra, ii. 194;
+    Oranges, Seville, ii. 115.
+
+  Court-life under Amadeus, 198.
+
+  Courtesy inherent in the Spanish people, 53, 290.
+
+  Cuco the matador, 207; ii. 94.
+
+  Currency, Spanish, 118.
+
+  Custejon, 92.
+
+  Customs officials, 14, 95.
+
+  Cybele, fountain of, at Madrid, 166.
+
+
+  D.
+
+  "Daggers," ii. 55.
+
+  Daguet, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  "Dance de los seises," ii. 112.
+
+  Darro, the, ii. 213.
+
+  Democratic party, 96.
+
+  Democratic Progressionist party, 96, 97.
+
+  Deronda, Francisco Romero, the torero, 235.
+
+  Dialects: Andalusian, ii. 93;
+    Arragonese, 55;
+    Barcelonian, 20;
+    Castilian, 55;
+    Catalan, 15, 39;
+    Madrid, 158;
+    Perpignan, 12;
+    Valencian, ii. 275;
+    Valladolid, 132.
+
+  Dinadamar, hill of, ii. 240.
+
+  Discoveries, cabinet of, Naval Museum, Madrid, 177.
+
+  Djihad, or Holy War, ii. 76.
+
+  Domenichino, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Dominoes, popularity of game of, 31.
+
+  Don Quixote on Barcelona, 42;
+    popularity of, 286;
+    true to life, ii. 57.
+
+  Door-keys in Madrid, 171.
+
+  Drama, 169.
+
+  Drunkenness rare in Spain, 162.
+
+  Dumas, Alexandre, on Spanish cookery, 160.
+
+  Dürer, Albert, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+
+  E.
+
+  Ebro, commerce on the, 51;
+    description of, 92.
+
+  Economist party, 96.
+
+  Education in Granada, ii. 242.
+
+  Egon ad Agoncilla, ruins of, 91.
+
+  Elpidius, bishop of Toledo, ii. 27.
+
+  Elvira Gate, Granada, ii. 240.
+
+  Escurial, the, arrival at, 258;
+    altar of Santa Forma, 264;
+    cell of Philip II., 261;
+    church, 262;
+    convent, 268;
+    courtyard, 261;
+    gardens, 272;
+    gloominess, 273;
+    history of, 260;
+    holy relics, 272;
+    horrible place, 267;
+    library, 268;
+    pantheon, 265;
+    picture-gallery, 268;
+    royal palace, 261;
+    sacristy, 264;
+    statues, 262;
+    tombs, 265;
+    view from, 153, 272;
+    village, 259.
+
+  Espadas, famous, 214;
+    dangerous life of, 230;
+    skill of, 221.
+
+  Espartero, Gen. Baldemero, addresses Amadeus, 85.
+
+  Esperondo la del Cielo, house of, ii. 227.
+
+  Esproncedo, Jose de, the Byron of Spain, 282;
+    popularity of, 287;
+    quotation from, 136.
+
+  Exaggeration, the national failing, 287.
+
+
+  F.
+
+  Fadrique, Don, blood of, ii. 122;
+    murdered by Don Pedro's orders, ii. 123.
+
+  Farcical revenge, a, 71.
+
+  Fatherly admonitions, 54.
+
+  Federalist party, 96, 97.
+
+  Ferdinand III. (the Saint) captures Seville, ii. 121;
+    relics of, ii. 110;
+    tomb of, 109.
+
+  Ferdinand V. (the Catholic), oratory in Alcazar of Seville, 124;
+    relics of, ii. 233;
+    tomb of, ii. 234.
+
+  Ferdinand VII. annuls the constitution, ii. 262;
+    encourages bull-fighting, 235;
+    tomb of, 266.
+
+  Ferrer, Vincenzo, in Seville cathedral, ii. 116.
+
+  Figueras, political leader, 80, 96.
+
+  First glimpses of Spain, 14.
+
+  Florinda, legend of, ii. 46.
+
+  Flor, Roger de, a typical Arragonese, 50.
+
+  Fomento picture-gallery, Madrid, 193.
+
+  Fortune-telling in the Albaicin, Granada, ii. 253.
+
+  Fountain of Cybele, Madrid, 166.
+
+  Fra Angelica, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Francis I., shield of, 176.
+
+  Frascuelo the matador, 207, 214, 221, 225, 240, 242; ii. 94;
+    interview with, 242.
+
+  Fricci in opera at Madrid, 168; ii. 152.
+
+  Fronterizos party, 96.
+
+  Fruit, Spanish, 162.
+
+  Fugitive wife, a, 69.
+
+  Funeral memorial ceremonies of the second of May, 243.
+
+
+  G.
+
+  Galafro, legend of King, ii. 43.
+
+  Galiana, palaces of, ii. 43.
+
+  Gallegos, Don Juan Nicasio, poet, 282.
+
+  Gamero, Antonio, historian of Toledo, ii. 48.
+
+  Garbanzos, 161.
+
+  Garcilaso de la Vega, poet, 37;
+    armor of, 176.
+
+  Gardens: Alcazar, Seville, ii. 125;
+    Aranjuez, ii. 12;
+    Buen Retiro, Madrid, 174;
+    Escurial, 271;
+    Montpensier, Seville, ii. 117.
+
+  Garrido, political leader, 96.
+
+  Gates: Elvira, Granada, ii. 240;
+    Justice, Alhambra, ii. 192;
+    Santa Maria, Burgos, 104.
+
+  Gayangos, Pascual y, the Orientalist, 281.
+
+  Geber, architect of the Giralda at Seville, ii. 116.
+
+  Generalife, Granada, ii. 213;
+    description of, ii. 225;
+    view from, ii. 226.
+
+  Genoa, 10.
+
+  Gerona, arrival at, 16;
+    Amadeus at, 16.
+
+  Gibraltar, rock of, ii. 168;
+    Straits of, ii. 167.
+
+  Giordano Luci, paintings by, at Madrid, 182;
+    frescoes by, at the Escurial, 262, 264, 268;
+    at Toledo, ii. 30.
+
+  Giralda of Seville, the, ii. 116;
+    first sight of, ii. 101;
+    view from, ii. 117.
+
+  Gitane of Seville, the, ii. 128.
+
+  Godoy, Alvarez de Faria Rios Sanches y Zarsoa, Prince of Peace, ii. 11.
+
+  Golden Tower, Seville, ii. 103.
+
+  Gongora y Argote, Luis, poet, 129;
+    birthplace at Cordova, ii. 92.
+
+  Gongora, Señor, ii. 187, _et seq._
+
+  Gonzales, Ferdinand (first Count of Castile), monument to, 119;
+    portrait of, 104;
+    statue of, 104;
+    sword of, 176;
+    tomb of, 114.
+
+  Gonzalez, Fernandez y, novelist, 282.
+
+  Gonzalez di Cordova, anecdote of, ii. 235;
+    tomb, ii. 235.
+
+  Goya, Francisco, criticism on, 185;
+    love of bull-fights, 184;
+    paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183;
+    sanguinary genius, a, 184;
+    tapestries by, in the Escurial, 261.
+
+  Granada, Alameda, ii. 188;
+    Albaicin, ii. 244;
+    Alcaiceria, ii. 241;
+    Alhambra, ii. 190;
+    arrival at, ii. 186;
+    Audiencia square, ii. 244;
+    birthplace of famous men, ii. 243;
+    Cartuja, ii. 235;
+    cathedral, ii. 229;
+    church of San Geronimo, ii. 235;
+    convent of Santa Domingo, ii. 235;
+    convent of The Angels, ii. 235;
+    education, ii. 242;
+    Generalife, ii. 213, ii. 225;
+    markets, ii. 241;
+    Monte Sacro, ii. 235;
+    royal chapel, ii. 232;
+    ruins, ii. 240;
+    streets, ii. 187, ii. 190, ii. 241;
+    Vega, ii. 260.
+
+  Granada, Fray Louis de, ii. 243.
+
+  Granallers, 19.
+
+  Gravina, Admiral Frederick de, relics of, 179.
+
+  Guadaira, ill-fated steamer, ii. 146.
+
+  Guadalquivir, the, ii. 59, ii. 60, ii. 101; ii. 118, ii. 150.
+
+  Guadiana, valley of the, ii. 59.
+
+  Guerra, Fernandez, archæologist, 281, 291; ii. 187.
+
+  Guides, Spanish, persistency of, ii. 26.
+
+  Guido, Reni, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Guest-houses, 157.
+
+  Gutierrez, Antonio Garcia, dramatist, 169.
+
+
+  H.
+
+  Halls: Abencerrages, Alhambra, ii. 209;
+    Ambassadors, Alhambra, ii. 198;
+    Barca, Alhambra, ii. 197;
+    Divans, Alhambra, ii. 210;
+    Justice, Alhambra, ii. 206;
+    Oranges, Alhambra, ii. 209;
+    Two Sisters, Alhambra, ii. 207.
+
+
+  Hartzenbusch, Juan Eugenio, dramatist, 169, 281, 291.
+
+  Heat, intense, ii. 260.
+
+  Henry II. (de Transtamare), defeated by Pedro the Cruel, 91;
+    tomb of, ii. 29
+
+  Henry III. and Papa Moscas, 113;
+    tomb of, ii. 29.
+
+  Hernandez, sculptures by, at Valladolid, 146.
+
+  Herrera, Francisco, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 193;
+    at Seville, ii. 109, ii. 132;
+    at the Escurial, 263.
+
+  Herrera, Juan de, architect of palace of Aranjuez, ii. 11;
+    of the Escurial, 260.
+
+  Historical Progressionist party, 96.
+
+  Holy Cross, relics of the, 272.
+
+  "Honor of Spain," 290.
+
+  Hornachuelos, castle of, ii. 99.
+
+  Hospitality, Catalan, 148.
+
+  Hospital of Santa Cruz, Toledo, ii. 44.
+
+  Hotel porters at Barcelona, 20;
+    women as, 99.
+
+  Huerva river, at Saragossa, 77.
+
+  Hugo Victor's Mirabeau, ii. 107;
+    at the Alhambra, ii. 216.
+
+
+  I.
+
+  "Il Trovatore," quotation from, ii. 153.
+
+  Inquisition, palaces of; at Barcelona, 26;
+    at Valladolid, 146.
+
+  International Socialist party, 96.
+
+  Isabella the Catholic opposed to bull-fights, 234;
+    oratory in the Alcazar of Seville, ii. 124;
+    relics of, ii. 233;
+    sword of, 176;
+    tomb of, ii. 234.
+
+  Isabella II. at Madrid, 197;
+    at Valencia, ii. 262;
+    dressing-chamber at Aranjuez, ii. 12;
+    encourages bull-fighting, 235;
+    favored by the Moderate party, 96.
+
+  Isabella, Empress, statue of, 262.
+
+  Italian, the language of opera, 171.
+
+  Italians, prejudice against, 34, 138.
+
+  Italica, ruins of, ii. 101.
+
+
+  Italy and Spain, compared, ii. 220.
+
+  Itimad, a dream of, ii. 125.
+
+
+  J.
+
+  Jerez, circus at, 235.
+
+  Joanes, Juan de, criticism on, 192;
+    paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.
+
+  Joanna the Mad, tomb of, ii. 234.
+
+  John, Don, of Austria, 25.
+
+  John I. of Castile and the States-General, 98.
+
+  John II. of Austria, heart of, 63;
+    sword of, 176.
+
+  John II., admiration of de Mena's "Labyrinth," ii. 92;
+    tomb of, ii. 29.
+
+  John Frederick, duke of Saxony, armor of, 176.
+
+  Jordaens, Jacob, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Juegos floreales, ii. 172.
+
+  Julian, Count, revenge of, ii. 46.
+
+  Juni, Juan de, sculptures by, at Valladolid, 146.
+
+
+  K.
+
+  Knives, ii. 135.
+
+
+  L.
+
+  La Costa, Gen., killed at Saragossa, 59.
+
+  La Cruz, Ramon de, dramatist, 170.
+
+  Lagartijo the matador, 214, 240, 241; ii. 94.
+
+  La Harpe, Jean François, on the Apollo Belvidere, ii. 272.
+
+  Lainus Calvo, judge of Castile, 103.
+
+  La Mancha, ii. 56, ii. 260.
+
+  Language, Italian, in opera, 171;
+    Spanish, allied to the Italian, 159;
+    pronunciation of, 159.
+    See also Dialect.
+
+  Lauria, Roger de, 50.
+
+  Leon, Louis de, 54;
+    born in Granada, ii. 243.
+
+  Leonardo, Lupercio, sonnet to, 73.
+
+  Leopardi Giacomo, Count, 283;
+  ii. 9;
+    in Seville cathedral, ii. 111;
+    on Spanish pride, 284.
+
+  Lepanto, relics of battle of, 25, 174, 176.
+
+  Lerida, 48.
+
+  Light-fingered gentry, 98.
+
+  Literature, discouragements of, 282;
+    dramatic, 283;
+    national pride in, 287;
+    present state of, 280;
+    contests of genius at Cordova, ii. 94.
+
+  Logroño, Amadeus at, 85;
+    Moorish ruins at, 91.
+
+  Loneliness of travel, ii. 47, ii. 67, ii. 105.
+
+  Lope de Vega's criticism of Gongorist poets, ii. 93;
+    houses at Madrid, 156;
+    popularity, ii. 9.
+
+  Lorraine. See Claude Lorraine.
+
+  Louis I., tomb of, 266.
+
+  Love, travelling for, 13.
+
+  Loyola, Ignatius, at Montserrat, 46.
+
+  Luna, Don Alvaro de, tomb of, ii. 29.
+
+  Lunatic asylum, Toledo, ii. 51.
+
+
+  M.
+
+  Madrazo, Federico de, paintings by, at Madrid, 183.
+
+  Madrid, academy of San Fernando, 193;
+    amusements, 168;
+    armory, 174;
+    arrival at, 154;
+    Buen Retiro garden, 174;
+    bull-fights, 206;
+    cafés, 173;
+    church of Our Lady of Atocha, 166;
+    Fomento art-gallery, 193;
+    guest-houses, 157;
+    language, 157;
+    markets, 174;
+    museum of artillery, 180;
+    museum of fine arts, 181;
+    naval museum, 177;
+    opera, 168;
+    Prado, 166;
+    Puerta del Sol, 155;
+    Recoletos promenade, 167;
+    royal palace, 154;
+    serenos, 172;
+    streets, 156, 163;
+    suburbs, 173.
+
+  Maksura of mosque of Cordova, ii. 69.
+
+  Malaga, ii. 170;
+    literary academy, ii. 171;
+    poetical contests, ii. 172;
+    popular characteristics, ii. 173;
+    streets, ii. 170;
+    wine of, ii. 172.
+
+  Manners of the Spaniards, 290.
+
+
+  Manzoni, Alessandro, 189.
+
+  Margall, Pi y, political leader, 96;
+    oratory of, 276.
+
+  Maria, granddaughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, tomb of, ii. 234.
+
+  Maria Louisa of Savoy, tomb of, 266.
+
+  Marini, Giambattista, influence on Italian poetry, ii. 92.
+
+  Markets: Granada, ii. 241;
+    Madrid, 174;
+    Valencia, ii. 269;
+    Valladolid, 132.
+
+  Marseilles, 11.
+
+  Martina the torera, 238.
+
+  Martinez de la Rosa, Francisco, 282, ii. 243;
+    exiled in London, 65;
+    quotation from, ii. 185.
+
+  Martos, political leader, 96;
+    oratory of, 226.
+
+  Mascagni, Donato, paintings by, at Valladolid, 143.
+
+  Masked balls, 86.
+
+  May, second of, funeral memorial ceremonies, 243;
+    monument to, 247.
+
+  Medina Az-Zahra, ii. 88.
+
+  Medina-Coeli, family, owners of the Casa de Pilato, ii. 136.
+
+  Mena, Juan de, "Labyrinth," ii. 92;
+    popularity of, 287;
+    street of, ii. 92.
+
+  Menendez, paintings by, at Madrid, 193.
+
+  Mengs, Anton Rafael, paintings by, at Madrid, 183.
+
+  Menjibar, ii. 259.
+
+  Merced, marquis de, 207.
+
+  Merriones, Gen., victories over Carlists, 288.
+
+  Michelangelo, Buonarroti, Cespedes's tribute to, ii. 90;
+    paintings by, at Burgos, 109;
+    at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Mihrab of mosque of Cordova, ii. 72.
+
+  Military Museum of London possesses Gonzalez di Cordova's fiscal
+    accounts, ii. 237.
+
+  Militia system, 202.
+
+  Mirabeau, Victor Hugo's description of, ii. 107.
+
+  Miranda, 94.
+
+  Moderate party, 96, 97.
+
+  Monastery of Montserrat, 46.
+
+
+  Monegro, Battista, statue by, 262.
+
+  Montegna, paintings by, at Seville, ii. 109.
+
+  Montpensier gardens, Seville, ii. 117, ii. 127;
+    palace, ii. 104.
+
+  Montpensier, duke of, at Madrid, 197;
+    party, 96, 97.
+
+  Montserrat, description of, 45;
+    excursion to, 46;
+    monastery of, 46.
+
+  Monzon, 50;
+    castle, 51.
+
+  Moorish art, ii. 207;
+    ruins, ii. 240.
+
+  Morales, Ambrosio, born in Cordova, ii. 90.
+
+  Moret, political leader, 96.
+
+  Moreto, Don Augustin, dramatist, 169.
+
+  Mosque of Cordova, ii. 68;
+    of the Alhambra, ii. 216.
+
+  Mozarabe chapel, Toledo, ii. 29.
+
+  Mulato, paintings by, at Seville, ii. 109, ii. 132.
+
+  Murat, Joachim, 50.
+
+  Murillo, Bartolomé Esteban, a painter of saints and virgins, 191;
+    death of, ii. 163;
+    estimate of his genius, 192;
+    last painting, ii. 163;
+    mementoes of, ii. 103;
+    painting by, at Granada, ii. 235;
+    at Madrid, 182, 183;
+    at Seville, ii. 109, ii. 129;
+    statue at Madrid, 156, 292.
+
+
+  N.
+
+  Naples, king of, demands an accounting from Gonzalez di Cordova, ii. 235.
+
+  Navagero, Andrea, influences poetry of Boscan, 37.
+
+  Navajas, ii. 136.
+
+  Navarrete, battle of, 91.
+
+  Navarrete, Juan Fernandez (El Mudo), paintings by, at Madrid, 193;
+    at the Escurial, 263.
+
+  News from Spain, 10.
+
+  Newspapers hostile to Amadeus, 93, 200.
+
+  Nun, the flirting, 53.
+
+  Nunes, Duke Ferdinand, at the bull-fight, 209.
+
+  Night journey to Aranjuez, ii. 9;
+    to Barcelona, 13;
+    to Burgos, 97;
+    to Cadiz, ii. 149;
+    to Cordova, ii. 55;
+    to Granada, ii. 181.
+
+
+
+  O.
+
+  O'Campo, Florian d', at Toledo, ii. 90.
+
+  O'Donnell, Gen. Leopold, Spanish estimate of, 288.
+
+  Olesa de Montserrat, 47.
+
+  Olivares, Duke de, portrait of, by Velasquez, 183, 188;
+    sword of, 176.
+
+  Opera at Madrid, 168.
+
+  Oranges, Court of, Cordova, ii. 69;
+    Court of Seville, ii. 15;
+    Hall of, Alhambra, ii. 207.
+
+  Our Lady of Atocha, church of, at Madrid, 166;
+    of the Pillar, Saragossa, 60.
+
+
+  P.
+
+  Pacheco, Francisco, paintings by, at Madrid, 193;
+    at Seville, ii. 132.
+
+  Padilla, Lopez de, assists in the murder of Don Fadrique, ii. 123.
+
+  Padilla, Maria de, apartments of, in the Alcazar of
+    Seville, ii. 124, 145;
+    mementoes of, ii. 102.
+
+  Painting, museums: Escurial, 268;
+    Fomento, Madrid, 193;
+    Madrid, 181;
+    Seville, ii. 129;
+    Toledo, ii. 37;
+    Valencia, ii. 260;
+    Valladolid, 143.
+
+  Palaces: Audiencia, Valencia, ii. 266;
+    Burgos, 102;
+    Charles V., Granada, ii. 192;
+    Consistorial, Barcelona, 26;
+    Deputation, Barcelona, 26;
+    Galiana, 43;
+    Inquisition, Barcelona, 26;
+    Inquisition, Valladolid, 146;
+    Royal, Aranjuez, ii. 11;
+    Royal, Escurial, 261;
+    Royal, Madrid, 154;
+    Royal, Valladolid, 133.
+
+  Palafox, José, at Saragossa, 77.
+
+  Palma, ii. 99.
+
+  Pancorbo, 98;
+    castle destroyed, 98.
+
+  Paolo Veronese, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.
+
+  Papal question, the, 12, 34, 138.
+
+  Papa Moscas, legend of, 113.
+
+  Pareja, Juan de, paintings by, at Cordova, ii. 58;
+    at Madrid, 193.
+
+  Party spirit, 96, 289, ii. 60.
+
+  Patio, described, ii. 65;
+    at Seville,
+  ii. 163;
+    de la Reja, Alhambra, ii. 212;
+    de los Arrayanes, Alhambra, ii. 194.
+
+  Patriotism vs. common sense, ii. 222.
+
+  Peasantry: Andalusian, ii. 100;
+    Catalan, 18;
+    Cordovan, ii. 58;
+    of Madrid, 165;
+    Saragossan, 56.
+
+  Pedro Abad, ii. 62.
+
+  Pedro the Cruel, apartments of, in the Alcazar of Seville, ii. 124;
+    defeats Henry of Transtamare, 91;
+    mementoes of, ii. 103;
+    murders Don Fadrique, ii. 122;
+    restores the Alcazar of Seville, ii. 120;
+    treasure-house, ii. 103.
+
+  Perpignan dialect, 12.
+
+  Pescara, Marquis de, armor of, 176.
+
+  Philibert, Emmanuel, armor of, 175, 176.
+
+  Philip I., tomb of, ii. 231.
+
+  Philip II., armor of, 175, 176;
+    birthplace at Valladolid, 134;
+    books in the library of the Escurial, 268;
+    builds palace of Aranjuez, ii. 11, ii. 13;
+    builds the Escurial, 260;
+    cell of, 261;
+    his personality pervades the Escurial, 271;
+    statue of, 262;
+    sword of, 176;
+    tomb of, 265, 266.
+
+  Philip III. encourages bull-fights, 234;
+    tomb of, 265, 266.
+
+  Philip IV., a royal bull-fighter, 235;
+    statue of, 156;
+    tomb of, 265, 266.
+
+  Philip V. encourages bull-fights, 235;
+    his garden of St. Ildefonso, 124.
+
+  Philip of Bourgoyne, carvings by, at Burgos, 111;
+    at Toledo, ii. 25.
+
+  Piedmontese waiters in hotel at Barcelona, 20.
+
+  Pilate's house, Seville, ii. 136.
+
+  Pillar, church of Our Lady of the, Saragossa, 60.
+
+  Pius V. presents holy relics to Ribera, ii. 137.
+
+  Pizarro, Francisco, as a bull-fighter, 234;
+    portrait of, 178;
+    sword of, 176.
+
+
+  Plazas: Alameda, Granada, ii. 188, ii. 241;
+    Campo Grande, Valladolid, 131;
+    Constitution, Saragossa, 74;
+    Cortez, Madrid, 156;
+    Mayor, Burgos, 123;
+    Mayor, Madrid, 156;
+    Mayor, Valladolid, 131;
+    Orient, Madrid, 156;
+    Puerto del Sol, Madrid, 155;
+    San Pablo, Valladolid, 133.
+
+  Poetical contests, ii. 171;
+    rivalry, 38.
+
+  Politeness, Spanish, 52.
+
+  Political leaders, 96.
+
+  Politics, absorbing interest in, 15, 32, 95, 147;
+    partisanship in, 289; ii. 267.
+
+  Pompey defeated by Sertorius at Calahorra, 91.
+
+  Poussin, Nicolas, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Prado, Madrid, 166.
+
+  Praga, Emile, on Nature, ii. 259.
+
+  Prati, Giovanni, quotation from, ii. 269.
+
+  Pride, national, characteristic of the Spanish, 284.
+
+  Priests, friendly, 46, 54.
+
+  Prim, Gen. Juan, assassination of, at Madrid, 156, 166;
+    high estimation of, 288.
+
+  Puchero, the national dish, 161.
+
+  Puerto del Sol, at Madrid, 155, 163;
+    at Toledo, ii. 18.
+
+  Puerto Real, ii. 162.
+
+  Puerto de Santa Maria, ii. 162;
+    circus at, 238.
+
+  Pyrenees, the, 48, 92;
+    crossing the, 13.
+
+
+  Q.
+
+  Quintana, Manuel José, poet of the Revolution, 282, 291.
+
+  Quevedo, Francisco Gomez, on Valladolid, 129.
+
+
+  R.
+
+  Radical party, 96.
+
+  Railway travel, 52; ii. 55; ii. 175.
+
+  Raphael, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.
+
+  Rasura, Nunnius, judge of Castile, 103.
+
+  Recoletos promenade at Madrid, 167.
+
+
+  Rembrandt von, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Republican opinions, 15, 16, 32, 80;
+    of the soldiers, 205;
+    party, 96, 97.
+
+  Restaurants, Cordova, ii. 81.
+
+  Revenge, a farcical, 71.
+
+  Ribera, Enriquez de, builds the Casa de Pilato, ii. 136.
+
+  Ribera, José, criticism of his genius, 186;
+    a lover of the horrible, 188;
+    paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183;
+    at the Escurial, 264.
+
+  Ribera, Pedro Afan de, viceroy of Naples, ii. 137.
+
+  Ribero, political leader, 96.
+
+  Ricanati, quotation from, ii. 14.
+
+  Rinconado, ii. 101.
+
+  Rios, Amador de los, critic, 281.
+
+  Rivas, Duke de, 282.
+
+  Rizzi, Francisco, paintings by, at Madrid, 193.
+
+  Roa, Ferdinand de, kills Don Fadrique, ii. 123.
+
+  Roderic and the enchanted tower, ii. 45;
+    and Florinda, ii. 46.
+
+  Roelas, Juan de las, paintings by, at Seville, ii. 109.
+
+  Rojas, Francisco de, 169;
+    native of Toledo, ii. 49
+
+  Rodriguez as an orator, 276, 291;
+    political leader, 96.
+
+  Roman aqueduct at Alcanadre, 91;
+    at Segovia, 124;
+    ruins at Barcelona, 26.
+
+  Ros de Olano invents the soldier cap, 24.
+
+  Rosas, Rios y, political leader, 96;
+    oratory of, 276.
+
+  Resell, Gen., at Saragossa, 84.
+
+  Rubens, Peter Paul, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183;
+    at Valladolid, 144.
+
+  Ruins of Alcanadre, 91;
+    Egon ad Agoncilla, 91;
+    Logroño, 91.
+
+  Ruiz Garcia, political leader, 96.
+
+
+  S.
+
+  Saavedra, Señor, 291, 292.
+
+  Sagasta, Praxedes Mateo, political leader, 79, 96, 97;
+    a modern Cardenio, ii. 60.
+
+  St. Agnes, church of, Burgos, 121.
+
+
+  St. Andrea de Palomar, 19.
+
+  St. Anthony of Padua, Murillo's, ii. 129.
+
+  St. Eugenia, tomb of, ii. 29.
+
+  St. Eulalia, tomb of, 28.
+
+  St. Ferdinand, chapel of, Seville, ii. 109.
+
+  St. George Chapel, Barcelona, 26.
+
+  St. Ildefonso, garden of Philip V., 124.
+
+  St. Isadore, memorial ceremony at church of, 244.
+
+  St. James, the first bishop of Toledo, ii. 23;
+    and the Virgin Mary, 61.
+
+  St. Lawrence, Philip II.'s vow to, 260;
+    relic of, 272.
+
+  St. Leucadia, tomb of, ii. 29.
+
+  St. Theresa, birthplace of, 124;
+    inkhorn of, 272;
+    mementoes of, ii. 103.
+
+  Salamanca, a suburb of Madrid, 167, 208.
+
+  Salvator Rosa, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Salvini, Tommaso, as Samson, ii. 107.
+
+  San Fernando, Madrid, academy of, 193.
+
+  San Geronimo, church of, ii. 235.
+
+  San Ginés, church of, ii. 44.
+
+  San Gregorio, college of, 135.
+
+  San José, church of, Madrid, 204.
+
+  San Juan de los Reyes, church of, ii. 36.
+
+  San Pablo, convent of, 134.
+
+  San Quentin, Philip II.'s vow at battle of, 260;
+    relics of, 174.
+
+  San Salvador, Saragossa, 65.
+
+  San Servando, castle of, ii. 41.
+
+  Santa Cruz, hospital of, ii. 50.
+
+  Santa Cruz de Mudela, ii. 58.
+
+  Santa Cruz, Marquis of, armor of, 176.
+
+  Santa Domingo, convent of, ii. 235.
+
+  Santa Maria, gate of, Burgos, 104.
+
+  Santa Maria la Blanca, synagogue of, ii. 38.
+
+  Santi Ponce, ii. 118.
+
+  Saragossa, 56;
+    alcayde's bold
+  speech, 82;
+    Amadeus enters, 82;
+    arrival at, 55;
+    Bourse, 74;
+    carnival maskers, 65, 68;
+    cathedral of Our Lady of the Pillar, 60;
+    cathedral of San Salvador, 65;
+    church of Santiago, 74;
+    costume of peasantry, 56;
+    masked balls, 87;
+    new tower, 75;
+    siege of, 59, 77;
+    streets, 58;
+    suburbs, 91.
+
+  Sarto, Andrea del, paintings by, at Burgos, 109;
+    at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Schoen, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  School-boys, 46.
+
+  Shrack, Frederick, description of the Djihad, ii. 75.
+
+  Sea, beauty of the, ii. 157.
+
+  Sebastian of Portugal, a royal bull-fighter, 234.
+
+  Segovia, 124.
+
+  Segovia and Ardizone, Gonzalo, ii. 130, 132, 145;
+    sad fate of, ii. 146.
+
+  Seneca, born in Cordova, ii. 90.
+
+  Seo, Saragossa, 65.
+
+  Serenos, 172.
+
+  Serrano, Gen. Francesco, political leader, 96, 97;
+    reputation of, 288.
+
+  Sertorius defeats Pompey at Calahorra, 91.
+
+  Seville, Alcazar, ii. 120;
+    at night, ii. 106;
+    Barber of, ii. 132, 14;
+    cathedral, ii. 108;
+    Columbian library, ii. 118;
+    gaiety of, ii. 143;
+    gardens, ii. 125;
+    Giralda, ii. 101, ii. 116;
+    house of Pilate, ii. 136;
+    literary and artistic fame, ii. 139;
+    museum of painting, ii. 129;
+    Oriental character, ii. 102;
+    patios, ii. 133;
+    poetical character of, ii. 142;
+    streets, ii. 120;
+    Torre del Oro, ii. 103, 117;
+    tropical heat, ii. 120;
+    women of, ii. 126.
+
+  Sierra de Segura, ii. 61.
+
+  Sierra Morena, ii. 59, ii. 62, ii. 118, ii. 260.
+
+  Sierra Nevada, ii. 214, ii. 226.
+
+  Siestas necessary, ii. 79.
+
+  Socialist party, 96.
+
+  Soldiers, 23;
+    political feeling shown by, 204;
+    reviewed by Amadeus, 202.
+
+
+  Soria, 124.
+
+  Stagno in opera at Madrid, 168.
+
+  Streets of Barcelona, 22, 27;
+    Burgos, 101;
+    Cadiz, ii. 160;
+    Cordova, ii. 64;
+    Granada, ii. 187;
+    Madrid, 166;
+    Malaga, ii. 170;
+    Saragossa, 58;
+    Seville, ii. 102;
+    Toledo, ii. 17;
+    Valencia, ii. 265.
+
+  Studying for a degree, ii. 238.
+
+
+  T.
+
+  Tagus, the, at Aranjuez, ii. 12;
+    at Toledo, ii. 17.
+
+  Tamayo, dramatist, 169, 281, 291.
+
+  Tangiers, ii. 168.
+
+  Tarifa, Cape, ii. 167.
+
+  Tasso, Torquato, influence on Italian poetry, ii. 93.
+
+  Tato, the one-legged torero, ii. 262.
+
+  Teniers, David, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Theatres at Barcelona, 40;
+    at Madrid, 168;
+    and literature, 169, 282.
+
+  Tiepolo, Giovanni Battista, paintings by, at Madrid, 183.
+
+  Tintoretto, Giacomo, paintings by, at Madrid, 182;
+    at the Escurial, 264.
+
+  Tirso de Molina, dramatist, 169.
+
+  Titian, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.
+
+  Tobacco manufactories at Burgos, 118;
+    at Madrid, 173;
+    at Seville, ii. 127;
+    cigarettes vs. pipes, 132.
+
+  Toledo, Alcazar, ii. 39;
+    arrival at, ii. 17;
+    at night, ii. 47;
+    bridge of Alcantara, ii. 18;
+    cathedral, ii. 23;
+    church of San Juan de los Reyes, ii. 36;
+    church of San Ginés, ii. 44;
+    church of Nuestra Señora di Transito, ii. 50;
+    dead city, a, ii. 48;
+    historical, ii. 22;
+    hospital of Santa Cruz, ii. 50;
+    legends of, ii. 43;
+    lunatic asylum, ii. 51;
+    manufactory of arms, ii. 50;
+    popular characteristics, ii. 48;
+    Puerto del Sol, ii. 18;
+    Santa Maria la Blanca, ii. 38;
+    view from cathedral, ii. 34;
+    silent and gloomy, ii, 21;
+    streets, ii. 19.
+
+
+  Tolosa, Las Navas de, battlefield, ii. 60.
+
+  Topete, Juan, ii. 60.
+
+  Toreros, 213;
+    dangers of, 229;
+    dress of, 240;
+    highly respectable, 239;
+    lucrative business, 241.
+
+  Torrigiano, Pietro, sculptures by, at Granada, ii. 229.
+
+  Torquemada, Tomas de, founds the convent of Santa Domingo, ii. 235;
+    origin of, 235.
+
+  Torre del Oro, Seville, ii. 103.
+
+  Tower, new, Saragossa, 75;
+    Golden, Seville, ii. 103.
+
+  Trafalgar, relics of, 179.
+
+  Trajan's ashes brought to Seville, ii. 138.
+
+  Travelling for love, 13;
+    amenities of, 48, 52;
+    miseries of, ii. 177;
+    opera troupes, ii. 153;
+    philosophy of, ii. 224;
+    soldiers, ii.
+
+  Triana, ii. 118.
+
+  Tudela, battle of, 91;
+    canal, 51, 92.
+
+
+  U.
+
+  Undertaker's shop, 117.
+
+  Unionist party, 96, 97.
+
+  University students at Granada, ii. 238;
+    at Valladolid, 148.
+
+
+  V.
+
+  Val de Peñas, ii. 58;
+    wine of, 162; ii. 58.
+
+  Valencia, ii. 265;
+    Amadeus at, ii. 262;
+    art-gallery, ii. 267;
+    bull-ring, 235; ii. 262;
+    Casa de Ayuntamiento, ii. 266;
+    cathedral, ii. 266;
+    dress of peasantry, ii. 270;
+    historic houses, ii. 262;
+    Lonja, ii. 266;
+    market, ii. 269;
+    palace of the Audiencia, ii. 266;
+    popular characteristics, ii. 271;
+    streets, ii. 266;
+    women, ii. 271.
+
+  Valdes Leal, Juan de, paintings by, at Seville, ii. 109, 132.
+
+  Valera, Señor, 291.
+
+  Valladolid, 129;
+    cathedral, 136;
+    convent of San Pablo, 134;
+    college of San Gregorio, 135;
+    decay of, 131;
+    dialect of, 132;
+    hospitality, 148;
+    house of Cervantes, 137;
+    house of Zorilla, 141;
+    Inquisition, 146;
+    markets, 132;
+    picture-gallery, 143;
+    Plaza Major, 132;
+    polite beggary, 135;
+    royal palace, 133.
+
+  Van Dyke, Antonio, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.
+
+  Vega, Granada, ii. 260.
+
+  Vega, de Armijo, Marquis de, 207.
+
+  Vega, Garcilasso de la, armor of, 176;
+    native of Toledo, ii. 49.
+
+  Velasquez, Don Diego, masterpieces, 188;
+    mementoes of, ii. 103;
+    paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.
+
+  Ventas de Alcolea, ii. 62.
+
+  Ventura de la Vega, dramatist, 169.
+
+  Veragua, duke of, 207.
+
+  Victoria, at Madrid, 195;
+    charity of, 196;
+    learning of, 199;
+    universal respect for, 81, 200.
+
+  Vilches, ii. 61.
+
+  Villadomat, paintings by, at Barcelona, 26.
+
+  Villaseca, dowager of, 307.
+
+  Vinci, Leonardo da, paintings by, at Burgos, 109.
+
+  Virgin Mary appears to St. James at Toledo, ii. 27;
+    miraculous image of, 61;
+    robes of, ii. 31.
+
+
+  W.
+
+  Walk of the Spanish women, 136.
+
+  War of Independence influences Spanish national character, 35, 285;
+    relics of, 174.
+
+  Water abundant in the Alhambra, ii. 226.
+
+
+  Wife, a fugitive, 69.
+
+  Wine of Malaga, ii. 172;
+    Val de Peñas, 162; ii. 58;
+    Xeres, ii. 155.
+
+  Women of Barcelona, 41;
+    Cadiz, ii. 164;
+    Cordova, ii. 79;
+    Madrid, 165;
+    Saragossa, 57;
+    Seville, ii. 126;
+    Valencia, ii. 271;
+    Valladolid, 136;
+    toreros, 238;
+    walk of Spanish, 136.
+
+
+  X.
+
+  Xenil river, ii. 213.
+
+  Xeres, wine of, ii. 155.
+
+  Ximenes, wife of the Cid, remains of, 103.
+
+
+  Z.
+
+  Zafra, Don Fernando de, legend of, ii. 228.
+
+  Zahira, ii. 89.
+
+  Zainete, 170.
+
+  Zarzuela, the, 168, 170; ii. 154, ii. 156
+
+  Zorrilla, Ruiz, political leader, 86, 69, 97;
+    consents to accept office, ii. 268.
+
+  Zorrilla, José, 281;
+    birthplace at Valladolid, 141;
+    influence on Spanish literature, 141;
+    on people of Toledo, ii. 48;
+    popularity of, 142.
+
+  Zouave officers, 11.
+
+  Zuera, 54.
+
+  Zurbaran, Francisco de, paintings by, at Cadiz, ii. 163;
+    at Madrid, 193;
+    at the Escurial, 264;
+    at Seville, ii. 109, ii. 132.
+
+
+[Illustration: Map of SPAIN & PORTUGAL]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Spain, v. 2 (of 2), by Edmondo de Amicis
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 50727 ***
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-

-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Spain, v. 2 (of 2), by Edmondo de Amicis

-

-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most

-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions

-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of

-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at

-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have

-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.

-

-

-

-Title: Spain, v. 2 (of 2)

-

-Author: Edmondo de Amicis

-

-Translator: Stanley Rhoads Varnall

-

-Release Date: December 20, 2015 [EBook #50727]

-

-Language: English

-

-Character set encoding: UTF-8

-

-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPAIN, V. 2 (OF 2) ***

-

-

-

-

-Produced by Josep Cols Canals, Les Galloway and the Online

-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This

-file was produced from images generously made available

-by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

-

-

-

-

-

-

-</pre>

-

-

-<div class="transnote">

-<h3>Transcriber's Notes</h3>

-

-<p>Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected and

-inconsistencies of hyphenation have been removed. Other variations in spelling,

-accents and punctuation remain as in the original.</p>

-

-<p>The following corrections have been made to the Index.<br />

-Rembrandt von changed to Rembrandt van Rijn<br />

-Pousin, Nicola changed to Poussin, Nicolas<br />

-

-Zorilla, Ruiz changed to Zorrilla, Ruiz</p>

-

-<p>Repetition of chapter titles on consecutive pages has been removed.</p>

-

-</div>

-

-

-<p class="half-title">SPAIN</p>

-

-<div class="figcenterb" ><a id="Alcazar_Seville"></a>

-<img src="images/illus-a004s.jpg" alt="" />

-<div class="caption"><i>Alcazar, Seville</i></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="chapter">

-

-<div class="box1">

-<div class="box2">

-<p class="center"><i><b>EDITION ARTISTIQUE</b></i></p>

-</div>

-

-<div class="box2"><div class="figcenter">

-<img src="images/title1.jpg"  alt="The World’s Famous Places and Peoples" />

-</div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="box2">

-

-<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr valign="middle">

-<td>

-

-<img src="images/title2.jpg"

-style="border:2px solid rgb(243,0,2);padding:.1em;"

-width="97"

-height="374"

-alt="Flower"

-/>

-</td>

-<td><span style="margin-left: 4em;">&nbsp;</span></td>

-<td>

-

-<h1>SPAIN</h1>

-

-<p class="center"><small>BY</small><br />

-EDMONDO DE AMICIS</p>

-

-<p class="center small spaced"><i>Translated<br />

-by Stanley Rhoads Yarnall, M.A.</i></p>

-

-<p class="center"><b><i>In Two Volumes<br />

-Volume II</i>.</b></p></td></tr>

-</table>

-</div>

-

-<div class="box2"><p class="center">

-MERRILL AND BAKER<br />

-New York &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; London</p>

-</div>

-</div></div>

-

-

-

-<div class="pn">

-<p class="space-above"><small>THIS EDITION ARTISTIQUE OF THE WORLD'S

-FAMOUS PLACES AND PEOPLES IS LIMITED

-TO ONE THOUSAND NUMBERED AND REGISTERED

-COPIES, OF WHICH THIS COPY IS

-NO</small>. _______</p></div>

-

-

-<p class="center space-above xs">Copyright, Henry T. Coates &amp; Co., 1895</p>

-

-<hr class="chap" />

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2>

-

-

-<div class="center">

-<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr><td align="left"></td><td></td><td align="right"><span class="xs">PAGE</span></td></tr>

-<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#ARANJUEZ">Aranjuez</a></span></td><td> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </td><td align="right">7</td></tr>

-<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#TOLEDO">Toledo</a></span></td><td></td><td align="right">15</td></tr>

-<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CORDOVA">Cordova</a></span></td><td></td><td align="right">53</td></tr>

-<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#SEVILLE">Seville</a></span></td><td></td><td align="right">97</td></tr>

-<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CADIZ">Cadiz</a></span></td><td></td><td align="right">147</td></tr>

-<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#MALAGA">Malaga</a></span></td><td></td><td align="right">165</td></tr>

-<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#GRANADA">Granada</a></span></td><td></td><td align="right">175</td></tr>

-<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#VALENCIA">Valencia</a></span></td><td></td><td align="right">257</td></tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-</div><div class="chapter">

-<h2><a name="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>

-

-<p class="center">VOLUME II</p>

-

-

-

-

-<div class="center">

-<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right"><span class="xs">PAGE</span></td></tr>

-<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Alcazar_Seville">Alcazar, Seville</a></span></td><td align="right"><i>Frontispiece</i></td></tr>

-<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Gate_of_the_Sun">Gate of the Sun, Toledo</a></span></td><td align="right">18</td></tr>

-<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Alcazar_and_Bridge_of_San_Martin">Alcazar and Bridge of San Martin, Toledo</a></span></td><td align="right">40</td></tr>

-<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Court_of_Oranges">Court of Oranges, Mosque of Cordova</a></span></td><td align="right">68</td></tr>

-<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Moorish_Arches">Moorish Arches, Alcazar, Seville</a></span></td><td align="right">124</td></tr>

-<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Cadiz_p">Cadiz</a></span></td><td align="right">158</td></tr>

-<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Malaga_p">Malaga</a></span></td><td align="right">170</td></tr>

-<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Court_of_Myrtles">Court of Myrtles, Alhambra</a></span></td><td align="right">194</td></tr>

-<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Court_of_Lions">Fountain in the Court of Lions, Alhambra</a></span></td><td align="right">200</td></tr>

-<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Queens_Boudoir">Queen's Boudoir, Alhambra</a></span></td><td align="right">212</td></tr>

-<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Court_of_the_Generalife">Court of Generalife, Granada</a></span></td><td align="right">226</td></tr>

-<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#The_Alhambra">The Alhambra and the Valley of the Darro</a></span></td><td align="right">250</td></tr>

-</table></div>

-

-<hr class="chap" />

-

-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>

-</div><div class="chapter">

-<h2><a name="ARANJUEZ" id="ARANJUEZ"></a>ARANJUEZ.</h2>

-

-

-<p>As on arriving at Madrid by way of the north, so

-on leaving it by way of the south, one must pass

-through a desolate country that resembles the poorest

-provinces of Arragon and Old Castile. There

-are vast plains, parched and yellow, which look as

-though they would echo like a hollow passageway if

-one were to strike them, or crumble like the crust

-of a crisp tart. And through the plains are scattered

-a few wretched villages of the same color as

-the soil, which seem as though they would take fire

-like a pile of dry leaves if one were to touch a torch

-to the corner of one of the huts. After an hour of

-travel my shoulders sought the cushions of the carriage,

-my elbow sought for a support, my head

-sought my hand, and I fell into a deep sleep like a

-member of Leopardi's "Assembly of Listeners." A

-few minutes after I had closed my eyes I was rudely

-awakened by a desperate cry from the women and

-children, and leaped to my feet, demanding of my

-neighbors what had occurred.</p>

-

-<p>But before I had ended my question a general

-burst of laughter reassured me. A company of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">10</span>

-huntsmen, scattered over the plain, on noticing the

-approach of the train, had planned to give the travellers

-a little scare. At that time there was a rumor

-that a band of Carlists had appeared in the vicinity

-of Aranjuez. The huntsmen, pretending to be the

-vanguard of the band, had given a loud shout while

-the train was passing, as if to call the great body

-of their comrades to their assistance, and as they

-shouted they went through the motions of firing at

-the railway-carriages; hence arose the fright and

-the cries of my fellow-travellers. And then the

-huntsmen suddenly threw the butts of their guns

-into the air to show that it was all a joke.</p>

-

-<p>When the alarm, in which I too shared for a

-moment, had subsided, I fell once more into my

-academic doze, but was again awakened in a few

-moments in a manner much more pleasant than on

-the first occasion.</p>

-

-<p>I looked around: the vast barren plain had been

-transformed as by magic into a great garden full of

-the most charming groves, traversed in all directions

-by wide avenues, dotted with country-houses and

-cottages festooned with verdure; here and there the

-sparkling of fountains, shady grottoes, flowering

-meadows, vineyards, and bridle-paths&mdash;a verdure, a

-freshness, a vernal odor, an atmosphere of happiness

-and peace, that enchanted the soul. We had arrived

-at Aranjuez. I left the train, walked up a

-beautiful avenue shaded by two rows of noble trees,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">11</span>

-and after a few steps found myself in front of the

-royal palace.</p>

-

-<p>The minister Castelar had written in his memorandum

-a few days before that the fall of the ancient

-Spanish monarchy was predoomed on that day when

-a mob of the populace, with curses on their lips and

-hatred in their hearts, had invaded the palace of

-Aranjuez to disturb the majestic repose of their sovereigns.

-I had reached that square where on the 17th

-of March, 1808, occurred those events which were

-the prologue of the national war, and, as it were,

-the first word of the death-sentence of the ancient

-monarchy. My eyes quickly sought the windows of

-the apartments of the Prince of Peace; I imagined

-him, as he fled from room to room, pale and distracted,

-searching for a hiding-place as the echo of

-the cry followed him up the stairs; I saw poor

-Charles IV., as with trembling hands he placed the

-crown of Spain on the head of the prince of the

-Asturias; all the scenes of that terrible drama were

-enacted in fancy before my eyes, and the profound

-silence of the place and the sight of that palace,

-closed and desolate, sent a chill to my heart.</p>

-

-<p>The palace has the appearance of a castle: it is

-built of brick, with trimmings of light stone, and

-covered with a tile roof. Every one knows that it

-was built for Philip II. by the celebrated architect

-Herrera, and that it was adorned by all the later

-kings, who made it their summer residence. I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">12</span>

-enter: the interior is magnificent; there is the stupendous

-reception-hall of the ambassadors, the beautiful

-Chinese cabinet belonging to Charles V., the

-marvellous dressing-chamber of Isabella II., and a

-profusion of the most precious ornaments. But all

-the riches of the palace are as nothing to the beauty

-of the gardens. The expectation is not disappointed.</p>

-

-<p>The gardens of Aranjuez (Aranjuez is the name

-of a little town which lies a short distance from the

-palace) seem to have been laid out for a race of

-Titan kings, to whom the royal parks and gardens

-of our country would have seemed like the flower-beds

-on their terraces or the plots before their

-stables. Endless avenues, bordered by trees of

-measureless height with arched branches interlacing

-as if bent toward each other by contrary winds, extend

-in every direction like a forest whose boundaries

-one cannot see, and through this forest the

-Tagus, a wide, swift stream, flows in a majestic

-curve, forming here and there cascades and lakes:

-an abundant and luxuriant vegetation springs up

-amid a labyrinth of bypaths, crossways, and sylvan

-glades; and in every part gleam statues, vases,

-columns, and fountains rising to a great height and

-falling in spray, festoons, and drops of water, placed

-in the midst of all manner of flowers from Europe

-and America; and, mingling with the majestic roar

-of the cascades of the Tagus, a flood of song from

-innumerable nightingales, which make the mys<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">13</span>terious

-gloom of the lonely paths ring with their

-mellow notes. In the depths of the gardens rises

-a small marble palace of modest proportions which

-contains all the wonders of the most magnificent

-royal abode; and here one may still breathe, so to

-speak, the air of the inmost life of the kings of

-Spain. Here are the small secret chambers whose

-ceilings one may touch with the hand, the billiard-room

-of Charles IV., his cue, the cushions embroidered

-by the hands of his queens, the musical

-clocks which enlivened the playtime of his children,

-the narrow staircases, the little windows about which

-cluster a hundred traditions of princely caprices,

-and, finally, the richest retiring-room in Europe,

-created at a whim of Charles V., containing in itself

-alone sufficient riches to adorn a palace, without

-depriving it of the noble primacy which it proudly

-holds among all other cabinets designed for the same

-use. Beyond this palace and all around the groves

-extend vineyards and olive-groves and orchards of

-fruit-bearing trees and smiling meadows. It is a

-veritable oasis in the midst of the desert&mdash;an oasis

-which Philip II. chose to create on a day when he

-was in good humor, as if to enliven with one cheerful

-image the black melancholy of the Escurial. On

-returning from the little marble palace toward the

-great royal palace through those endless avenues, in

-the shade of those noble trees, in that profound

-forest silence, I thought of the splendid trains of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">14</span>

-ladies and cavaliers who once wandered about in the

-footsteps of the gay young monarchs or the capricious

-and dissolute queens to the sound of amorous music

-and songs which told of the grandeur and glory of

-unconquered Spain; and I sadly repeated with the

-poet, Ricanati,</p>

-

-<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">

-  <div class="verse">... "All is peace and silence,</div>

-  <div class="verse indent4">And their names are no longer heard."</div>

-</div></div></div>

-

-<p>But as I looked at those marble seats, half hidden

-in the shrubbery, and fixed my eyes on the shadow

-of certain distant paths, and thought of those queens,

-those lovers, and those mad pranks, I could not

-refrain from a sigh, which was not one of pity, and

-a secret sense of bitterness stung me to the heart;

-and I said, like poor Adan in the poem <i>Diablo

-Mundo</i>, "How are these grand ladies made? How

-do they live? What do they do? Do they talk,

-make love, and enjoy like us?" And I left for

-Toledo, imagining the love of a queen like a young

-adventurer of the Arabian Nights.</p>

-

-<hr class="chap" />

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">15</span></p>

-

-

-

-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a><br /><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p>

-</div><div class="chapter">

-<h2><a name="TOLEDO" id="TOLEDO"></a>TOLEDO.</h2>

-

-

-<p>When one approaches an unknown city one ought

-to have near by some one who has already seen it

-and is able to indicate the opportune moment to put

-one's head out of the window and get the first view.

-I had the good fortune to be informed in time.

-Some one said to me, "There is Toledo!" and I

-sprang to the window with an exclamation of

-wonder.</p>

-

-<p>Toledo rises on a sheer rocky height, at whose

-foot the Tagus describes a grand curve. From the

-plain one sees only the rocks and the walls of the

-fortress, and beyond the wall the tips of the belfries

-and the towers. The houses are hidden from view;

-the city seems to be closed and inaccessible, and

-presents the appearance of an abandoned stronghold

-rather than of a city. From the walls to the river-banks

-there is not a single house nor tree; all is

-bare, parched, craggy, precipitous; not a soul is in

-sight; you would say that to make the ascent it

-would be necessary to climb, and it seems that at

-the first appearance of a man on the face of those

-rocks a shower of arrows would fall upon him from

-the top of the wall.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">18</span></p>

-

-<p>You leave the train, get into a carriage, and

-arrive at the entrance of a bridge. It is the famous

-bridge Alcantara, which spans the Tagus, surmounted

-by a beautiful Moorish gate in the form of

-a tower, which gives it a bold, severe appearance.

-Crossing the bridge, you turn into a wide roadway

-which winds up in large serpentine curves until it

-reaches the top of the mountain. Here it really

-seems that you are under a fortified city of the

-Middle Ages, and you imagine yourself in the guise

-of a Moor or a Goth or a soldier of Alfonso VI.

-From every part precipitous rocks hang over your

-head, crumbling walls, towers, and the ruins of

-ancient bastions, and higher up the last wall which

-encircles the city, black, crowned with enormous

-battlements, opened here and there by great

-breaches, behind which the imprisoned houses rear

-their heads; and as you climb higher and higher the

-city seems to draw back and hide itself. Halfway

-up the ascent you come to the <i>Puerto del Sol</i>, a

-jewel of Moorish architecture, consisting of two

-embattled towers which are joined over a very graceful

-double-arched colonnade, under which runs the

-ancient street; and from that point, if you look

-back, you may see at a glance the Tagus, the valley,

-and the hills. You go on and find other walls and

-other ruins, and finally the first houses of the city.</p>

-

-<p>What a city! At the first moment I caught my

-breath. The carriage had turned down a little

-street, so narrow that the hubs of the wheels almost

-touched the walls of the houses.</p>

-

-<div class="figcenter">

-<div class="caption"><i><a id="Gate_of_the_Sun"></a>Gate of the Sun, Toledo</i></div>

-

-<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b018c.jpg" alt="" /></div>

-

-</div>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">19</span></p>

-

-<p>"Why do you turn in here?" I asked the driver.</p>

-

-<p>He laughed and answered, "Because there is no

-wider street."</p>

-

-<p>"Is all Toledo like this?" I asked again.</p>

-

-<p>"It is all like this," he replied</p>

-

-<p>"Impossible!" I exclaimed.</p>

-

-<p>"You will see," he added.</p>

-

-<p>To tell the truth, I did not believe him. I entered

-a hotel, dropped my valise in a room, and ran headlong

-down the stairs to take a look at this very

-strange city. One of the hotel-porters stopped me

-at the door and asked with a smile,</p>

-

-<p>"Where are you going, <i>caballero</i>?"</p>

-

-<p>"To see Toledo," I replied.</p>

-

-<p>"Alone?"</p>

-

-<p>"Yes; why not?"</p>

-

-<p>"But have you ever been here before?"</p>

-

-<p>"Never."</p>

-

-<p>"Then you cannot go alone."</p>

-

-<p>"And why not?"</p>

-

-<p>"Because you will get lost."</p>

-

-<p>"Where?"</p>

-

-<p>"As soon as you go out."</p>

-

-<p>"For what reason?"</p>

-

-<p>"The reason is this," he answered, pointing to a

-wall on which hung a map of Toledo. I approached

-and saw a network of white lines on a black back<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">20</span>ground

-that seemed like one of those flourishes

-which school-boys make on their slates to waste the

-chalk and vex their teacher.</p>

-

-<p>"No matter," said I; "I am going alone, and if

-I get lost, let them come and find me."</p>

-

-<p>"You will not go a hundred steps," observed the

-porter.</p>

-

-<p>I went out and turned down the first street I saw,

-so narrow that on extending my arms I touched both

-walls. After fifty paces I turned into another street,

-narrower than the first, and from this passed into a

-third, and so on.</p>

-

-<p>I seemed to be wandering not through the streets

-of the city, but through the corridors of a building,

-and I went forward, expecting momentarily to come

-out into an open place. It is impossible, I thought,

-that the whole city is built in this manner; no one

-could live in it. But as I proceeded the streets

-seemed to grow narrower and shorter; every

-moment I was obliged to turn; after a curving

-street came a zigzag one, and after this another in

-the form of a hook, which led me back into the

-first, and so I wandered on for a little while, always

-in the midst of the same houses. Now and then I

-came out at a crossway where several alleys ran off

-in opposite directions, one of which would lose itself

-in the dark shadow of a portico, another would end

-blindly in a few paces against the wall of a house,

-a third in a short distance would descend, as it were,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">21</span>

-into the bowels of the earth, while a fourth would

-clamber up a steep hill; some were hardly wide

-enough to give a man passage; others were confined

-between two walls without doors or windows; and

-all were flanked by buildings of great height, between

-whose roofs one could see a narrow streak

-of sky.</p>

-

-<p>One passed windows defended by heavy iron bars,

-great doors studded with enormous nails, and dark

-courtyards. I walked for some time without meeting

-anybody, until I came out into one of the principal

-streets, lined with shops and full of peasants,

-women, and children, but little larger than an ordinary

-corridor. Everything is in proportion to the

-streets: the doors are like windows, the shops like

-niches, and by glancing into them one sees all the

-secrets of the house&mdash;the table already spread, the

-babies in the cradle, the mother combing her hair,

-and the father changing his shirt; everything is on

-the street, and it does not seem like a city, but like

-a house containing a single great family.</p>

-

-<p>I turned into a less-frequented street, where I

-heard only the buzzing of a fly; my footsteps

-echoed to the fourth story of the houses and brought

-some old women to the windows. A horse passes;

-it seems like a squadron; everybody hurries to

-see what is going on. The least sound re-echoes in

-every direction; a book falls in a second story,

-an old man coughs in a courtyard, a woman blows<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">22</span>

-her nose in some unknown place; one hears

-everything.</p>

-

-<p>Sometimes every sound will suddenly cease; you

-are alone, you see no sign of life: you seem to be

-surrounded by the houses of witches, crossways

-made for conspirators, blind alleys for traitors, narrow

-doorways suitable for any crime, windows for the

-whispers of guilty lovers, gloomy doorways suggestive

-of blood-stained steps. But yet in all this labyrinth

-of streets there are no two alike; each one

-has its individuality: here rises an arch, there a

-column, yonder a piece of statuary. Toledo is a

-storehouse of art-treasures. Every little while the

-walls crumble, and there are revealed in every part

-records of all the centuries&mdash;bas-reliefs, arabesques,

-Moorish windows, and statuettes. The palaces have

-doorways defended by plates of engraved metal, historical

-knockers, nails with carved heads, 'scutcheons

-and emblems; and they form a fine contrast to the

-modern houses painted with festoons, medallions,

-cupids, urns, and fantastic animals.</p>

-

-<p>But these embellishments detract in no way from

-the severe and gloomy aspect of Toledo. Wherever

-you look you see something to remind you of the

-city fortified by the Arabs; however little your imagination

-may exert itself, it will succeed in rearranging

-from the relics scattered here and there the

-whole fabric of that darkened image, and then the

-illusion is complete: you see again the glorious<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">23</span>

-Toledo of the Middle Ages, and forget the solitude

-and silence of its streets. But it is a fleeting illusion,

-and you soon relapse into sad meditation and

-see only the skeleton of the ancient city, the necropolis

-of three empires, the great sepulchre of the

-glory of three races. Toledo reminds you of the

-dreams which come to young men after reading the

-romantic legends of the Middle Ages. You have

-seen many a time in your dreams dark cities encircled

-by deep moats, frowning walls, and inaccessible

-rocks; and you have crossed those draw-bridges

-and entered those tortuous, grass-grown

-streets, and have breathed that damp, sepulchral,

-prison air. Well, then, you have dreamed of

-Toledo.</p>

-

-<p>The first thing to see, after making a general survey

-of the city, is the cathedral, which is justly considered

-one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the

-world. The history of this cathedral, according to

-popular tradition, dates from the times of the apostle

-Saint James, first bishop of Toledo, who selected the

-place where it should be erected; but the construction

-of the edifice as it appears to-day was begun in

-1227, during the reign of San Fernando, and was

-ended after twenty-five years of almost continuous

-labor. The exterior of this immense church is

-neither rich nor beautiful, as is that of the cathedral

-of Burgos. A little square extends in front of the

-façade, and is the only place from which one can get<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">24</span>

-a view of any considerable part of the building. It

-is entirely surrounded by a narrow street, from

-which, however much you may twist your neck, you

-can see only the high outer walls which enclose the

-church like a fortress. The façade has three great

-doorways, the first of which is named <i>Pardon</i>, the

-second <i>Inferno</i>, and the third <i>Justice</i>. Over it rises

-a substantial tower which terminates in a beautiful

-octagonal cupola. Although in walking around the

-building one may have remarked its great size, on

-first entering one is struck by a profound sense of

-wonder, which quickly gives place to another keen

-sense of pleasure, the result of the freshness, the

-repose, the soft shadow, and the mysterious light

-which steals through the stained glass of innumerable

-windows and breaks in a thousand rays of blue,

-golden, and rosy light which glides here and there

-along the arches and columns like the bands of a

-rainbow. The church is formed of five great naves

-divided by eighty-eight enormous pilasters, each of

-which is composed of sixteen turned columns as

-close together as a bunch of spears. A sixth nave

-cuts the other five at right angles, extending from

-the great altar to the choir, and the vaulted roof of

-this principal nave rises majestically above the

-others, which seem to be bowing to it as if in

-homage. The many-colored light and the clear

-tone of the stone give the church an air of quiet

-cheerfulness which tempers the melancholy appear<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">25</span>ance

-of the Gothic architecture without depriving it

-of its austere and serious character. To pass from

-the streets of the city to the naves of this cathedral

-seems like coming out of a dungeon into an open

-square: one looks around, draws a deep breath, and

-begins to live again.</p>

-

-<p>The high altar, if one wished to examine it minutely,

-would require as much time as the interior

-of a church: it is itself a church&mdash;a miracle of little

-columns, statuettes, traceries, and ornaments of endless

-variety, creeping along the iron frames, rising

-above the architraves, winding about the niches,

-supporting one another, climbing and disappearing,

-presenting on every side a thousand outlines, groups,

-combinations, effects in gilding and color, every sort

-of grace that art can devise&mdash;giving to the whole an

-effect of magnificence, dignity, and beauty. Opposite

-the high altar rises the choir, divided into three

-orders of stalls, marvellously carved by Philip of

-Bourgogne and Berruguete, with bas-reliefs representing

-historical events, allegories, and sacred legends&mdash;one

-of the most famous monuments of

-art.</p>

-

-<p>In the centre, in the form of a throne, stands the

-seat of the archbishop surrounded by a circle of

-enormous jasper columns, with colossal statues of

-alabaster resting on the architraves; on either side

-rise enormous bronze pulpits provided with two

-great missals, and two gigantic organs, one in front<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">26</span>

-of the other, from which it seems that at any moment

-a flood of melody may burst forth and make the

-vault tremble.</p>

-

-<p>The pleasure of one's admiration in these great

-cathedrals is almost always disturbed by importunate

-guides, who wish at any cost to amuse you after

-their fashion. And it was my misfortune to become

-convinced that the Spanish guides are the most persistent

-of their kind. When one of them has gotten

-it into his head that you are to spend the day with

-him, it is all over. You may shrug your shoulders,

-refuse to notice him, let him talk himself hoarse

-without so much as turning to look at him, wander

-about on your own account as though you had not

-seen him: it is all the same thing. In a moment of

-enthusiasm before some painting or statue a word

-escapes you, a gesture, a smile: it is enough. You

-are caught, you are his, you are the prey of this

-implacable human cuttle-fish, who, like the cuttle-fish

-of Victor Hugo, does not leave his victim until

-he has cut off his head. While I stood contemplating

-the statuary of the choir I saw one of these

-cuttle-fish out of the corner of my eye&mdash;a miserable

-old rake, who approached me with slow steps sidewise,

-like a cutthroat with the air of one who was

-saying, "Now I have got you!" I continued to look

-at the statues; the old man came up to my side, and

-he too began to look; then he suddenly asked me,

-"Do you wish my company?"</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">27</span></p>

-

-<p>"No," I replied, "I don't need you."</p>

-

-<p>And he continued, without any embarrassment,</p>

-

-<p>"Do you know who Elpidius was?"</p>

-

-<p>The question was so remarkable that I could not

-keep from asking in my turn,</p>

-

-<p>"Who was he?"</p>

-

-<p>"Elpidius," he replied, "was the second bishop

-of Toledo."</p>

-

-<p>"Well, what of him?</p>

-

-<p>"'What of him?' It was the bishop Elpidius

-who conceived the idea of consecrating the church

-to the Virgin, and that is the reason why the Virgin

-came to visit the church."</p>

-

-<p>"Ah! how do you know that?"</p>

-

-<p>"How do you know it? You see it."</p>

-

-<p>"Do you mean to say that it has been seen?"</p>

-

-<p>"I mean to say that it is still to be seen: have

-the goodness to come with me."</p>

-

-<p>So saying, he started off, and I followed him,

-very curious to learn what this visible form of the

-descent of the Virgin might be. We stopped in

-front of a sort of chapel close to one of the great

-pilasters of the central nave. The guide pointed

-out a white stone set in the wall covered by

-an iron net, and with this inscription running

-around it:</p>

-

-<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">

-  <div class="verse">"Quando la reina del cielo</div>

-  <div class="verse">Puso los pies en el suelo,</div>

-  <div class="verse">En esta piedra los puso."</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">28</span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-  <div class="verse">"When the Queen of heaven</div>

-  <div class="verse">Descended to the earth,</div>

-  <div class="verse">Her feet rested on this stone."</div>

-</div></div></div>

-

-<p>"Then the Holy Virgin has actually placed her

-feet on this stone?" I asked.</p>

-

-<p>"On this very stone," he replied; and, thrusting

-a finger between the strands of the iron net, he

-touched the stone, kissed his finger, made the sign

-of the cross, and turned toward me as if to say,

-"Now it is your turn."</p>

-

-<p>"My turn?" I replied. "Oh, really, my friend,

-I cannot do it."</p>

-

-<p>"Why?"</p>

-

-<p>"Because I do not feel myself worthy to touch

-that sacred stone."</p>

-

-<p>The guide understood, and, looking hard at me

-with a serious aspect, he asked, "You do not

-believe?"</p>

-

-<p>I looked at a pilaster. Then the old man made

-a sign for me to follow, and started toward a corner

-of the church, murmuring with an air of sadness,

-"<i>Cadanno es dueño de su alma</i>" (Every man is

-master of his soul).</p>

-

-<p>A young priest who was standing near, and who

-had divined the cause of his words, cast a piercing

-glance at me, and went off in an opposite direction,

-muttering I know not what.</p>

-

-<p>The chapels correspond in style with that of the

-church: almost all of them contain some fine monu<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">29</span>ments.

-In the chapel of Santiago, behind the high

-altar, are two magnificent tombs of alabaster which

-contain the remains of the constable Alvaro de Luna

-and his wife; in the chapel of San Ildefonso, the

-tomb of the cardinal Gil Carrillo de Albornoz; in

-the chapel of the "New Kings," the tombs of Henry

-II., John II., and Henry III.; in the chapel of the

-sacristy, a stupendous group of statues and busts

-of marble, silver, ivory, and gold, and a collection of

-crosses and relics of inestimable value, the remains

-of Saint Leucadia and Saint Eugenia preserved in

-two silver caskets exquisitely chased.</p>

-

-<p>The Chapel Mozarabe, which is under the tower

-of the church, and was erected to perpetuate the

-tradition of the primitive Christian rite, is probably

-the most worthy of attention. One of its walls is

-entirely covered with a fresco, in the Gothic style,

-representing a conflict between the Moors and the

-Toledans&mdash;marvellously preserved, even to the most

-delicate lines. It is a painting worth a volume of

-history. In it one sees the Toledo of those times

-with all its walls and its houses; the habiliments

-of the two armies; the arms, faces, everything portrayed

-with an admirable finish and an unspeakable

-harmony of color which answers perfectly to the

-vague and fantastic idea which one may have formed

-of those centuries and those races. Two other frescoes

-on either side of the first represent the fleet

-which bore the Arabs into Spain, and they offer a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">30</span>

-thousand minute details of the mediæval marine and

-the very air of those times, if one may so speak,

-which makes one think of and see a thousand things

-not represented in the painting, as one hears distant

-music on looking at a landscape.</p>

-

-<p>After the chapels one goes to see the sacristy,

-where are gathered enough riches to restore the

-finances of Spain to a sound basis. There is, among

-others, a vast room on the ceiling of which one sees

-a fresco by Luca Giordano, which represents a vision

-of paradise, with a myriad of angels, saints, and

-allegorical figures floating in the air or standing out

-like statues from the cornices of the walls in a thousand

-bold attitudes, with so much action and foreshortening

-that one is bewildered. The guide,

-pointing out this miracle of imagination and genius,

-which in the estimation of all artists, to use a very

-curious Spanish expression, is a work of <i>merito atroz</i>

-(of atrocious merit),&mdash;the guide bids you to look attentively

-at the ray of light which falls upon the

-walls from the centre of the vaulted ceiling. You

-look at it and then make a circuit of the room, and

-wherever you find yourself that ray of light is falling

-directly upon your head.</p>

-

-<p>From this hall you pass into a room which is also

-beautifully painted in fresco by the nephew of

-Berruguete, and from it into a third, where a sacristan

-lays the treasures of the cathedral before

-your eyes&mdash;the enormous silver candlesticks; the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">31</span>

-pyxes flashing with rubies; the golden stands for the

-elevation of the Host, studded with diamonds; the

-damask vestments, embroidered in gold; the robes

-of the Virgin, covered with arabesques, garlands of

-flowers, and stars of pearl, which at every motion

-of the cloth flash forth in a thousand rays and colors

-and quite dazzle one's eyes. A hour is scarcely sufficient

-to see hurriedly all that display of treasures,

-which would certainly satisfy the ambition of ten

-queens and enrich the altars of ten cathedrals; and

-when, after he has shown you everything, the sacristan

-looks in your eyes for an expression of surprise,

-he finds only astonishment and stupefaction,

-which give evidence of an imagination wandering

-in far distant regions&mdash;in the realms of the Arabian

-legends where the kindly genii gather all the riches

-dreamed of by the glowing fancy of enamored

-sultans.</p>

-

-<p>It was the eve of <i>Corpus Domini</i>, and in the sacristy

-they were preparing the robes for the processional.

-Nothing can be more unpleasant or more at

-variance with the quiet and noble sadness of the

-church than the theatrical hurry-scurry which one

-sees on such occasions. It is like being behind the

-scenes on the evening of a dress rehearsal. From one

-room of the sacristy to another half-dressed boys

-were coming and going with a great clatter, carrying

-armfuls of surplices, stoles, and capes; here a sour-tempered

-sacristan was opening and banging the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">32</span>

-doors of a wardrobe; there a priest, all red in the

-face, was calling angrily to a chorister who did not

-hear him; yonder other priests were running through

-the room with their robes partly on their backs and

-partly trailing behind them; some laughing, some

-screaming, and some shouting from one room to

-another at the top of their voices; everywhere one

-heard a swish of skirts, a breathless panting, and an

-indescribable stamping and tramping.</p>

-

-<p>I went to see the cloister, but, as the door was

-open through which one reaches it from the church,

-I saw it before entering. From the middle of the

-church one gets a glimpse of a part of the cloister-garden,

-a group of fine leafy trees, a little grove, a

-mass of luxuriant plants which seem to close the

-doorway and look as though they are framed beneath

-a graceful arch and between the two slender columns

-of the portico which extends all around. It is a

-beautiful sight, which makes one think of Oriental

-gardens encircled by the columns of a mosque. The

-cloister, which is very large, is surrounded by a colonnade,

-graceful, though severe in form; the walls

-covered with great frescoes. The guide advised me

-to rest here a little while before ascending to the

-campanile. I leaned against a low wall in the shade

-of a tree, and remained there until I felt able to

-make another expedition, as the expression is.

-Meanwhile, my commander extolled in bombastic

-language the glories of Toledo, carrying his impu<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">33</span>dence

-so far, in his patriotism, as to call it "a great

-commercial city" which could buy and sell Barcelona

-and Valencia, and a city strong enough, if need be,

-to withstand ten German armies and a thousand batteries

-of Krupp guns. After each of his exaggerations

-I kept spurring him on, and the good man enjoyed

-himself to the full. What pleasure there is in

-knowing how to make others talk! Finally, when

-the proud Toledan was so swollen with glory that

-the cloister could no longer hold him, he said to me,

-"We may go now," and led the way toward the

-door of the campanile.</p>

-

-<p>When we were halfway up we stopped to take

-breath. The guide knocked at a little door, and out

-came a swaggering little sacristan, who opened

-another door, and made me enter a corridor where I

-saw a collection of gigantic puppets in very strange

-attire. Four of them, the guide told me, represented

-Europe, Asia, America, and Africa, and two others

-Faith and Religion; and they were so made that a

-man could hide in them and raise them from the

-ground.</p>

-

-<p>"They take them out on the occasions of the

-royal fêtes," the sacristan added, "and carry them

-around through the city;" and, to show me how it

-was done, he crept in under the robes of Asia.

-Then he led me to a corner where there was an

-enormous monster which when touched, I know not

-where, stretched out a very long neck and a horrible<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">34</span>

-head and made a dreadful noise. But he could not

-tell me what this ugly creature signified, and so

-invited me instead to admire the marvellous imagination

-of the Spaniards, which creates so "many new

-things" to sell in all the known world. I admired,

-paid, and continued the ascent with my Toledan

-cuttle-fish. From the top of the tower one enjoys

-a splendid view&mdash;the city, the hills, the river, a vast

-horizon, and, below, the great mass of the cathedral,

-which seems like a mountain of granite. But there

-is another elevation, a short distance away, from

-which one sees everything to a better advantage,

-and consequently I remained in the campanile only

-a few moments, especially as at that hour the sun

-was shining very strongly, confusing all the colors

-of the city and country in a flood of light.</p>

-

-<p>From the cathedral my guide led me to see the

-famous church of <i>San Juan de los Reyes</i>, situated on

-the banks of the Tagus. My mind is still confused

-when I think of the windings and turnings which we

-were obliged to make in order to reach it. It was

-mid-day, the streets were deserted; gradually, as

-we went farther from the centre of the city, the

-solitude became more depressing; not a door or

-window was open, not the slightest sound was heard.

-For a moment I suspected that the guide was in

-league with some assassin to entice me into an

-out-of-the-way place and rob me; he had a suspicious

-face, and then he kept glancing here and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">35</span>

-there with a suspicious air, like one meditating a

-crime.</p>

-

-<p>"Is it much farther?" I would ask from time to

-time, and he would always answer: "It is right

-here," and yet we never reached it.</p>

-

-<p>At a certain point my uneasiness changed into

-fear: in a narrow, tortuous street a door opened;

-two bearded men came out, made a sign to the

-cuttle-fish, and fell in behind us. I thought it was

-all over with me. There was only one way of

-escape&mdash;to strike the guide, knock him down, jump

-over his body, and run. But which way? And on

-the other side there came into my mind the high

-praises which Thiers bestows on the "Spanish legs"

-in his <i>History of the War of Independence</i>; and I

-thought that flight would only prove an opportunity

-to plant a dagger in my back instead of my stomach,

-Alas! to die without seeing Andalusia! To die after

-taking so many notes, after giving so many tips&mdash;to

-die with pockets full of letters of introduction, with

-a purse fat with doubloons&mdash;to die with a passport

-covered with seals&mdash;to die by treachery! As God

-willed, the two bearded men disappeared at the first

-corner and I was saved. Then, overwhelmed by

-compunction for suspecting that the poor old man

-could be capable of a crime, I came over to his left

-side, offered him a cigar, said that Toledo was worth

-two Romes, and showed him a thousand courtesies.

-Finally we arrived at <i>San Juan de los Reyes</i>.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">36</span></p>

-

-<p>It is a church which seems like a royal palace:

-the highest part is covered by a balcony surrounded

-with a honeycombed and sculptured breastwork,

-upon which rises a series of statues of kings, and

-in the middle stands a graceful hexagonal cupola

-which completes the beautiful harmony of the edifice.

-From the walls hang long iron chains which

-were suspended there by the Christian prisoners

-released at the conquest of Granada, and which,

-together with the dark color of the stone, give the

-church a severe and picturesque appearance. We

-entered, passed through two or three large, bare

-rooms, unpaved, cluttered with piles of dirt and

-heaps of rubbish, climbed a staircase, and came out

-upon a high gallery inside the church, which is one

-of the most beautiful and noblest of the monuments

-of Gothic architecture. It has a single great nave

-divided into four vaults, whose arches intersect

-under rich rosettes. The pilasters are covered with

-festoons and arabesques; the walls ornamented with

-a profusion of bas-reliefs, with enormous shields

-bearing the arms of Castile and Arragon, eagles,

-dragons, heraldic animals, trailing vines, and emblematic

-inscriptions; the gallery running all around the

-room is perforated and carved with great elegance;

-the choir is supported by a bold arch; the color of

-the stone is light gray, and everything is admirably

-finished and preserved, as if the church had been<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">37</span>

-built but a few years ago, instead of at the end of

-the fifteenth century.</p>

-

-<p>From the church we descended to the cloister,

-which is, in truth, a miracle of architecture and

-sculpture. Graceful slender columns which could

-be broken in two by the stroke of a hammer, looking

-like the trunks of saplings, support capitals

-richly adorned like curving boughs; arches ornamented

-with flowers, birds, and grotesque animals in

-every sort of carving. The walls are covered with

-inscriptions in Gothic characters in a framework of

-leaves and very delicate arabesques. Wherever one

-looks one finds grace mingled with riches in enchanting

-harmony: it would not be possible to accumulate

-in an equal space and with more exquisite art a

-larger number of the most delicate and beautiful

-objects. It is a luxuriant garden of sculpture, a

-grand saloon embroidered, quilted, and brocaded in

-marble, a great monument, majestic as a temple,

-magnificent as a palace, delicate as a toy, and graceful

-as a flower.</p>

-

-<p>After the cloisters one goes to see a picture-gallery

-which contains only some paintings of little value,

-and then to the convent with its long corridors, its

-narrow stairs, and empty cells, almost on the point

-of falling into ruins, and in some parts already in

-ruins; throughout bare and squalid like a building

-gutted by fire.</p>

-

-<p>A little way from <i>San Juan de los Reyes</i> there is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">38</span>

-another monument well worthy of attention, a curious

-record of the Judaic period&mdash;the synagogue

-now known by the name of Santa Maria la Blanca.

-One enters an untidy garden and knocks at the door

-of a wretched-looking house. The door opens.

-There is a delightful sense of surprise, a vision of

-the Orient, a sudden revelation of another religion

-and another world. There are five narrow alleys

-divided by four long rows of little octagonal pilasters,

-which support as many Moorish arches with

-stucco capitals of various forms; the ceiling is of

-cedar-wood divided into squares, and here and there

-on the walls are arabesques and Arabic inscriptions.

-The light falls from above, and everything is white.

-The synagogue was converted into a mosque by the

-Arabs, and the mosque into a church by the Christians,

-so that, properly, it is none of the three,

-although it still preserves the character of the

-mosque, and the eye surveys it with delight, and

-the imagination follows from arch to arch the fleeting

-images of a sensuous paradise.</p>

-

-<p>When I had seen Santa Maria la Blanca, I had

-not the strength to see anything else, and, refusing

-all the tempting propositions of the guide, I told him

-to lead me back to the hotel. After a long walk

-through a labyrinth of narrow, deserted streets we

-arrived there; I put a <i>peseta</i> and a half in the hand

-of my innocent assassin, who found the fee too<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">39</span>

-small, and asked (how I laughed at the word!) for a

-little <i>gratificacion</i>.</p>

-

-<p>I went into the dining-room to eat a chop or <i>chuleta</i>

-(which is pronounced <i>cuileta</i>), as the Spanish call it&mdash;a

-name at which they would turn up their noses in

-some of the provinces of Italy.</p>

-

-<p>Toward evening I went to see the Alcazar. The

-name raises expectations of a Moorish palace, but

-there is nothing Moorish about it except the name.

-The building which one admires to-day was built

-in the reign of Charles V. on the ruins of a castle

-which was in existence as early as the eighth century,

-although the notices of it in contemporary chronicles

-are vague. This edifice rises upon a height overlooking

-the city, so that one sees its walls and towers

-from every point above the level of the streets, and

-the foreigner finds it a sure landmark amid the confusion

-and labyrinths of the city. I climbed the

-height by a broad winding street, like that one

-which runs from the plain up to the city, and found

-myself in front of the Alcazar. It is an immense

-square palace, at whose corners rise four great

-towers that give it the formidable appearance of a

-fortress. A vast square extends in front of the

-façade, and all around it runs a chain of embattled

-bulwarks of Oriental design. The entire building is

-of a decided chalky color, relieved by a thousand

-varied shades of that powerful painter of monuments,

-the burning sun of the South, and it appears<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">40</span>

-even lighter against the very clear sky upon which

-the majestic form of the building is outlined.</p>

-

-<p>The façade is carved in arabesques in a manner at

-once dignified and elegant. The interior of the

-palace corresponds with the exterior: it is a vast

-court surrounded by two orders of graceful arches,

-one above the other, supported by slender columns,

-with a monumental marble staircase starting at the

-centre of the side opposite the door, and a little

-way above the pavement divides into two parts that

-lead to the interior of the palace, the one on the

-right, the other on the left. To enjoy the beauty of

-the courtyard it is necessary to stand on the landing

-where the staircase separates: from that point one

-comprehends at a glance the complete harmony of

-the edifice, which inspires a sense of cheerfulness

-and pleasure, like fine music performed by hidden

-musicians.</p>

-

-<p>Excepting the courtyard, the other parts of the

-building&mdash;the stairways, the rooms, the corridors&mdash;everything

-is in ruins or falling to ruins. They

-were at work turning the palace into a military

-school, whitewashing the walls, breaking down the

-partitions to make great dormitories, numbering the

-doors, and converting the palace into a barracks.

-Nevertheless, they left intact the great subterranean

-chambers which were used for stables at the time of

-Charles V., and which are still able to hold several

-thousand horses. The guide made me approach a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">41</span>

-window from which I looked down into an abyss that

-gave me an idea of their vastness. Then we climbed

-a series of unsteady steps into one of the four towers;

-the guide opened with pincers and a hammer a window

-that had been nailed fast, and with the air of

-one who was announcing a miracle said to me,

-"Look, sir!"</p>

-

-<div class="figcenter">

-<div class="caption"><i><a id="Alcazar_and_Bridge_of_San_Martin"></a>Alcazar and Bridge of San Martin, Toledo</i></div>

-<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b040cs.jpg" alt="" /></div>

-</div>

-

-<p>It was a wonderful panorama. One had a bird's-eye

-view of the city of Toledo, street by street and

-house by house, as if one were looking at a map

-spread upon a table: here the cathedral, rising above

-the city like a measureless castle, and making all

-the buildings around it seem as small as toy houses;

-there the balcony of <i>San Juan de las Reyes</i>, crowned

-with statues; yonder the embattled towers of the

-New Gate, the circus, the Tagus running at the foot

-of the city between its rocky banks; and beyond

-the river, opposite the bridge of Alcantara, on a

-precipitous crag, the ruins of the ancient castle of

-San Servando; still farther off a verdant plain, and

-then rocks, hills, and mountains as far as the eye can

-see; and over all a very clear sky and the setting

-sun, which gilded the summits of the old buildings

-and flashed on the river like a great silver scarf.</p>

-

-<p>While I was contemplating this magic spectacle

-the guide, who had read the <i>History of Toledo</i> and

-wished me to know the fact, was telling all sorts of

-stories with that manner, half poetical and half

-facetious, which is distinctive of the Spaniards of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">42</span>

-the South. Above all, he wished to explain the history

-of the work of fortification, and although, where

-he said that he saw clear and unmistakable remains

-which he pointed out to me, I saw nothing at all, I

-succeeded, nevertheless, in learning something about

-it.</p>

-

-<p>He told me that Toledo had been thrice surrounded

-by a wall, and that the traces of all three walls were

-still clear. "Look!" he said; "follow the line

-which my finger indicates: that is the Roman wall,

-the innermost one, and its ruins are still visible.

-Now look a little farther on: that other one beyond

-it is the Gothic wall. Now let your glance describe

-a curve which embraces the first two: that is the

-Moorish wall, the most recent. But the Moors also

-built an inner wall on the ruins of the Roman wall:

-this you can easily see. Then observe the direction

-of the streets, which converge toward the highest

-point of the city; follow the line of the roofs&mdash;here,

-so; you will see that all the streets go up zigzag,

-and they were built purposely in this manner, so that

-the city could be defended even after the walls had

-been destroyed; and the houses were built so close

-one against another in order that it would be possible

-to jump from roof to roof, you see; and then the

-Arabs have left it in their writings. This is the

-reason that the Spanish gentlemen from Madrid

-make me laugh when they come here and say,

-'Pooh! what streets!' You see, they do not know<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">43</span>

-a particle of history: if they knew the least bit, if

-they read a little instead of spending their days on

-the Prado and in the Recoleto, they would understand

-that there is a reason for the narrow streets

-of Toledo, and that Toledo is not a city for ignoramuses."</p>

-

-<p>I began to laugh.</p>

-

-<p>"Do you not believe?" continued the custodian:

-"it is a sacred fact. Not a week ago, to cite a

-case, here comes a dandy from Madrid with his wife.

-Well, even as they were climbing the stairs they

-began to run down the city, the narrow streets, and

-the dark houses. When they came to this window

-and saw those two old towers down yonder on the

-plain on the left bank of the Tagus, they asked me

-what they were, and I answered, '<i>Los palacios de

-Galiana</i>.' 'Oh! what beautiful palaces!' they exclaimed,

-and began to laugh and looked in another

-direction. Why? Because they did not know their

-history. Now, I imagine that you do not know any

-better; but you are a stranger, and that makes a

-difference. Know, then, that the great emperor

-Charlemagne came to Toledo when he was a very

-young man. King Galafro was reigning then, and

-dwelt in that palace. King Galafro had a daughter

-Galiana, as beautiful as an angel; and, as Charlemagne

-was a guest of the king and saw the princess

-every day, he fell in love with her with all his heart,

-and so did the princess with him. But there was a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">44</span>

-rival between them, and this rival was the king of

-Guadalajara, a Moorish giant of herculean strength

-and the courage of a lion. This king, to see the

-princess without being seen, had a subterranean

-passage made all the way from the city of Guadalajara

-to the very foundation of the palace. But

-what good did it do? The princess could not even

-bear to see him, and as often as he came, so often

-did he return crestfallen; but not for this did the

-enamored king stop paying his court. And so much

-did he come hanging around that Charlemagne, who

-was not a man to be imposed upon, as you can

-imagine, lost his patience, and to end the matter

-challenged him. They fought: it was a terrible

-struggle, but the Moor, for all he was a giant, got

-the worst of it. When he was dead Charlemagne

-cut off his head and laid it at the feet of his love,

-who approved the delicacy of his offering, became a

-Christian, gave her hand to the prince, and went

-away with him to France, where she was proclaimed

-empress."</p>

-

-<p>"And the head of the Moor?"</p>

-

-<p>"You may laugh, but these are sacred facts.

-Do you see that old building down there at the

-highest point of the city? It is the church of San

-Ginés. And do you know what is inside of it?

-Nothing less than the door of an underground

-passage which extends three leagues beyond Toledo.

-You do not believe it? Listen! At the place<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">45</span>

-where the church of San Ginés now stands there

-once was an enchanted palace before the Moors

-invaded Spain. No king had ever had the courage

-to enter it, and those who might possibly have been

-so bold did not do it because, according to the tradition,

-the first man who crossed that threshold

-would be the ruin of Spain. Finally King Roderic,

-before setting out for the battle of Guadalete, hoping

-to find in it some treasures which would furnish

-him means to resist the invasion of the Moors, had

-the doors broken open and entered, preceded by his

-warriors, who lighted the way. After a great deal

-of trouble to keep their torches lighted for the

-furious wind which came through the underground

-passages, they reached a mysterious room where

-they saw a chest which bore the inscription, 'He

-who opens me will see miracles.' The king commanded

-that it be opened: with incredible difficulty

-they succeeded in opening it, but, instead of gold or

-diamonds, they found only a roll of linen, on which

-were painted some armed Moors, with this inscription

-underneath: '<i>Spain will soon be destroyed by

-these</i>.' That very night a violent tempest arose,

-the enchanted palace fell, and a short time afterward

-the Moors entered Spain. You don't seem to

-believe it?"</p>

-

-<p>"What stuff you are talking! How can I

-believe it?"</p>

-

-<p>"But this history is connected with another.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">46</span>

-You know, without doubt, that Count Julian, the

-commandant of the fortress of Ceuta, betrayed

-Spain and allowed the Moors to pass when he might

-have barred the way. But you do not know why

-Count Julian turned traitor. He had a daughter at

-Toledo, and this daughter went every day with a

-number of her young friends to bathe in the Tagus.

-As misfortune willed it, the place where they went

-to bathe, which was called <i>Los Baños de la Cava</i>,

-was near a tower in which King Roderic was accustomed

-to pass the mid-day hours. One day Count

-Julian's daughter, who was called Florinda, tired of

-sporting in the water, sat down on the river-bank

-and said to her companions, 'Companions, let us

-see who is the most beautiful.'&mdash;'Let us see!' they

-cried, and as soon done as said. They seated themselves

-around Florinda, and each one revealed her

-beauty. But Florinda surpassed them all, and,

-unfortunately, just at the moment when she said to

-the others, 'Look!' King Roderic put his head out

-of the window and saw them. Young and dissolute,

-you may imagine he took fire like a match, paid his

-court to the beautiful Florinda, ruined and abandoned

-her; and from this followed the fury of the revenge

-of Count Julian, the treason, and the invasion."</p>

-

-<p>At this point it seemed that I had listened long

-enough: I gave the custodian two <i>reales</i>, which he

-took and put in his pocket with a dignified air, and,

-giving a last look at Toledo, I descended.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">47</span></p>

-

-<p>It was the hour for promenading. The principal

-street, hardly wide enough for a carriage to pass

-through, was full of people; there may have been a

-few hundred persons, but they seemed like a great

-crowd; it was dusk, the shops were closing, and a

-few stray lights began to flicker here and there. I

-went to get my dinner, but came out quickly, so as

-not to lose sight of the promenade. It was night:

-there was no other illumination save the moonlight,

-and one could not see the faces of the people; I

-seemed to be in the midst of a procession of spectres,

-and was overwhelmed with sadness. "To think that

-I am alone!" I said&mdash;"that in all this city there is

-not a soul who knows me; that if I fall dead at this

-moment, there would not be a dog to say, 'Poor

-man! he was a good fellow!'" I saw joyous young

-men pass, fathers of families with their children,

-husbands or those who had the air of husbands

-with beautiful creatures on their arms; every one

-had a companion; they laughed and talked, and

-passed without so much as looking at me. How

-wretched I was! How happy I should have been if

-a boy, a beggar, or a policeman had come up and

-said, "It seems to me that I recognize you, sir"!&mdash;"It

-is impossible, I am a foreigner, I have never

-been in Toledo before; but it makes no matter;

-don't go away; stay here, and we will talk a while,

-for I am lonely."</p>

-

-<p>In a happy moment I remembered that at Madrid<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">48</span>

-I had received a letter of introduction to a Toledan

-gentleman. I hurried to the hotel, took out my letter,

-and was at once shown to his house. The gentleman

-was at home and received me courteously.

-It was such a pleasure to hear my own name again

-that I could have thrown my arms around his neck.

-He was Antonio Gamero, the author of a highly esteemed

-<i>History of Toledo</i>. We spent the evening

-together. I asked him a hundred things; he told

-me a thousand, and read me some splendid passages

-from his book, which made me better acquainted with

-Toledo than I should otherwise have been in a

-month's residence there.</p>

-

-<p>The city is poor, and worse than poor: it is dead;

-the rich have abandoned it for Madrid; the men of

-genius have followed the rich; it has no commerce;

-the manufacture of cutlery, the only industry which

-flourishes, provides a livelihood for some hundreds

-of families, but not for the city; popular education

-is neglected; the people are lazy and miserable.</p>

-

-<p>But they have not lost their ancient character of

-nobility. Like all the peoples of great declining cities,

-they are proud and chivalrous; they abhor baseness,

-deal justice with their own hands, when they can, to

-assassins and thieves and murderers; and, although

-the poet Zorilla, in one of his ballads, has bluntly

-called them a silly people, they are not so; they are

-alert and bold. They combine the seriousness of the

-Spaniards of the North with the vivacity of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">49</span>

-Spaniards of the South; they hold the middle ground

-between the Castilian and the Andalusian; they

-speak the language with refinement, with a greater

-variety of inflexion than the people of Madrid, and

-with greater precision than the people of Cordova

-and Seville; they love poetry and music; they are

-proud to number among their great men the gentle

-Garcilaso de la Vega, the reformer of Spanish poetry,

-and the illustrious Francisco de Rojas, the author of

-the <i>Garcia del Castañar</i>; and they take pride in

-welcoming within their walls artists and students

-from all the countries in the world who come to

-study the history of three nations and the monuments

-of three civilizations. But, whatever its

-people may be, Toledo is dead; the city of Wamba,

-of Alfonso the Brave, and of Padilla is nothing but

-a tomb. Since Philip II. took from it the crown of

-the capital, it has been steadily declining, and is still

-declining, and it is consuming itself little by little,

-solitary on the summit of its gloomy mountain, like

-a skeleton abandoned on a rock in the midst of the

-waves of the sea.</p>

-

-<p>I returned to the hotel shortly before midnight.

-Although the moon was shining brightly&mdash;for on

-moonlight nights they do not illuminate the streets,

-although the light of that silvery orb does not penetrate

-those narrow ways&mdash;I was obliged to grope my

-way along like a thief. With my head full, as it

-was, of fantastic ballads which describe the streets<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">50</span>

-of Toledo traversed at night by cavaliers muffled in

-their cloaks, singing under the windows of their

-ladies, fighting and killing one another, climbing

-into palaces and stealing the maidens away, I

-imagined I should hear the tinkle of guitars, the

-clashing of swords, and the cries of the dying.

-Nothing of the kind: the streets were deserted and

-silent and the windows dark, and one heard faintly

-from time to time at the corners and crossways the

-light step of some one passing or a fugitive whisper,

-the source of which one could in no way discover.

-I reached the hotel without harming any fair Toledan,

-which might have caused me some annoyance,

-and also without having any holes made in my

-stomach, which was undoubtedly a consolation.</p>

-

-<p>The morning of the next day I visited the beautiful

-building of the hospital of San Cruz, the church

-of <i>Nuestra Señora del Transito</i>, an ancient synagogue,

-the ruins of an amphitheatre and of an arena

-where naval battles were fought in Roman times,

-and the famous manufactory of arms, where I bought

-a beautiful dagger with a silver handle and a blade

-covered with arabesques, which at this moment lies

-on my table, and when I shut my eyes and take it

-in my hand I seem to be still there, in the courtyard

-of the factory, a mile out of Toledo, under the mid-day

-sun, surrounded by a group of soldiers, and enveloped

-in a cloud of smoke from their cigarettes.

-I remember that as I was walking back to Toledo,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">51</span>

-as I was crossing a bit of country solitary as a desert

-and silent as the Catacombs, a terrible voice cried

-out, "Away with the foreigner!"</p>

-

-<p>The voice came from the city. I stopped&mdash;I was

-the foreigner, that cry was directed at me, and my

-blood curdled; the solitude and silence of the place

-increased my fear. I started forward and the voice

-cried again, "Away with the foreigner!"</p>

-

-<p>"Is it a dream?" I exclaimed, stopping again, "or

-am I awake? Who is shouting? Where is he?

-Why does he do it?"</p>

-

-<p>I started on again, and the voice came the third

-time, "Away with the foreigner!"</p>

-

-<p>I stopped the third time, and when, all disturbed,

-I cast my eyes around, I saw a boy sitting on the

-ground, who looked at me with a laugh and said,

-"He is a crazy man, who thinks he is living in the

-time of the War of Independence. Look, sir! that

-is the insane asylum." And he pointed out the

-place on a hill among the outermost houses of

-Toledo. I drew a long breath which would have

-blown out a torch.</p>

-

-<p>In the evening I left Toledo, regretting that I had

-not time to see once and again all that was ancient

-and wonderful in it: this regret was tempered, however,

-by my ardent desire for Andalusia, which had

-not allowed me a moment's peace. But how long I

-saw Toledo before my eyes! How long I remembered

-and dreamed of those headlong rocks, those enor<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">52</span>mous

-walls, those dark streets, that fantastic appearance

-of a mediæval city! Even to-day I review

-the picture with a sort of sombre pleasure and grave

-melancholy, and with this picture before me my

-mind wanders back in a thousand strange thoughts

-among distant times and marvellous events.</p>

-

-<hr class="chap" />

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">53</span></p>

-

-

-

-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a><br /><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p>

-

-</div><div class="chapter">

-<h2><a name="CORDOVA" id="CORDOVA"></a>CORDOVA.</h2>

-

-

-<p>On arriving at Castillejo I was obliged to wait

-until midnight for the Andalusia train. I dined on

-hard-boiled eggs and oranges, with a little sprinkling

-of Val de Peñas, murmured a poem of Espronceda,

-chatted a little with a custom-house officer who between

-parentheses made me a confession of his political

-faith&mdash;Amadeus, liberty, an increase of wages

-to the custom-house officers, etc; finally I heard

-the long-desired whistle, entered a railway-carriage

-crowded full of women, children, civil guards, boxes,

-cushions, and wraps, and away with a speed unusual

-for the Spanish railways. It was a beautiful night;

-my travelling-companions talked of bulls and Carlists;

-a beautiful girl, whom more than one devoured

-with his eyes, pretended to sleep that she might still

-further heighten their curiosity; some were rolling

-cigarettes, some peeling oranges, others humming

-songs from the <i>Zarzuela</i>. Nevertheless, I fell

-asleep in a few minutes. I believe I had already

-dreamed of the mosque of Cordova and the Alcazar

-of Seville, when I was aroused by a hoarse cry,

-"Daggers!"</p>

-

-<p>"Daggers? Heavens! for whom?" Before I dis<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">56</span>covered

-who had shouted there flashed before my

-eyes a long sharp blade, and the unknown voice

-asked again,</p>

-

-<p>"Do you like it?"</p>

-

-<p>One must admit that there are pleasanter ways to

-be awakened. I looked in the faces of my travelling-companions

-with an expression of consternation,

-which made them all burst into a shout of laughter.

-Then they explained that at every railway-station

-there are vendors of knives and daggers who offer

-tourists their wares, just as the boys offer newspapers

-and refreshments in our country. Assured that my

-life was safe, I bought my scarecrow&mdash;five francs;

-a splendid dagger for a villain in a tragedy, with an

-ornamented handle, inscriptions on the blade, and a

-sheath of embroidered velvet; and I put it in my

-pocket, thinking that I might find it useful in Italy

-to settle difficulties with my publishers.</p>

-

-<p>The vendor must have had fifty of those knives

-in a great red sash tied around his waist. Other

-travellers bought them, the civil guards complimented

-one of my neighbors on the good selection

-he had made; the boys cried, "Buy me one too!"

-The mammas answered, "We will buy you a bigger

-one some other time." "O happy Spain!" I exclaimed,

-and thought with horror of our barbarous

-laws, which forbid the innocent amusement of a little

-cold steel.</p>

-

-<p>We crossed La Mancha, the celebrated La Mancha,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">57</span>

-the immortal theatre of the adventures of Don

-Quixote. It is such a place as I imagined&mdash;wide,

-bare plains, long tracts of sandy soil, here and there

-a windmill, a few wretched villages, lonely lanes,

-and forsaken huts. On seeing these places I felt

-that vague sense of melancholy which steals over

-me as I read the book of Cervantes, and repeated to

-myself what I always say on reading it: "This man

-cannot make one laugh without also making one's

-tears flow as the laughter dies away."</p>

-

-<p>Don Quixote is a sad and sombre figure: his madness

-is a lament; his life is the history of the dreams,

-illusions, awakenings, and aberrations of each of us;

-the struggle of reason with imagination, of truth

-with falsehood, of the ideal with the real. We all

-have something of Don Quixote in our nature; we

-all mistake windmills for giants; we are all now and

-then spurred on by the impulse of enthusiasm, only

-to be driven back by the laugh of scorn; we are

-each a mixture of the sublime and the ridiculous;

-we all feel bitterly and profoundly the eternal conflict

-between the grandeur of our aspirations and the

-impotence of our powers. O beautiful dreams of

-childhood and youth! Generous impulses to consecrate

-our life to the defence of virtue and justice,

-fond imaginations of dangers faced, of adventurous

-struggles, of magnanimous deeds, and sublime loves,

-fallen one by one, like the petals of a flower, in the

-narrow and uneventful paths of life! To what new<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">58</span>

-life have they arisen in our soul, and what vague

-thoughts and profound inspirations have we derived

-from thee, O generous and hapless cavalier of the

-sad figure!</p>

-

-<p>We arrived at Argamasilla de Alba, where Don

-Quixote was born and died, and where poor Cervantes,

-the tax-gatherer of the great priory of San Juan,

-was arrested by angry debtors and imprisoned in a

-house which is said to be still in existence, and

-where he probably conceived the plan of his

-romance. We passed near the village of Val de

-Peñas, which gives its name to one of the most

-exquisite wines of Spain&mdash;dark, tingling, exhilarating,

-the only one, forsooth, which permits the

-foreigner from the North to indulge in copious

-libations at his meals; and finally we arrived at

-Santa Cruz de Mudela, a village famous for its

-manufactories of <i>navajas</i> (knives and razors), near

-which the way begins to slope gently upward toward

-the mountain.</p>

-

-<p>The sun had risen, the women and children had

-left the carriage, and a number of peasants, officers,

-and <i>toreros</i> had entered on their way to Seville.

-One saw in that small space a variety of costume

-which would not be seen even in an Italian market-place&mdash;the

-pointed caps of the peasants of the

-Sierra Morena, the red trousers of the soldiers, the

-great sombreros of the <i>picadores</i>, the shawls of the

-gypsies, the mantles of the Catalans, Toledo blades<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">59</span>

-hanging from the walls, capes, belts, and finery of

-all the colors of a harlequin.</p>

-

-<p>The train entered the rocks of the Sierra Morena,

-which separate the valley of the Guadiana from that

-of the Guadalquivir, famous for the songs of poets

-and the deeds of brigands. The railway runs at

-times between two walls of rock sheer from the very

-peaks, so high that to see the top one must put one's

-head all the way out of the window and turn one's

-face up, as if to look at the roof of the carriage.

-Sometimes the rocks are farther away and rise one

-above the other, the first like enormous broken

-stones, the last straight and sharp like bold towers

-rising upon measureless bastions; between them a

-mass of boulders cut into teeth, steps, crests, and

-humps, some almost hanging in the air, others separated

-by deep caverns and frightful precipices, presenting

-a confusion of curious forms, of fantastic suggestions

-of houses, gigantic figures and ruins, and

-offering at every step a thousand outlines and surprising

-appearances; and, together with this infinite

-variety of form, an infinite variety of color, shadow,

-dancing and changing light. For long distances, to

-the right, to the left, and overhead, one sees nothing

-but stone, without a house, a path, or a patch of

-ground where a man could set his foot, and, as one

-advances, rocks, ravines, and precipices: everything

-grows larger, deeper, and higher until one

-reaches the summit of the Sierra, where the solemn<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">60</span>

-majesty of the spectacle provokes a cry of wonder.</p>

-

-<p>The train stopped a few minutes, and all the travellers

-put their heads out of the window.</p>

-

-<p>"Here," said one in a loud voice,&mdash;"here Cardenio

-jumped from rock to rock to do penance for

-his sins" (Cardenio, one of the most remarkable characters

-in <i>Don Quixote</i>, who jumped about among

-the rocks of the Sierra in his shirt to do penance for

-his sins). "I wish," continued the traveller, "that

-Sagasta might have to do the same."</p>

-

-<p>They all laughed, and began to find, each one on

-his own account, some political enemy upon whom

-in imagination he might inflict this punishment:

-one proposed Serrano, another Topete, and a third

-another, and so on, until in a few minutes, if their

-desires had been realized, one might have seen the

-entire Sierra filled with ministers, generals, and

-deputies in their shirts skipping from crag to crag

-like the famous rock of Alessandro Manzoni.</p>

-

-<p>The train started, the rocks disappeared, and the

-delightful valley of the Guadalquivir, the garden of

-Spain, the Eden of the Arabs, the paradise of

-painters and of poets, blessed Andalusia, revealed

-herself to my eyes. I can still feel the thrill of

-childish joy with which I hurried to the window,

-saying to myself, "Let me enjoy it."</p>

-

-<p>For a long distance the country does not offer any

-new appearance to the ardent curiosity of the travel<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">61</span>ler.

-At Vilches there is a vast plain, and beyond it

-the level country of Tolosa, where Alfonso VIII.,

-king of Castile, won the celebrated victory of <i>de las

-Navas</i> over the Mussulman army. The sky was as

-clear as air&mdash;in the distance rose the mountains of

-the Sierra de Segura. Suddenly I made one of

-those quick motions which seemed to correspond to

-an unuttered cry of astonishment: the first aloes

-with their broad heavy leaves, the unexpected harbingers

-of the tropical vegetation, rise beside the

-road. Beyond them the fields sprinkled with flowers

-begin to appear. The first fields sprinkled, those

-which follow almost covered, then vast tracts of

-country wholly clothed, with wild poppies, daisies,

-iris, mushrooms, cowslips, and buttercups, so that

-the country appears like a succession of vast carpets

-of purple and gold and snowy white, and far away,

-among the trees, innumerable streaks of blue, white,

-and yellow until the eye is lost; and hard by, on the

-edge of the ditches, the mounds, and the banks, even

-to the very track, flowers in beds, groups, and clusters,

-one above the other, fashioned like great

-bouquets, trembling on their stems, which one can

-almost touch with the hand. Then waving fields of

-grain with great heavy bearded heads, bordered by

-long gardens of roses; then orange-orchards and

-vast olive-groves; hillocks varied by a hundred

-shades of green, surmounted by ancient Moorish

-towers, dotted with many-colored cottages, with here<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">62</span>

-and there white, graceful bridges, which span rivulets

-hidden by the trees. On the horizon rise the

-snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada, and below this

-white line other blue undulating lines of the nearer

-mountains. The country grows ever more various

-and blooming: Arjonilla, embowered in an orange-grove

-whose limits are lost in the distance; Pedro

-Abad, in the midst of a plain covered with vineyards

-and orchards; Ventas de Alcolea, on the hills

-of the Sierra Morena, crowned with villas and gardens.

-We are drawing near to Cordova: the train

-flies; one sees little stations half hidden among trees

-and flowers; the wind blows the rose-leaves into the

-cars, great butterflies sail past the windows, a delicious

-perfume fills the air, the travellers are singing,

-we pass through an enchanted garden, the aloes,

-oranges, palms, and villas become more frequent;

-one hears a cry: "Here is Cordova!"</p>

-

-<p>How many beautiful images and how many memories

-are recalled by that name!</p>

-

-<p>Cordova, the ancient pearl of the Occident, as the

-Moorish poets called her, the city of cities, Cordova

-of the thirty burgs and the three thousand mosques,

-which contained within her walls the greatest temple

-of Islam! Her fame spread through the Orient and

-obscured the glory of ancient Damascus,&mdash;from the

-remotest regions of Asia the faithful journeyed

-toward the banks of the Guadalquivir to prostrate

-themselves in the marvellous mihrab of her mosque,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">63</span>

-in the blaze of a thousand brazen lamps cast from

-the bells of the Spanish cathedrals. From every

-part of the Mohammedan world artists, scholars, and

-poets crowded to her flourishing schools, her vast

-libraries, and the magnificent courts of her caliphs.

-Hither flowed wealth and beauty, drawn by the

-fame of her splendor.</p>

-

-<p>And from here they separated, eager for knowledge,

-along the coasts of Africa, among the schools of Tunis,

-Cairo, Bagdad, and Cufa, as far as India and

-China, in search of books, inspiration, and memories;

-and the poems sung on the slopes of the Sierra

-Morena flew from harp to harp even to the valleys

-of the Caucasus, to make the hearts of pilgrims burn

-within them. The beautiful, the mighty, the wise

-Cordova, crowned with three thousand villages,

-proudly reared her white minarets among her orange-groves

-and spread through the divine valley a

-voluptuous air of gladness and glory.</p>

-

-<p>I descend from the train, cross a garden, and look

-around: I am alone; the travellers who came with

-me have disappeared in different directions; I still

-hear the rumble of the receding carriages; then all is

-silent.</p>

-

-<p>It is mid-day: the sky is very clear, the air burning.

-I see two white cottages; it is the opening of

-a street; I enter and go forward. The street is narrow,

-the houses small as the little villas built on the

-hillocks of artificial gardens; nearly all of them are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">64</span>

-one story in height, with windows a little way from

-the ground, roofs so low that one can almost touch

-them with a cane, and very white walls. The street

-makes a turn; I look down it; no one is in sight; I

-do not hear a step nor a voice. "It must be an

-abandoned street," I say, and turn in another direction:

-white cottages, closed windows, solitude, and

-silence. "Where am I?" I ask myself.</p>

-

-<p>I walk on: the street is so narrow and crooked

-that a carriage could not pass through it; to the

-right and left one sees other deserted streets, other

-white houses, and other closed windows; my step

-echoes as in a corridor; the white of the walls is so

-bright that the reflection almost blinds me, and I am

-obliged to walk with my eyes closed; I seem to be

-passing through snow. I reach a little square:

-everything is closed, there is no one about. Then a

-feeling of vague melancholy begins to steal into my

-heart, such as I have never felt before, a mingling

-of enjoyment and sorrow like that which children

-experience when after a long run they find themselves

-in a beautiful country-place and enjoy it, but

-with a tremor of fear at being so far away from

-home. Above the many roofs rise the palms of the

-inner gardens. O fantastic legends of odalisques

-and caliphs!</p>

-

-<p>On from street to street and square to square; I

-meet a few persons, but they all pass and disappear

-like phantoms. The streets are all alike, the houses<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">65</span>

-have only two or four windows; and there is not a

-stain, not a scratch, not a crack in the walls, which

-are as smooth and white as a sheet of paper. Now

-and then I hear a whisper behind a venetian blind,

-and almost at the same moment see a dark head with

-a flower in the hair peep out and disappear. I approach

-a door.</p>

-

-<p>A <i>patio</i>! How shall I describe a <i>patio</i>? It is not

-a courtyard, it is not a garden, it is not a room; it is

-the three in one. Between the <i>patio</i> and the street

-there is a vestibule. On the four sides of the <i>patio</i>

-rise graceful columns which support a sort of balcony

-enclosed in glass at the height of the second

-story; over the balcony extends a canvas which

-shades the court. The vestibule is flagged with

-marble, the doorway supported by columns surmounted

-by bas-reliefs and closed by a delicate iron

-lattice of very beautiful design. At the back of the

-<i>patio</i>, opposite the doorway, stands a statue, in the

-centre a fountain, and all around chairs, work-tables,

-paintings, and vases of flowers. I run to another

-door. Another <i>patio</i>, its walls covered with ivy,

-and a line of niches containing statuettes and urns.

-I hurry to a third door. A <i>patio</i> with its walls

-adorned with mosaic, a palm in the centre, and all

-around a mass of flowers. A fourth door. Behind

-the <i>patio</i> another vestibule, and then a second <i>patio</i>,

-in which one sees other statues, columns, and fountains.

-And all these rooms and gardens are clean<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">66</span>

-and tidy, so that you could pass your hands over the

-walls and along the floor without leaving a mark;

-and they are fresh and fragrant, lighted with a dim

-light which heightens their beauty and mystery.</p>

-

-<p>Still forward, from street to street, at random.

-Gradually, as I walk on, my curiosity increases and

-I hasten my steps. It seems impossible that the

-whole city can be like this: I am afraid of coming

-upon a house or finding a street which will remind

-me of other cities and rouse me from my pleasant

-dream.</p>

-

-<p>But, no: the dream is unbroken. Everything is

-small, graceful, mysterious. Every hundred paces a

-deserted little square, in which I stop breathless;

-now and then a crossway, and not a living soul;

-and everything always white&mdash;closed windows and

-silence. At every door there is a new spectacle:

-arches, columns, flowers, fountains, palms; a marvellous

-variety of design, color, light, perfume, here

-of roses, there of oranges, yonder of violets; and

-with the perfume a breath of fresh air, and borne on

-the air the subdued sound of women's voices, the

-rustling of leaves, and the singing of birds&mdash;a sweet

-and various harmony, which, without disturbing the

-silence of the street, soothes the ear like the echo of

-distant music. Ah! it is not a dream! Madrid,

-Italy, Europe, surely they are far, far away. Here

-one lives another life, here one breathes the air of

-another world; I am in the Orient.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">67</span></p>

-

-<p>I remember that at a certain point I stopped in

-the middle of the street and suddenly discovered, I

-know not how, that I was sad and restless, and that

-in my heart there was a void which neither admiration

-nor enjoyment could fill. I felt an irrepressible

-necessity of entering those houses and those gardens,

-of tearing asunder, so to speak, the mysterious veil

-which concealed the life of the unknown people

-within; of sharing in that life; of grasping some

-hand and gazing into two pitying eyes, and saying,

-"I am a stranger, I am alone; I too want to be

-happy; let me linger among your flowers, let me

-enjoy all the secrets of your paradise, teach me who

-you are and how you live; smile on me and calm me,

-for my head is burning!"</p>

-

-<p>And this sadness grew upon me until I said to

-myself, "I cannot stay in this city; I am suffering

-here; I will leave it!"</p>

-

-<p>And I believe I should have left if at a happy

-moment I had not remembered that I carried in my

-pocket a letter of introduction to two young men of

-Cordova, brothers of a friend of mine in Florence.

-I dismissed the idea of leaving, and started at once

-to find them.</p>

-

-<p>How they laughed when I told them of the impression

-Cordova had made upon me! They proposed

-that we go at once to see the cathedral; so

-we turned down a narrow white street and were

-off.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">68</span></p>

-

-<p>The mosque of Cordova, which was converted

-into a cathedral after the overthrow of the Moors,

-but which must always remain a mosque, was built

-on the ruins of the original cathedral, a little way

-back from the bank of the Guadalquivir. Abdurrahman

-commenced its construction in the year 785

-or 786 <span class="smcap">A. D.</span> "Let us rear a mosque," said he,

-"which shall surpass that of Bagdad, of Damascus,

-and of Jerusalem&mdash;a mosque which shall be the

-greatest temple of Islam, one which shall become

-the Mecca of the West." They undertook the work

-with great ardor. Christian slaves carried the stone

-for its foundations from their ruined churches; Abdurrahman

-himself worked an hour every day; in

-a few years the mosque was built, the caliphs who

-succeeded Abdurrahman embellished it, and after a

-century of almost continuous labor it was finished.</p>

-

-<p>"Here we are!" said one of my friends, stopping

-suddenly in front of a vast edifice.</p>

-

-<p>I thought it was a fortress, but it was the wall

-which surrounds the mosque&mdash;an old embattled wall

-in which there were at one time twenty great bronze

-doors ornamented with the most beautiful arabesques,

-and arched windows supported by graceful columns,

-now covered by a triple coat of plaster. A turn

-around this wall is a nice little walk to take after

-dinner: one may judge, therefore, of the vast size

-of the building.</p>

-

-<div class="figcenter">

-<div class="caption"><i><a id="Court_of_Oranges"></a>Court of Oranges, Mosque of Cordova</i></div>

-<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b068c.jpg" alt="" /></div>

-

-</div>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">69</span></p>

-

-<p>The principal door of the enclosure is north of

-the point where rises the minaret of Abdurrahman,

-from whose summit floated the Mohammedan standard.

-We entered: I expected to see at once the

-interior of the mosque, but found myself in a garden

-full of orange trees, cypresses, and palms, surrounded

-on three sides by a very beautiful portico and closed

-on the fourth side by the façade of the mosque.

-In the midst of this garden there was, in the time

-of the Moors, the fountain for their ablutions, and

-in the shade of these trees the faithful refreshed

-themselves before entering the sanctuary.</p>

-

-<p>I stood for some moments looking around and

-breathing in the fresh odorous air with the liveliest

-sense of pleasure, and my heart leaped at the

-thought of the famous mosque standing there before

-me, and I felt myself impelled toward the door by

-a boundless curiosity, and at the same time restrained

-by I know not what feeling of childish hesitation.</p>

-

-<p>"Let us enter," said my companions. "One

-moment more," I replied: "let me thoroughly enjoy

-the delight of anticipation." Finally I moved forward

-and entered, without so much as looking at

-the marvellous doorway which my companions

-pointed out.</p>

-

-<p>What I did or said on entering I do not know, but

-some strange exclamation must surely have escaped

-me or I must have made an odd gesture, for some

-persons who were just then coming toward me began

-to laugh and turned again to look around, as if to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">70</span>

-discover the reason of the profound emotion which

-I had manifested.</p>

-

-<p>Imagine a forest and suppose yourself in the

-thickest part, where you see only the trunks of

-trees. So in the mosque wherever you turn your

-gaze is lost among the columns. It is a forest of

-marble whose boundaries one cannot discover. One

-follows with the eye, one by one, those lengthening

-rows of columns crossed at every step by innumerable

-other rows, and perceives a dimly-lighted background

-in which one seems to see the gleaming of

-still other columns. There are nineteen naves which

-extend in the direction in which you enter, crossed

-by thirty-three other naves, and supported, in all,

-by more than nine hundred columns of porphyry,

-jasper, onyx, and marble of every color. Each

-column is surmounted by a pilaster, and between one

-column and the next bends an arch, and a second

-arch above the first extends from pilaster to pilaster,

-both of them in the form of a horseshoe; and so,

-imagining the columns to be the trunks of so many

-trees and the arches to represent the branches, the

-resemblance of the mosque to a forest is complete.</p>

-

-<p>The central nave, much larger than the others,

-leads to the Maksura, the most sacred part of the

-temple, where they worshipped the Koran. Here

-from the vaulted windows steals a faint ray of light

-which glides along a row of columns; there a dark

-place, and yonder another ray pierces the gloom of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">71</span>

-another nave. It is impossible to express the feeling

-of mystical wonder which fills one's mind at this

-spectacle. It is like the sudden revelation of a religion,

-a nature, and a life unknown, leading the

-fancy captive among the delights of that paradise

-of love and pleasure where the blessed, sitting in the

-shade of leafy plane trees and of thornless roses,

-drink from crystal beakers wine gleaming like

-pearls, mixed by immortal children, and repose in

-the embrace of lovely virgins with great dark eyes!

-All the images of that external pleasure, eager,

-warm, and glowing, which the Koran promises to

-the faithful, crowd upon the mind at the first sight

-of the mosque, and give one a delicious moment of

-intoxication which leaves in the heart an indescribable

-feeling of gentle melancholy. A brief tumult

-in the mind and a rapid thrill which goes tingling

-through the veins,&mdash;such is one's first sensation on

-entering the cathedral of Cordova.</p>

-

-<p>We began to wander from passage to passage, examining

-everything minutely. What a variety in

-that edifice which at first sight appears so uniform!

-The proportions of the columns, the design of the

-capitals, the form of the arches change, one may

-say, at every step. The greater part of the columns

-are old and were taken by the Moors from Northern

-Spain, Gaul, and Roman Africa, and one is said to

-have belonged to a temple of Janus, upon whose

-ruins stood the church which the Arabians destroyed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">72</span>

-to build the mosque. On several of the capitals one

-may still see the traces of the crosses carved upon

-them, which the Arabians broke off with their

-hammers. In some of the columns iron rings are

-fastened to which it is said the Arabians bound the

-Christians, and among the others there is one

-pointed out to which the popular tradition narrates

-a Christian was bound for many years, and in that

-time, by continually scratching with his nails, he

-succeeded in engraving a cross on the stone, which

-the guides show with profound veneration.</p>

-

-<p>We entered the Maksura, which is the most perfect

-and marvellous work of Moorish art of the twelfth

-century. At the entrance there are three continuous

-chapels, with vaulted roofs formed by indented

-arches, and walls covered with magnificent mosaics

-which represent wreaths and flowers and passages

-from the Koran. At the back of the middle chapel

-is the principal <i>mihrab</i>, the holy place, where dwelt

-the Spirit of God. It is a niche with an octagonal

-base enclosed above by a colossal marble shell. In

-the <i>mihrab</i> was kept the Koran written by the hands

-of the caliph Othman, covered with gold, adorned

-with pearls, suspended above a seat of aloe-wood;

-and here came thousands of the faithful to

-make the circuit of it seven times on their knees.

-On approaching the wall I felt the pavement slipping

-from under me: the marble had been worn

-hollow!</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">73</span></p>

-

-<p>On leaving the niche I stood a long time contemplating

-the vault and the walls of the principal

-chapel, the only part of the mosque which has been

-preserved almost intact. It is a dazzling flash of

-crystals of a thousand colors, an interweaving of

-arabesques which confuse the mind, a mingling of

-bas-reliefs, gilding, ornaments, and minute details of

-design and coloring of a delicacy, grace, and perfection

-which would prove the despair of the most patient

-artist. It is impossible to retain in one's mind

-any part of that prodigious work: you might return

-a hundred times to look at it, but in reality it would

-only remain before your eyes as a tantalizing blur

-of blue, red, green, golden, and luminous shades of

-colors, or a very intricate piece of embroidery continually

-and rapidly changing in color and design.

-Only from the ardent and tireless imagination of the

-Moors could such a miracle of art have issued.</p>

-

-<p>We began to wander through the mosque again,

-observing here and there on the walls the arabesques

-of the ancient doorways which are now and then

-discovered under the detestable plaster of the Christians.

-My companions looked at me, laughed, and

-whispered something to each other. "Have you

-not seen it yet?" one of them asked me.</p>

-

-<p>"What do you mean?"</p>

-

-<p>They looked at me again and smiled.</p>

-

-<p>"You think you have seen all the mosque, do

-you?" continued my companion.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">74</span></p>

-

-<p>"Yes, indeed," I replied, looking around.</p>

-

-<p>"Well," said the first, "you have not seen it all,

-and what remains to be seen is nothing less than a

-church."</p>

-

-<p>"A church?" I exclaimed stupefied, "but where

-is it?"</p>

-

-<p>"Look!" answered my other companion, pointing;

-"it is in the very centre of the mosque."</p>

-

-<p>"By the powers!" And I had not seen it!</p>

-

-<p>From this one may judge of the vastness of the

-mosque.</p>

-

-<p>We went to see the church. It is beautiful and

-very rich, with a magnificent high altar and a choir

-worthy to stand beside those in the cathedrals of

-Burgos and Toledo, but, like everything out of

-place, it moves one to anger rather than admiration.

-Without this church the appearance of the mosque

-would be much improved. Charles V., who himself

-gave the chapter permission to build it, repented

-when he saw the Mohammedan temple for the first

-time. Besides the church there is a sort of Moorish

-chapel in a good state of preservation, rich in mosaics

-not less varied and splendid than those of the

-Maksura, and where it is said the ministers of the

-faith used to assemble to discuss the book of the

-Prophet.</p>

-

-<p>Such is the mosque to-day. But what must it

-have been in the time of the Arabs! It was not entirely

-enclosed by a wall, but open, so that one could<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">75</span>

-see the garden from every side, and from the garden

-one could look to the very end of the long naves,

-and the fragrance of orange-blossoms and flowers

-was wafted even to the vaulted roofs of the Maksura.

-The columns, which now number less than a thousand,

-were then fourteen hundred in number; the

-ceiling was of cedar-wood and larch, carved and enamelled

-with exquisite workmanship; the walls were

-lined with marble; the light of eight hundred lamps

-filled with fragrant oil made the crystals in the mosaic-work

-flash like pearls, and produced on the pavement,

-the arches, and the walls a marvellous play of

-color and reflection. "A sea of splendors," sang a

-poet, filled the mysterious enclosure, and the warm

-air was laden with perfume and harmony, and the

-thoughts of the faithful wandered and were lost in

-the labyrinth of columns gleaming like lances in the

-sun.</p>

-

-<p>Frederick Schrack, the author of a good work on

-the <i>Poetry and Art of the Moors in Spain and Sicily</i>,

-gives a description of the mosque on a day of solemn

-festival, which forms a very lively image of the Mohammedan

-religion and completes the picture of the

-monument.</p>

-

-<p>On both sides of the almimbar, or pulpit, wave

-two banners, to signify that Islam has triumphed

-over Judaism and Christianity and that the Koran

-has conquered both the Old and the New Testament.

-The <i>almnedani</i> ascend to the gallery of the high<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">76</span>

-minaret and intone the salam, or salutation, to the

-Prophet. Then the aisles of the mosque are filled

-with believers, who with white vestments and in

-festal attire come together to worship. In a few

-moments, throughout the length and breadth of the

-edifice, one sees only kneeling people. The caliph

-enters by the secret way which leads from the Alcazar

-to the temple, and seats himself in his elevated

-station. A reader of the Koran reads a <i>sura</i> from

-the low desk of the pulpit.</p>

-

-<p>The voice of the muezzin sounds again, calling

-men to mid-day prayer. All the faithful rise and

-murmur their prayers, bowing as they do so. An

-attendant of the mosque opens the doors of the pulpit

-and seizes a sword, and, holding it, he turns

-toward Mecca, admonishing the people to worship

-Mohammed, while the <i>mubaliges</i> are chanting his

-praises from the gallery. Then the preacher mounts

-the pulpit, taking from the hand of the servant the

-sword, which calls to mind and symbolizes the subjection

-of Spain to the power of Islam. It is the

-day when the <i>Djihad</i>, or the holy war, must be proclaimed,

-the call for all able-bodied men to go to

-war and descend into the battlefield against the

-Christians. The multitude listens with silent devotion

-to the sermon, woven from texts of the Koran,

-which begins in this wise:</p>

-

-<p>"Praise be to Allah, who has increased the glory

-of Islam, thanks to the sword of the champion of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">77</span>

-faith, who in his holy book has promised succor and

-victory to the believer.</p>

-

-<p>"Allah scatters his benefits over the world.</p>

-

-<p>"If he did not put it in the hearts of men to take

-up arms against their fellows, the world would be lost.</p>

-

-<p>"Allah has ordained to fight against the people

-until they know that there is but one God.</p>

-

-<p>"The torch of war will not be extinguished until

-the end of the world.</p>

-

-<p>"The blessing of God will fall upon the mane of

-the war-horse to the day of judgment.</p>

-

-<p>"Armed from head to foot or but lightly clad, it

-matters not&mdash;up and away!</p>

-

-<p>"O believers! what shall be done to you if, when

-called to the battle, you remain with face turned to

-the earth?</p>

-

-<p>"Do you prefer the life of this world to the life

-to come?</p>

-

-<p>"Believe me, the gates of paradise stand in the

-shadow of the sword.</p>

-

-<p>"He who dies in battle for the cause of God shall

-wash away with his blood all the defilement of his

-sins.</p>

-

-<p>"His body shall not be wasted like the other

-bodies of the dead, for on the day of judgment his

-wounds shall yield a fragrance like musk.</p>

-

-<p>"When the warriors present themselves at the

-gates of paradise, a voice within shall ask, 'What

-have you done in your life?'</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">78</span></p>

-

-<p>"And they shall answer, 'We have brandished

-the sword in the struggle for the cause of God.'</p>

-

-<p>"Then the eternal doors will swing open, and the

-warriors will enter forty years before the rest.</p>

-

-<p>"Up, then, ye faithful; leave your women, your

-children, your kindred, and your goods, and go out

-to the holy war!</p>

-

-<p>"And thou, God, Lord of this present world

-and of that which is to come, fight for the armies

-of those who recognize thy unity! Cast down the

-unbelievers, the idolaters, and the enemies of thy

-holy faith! Overwhelm their standards, and give

-them, with whatever they possess, as a prey to the

-Mussulman!"</p>

-

-<p>The preacher as he ends his discourse turns toward

-the congregation and exclaims, "Ask of God!" and

-begins to pray in silence.</p>

-

-<p>All the faithful, with heads bowed to the ground,

-follow his example. The <i>mubaliges</i> chant, "Amen!

-Amen, O Lord of all being!" Burning like the heat

-which precedes the oncoming tempest, the enthusiasm

-of the multitude, restrained at first in awful silence,

-now breaks out into deep murmurs, which rise like

-the waves and swell through all parts of the temple,

-until finally the naves, the chapels, and the vaulted

-roofs resound to the echo of a thousand voices

-united in a single cry: "There is no God but

-Allah!"</p>

-

-<p>The mosque of Cordova is even to-day, by uni<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">79</span>versal

-consent, the most beautiful temple of Islam

-and one of the most marvellous monuments in the

-world.</p>

-

-<p>When we left the mosque it was already long past

-the hour of the siesta, which everybody takes in the

-cities of Southern Spain, and which is a necessity

-by reason of the insupportable heat of the noon

-hours. The streets began to fill with people.

-"Alas!" said I to my companions, "how badly the

-silk hat looks in the streets of Cordova! How have

-you the heart to introduce the fashion-plates in this

-beautiful Oriental picture? Why do you not adopt

-the dress of the Moors?" Coxcombs pass, workmen,

-and girls: I looked at them all with great

-curiosity, hoping to find one of those fantastic

-figures which Doré has represented as examples

-of the Andalusian type, with that dark-brown complexion,

-those thick lips, and large eyes, but I saw

-none. Walking toward the centre of the city, I

-saw the first Andalusian women&mdash;ladies, girls and

-women of the middle classes&mdash;almost all small, graceful,

-and well-formed, some of them beautiful, many

-attractive in appearance, but the greater part neither

-one thing nor the other, as is the case in all countries.

-In their dress, with the exception of the so-called

-mantilla, they do not differ at all from the

-French women nor from those of our country&mdash;great

-masses of false hair in plaits, knots, and long

-curls, short petticoats, long plaited over-skirts, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">80</span>

-boots with heels as sharp as daggers. The ancient

-Andalusian costume has disappeared from the city.</p>

-

-<p>I thought that in the evening the streets would be

-crowded, but I saw only a few people, and only in

-the streets of the principal quarters; the others

-remain as empty as at the hour of the siesta. And

-one must pass through those deserted streets at night

-to enjoy Cordova. One sees the light streaming

-from the <i>patios</i>; one sees in the dark corners fond

-lovers in close colloquy, the girls usually at the windows,

-with a hand resting lightly on the iron grating,

-and the young men close to the wall in poetic attitudes,

-with watchful eyes, but not so watchful, however,

-as to make them take their lips from those

-hands before they discover that some one is passing;

-and one hears the sound of guitars, the murmur

-of fountains, sighs, the laughter of children, and

-mysterious rustlings.</p>

-

-<p>The following morning, still stirred by the Oriental

-dreams of the night, I again began my wandering

-through the city. To describe all that is remarkable

-there one would require a volume: it is a

-very museum of Roman and Arabian antiquities,

-and one finds a profusion of martial columns and

-inscriptions in honor of the emperors; the remains

-of statues and bas-reliefs; six ancient gates; a great

-bridge over the Guadalquivir dating from the time

-of Octavius Augustus and restored by the Arabians;

-ruins of towers and walls; houses which belonged<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">81</span>

-to the caliphs, and which still contain the columns

-and the subterranean arches of the bathing apartments;

-and everywhere there are doors, vestibules,

-and stairways that would delight a legion of archæologists.</p>

-

-<p>Toward noon, as I was passing through a lonely

-little street, I saw a sign on the wall of a house

-beside a Roman inscription, <i>Casa de huespedes.

-Almuerzos y comidas</i>, and as I read I felt the gnawing,

-as Giusti says, of such a desperate hunger that

-I determined to give it a quietus in this little shop

-upon which I had stumbled. I passed through a

-little vestibule, and found myself in a <i>patio</i>. It was

-a poor little <i>patio</i>, without marble floor and without

-fountains, but white as snow and fresh as a garden.

-As I saw neither tables nor chairs, I feared I had

-mistaken the door and started to go out. A little

-old woman bustled out from I know not where and

-stopped me.</p>

-

-<p>"Have you anything to eat?" I demanded.</p>

-

-<p>"Yes, sir," she answered.</p>

-

-<p>"What have you?"</p>

-

-<p>"Eggs, sausages, chops, peaches, oranges, and

-wine of Malaga."</p>

-

-<p>"Very good: you may bring everything you

-have."</p>

-

-<p>She commenced by bringing me a table and a

-chair, and I sat down and waited. Suddenly I heard

-a door open behind me and turned.... Angels of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">82</span>

-heaven! what a sight I saw!&mdash;the most beautiful of

-all the most beautiful Andalusians, not only of those

-whom I saw at Cordova, but of all those whom I

-afterward saw at Seville, Cadiz, and Granada: if I

-may be allowed to use the word, a superb girl, who

-would make one flee or commit some deviltry; one

-of those faces which make you cry, "O poor me!"

-like Giuseppe Baretti when he was travelling in

-Spain. For some moments she stood motionless

-with her eyes fixed on mine as if to say, "Admire

-me;" then she turned toward the kitchen and cried,

-"<i>Tia, despachate!</i>" ("Hurry up, aunty!") This

-gave me an opportunity of thanking her with a

-stammering tongue, and gave her a pretence for approaching

-me and replying, "It is nothing," with a

-voice so gentle that I was obliged to offer her a

-chair, whereupon she sat down. She was a girl

-about twenty years old, tall, straight as a palm, and

-dark, with two great eyes full of sweetness, lustrous

-and humid as though she had just been in tears:

-she wore a mass of wavy jet-black hair with a rose

-among her locks. She seemed like one of the Arabian

-virgins of the tribe of the Usras for whom men

-died of love.</p>

-

-<p>She herself opened the conversation:</p>

-

-<p>"You are a foreigner, I should think, sir?"</p>

-

-<p>"Yes."</p>

-

-<p>"French?"</p>

-

-<p>"Italian."</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">83</span></p>

-

-<p>"Italian? A fellow-countryman of the king?"</p>

-

-<p>"Yes."</p>

-

-<p>"Do you know him, sir?"</p>

-

-<p>"By sight!"</p>

-

-<p>"They say he is a handsome young fellow."</p>

-

-<p>I did not answer, and she began to laugh, and

-asked me, "What are you looking at, sir?" and,

-still laughing, she hid her foot, which on taking her

-seat she thrust well forward that I might see it.

-Ah! there is not a woman in that country who does

-not know that the feet of the Andalusians are famous

-throughout the world.</p>

-

-<p>I seized the opportunity of turning the conversation

-upon the fame of the Andalusian women, and

-expressed my admiration in the most fervent words

-of my vocabulary. She allowed me to talk on, looking

-with great attention at the crack in the table,

-then raising her face, she asked me, "And in Italy,

-how are the women there?"</p>

-

-<p>"Oh, there are beautiful women in Italy too."</p>

-

-<p>"But ... they are cold?"</p>

-

-<p>"Oh no, not at all," I hastened to respond; "but,

-you know, ... in every country the women have

-an <i>I-know-not-what</i> which distinguishes them from

-the women of all other countries; and among them all

-the <i>I-know-not-what</i> of the Andalusians is probably

-the most dangerous for a poor traveller whose hairs

-have not turned gray. There is a word to express

-what I mean: if I could remember it, I would say<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">84</span>

-it to you; I would say, "<i>Señorita</i>, you are the

-most ..."</p>

-

-<p>"<i>Salada</i>," exclaimed the girl, covering her face

-with her hands.</p>

-

-<p>"<i>Salada!</i> ... the most <i>salada</i> Andalusian in

-Cordova."</p>

-

-<p><i>Salada</i> is the word commonly used in Andalusia

-to describe a woman beautiful, charming, affectionate,

-languid, ardent, what you will&mdash;a woman with

-two lips which say, "Drink me," and two eyes

-which make one close one's teeth.</p>

-

-<p>The aunt brought me the eggs, chops, sausage,

-and oranges, and the girl continued the conversation:

-"Sir, you are an Italian: have you seen the

-Pope?"</p>

-

-<p>"No, I am sorry to say."</p>

-

-<p>"Is it possible? An Italian who has not seen the

-Pope! And tell me, sir: why do the Italians make

-him suffer so much?"</p>

-

-<p>"Suffer in what way?"</p>

-

-<p>"Yes. They say that they have shut him up in

-his house and thrown stones at the windows."</p>

-

-<p>"Oh no! Don't believe it! There is not a particle

-of truth in it," etc., etc.</p>

-

-<p>"Have you seen Venice, sir?"</p>

-

-<p>"Venice? oh yes."</p>

-

-<p>"Is it true that it is a city which floats on the

-sea?"</p>

-

-<p>And here she made a thousand requests that I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">85</span>

-would describe Venice, and that I would tell her

-what the people were like in that strange city, and

-what they do all the day long, and how they dress.

-And while I was talking besides the pains I took

-to express myself with a little grace, and to eat

-meanwhile the badly-cooked eggs and stale sausage&mdash;I

-was obliged to see her draw nearer and nearer

-to me, that she might hear me better perhaps, without

-being conscious of the act. She came so close

-that I could smell the fragrance of the rose in her

-hair and feel her warm breath; I was obliged, I may

-say, to make three efforts at once&mdash;one with my

-head, another with my stomach, and a third with

-both&mdash;especially when, now and then, she would say,

-"How beautiful!"&mdash;a compliment which applied to

-the Grand Canal, but which had upon me the effect

-a bag full of napoleons might have upon a beggar if

-swung under his nose by an insolent banker.</p>

-

-<p>"Ah, señorita!" I said at last, beginning to lose

-patience, "what matters it, after all, whether cities

-are beautiful or not? Those who are born in them

-think nothing of it, and the traveller still less. I

-arrived at Cordova yesterday: it is a beautiful city,

-without doubt. Well&mdash;will you believe it?&mdash;I have

-already forgotten all that I have seen; I no longer

-wish to see anything; I do not even know what city

-I am in. Palaces, mosques, they make me laugh.

-When you have a consuming fire in your heart, do

-you go to the mosque to quench it?&mdash;Excuse me,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">86</span>

-will you move back a little?&mdash;When you feel such a

-madness that you could grind up a plate with your

-teeth, do you go to look at palaces? Believe me,

-the traveller's life is a sad one. It is a penance of

-the hardest sort. It is torture. It is...." A

-prudent blow with her fan closed my mouth, which

-was going too far both in words and action. I attacked

-the chop.</p>

-

-<p>"Poor fellow!" murmured the Andalusian with a

-laugh after she had given a glance around. "Are

-all the Italians as ardent as you?"</p>

-

-<p>"How should I know? Are all the Andalusians

-as beautiful as you?"</p>

-

-<p>The girl laid her hand on the table.</p>

-

-<p>"Take that hand away," I said.</p>

-

-<p>"Why?" she asked.</p>

-

-<p>"Because I want to eat in peace."</p>

-

-<p>"Eat with one hand."</p>

-

-<p>"Ah!"</p>

-

-<p>I seemed to be pressing the little hand of a girl

-of six; my knife fell to the ground; a dark veil

-settled upon the chop.</p>

-

-<p>Suddenly my hand was empty: I opened my

-eyes, saw the girl all disturbed, and looked behind

-me. Gracious Heavens! There was a handsome

-young fellow, with a stylish little jacket, tight

-breeches, and a velvet cap. Oh terrors! a <i>torero</i>!

-I gave a start as if I had felt two <i>banderillas de

-fuego</i> planted in my neck.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">87</span></p>

-

-<p>"I see it at a glance," said I to myself, like the

-man at the comedy; and one could not fail to understand.

-The girl, slightly embarrassed, made the introduction:

-"An Italian passing through Cordova,"

-and she hastened to add, "who wants to know when

-the train leaves for Seville."</p>

-

-<p>The <i>torero</i>, who had frowned at first sight of me,

-was reassured, told me the hour of departure, sat

-down, and entered into a friendly conversation. I

-asked for the news of the last bull-fight at Cordova:

-he was a <i>banderillero</i>, and he gave me a minute

-description of the day's sport. The girl in the

-mean time was gathering flowers from the vases in

-the <i>patio</i>. I finished my meal, offered a glass of

-Malaga to the <i>torero</i>, drank to the fortunate planting

-of all his <i>banderillas</i>, paid my bill (three <i>pesetas</i>,

-which included the beautiful eyes, you understand),

-and then, putting on a bold front, so as to dispel the

-least shadow of suspicion from the mind of my

-formidable rival, I said to the girl, "<i>Señorita!</i> one

-can refuse nothing to those who are taking leave.

-To you I am like a dying man; you will never see

-me again; you will never hear my name spoken:

-then let me take some memento; give me that bunch

-of flowers."</p>

-

-<p>"Take it," said the girl; "I picked it for you."</p>

-

-<p>She glanced at the <i>torero</i>, who gave a nod of

-approval.</p>

-

-<p>"I thank you with all my heart," I replied as I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">88</span>

-turned to leave. They both accompanied me to the

-door.</p>

-

-<p>"Have you bull-fights in Italy?" asked the young

-man.</p>

-

-<p>"Oh heavens! no, not yet!"</p>

-

-<p>"Too bad! Try to make them popular in Italy

-also, and I will come to <i>banderillar</i> at Rome."</p>

-

-<p>"I will do all in my power.&mdash;<i>Señorita</i>, have the

-goodness to tell me your name, so that I may bid

-you good-bye."</p>

-

-<p>"Consuelo."</p>

-

-<p>"God be with you, Consuelo!"</p>

-

-<p>"God be with you, <i>Señor Italiano</i>!"</p>

-

-<p>And I went out into the lonely little street.</p>

-

-<p>There are no remarkable Arabian monuments to

-be seen in the neighborhood of Cordova, although at

-one time the whole valley was covered with magnificent

-buildings. Three miles to the south of the

-city, on the side of the mountain, rose the Medina

-Az-Zahra, the city of flowers, one of the most

-marvellous architectural works of the caliph Abdurrahman,

-begun by the caliph himself in honor

-of his favorite Az-Zahra. The foundations were

-laid in the year 936, and ten thousand workmen

-labored on the edifice for twenty-five years. The

-Arabian poets celebrated Medina Az-Zahra as the

-most splendid of royal palaces and the most delightfullyl

-garden in the world. It was not an edifice, but

-a vast chain of palaces, gardens, courts, colonnades,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">89</span>

-and towers. There were rare plants from Syria&mdash;the

-fantastic playing of lofty fountains, streams of

-water flowing in the shade of palm trees, and great

-basins overflowing with quicksilver, which reflected

-the rays of the sun like lakes of fire; doors of

-ebony and ivory studded with gems; thousands of

-columns of the most precious marbles; great airy

-balconies; and between the innumerable multitudes

-of statues twelve images of animals of massy gold,

-gleaming with pearls, sprinkling sweetened water

-from their mouths and noses. In this vast palace

-swarmed thousands of servants, slaves, and women,

-and hither from every part of the world came poets

-and musicians. And yet this same Abdurrahman

-III., who lived among all these delights, who reigned

-for fifty years, who was powerful, glorious, and fortunate

-in every circumstance and enterprise, wrote

-before his death that during his long reign he had

-been happy only fourteen days, and his fabulous city

-of flowers seventy-four years after the laying of its

-first stone was invaded, sacked, and burned by a

-barbarian horde, and to-day there remain only a few

-stones which hardly recall its name.</p>

-

-<p>Of another splendid city, called Zahira, which rose

-to the east of Cordova, built by the powerful Almansur,

-governor of the kingdom, not even the ruins

-remain: a handful of rebels laid it in ashes a little

-while after the death of its founder.</p>

-

-<p>

-"All returns to the great ancient mother."<br />

-</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">90</span></p>

-

-<p>Instead of taking a drive around Cordova, I

-simply wandered here and there, weaving fancies

-from the names of the streets, which to me is one

-of the greatest pleasures in which a traveller may

-indulge in a foreign city. Cordova, <i>alma ingeniorum

-parens</i>, could write at every street-corner the name

-of an artist or an illustrious author born within her

-walls; to give her due honor, she has remembered

-them all with maternal gratitude. You find the

-little square of Seneca and the house where he may

-have been born; the street of Ambrosio Morales, the

-historian of Charles V., who continued the <i>Chronicle

-General of Spain</i> commenced by Florian d'Ocampo;

-the street of Pablo de Cespedes, painter, architect,

-sculptor, antiquary, and the author of a didactic

-poem, "The Art of Painting," unfortunately not

-finished, though adorned with splendid passages.

-He was an ardent enthusiast of Michelangelo, whose

-works he had admired in Italy, and in his poem he

-addressed a hymn of praise to him which is one of

-the most beautiful passages in Spanish poetry, and,

-in spite of myself, the last verses have slipped from

-my pen, which every Italian, even if he does not

-know the sister language, can appreciate and understand.

-He believes, he tells the reader, that one

-cannot find the perfection of painting anywhere

-except</p>

-

-<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">

-  <div class="verse">"Que en aquela escelente obra espantosa</div>

-  <div class="verse">Mayor de cuantas se han jamas pintado,</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">91</span>

-  <div class="verse">Que hizo el Buonarrota de su mano</div>

-  <div class="verse">Divina, en el etrusco Vaticano!</div>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-  <div class="verse">"Cual nuevo Prometeo en alto vuelo</div>

-  <div class="verse">Alzándose, estendiò los alas tanto,</div>

-  <div class="verse">Que puesto encima el estrellado cielo</div>

-  <div class="verse">Una parte alcanzò del fuego santo;</div>

-  <div class="verse">Con que tornando enriquecido al suelo</div>

-  <div class="verse">Con nueva maravilla y nuevo espanto,</div>

-  <div class="verse">Diò vida con eternos resplandores</div>

-  <div class="verse">À marmoles, à bronces, à colores.</div>

-  <div class="verse">¡O mas que mortal hombre! ¿Angel divino</div>

-  <div class="verse">O cual te nomaré? No humano cierto</div>

-  <div class="verse">Es tu ser, que del cerco empireo vino</div>

-  <div class="verse">Al estilo y pincel vida y concierto:</div>

-  <div class="verse">Tu monstraste à los hombres el camino</div>

-  <div class="verse">Por mil edades escondido, incierto</div>

-  <div class="verse">De la reina virtud; a ti se debe</div>

-  <div class="verse">Honra que en cierto dia el sol renueve."</div>

-</div></div></div>

-

-<p>"In that excellent marvellous work, greater than

-all that has ever been painted, which Buonarroti

-made with his divine hand in the Etruscan Vatican!</p>

-

-<p>"Look how the new Prometheus, rising in lofty

-flight, extends his wings so wide that above the

-starry sky he has obtained a part of the celestial

-fire; with it, returning, he enriched the earth with

-new marvels and new surprises, giving life, with

-eternal splendors, to marble, bronze, and colors.

-More than mortal man! angel divine! or what shall

-I call thee? Surely thou art not human, who from

-the empyrean circle came, bringing life and harmony

-to chisel and brush! Thou hast shown men the road<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">92</span>

-hidden for a thousand ages, uncertain of the sovereign

-virtue; to thee belongs honor which one day the sun

-will bestow."</p>

-

-<p>Murmuring these lines, I came out into the street

-of Juan de Mena, the Ennius of Spain, as his compatriots

-call him, the author of a phantasmagorial

-poem called "The Labyrinth," an imitation of <i>The

-Divina Commedia</i> very famous in its day, and in

-truth not without some pages of inspired and noble

-poetry, but, on the whole, cold and overloaded with

-pedantic mysticism. John II., king of Castile, went

-mad over this "Labyrinth," kept it beside the missal

-in his cabinet, and carried it with him to the hunt;

-but witness the caprice of a king! The poem had

-only three hundred stanzas, and to John II. this

-number seemed too small, and do you know the

-reason? It was this: the year contains three

-hundred and sixty-five days, and it seemed to him

-that there ought to be as many stanzas in the poem

-as there are days in the year, and so he besought

-the poet to compose sixty-five other stanzas, and the

-poet complied with his request&mdash;most cheerfully, the

-flatterer!&mdash;to gain an occasion for flattering still

-more, although he had already flattered his sovereign

-to the extent of asking him to correct the poem.</p>

-

-<p>From the street of Juan de Mena I passed into the

-street of Gongora, the Marini of Spain, and no less

-a genius than he, but perhaps one who corrupted

-the literature of his country even more than Marini<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">93</span>

-corrupted that of Italy, for he spoiled, abused, and

-corrupted the language in a thousand ways: for this

-reason Lope de Vega wittily makes a poet of the

-Gongorist school ask one of his hearers, "Do you

-understand me?"&mdash;"Yes," he replies; and the poet

-retorts, "You lie! for I do not even understand

-myself." But Lope himself is not entirely free from

-Gongorism, for he has the courage to write that

-Tasso was only the rising of Marini's sun; nor is

-Calderon entirely free of it, nor some other great

-men. But enough of poetry: I must not digress.</p>

-

-<p>After the siesta I hunted up my two companions,

-who took me through the suburbs of the city, and

-here, for the first time, I saw men and women of the

-true Andalusian type as I had imagined them, with

-eyes, coloring, and attitudes like the Arabians, and

-here too, for the first time, I heard the real speech

-of the Andalusian people, softer and more musical

-than in the Castiles, and also gayer and more imaginative,

-and accompanied by livelier gestures. I

-asked my companions whether that report about

-Andalusia is true, affirming that with their early

-physical development vice is more common, manners

-more voluptuous, and passion less restrained. "Too

-true," they replied, giving explanations, descriptions,

-and citing cases which I forbear to repeat. On returning

-to the city they took me to a splendid casino,

-with gardens and magnificent rooms, in one of which,

-the largest and richest, adorned with paintings of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">94</span>

-all the illustrious men of Cordova, rises a sort of

-stage where the poets stand to read their works on

-evenings appointed for public contests of genius;

-and the victors receive a laurel crown from the

-hands of the most beautiful and cultured girls in the

-city, who, crowned with roses, look on from a semi-circle

-of seats. That evening I had the pleasure of

-meeting several young Cordovese ardently attached,

-as they say in Spain, to the cultivation of the Muses&mdash;frank,

-courteous, and vivacious, with a medley of

-verses in their heads, and a smattering of Italian

-literature; and so imagine how from dusk to midnight,

-through those mysterious streets, which from

-the first evening had made my head whirl, there was

-a constant, noisy interchange of sonnets, hymns, and

-ballads in the two languages, from Petrarch to Prati,

-from Cervantes to Zorilla; and a delightful conversation

-closed and sealed by many cordial hand-clasps

-and eager promises to write, to send books, to come

-to Italy, to visit Spain again, etc. etc.&mdash;merely

-words, as is always the case, but words not less dear

-on that account.</p>

-

-<p>In the morning I left for Seville. At the station

-I saw Frascuelo, Lagartijo, Cuco, and the whole

-band of <i>toreros</i> from Madrid, who saluted me with

-a benevolent look of protection. I hurried into a

-dusty carriage, and as the train moved off and my

-eyes rested on Cordova for the last time, I bade the

-city adieu in the lines of the Arabian poet&mdash;a little<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">95</span>

-too tropical, if you will, for the taste of a European,

-but, after all, admirable for the occasion:</p>

-

-<p>"Adieu, Cordova! Would that my life were as

-long as Noah's, that I might live for ever within thy

-walls! Would that I had the treasures of Pharaoh,

-to spend them upon wine and the beautiful women

-of Cordova with the gentle eyes which invite

-kisses!"</p>

-

-<hr class="chap" />

-

-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a><br /><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p>

-

-

-

-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a><br /><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p>

-

-</div><div class="chapter">

-<h2><a name="SEVILLE" id="SEVILLE"></a>SEVILLE.</h2>

-

-

-<p>The journey from Cordova to Seville does not

-awaken a sense of astonishment, as does that from

-Toledo to Cordova, but it is even more beautiful:

-there are continuous orange-orchards, boundless

-olive-groves, hills clothed with vineyards, and

-meadows carpeted with flowers. A few miles from

-Cordova one sees the ruined towers of the frowning

-castle of Almodovar standing on a very high rock-platform,

-which overlooks a vast extent of the surrounding

-country; at Hornachuelos another old

-castle on the summit of a hill, in the midst of a

-lonely, melancholy landscape; and then, beyond,

-the white city of Palma, hidden in a dense orange-grove,

-which is surrounded in its turn by a circle

-of truck-farms and flower-gardens. As the train

-runs on one is carried through the midst of golden

-fields of grain, bordered by long hedges of Indian

-fig trees and rows of dwarf palms, and dotted with

-groves of pine and frequent orchards of fruit-bearing

-trees; and at short intervals there are hills and

-castles, roaring streams, the slender village belfries<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">100</span>

-hidden among the trees, and the purple peaks of

-distant mountains.</p>

-

-<p>Most beautiful of all are the little country-houses

-scattered along the road. I do not remember to

-have seen a single one of them that was not as

-white as snow. The house was white, the neighboring

-well-curb was white, the little wall around

-the kitchen-garden was white, as were also the two

-posts of the garden-gate: everything seemed as if

-it had been whitewashed the day before. Some of

-these houses have one or two mullioned windows of

-Moorish design; others have arabesques over the

-door; and still others roofs covered with variegated

-tiles like Arabian houses. Here and there through

-the fields one sees the red-and-white capes of the

-peasants, velvet hats against the green grass, and

-sashes of all colors. The peasants whom one sees

-in the furrows and those who run to see the train

-pass are dressed in the costumes of forty years ago

-as they are represented in paintings: they wear

-velvet hats with very broad brims which roll

-slightly back, with little crowns like a sugar-loaf;

-short jackets, open waistcoats, breeches gathered in

-at the knee like those of the priests, gaiters which

-almost meet the breeches, and sashes around the

-waist. This style of dress, picturesque but inconvenient,

-is exceedingly becoming to the slender

-figures of these men, who prefer discomfort, if it be

-attended by beauty, to comfort without it, and who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">101</span>

-spend half an hour every morning adorning themselves,

-besides the time required to get into a pair

-of tight breeches which will display a shapely thigh

-and a well-turned leg. They have nothing in common

-with our Northern peasant of the hard face and

-dull eye. Their great black eyes meet your own

-with a smile, as if they would say, "Don't you

-remember me?" They cast daring glances at the

-ladies who put their heads out of the windows, run

-to fetch a match before you have so much as asked

-for it, sometimes answer your questions in rhyme,

-and are even capable of laughing to show their

-white teeth.</p>

-

-<p>At Rinconado the campanile of the cathedral of

-Seville comes into view in a line with the railroad,

-and to the right, beyond the Guadalquivir, one sees

-the beautiful low hills, covered with olive-groves, at

-the foot of which lie the ruins of Italica. The train

-rolled on, and I said to myself, under my breath,

-speaking faster and faster as the houses became

-thicker, with that suspense, full of longing and

-delight, which one feels on approaching the doorway

-of one's love, "Seville! this is Seville! The

-queen of Andalusia is at hand, the Athens of Spain,

-the mother of Murillo, the city of poets and lovers,

-the storied Seville, whose name I have pronounced

-from a child with a sentiment of loving sympathy!

-What should I have given a few years since to have

-seen it? No, it is not a dream! Those are really<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">102</span>

-the houses of Seville; those peasants yonder are

-Sevillians; that campanile which I see is the

-Giralda! I am at Seville! How strange! It

-makes me laugh! What is my mother doing at

-this moment? Would that she were here! Would

-that this friend and that were here! It is a sin to

-be alone! See the white houses, the gardens, the

-streets.... We are in the city.... It is time to

-get out.... Ah! how beautiful is life!"</p>

-

-<p>I went to a hotel, threw down my valise in the

-<i>patio</i>, and began to stroll about the city. It seemed

-like seeing Cordova over again, on a large scale,

-embellished and enriched; the streets are wider, the

-houses higher, the <i>patios</i> more spacious, but the general

-appearance of the city is the same: there is the

-same spotless white, the same intricate network of

-streets, everywhere the fragrance of orange-blossoms,

-that subtile air of mystery, that Oriental atmosphere,

-filling one's heart with a delicious sense

-of amorous melancholy, and calling to mind a thousand

-fancies, desires, and visions of a distant world,

-a new life, an unknown people, and an earthly paradise

-of love, pleasure, and content. In those streets

-one reads the history of the city: every balcony,

-every fragment of sculpture, every lonely crossway,

-recalls some nocturnal adventure of a king, the inspiration

-of a poet, the romance of a beauty, an

-amour, a duel, an abduction, a story, or a festival.

-Here a memento of Maria de Padilla, there one of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">103</span>

-Don Pedro; yonder of Cervantes, Columbus, Saint

-Theresa, Velasquez, or Murillo. A column tells of

-the Roman dominion; a tower, the splendor of

-Charles V.'s monarchy; and an alcazar, the magnificence

-of the Arabian court. Beside the modest

-white cottages rise sumptuous marble palaces; the

-little tortuous streets open into vast squares full of

-orange trees; from silent, deserted corners one

-enters with a short turn a street filled with a noisy

-crowd: and wherever one passes one sees on the

-opposite side the graceful lattices of the <i>patios</i>,

-flowers, statues, fountains, flights of stairs, walls

-covered with arabesques, small Moorish windows,

-and slender columns of costly marble; and at every

-window and in every garden little women clothed in

-white, half hidden, like timid nymphs, among the

-leaves of grapevines and rosebushes.</p>

-

-<p>Passing from street to street, I came at length to

-the bank of the Guadalquivir, close to the avenues

-of the Christina promenade, which is to Seville what

-the Lung d'arno is to Florence. Here one enjoys a

-charming spectacle.</p>

-

-<p>I first approached the famous Torre del Oro.

-This famous tower was called the Golden, either

-because it received the gold which the Spanish ships

-brought from America or because King Don Pedro

-hid his treasures there. It is an octagonal structure

-of three stories, growing smaller as they ascend,

-crowned with battlements and washed by the river.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">104</span>

-The story runs that this tower was built in Roman

-times, and that for a long period the king's most

-beautiful favorite dwelt there after it had been

-joined to the Alcazar by an edifice which was torn

-away to make room for the Christina promenade.</p>

-

-<p>This promenade extends from the ducal palace of

-Montpensier to the Torre del Oro. It is entirely

-shaded with Oriental plane trees, oaks, cypresses,

-willows, poplars, and other trees of northern latitudes,

-which the Andalusians admire, as we admire

-the palms and aloes of the plains of Piedmont and

-Lombardy. A great bridge spans the river and

-leads to the suburb of Triana, from which one sees

-the first houses on the opposite bank. A long line

-of ships, coasting vessels, and barges extends along

-the river, and from the Torre del Oro to the ducal

-palace there is a coming and going of rowboats.

-The sun was setting. A crowd of ladies filled the

-avenues, groups of workmen were crossing the

-bridge, the workmen on the ships labored more

-busily, a band of music was playing among the

-trees, the river was rose-colored, the air was fragrant

-with the perfume of flowers, the sky seemed

-all on fire.</p>

-

-<p>I returned to the city and enjoyed the marvellous

-spectacle of Seville by night. All the <i>patios</i> were

-illuminated&mdash;those of the humble houses with a half

-light, which gave them an air of mysterious beauty,

-those of the palaces, full of little flames which were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">105</span>

-reflected in the mirrors and flashed like jets of quicksilver

-in the spray of the fountains, and shone with

-a thousand colors on the marbles of the vestibules,

-the mosaics of the walls, the glass of the doors, and

-the crystal of the candlesticks. Inside one saw a

-crowd of ladies, everywhere one heard the sound of

-laughter, low voices, and music; one seemed to be

-passing through so many ball-rooms; from every

-door flowed a stream of light, fragrance, and harmony;

-the streets were crowded; among the trees

-of the squares, in the avenues, at the end of the

-narrow streets, and on the balconies,&mdash;everywhere

-were seen white skirts fluttering, vanishing, and reappearing

-in the darkness, and little heads ornamented

-with flowers peeped coquettishly from the

-windows; groups of young men broke through the

-crowd with merry shouts; people called to each

-other and talked from window to street, and everywhere

-were rapid motion, shouting, laughter, and

-festal gaiety. Seville was simply an immense garden

-in which revelled a people intoxicated with

-youth and love.</p>

-

-<p>Such moments are very sad ones for a stranger.

-I remember that I could have struck my head

-against the wall. I wandered here and there almost

-abashed, with hanging head and sad heart, as if all

-that crowd was amusing itself for the sole purpose

-of insulting my loneliness and melancholy. It was

-too late to present my letters of introduction, too<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">106</span>

-early to go to bed: I was the slave of that crowd

-and that gaiety, and was obliged to endure it for

-many hours. I found a solace in resolving not to

-look at the faces of the women, but I could not

-always keep my resolve, and when my eyes inadvertently

-met two black pupils the wound, because

-so unexpected, was more grievous than if I had encountered

-the danger more boldly. Yes, I was

-in the midst of those wonderfully famous women

-of Seville! I saw them pass on the arms of their

-husbands and lovers; I touched their dresses,

-breathed their perfume, heard the sound of their

-soft speech, and the blood leaped to my head like a

-flame of fire. Fortunately, I remembered to have

-heard from a Sevillian at Madrid that the Italian

-consul was in the habit of spending the evening at

-the shop of his son, a merchant; I sought out the

-shop, entered, and found the consul, and as I handed

-him a letter from a friend I said, with a dramatic air

-which made him laugh, "Dear sir, protect me; Seville

-has terrified me."</p>

-

-<p>At midnight the appearance of the city was unchanged:

-the crowd and light had not disappeared;

-I returned to the hotel and locked my door with the

-intention of going to bed. Worse and worse! The

-windows of my room opened on a square where

-crowds of people were swarming around an orchestra

-that played without interruption, when the music

-finally ended the guitars commenced, together with the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">107</span>

-cries of the water-carriers and snatches of song and

-laughter; the whole night through there was noise

-enough to wake the dead. I had a dream at once

-delightful and tantalizing, but rather more tantalizing

-than delightful. I seemed to be tied to the bed by a

-very long tress of dark hair twisted into a thousand

-knots, and felt on my lips a mouth of burning coals

-which sucked my breath, and around my neck two

-vigorous little hands which were crushing my

-head against the handle of a guitar.</p>

-

-<p>The following morning I went at once to see the

-cathedral.</p>

-

-<p>To adequately describe this measureless edifice

-one should have at hand a collection of the most

-superlative adjectives and all the most extravagant

-similes which have come from the pens of the grand

-writers of every country whenever they have described

-something of prodigious height, enormous

-size, appalling depth, and incredible grandeur.

-When I talk to my friends about it, I too, like the

-Mirabeau of Victor Hugo, involuntarily make <i>un

-colossal mouvement d'epaules</i>, puff out my throat,

-and gradually raise my voice, like Tommaso Salvini

-in the tragedy of <i>Samson</i> when, in tones which make

-the parquet tremble, he says that he feels his strength

-returning to his limbs. To talk of the cathedral of

-Seville tires one like playing a great wind instrument

-or carrying on a conversation across a roaring

-torrent.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">108</span></p>

-

-<p>The cathedral of Seville stands alone in the centre

-of a vast square, and consequently one can measure

-its vastness at a single glance. At the first moment

-I thought of the famous motto which the chapter of

-the primitive church adopted on the eighth of July,

-1401, when they decreed the erection of the new

-cathedral: "Let us build a monument which will

-make posterity declare that we were mad." Those

-reverend canons did not fail in their intention. But

-one must enter to be sure of this.</p>

-

-<p>The exterior of the cathedral is grand and magnificent,

-but not to be compared with the interior.

-The façade is lacking: a high wall surrounds the

-entire building like a fortress. However much one

-walks around and looks at it, one cannot succeed in

-fixing in one's mind a single outline which, like the

-preface of a book, will give a clear conception of the

-design of the work; one admires and occasionally

-breaks out in the exclamation, "It is stupendous!"

-but it does not please, and one hurries into the

-church, hoping to feel a sentiment of deeper admiration.</p>

-

-<p>On first entering one is amazed, and feels as if

-one were lost in an abyss, and for some moments the

-eye can only describe immense curves through that

-vast space, as if to assure you that the sight is real

-and that fancy is not deceiving you. Then you approach

-one of the pilasters, measure it, and look at

-the others in the distance: they are as massive as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">109</span>

-towers, and yet they look so slender that one trembles

-to think the edifice is resting on them. You

-run from one to another with a rapid glance, follow

-their lines from pavement to vaulted arch, and seem

-to be able to count the moments which it would take

-for the eye to climb them. There are five naves,

-each of which would form a great church, and in the

-central nave one could build another high cathedral

-with its cupola and belfry. Altogether they form

-sixty light, noble vaults which seem to be slowly

-expanding and rising as one looks at them. Everything

-in this cathedral is enormous. The great

-chapel in the middle of the principal nave, so high

-that it almost touches the roof, seems like a chapel

-built for giant priests, to whose knees the common

-altars would scarcely reach; the Easter candle

-seems like the mast of a ship, the bronze candlestick

-which supports it, like the pilaster of a church;

-the organs are like houses; the choir is a museum

-of sculpture and carving which alone deserves a

-day's study. The chapels are worthy of the church:

-in them are scattered the masterpieces of sixty-seven

-sculptors and thirty-eight painters. Montegna,

-Zurbaran, Murillo, Valdes, Herrera, Boldan, Roelas,

-and Campana have left a thousand immortal traces

-of their handiwork. The chapel of Saint Ferdinand,

-which contains the tombs of this king, his

-wife Beatrice, Alfonso the Wise, the celebrated

-minister Florida Blanca, and other illustrious per<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">110</span>sonages,

-is one of the richest and most beautiful.

-The body of King Ferdinand, who rescued Seville

-from the dominion of the Arabs, clothed in his coat-of-mail

-with crown and royal robe, rests in a crystal

-casket covered with a pall; on one side lies the

-sword which he wore on the day of his entrance into

-Seville; on the other, the staff, an emblem of authority.

-In this same chapel is preserved a little

-ivory Virgin which the sainted king carried with

-him to war, and other relics of great value. In the

-other chapels there are great marble altars, Gothic

-tombs, statues of stone, wood, and silver enclosed

-in large glass cases, with the breast and hands

-covered with diamonds and rubies; there are also

-magnificent paintings, but, unfortunately, the dim

-light which falls from the high windows does not

-make them clear enough to be enjoyed in all their

-beauty.</p>

-

-<p>From the examination of the chapels, paintings,

-and sculptures one returns unwearied to admire the

-cathedral in its grand and, if one may say, its formidable

-aspect. After climbing to those dizzy

-heights one's glance and thoughts, as if exhausted

-by the effort, fall back to the earth to gather new

-strength for another ascent. And the images which

-multiply in one's head correspond to the vastness of

-the basilica&mdash;measureless angels, heads of enormous

-cherubim, great wings like the sails of a ship, and

-the fluttering of immense white robes. The impres<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">111</span>sion

-produced by this cathedral is wholly religious,

-but it is not depressing: it is that sentiment which

-bears the thought into interminable spaces and the

-awful silences where the thoughts of Leopardi lost

-themselves; it is a sentiment full of yearning and

-holy boldness, that delightful shudder which one

-feels on the brink of a precipice, the turbulence and

-confusion of great thoughts, the divine fear of the

-infinite.</p>

-

-<p>As the cathedral is the most various of Spain

-(since the Gothic, Germanic, Græco-Roman, Moorish,

-and, as it is vulgarly called, the plateresque

-styles of architecture, have each left their individual

-impress upon it), it is also the richest and has the

-greatest privileges. In the times of greater clerical

-power they burned in it every year twenty thousand

-pounds of wax; in it every day were celebrated

-five hundred masses on eighty altars; the wine consumed

-in the sacrifice amounted to the incredible

-quantity of eighteen thousand seven hundred and

-fifty litres. The canons had trains of male attendants

-like monarchs, came to church in splendid

-carriages drawn by superb horses, and while they

-were celebrating mass had priests to fan them with

-enormous fans adorned with feathers and pearls&mdash;a

-direct concession from the Pope of which some avail

-themselves even in this day. One need not speak

-of the festivals of Holy Week, which are still<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">112</span>

-famous the world over, and to which people gather

-from all parts of Europe.</p>

-

-<p>But the most curious privilege of the cathedral

-of Seville is the so-called dance <i>de los seises</i>, which

-takes place every evening at dusk for eight consecutive

-days after the festival of <i>Corpus Domini</i>.

-I was in Seville during those days, and went to see

-it, and it seems to me worth describing. From

-what had been told me I expected to see a scandalous

-piece of buffoonery, and entered the church

-with my mind prepared for a feeling of indignation

-at the desecration of the sanctuary. The church

-was dark; only the great chapel was lighted; a

-crowd of kneeling women filled the space between

-the chapel and the choir. Some priests were sitting

-to the right and left of the altar; in front of the

-altar-steps was spread a great carpet; two lines of

-boys from eight to thirteen years of age, dressed

-like Spanish cavaliers of the Middle Ages, with

-plumed hats and white stockings, were drawn up,

-one before the other, facing the altar. At a signal

-from a priest a soft strain from violins broke the

-profound silence of the church, and the two rows of

-boys advanced with the step of a contra-dance, and

-began to divide, intermingle, separate, and come together

-again with a thousand graceful movements, and

-then all together they broke into a harmonious musical

-chant, which echoed through the gloom of the

-vast cathedral like the singing of an angelic choir;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">113</span>

-and a moment later they began to accompany the

-dance and the chant with tamborines. No religious

-ceremony has ever moved me like this. It is impossible

-to express the effect produced by those young

-voices under those immense domes, those little

-creatures at the foot of the towering altars, that

-dance, solemn and almost humble, the ancient

-costume, the kneeling crowd, and the surrounding

-gloom. I left the church with my soul calmed as if

-I had been praying.</p>

-

-<p>A very curious anecdote is related in connection

-with this ceremony. Two centuries ago an archbishop

-of Seville, who regarded the dance and tamborines

-as unworthy instruments of praising God,

-wished to prohibit the ceremony. Everything was

-thrown into confusion: the people protested; the

-canons made themselves heard; the archbishop was

-obliged to appeal to the Pope. The Pope, whose

-curiosity was aroused, wished to see this silly dance

-with his own eyes, that he might decide intelligently

-in the matter. The boys in their cavalier dress

-were taken to Rome, received at the Vatican, and

-made to dance and sing before His Holiness. His

-Holiness laughed, did not disapprove, and, wishing

-to give one knock on the hoop and another on the

-barrel, and so to satisfy the canons without offending

-the archbishop, decreed that the boys should

-continue to dance so long as the clothes which they

-then wore lasted; after that time the ceremony was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">114</span>

-to be abolished. The archbishop laughed in his

-beard, if he had one; the canons laughed too, as if

-they had already found the way to outwit both the

-Pope and the archbishop. And, in fact, they renew

-some part of the boys' dress every year, so that the

-whole garment can never be said to have worn out,

-and the archbishop, as a scrupulous man, who observed

-the commands of the Pope to the letter, could

-not oppose the repetition of the ceremony. So they

-continued to dance, and they dance and will dance

-so long as it pleases the canons and the Lord.</p>

-

-<p>As I was leaving the church a sacristan made me

-a sign, led me behind the choir, and pointed out a

-tablet in the pavement, upon which I read an inscription

-which stirred my heart. Under that stone

-lay the bones of Ferdinand Columbus, the son of

-Christopher, who was born at Cordova, and died at

-Seville on the twelfth of July, 1536, in the fiftieth

-year of his age. Under the inscription run some

-Latin verses with the following significance:</p>

-

-<p>"Of what avail is it that I have bathed the entire

-universe with my sweat, that I have three times passed

-through the New World discovered by my father, that

-I have adorned the banks of the gentle Beti, and preferred

-my simple taste to riches, that I might again

-draw around thee the divinities of the Castalian spring,

-and offer thee the treasures already gathered by Ptolemy,&mdash;if

-thou, passing this stone in silence, returnest

-no salute to my father and givest no thought to me?"</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">115</span></p>

-

-<p>The sacristan, who knew more about the inscription

-than I did, explained it to me. Ferdinand Columbus

-was in his early youth a page of Isabella the

-Catholic and of the prince Don Juan; he travelled

-to the Indies with his father and his brother the admiral

-Don Diego, followed the emperor Charles V.

-in his wars, made other voyages to Asia, Africa, and

-America, and everywhere collected with infinite care

-and at great expense the most precious books, from

-which he composed a library which passed after his

-death into the hands of the chapter of the cathedral,

-and remains intact under the famous name of the

-Columbian Library. Before his death he wrote these

-same Latin verses which are inscribed on the tablet

-of his tomb, and expressed a desire to be buried in

-the cathedral. In the last moments of his life he

-had a vessel full of ashes brought to him and

-sprinkled his face with them, pronouncing as he did

-so the words of Holy Writ, <i>Memento homo quia pulvis

-es</i>, chanted the <i>Te Deum</i>, smiled, and expired

-with the serenity of a saint. I was at once seized

-with a desire to visit the library and left the church.</p>

-

-<p>A guide stopped me on the threshold to ask me if

-I had seen the <i>Patio de los Naranjos</i>&mdash;the Court of

-Oranges&mdash;and, as I had not done so, he conducted

-me thither. The Court of Oranges lies to the north

-of the cathedral, surrounded by a great embattled

-wall. In the centre rises a fountain encircled by an

-orange-grove, and on one side along the wall is a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">116</span>

-marble pulpit, from which, according to the tradition,

-Vincenzo Ferrer is said to have preached. In

-the area of this court, which is very large, rose the

-ancient mosque, which is thought to have been built

-toward the end of the twelfth century. There is

-not the least trace of it now. In the shade of the

-orange trees around the margins of the basin the

-good Sevillians come to take the air in the burning

-noons of summer, and only the delightful verdure

-and the perfumed air remain as memorials of the

-voluptuous paradise of Mohammed, while now and

-then a beautiful girl with great dark eyes darts between

-the distant trees.</p>

-

-<p>The famous Giralda of the cathedral of Seville is

-an ancient Moorish tower, built, it is affirmed, in the

-year one thousand after the design of the architect

-Geber, the inventor of algebra. The upper part has

-been changed since Spain was reconquered, and has

-been rebuilt like a Christian bell-tower, but it will

-always retain its Moorish appearance, and, after all,

-is prouder of the banished standards of the vanquished

-than of the cross recently planted upon it by

-the victors. It is a monument which produces a

-strange sensation: it makes one smile; it is measureless

-and imposing as an Egyptian pyramid, and

-at the same time light and graceful as a summer-house.

-It is a square brick tower of a mellow rose-color,

-unadorned to a certain height, and from that

-point up ornamented with mullioned Moorish win<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">117</span>dows,

-which appear here and there like the windows

-of a house provided with balconies, and give it a

-very beautiful appearance. From the platform, which

-was formerly covered by a variegated roof surmounted

-by an iron pole which supported four enormous golden

-balls, now rises the Christian bell-tower in three

-stories, the first of which is taken up by the bells,

-the second is encircled by a balcony, and the third

-consists of a sort of cupola upon which, like a

-weather-vane, turns a colossal gilded statue which

-represents Faith, with a palm in one hand and a

-banner in the other. This statue is visible a long

-distance from Seville, and flashes when the sun

-strikes it like an enormous ruby in the crown of a

-gigantic king, who sweeps with his glance the entire

-valley of Andalusia.</p>

-

-<p>I climbed all the way to the top, and was there

-amply rewarded for the fatigue of the ascent. Seville,

-all white like a city of marble, encircled by a

-diadem of gardens, groves, and avenues, surrounded

-by a landscape dotted with villas, lay open to the

-view in all the wealth of its Oriental beauty. The

-Guadalquivir, freighted with ships, divides and embraces

-it in a majestic curve. Here the Torre del

-Oro casts its graceful shadow on the azure waters

-of the river; there the Alcazar rears its frowning

-towers; yonder the gardens of Montpensier raise

-above the roofs of the building an enormous mass of

-verdure: one's glance penetrates the bull-ring, the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">118</span>

-public gardens, the <i>patios</i> of the homes, the cloisters

-of the churches, and all the streets which converge

-toward the cathedral; in the distance appear the

-villages of Santi Ponce, Algaba, and others which

-whiten the slopes of the hills; to the right of the

-Guadalquivir the great suburb of Triana; on one

-side along the horizon the broken peaks of the Sierra

-Morena; and in the opposite direction other mountains

-enlivened by infinite azure tints; and over all

-this marvellous panorama the clearest, most transparent,

-and entrancing sky which has ever smiled

-upon the face of man.</p>

-

-<p>I descended from the Giralda and went to see the

-Columbian Library, located in an old building beside

-the Court of Oranges. After I had seen a collection

-of missals, Bibles, and ancient manuscripts, one of

-which is attributed to Alfonso the Wise, entitled

-"The Book of the Treasure," written with the most

-scrupulous care in the ancient Spanish language, I

-saw&mdash;let me repeat it, I saw&mdash;I, with my own

-moist eyes, as I pressed my hand on my beating

-heart&mdash;I saw a book, a treatise on cosmography and

-astronomy in Latin, with the margins covered with

-notes written in the hand of Christopher Columbus!

-He had studied that book while he revolved his

-great design in his mind, had pored over its pages

-in the night-watches, had touched it perhaps with

-his divine forehead in those exhausting vigils when

-sometimes he bent over the parchments with utter<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">119</span>

-weariness and bathed them with his sweat. It is a

-tremendous thought! But there is something better.

-I saw a writing in the hand of Columbus in which

-are collected all the prophecies of the ancient

-writers, sacred and profane, in regard to the discovery

-of the New World, written, it is said, to induce

-the sovereigns of Spain to provide the means

-to carry out his enterprise. There is, among others,

-a passage from the <i>Medea</i> of Seneca, which runs:

-<i>Venient annis saecula seris, quibus oceanus vincula

-rerum laxet et ingens pateat tellus</i>. And in the

-volume of Seneca, which may also be found in the

-Columbian Library, alongside of this passage there

-is a note by Ferdinand Columbus, which says:

-"This prophecy was fulfilled by my father, the

-admiral Christopher Columbus, in the year 1492."

-My eyes filled with tears; I wished I were alone,

-that I might have kissed those books, have tired

-myself out turning and re-turning their leaves between

-my hands, have detached a tiny fragment,

-and carried it with me as a sacred thing. Christopher

-Columbus! I have seen his characters! I

-have touched the leaves which he has touched! I

-have felt him very near me! On leaving the library,

-I know not why&mdash;I could have leaped into the

-midst of the flames to rescue a child, I could have

-stripped myself to clothe a beggar, I could joyfully

-have made any sacrifice&mdash;I was so rich!</p>

-

-<p>After the library the Alcazar, but before reaching<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">120</span>

-it, although it is in the same square as the cathedral,

-I felt for the first time what the Andalusian sun is

-like. Seville is the hottest city of Spain, it was the

-hottest hour of the day, and I found myself in the

-hottest part of the city; there was a flood of light;

-not a door, not a window, was open, not a soul astir;

-if I had been told that Seville was uninhabited, I

-should have believed it. I crossed the square

-slowly with half-shut eyes and wrinkled face, with

-the sweat coursing in great drops down my cheeks

-and breast, while my hands seemed to have been

-dipped in a bucket of water. On nearing the

-Alcazar I saw a sort of booth belonging to a water-carrier,

-and dashed under it headlong, like a man

-fleeing from a shower of stones. I took a little

-breathing-spell, and went on toward the Alcazar.</p>

-

-<p>The Alcazar, the ancient palace of the Moorish

-kings, is one of the best-preserved monuments in

-Spain. From the outside it looks like a fortress:

-it is entirely surrounded by high walls, embattled

-towers, and old houses, which form two spacious

-courtyards in front of the façade. The façade is

-bare and severe, like the rest of the exterior; the

-gate is adorned with gilded and painted arabesques,

-between which one sees a Gothic inscription which

-refers to the time when the Alcazar was restored by

-order of King Don Pedro. The Alcazar, in fact,

-although a Moorish palace, is the work of Christian

-rather than of Moorish kings. It is not known<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">121</span>

-exactly in what year it was built: it was reconstructed

-by King Abdelasio toward the end of the

-twelfth century, conquered by King Ferdinand toward

-the middle of the thirteenth century; altered

-a second time, in the following century, by King Don

-Pedro; and then occupied for longer or shorter

-periods by nearly all the kings of Castile; and

-finally selected by Charles V. as the place for the

-celebration of his marriage with the infanta of

-Portugal. The Alcazar has witnessed the loves

-and crimes of three generations of kings; every

-stone awakens a memory and guards a secret.</p>

-

-<p>You enter, cross two or three rooms in which

-there remains little of the Moorish excepting the

-vaulted ceiling and the mosaics around the walls,

-and come out into a court where you stand speechless

-with wonder. A portico of very delicate arches

-extends along the four sides, supported by slender

-marble columns, joined two by two, and arches and

-walls and windows and doors are covered with carvings,

-mosaics, and arabesques most intricate and exquisite,

-here perforated like lace, there closely

-woven and elaborate like embroidered tapestry,

-yonder clinging and projecting like masses and

-garlands of flowers; and, except the mosaics, which

-are of a thousand colors, everything is white, clean,

-and smooth as ivory. On the four sides are four

-great doors, through which you enter the royal

-apartments. Here wonder becomes enchantment:<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">122</span>

-whatever is richest, most various, and most splendid,

-whatever the most ardent fancy sees in its most

-ardent dreams, is to be found in these rooms. From

-pavement to the vaulted ceiling, around the doors,

-along the window-frames, in the most hidden corners,

-wherever one's glance falls, one sees such a luxuriance

-of ornaments in gold and precious stones, such

-a close network of arabesques and inscriptions, such

-a marvellous profusion of designs and colors, that

-one has scarcely taken twenty steps before one is

-amazed and confused, and the wearied eye wanders

-here and there searching for a hand's breadth of

-bare wall where it may flee and rest. In one of

-these rooms the guide pointed out a red spot which

-covered a good part of the marble pavement, and

-said in a solemn voice, "These are the blood-stains

-of Don Fadrique, grand master of the order of

-Santiago, who was killed on this very spot, in the

-year 1358, by order of his brother, King Don

-Pedro."</p>

-

-<p>I remember that when I heard these words I

-looked in the face of the custodian, as if to say,

-"Come, let us be going," and that good man answered

-in a dry tone,</p>

-

-<p>"<i>Caballero</i>, if I had told you to believe this thing

-on my word, you would have had every reason to

-doubt; but when you can see the thing with your

-very eyes, I may be wrong, but&mdash;it seems to

-me...."</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">123</span></p>

-

-<p>"Yes," I hastened to say&mdash;"yes, it is blood: I

-believe it, I see it; let's say no more about it."</p>

-

-<p>But if one can be playful over the blood-spots,

-one cannot be so over the story of the crime; the

-sight of the place revives in the mind all the most

-horrible details. Through the great gilded halls one

-seems to hear the echo of Don Fadrique's footsteps,

-followed by those of the bowmen armed with

-bludgeons; the palace is immersed in gloom; one

-hears no other sound save that of the executioners

-and their victim; Don Fadrique tries to enter the

-courtyard; Lopez de Padilla catches him; Fadrique

-throws him off and is in the court; he grasps his

-sword; curses on it! the cross of the hilt is held fast

-in the mantle of the order of Santiago; the bowmen

-gain upon him; he has not time to unsheath the

-sword; he flees here and there, groping his way;

-Fernandez de Roa overtakes him and fells him with

-a blow of his club; the others run up and set upon

-him, and Fadrique dies in a pool of blood....</p>

-

-<p>But this sad recollection is lost among the thousand

-images of the sensuous Moorish kings. Those

-graceful little windows, where it seems as if you

-ought to see every other moment the languid face

-of an odalisque; those secret doors, at which you

-pause in spite of yourself, as if you heard the rustle

-of garments; those sleeping chambers of the sultans,

-shrouded in mysterious gloom, where you seem to

-hear only the confused amorous lament of all the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">124</span>

-maidens who there lost the flower of their virgin

-purity; that prodigal variety of color and line, which

-like a tumultuous and ever-changing harmony arouses

-the senses to such fantastic flights that you doubt

-whether you are waking or sleeping; that delicate

-and lovely architecture, all of slender columns, that

-seem like the arms of women; capricious arches,

-little rooms, arched ceilings crowded with ornaments

-hanging in the form of stalactites, icicles, and clusters

-of grapes, of as many colors as a flower-garden;&mdash;all

-this stirs your desire to sit down in the middle

-of one of those rooms and to press to your heart a

-lovely brown Andalusian head which will make you

-forget the world and time, and, with one long kiss

-that drinks away your life, give you eternal sleep.</p>

-

-<p>On the ground floor the most beautiful room is the

-Hall of the Ambassadors, formed by four great

-arches which support a gallery with forty-four

-smaller arches, and above a beautiful cupola carved,

-painted, gilded, and chased with inimitable grace

-and fabulous splendor.</p>

-

-<p>On the upper floor, where were the winter apartments,

-there remain only an oratory of Ferdinand

-and Isabella the Catholic, and a little room in which

-the king Don Pedro is said to have slept. From it

-one descends by a narrow mysterious staircase to the

-rooms where dwelt the famous Maria de Padilla, the

-favorite of Don Pedro, whom popular tradition accuses

-of instigating the king to kill his brother.</p>

-

-<div class="figcenter">

-<div class="caption"><i><a id="Moorish_Arches"></a>Moorish Arches, Alcazar, Seville</i></div>

-<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b124c.jpg" alt="" /></div>

-</div>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">125</span></p>

-

-<p>The gardens of the Alcazar are neither very large

-nor particularly beautiful, but the memories which

-they recall are of greater value than extent or

-beauty. In the shade of those orange trees and

-cypresses, to the murmur of those fountains, when

-the great white moon was shining in that limpid Andalusian

-sky, and the many groups of courtiers and

-slaves rested there, how many long sighs of ardent

-sultanas! how many lowly words from proud kings!

-what passionate loves and embraces! "Itimad, my

-love!" I murmured, thinking of the famous mistress

-of King Al-Motamid as I wandered from path to

-path as if following her phantom,&mdash;"Itimad," I repeated,

-"do not leave me alone in this silent paradise!

-Dost thou remember how thou camest to me?

-Thy wealth of hair fell over my shoulder, and dearer

-than the sword to the warrior wert thou to me! How

-beautiful thou art! Thy neck is soft and white as

-the swan's, and like berries are thy red, red lips!

-How marvellous is the perfection of thy beauty!

-How dear thou art, Itimad, my love! Thy kisses

-are like wine, and thy eyes, like wine, steal away

-my reason!"</p>

-

-<p>While I was thus making my declarations of love

-with phrases and images stolen from the Arabian

-poets, at the very moment when I turned into a

-bypath all bordered with flowers, suddenly I felt a

-stream of water first on one leg and then on the

-other. I jumped aside, and received a spray in my<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">126</span>

-face; I turned to the right, and felt another stream

-against my neck; to the left, another jet between

-my shoulders. I began to run: there was water

-under me and around me in every direction, in jets,

-streams, and spray; in a moment I was as wet as if

-I had been dipped in the bath-tub. Just as I opened

-my mouth to call for help it all subsided, and I heard

-a ringing laugh at the end of the garden. I turned

-and saw a young fellow leaning against a low wall

-looking at me as if he were saying, "How did you

-like it?" When I came out he showed me the

-spring he had touched to play this little joke, and

-comforted me with the assurance that the sun of Seville

-would not leave me long in that dripping condition,

-into which I had passed so rudely, alas!

-from the lovely arms of my sultana.</p>

-

-<p>That evening, in spite of the voluptuous images

-which the Alcazar had called to my mind, I was sufficiently

-calm to contemplate the beauty of the

-women of Seville without fleeing to the arms of the

-consul for safety. I do not believe that the women

-of any other country are so bewitching as the fair

-Andalusians, not only because they tempt one into

-all sorts of mischief, but because they seem to have

-been made to be seized and carried away, so small,

-graceful, plump, elastic, and soft are they. Their

-little feet could both be put easily into one's coat-pocket,

-and with an arm one could lift them by the

-waist like babies, and by the mere pressure of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">127</span>

-finger could bend them like willow wands. To their

-natural beauty they add the art of walking and looking

-in a way to turn one's head. They fly along,

-glide, and walk with a wave-like motion, and in a

-single moment, as they pass, they show a little foot,

-make you admire an arm or a slender waist, reveal

-two rows of the whitest teeth, and dart at you a long

-veiled glance that melts and dies in your own; and

-on they go with an air of triumph, certain of having

-turned your blood topsy-turvy.</p>

-

-<p>To form an idea of the beauty of the women of

-the people and the picturesqueness of their dress

-you must go by day to visit the tobacco-manufactory,

-which is one of the largest establishments of

-the kind in Europe and employs not less than five

-thousand hands. The building faces the vast gardens

-of the duke of Montpensier: almost all of the

-women work in three immense rooms, each divided

-into three parts by as many rows of pillars. The

-first view is astounding: there, all at once, eight

-hundred girls present themselves before one's eyes

-in groups of five or six, sitting around work-tables

-as close as possible, the farthest indistinct and the

-last scarcely visible; all of them young and a few

-children&mdash;eight hundred jet-black heads and eight

-hundred brown faces from every province of

-Andalusia, from Jaen to Cadiz, from Granada to

-Seville!</p>

-

-<p>One hears a buzzing as of a square full of people.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">128</span>

-The walls, from one door to the other, in all three

-of the rooms are lined with skirts, shawls, kerchiefs,

-and scarfs; and&mdash;a very curious thing&mdash;that entire

-mass of garments, which would fill to overflowing a

-hundred old-clothes shops, presents two predominant

-colors, in two continuous lines one above the other,

-like the stripes of a very long flag&mdash;the black of the

-shawls above, and the red mixed with white, purple,

-and yellow&mdash;so that one seems to see an immense

-costumer's shop or an immense ball-room where the

-ballet-dancers, in order to be free, have hung on the

-walls every part of their dress which it is not absolutely

-necessary to wear. The girls put on these

-dresses when they go out, and wear old clothes to

-work in; but white and red predominate in those

-dresses also. The heat is insupportable, consequently

-they lighten their clothing as much as possible,

-and among those five thousand one will

-scarcely find fifty whose arms and shoulders the

-visitor may not contemplate at his pleasure, without

-counting the extraordinary cases which present

-themselves suddenly as one passes from room to

-room, behind the doors and columns, and around the

-distant corners. There are some very beautiful

-faces, and even those who are not beautiful have

-something about them which attracts one's glance

-and lingers in the memory&mdash;the complexion, the

-eyes, the brow, or the smile. Many of them,

-especially so-called <i>Gitane</i>, are as dark as dark<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">129</span>

-mulattos and have protruding lips; others have eyes

-so large that a faithful picture of them would be

-considered a monstrous exaggeration; the greater

-part are small and well-formed, and all have a rose

-or carnation or some sort of wild flower in their

-hair. They are paid in proportion to the work they

-do, and the most skilful and industrious earn as

-much as three francs per day; the lazy ones&mdash;<i>las

-holgazanas</i>&mdash;sleep with their arms crossed on the

-table and their heads resting on their arms; mothers

-are working, and swinging a leg to which is bound

-a cord that rocks the cradle. From the cigar-room

-one passes to the cigarette-room, and from it to the

-box-factory, and from the box-factory to the packing-room,

-and in them all one sees the red skirts,

-black hair, and fine eyes. In each of those rooms

-how many stories of love, jealousy, despair, and

-misery! On leaving the factory one seems for some

-time to see black eyes in every direction regarding

-him with a thousand varying expressions of curiosity,

-indifference, sympathy, cheerfulness, sadness, and

-drowsiness.</p>

-

-<p>The same day I went to see the Museum of

-Painting. The Seville gallery does not contain very

-many paintings, but those few are worth a great

-museum. There are the masterpieces of Murillo,

-and among them his immortal <i>Saint Anthony of

-Padua</i>, which is said to be the most divinely inspired

-of his works, and one of the greatest achieve<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">130</span>ments

-of human genius. I visited the gallery

-in the company of Señor Gonzalo Segovia and

-Ardizone, one of the most illustrious young men

-of Seville, and I wish he were here beside my table

-at this moment to testify in a foot-note that when

-my eyes first lit upon the picture I seized his arm

-and uttered a cry.</p>

-

-<p>Only once in my life have I felt such a profound

-stirring of my soul as that which I felt on seeing

-this picture. It was one beautiful summer night:

-the sky was bright with stars, and the vast plain lay

-extended before me from the high place where I

-stood in deep silence. One of the noblest creatures

-I have ever met in my life was at my side. A few

-hours before we had been reading some pages from

-one of Humboldt's works: we looked at the sky

-and talked of the motion of the earth, the millions

-of worlds, and the infinite with those suppressed

-tones as of distant voices which one unconsciously

-uses in speaking of such things in the silent night.

-Finally we were still, and each, with eyes fixed on

-the heavens, gave himself up to fancies. I know

-not by what train of thought I was led; I know not

-what mysterious chain of emotions was formed in

-my heart; I know not what I saw or felt or dreamed.

-I only know that suddenly a veil before my mind

-seemed to be rent asunder; I felt within me a perfect

-assurance of that which hitherto I had longed

-for rather than believed; my heart expanded with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">131</span>

-a feeling of supreme joy, angelic peace, and limitless

-hope; a flood of scalding tears suddenly filled my

-eyes, and, grasping the hand of my friend, which

-sought my own, I cried from the depths of my soul,

-"It is true! It is true!" and began to cry like a

-child.</p>

-

-<p>The <i>Saint Anthony of Padua</i> brought back the

-emotions of that evening. The saint is kneeling in

-the middle of his cell; the child Jesus in a nebulous

-halo of white vaporous light, drawn by the power

-of his prayer, is descending into his arms. Saint

-Anthony, rapt in ecstasy, throws himself forward

-with all his power of body and soul, his head thrown

-back, radiant with an expression of supreme joy.

-So great was the shock which this picture gave me

-that when I had looked at it a few moments I was

-as exhausted as if I had visited a vast gallery, and a

-trembling seized me and continued so long as I

-remained in that room.</p>

-

-<p>Afterward I saw the other great paintings of

-Murillo&mdash;a <i>Conception</i>, a <i>Saint Francis embracing

-Christ</i>, another version of <i>Saint Anthony</i>, and others

-to the number of twenty or more, among them the

-famous and enchanting <i>Virgin of the Napkin</i>, painted

-by Murillo upon a real napkin in the Capuchin convent

-of Seville to gratify a desire of a lay brother

-who was serving him: it is one of his most delicate

-creations, in which is revealed all the magic of his

-inimitable coloring&mdash;but none of these paintings,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">132</span>

-although they are objects of wonder to all the artists

-of the world, drew my heart or thoughts from that

-divine <i>Saint Anthony</i>.</p>

-

-<p>There are also in this gallery paintings by the two

-Herreras, Pacheco, Alonzo Cano, Pablo de Cespedes,

-Valdes, Mulato, a servant of Murillo who ably imitated

-his style, and finally the large famous painting

-of the <i>Apotheosis of Saint Thomas of Aquinas</i>, by

-Francesco Zurbaran, one of the most eminent artists

-of the seventeenth century, called the Spanish Caravaggio,

-and possibly his superior in truth and

-moral sentiment,&mdash;a powerful naturalist, a strong

-colorist, and an inimitable painter of austere friars,

-macerated saints, brooding hermits, and terrible

-priests, and an unsurpassed poet of penitence, solitude,

-and meditation.</p>

-

-<p>After seeing the picture-gallery Señor Gonzalo

-Segovia led me through a succession of narrow

-streets to the street <i>Francos</i>, one of the principal

-ways of the city, and stopped me in front of a little

-draper's shop, saying with a laugh, "Look! Doesn't

-this shop make you think of something?"</p>

-

-<p>"Nothing at all," I replied.</p>

-

-<p>"Look at the number."</p>

-

-<p>"It is number fifteen: what of it?"</p>

-

-<p>"Oh! plague on it!" exclaimed my amiable guide,</p>

-

-<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">

-  <div class="verse">"'Number fifteen,</div>

-  <div class="verse">On the left-hand side'!"</div>

-</div></div></div>

-

-<p>"The shop of the <i>Barber of Seville</i>!" I cried.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">133</span></p>

-

-<p>"Precisely!" he responded&mdash;"the shop of the

-Barber of Seville; but be on your guard when you

-speak of it in Italy; do not take your oath, for traditions

-are often misleading, and I would not assume

-the responsibility of confirming a fact of such importance."</p>

-

-<p>At that moment the merchant came to the door of

-the shop, and, divining why we were there, laughed

-and said, "<i>No esta</i>" ("Figaro is not here"), and

-with a gracious bow he retired.</p>

-

-<p>Then I besought Señor Gonzalo to show me a

-<i>patio</i>, one of those enchanting <i>patios</i> which as I

-looked at them from the street made me imagine so

-many delightful things. "I want to see at least

-one," I said to him&mdash;"to penetrate once into the

-midst of those mysteries, to touch the walls, to

-assure myself that it is a real thing and not a

-vision."</p>

-

-<p>My desire was at once fulfilled: we entered

-the <i>patio</i> of one of his friends. Señor Gonzalo told

-the servant the object of our visit, and we were

-left alone. The house was only two stories in

-height. The <i>patio</i> was no larger than an ordinary

-room, but all marble and flowers, and a little fountain

-in the middle, and paintings and statues around,

-and from roof to roof an awning which sheltered it

-from the sun. In a corner was a work-table, and

-here and there one saw low chairs and little benches

-whereon a few moments previously had doubtless<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">134</span>

-rested the feet of some fair Andalusian, who at that

-moment was watching us from between the slats of a

-blind. I examined everything minutely, as I would

-have done in a house abandoned by the fairies: I sat

-down, closed my eyes, imagined I was the master,

-then arose, wet my hand with the spray of the

-fountain, touched a slender column, went to the

-door, picked a flower, raised my eyes to the windows,

-laughed, sighed, and said, "How happy must

-those be who live here!" At that moment I heard

-a low laugh, and saw two great black eyes flash

-behind a blind and instantly disappear. "Truly," I

-said, "I did not believe that it was possible to still

-live so poetically upon this earth. And to think

-that you enjoy these houses all your life! and that

-you have the inclination to rack your brains about

-politics!"</p>

-

-<p>Señor Gonzalo showed me the secrets of the

-house. "All this furniture," said he, "these paintings,

-and these vases of flowers disappear on the approach

-of autumn and are taken to the second story,

-which is the living apartment from autumn to

-spring. When summer comes beds, wardrobes,

-tables, chairs&mdash;everything is brought down to the

-rooms on the ground floor, and here the family sleep

-and eat, receive their friends, and do their work,

-among the flowers and marbles to the murmur of

-the fountain. And at night they have the doors

-open, and from the sleeping-rooms one can see the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">135</span>

-<i>patio</i> flooded with moonlight and smell the fragrance

-of roses."</p>

-

-<p>"Oh, stop!" I exclaimed, "stop, Señor Gonzalo!

-Have pity on strangers!" And, laughing heartily,

-we both went out on our way to see the famous <i>Casa

-de Pilato</i>.</p>

-

-<p>As we were passing along a lonely little street I

-looked in a window of a hardware-shop and saw an

-assortment of knives so long, broad, and unusual

-that I felt a desire to buy one. I entered: twenty

-were displayed before my eyes, and I had the salesman

-to open them one by one. As each knife was

-opened I took a step backward. I do not believe it

-is possible to imagine an instrument more barbarous

-and terrifying in appearance than one of them.

-The handles are of wood, copper, and horn, curved

-and carved in open patterns, so that one may see

-through their little pieces of isinglass. The knives

-open with a sound like a rattle, and out comes a

-large blade as broad as the palm of your hand, as

-long as both palms together, and as sharp as a

-dagger, in the form of a fish, ornamented with red

-inlaying, which suggests streaks of clotted blood,

-and adorned with fierce and threatening inscriptions.

-On the blade of one there will be written in Spanish,

-<i>Do not open me without reason, nor shut me without

-honor</i>; on another, <i>Where I strike, all is over</i>; on

-a third, <i>When this snake bites, there is nothing left

-for the doctor to do</i>; and other gallantries of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">136</span>

-same sort. The proper name of these knives is <i>navaja</i>&mdash;a

-word which also has the meaning of razor&mdash;and

-the <i>navaja</i> is the popular duelling weapon. Now

-it has fallen into disuse, but was at one time held in

-great honor; there were masters who taught its use,

-each of whom had his secret blow, and duels were

-fought in accordance with the rules of chivalry. I

-bought the most terrible <i>navaja</i> in the shop, and we

-entered the street again.</p>

-

-<p>The <i>Casa de Pilato</i>, held by the Medina-Coeli

-family, is, after the Alcazar, the most beautiful monument

-of Moorish architecture in Seville. The name,

-<i>Casa de Pilato</i>, comes from the fact that its founder,

-Don Enriquez de Ribera, the first marquis of Tarifa,

-had it built, as the story goes, in imitation of the

-house of the Roman prætor, which he had seen in

-Jerusalem, where he went on a pilgrimage. The

-edifice has a modest exterior, but the interior is marvellous.

-One first enters a court not less beautiful

-than the enchanting court of the Alcazar, encircled

-by two orders of arches, supported by graceful

-marble columns, forming two very light galleries, one

-above the other, and so delicate that it seems as if

-the first puff of wind would cast them into ruins.

-In the centre is a lovely fountain resting on four

-marble dolphins and crowned by a bust of Janus.

-Around the lower part of the walls run brilliant

-mosaics, and above these every sort of fantastic

-arabesque, here and there framing beautiful niches<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">137</span>

-containing busts of the Roman emperors. At the

-four corners of the court the ceilings, the walls, and

-the doors are carved, embroidered, and covered

-with flowers and historic tapestries with the delicacy

-of a miniature. In an old chapel, partly Moorish

-and partly Gothic in style, and most delicate in form,

-there is preserved a little column, scarcely more than

-three feet in height, the gift of Pius V. to a descendant

-of the founder of the palace, at one time viceroy

-of Naples: to that column, says the tradition, was

-bound Jesus of Nazareth to be scourged. This fact,

-even if it were true, would prove that Pius V. did

-not believe it in the slightest degree. For he would

-not lightly have committed the unpardonable mistake

-of depriving himself of a valuable relic to make a

-present to the first comer. The entire palace is full

-of sacred memories. On the first floor the custodian

-points out a window which corresponds to that by

-which Peter sat when he denied his Lord, and the

-little window from which the maid-servant recognized

-him. From the street one sees another window

-with a little stone balcony, which represents the

-exact position of the window where Jesus, wearing

-the crown of thorns, was shown to the people.</p>

-

-<p>The garden is full of fragments of ancient statuary

-brought from Italy by that same Don Pedro Afan de

-Ribera, viceroy of Naples. Among the other fables

-that are told about this mysterious garden is one to

-the effect that Don Pedro Afan de Ribera placed in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">138</span>

-it an urn brought from Italy containing the ashes

-of the emperor Trajan, and a curious person carelessly

-struck the urn and overturned it; the emperor's

-ashes were thus scattered over the grass, and

-no one has ever succeeded in collecting them. So this

-august monarch, born at Italica, by a very strange

-fate has returned to the vicinity of his natal city,

-not in the very best condition in which to meditate

-upon its ruins, to tell the truth, but he was near it,

-at any rate.</p>

-

-<p>In spite of all that I have described, I may say

-that I did not see Seville, but just commenced to see

-it. Nevertheless, I shall stop here, because everything

-must have an end. I pass by the promenaders,

-the squares, the gates, the libraries, the public buildings,

-the mansions of the grandees, the gardens and

-the churches; but allow me to say that, after several

-days' wandering through Seville from sunrise to sunset,

-I was obliged to leave the city under the weight

-of a self-accusing conscience. I did not know which

-way to turn. I had reached such a condition of

-weariness that the announcement of a new object to

-be seen filled me with foreboding rather than pleasure.

-The good Señor Gonzalo kept up my courage,

-comforted me, and shortened the journeys with his

-delightful company, but, nevertheless, I have only a

-very confused remembrance of all that I saw during

-those last days.</p>

-

-<p>Seville, although it no longer merits the glorious<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">139</span>

-title of the Spanish Athens, as in the times of

-Charles V. and Philip II., when it was mother and

-patron of a large and chosen band of poets and

-artists, the seat of culture and of the arts in the vast

-empire of its monarchs, is even yet that one among

-the cities of Spain, with the exception of Madrid, in

-which the artistic life is most vigorously maintained,

-as is evidenced by the number of its men of genius,

-the liberality of its patrons, and the popular love of

-the fine arts. It contains a flourishing academy of

-literature, a society for the protection of the arts, a

-well-known university, and a colony of scholars and

-sculptors who enjoy an honorable distinction throughout

-Spain. But the highest literary fame in Seville

-belongs to a woman&mdash;Catharine Bohl, the author of

-the novels which bear the name of Fernan Caballero,

-widely read in Spain and America, translated into

-almost all the languages of Europe, and known also

-in Italy (where some of them were published not

-long since) by every one who at all occupies himself

-with foreign literature. They are admirable pictures

-of Andalusian manners, full of truth, passion, and

-grace, and, above all, possessing a vigor of faith and

-a religious enthusiasm so fearless and a Christian

-charity so broad that they would startle and confuse

-the most skeptical man in the world. Catharine

-Bohl is a woman who would undergo martyrdom

-with the firmness and serenity of a Saint Ignatius.

-The consciousness of her power is revealed in every<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">140</span>

-page: she does not hesitate to defend her religion,

-and confronts, assails, threatens, and overthrows its

-enemies; and not only the enemies of religion, but

-every man and everything that, to use a common

-expression, conforms to the spirit of the age, for

-she never forgives the least sin which has been committed

-from the times of the Inquisition to our own

-day, and she is more inexorable than the Pope's syllabus.

-And herein perhaps lies her greatest defect

-as a writer&mdash;that her religious convictions and her

-invectives are entirely too frequent and grow tiresome,

-and disgust and prejudice the reader rather

-than convince him of her own beliefs. But there is

-not a shadow of bitterness in her heart, and as her

-books, so is her life, noble, upright, and charitable.

-In Seville she is revered as a saint. Born in that

-city, she married early in life, and is now a widow

-for the third time. Her last husband, who was

-Spanish ambassador at London, committed suicide,

-and from that day she has never laid aside her

-mourning. At the time of my visit she was almost

-seventy; she had been very beautiful, and her noble,

-placid face still preserved the impress of beauty.

-Her father, who was a man of considerable genius

-and great culture, taught her several languages in

-early life: she knows Latin thoroughly and speaks

-Italian, German, and French with admirable facility.

-At this time, however, she is not writing at all,

-although the editors and publishers of Europe and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">141</span>

-America are offering her large sums for her works.

-But she does not live a life of inactivity. From

-morning to night she reads all sorts of books, and

-while she reads she is either knitting or embroidering,

-for she very firmly believes that her literary

-studies ought not to take one minute from her feminine

-employments. She has no children, and lives

-in a lonely house, the best part of which has been

-given to a poor family; she spends a great part of

-her income in charity. A curious trait of her character

-is her great love of animals: she has her

-house full of birds, cats, and dogs, and her sensibilities

-are so delicate that she has never consented

-to enter a carriage, for fear of seeing the horse beaten

-on her account. All suffering affects her as if she

-herself were bearing it: the sight of a blind man or

-of a sick person or of a cripple of any sort distresses

-her for an entire day; she cannot close her eyes to

-sleep unless she has wiped away a tear; she would

-joyfully forego all her honors to save any unknown

-person a heartache. Before the Revolution her life

-was not so isolated: the Montpensier family received

-her with great honor, and the most illustrious families

-of Seville vied with each other in entertaining

-her at their homes: now she lives only among her

-books and a few friends.</p>

-

-<p>In Moorish times Cordova took the lead in literature

-and Seville in music. "When a scholar dies

-at Seville," said Averroes, "and they wish to sell<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">142</span>

-his books, they send them to Cordova; but if a

-musician dies at Cordova, they send his instruments

-to Seville to be sold." Now Cordova has lost her

-literary primacy, and Seville holds first place both

-in literature and music. Truly the times are past

-in which a poet by singing of the beauty of a maiden

-draws around her a crowd of lovers from all parts

-of the realm, and when one prince envies another

-simply because a poet has sung in his praise a verse

-more beautiful than any which the other had inspired,

-and a caliph rewards the author of a noble

-hymn by a gift of a hundred camels, a troop of

-slaves, and a vase of gold&mdash;when a happy strophe

-improvised at an opportune time releases a slave

-from his chains or saves the life of one condemned

-to death, and when the musicians are followed

-through the streets of Seville by a train of monarchs,

-and the favor of poets is more sought than that of

-kings, and the lyre is more terrible than the sword.

-But the people of Seville are always the most poetic

-people of Spain. The <i>bon mot</i>, the word of love,

-the expression of joy and enthusiasm, fly from their

-lips with a fascinating spontaneity and grace. The

-common people of Seville improvise, and talk as

-though they are singing, gesticulate as if they are

-declaiming, laugh and play like children. One

-never grows old at Seville. It is a city where life

-melts away in a continuous smile, with no other

-thought than the enjoyment of the beautiful sky,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">143</span>

-the lovely little houses, and the delightful little

-gardens. It is the most peaceful city in Spain,

-and the only one which since the Revolution has

-not been agitated by those sad political commotions

-which have stirred the others: politics do not penetrate

-the surface; the Sevillians are content to make

-love; all else they take in jest. <i>Todo lo toman de

-broma</i>, say the other Spaniards of the Sevillians;

-and in truth with that fragrant air, with those little

-streets like those of an Oriental city, with those

-fiery little women, why should they trouble themselves?

-At Madrid they speak ill of them; they

-say they are vain, false, fickle, and silly. It is

-jealousy: they envy them their happy indolence,

-the sympathy which they inspire in strangers, their

-girls, their poets, their painters, their orators, their

-Giralda, their Alcazar, their Guadalquivir, their

-life, and their history. So say the Sevillians, striking

-their breasts with one hand and puffing into the

-air a cloud of smoke from the inseparable <i>cigaritto</i>;

-and their lovely little women revenge themselves

-upon their envious sisters and all the other women

-in the world, speaking with spiteful pity of long feet,

-large waists, and dull eyes, that in Andalusia would

-not receive the honor of a glance or the homage of

-a sigh. A charming and amiable people, in truth;

-but, alas! one must look at the reverse side of the

-medal: superstition reigns and schools are lacking,

-as is the case throughout all Southern Spain; this<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">144</span>

-is partly their own fault and partly not; but the

-negative is probably the smaller part.</p>

-

-<p>The day of my departure arrived unexpectedly.

-It is strange: I remember scarcely any particulars

-of my life at Seville; it is remarkable if I can tell

-where I dined, what I talked about with the consul,

-how I spent the evenings, and why I chose any

-given day to take my departure. I was not myself;

-I lived, if I may use the expression, out of myself;

-all the while I remained in the city I was a little

-dazed. Apart from the art-gallery and the <i>patio</i>

-my friend Segovia must have found that I knew very

-little; and now, I know not why, I think of those

-days as of a dream. Of no other city are my recollections

-so vague as of Seville. Even to-day, while

-I am certain of having been at Saragossa, Madrid,

-and Toledo, sometimes when I think of Seville a

-doubt steals upon me. It seems to me like a city

-much farther away than the most distant boundaries

-of Spain, and that to journey there again I must

-travel months and months, cross unknown continents

-and wide seas, among people totally different from

-our own. I think of the streets of Seville, of certain

-little squares and certain houses, as I would think

-of the spots on the moon. Sometimes the image of

-that city passes before my eyes like a white figure,

-and disappears almost before I can grasp it with my

-mind&mdash;sometimes in a breath of air, at certain hours

-of the day, at a garden-gate; in humming a song<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">145</span>

-which I heard a boy sing on the steps of the Giralda.

-I cannot explain this secret to myself; I think of

-Seville as of a city which I have still to see, and

-I enjoy looking at the prints and thumbing the

-books which I bought there, for they are tangible

-things that convince me of my visit. A month ago

-I received a letter from Segovia which said, "Come

-back to us." It gave me untold pleasure, but at the

-same time I laughed as if he had written, "Make a

-voyage to Pekin." It is for this very reason that

-Seville is dearer to me than all the other cities of

-Spain; I love it as I might love a beautiful unknown

-woman who, crossing a mysterious wood, might

-look my way and throw me a flower. How often in

-the theatre or at the café, when a friend shakes me

-and asks, "What are you thinking about?" I am

-obliged to leave the little room of Maria de Padilla

-to return to him, or a boat that is gliding along in

-the shade of the Christina plane trees, or Figaro's

-shop, or the vestibule of a <i>patio</i> full of flowers,

-fountains, and lights.</p>

-

-<p>I embarked on a boat of the Segovia Company,

-near the Torre del Oro, at an hour when Seville is

-wrapped in deep sleep and a burning sun covers it

-with a flood of light. I remember that a few

-moments before the boat started a young man came

-on board in search of me, and gave me a letter from

-Gonzalo Segovia, containing a sonnet which I still

-cherish as one of my most precious mementos of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">146</span>

-Seville. On the boat there was a company of Spanish

-singers, an English family, some laboring-men,

-and babies. The captain, being a good Andalusian,

-had a cheery word for everybody. I soon began a

-conversation with him. My friend Gonzalo was a

-son of the proprietor of the line, and we talked of

-the Segovia family, of Seville, the sea, and a thousand

-pleasant things. Ah! the poor man was far

-from thinking that a few days later the unlucky ship

-would founder in the midst of the sea and bring him

-to such a terrible end! It was the <i>Guadaira</i>, that

-was lost a short distance from Marseilles by the

-bursting of the boiler on the sixteenth day of June,

-1872.</p>

-

-<p>At three o'clock the boat started for Cadiz.</p>

-

-<hr class="chap" />

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">147</span></p>

-

-

-

-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a><br /><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p>

-</div><div class="chapter">

-<h2><a name="CADIZ" id="CADIZ"></a>CADIZ.</h2>

-

-

-<p>That was the most delightful evening of all my

-journey.</p>

-

-<p>A little while after the ship had commenced to

-move there sprang up one of those gentle breezes

-which played with one as an infant plays with one's

-cravat or a lock of one's hair, and from stem to

-stern there was a sound of the voices of women and

-children, like that which one hears among a group

-of friends at the first crack of the whip announcing

-their departure for a merry outing. All the passengers

-gathered at the stern in the shade of a gayly-colored

-awning like a Chinese pavilion: some were

-sitting on coils of rope, others were stretched at full

-length on the benches, others were leaning against

-the rail&mdash;every one looked back in the direction of

-the Torre del Oro to enjoy the famous and enchanting

-spectacle of Seville as it faded away in the distance.

-Some of the women had not yet dried the

-tears of parting, and some of the children were still

-a little frightened by the sound of the engine. And

-some ladies were still quarrelling with the porters

-for abusing their baggage; but in a few moments

-all was serene again, and the passengers began to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">150</span>

-peel oranges, light cigars, pass little flasks of liquor,

-converse with their unknown neighbors, sing and

-laugh, and in a quarter of an hour we were all

-friends.</p>

-

-<p>The boat glided along as smoothly as a gondola

-over the still, limpid waters, which reflected the

-white dresses of the ladies like a mirror, and the

-breeze brought the delightful fragrance from the

-orange-groves of the villas scattered along the shore.

-Seville was hidden behind her circle of gardens, and

-we saw only an immense mass of trees of vivid

-green, and above them the black pile of the cathedral

-and the rose-colored Giralda surmounted by

-its statue flaming like a tongue of fire. As the

-distance widened the cathedral appeared grander and

-more majestic, as if it were following the vessel and

-gaining upon her: now, although still following, it

-seemed to retire a great way from the shore; now it

-would seem to be spanning the river; one moment

-it would appear suddenly to return to its place; a

-moment later it looked so close that we suspected

-the boat had turned back. The Guadalquivir

-wound along in short curves, and as the boat turned

-this way and that Seville appeared and disappeared,

-now peeping out in one place as if it had stolen

-beyond its boundaries, now raising its head suddenly

-behind a wood, gleaming like a snowclad mountain,

-now revealing some white streaks here and there

-amid the verdure, and suddenly disappearing from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">151</span>

-view and performing all sorts of fantastic wiles, like

-a coquettish woman. Finally it disappeared and we

-saw it no more: the cathedral alone remained. Then

-every one turned to look at the shore. We seemed

-to be sailing on the lake of a garden. Here was a

-hillside clothed with cypresses, here a hilltop all

-covered with flowers, yonder a village extending

-along the shore, and under the garden trellises

-and along the terraces of the villas sat ladies looking

-at us with spy-glasses; and here and there

-were peasants' families in brightly-colored dresses,

-sail-boats; and naked boys who plunged into the

-water and turned sommersaults, frisked about,

-shouted, and waved their hands toward the ladies

-on the boat, who covered their faces with their fans.

-Some miles from Seville we met three steamboats,

-one after the other. The first came upon us so suddenly

-at a turn of the river that, having had no

-experience in that sort of navigation, I was afraid,

-for a moment, that we should not have time to avoid

-a collision; the two boats almost grazed each other

-in passing, and the passengers of each saluted each

-other and threw across oranges and cigars, and

-charged each other with messages to be borne to

-Cadiz or Seville.</p>

-

-<p>My fellow-voyagers were almost all Andalusians,

-and so, after an hour of conversation, I knew them

-from first to last as well as if we had all been friends

-from infancy. Every one instantly told every one<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">152</span>

-else, whether he wanted to know it or not, who he

-was, his age, occupation, and where he was going,

-and one even went so far as to tell how many sweethearts

-he had and how many pesetas were in his

-purse. I was taken for a singer; and this is not

-strange if one considers that in Spain the people

-think three-fourths of the Italians are trained to

-sing, dance, or declaim. One gentleman, noticing

-that I had an Italian book in my hand, asked me,

-point-blank, "Where did you leave the company?"</p>

-

-<p>"What company?" I demanded.</p>

-

-<p>"Weren't you singing with Fricci at the Zarzuela?"</p>

-

-<p>"I am sorry, but I have never appeared on the

-stage."</p>

-

-<p>"Well, I must say, then, that you and the second

-tenor look as much alike as two drops of water."</p>

-

-<p>"You don't say so?"</p>

-

-<p>"Pray excuse me."</p>

-

-<p>"It's of no consequence."</p>

-

-<p>"But you are an Italian?"</p>

-

-<p>"Yes."</p>

-

-<p>"Do you sing?"</p>

-

-<p>"I am sorry, but I do not sing."</p>

-

-<p>"How strange! To judge by your throat and

-breast, I should have said that you must have a

-splendid tenor voice."</p>

-

-<p>I put my hand to my chest and neck, and replied,

-"It may be so; I will try&mdash;one never knows. I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">153</span>

-have two of the necessary qualifications: I am an

-Italian and have the throat of a tenor; the voice

-ought to follow."</p>

-

-<p>At this point the prima donna of the company,

-who had overheard the dialogue, entered the conversation,

-and after her the entire company:</p>

-

-<p>"Is the gentleman an Italian?"</p>

-

-<p>"At your service, madam."</p>

-

-<p>"I ask the question because I wish him to do me

-a favor. What is the meaning of those short verses

-from <i>Il Trovatore</i> which run&mdash;</p>

-

-<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">

-  <div class="verse indent4">"Non può nemmeno un Dio</div>

-  <div class="verse indent4">Donna rapirti a me."</div>

-  <div class="verse">(Not even a god can steal my lady from me.)</div>

-</div></div></div>

-

-<p>"Is the lady married?"</p>

-

-<p>They all began to laugh.</p>

-

-<p>"Yes," replied the prima donna; "but why do

-you ask me that?"</p>

-

-<p>"Because ... 'not even a god can steal you

-from me' is what your husband ought to say, if he

-has two good eyes in his head, every morning when

-he rises and every night when he goes to bed."</p>

-

-<p>The others laughed, but to the prima donna this

-imaginary presumption on the part of her husband

-in affirming that he was secure even against a god

-seemed too extravagant, possibly because she knew

-that she had not always been sufficiently wary in her

-regard for men; and so she scarcely deigned by so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">154</span>

-much as a smile to show that she had understood

-my compliment. She at once asked the meaning of

-another verse, and after her the baritone, and after

-the baritone the tenor, and after the tenor the second

-lady, and so on, until for a little while I did nothing

-but translate poor Italian verses into worse Spanish

-prose, to the great satisfaction of some of them, who

-for the first time were able to repeat intelligently a

-little of what they had so often sung with an air of

-perfect knowledge. When every one had learned as

-much as he wished to know, the conversation came

-to a close, and I stood talking a little while with the

-baritone, who hummed me an air from the <i>Zarzuela</i>;

-then I attached myself to one of the chorus, who

-told me that the tenor was making love to the

-prima donna; then I went off with the tenor, who

-told me about the baritone's wife; then I talked

-with the prima donna, who said disagreeable things

-about the whole company; but they were all good

-friends, and when they met, as they walked about

-the boat and gathered under the awning, the men

-pulled each other's beards and the women kissed

-each other, and one and all exchanged glances and

-smiles which revealed secret understandings. Some

-ran through the gamut here, some hummed yonder,

-others practised trills in a corner, and others again

-tried a guttural <i>do</i> that ended in a wheezing sound

-in the throat; and meanwhile they all talked at once

-about a thousand trifles.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">155</span></p>

-

-<p>Finally, the bell sounded and we rushed headlong

-to the table, like so many officials invited to a spread

-at the unveiling of a monument. At this dinner,

-amid the cries and songs of all those people, I drank

-for the first time an unmixed glass of that terrible

-wine of Xeres whose wonders are sung in the four

-corners of the earth. I had scarcely swallowed it

-before I seemed to feel a spark run through all my

-veins, and my head burned as if it was full of sulphur.

-All the others drank, and all were filled with

-unrestrained mirth and became irresistibly loquacious;

-the prima donna began to talk in Italian, the

-tenor in French, the baritone in Portuguese, the

-others in dialect, and I in every tongue; and there

-were toasts and snatches of song, shouts, arch

-glances, clasping of hands above table and the

-kicking of feet below, and declarations of good fellowship

-exchanged on all sides, like the personalities

-in Parliament when the opposing factions join battle.

-After dinner we all went on deck, flushed and in

-great spirits, breathless and enveloped in a cloud of

-smoke from our cigarettes, and then, in the light of

-the moon, whose silvery rays gleamed on the wide

-river and covered the hillsides and the groves with

-limpid light, we began again a noisy conversation,

-and after the conversation there was singing, not

-only the trifling airs of <i>Zarzuela</i>, but passages from

-operas, with solos, duets, trios, and choruses, with

-appropriate gestures and stage strides, diversified<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">156</span>

-with declamations from the poets, stories, and anecdotes,

-hearty laughter, and tumultuous applause;

-finally, tired and breathless, we were all silent, and

-some fell asleep with upturned faces, others went to

-lie down under cover, and the prima donna seated

-herself in a corner to look at the moon. The tenor

-was snoring. I profited by the occasion to go and

-have an aria from the <i>Zarzuela</i>&mdash;<i>El Sargento Federico</i>&mdash;sung

-to me in a low voice. The courteous

-Andalusian did not wait to be pressed: she sang,

-but suddenly she was silent and hid her face. I

-looked at her: she was weeping. I asked her the

-cause of her distress, and she answered, sadly, "I

-am thinking of a perjury." Then she broke into

-a laugh and began to sing again. She had a melodious,

-flexible voice, and sang with a feeling of

-gentle sadness. The sky was all studded with stars,

-and the boat glided so smoothly through the water

-that it scarcely seemed to be moving; and I thought

-of the gardens of Seville, of the near African shore,

-and of the dear one waiting for me in Italy, and my

-eyes too were wet, and when the lady stopped singing,

-I said, "Sing on, for&mdash;</p>

-

-<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">

-  <div class="verse">'Mortal tongue cannot express</div>

-  <div class="verse">That which I felt within my breast....'"</div>

-</div></div></div>

-

-<p>At dawn the boat was just entering the ocean;

-the river was very wide. The right bank, scarcely

-visible in the distance, stretched along like a tongue<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">157</span>

-of land, beyond which shone the waters of the sea.

-A moment later the sun rose above the horizon, and

-the vessel left the river. Then there unfolded before

-my eyes a sight that could not be described if

-it were possible to join poetry, painting, and music

-in one supreme art&mdash;a spectacle whose magnificence

-and enchantment I believe not even Dante could

-describe with his grandest images, nor Titian with

-his most brilliant colors, nor Rossini with his most

-perfect harmonies, nor even all three of them together.

-The sky was a miracle of sapphire light

-unflecked by a cloud, and the sea was so beautiful

-that it seemed like an immense carpet of shimmering

-silk; the sun was shining on the crests of the little

-ripples caused by a light breeze, and it seemed as

-if they were tipped with amethyst. The sea was

-full of reflections and luminous bands of light, and

-in the distance were streaks of silver, with here and

-there great white sails, like the trailing wings of

-gigantic fallen angels. I have never seen such

-brilliancy of color, such splendor of light, such

-freshness, such transparency, such limpid water and

-sky. It seemed like a daybreak of creation, which

-the fancy of poets had pictured so pure and effulgent

-that our dawns are only pale reflections in comparison.

-It was more than Nature's awakening and

-the recurring stir of life: it was a hallelujah, a

-triumph, a new birth of creation, growing into the

-infinite by a second inspiration of God.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">158</span></p>

-

-<p>I went below deck to get my spyglass, and when

-I returned Cadiz was in sight.</p>

-

-<p>The first impression which it made upon me was

-a feeling of doubt whether it was a city or not. I

-first laughed, then turned toward my fellow-traveller

-with the air of one seeking to be assured that he is

-not deceived. Cadiz is like an island of chalk. It

-is a great white spot in the midst of the sea, without

-a cloud, without a black line, without a shadow&mdash;a

-white spot as clear and pure as a hilltop covered

-with untrodden snow, standing out against a sky of

-beryl and turquoise in the midst of a vast flooded

-plain. A long, narrow neck of land unites it to the

-continent; on all other sides it is surrounded by the

-sea, like a boat just ready to sail bound to the shore

-only by a cable. As we approached, the forms of

-the campaniles, the outlines of the houses, and the

-openings of the streets became clear, and everything

-seemed whiter, and, however much I looked through

-my spyglass, I could not have discovered the

-smallest spot in that whiteness, either on a building

-near the harbor or in the farthest suburbs. We

-entered the port, where there were but a few ships

-and those a great way apart. I stepped into a boat

-without even taking my valise with me, for I was

-obliged to leave for Malaga that same evening, and

-so eager was I to see the city that when the boat

-came to the bank, I jumped too soon and fell to the

-ground like a corpse, although, alas! I still felt the

-pains of a living body.</p>

-

-<div class="figcenter">

-<div class="caption"><i><a id="Cadiz_p"></a>Cadiz</i></div>

-<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b158ct.jpg" alt="" /></div>

-</div>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">159</span></p>

-

-<p>Cadiz is the whitest city in the world; and it is

-of no use to contradict me by saying that I have

-not seen every other city, for my common sense

-tells me that a city whiter than this, which is superlatively

-and perfectly white, cannot exist. Cordova

-and Seville cannot be compared with Cadiz:

-they are as white as a sheet, but Cadiz is as white

-as milk. To give an idea of it, one could not do

-better than to write the word "white" a thousand

-times with a white pencil on blue paper, and make

-a note on the margin: "Impressions of Cadiz."

-Cadiz is one of the most extravagant and graceful

-of human caprices: not only the outer walls of the

-houses are white, but the stairs are white, the courts

-are white, the shop-walls are white, the stones are

-white, the pilasters are white, the most secret and

-darkest corners of the poorest houses and the loneliest

-streets are white; everything is white from

-roof to cellar wherever the tip of a brush can enter,

-even to the holes, cracks, and birds' nests. In every

-house there is a pile of chalk and lime, and every

-time the eagle eye of the inmates spies the least

-spot the brush is seized and the spot covered.

-Servants are not taken into families unless they

-know how to whitewash. A pencil-scratch on a

-wall is a scandalous thing, an outrage upon the

-public peace, an act of vandalism: you might walk<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">160</span>

-through the entire city, look behind all the doors,

-and poke your nose into the very holes, and you

-would find white, only and always and eternally.</p>

-

-<p>But, for all this, Cadiz does not in the least resemble

-the other Andalusian cities. Its streets are

-long and straight, and the houses are high, and lack

-the <i>patios</i> of Cordova and Seville. But, although

-the appearance is different, the city does not appear

-less interesting and pleasant to the eye of the

-stranger. The streets are straight, but narrow, and,

-moreover, they are very long, and many of them

-cross the entire city, and so one can see at the end,

-as through the crack in a door, a slender strip of

-sky, which makes it seem as if the city was built on

-the summit of a mountain cut on all sides in regular

-channels: moreover, the houses have a great many

-windows, and, as at Burgos, every window is provided

-with a sort of glass balcony which rises in

-tiers from story to story, so that in many streets the

-houses are completely covered with glass, and one

-sees scarcely any traces of the walls. It seems like

-walking through a passage in an immense museum.

-Here and there, between one house and the next,

-rise the graceful fronds of a palm; in every square

-there is a luxuriant mass of verdure, and at all the

-windows bunches of grass and bouquets of flowers.</p>

-

-<p>Really, I had been far from imagining that Cadiz

-could be so gay and smiling&mdash;that terrible, ill-fated

-Cadiz, burned by the English in the sixteenth cen<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">161</span>tury,

-bombarded at the end of the eighteenth, devastated

-by the pestilence, hostess of the fleets of Trafalgar,

-the seat of the revolutionary council during

-the War of Independence, the theatre of the horrible

-butchery of the Revolution of 1820, the target

-of the French bombs in 1823, the standard-bearer

-of the Revolution which hurled the Bourbons from

-the throne,&mdash;Cadiz always restless and turbulent and

-first of all to raise the battle-cry. But of such

-calamities and such struggles there remain only

-some cannon-balls half buried in the walls, for over

-all the traces of destruction has passed the inexorable

-brush, covering every dishonor with a white veil.

-And as it is with the latest wars, so too there remains

-not a trace of the Phœnicians who founded

-the city, nor of the Carthaginians and Romans who

-enlarged and beautified it, unless one wishes to consider

-as a trace the tradition which says, "Here rose

-a temple to Hercules," "There rose a temple to

-Saturn." But time has done a worse thing than to

-deprive Cadiz of her ancient monuments: it has

-stolen away her commerce and her riches since

-Spain lost her possessions in America, and now Cadiz

-lies there inert on her solitary rock, waiting in

-vain for the thousand ships which once came with

-flags and festoons to offer her the tribute of the

-New World.</p>

-

-<p>I had a letter of introduction to the Italian consul,

-and after receiving it he courteously took me to the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">162</span>

-top of a tower from which I was able to get a bird's-eye

-view of the city. It was a novel sight and a

-very lively surprise: seen from above, Cadiz is

-white, entirely and perfectly white, just as it appears

-from the sea; there is not a roof in all the

-city; every house is covered on top by a terrace

-surrounded by a low whitewashed wall; on almost

-every terrace rises a little white tower, which is surmounted,

-in its turn, by another smaller terrace or

-by a little cupola or sort of sentry-box: everything

-is white; all these little cupolas, these pinnacles,

-and these towers, which give the city a very odd

-and uneven appearance, gleam and stand out white

-against the vivid blue of the sea. One's view extends

-over the entire length of the isthmus which

-connects Cadiz to the main land, embraces a far-off

-strip of distant coast whitened by the cities of

-Puerto Real and Puerto Santa Maria, dotted with villages,

-churches, and villas, and includes also the port

-and the clear and a very beautiful sky which vies

-with the sea in transparency and light. I could not

-look enough at that strange city. On closing my

-eyes it appeared as if covered by an immense sheet.

-Every house seemed to have been built for an astronomical

-observatory. The entire population, in

-case the sea should inundate the city, as in ancient

-times, might gather on the terraces and remain there

-in perfect ease, saving the fright.</p>

-

-<p>I was told that a few years ago, on the occasion<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">163</span>

-of some eclipse of the sun, this very spectacle was

-witnessed: the seventy thousand inhabitants of Cadiz

-all ascended to the terraces to watch the phenomenon.

-The city changed its perfect whiteness for

-a thousand colors; every terrace was thick with heads;

-one saw at a single glance, quarter after quarter, and

-finally the entire population: a low murmur rose to

-heaven like the roar of the sea, and a great movement

-of arms, fans, and spy-glasses, pointing upward,

-made it seem as if the people were awaiting the

-descent of some angel from the solar sphere. At a

-certain moment there was a profound silence: when

-the phenomenon was over the entire population gave

-a shout, which sounded like a clap of thunder, and

-a few moments later the city was white again.</p>

-

-<p>I descended from the tower and went to see the

-cathedral, a vast marble edifice of the sixteenth century,

-not to be compared to the cathedrals of Burgos

-and Toledo, but nevertheless dignified and bold in

-architecture and enriched by every sort of treasure,

-like all the other Spanish churches. I went to see

-the convent where Murillo was painting a picture

-over a high altar when he fell from the scaffold and

-received the wound which caused his death. I

-passed through the picture-gallery, which contains

-some fine paintings of Zurbaran; entered the bull-ring,

-built entirely of wood, which was created in a

-few days to provide a spectacle for Queen Isabella.

-Toward evening I took a turn in the delightful<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">164</span>

-promenade along the sea-shore, in the midst of

-orange trees and palms, where the most beautiful

-and elegant ladies of the city were pointed out to

-me, one by one. Whatever may be the judgment

-of the Spaniards, to me the feminine type of Cadiz

-did not seem at all inferior to the celebrated type

-of Seville. The women are a little taller, a little

-heavier, and are somewhat darker. Some observer

-has ventured to say that they closely resemble the

-Grecian type, but I do not know in what respect.

-I saw no difference from the Andalusian type except

-in stature, and that was enough to make me heave

-sighs which might have propelled a ship, and constrained

-me to return as soon as possible to the vessel

-as a place of refuge and peace.</p>

-

-<p>When I arrived on board it was night; the sky

-was all twinkling with stars, and the breeze bore

-faintly to my ears the music of a band playing on

-the promenade of Cadiz. The singers were asleep;

-I was alone, and the sight of the city lights and the

-recollection of the lovely faces filled me with melancholy.

-I did not know what to do with myself, so I

-went down to the cabin, took out my note-book, and

-commenced the description of Cadiz. But I only

-succeeded in writing ten times the words, "White,

-blue, snow, brightness, colors," after which I made a

-little sketch of a woman and then closed my eyes

-and dreamed of Italy.</p>

-

-<hr class="chap" />

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">165</span></p>

-

-

-

-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a><br /><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p>

-</div><div class="chapter">

-<h2><a name="MALAGA" id="MALAGA"></a>MALAGA.</h2>

-

-

-<p>The next day, at sunset, the vessel was passing

-through the Straits of Gibraltar.</p>

-

-<p>Now, as I look at that point on the map, it seems

-so near home that when I am in the humor and my

-domestic finances permit I ought not to hesitate a

-moment to pack my valise and run down to Genoa

-on my way to enjoy a second time the most beautiful

-sight of two continents. But then it seemed to

-be so far away that when I had written a letter to

-my mother on the rail of the ship, intending to give

-it to one of the passengers for Gibraltar to post, as I

-was writing the address I laughed at my confidence,

-as if it were impossible for a letter to travel all the

-way to Turin. "From here!" I thought&mdash;"from

-the Pillars of Hercules!" and I pronounced the Pillars

-of Hercules as if I had said the Cape of Good

-Hope or Japan.</p>

-

-<p>"... I am on the ship Guadaira: behind me is

-the ocean, and in front the Mediterranean, on the

-left Europe and on the right Africa. On this side

-I see the cape of Tarifa, and on that the mountains

-of the African coast, which look indistinct like a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">168</span>

-gray cloud; I see Ceuta, and a little beyond it

-Tangiers like a white spot, and in a direct line with

-the ship rises the Rock of Gibraltar. The sea is as

-placid as a lake, and the sky is red and gold; all is

-serene, beautiful, and magnificent, and I feel in my

-mind an inexpressible and delightful stirring of

-great thoughts, which, if I could put them into

-words, would become a joyful prayer beginning and

-ending with thy name...."</p>

-

-<p>The vessel stopped in the Gulf of Algeciras: the

-entire company of singers got into a large boat

-from Gibraltar, and went off, waving fans and handkerchiefs

-as a parting salute. It was growing dark

-when the boat started again. Then I was able to

-measure the enormous mass of the Rock of Gibraltar

-at every turn. At first I thought we should leave

-it behind in a few moments, but the moments became

-hours. Gradually, as we approached, it towered

-above us, and presented a new appearance every instant&mdash;now

-the silhouette of some measureless monster,

-now the image of an immense staircase, now

-the outline of a fantastic castle, now a shapeless

-mass like a monstrous aërolite fallen from a world

-shivered in a battle of the spheres. Then, on nearer

-view, behind a high rock like an Egyptian pyramid,

-there came into sight a great projection as large as

-a mountain, with fissures and broken boulders and

-vast curves which lost themselves in the plain. It

-was night; the rock stood outlined against the moon<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">169</span>lit

-sky as clear and sharp as a sheet of black paper

-on a pane of glass. One saw the lighted windows

-of the English barracks, the sentry-boxes on the

-summit of the dizzy crags, and a dim outline of

-trees which seemed little larger than a tuft of grass

-among the nearest rocks. For a long time the boat

-seemed motionless or else the rock was receding, so

-close and threatening did it always appear; then,

-little by little, it began to diminish, but our eyes

-were weary of gazing before the rock grew weary

-of threatening us with its fantastic transformations.

-At midnight I gave a final salute to that formidable,

-lifeless sentinel of Europe, and went to wrap myself

-up in my little corner.</p>

-

-<p>At break of day I awoke a few miles from the

-port of Malaga.</p>

-

-<p>The city of Malaga, seen from the port, presents

-a pleasing appearance not wholly without grandeur.

-On the right is a high rocky mountain, upon the top

-of which and down one side, even to the plain, are

-the enormous blackened ruins of the castle of Gibralfaro,

-and on the lower slopes stands the cathedral

-towering majestically above all the surrounding

-buildings, lifting toward heaven, as an inspired poet

-might say, two beautiful towers and a very high

-belfry. Between the castle and the church and on

-the face and sides of the mountain there is a mass&mdash;a

-<i>canaille</i>, as Victor Hugo would say&mdash;of smoky

-little houses, placed confusedly one above the other,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">170</span>

-as if they had been thrown down from above like

-stones. To the left of the cathedral, along the shore,

-is a row of houses, gray, violet, or pale yellow in

-color, with white window-and door-frames, that

-suggest the villages along the Ligurian Riviera.

-Beyond rises a circle of green and reddish hills enclosing

-the city like the walls of an amphitheatre,

-and to the right and left along the sea-shore extend

-other mountains, hills, and rocks as far as the eye

-can see. The port was almost deserted, the shore

-silent, and the sky very blue.</p>

-

-<p>Before landing I took my leave of the captain,

-who was going on to Marseilles, said good-bye to

-the boatswain and passengers, telling them all that I

-should arrive at Valencia a day ahead of the boat,

-and I should certainly join them again and go on to

-Barcelona and Marseilles, and the captain replied,

-"We shall look for you," and the steward promised

-that my place should be saved for me. How often

-since then have I remembered the last words of those

-poor people!</p>

-

-<div class="figcenter">

-<div class="caption"><i><a id="Malaga_p"></a>Malaga</i></div>

-<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b170cs.jpg" alt="" /></div>

-</div>

-

-<p>I stopped at Malaga with the intention of leaving

-that same evening for Granada. The city itself

-offers nothing worthy of note, excepting the new

-part, which occupies a tract of land formerly

-covered by the sea. This is built up in the modern

-style, with wide, straight streets and large, bare

-houses. The rest of the city is a labyrinth of narrow,

-winding streets and a mass of houses without<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">171</span>

-color, without <i>patios</i>, and without grace. There are

-some spacious squares with gardens and fountains;

-columns and arches of Moorish buildings, no modern

-monuments; a great deal of dirt, and not a great

-many people. The environs are very beautiful, and

-the climate is milder than that of Seville.</p>

-

-<p>I had a friend at Malaga, and after finding him

-we passed the day together. He told me a curious

-fact: At Malaga there is a literary academy of more

-than eight hundred members, where they celebrate

-the birthdays of all the great writers, and hold twice

-a week a public lecture on some subject connected

-with literature or science. That same evening they

-were to celebrate a solemn function. Some months

-earlier the academy had offered a prize of three

-golden flowers, enamelled in different colors, to the

-three poets who should compose the best ode on

-"Progress," the best ballad on the "Recovery of

-Malaga," and the best satire on one of the most prevalent

-vices of modern society. The invitation had

-been extended to all the poets of Spain; poems had

-poured in in abundance; a board of judges had secretly

-considered them; and that very evening the choice

-was to be announced. The ceremony was to be

-conducted with great pomp. The bishop, the governor,

-the admiral, the most conspicuous personages

-of the city, with dress-coats, orders, and shoulder-scarfs,

-and a great number of ladies in evening dress,

-were to be present. The three most beautiful Muses<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">172</span>

-of the city were to present themselves on a sort of

-stage adorned with garlands and flags, each of whom

-was to open the roll containing the prize poem and

-to proclaim three times the name of its author: if

-the author were present, he was to be invited to read

-his verses and receive his flower; if he were not

-present, his verses were to be read for him.

-Throughout the whole city they talked of nothing

-but the academy, guessed the names of the victors,

-predicted the wonders of the three poems, and extolled

-the decorations of the hall. This festival of

-poetry, called the <i>juegos floreales</i>, had not been celebrated

-for ten years. Others may judge whether

-such contests and displays benefit or injure poets

-and poetry. As for me, whatever may be the

-dubious and fleeting literary glory which is bestowed

-by the sentence of the jury and the homage of a

-bishop and a governor, I believe that to receive

-the gift of a golden flower from the hand of a most

-beautiful woman under the eyes of five hundred fair

-Andalusians, to the sound of soft music and amid

-the perfume of jessamine and roses, that would be

-a delight even truer and more lively than any which

-comes from real and enduring glory. No? Ah! we

-are sincere.</p>

-

-<p>One of my first thoughts was to taste a little of

-the genuine Malaga wine, for no other reason than

-to repay myself for the many headaches and stomachaches

-caused by the miserable concoctions sold in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">173</span>

-many Italian cities under the false recommendation

-of its name. But either I did not know how to ask

-or they did not wish to understand: the fact remains

-that the wine they gave me at the hotel burned my

-throat and made my head spin. I was not able to

-walk straight even to the cathedral, or from the

-cathedral to the castle of Gibralfaro, or to the other

-places, nor could I form an idea of the beauties of

-Malaga without seeing them double and unsteadily,

-as some spiteful person might suppose.</p>

-

-<p>On our walk my friend talked to me about the

-famous Republican people of Malaga, who are every

-moment doing something on their own account.

-They are a very fiery people, but fickle and yet

-tractable, like all people who feel much and think

-little; and they act upon the impulse of passion

-rather than the strength of conviction. The least

-trifle calls together an immense crowd and stirs up a

-tumult that turns the city topsy-turvy; but on most

-occasions a resolute act of a man in authority, an

-exhibition of courage, or a burst of eloquence is

-sufficient to quiet the tumult and disperse the crowd.

-The nature of the people is good on the whole, but

-superstition and passion have perverted them. And,

-above all, superstition is perhaps more firmly entrenched

-in Malaga than in any other city of Andalusia,

-by reason of the greater popular ignorance.

-Altogether, Malaga was the least Andalusian of the

-cities I had seen: even the very language has been<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">174</span>

-corrupted, and they speak worse Spanish than at

-Cadiz, where, forsooth! they speak badly enough.</p>

-

-<p>I was still at Malaga, but my imagination was far

-away among the streets of Granada and in the gardens

-of the Alhambra and the Generalife. Shortly

-after the noon hour I took my leave from the only

-city in Spain, to tell the truth, that I left without a

-sigh of regret. When the train started, instead of

-turning for a last look, as I had done in all of its

-sister towns, I murmured the verses sung by Giovanni

-Prati at Granada when the duke d'Aosta was leaving

-for Spain:</p>

-

-<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">

-  <div class="verse">"Non più Granata è sola</div>

-  <div class="verse indent2">Sulle sur mute pietre;</div>

-  <div class="verse">L'inno in Alhambra vola</div>

-  <div class="verse indent2">Sulle Moresche cetre."</div>

-</div></div></div>

-

-<p>(<i>No more does Granada stand alone on her silent

-stones: the hymn flies to the Alhambra on Moorish

-lyres.</i>)</p>

-

-<hr class="tb" />

-

-<p>And now, as I write them again, it seems to me

-that the music of the band of the National Guard of

-Turin inspires peace and gladness more even surely

-than Moorish lyres, and that the pavement of the

-porticoes of the Po, although it be ever so silent, is

-better laid and smoother than the stones of Granada.</p>

-

-<hr class="chap" />

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">175</span></p>

-

-

-

-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a><br /><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p>

-</div><div class="chapter">

-<h2><a name="GRANADA" id="GRANADA"></a>GRANADA.</h2>

-

-

-<p>The journey from Malaga to Granada was the

-most adventurous and unfortunate that I made in

-Spain.</p>

-

-<p>In order that my compassionate readers may pity

-me as much as I desire, they must know (I am

-ashamed to occupy people with these little details)

-that at Malaga I had eaten only the lightest sort of

-an Andalusian repast, of which at the moment of

-departure I retained a very vague recollection.

-But I started, feeling sure that I could alight at

-some railway-station where there would be one of

-those rooms or public choking-places where one

-enters at a gallop, eats until one is out of breath,

-pays as one scampers out to rush into a crowded

-carriage, suffocated and robbed, to curse the schedule,

-travel, and the minister of public works who

-deceives the country. I departed, and for the first

-hours it was delightful. The country was all gently

-sloping hills and green fields, dotted with villages

-crowned with palms and cypresses, and in the carriage,

-between two old men who rode with their eyes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">178</span>

-shut, there was a little Andalusian who kept looking

-around with a roguish smile which seemed to say,

-"Go on; your lovelorn glances do not offend me."

-But the train crept along as slowly as a worn-out

-diligence, and we stopped only a few moments at

-the stations. By sunset my stomach began to cry

-for help, and, to render the pangs of hunger even

-more severe, I was obliged to make a good part of

-the journey on foot. The train stopped at an unsafe

-bridge, and all the passengers got out and filed

-around, two by two, to meet the train on the other

-side of the river. We were surrounded by the

-rocks of the Sierra Nevada, in a wild, desert place,

-which made it seem as if we were a company of

-hostages led by a band of brigands. When we had

-clambered into the carriage the train crawled along

-no faster than before, and my stomach began to

-complain more desperately than at first. After a

-long time we arrived at a station all crowded with

-trains, where a large part of the travellers hurried

-out before I could reach the step.</p>

-

-<p>"Where are you going?" asked a railroad official,

-who had seen me alight.</p>

-

-<p>"To dine," I replied.</p>

-

-<p>"But aren't you going to Granada?"</p>

-

-<p>"Yes."</p>

-

-<p>"Then you won't have time; the train starts

-immediately."</p>

-

-<p>"But the others have gone."</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">179</span></p>

-

-<p>"You will see them come back on the run in a

-minute."</p>

-

-<p>The freight-trains in front prevented me from

-seeing the station; I thought it was a great way

-off, and so stayed where I was. Two minutes

-passed, five, eight; the tourists did not return and

-the train did not start. I jumped out, ran to the

-station, saw a café, and entered a large room.

-Great heavens! Fifty starving people were standing

-around a refreshment-table with their noses in

-their plates, elbows in the air, and their eyes on the

-clock, devouring and shouting; another fifty were

-crowding around a counter seizing and pocketing

-bread, fruit, and candies, while the proprietor and

-the waiters, panting like horses and streaming with

-sweat, ran about, tucked up their sleeves, howled,

-tumbled over the seats and upset the customers,

-and scattered here and there streams of soup and

-drops of sauce; and one poor woman, who must

-have been the mistress of the café, imprisoned in a

-little niche behind the besieged counter, ran her

-hands through her hair in desperation. At this

-sight my arms hung down helplessly. But suddenly

-I roused myself and made an onslaught. Driven

-back by a feminine elbow in my chest, I rushed in

-again; repulsed by a jab in the stomach, I gathered

-all my strength to make a third attack. At this

-point the bell rang. There was a burst of imprecations

-and then a falling of seats, a scattering of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">180</span>

-plates, a hurry-scurry, and a perfect pandemonium.

-One man, choking in the fury of his last mouthfuls,

-became livid and his eyes seemed bursting from

-his head as though he were being hanged; another

-in stretching out his hand to seize an orange, struck

-by some one rushing past, plunged it into a bowl

-of cream; another was running through the room in

-search of his valise with a great smear of sauce on

-his cheeks; another, who had tried to drink his

-wine at one gulp, had strangled and coughed as if

-he would tear open his stomach; the officials at the

-door cried, "Hurry!" and the travellers called back

-from the room, "Ahogate!" (choked), and the

-waiters ran after those who had not paid, and those

-who wanted to pay could not find the waiters; and

-the ladies swooned, and the children cried, and

-everything was upside down.</p>

-

-<p>By good fortune I was able to get into my carriage

-before the train started.</p>

-

-<p>But there a new punishment awaited me. The

-two old men and the little Andalusian, who must

-have been the daughter of the one and niece of the

-other, had been successful in securing a little booty

-in the midst of that accursed crowd at the counter,

-and they were eating right and left. I began to

-watch them with sorrowful eyes like a dog beside

-his master's table, counting the mouthfuls and the

-number of times they chewed. The little Andalusian

-noticed it, and, pointing to something which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">181</span>

-looked like a croquet, made a gracious bow as if to

-ask if I would take it.</p>

-

-<p>"Oh no, thank you," I replied with the smile of

-a dying man; "I have eaten."</p>

-

-<p>My angel, I continued to myself, if you only knew

-that at this moment I would prefer those two croquets

-to the bitter apples&mdash;as Sir Niccolo Machiavelli

-would generously say&mdash;even those bitter apples

-from the famous garden of the Hesperides!</p>

-

-<p>"Try a drop of liquor at least," said the old

-uncle.</p>

-

-<p>I do not know what childish pique against myself

-or against those good people took possession of me,

-but it was a feeling which other men experience on

-similar occasions; however, I replied this time too,

-"No, thank you; it would be bad for me."</p>

-

-<p>The good old man looked me over from head to

-foot as if to say that I did not appear like a man to

-be the worse for a drop of liquor, and the Andalusian

-smiled, and I blushed for shame.</p>

-

-<p>Night settled down, and the train went on at the

-pace of Sancho Panza's steed for I knew not how

-many hours. That night I felt for the first time in

-my life the pangs of hunger, which I thought I had

-felt already on the famous day of the twenty-fourth

-of June, 1866. To relieve these torments I obstinately

-thought of all the dishes which filled me with

-repugnance&mdash;raw tomatoes, snails in soup, roasted

-crabs, and snails in salad. Alas! a voice of derision<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">182</span>

-told me, deep down in my vitals, that if I had any

-of them I should eat them and lick my fingers.

-Then I began to make imaginary messes of different

-dishes, as cream and fish, with a dash of wine, with

-a coat of pepper, and a layer of juniper preserves,

-to see if I could thus hold my stomach in check.

-Oh misery! my cowardly stomach did not repel

-even those. Then I made a final effort and imagined

-that I was at table in a Parisian hotel at the time of

-the siege, and that I gently lifted a mouse by the

-tail out of some pungent sauce, and the mouse, unexpectedly

-regaining life, bit my thumb and transfixed

-me with two wicked little eyes, and I, with

-raised fork, hesitated whether to let it go or to spit

-it without pity. But, thank Heaven! before I had

-settled this horrible question, to perform such an act

-as has never been recorded in the history of any

-siege, the train stopped and a ray of hope revived

-my drooping spirits.</p>

-

-<p>We had reached some nameless village, and while

-I was putting my head out of the window a voice

-cried, "All out for Granada!" I rushed headlong

-from the carriage and found myself face to face with

-a huge bearded fellow, who took my valise, telling

-me that he was going to put it in the diligence, for

-from that village to I know not how many miles

-from <i>imperial Granada</i> there is no railway.</p>

-

-<p>"One moment!" I cried to the unknown man in

-a supplicating voice: "how long before you start?"</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">183</span></p>

-

-<p>"Two minutes," he replied.</p>

-

-<p>"Is there an inn here?"</p>

-

-<p>"There it is." I flew to the inn, bolted a hard-boiled

-egg, and rushed back to the diligence, crying,

-"How much time now?"</p>

-

-<p>"Two minutes more," answered the same voice.</p>

-

-<p>I flew back to the hotel, seized another egg, and

-ran again to the diligence with the question, "Are

-you off?"</p>

-

-<p>"In a minute."</p>

-

-<p>Back again to the inn, and a third egg, and then

-to the diligence: "Are we going?"</p>

-

-<p>"In half a minute."</p>

-

-<p>This time I heaved a mighty sigh, ran to the inn,

-swallowed a fourth egg and a glass of wine, and

-rushed toward the diligence. But before I had

-taken ten steps my breath gave out, and I stopped

-with the egg halfway down my throat. At this

-point the whip cracked.&mdash;"Wait!" I cried in a

-hoarse voice, waving my hands like a drowning

-man.</p>

-

-<p>"<i>Que hay?</i>" (What's the matter?) demanded the

-driver.</p>

-

-<p>I could not reply.</p>

-

-<p>"He has an egg stuck in his throat," some

-stranger answered for me.</p>

-

-<p>All the travellers burst into a laugh, the egg went

-down; I laughed too, overtook the diligence, which

-had already started, and, regaining my breath, gave<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">184</span>

-my companions an account of my troubles, and they

-were much interested, and pitied me even more than

-I had dared to hope after that cruel laugh at my

-suffocation.</p>

-

-<p>But my troubles were not ended. One of those

-irresistible attacks of sleepiness which used to come

-upon me treacherously in the long night-marches

-among the soldiers seized me all at once, and tormented

-me as far as the railway-station without my

-being able to get a moment of sleep. I believe that

-a cannon-ball suspended by a cord from the roof of

-the diligence would have given less annoyance to

-my unfortunate companions than my poor nodding

-head gave as it bobbed on all sides as if it was attached

-to my neck by a single tendon. On one side

-of me sat a nun, on the other a boy, and opposite a

-peasant-woman, and throughout the entire journey I

-did nothing but strike my head against these three

-victims with the monotonous motion of a bell-clapper.

-The nun, poor creature! endured the strokes

-in silence, perhaps in expiation for her sins of

-thought; but the boy and peasant-woman muttered

-from time to time, "He is a barbarian!"&mdash;"This

-must stop!"&mdash;"His head is like lead!" Finally, a

-witticism from one of the passengers released all four

-of us from this suffering. The peasant-woman was

-lamenting a little louder than usual, and a voice from

-the end of the diligence exclaimed, "Be consoled; if

-your head is not yet broken, you may be sure it will<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">185</span>

-not be, for it must certainly be proof against the

-hammer." They all laughed; I awakened, excused

-myself, and the three victims were so happy to

-find themselves released from that cruel thumping

-that, instead of taking revenge with bitter words,

-they said, "Poor fellow! you have slept badly.

-How you must have hurt your head!"</p>

-

-<p>We finally arrived at the railway, and behold

-what a perverse fate! Although I was alone in the

-railway-carriage, where I might have slept like a

-nabob, I could not close my eyes. A pang went

-through my heart at the thought of having made

-the journey by night when I could not see anything

-nor enjoy the distant view of Granada. And I

-remembered the lovely verses of Martinez de la

-Rosa:</p>

-

-<p>"O my dear fatherland! At last I see thee

-again! I see thy fair soil, thy joyful teeming fields,

-thy glorious sun, thy serene sky!</p>

-

-<p>"Yes! I see the fabled Granada stretching along

-the plain from hill to hill, her towers rising among

-her gardens of eternal green, the crystal streams

-kissing her walls, the noble mountains enclosing her

-valleys, and the Sierra Nevada crowning the distant

-horizon.</p>

-

-<p>"Oh, thy memory haunted me wherever I went,

-Granada! It destroyed my pleasures, my peace,

-and my glory, and oppressed my heart and soul!

-By the icy banks of the Seine and the Thames<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">186</span>

-I remembered with a sigh the happy waters of

-the Darro and the Genil, and many times, as I carolled

-a gay ballad, my bitter grief overcame me,

-and weeping, not to be repressed, choked my

-voice.</p>

-

-<p>"In vain the delightful Arno displayed her

-flower-strewn banks, sweet seats of love and peace!

-'The plain watered by the gentle Genil,' said I, 'is

-more flowery, the life of the lovely Granada is more

-dear.' And I murmured these words as one disconsolate,

-and, remembering the house of my fathers,

-I raised my sad eyes to heaven.</p>

-

-<p>"What is thy magic, what thy unspeakable spell,

-O fatherland! O sweet name! that thou art so dear?

-The swarthy African, far from his native desert,

-looks with sad disdain on fields of green; the rude

-Laplander, stolen from his mother-earth, sighs for

-perpetual night and snow; and I&mdash;I, to whom a

-kindly fate granted birth and nurture in thy bosom

-blest by so many gifts of God&mdash;though far from thee,

-could I forget thee, Granada?"</p>

-

-<p>When I reached Granada it was quite dark, and

-I could not see so much as the outlines of a house.

-A diligence drawn by two horses,</p>

-

-<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">

-  <div class="verse">"... anzi due cavallette</div>

-  <div class="verse indent4">Di quella de Mosé lá dell' Egitto,"</div>

-</div></div></div>

-

-<p>landed me at a hotel, where I was kept waiting an

-hour while my bed was being made, and finally, just<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">187</span>

-before three o'clock in the morning, I was at last

-able to lay my head on the pillow. But my troubles

-were not over: just as I was falling into a doze I

-heard an indistinct murmur in the next room, and

-then a masculine voice which said distinctly, "Oh,

-what a little foot!" You who have bowels of compassion,

-pity me. The pillow was torn a little; I

-pulled out two tufts of wool, stuffed them in my

-ears; and, rehearsing in thought the misfortunes

-of my journey, I slept the sleep of the just.</p>

-

-<p>In the morning I went out betimes and walked

-about through the streets of Granada until it was a

-decent hour to go and drag from his home a young

-gentleman of Granada whom I had met at Madrid

-at the house of Fernandez Guerra, Gongora by

-name, the son of a distinguished archeologist and a

-descendant of the famous Cordovan poet Luigi Gongora,

-of whom I spoke in passing. That part of

-the city which I saw in those few hours did not fulfil

-my expectation. I had expected to find narrow

-mysterious streets and white cottages like those of

-Cordova and Seville, but I found instead spacious

-squares and some handsome straight streets, and

-others tortuous and narrow enough, it is true, but

-flanked by high houses, for the most part painted in

-false bas-reliefs with cupids and garlands and flourishes

-and draperies, and hangings of a thousand

-colors, without the Oriental appearance of the other

-Andalusian cities.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">188</span></p>

-

-<p>The lowest part of Granada is almost all laid out

-with the regularity of a modern city. As I passed

-along those streets I was filled with contempt, and

-should certainly have carried a gloomy face to

-Señor Gongora if by chance as I walked at random

-I had not come out into the famous <i>Alameda</i>, which

-enjoys the reputation of being the most beautiful

-promenade in the world, and it repaid me a thousand

-times for the detestable regularity of the

-streets which lead to it.</p>

-

-<p>Imagine a long avenue of unusual width, along

-which fifty carriages might pass abreast, flanked by

-other smaller avenues, along which run rows of

-measureless trees, which at a noble height form an

-immense green arch, so dense that not a sunbeam

-can penetrate it, and at the two ends of the central

-avenue two monumental fountains throwing up the

-water in two great streams which fall again in the

-finest vaporous spray, and between the many

-avenues crystal streams, and in the middle a garden

-all roses and myrtle and jessamine and delicate

-fountains; and on one side the river Genil,

-which flows between banks covered with laurel-groves,

-and in the distance the snowclad mountains,

-upon whose sides distant palms raise their fantastic

-fronds; and everywhere a brilliant green, dense

-and luxuriant, through which one sees here and

-there an enchanting strip of azure sky.</p>

-

-<p>As I turned off of the Alameda I met a great<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">189</span>

-number of peasants going out of the city, two by

-two and in groups, with their wives and children,

-singing and jesting. Their dress did not seem to

-me different from that of the peasants in the neighborhood

-of Cordova and Seville. They wore velvet

-hats, some with very broad brims, others with high

-brims curved back; a little jacket made with bands

-of many-colored cloth; a scarf of red or blue;

-closely-fitting trousers buttoned along the hip;

-and a pair of leathern gaiters open at the side,

-so as to show the leg. The women were dressed

-like those in the other provinces, and even in their

-faces there was no noticeable difference.</p>

-

-<p>I reached my friend's house and found him buried

-in his archæological studies, sitting in front of a heap

-of old medals and historic stones. He received me

-with delight, with a charming Andalusian courtesy,

-and, after exchanging the first greetings, we both

-pronounced with one voice that magic word that in

-every part of the world stirs a tumult of great recollections

-in every heart and arouses a sense of secret

-longing; that gives a final spur toward Spain to one

-who has the desire to travel thither and has not yet

-finally resolved to start; that name at which hearts

-of poets and painters beat faster and the eyes of

-women flash&mdash;"The Alhambra!"</p>

-

-<p>We rushed out of the house.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">190</span></p>

-

-<hr class="tb" />

-

-<p>The Alhambra is situated upon a high hill which

-overlooks the city, and from a distance presents the

-appearance of a fortress, like almost all Oriental

-palaces. But when, with Gongora, I climbed the

-street of <i>Los Gomeles</i> on our way toward the famous

-edifice, I had not yet seen the least trace of a distant

-wall, and I did not know in what part of the city we

-should find it. The street of <i>Los Gomeles</i> slopes upward

-and describes a slight curve, so that for a good

-way one sees only houses ahead, and supposes the

-Alhambra to be far away. Gongora did not speak,

-but I read in his face that in his heart he was greatly

-enjoying the thought of the surprise and delight that

-I should experience. He looked at the ground with

-a smile, answering all my questions with a sign

-which seemed to say, "Wait a minute!" and now

-and then raised his eyes almost furtively to measure

-the remaining distance. And I so enjoyed his pleasure

-that I could have thrown my arms around his

-neck in gratitude.</p>

-

-<p>We arrived before a great gate that closed the

-street. "Here we are!" said Gongora. I entered.</p>

-

-<p>I found myself in a great grove of enormously

-high trees, leaning one toward another, on this side

-and on that, along a great avenue which climbs the

-hill and is lost in the shade: so close are the trees

-that a man could scarcely pass among them, and

-wherever one looks one sees only their trunks,

-which close the way like a continuous wall. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">191</span>

-branches meet above the avenues; not a sunbeam

-penetrates the wood; the shade is very dense;

-on every side glide murmuring streams, and the

-birds sing, and one feels a vernal freshness in the

-air.</p>

-

-<p>"We are now in the Alhambra," said Gongora:

-"turn around, and you will see the towers and the

-embattled barrier-wall."</p>

-

-<p>"But where is the palace?" I demanded.</p>

-

-<p>"That is a mystery," he answered; "let us go

-forward at random."</p>

-

-<p>We climbed an avenue running along beside the

-great central avenue that winds up toward the summit.

-The trees form overhead a green pavilion

-through which not a particle of sky is visible, and

-the grass, the shrubbery, and the flowers make on

-either side a lovely border, bright and fragrant,

-sloping slightly toward each other, as if they are

-trying to unite, mutually attracted by the beauty of

-their colors and the fragrance of their perfume.</p>

-

-<p>"Let us rest a moment," I said: "I want to take

-a great breath of this air; it seems to contain some

-secret germs that if infused into the blood must

-prolong one's life; it is air redolent of youth and

-health."</p>

-

-<p>"Behold the door!" exclaimed Gongora.</p>

-

-<p>I turned as if I had been struck in the back, and

-saw a few steps ahead a great square tower, of a

-deep-red color, crowned with battlements, with an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">192</span>

-arched door, above which one sees a key and a

-hand cut in the stone.</p>

-

-<p>I questioned my guide, and he told me that this

-was the principal entrance of the Alhambra, and that

-it was called the Gate of Justice, because the Moorish

-kings used to pronounce sentence beneath that arch.

-The key signifies that this door is the key to the

-fortress, and the hand symbolizes the five cardinal

-virtues of Islam&mdash;Prayer, Fasting, Beneficence, Holy

-War, and the Pilgrimage to Mecca. The Arabian

-inscription attests that the edifice was erected four

-centuries ago by the Sultan Abul Hagag Yusuf, and

-another inscription, which one sees everywhere on

-the columns, says, "There is no God but Allah, and

-Mohammed is his Prophet! and there is no power,

-no strength, apart from Allah!"</p>

-

-<p>We passed under the arch and continued the

-ascent along an enclosed street until we found ourselves

-at the top of the hill, in the middle of an

-esplanade surrounded by a parapet and dotted with

-shrubs and flowers. I turned at once toward the

-valley to enjoy the view, but Gongora seized me

-by the arm and made me look in the opposite direction.

-I was standing in front of the great palace of

-the Renaissance, partly in ruins and flanked by some

-wretched little houses.</p>

-

-<p>"Is this a joke?" I demanded. "Have you

-brought me here to see a Moorish castle, for me to

-find the way closed by a modern palace? Whose<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">193</span>

-abominable idea was it to run up this building in the

-gardens of the caliphs?"</p>

-

-<p>"Charles V.'s."</p>

-

-<p>"He was a vandal. I have not yet forgiven him

-for the Gothic church he planted in the middle of

-the mosque of Cordova, and now these barracks

-fill me with utter loathing of his crown and his

-glory. But, in the name of Heaven, where is the

-Alhambra?"</p>

-

-<p>"There it is."</p>

-

-<p>"Where?"</p>

-

-<p>"Among those huts."</p>

-

-<p>"Oh, fudge!"</p>

-

-<p>"I pledge you my word of honor."</p>

-

-<p>I folded my arms and looked at him, and he

-laughed."</p>

-

-<p>"Well, then," I exclaimed, "this great name of

-the Alhambra is only another of those usual false

-exaggerations of the poets. I, Europe, and the world

-have been shamefully deceived. Was it worth while

-to dream of the Alhambra for three hundred and

-sixty-five nights in succession, and then to come to

-see a group of ruins with some broken columns and

-smoky inscriptions?"</p>

-

-<p>"How I enjoy this!" answered Gongora with a

-peal of laughter. "Cheer up now; come and be

-persuaded that the world has not been deceived:

-let us enter this rubbish-pile."</p>

-

-<p>We entered by a little door, crossed a corridor,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">194</span>

-and found ourselves in a court. With a sudden cry

-I seized Gongora's hand, and he asked with a tone

-of triumph,</p>

-

-<p>"Are you persuaded?"</p>

-

-<p>I did not answer, I did not see him: I was already

-far away; the Alhambra had already begun to exercise

-upon me that mysterious and powerful fascination

-which no one can avoid nor any one express.</p>

-

-<p>We were in the <i>Patio de los Arrayanes</i>, the Court

-of the Myrtles, which is the largest in the edifice,

-and presents at once the appearance of a room, a

-courtyard, and a garden. A great rectangular basin

-full of water, surrounded by a myrtle hedge, extends

-from one side of the <i>patio</i> to the other, and like a

-mirror reflects the arches, arabesques, and the mural

-inscriptions.</p>

-

-<p>To the right of the entrance there extend two

-orders of Moorish arches, one above the other, supported

-by slender columns, and on the opposite side

-of the court rises a tower with a door through which

-one sees the inner rooms in semi-darkness and the

-mullioned windows, and through the windows the

-blue sky and the summits of the distant mountains.

-The walls are ornamented to a certain height from

-the pavement with brilliant mosaics, and above the

-mosaics with arabesques of very intricate design

-that seem to tremble and change at every step, and

-here and there among the arabesques and along the

-arches they stretch and creep and intertwine, like

-garlands, Moorish inscriptions containing greetings,

-proverbs, and legends.</p>

-

-<div class="figcenter">

-<div class="caption"><i><a id="Court_of_Myrtles"></a>Court of Myrtles, Alhambra</i></div>

-<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b194cs.jpg" alt="" /></div>

-</div>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">195</span></p>

-

-<p>Beside the door of entrance is written in Cufic characters:

-Eternal Happiness!&mdash;Blessing!&mdash;Prosperity!&mdash;Felicity!&mdash;Praised

-be God for the blessing

-of Islam!</p>

-

-<p>In another place it is written: I seek my refuge

-in the Lord of the Morning.</p>

-

-<p>In another place: O God! to thee belong eternal

-thanksgiving and undying praise.</p>

-

-<p>Elsewhere there are verses from the Koran and

-entire poems in praise of the caliphs.</p>

-

-<p>We stood some minutes in silent admiration; not

-the buzz of a fly was heard; now and then Gongora

-started toward the tower, but I clutched him by the

-arm and felt that he was trembling with impatience.</p>

-

-<p>"But we must make haste," said he, finally,

-"or else we shall not get back to Granada before

-evening."</p>

-

-<p>"What do I know of Granada?" I answered;

-"what do I know of morning or evening or of

-myself? I am in the Orient!"</p>

-

-<p>"But this is only the antechamber of the Alhambra,

-my dear Arabian," said Gongora, urging me

-forward. "Come, come with me where it will

-really seem like being in the Orient."</p>

-

-<p>And he led me, reluctant though I was, to the

-very threshold of the tower-door. There I turned

-to look once more at the Court of Myrtles and gave<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">196</span>

-a cry of surprise. Between two slender columns

-of the arched gallery which faces the tower, on the

-opposite side of the courtyard, stood a girl, a beautiful

-dark Andalusian face, with a white mantle

-wound around her head and falling over her shoulder:

-she stood leaning upon the railing in a languid

-attitude, with her eyes fixed upon us. I cannot

-tell the fantastic effect produced by that figure

-at that moment&mdash;the grace imparted by the arch

-which curved above the girl's head and the two

-columns which formed a frame around her, and the

-beautiful harmony which she gave to the whole

-court, as if she were an ornament necessary to its

-architecture conceived in the mind of the architect

-at the moment he imagined the whole design. She

-seemed like a sultana awaiting her lord, thinking

-of another sky and another love. She continued

-looking at us, and my heart began to beat faster.

-I questioned my friend with my eyes, as if to be

-assured that I was not deceived. Suddenly the

-sultana laughed, dropped her white mantle, and

-disappeared.</p>

-

-<p>"She is a servant," said Gongora.</p>

-

-<p>Still I remained in the mist.</p>

-

-<p>She was, in fact, a servant of the custodian of

-the Alhambra who was in the habit of practising

-that joke upon strangers.</p>

-

-<p>We entered the tower called the Tower of Comares,

-or, vulgarly, the Tower of the Ambassadors.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">197</span>

-The interior forms two halls, the first of which is

-called the Hall of the Barca, and takes its name

-either from the fact that it is shaped like a boat or

-because it was called by the Moors the Hall of

-<i>Baraka</i>, or Blessing, a word which might have been

-contracted by the people into <i>barca</i> (a boat.) This

-hall hardly seems the work of human hands: it is

-all a vast network of tracery in the form of garlands,

-rosettes, boughs of trees, and leaves, covering

-the vaulted ceiling, the arches, and the walls in

-every part and in every way&mdash;closely twining,

-checkered, climbing higher and higher, and yet

-marvellously distinct and combined in such a manner

-that the parts are presented to the eye altogether

-at a single glance, affording a spectacle of

-dazzling magnificence and enchanting grace. I

-approached one of the walls, fixed my eyes upon

-the extreme point of an arabesque, and tried to

-follow its windings and turnings: it was impossible;

-my eye was lost, my mind confused, and all the

-arabesques from pavement to ceiling seemed to be

-moving and blending, as if to conceal the thread of

-their inextricable network. You may make an

-effort not to look around, to centre your whole

-attention upon a single spot of the wall, to scan

-it closely and follow the thread with your finger:

-it is futile; in a moment the tracery is a tangled

-skein, a veil steals between you and the wall, and

-your arm falls. The wall seems woven like a web,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">198</span>

-wrought like brocade, netted like lace, and veined

-like a leaf; one cannot look at it closely nor fix its

-design in one's mind: it would be like trying to

-count the ants in an anthill: one must be content

-to look at the walls with a wandering glance, then

-to rest and look again later, and then to think of

-something else and talk. After I had looked around

-a little with the air of a man overcome with vertigo

-rather than admiration, I turned toward Gongora,

-so that he might read in my face what I would have

-spoken.</p>

-

-<p>"Let us enter the other pile of ruins," he answered

-with a smile as he drew me into the great

-Hall of the Ambassadors, which fills all the interior

-of the tower, for, really, the Hall of the <i>Barca</i>

-belongs to a little building which does not form a

-part of the tower, although it is joined to it. The

-tower is square in form, spacious, and lighted with

-nine great arched windows in the form of doors,

-which present almost the appearance of so many

-alcoves, so great is the thickness of the wall; each

-one is divided down the middle toward the outside

-by a little marble column that supports two beautiful

-arches surmounted in their turn by two little

-arched windows. The walls are covered with

-mosaics and arabesques indescribably delicate and

-multiform, and with innumerable inscriptions extending

-like wide embroidered ribbons over the arches

-of the windows, up the massive cornices, along the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">199</span>

-friezes, and around the niches where once stood

-vases full of flowers and perfumed water. The

-ceiling, which rises to a great height, is inlaid with

-cedar-wood, white, gold, and azure, joined together

-in circles, stars, and crowns, and forming many

-little arches, cells, and vaulted windows, through

-which falls a wavering light, and from the cornice

-which joins the ceiling to the walls hang tablets

-of stucco-work cut in facets chiselled and moulded

-like stalactites and bunches of flowers. The throne

-stood at the central window on the side opposite the

-door of entrance. From the windows on that side

-one enjoys a stupendous view of the valley of the

-Darro, deep and silent, as if it too felt the fascination

-of the Alhambra's grandeur; from the windows

-on the other two sides one sees the boundary-wall

-and the towers of the fortress; and through the

-entrance the light arches of the Court of the Myrtles

-in the distance and the water of the basin, which

-reflects the blue of the sky.</p>

-

-<p>"Well!" Gongora demanded; "was it worth

-dreaming of the Alhambra for three hundred and

-sixty-five nights?"</p>

-

-<p>"There is a strange thought passing through

-my brain at this moment," I replied. "That court

-as it looks from here, that hall, those windows, those

-colors, everything that surrounds me, seems familiar;

-it seems to correspond with a picture which I have

-carried in my head I know not how long and I know<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">200</span>

-not in what manner, confused with a thousand other

-things, perhaps born of a dream&mdash;how should I

-know? When I was sixteen years old I was a

-lover, and the young girl and I alone in a garden

-in the shade of a summer-house, as we gazed in

-each other's eyes, uttered unconsciously a cry of

-joy that stirred our blood as if it had come from

-the mouth of a third person who had discovered our

-secret. Well, since that time I have often longed

-to be a king and to have a palace; but in giving

-form to that desire my imagination did not rest

-merely in the grand gilded palaces of our country;

-it flew to distant lands, and there on the summit of

-a lofty mountain reared a castle of its own in which

-everything was small and graceful and illumined by

-a mysterious light; and there were long suites of

-rooms adorned with a thousand fanciful and delicate

-ornaments, with windows through which we two

-alone might look, and little columns behind which

-my little one might almost hide her face playfully

-as she listened to my step approaching from hall to

-hall, or heard my voice mingled with the murmur

-of the fountains in the garden. All unconsciously,

-in building that castle in fantasy, I was building

-the Alhambra; in those moments I imagined something

-like these halls, these windows, and this court

-that we see before us&mdash;so similar, indeed, that the

-more I look around the better I remember and seem

-to recognize the place just as I have seen it a thou<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">201</span>sand

-times. All lovers dream a little of the Alhambra,

-and if they were able to reproduce all their

-dreams in line and color, they would make pictures

-that would amaze us by their likeness to all one sees

-here. This architecture does not express power,

-glory, and grandeur; it expresses love and passion&mdash;love

-with its mysteries, its caprices, its fervor,

-its bursts of God-given gratitude; passion with its

-melancholy and its silences. There is, then, a close

-connection, a harmony, between the beauty of this

-Alhambra and the souls of those who have loved at

-sixteen, when longings are but dreams and visions.

-And hence arises the indescribable fascination exercised

-by this beauty, and hence the Alhambra, although

-deserted and ruined as it is, is still the most

-enchanting castle in the world, and to the end of

-time visitors will leave it with a tear. For in parting

-with the Alhambra we bid a last adieu to the

-most beautiful dreams of youth revived among these

-walls for the last time. We bid adieu to faces unspeakably

-dear that have broken the oblivion of

-many years to stand beside us a last time by the

-little columns of these windows. We bid adieu to

-all the fancies of youth. We bid adieu to that love

-which will never live again."</p>

-

-<div class="figcenter">

-<div class="caption"><i>Fountain in the <a id="Court_of_Lions"></a>Court of Lions, Alhambra</i></div>

-<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b200cs.jpg" alt="" /></div>

-</div>

-

-<p>"It is true," answered my friend, "but what will

-you say when you have seen the Court of the Lions?

-Come, let us hurry."</p>

-

-<p>We left the tower with hasty steps, crossed the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">202</span>

-Court of Myrtles, and came to a little door opposite

-the door of entrance.</p>

-

-<p>"Stop!" cried Gongora.</p>

-

-<p>I stopped.</p>

-

-<p>"Do me a favor?"</p>

-

-<p>"A hundred."</p>

-

-<p>"Only one: shut your eyes and don't open them

-until I tell you."</p>

-

-<p>"Well, they are shut."</p>

-

-<p>"See that you keep them so; I sha'n't like it if

-you open them."</p>

-

-<p>"Never fear."</p>

-

-<p>Gongora took me by the hand and led me forward:

-I trembled like a leaf.</p>

-

-<p>We took about fifteen steps and stopped.</p>

-

-<p>"Look!" said Gongora in an agitated voice.</p>

-

-<p>I looked, and I swear by the head of my reader I

-felt two tears trickling down my cheeks.</p>

-

-<p>We were in the Court of the Lions.</p>

-

-<p>If at that moment I had been obliged to go out as

-I had come in, I could not have told what I had seen.

-A forest of columns, a vision of arches and tracery,

-an indefinable elegance, an unimaginable delicacy,

-prodigious wealth; an irrepressible sense of airiness,

-transparency, and wavy motion like a great

-pavilion of lace; an appearance as of an edifice

-which must dissolve at a breath; a variety of lights

-and mysterious shadows; a confusion, a capricious

-disorder, of little things; the grandeur of a castle,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">203</span>

-the gayety of a summer-house; an harmonious grace,

-an extravagance, a delight; the fancy of an enamored

-girl, the dream of an angel; a madness, a

-nameless something,&mdash;such is the first effect of the

-Court of the Lions.</p>

-

-<p>The court is not larger than a great ball-room; it

-is rectangular in form, with walls no higher than a

-two-storied Andalusian cottage. A light portico

-runs all around, supported by very slender white

-marble columns grouped in symmetrical disorder, two

-by two and three by three, almost without pedestals, so

-that they are like the trunks of trees standing on the

-ground: they have varied capitals, high and graceful,

-in the form of little pilasters, above which bend

-little arches of very graceful form, which do not

-seem to rest upon the columns, but rather to be

-suspended over them like curtains upholding the

-columns themselves and resembling ribbons and

-twining garlands. From the middle of the two

-shortest sides advance two groups of columns forming

-two little square temples of nine arches in the

-form of stalactites, fringes, pendants, and tassels that

-seem as though they ought to swing and become

-tangled with the slightest breeze. Large Arabian

-inscriptions run along the four walls, over the arches,

-around the capitals, and along the walls of the little

-temple. In the middle of the court rises a great

-marble basin supported by twelve lions and surrounded

-by a paved channel, from which flow four<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">204</span>

-other smaller channels that make a cross between

-the four sides of the court, cross the portico, enter

-the adjoining rooms, and join the other water-courses

-which surround the entire edifice. Behind the two

-two little temples and in the middle of the other two

-sides there appear halls and suites of rooms with

-great open doors, through which one can see the

-dark background broken by the white columns,

-gleaming as if they stood at the mouth of a grotto.

-At every step the forest of columns seems to move

-and rearrange itself in a new way; behind a

-column that is apparently single spring up two,

-three, a row of columns; some fade away, others

-unite, and still others separate: on looking back

-from the end of one of the halls everything appears

-different; the arches on the opposite side seem very

-far away; the columns appear out of place; the little

-temples have changed their form; one sees new

-arches rising beyond the walls, and new columns

-gleaming here in the sunlight, there in the shadow,

-yonder scarcely visible by the dim light which sifts

-through the tracery of the stucco, and the farthest

-lost in the darkness. There is a constant variety of

-scene, distance, deceptive effects, mysteries, and

-playful tricks of the eye, produced by the architecture,

-the sun, and one's heightened imagination.</p>

-

-<p>"What must this <i>patio</i> have been," said Gongora,

-"when the inner walls of the portico were resplendent

-with mosaics, the capitals of the columns flashed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">205</span>

-with gold, the ceilings and vaults were painted in

-a thousand colors, the doors hung with silken curtains,

-the niches full of flowers, and under the little

-temples and through the halls ran streams of perfumed

-water, and from the nostrils of the lions

-spurted twelve jets which fell into the basin, and

-the air was heavy with the most delicious perfumes

-of Arabia!"</p>

-

-<p>We remained in the court over an hour, and the

-time passed like a flash; and I too did what all have

-done in that place&mdash;Spaniards and foreigners alike,

-men and women, poets and those who are not poets.

-I ran my hand along the walls, touched all the little

-columns, clasped them one by one with my two hands

-like the waist of a child, hid among them, counted

-them, looked at them from a hundred directions,

-crossed the court in a hundred ways; tried if it were

-true that by speaking a word in a deep voice in the

-mouth of one of the lions you could hear it distinctly

-from the mouths of all the others; searched

-along the marbles for the blood-spots of the romantic

-legends, and wearied my eyes and brain in following

-the arabesques. There were a number of ladies

-present. In the Court of the Lions ladies show every

-sort of childish delight: they look out between two

-twin columns, hide in the dark corners, sit on the

-floor, and stand for hours motionless, resting their

-heads upon their hands, dreaming. These ladies did

-likewise. There was one dressed in white who, as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">206</span>

-she passed behind the distant columns, when she

-thought no one saw her assumed a certain majestic

-air, like a melancholy sultana, and then laughed

-with one of her friends: it was enchanting.</p>

-

-<p>"Let us go," said my friend.</p>

-

-<p>"Let us go," I replied, and could not move a step.

-I was experiencing not only a delightful sense of

-surprise, but I was trembling with pleasure, and was

-filled with a longing to touch, to probe, and in some

-way to see behind those walls and those columns, as

-if they were made of some secret material and ought

-to disclose in their inmost part the first cause of the

-fascination which the place exerts. In all my life I

-have never thought or said, or shall ever say, so

-many fond words, so many foolish expressions, so

-many pretty, happy, senseless things, as I thought

-and said at that hour.</p>

-

-<p>"But one must come here at sunrise," said Gongora,

-"one must come at sunset, or at night when

-the moon is full, to see the miracles of color, light,

-and shade. It is enough to make one lose one's

-head."</p>

-

-<p>We went to see the halls. On the eastern side is

-the Hall of Justice, which is reached by passing

-under three great arches, each of which corresponds

-with a door opening into the court. It is a long, narrow

-hall, with intricate arabesques and precious mosaics,

-and its vaulted ceiling all points and hollows

-and clusters of stucco that hang down from the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">207</span>

-arches and run along the walls, clustered together

-here and there, drooping, growing one out of the

-other, crowding and overtopping each other, so that

-they seem to dispute the space like the bubbles in boiling

-water, and still presenting in many parts traces of

-old colors that must have given the ceiling the appearance

-of a pavilion covered with flowers and hanging

-fruit. The hall has three little alcoves, in each of

-which one may see a Moorish painting, to which

-time and the extreme rarity of works remaining

-from the brush of Moorish artists have given a very

-high value. The paintings are on leather, and the

-leather is fastened to the wall. In the central alcove

-there are painted on a golden ground ten men, supposed

-to be ten kings of Granada, clothed in white,

-with cowls on their heads and scimitars in their

-hands, sitting on embroidered cushions. The paintings

-in the other two alcoves represent castles,

-ladies and cavaliers, hunting scenes, and love episodes

-whose significance it is difficult to understand.

-But the faces of the ten kings are marvellously true

-to the picture one has formed of their race: there is

-the dark olive complexion, the sensuous lips, the

-black eyes, with an intense mysterious glance that

-seems always to be shining in the dark corners of

-the halls of the Alhambra.</p>

-

-<p>On the north side of the court there is another

-hall, called the hall <i>De las dos Hermanas</i> (of the two

-sisters), so called from two great marble slabs which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">208</span>

-form the pavement. It is the most beautiful hall in

-the Alhambra&mdash;a little square arched room, with one

-of those ceilings in the form of a cupola which the

-Spaniards call half oranges, supported by slender

-columns and arches arranged in a circle, all adorned,

-like a grotto full of stalactites, with an infinite number

-of points and hollows, colored and gilded, and

-so light to the view that it seems as if they are

-suspended in the air, and would tremble at a touch

-like a curtain or separate like a cloud or disappear

-like a cluster of soap-bubbles. The walls, like those

-of all the other halls, are bedecked with stucco and

-carved with arabesques incredibly intricate and delicate,

-forming one of the most marvellous works of

-human patience and imagination. The more one

-looks, the more numberless become the lines which

-blend and cross, and from one figure springs another,

-and from that a third, and all three produce a fourth

-that has escaped the eye, and this divides suddenly

-into ten other figures that have passed unnoticed,

-and then they mingle again and are again transformed;

-and one never ceases to discover new combinations,

-for when the first reappear they are

-already forgotten, and produce the same effect as at

-the beginning. One would lose sight and reason in

-trying to comprehend that labyrinth: it would require

-an hour to study the outlines of a window, the

-ornaments of a pilaster, and the arabesques of a

-frieze; an hour would not be sufficient to fix upon<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">209</span>

-the mind the design of one of the stupendous cedar

-doors. On either side of the hall there are two

-little alcoves, and in the centre a little basin with a

-pipe for a fountain that empties into the channel that

-crosses the portico and flows to the Fountain of the

-Lions.</p>

-

-<p>Directly opposite the entrance there is another

-door, through which one passes into another long,

-narrow room called the Hall of the Oranges. And

-from this hall, through a third door, one enters a

-little chamber called the Cabinet of Lindaraja, very

-richly ornamented, at the end of which there is a

-graceful window with two arches overlooking a

-garden.</p>

-

-<p>To enjoy all the beauty of this magical architecture

-one must leave the Hall of the Two Sisters,

-cross the Court of the Lions, and enter a room called

-the Hall of the Abencerrages, which lies on the

-southern side, opposite the Hall of the Two Sisters, to

-which it is very similar in form and ornamentation.

-From the end of this hall one looks across the

-Court of the Lions through the Hall of the Two

-Sisters into the Hall of the Oranges and even into

-the Cabinet of Lindaraja and the garden beyond,

-where a mass of verdure appears under the arches

-of that jewel of a window. The two sides of this

-window, so diminutive and full of light when seen in

-the distance from the end of that suite of darkened

-rooms, look like two great open eyes, that look at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">210</span>

-you and make you imagine that beyond them must

-lie the unfathomable mysteries of paradise.</p>

-

-<p>After seeing the Hall of the Abencerrages we

-went to see the baths, which are situated between

-the Hall of the Two Sisters and the Court of the

-Myrtles. We descended a flight of stairs, passed a

-long narrow corridor, and came out into a splendid

-hall called the hall <i>De las Divans</i>, where the favorites

-of the king came to rest on their Persian rugs

-to the sound of the lyre after they had bathed in

-the adjoining rooms. This hall was reconstructed

-on the plans of the ancient ruins, and adorned with

-arabesques, gilded and painted, by Spanish artists

-after the ancient patterns; consequently one may

-consider it a room of the Moorish period remaining

-intact in every part. In the middle is a fountain,

-and in the opposite walls are two alcoves where the

-women reposed on divans, and overhead the galleries

-where the musicians played. The walls are

-laced, dotted, checkered, and mottled with a thousand

-brilliant hues, presenting the appearance of a

-tapestry of Chinese stuff shot with golden threads,

-with an endless interweaving of figures that must

-have maddened the most patient mosaic-worker on

-earth.</p>

-

-<p>Nevertheless, a painter was at work in the hall.

-He was a German who had worked for three months

-in copying the walls. Gongora knew him, and

-asked, "It is wearisome work, is it not?"</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">211</span></p>

-

-<p>And he answered with a smile, "I don't find it

-so," and bent again over his picture.</p>

-

-<p>I looked at him as if he had been a creature from

-another world.</p>

-

-<p>We entered the little bathing-chambers, vaulted

-and lighted from above by some star-and flower-shaped

-apertures in the wall. The bathing-tubs

-are very large, single blocks of marble enclosed between

-two walls. The corridors which lead from

-one room to the other are low and narrow, so that

-a man can scarcely pass through them; they are

-delightfully cool. As I stood looking into one of

-these little rooms I was suddenly impressed with

-a sad thought.</p>

-

-<p>"What makes you sad?" asked my friend.</p>

-

-<p>"I was thinking," I replied, "of how we live,

-summer and winter, in houses like barracks, in

-rooms on the third floor, which are either dark or

-else flooded with a torrent of light, without marble,

-without water, without flowers, without columns; I

-was thinking that we must live so all our lives and

-die between those walls without once experiencing

-the delights of these charmed palaces; I was thinking

-that even in this wretched earthly life one may

-enjoy vastly, and that I shall not share this enjoyment

-at all; I was thinking that I might have been

-born four centuries ago a king of Granada, and that

-I was born instead a poor man."</p>

-

-<p>My friend laughed, and, taking my arm between<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">212</span>

-his thumb and finger, as if to give me a pinch, he

-said, "Don't think of that. Think of how much

-beauty, grace, and mystery these tubs must have

-seen; of the little feet that have played in their

-perfumed waters; of the long hair which has fallen

-over their rims; of the great languid eyes that have

-looked at the sky through the openings in the

-vaulted ceiling, while beneath the arches of the

-Court of the Lions sounded the hastening step of

-an impatient caliph, and the hundred fountains of

-the castle sighed with a quickening murmur, 'Come!

-come! come!' and in a perfumed hall a trembling

-slave reverently closed the windows with the rose-colored

-curtains."</p>

-

-<p>"Ah! leave my soul in peace!" I replied, shrugging

-my shoulders.</p>

-

-<p>We crossed the garden of the Cabinet of Lindaraja

-and a mysterious court called the <i>Patio de la

-Reja</i>, and by a long gallery that commands a view

-of the country reached the top of one of the

-farthest towers of the Alhambra, called the <i>Mirador

-de la Reina</i> (the Queen's toilet), shaded by a little

-pavilion and open all round, hanging over an abyss

-like an eagle's nest. The view one enjoys from

-this point&mdash;one may say it without fear of contradiction&mdash;has

-not its equal on the face of the

-earth.</p>

-

-<div class="figcenter">

-<div class="caption"><i><a id="Queens_Boudoir"></a>Queen's Boudoir, Alhambra</i></div>

-<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b212cs.jpg" alt="" /></div>

-</div>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">213</span></p>

-

-<p>Imagine an immense plain, green as a meadow,

-covered with young grass, crossed in all directions

-by endless rows of cypresses, pines, oaks, and

-poplars, dotted with dense orange-groves that in the

-distance look no larger than shrubs, and with great

-orchards and gardens so crowded with fruit trees

-that they look like green hillocks; and the river

-Xenil winding through this immense plain, gleaming

-among the groves and gardens like a great silver

-ribbon; and all around wooded hills, and beyond

-the hills lofty rocks of fantastic form, which complete

-the picture of a barrier-wall with gigantic

-towers separating that earthly paradise from the

-world; and there, just beneath one's eyes, the city

-of Granada, partly extending to the plain and partly

-on the slope of the hill, all interspersed with groups

-of trees, shapeless masses of verdure which rise and

-wave above the roofs of the houses like enormous

-plumes, until it seems as if they were striving to expand

-and unite and cover the entire city; and still

-nearer the deep valley of the Darro more than

-covered&mdash;yes, filled to overflowing and almost

-heaped full&mdash;with its prodigious growth of vegetation,

-rising like a mountain, and above it there rises

-yet again a grove of gigantic poplars tossing their

-topmost boughs so close under the windows of the

-tower that one can almost touch them; and to the

-right beyond the Darro, on a high hill towering

-toward heaven, bold and rounded like a cupola, the

-palace of the Generalife, encircled by its aërial

-gardens and almost hidden in a grove of laurels,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">214</span>

-poplars, and pomegranates; and in the opposite

-direction a marvellous spectacle, a thing incredible,

-a vision of a dream&mdash;the Sierra Nevada, after the

-Alps, the highest mountain-range in Europe crowned

-with snow, white even to a few miles from the gates

-of Granada, white even to the hills on whose sides

-spread the pomegranates and palms, and where a

-vegetation almost tropical expands in all its splendid

-pomp.</p>

-

-<p>Imagine now over this vast paradise, containing

-all the smiling graces of the Orient and all the severe

-beauties of the North, wedding Europe to

-Africa, and bringing to the nuptials all the choicest

-marvels of nature, and exhaling to heaven all the

-perfumes of the earth blended in one breath,&mdash;imagine

-above this happy valley the sky and sun of

-Andalusia, rolling on to its setting and tinting the

-peaks with a divine rose-color, and painting the

-mountain-sides of the Sierra with all the colors of

-the rainbow, and clothing them with all the reflections

-of the most limpid azure pearls, its rays breaking

-in a thousand mists of gold, purple, and gray

-upon the rocks encircling the plain, and, as it sinks

-in a flame of fire, casting like a last good-night a

-luminous crown about the gloomy towers of the Alhambra

-and the flower-crowned pinnacles of the

-Generalife, and tell me if this world can give anything

-more solemn, more glorious, more intoxicating

-than this love-feast of the earth and sky, before<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">215</span>

-which for nine centuries Granada has trembled with

-delight and throbbed with pride?</p>

-

-<p>The roof of the <i>Mirador de la Reina</i> is supported

-by little Moorish columns, between which extend

-flattened arches which give the pavilion an extremely

-fanciful and graceful appearance. The

-walls are frescoed, and one may see along the friezes

-the initials of Isabella and Philip interwoven with

-cupids and flowers. Close by the door there still remains

-a stone of the ancient pavement, all perforated,

-upon which it is said the sultanas sat to be enveloped

-in the clouds of perfumed vapor which arose from

-below.</p>

-

-<p>Everything in this place tells of love and happiness.

-There one breathes an air as pure as that on a

-mountain-peak, there one perceives a mingled fragrance

-of myrtles and roses, and no other sound

-reaches the ear save the murmur of the Darro as it

-dashes among the rocks of its stony bed, and the

-singing of a thousand birds hidden in the dense

-foliage of the valley; it is truly a nest of loves, a

-hanging alcove where to go and dream of an aërial

-balcony to which one might climb and thank God

-for being happy.</p>

-

-<p>"Ah, Gongora," I exclaimed after contemplating

-for some moments that enchanting spectacle, "I

-would give years of my life to be able to summon

-here, with a stroke of a magic wand, all the dear

-ones who are looking for me in Italy."</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">216</span></p>

-

-<p>Gongora pointed out a large space on the wall, all

-black with dates and names of visitors to the Alhambra,

-written with crayon and charcoal and cut

-with knives.</p>

-

-<p>"What is this written here?" he demanded.</p>

-

-<p>I approached and uttered a cry: "Chateaubriand!"</p>

-

-<p>"And here?"</p>

-

-<p>"Byron!"</p>

-

-<p>"And here?"</p>

-

-<p>"Victor Hugo!"</p>

-

-<p>After descending from the <i>Mirador de la Reina</i> I

-thought I had seen the Alhambra, and was so imprudent

-as to tell my friend so. If he had had a stick

-in his hand, I verily believe he would have struck

-me; but, as he had not, he contented himself by

-regarding me with the air of one demanding whether

-or not I had lost my senses.</p>

-

-<p>We returned to the Court of the Myrtles and

-visited the rooms situated on the other side of the

-Tower of Comares, the greater part in ruins, the rest

-altered, some absolutely bare, without either pavement

-or roof, but all worth seeing, both in remembrance

-of what they had been and for the sake of

-understanding the plan of the edifice. The ancient

-mosque was converted into a chapel by Charles V., and

-a great Moorish hall was changed into an oratory;

-here and there one still sees the fragments of arabesques

-and carved ceilings of cedar-wood; the gal<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">217</span>leries,

-the courts, and the vestibules remind one of a

-palace dismantled by fire.</p>

-

-<p>After seeing that part of the Alhambra I really

-thought there was nothing else left to see, and a

-second time was imprudent enough to say so to Gongora:

-this time he could no longer contain himself,

-and, leading me into a vestibule of the Court of Myrtles

-and pointing to a map of the building hanging on

-the wall, he said, "Look, and you will see that all the

-rooms of the courts and the towers that we have so

-far visited do not occupy one-twentieth part of the

-space embraced within the walls of the Alhambra;

-you will see that we have not yet visited the remains

-of the three other mosques, the ruins of the House of

-Cadi, the water-tower, the tower of the Infantas, the

-tower of the Prisoner, the tower of Candil, the tower

-of the Picos, the tower of the Daggers, the tower of

-the <i>Siete Suelos</i>, the tower of the Captain, the tower

-of the Witch, the tower of the Heads, the tower of

-Arms, the tower of the Hidalgos, the tower of the

-Cocks, the tower of the Cube, the tower of Homage,

-the tower of Vela, the Powder Tower, the remains

-of the House of Mondejar, the military quarters,

-the iron gate, the inner walls, the cisterns, the

-promenades; for I would have you know that the

-Alhambra is not a palace: it is a city, and one

-could spend his life in studying its arabesques,

-reading its inscriptions, and every day discovering

-a new view of the hills and mountains, and going<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">218</span>

-into ecstasies regularly once every twenty-four

-hours."</p>

-

-<p>And I thought I had seen the Alhambra!</p>

-

-<p>On that day I did not wish to learn anything

-more, and the dear knows how my head ached when

-I returned to the hotel. The day after, at the peep

-of dawn, I was back at the Alhambra, and again in

-the evening, and I continued to go there every day

-so long as I remained at Granada, with Gongora,

-with other friends, with guides, or alone; and the Alhambra

-always seemed vaster and more beautiful

-as I wandered through the courts and halls, and

-passed hour after hour sitting among the columns or

-gazing out of the windows with an ever-heightening

-pleasure, every time discovering new beauties, and

-ever abandoning myself to those vague and delightful

-fancies among which my mind had strayed on the

-first day. I cannot tell through which entrances my

-friends led me into the Alhambra, but I remember

-that every day on going there I saw walls and towers

-and deserted streets that I had not seen before, and

-the Alhambra seemed to me to have changed its site,

-to have been transformed, and surrounded as if by

-enchantment with new buildings that changed its

-original appearance. Who could describe the beauty

-of those sunset views; those fantastic groves flooded

-with moonlight; the immense plain and the snow-covered

-mountains on clear, serene nights; the imposing

-outlines of those enormous walls, superb<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">219</span>

-towers, and those measureless trees under a starry

-sky; the prolonged rustling of those vast masses of

-verdure overflowing the valleys and climbing the

-hillsides? It was a spectacle before which my companions

-remained speechless, although they were

-born in Granada and accustomed from infancy to

-look upon these scenes. So we would walk along in

-silence, each buried in his own thoughts, with hearts

-oppressed by mild melancholy, and sometimes our

-eyes were wet with tears, and we raised our faces to

-heaven with a burst of gratitude and love.</p>

-

-<p>On the day of my arrival at Granada, when I

-entered the hotel at midnight, instead of finding

-silence and quiet, I found the <i>patio</i> illuminated like

-a ball-room, people sipping sherbet at the tables,

-coming and going along the galleries, laughing and

-talking, and I was obliged to wait an hour before

-going to sleep. But I passed that hour very pleasantly.

-While I stood looking at a map of Spain on

-the wall a great burly fellow, with a face as red as a

-beet and a great stomach extending nearly to his

-knees, approached me and, touching his cap, asked

-if I was an Italian. I replied that I was, and he

-continued with a smile, "And so am I; I am the

-proprietor of the hotel."</p>

-

-<p>"I am delighted to hear it, the more so because

-I see you are making money."</p>

-

-<p>"Great Heavens!" he replied in a tone which he

-wished to seem melancholy. "Yes, ... I cannot<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">220</span>

-complain; but, ... believe me, my dear sir, however

-well things may go, when one is far from his

-native land one always feels a void here;" and he

-put his hand upon his enormous chest.</p>

-

-<p>I looked at his stomach.</p>

-

-<p>"A great void," repeated mine host; "one never

-forgets one's country.... From what province are

-you, sir?"</p>

-

-<p>"From Liguria. And you?"</p>

-

-<p>"From Piedmont. Liguria! Piedmont! Lombardy!

-They are countries!"</p>

-

-<p>"They are fine countries, there is no doubt of

-that, but, after all, you cannot complain of Spain.

-You are living in one of the most beautiful cities in

-the world, and are proprietor of one of the finest

-hotels in the city; you have a crowd of guests all

-the year round, and then I see you enjoy enviable

-health."</p>

-

-<p>"But the void?"</p>

-

-<p>I looked again at his stomach.</p>

-

-<p>"Oh, I see, sir; but you are deceived, you know,

-if you judge me by appearances. You cannot imagine

-what a pleasure it is when an Italian comes here.

-What you will? Weakness it may be.... I know

-not, ... but I should like to see him every day at

-table, and I believe that if my wife did not laugh at

-me I should send him a dozen dishes on my own

-account, as a foretaste."</p>

-

-<p>"At what hour do you dine to-morrow?"</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">221</span></p>

-

-<p>"At five. But, after all, ... one eats little

-here, ... hot country, ... everybody lives lightly, ...

-whatever their nationality may be.... That

-is the rule.... But you have not seen the other

-Italian who is here?"</p>

-

-<p>So saying, he turned around, and a man came

-forward from a corner of the court where he had

-been watching us. The proprietor, after a few

-words, left us alone. The stranger was a man of

-about forty, miserably dressed, who spoke through

-closed teeth, and kept continually clenching his

-hands with a convulsive motion as if he was making

-an effort to keep from using his fists. He told me

-he was a chorus-singer from Lombardy, and that he

-had arrived the day before at Granada with other

-artists booked to sing at the opera for the summer

-season.</p>

-

-<p>"A beastly country!" he exclaimed without any

-preamble, looking around as if he wished to make

-a speech.</p>

-

-<p>"Then you do not remain in Spain voluntarily?"

-I asked.</p>

-

-<p>"In Spain? I? Excuse me: it is just as if you

-had asked me whether I was staying voluntarily in a

-galley."</p>

-

-<p>"But why?"</p>

-

-<p>"Why? But can't you see what sort of people the

-Spaniards are&mdash;ignorant, superstitious, proud, bloodthirsty,

-impostors, thieves, charlatans, villains?"</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">222</span></p>

-

-<p>And he stood a moment motionless in a questioning

-attitude, with the veins of his neck so swollen that

-they seemed ready to burst.</p>

-

-<p>"Pardon me," I replied; "your judgment does

-not seem favorable enough to admit of my agreeing

-with you. When it comes to ignorance, excuse me,

-it will not do for us Italians, for us who still have

-cities where the schoolmasters are stoned and the

-professors are stabbed if they give a zero to their

-scholars,&mdash;it will not do for us, I say, to pick flaws

-in others. As for superstition, alas for us again!

-since we may still see in that city of Italy in which

-popular instruction is most widely diffused an unspeakable

-uproar over a miraculous image of the

-Madonna found by a poor ignorant woman in the

-middle of a street! As for crime, I frankly declare

-that if I were obliged to draw a comparison between

-the two countries before an audience of Spaniards,

-with the statistics now in hand, without first proving

-my data and conclusions, I should be very much

-alarmed.... I do not wish to say by this that

-we are not, on the whole, sailing in smoother water

-than is Spain. I wish to say that an Italian in

-judging the Spanish, if he would be just, must be

-indulgent."</p>

-

-<p>"Excuse me: I don't think so. A country without

-political direction! a country a prey to anarchy!

-a country&mdash;Come, now, cite me one great Spaniard

-of the present day."</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">223</span></p>

-

-<p>"I cannot, ... there are so few great men anywhere."</p>

-

-<p>"Cite me a Galileo."</p>

-

-<p>"Oh, there are no Galileos."</p>

-

-<p>"Cite me a Ratazzi."</p>

-

-<p>"Well, they have none."</p>

-

-<p>"Cite me ... But, really, they have nothing.

-And then, does the country seem beautiful to you?"</p>

-

-<p>"Ah! excuse me; that point I will not yield:

-Andalusia, to cite a single province, is a paradise;

-Seville, Cadiz, and Granada are splendid cities."</p>

-

-<p>"How? Do you like the houses of Seville and

-Cadiz, with walls that whiten a poor devil from head

-to foot whenever he happens to touch them? Do

-you like those streets along which one can hardly

-pass after a good dinner? And do you find the Andalusian

-women beautiful with their devilish eyes?

-Come, now, you are too indulgent. They are not a

-<i>serious</i> people. They have summoned Don Amadeus,

-and now they don't want him. They are not worthy

-of being governed by a <i>civilized man</i>." (These were

-his actual words.)</p>

-

-<p>"Then you don't find any good in Spain?"</p>

-

-<p>"Not the least."</p>

-

-<p>"But why do you stay?"</p>

-

-<p>"I stay ... because I make my living here."</p>

-

-<p>"Well, that is something."</p>

-

-<p>"But what a living! It is a dog's life! Everybody

-knows what Spanish cooking is."</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">224</span></p>

-

-<p>"Excuse me: instead of living like a dog in

-Spain, why not go and live like a man in Italy?"</p>

-

-<p>Here the poor artist seemed somewhat disconcerted,

-and I, to relieve his annoyance, offered him a

-cigar, which he took and lighted without a word.

-And he was not the only Italian in Spain who had

-spoken to me in those terms of the country and its

-inhabitants, denying even the clearness of the sky

-and the grace of the Andalusian women. I do not

-know what enjoyment there can be in travelling

-after this fashion, with the heart closed to every

-kindly sentiment, and continually on the lookout to

-censure and despise, as if everything good and

-beautiful which one finds in a foreign country has

-been stolen from our own, and as if we are of no

-account unless we run down everybody else. The

-people who travel in such a mental attitude make

-me pity rather than condemn them, because they

-voluntarily deprive themselves of many pleasures

-and comforts. So it appears to me, at least, to

-judge others by myself, for wherever I go the first

-sentiment which the sights and the people inspire

-in me is a feeling of sympathy; a desire not to find

-anything which I shall be obliged to censure; an inclination

-to imagine every beautiful thing more beautiful;

-to conceal the unpleasant things, to excuse the

-defects, to be able to say candidly to myself and

-others that I am content with everything and everybody.

-And to arrive at this end I do not have to make<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">225</span>

-any effort: everything presents itself almost spontaneously

-in its most pleasing aspect, and my imagination

-benignly paints the other aspects a delicate

-rose-color. I know well that one cannot study a

-country in this way, nor write sage essays, nor

-acquire fame as a profound thinker; but I know

-that one travels with a peaceful mind, and that such

-travels are of unspeakable benefit.</p>

-

-<p>The next day I went to see the Generalife, which

-was a sort of villa of the Moorish kings, and whose

-name is linked to that of the Alhambra as is that

-of the Alhambra to Granada; but now only a few

-arches and arabesques remain of the ancient Generalife.

-It is a small palace, simple and white, with

-few windows, and an arched gallery surrounded with

-a terrace, and half hidden in the midst of a grove

-of laurel and myrtles, standing on the summit of a

-mountain covered with flowers, rising upon the right

-bank of the Darro opposite the hill of the Alhambra.

-In front of the façade of the palace extends a little

-garden, and other gardens rise one above another

-almost in the form of a vast staircase to the very

-top of the mountain, where there extends a very

-high terrace that encloses the Generalife. The

-avenues of the gardens and the wide staircases that

-lead from one to another of the flower-beds are

-flanked by high espaliers surmounted by arches and

-divided by arbors of myrtle, curved and intertwined

-with graceful designs, and at every landing-place<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">226</span>

-rise white summer-houses shaded by trellises and

-picturesque groups of orange trees and cypresses.

-Water is still as abundant as in Moorish times,

-and gives the place a grace, freshness, and luxuriance

-impossible to describe. From every part

-one hears the murmur of rivulets and fountains;

-one turns down an avenue and finds a jet of water;

-one approaches a window and sees a stream

-reaching almost to the window-sill; one enters

-a group of trees and the spray of a little waterfall

-strikes one's face; one turns and sees water

-leaping, running, and trickling through the grass

-and shrubbery.</p>

-

-<p>From the height of the terrace one commands

-a view of all those gardens as they slope downward

-in platforms and terraces; one peers down into

-the abyss of vegetation which separates the two

-mountains; one overlooks the whole enclosure of

-the Alhambra, with the cupolas of its little temples,

-its distant towers, and the paths winding among its

-ruins; the view extends over the city of Granada

-with its plain and its hills, and runs with a single

-glance along all the summits of the Sierra Nevada,

-that appear so near that one imagines they are not

-an hour's walk distant. And while you contemplate

-that spectacle your ear is soothed by the murmur

-of a hundred fountains and the faint sound of the

-bells of the city, which comes in waves scarcely

-audible, bearing with it the mysterious fragrance of

-this earthly paradise which makes you tremble and

-grow pale with delight.</p>

-

-<div class="figcenter">

-<div class="caption"><i><a id="Court_of_the_Generalife"></a>Court of the Generalife, Granada</i></div>

-<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b226cs.jpg" alt="" /></div>

-</div>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">227</span></p>

-

-<p>Beyond the Generalife, on the summit of a

-higher mountain, now bleak and bare, there rose

-in Moorish times other royal palaces, with gardens

-connected with each other by great avenues

-lined with myrtle hedges. Now all these marvels

-of architecture encircled by groves, fountains,

-and flowers, those fabulous castles in the air, those

-magnificent and fragrant nests of love and delight,

-have disappeared, and scarcely a heap of rubbish or

-a short stretch of wall remains to tell their story to

-the passer-by. But these ruins, that elsewhere

-would arouse a feeling of melancholy, do not have

-such an influence in the presence of that glorious

-nature whose enchantment not even the most marvellous

-works of man have ever been able to equal.</p>

-

-<p>On re-entering the city I stopped at one end of the

-<i>Carrera del Darro</i>, in front of a house richly adorned

-with bas-reliefs representing heraldic shields, armor,

-cherubs, and lions, with a little balcony, over one

-corner of which, partly on one wall and partly on

-another, I read the following mysterious inscription

-stamped in great letters:</p>

-

-<p class="center">"<span class="smcap">Esperando la del Cielo</span>,"</p>

-

-<p>which, literally translated, signifies "<i>Awaiting her

-in Heaven</i>." Curious to learn the hidden meaning of

-those words, I made a note of them, so that I might<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">228</span>

-ask the learned father of my friend about them. He

-gave me two interpretations, the one almost certainly

-correct, but not at all romantic; the other romantic,

-but very doubtful. I give the last: The house

-belonged to Don Fernando de Zafra, the secretary of

-the Catholic kings. He had a very beautiful daughter.

-A young hidalgo, of a family hostile or inferior in

-rank to the house of Zafra, became enamored of the

-daughter, and, as his love was returned, he asked for

-her hand in marriage, but was refused. The refusal

-of her father stirred the love of the two young hearts

-to flame: the windows of the house were low; the

-lover one night succeeded in making the ascent and

-entered the maiden's room. Whether he upset a

-chair on entering, or coughed, or uttered a low cry

-of joy on seeing his beautiful love welcoming him

-with open arms, the tradition does not tell, and no

-one knows; but certain it is that Don Fernando de

-Zafra heard a noise, ran in, saw, and, blind with

-fury, rushed upon the ill-fated young man to put

-him to death. But he succeeded in making his escape,

-and Don Fernando in following him ran into

-one of his own pages, a partisan of the lovers, who

-had helped the hidalgo to enter the house: in his

-haste his master mistook him for the betrayer, and,

-without hearing his protests and prayers, he had him

-bound and hanged from the balcony. The tradition

-runs that while the poor victim kept crying, "Pity!

-pity!" the outraged father responded as he pointed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">229</span>

-toward the balcony, "Thou shalt stay there <i>esperando

-la del Cielo</i>!" (awaiting her in heaven)&mdash;a reply

-which he afterward had cut in the stone walls as

-a perpetual warning to evil-doers.</p>

-

-<p>I devoted the rest of the day to the churches and

-monasteries.</p>

-

-<p>The cathedral of Granada deserves to be described

-part by part in an even higher degree than the cathedral

-of Malaga, although it too is beautiful and

-magnificent; but I have already described enough

-churches. Its foundation was laid by the Catholic

-kings in 1529 upon the ruins of the principal mosque

-of the city, but it has never been finished. It has a

-great façade with three doorways, adorned with

-statues and bas-reliefs, and it consists of five naves,

-divided by twenty measureless pilasters, each composed

-of a bundle of slender columns. The chapels

-contain paintings by Boccanegra, sculptures by Torrigiano,

-and tombs and other precious ornaments.

-Admirable above all is the great chapel, supported

-by twenty Corinthian columns divided into two

-orders, upon the first of which rise colossal statues

-of the twelve apostles, and on the second an entablature

-covered with garlands and heads of cherubs.

-Overhead runs a circle of magnificent stained-glass

-windows, which represent the Passion, and from the

-frieze which crowns them leap ten bold arches forming

-the vault of the chapel. Within the arches that

-support the columns are six great paintings by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">230</span>

-Alonzo Cano, which are said to be his most beautiful

-and finished work.</p>

-

-<p>And since I have spoken of Alonzo Cano, a native

-of Granada, one of the strongest Spanish painters of

-the seventeenth century, although a disciple of the

-Sevillian school rather than the founder, as some

-assert, of a school of his own, but less original than

-his greatest contemporaries,&mdash;since I have spoken of

-him, I wish here to record some traits of his genius

-and anecdotes of his life little known outside of Spain,

-although exceedingly remarkable. Alonzo Cano was

-the most quarrelsome, the most irascible, and the

-most violent of the Spanish painters. He spent his

-life in contention. He was a priest. From 1652 to

-1658, for six consecutive years, without a day's intermission,

-he wrangled with the canons of the cathedral

-of Granada, of which he was steward, because

-he was not willing to become subdeacon in accordance

-with the stipulated agreement; before leaving

-Granada he broke into pieces with his own hands a

-statue of Saint Anthony of Padua which he had

-made to the order of an auditor of the chancery,

-because the man allowed himself to observe that the

-price demanded seemed a little dear. Chosen master

-of design to the royal prince, who, as it appears,

-was not born with a talent for painting, he so exasperated

-his pupil that the boy was obliged to have

-recourse to the king that he might be taken out of

-his hands. Remanded to Granada, to the neighbor<span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">231</span>hood

-of the chapter of the cathedral, as an especial

-favor, he bore such a deep rancor from his old litigations

-with his canons that throughout his life he

-would not do a stroke of work for them. But this

-is a small matter. He nursed a blind, bestial, inextinguishable

-hatred against the Hebrews, and was

-firmly convinced that in any way to touch a Hebrew

-or any object that a Hebrew had touched

-would bring him misfortune. Owing to this conviction

-he did some of the most extravagant feats in

-the world. If in walking along the street he ran

-against a Jew, he would strip off the infected garment

-and return home in his shirt-sleeves. If by

-chance he succeeded in discovering that in his absence

-a servant had admitted a Jew into the house,

-he discharged the servant, threw away the shoes

-with which he had touched the pavement profaned

-by the circumcised, and sometimes even had the

-pavement torn up and reset. And he found something

-to find fault with even as he was dying.

-When he was approaching the end of life the confessor

-handed him a clumsily-made crucifix that he

-might kiss it, but he pushed it away with his hand,

-saying, "Father, give me a naked cross, that I may

-worship Jesus Christ as He Himself is and as I behold

-Him in my mind." But, after all, his was a

-rare, charitable nature which abhorred every vulgar

-action, and loved with a deep and very pure love the

-art in which he remains immortal.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">232</span></p>

-

-<p>On returning to the church after I had made the

-round of all the chapels and was preparing to leave,

-I was impressed by a suspicion that there was something

-else still to be seen. I had not read the Guidebook

-and had been told nothing, but I heard an

-inner voice which said to me, "Seek!" and, in fact,

-I sought with my eyes in every direction, without

-knowing what I sought. A cicerone noticed me and

-sidled up to me, as all of his kind do, like an assassin,

-and asked me with an air of mystery, "<i>Quiere

-usted algo?</i>" (Do you wish something, sir?)</p>

-

-<p>"I should like to know," I replied, "if there is

-anything to see in this cathedral besides that which

-I have seen already?"</p>

-

-<p>"How!" exclaimed the cicerone; "you have not

-seen the royal chapel, have you, sir?"</p>

-

-<p>"What is there in the royal chapel?"</p>

-

-<p>"What is there? Caramba! Nothing less than

-the tombs of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholics."</p>

-

-<p>I could have said so! I had in my mind a place

-ready for this idea, and the idea was lacking! The

-Catholic kings must certainly have been buried in

-Granada, where they fought the last great chivalrous

-war of the Middle Ages, and where they gave Christopher

-Columbus a commission to fit out ships which

-bore him to the New World. I ran rather than

-walked to the royal chapel, preceded by the limping

-cicerone; an old sacristan opened the door of the

-sacristy, and before he allowed me to enter and see<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">233</span>

-the tombs he led me to a sort of glass cupboard full

-of precious objects, and said to me, "You will remember

-that Isabella the Catholic, to furnish Christopher

-Columbus with the money that he needed to

-supply the ships for the voyage, not knowing where

-to turn because the coffers of the state were empty,

-put her jewels in pawn."</p>

-

-<p>"Yes: well?" I demanded impatiently; and, divining

-the answer, felt my heart beat faster the

-while.</p>

-

-<p>"Well," replied the sacristan, "that is the box in

-which the queen locked her jewels to send them to

-be pawned."</p>

-

-<p>And so saying he opened the cupboard and took

-out the box and handed it to me.</p>

-

-<p>Oh! brave men may say what they will; as for

-me, there are things that make me tremble and

-weep. I have touched the box that contained the

-treasure by which Columbus was enabled to discover

-America. Every time I repeat those words my

-blood is stirred, and I add, "I have touched it with

-these hands," and I look at my hands.</p>

-

-<p>That cupboard contains also the sword of King

-Ferdinand, the crown and sceptre of Isabella, a missal

-and some other ornaments of the king and queen.</p>

-

-<p>We entered the chapel. Between the altar and a

-great iron chancel that separates it from the remaining

-space stand two great mausoleums of marble

-adorned with statuettes and bas-reliefs of great<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">234</span>

-value. Upon one of them lie the statues of Ferdinand

-and Isabella in their royal robes, with crown,

-sword, and sceptre; on the other the statues of the

-other two princes of Spain, and around the statues

-lions, angels, and arms, and various ornaments, presenting

-a regal appearance, austere and magnificent.</p>

-

-<p>The sacristan lighted a flambeau, and, pointing

-out a sort of trap-door in the pavement between the

-two mausoleums, asked me to open it and descend

-into the subterranean chamber. With the cicerone's

-aid I opened the trap-door; the sacristan descended,

-and I followed him down a narrow little staircase

-until we reached a little room. There were five

-caskets of lead, bound with iron bands, each sealed

-with two initials under a crown. The sacristan

-lowered the torch, and, touching all five of them,

-one after another, with his hand, said in a slow,

-solemn voice,</p>

-

-<p>"Here rests the great queen Isabella the Catholic.</p>

-

-<p>"Here rests the great king Ferdinand V.</p>

-

-<p>"Here rests the king Philip I.</p>

-

-<p>"Here rests Queen Joanna the Mad.</p>

-

-<p>"Here rests Lady Maria, her daughter, who died

-at the age of nine years.</p>

-

-<p>"God keep them all in his holy peace!"</p>

-

-<p>And, placing the torch on the ground, he crossed

-his arms and closed his eyes, as if to give me time

-for meditation.</p>

-

-<p>One would become a hunchback at his desk if he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">235</span>

-were to describe all the religious monuments of

-Granada&mdash;the stupendous Cartuja; the Monte Sacro,

-containing the grottoes of the martyrs; the church

-of San Geronimo, where the great leader Gonzalez

-di Cordova is buried; the convent of Santo Domingo,

-founded by Torquemada the Inquisitor; the

-convent of the Angels, containing paintings by

-Cano and Murillo and many others; but I suppose

-that my readers may be even more weary than I am,

-and will consequently pardon me for passing by a

-mountain of description which probably would only

-give them a confused idea of the things described.</p>

-

-<p>But as I have mentioned the sepulchre of the

-great commander, Gonzalez di Cordova, I cannot

-forbear translating a curious document in reference

-to him which was shown me in the church of San

-Geronimo by a sacristan who was an admirer of the

-deeds of that hero. The document, in the form of

-an anecdote, is as follows:</p>

-

-<p>"Every step of the great captain Don Gonzalez

-di Cordova was an assault, and every assault a victory;

-his sepulchre in the convent of the Geronomites

-at Granada was adorned with two hundred

-banners which he had taken. His envious rivals,

-and the treasurers of the kingdom of Naples in particular,

-induced the king in 1506 to demand a statement

-from Gonzalez of the use he had made of the

-great sums received from Spain for the conduct of

-the war in Italy; and, in fact, the king was so small<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">236</span>

-as to consent, and even to be present on the occasion

-of the conference.</p>

-

-<p>"Gonzalez acceded to the demand with the

-haughtiest disdain, and proposed to give a severe

-lesson to the treasurers and the king upon the treatment

-and consideration to be accorded a conqueror

-of kingdoms.</p>

-

-<p>"He replied with great indifference and calmness

-that he would prepare his accounts for the following

-day, and would let it appear which was the debtor,

-himself or the exchequer, which demanded an account

-of one hundred and thirty thousand ducats

-delivered upon the first payment, eighty thousand

-crowns upon the second, three millions upon the

-third, eleven millions upon the fourth, thirteen millions

-upon the fifth, and so on as the solemn, nasal,

-foolish secretary who authorized so important an act

-continued to enumerate the sums.</p>

-

-<p>"The great Gonzalez kept his word, presented

-himself at the second audience, and, bringing out a

-voluminous book in which he had noted his justification,

-he began with the following words in a deep,

-sonorous voice:</p>

-

-<p>"'Two hundred thousand seven hundred and

-thirty-six ducats and nine reales to the fathers, the

-nuns, and the poor, to the end that they might pray

-God for the triumph of the Spanish arms.</p>

-

-<p>"'One hundred thousand ducats for powder and

-shot.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">237</span></p>

-

-<p>"'Ten thousand ducats for perfumed gloves to

-protect the soldiers from the stench of the corpses

-of the enemy left on the field of battle.</p>

-

-<p>"'One hundred and seventy thousand ducats for

-renewing bells worn out by continuous ringing for

-constant new victories over the enemy.</p>

-

-<p>"'Fifty thousand ducats for brandy for the soldiers

-on the day of battle.</p>

-

-<p>"'A million and a half ducats for the maintenance

-of the prisoners and wounded.</p>

-

-<p>"'A million for returning thanks and Te Deums

-to the Omnipotent.</p>

-

-<p>"'Three hundred millions in masses for the dead.</p>

-

-<p>"'Seven hundred thousand four hundred and

-ninety-four ducats for spies and ...</p>

-

-<p>"'One hundred millions for the patience which I

-showed yesterday on hearing that the king demanded

-an account from the man who has given him his

-kingdom.'</p>

-

-<p>"These are the celebrated accounts of the great

-captain, the originals of which are in the possession

-of Count d'Altimira.</p>

-

-<p>"One of the original accounts, with the autograph

-seal of the great captain, exists in the Military

-Museum of London, where it is guarded with great

-care."</p>

-

-<p>On reading this document I returned to the hotel,

-making invidious comparisons between Gonzalez di

-Cordova and the Spanish generals of our times,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">238</span>

-which, for grave state reasons, as they say in the

-tragedies, I dare not repeat.</p>

-

-<p>In the hotel I saw something new every day.

-There were many university students who had come

-from Malaga and other Andalusian cities to take the

-examination for the doctor's degree at Granada,

-whether because they were a little easier there or

-for what other reason I do not know. We all ate

-at a round table. One morning at breakfast one of

-the students, a young man of about twenty, announced

-that at two o'clock he was to be examined

-in canon law, and that, not feeling very sure of himself,

-he had decided to take a glass of wine to refresh

-the springs of eloquence. He was accustomed to

-drink only wine weakened with water, and committed

-the imprudence of emptying at a single

-draught a glass of the vintage of Xerez. His face

-changed in an instant in so strange a manner that if

-I had not seen the transformation with my own eyes

-I should not have believed that he was the same

-person.</p>

-

-<p>"There! that is enough!" cried his friends.</p>

-

-<p>But the young man, who already felt that he had

-become suddenly strong, keen, and confident, cast a

-compassionate glance at his companions, and with

-a lordly gesture ordered the waiter to fetch him

-another glass.</p>

-

-<p>"You will be drunk," they said.</p>

-

-<p>His only response was to drain a second glass.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">239</span></p>

-

-<p>Then he became wonderfully talkative. There

-was a score of persons at table: in a few minutes he

-was conversing with them all, and he revealed a

-thousand secrets of his past life and his plans for

-the future. He said that he was from Cadiz, that he

-had eight thousand francs a year to spend, and that

-he wished to devote himself to a diplomatic career,

-because with that revenue, added to something

-which his uncle would leave him, he should be able

-to cut a good figure wherever he might be; that he

-had decided to take a wife at thirty, and to marry a

-woman as tall as himself, because it was his opinion

-that the wife should be of the same stature as her

-husband, to keep either from getting the upper hand

-of the other; that when he was a boy he was in

-love with the daughter of an American consul as

-beautiful as a flower and strong as a pine, but she

-had a red birth-mark behind one ear, which looked

-badly, although she knew how to cover it very well

-with her scarf, and he showed us with his napkin

-how she covered it; and that Don Amadeus was too

-ingenuous a man to succeed in governing Spain;

-that of the poets Zorilla and Espronceda, he had

-always preferred Espronceda; that it would be folly

-to cede Cuba to America; that the examination on

-canon law made him laugh; and that he wished to

-drink another four fingers of Xerez, the finest wine

-in Europe.</p>

-

-<p>He drank a third glass in spite of the good coun<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">240</span>sel

-and disapprobation of his friends, and after prattling

-a little longer amid the laughter of his audience,

-he suddenly became silent, looked fixedly at a

-lady sitting opposite to him, dropped his head, and

-fell asleep. I thought that he could not present himself

-for the examination that day, but was mistaken.

-A short hour later they awakened him; he went up

-stairs to wash his face, ran off to the university still

-drowsy, took his examination, and was promoted, to

-the greater glory of the wine of Xerez and Spanish

-diplomacy.</p>

-

-<p>I devoted the following days to visiting the monuments,

-or, to be more accurate, the ruins of the

-Moorish monuments which besides the Alhambra

-and the Generalife attest the ancient splendor of

-Granada. Insomuch as it was the last bulwark of

-Islam, Granada is the city which presents the most

-numerous relics of all the cities of Spain. On the

-hill called the hill of <i>Dinadamar</i> (the Fountain of

-Tears) one may still see the ruins of four towers

-rising at the four corners of a great cistern into

-which flowed the waters from the Sierra to supply

-the highest part of the city. There were baths, gardens,

-and villas of which not a trace remains: from

-that point one overlooked the city with its minarets,

-its terraces, and its mosques gleaming among the

-palms and cypresses. Near there one sees a Moorish

-gate called the gate of Elvira&mdash;a great arch

-crowned with battlements&mdash;and beyond it are the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">241</span>

-ruins of the palaces of the caliphs. Near the Alameda

-promenade stands a square tower in which

-there is a great hall ornamented with the usual Arabian

-inscriptions. Near the convent of San Domingo

-are the remains of gardens and palaces once

-joined to the Alhambra by a subterranean passage.

-Within the city is the Alcaiceria, a Moorish market

-almost perfectly preserved, formed of a few little

-streets as straight and narrow as corridors, lined

-with two rows of shops, one adjoining the other, and

-presenting the strange appearance of an Asiatic

-bazaar. In short, one cannot take a step in Granada

-without coming face to face with an arch, an

-arabesque, a column, or a pile of stones which suggests

-its fantastic, luxurious past.</p>

-

-<p>What turns and windings have I not made through

-those tortuous streets at the hottest hour of the day,

-under a sun that shrivelled my brain, without meeting

-a living soul! At Granada, as in the other

-cities of Andalusia, the people are alive only at

-night, and the night repays them for the imprisonment

-of the day; the public promenades are crowded

-and confused by the hurry and jostling of a multitude,

-one half of which seems to be seeking the

-other half upon urgent business. The crowd is

-densest in the Alameda, but, for all that, I spent my

-evenings on the Alameda with Gongora, who talked

-to me of Moorish monuments, and with a journalist

-who discoursed on politics, and also with another<span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">242</span>

-young man who talked of women, and frequently

-with all three of them together, to my infinite

-pleasure, because those cheery meetings, like those of

-school-boys, at odd times and places, refreshed my

-mind, to steal a beautiful simile, like a summer

-shower refreshes the grass as it falls faster and

-faster, dancing for joy.</p>

-

-<p>If I were obliged to say something about the

-people of Granada, I should be embarrassed, because

-I have not seen them. In the day-time I met no

-one in the streets, and at night I could not see them.

-The theatres were not open, and when I might have

-found some one in the city I was wandering through

-the halls or avenues of the Alhambra; and then I

-had so much to do to see everything in the short

-time which I had allowed myself that no unoccupied

-moments remained for those chance conversations,

-like the ones I had in the other cities, in the streets

-and the cafés, with whomever I happened to meet.</p>

-

-<p>But from what I learned from men who were in

-a position to give me trustworthy information, the

-people of Granada do not enjoy an enviable reputation

-in Spain. They are said to be ill-tempered,

-violent, vindictive, and bloodthirsty; and this arraignment

-is not disproved by the pages of the city

-newspapers. It is not publicly stated, but every one

-knows it for a fact, that popular instruction in Granada

-is at a lower ebb than even in Seville and the

-other smaller Spanish cities, and, as a rule, every<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">243</span>thing

-that cannot be produced by the sun and the

-soil, which produce so bountifully, goes to the bad,

-either through indolence or ignorance or shiftlessness.

-Granada is not connected by railway with

-any important city: she lives alone, surrounded by

-her gardens, enclosed by her mountains, happy with

-the fruits which Nature produces under her hand,

-gently lulling herself to sleep in the vanity of her

-beauty and the pride of her history&mdash;idle, drowsy,

-and fanciful, content to answer with a yawn to any

-one who reproves her for her condition: "I gave

-Spain the painter Alonzo Cano, the poet Louis de

-Leon, the historian Fernando de Castillo, the sacred

-orator Luis di Grenada, and the minister Martinez

-de la Rosas. I have paid my debt, leave me in

-peace;" and this is the reply made by almost all the

-southern cities of Spain, more beautiful, alas! than

-wise and industrious, and proud rather than civilized.

-Ah! one who has seen them can never have

-done exclaiming, "What a pity!"</p>

-

-<p>"Now that you have seen all the marvels of Moorish

-art and tropical vegetation there remains the suburb

-of the Albaicin to be seen before you can say

-that you know Granada. Prepare your mind for a

-new world, put your hand on your purse, and follow

-me."</p>

-

-<p>So said Gongora to me on the last evening of my

-sojourn in Granada. A Republican journalist was

-with us, Melchiorre Almago by name, the director<span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">244</span>

-of the <i>Idea</i>, a congenial, affable young man, who to

-accompany us sacrificed his dinner and a leading

-article that he had been cogitating since morning.</p>

-

-<p>We walked on until we came to the square of the

-<i>Audiencia</i>. There Gongora pointed out an alley

-winding up a hill, and said to me, "Here commences

-the Albaicin;" and Señor Melchiorre, touching

-a house with his cane, added, "Here commences

-the territory of the republic."</p>

-

-<p>We turned up the alley, passed from it into another,

-and from that into a third, always ascending,

-without my seeing anything extraordinary, although

-I looked curiously in every direction. Narrow streets,

-squalid houses, old women dozing on the doorsteps,

-mothers carefully inspecting their children's heads,

-gaping dogs, crowing cocks, ragged boys running

-and shouting, and the other things that one always

-sees in the suburbs; but in those streets nothing

-more. But gradually, as we ascended, the appearance

-of the houses and the people began to change;

-the roofs became lower, the windows fewer, the doors

-smaller, and the people more ragged. In the middle

-of every street ran a little stream in a walled gutter,

-in the Moorish style; here and there over the doors

-and around the windows one saw the remains of arabesques

-and fragments of columns, and in the corners

-of the squares fountains and well-curbs of the

-time of the Moorish dominion. At every hundred

-steps it seemed as if we had gone back fifty years<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">245</span>

-toward the age of the caliphs. My two companions

-touched me on the elbow from time to time, saying

-as they did so, "Look at that old woman!"&mdash;"Look

-at that little girl!"&mdash;"Look at that man!" and I

-looked, and asked, "Who are these people?" If I

-had unexpectedly found myself in that place, I

-should have believed on seeing those men and

-women that I was in an African village, so strange

-were the faces, the dress, the manner of moving,

-talking, and looking, at so short a distance from the

-centre of Granada&mdash;so different were they from the

-people that I had seen up to that time. At every

-turn I stopped to look in the face of my companions,

-and they answered, "That is nothing; we are now

-in the civilized part of the Albaicin; this is the

-Parisian quarter of the suburb; let us go on."</p>

-

-<p>We went on, and the streets seemed like the bed

-of a torrent&mdash;paths hollowed out among the rocks,

-all banks and gullies, broken and stony&mdash;some so

-steep that a mule could not climb them, others so

-narrow that a man could scarcely pass; some

-blocked by women and children sitting on the

-ground, others grass-grown and deserted; and all so

-squalid, wild, and uncouth that the most wretched of

-our villages cannot give one an idea of them, because

-this is a poverty that bears the impress of

-another race and another continent. We turned

-into a labyrinth of streets, passing from time to

-time under a great Moorish arch or through a high<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">246</span>

-square from which one commanded a view of the

-wide valleys, the snow-covered mountains, and a

-part of the lower city, until finally we arrived at a

-street rougher and narrower than any we had yet

-seen; and there we stopped to take breath.</p>

-

-<p>"Here commences the real Albaicin," said the

-young archeologist. "Look at that house!"</p>

-

-<p>I looked; it was a low, smoke-stained, ruinous

-house, with a door that seemed like the mouth of a

-cavern, before which one saw, under a mass of rags,

-a group, or rather a heap, of old women and little

-children, who upon our approach raised their eyes

-heavy with sleep, and with bony hands removed

-from the threshold some filth which impeded our

-passage.</p>

-

-<p>"Let us enter," said my friend.</p>

-

-<p>"Enter?" I demanded.</p>

-

-<p>If they had told me that beyond those walls there

-was a facsimile of the famous Court of Miracles

-which Victor Hugo has described, I should not have

-doubted their word. No door has ever said more

-emphatically than that, "Stand back!" I cannot

-find a better comparison than the gaping mouth of

-a gigantic witch breathing out pestilential vapors.

-But I took courage and entered.</p>

-

-<p>Oh, marvellous! It was the court of a Moorish

-house surrounded by graceful little columns surmounted

-by lovely arches, with those indescribable

-traceries of the Alhambra along the porticoes and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">247</span>

-around the mullioned windows, with the beams and

-ceiling carved and enamelled with little niches for

-vases of flowers and urns of perfume, with a pool

-in the middle, and all the traces and memorials of

-the delicate life of an opulent family. And in that

-house lived those wretched people!</p>

-

-<p>We went out and entered other houses, in all of

-which I found some fragments of Moorish architecture

-and sculpture. From time to time Gongora

-would say to me, "This was a harem. Those were

-the baths of the women; up yonder was the chamber

-of a favorite;" and I fixed my eyes upon every

-bit of the arabesqued wall and upon all the little

-columns of the windows, as if to ask them for a revelation

-of their secrets&mdash;only a name or a magic

-word with which I might reconstruct in an instant

-the ruined edifice and summon the beautiful Arabians

-who had dwelt there. But, alas! amid the

-columns and under the arches of the windows there

-were only rags and wrinkled faces.</p>

-

-<p>Among other houses, we entered one where we

-found a group of girls sewing under the shade of a

-tree in the courtyard, directed by an old woman.

-They were all working upon a great piece of cloth

-that seemed like a mat or a bed-spread, in black and

-gray stripes. I approached and asked one of the

-girls, "What is this?"</p>

-

-<p>They all looked up and with a concerted movement

-spread the cloth open, so that I could see their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">248</span>

-work plainly. Almost before I had seen it I cried,

-"I will buy it."</p>

-

-<p>They all began to laugh. It was the mantle of an

-Andalusian mountaineer, made to wear in the saddle,

-rectangular in form, with an opening in the middle

-to put one's head through, embroidered in bright-colored

-worsteds along the two shortest sides and

-around the opening. The design of the embroideries,

-which represented birds and fantastic flowers,

-green, blue, white, red, and yellow, all in a mass,

-was as crude as a pattern a child might make: the

-beauty of the work lay altogether in the harmony

-of the colors, which was truly marvellous. I cannot

-express the sensation produced by the sight of that

-mantle, except by saying that it laughed and filled

-one with its cheerfulness; and it seems to me impossible

-to imagine anything gayer, more festive, or

-more childishly and gracefully capricious. It was a

-thing to look upon in order to bring yourself out of

-a bad humor, or when you wish to write a pretty

-verse in a lady's album, or when you are expecting

-a person whom you wish to receive with your

-brightest smile.</p>

-

-<p>"When will you finish these embroideries?" I

-asked one of the girls.</p>

-

-<p>"<i>Hoy mismo</i>" (to-day), they all replied in chorus.</p>

-

-<p>"And what is the mantle worth?"</p>

-

-<p>"<i>Cinco</i>" (five), stammered one.</p>

-

-<p>The old women pierced her with a glance which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">249</span>

-seemed to say, "Blockhead!" and answered hastily,

-"Six <i>duros</i>."</p>

-

-<p>Six <i>duros</i> are thirty francs; it did not seem much

-to me, and I put my hand in my pocket.</p>

-

-<p>Gongora cast a withering glance at me which

-seemed to say, "You simpleton!" and, drawing me

-back by the arm, said, "One moment: six <i>duros</i> is

-an exorbitant price."</p>

-

-<p>The old woman shot him another glance which

-seemed to say, "Brigand!" and replied, "I cannot

-take less."</p>

-

-<p>Gongora gave her another glance, which seemed

-to say, "Liar!" and said, "Come, now; you can

-take four <i>duros</i>; you would not ask more from the

-country-people."</p>

-

-<p>The old woman insisted, and for a while we continued

-to exchange with our eyes the titles of simpleton,

-swindler, marplot, liar, pinch-penny, spend-thrift,

-until the mantle was sold to me for five duros,

-and I paid and left my address, and we went out

-blessed and commended to God by the old woman

-and followed a good way by the black eyes of the

-embroiderers.</p>

-

-<p>We went on from street to street, among houses

-increasingly wretched and growing blacker and

-blacker, and more revolting rags and faces. But

-we never came to the end, and I asked my companions,

-"Will you have the goodness to tell me if Granada

-has any limits, and if so where they are?<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">250</span>

-May one ask where we are going and how we shall

-return home?" But they simply laughed and went

-forward.</p>

-

-<p>"Is there anything stranger than this to be seen?"

-I asked at a certain point.</p>

-

-<p>"Stranger?" they both replied. "This second

-part of the suburb which you have seen still belongs

-to civilization: if not the Parisian, it is at least the

-Madrid, quarter of the Albaicin, and there <i>is</i> something

-else; let us go on."</p>

-

-<p>We passed through a very small street containing

-some scantily-clothed women, who looked like people

-fallen from the moon; crossed a little square full of

-babies and pigs in friendly confusion; passed through

-two or three other alleys, now climbing, now descending,

-now in the midst of houses, now among piles of

-rubbish, now between trees and now among rocks,

-until we finally arrived at the solitary place on a

-hillside from which we saw in front the Generalife,

-to the right the Alhambra, and below a deep valley

-filled with a dense wood.</p>

-

-<p>It was growing dark; no one was in sight and not

-a voice was heard.</p>

-

-<p>"Is this the end of the suburb?" I asked.</p>

-

-<p>My two companions laughed and said, "Look in

-that direction."</p>

-

-<div class="figcenter">

-<div class="caption"> <i><a id="The_Alhambra"></a>The Alhambra and the Valley of

-the Darro</i></div>

-<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b250cs.jpg" alt="" /></div>

-</div>

-

-<p>I turned and saw along the street that was lost in

-a distant grove an interminable row of houses. Of

-houses? Rather of dens dug in the earth, with a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">251</span>

-bit of wall in front, with holes for windows and crevices

-for doors, and wild plants of every sort on top

-and along the sides&mdash;veritable caves of beasts, in

-which by the glow of faint lights, scarcely visible,

-swarmed the gypsies by hundreds; a people multiplying

-in the bowels of the mountain, poorer, blacker, and

-more savage than any seen before; another city,

-unknown to the greater part of Granada, inaccessible

-to the police, closed to the census-officers, ignorant

-of every law and of all government, living

-one knows not how, how numerous no one knows,

-foreign to the city, to Spain, and to modern civilization,

-with a language and statutes and manners of

-their own&mdash;superstitious, false, thieving, beggarly,

-and fierce.</p>

-

-<p>"Button up your coat and look out for your

-watch," said Gongora to me, "and let us go forward."</p>

-

-<p>We had not taken a hundred steps when a half-naked

-boy, black as the walls of his hovel, ran out,

-gave a cry, and, making a sign to the other boys

-who followed him, dashed toward us; behind the

-boys came the women; behind the women the men,

-and then old men, old women, and more children;

-and in less time than it takes to tell it we were surrounded

-by a crowd. My two friends, recognized as

-Granadines, succeeded in saving themselves; I was

-left in the lurch. I can still see those horrid faces,

-still hear those voices, and still feel the pressure of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">252</span>

-those hands: gesticulating, shouting, saying a thousand

-things which I did not understand; dragging at

-my coat, my waistcoat, and my sleeves, they pressed

-upon me like a pack of famished people, breathed in

-my face, and cut off my very breath. They were,

-for the most part, half naked and emaciated&mdash;their

-garments falling in tatters, with unkempt hair, horrible

-to see; I seemed to be like Don Roderick in

-the midst of a crowd of the infected in that famous

-dream of the August night.</p>

-

-<p>"What do these people want?" I asked myself.

-"Where have I been brought? How shall I get out

-of this?" I felt almost a sense of fear, and looked

-around uneasily. Little by little I began to understand.</p>

-

-<p>"I have a sore on my shoulder," said one; "I

-cannot work; give me a penny."</p>

-

-<p>"I have a broken leg," said another.</p>

-

-<p>"I have a palsied arm."</p>

-

-<p>"I have had a long sickness."</p>

-

-<p>"<i>Un cuarto, Señorito!</i>"</p>

-

-<p>"<i>Un real, caballero!</i>"</p>

-

-<p>"<i>Una peseta para todos!</i>"</p>

-

-<p>This last request was received with a general cry

-of approval: "<i>Una peseta para todos!</i>" (a <i>peseta</i> for

-us all).</p>

-

-<p>With some little trepidation I drew out my purse;

-they all stood on tiptoe; the nearest poked their

-chins into it; those behind put their chins on the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">253</span>

-heads of those in front; the farthest stretched out

-their arms.</p>

-

-<p>"One moment," I cried. "Who has the most

-authority among you all?"</p>

-

-<p>They all replied with one voice, stretching out

-their arms toward the same person, "That one."</p>

-

-<p>It was a terrible old hag, all nose and chin, with a

-great tuft of white hair standing straight above her

-head like a bunch of feathers, and a mouth which

-seemed like a letter-box, with little clothing save a

-chemise&mdash;black, shrivelled, and mummified; she approached

-me bowing and smiling, and held out her

-hands to take mine.</p>

-

-<p>"What do you want?" I demanded, taking a step

-backward.</p>

-

-<p>"Your fortune," they all cried.</p>

-

-<p>"Tell my fortune, then," I replied, holding out my

-hand.</p>

-

-<p>The old woman took my poor hand between her

-ten&mdash;I cannot say fingers, but shapeless bones&mdash;placed

-her sharp nose on it, raised her head, looked

-hard at me, pointed her finger toward me, and,

-swaying and pausing at every sentence as if she

-were reciting poetry, said to me in inspired accents,

-"Thou wert born upon a famous day.</p>

-

-<p>"Upon a famous day also shalt thou die.</p>

-

-<p>"Thou art the possessor of amazing riches."</p>

-

-<p>Here she muttered I know not what about sweethearts

-and marriage and felicity, from which I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">254</span>

-understood that she supposed I was married, and

-then she continued: "On the day of thy marriage

-there was great feasting in thy house; there were

-many to give and take.</p>

-

-<p>"And another woman wept.</p>

-

-<p>"And when thou seest her the wings of thy heart

-open."</p>

-

-<p>And so on in this strain, saying that I had sweethearts

-and friends and treasures and jewels in store

-for me every day of the year, in every country of

-the world. While the old woman was speaking

-they were all silent, as if they believed she had

-prophesied truly. She finally closed her prophecy

-with a formula of dismissal, and ended the formula

-by extending her arms and making a skip in a dancing

-attitude. I gave her the peseta, and the crowd

-broke into shouting, applause, and singing, making

-a thousand uncanny hops and gestures around me,

-saluting me with nudges and slaps of the hand on

-my back, as if I were an old friend, until finally, by

-dint of wriggling and striking now one and then

-another, I succeeded in opening a passage and rejoined

-my friends. But a new danger threatened

-us. The news of the arrival of a foreigner had

-spread, the tribes were in motion, the city of the

-gypsies was all in an uproar; from the neighboring

-houses and from the distant huts, from the top of the

-hill and the bottom of the valley, ran boys, women

-with babies about their necks, old men with canes,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">255</span>

-cripples, and professional imposters, septuagenarian

-prophetesses who wished to tell my fortune&mdash;an

-army of beggars coming upon us from every direction.

-It was night; there was no time for hesitation;

-we broke into a run toward the city like

-school-boys. Then a devilish cry broke out behind

-us, and the nimblest began to chase us. Thanks to

-Heaven! after a short race we found ourselves in

-safety&mdash;tired and breathless, and covered with dust,

-but safe.</p>

-

-<p>"It was necessary to escape at any cost," said

-Señor Melchiorre with a laugh; "otherwise we

-should have gone home without our shirts."</p>

-

-<p>"And take notice," added Gongora, "that we

-have seen only the door of Gypsy-town, the civilized

-part, not the Paris nor the Madrid, but at least

-the Granada, of the Albaicin. If we could only have

-gone on! if you could have seen the rest!"</p>

-

-<p>"But how many thousand are there of those

-people?" I demanded.</p>

-

-<p>"No one knows."</p>

-

-<p>"How do they live?"</p>

-

-<p>"No one can imagine."</p>

-

-<p>"What authority do they recognize?"</p>

-

-<p>"One only&mdash;<i>los reyes</i> (the kings), the heads of families

-or of houses, those who have the most money

-and years. They never go out of their city; they

-know nothing, they live in the dark as to all that

-happens beyond the circle of their hovels. Dy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">256</span>nasties

-fall, governments change, armies clash, and

-it is a miracle if the news ever reaches their ears.

-Ask them if Isabella is still on the throne; they do

-not know. Ask them who Amadeus is; they have

-never heard his name. They are born and perish

-like flies, and they live as they lived centuries ago,

-multiplying without leaving their own boundaries,

-ignorant and unknown, seeing nothing all their

-lives beyond the valleys lying below their feet and

-the Alhambra towering above their heads."</p>

-

-<p>We passed again through all the streets that we

-had traversed, now dark and deserted, and endless

-as it seemed to me; and, climbing and descending,

-turning and twisting, and turning again, we finally

-arrived at the square of the Audiencia in the middle

-of the city of Granada&mdash;in the civilized world. At

-the sight of the brightly-lighted cafés and shops I

-experienced a feeling of pleasure, as if I had just

-returned to city-life after a year's sojourn in an

-uninhabited wilderness.</p>

-

-<p>On the evening of the next day I left for Valencia.

-I remember that a few moments before starting, as I

-was paying my hotel-bill, I observed to the proprietor

-that there was an overcharge for one candle,

-and playfully asked him, "Will you deduct it for

-me?" The proprietor seized his pen, and, deducting

-twenty centimes from the total charge, replied

-in a voice which he wished to appear emotional,

-"The devil! among Italians!"</p>

-

-<hr class="chap" />

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">257</span></p>

-

-

-

-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a><br /><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p>

-</div><div class="chapter">

-<h2><a name="VALENCIA" id="VALENCIA"></a>VALENCIA.</h2>

-

-

-<p>The journey from Granada to Valencia, made all

-<i>de un tiron</i> (at one breath), as they say in Spain, is

-one of those recreations in which a rational man

-indulges only once in his life. From Granada to

-Menjibar, a village on the left bank of the Guadalquivir,

-between Jaen and Andujar, is a night's

-ride by diligence; from Menjibar to the Alcazar de

-San Juan is a half-day's journey by railway in an

-uncurtained carriage, through a plain as bare as the

-palm of one's hand, under a blazing sun; and from

-the Alcazar de San Juan to Valencia, taking account

-of an entire evening spent in the station of the Alcazar,

-makes another night and another morning

-before one reaches the longed-for city at noon,

-where Nature, as Emile Praga would say, is horrified

-at the dreadful idea that there are still four

-months of summer.</p>

-

-<p>But it must be said that the country through

-which one passes is so beautiful from beginning to

-the end that if one were capable of appreciation

-when one is dead with sleep and finds one's self

-turning into water by reason of the heat, one would<span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">260</span>

-go into ecstasies a thousand times. It is a journey

-of unexpected landscapes, sudden vistas, remarkable

-contrasts, theatrical effects of Nature, so to speak&mdash;marvellous

-and fantastic transformations, which leave

-in the mind an indescribable, vague illusion of having

-passed not through a part of Spain, but along an

-entire meridian of the earth across the most dissimilar

-countries. From the <i>vega</i> of Granada, which

-you cross in the moonlight, almost opening a way

-among the groves and gardens, in the midst of a

-luxuriant vegetation that seems to crowd around

-you like a tossing sea, ready to overflow and engulf

-you with its billows of verdure,&mdash;from this you

-emerge into the midst of ragged and precipitous

-mountains, where not a trace of human habitation

-is to be seen; you graze the edge of precipices, wind

-along the banks of mountain-torrents, run along at

-the bottom of the ravines, and seem to be lost in a

-rocky labyrinth. Then you come out a second time

-among the green hills and flowery fields of upper

-Andalusia, and then, all suddenly, the fields and hills

-disappear and you find yourself in the midst of the

-rocky mountains of the Sierra Morena, that hang

-over your head from every direction and close the

-horizon all around like the walls of an immense

-abyss. You leave the Sierra Morena, and the desert

-plains of La Mancha stretch before you; you leave

-La Mancha and advance through the flowery plain

-of Almansa, varied by every sort of cultivation,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">261</span>

-presenting the appearance of a vast carpet of checkered

-pattern colored in all the shades of green that

-can be found upon the pallet of a landscape-painter.

-And, finally, the plain of Almansa opens into a delightful

-oasis, a land blest of God, a true earthly

-paradise, the kingdom of Valencia, from whose

-boundaries, even to the city itself, you pass through

-gardens, vineyards, fragrant orange-groves, white

-villas encircled by terraces, cheerful, brightly-colored

-villages, clusters, avenues, and groves of palms,

-pomegranates, aloes, and sugar-canes, interminable

-hedges of Indian fig, long chains of low hills, and

-conical mounds cultivated as kitchen-gardens and

-flower-beds, laid out with minute care from top to

-bottom, and variegated like great bunches of grass

-and flowers; and everywhere a vigorous vegetation

-which hides every bare spot, covers every height,

-clothes every projection, climbs, falls, trails along,

-marches forward, overflows, intertwines, shuts off

-the view, impedes the road, dazzles with its verdure,

-wearies with its beauty, confounds with its caprices

-and its frolics, and produces an effect as of a sudden

-parting of the earth raised to fever heat by the fires

-of a secret volcano.</p>

-

-<p>The first building which meets the eye on entering

-Valencia is an immense bull-ring situated to the right

-of the railway. The building consists of four orders

-of superimposed arches rising on stout pilasters, all

-of brick, and in the distance resembling the Colos<span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">262</span>seum.

-It is the bull-ring where on the fourth of

-September, 1871, King Amadeus, in the presence of

-thousands of spectators, shook hands with Tato, the

-celebrated one-legged <i>torero</i>, who as director of the

-spectacle had asked permission to render his homage

-in the royal box. Valencia is full of mementos of

-the duke d'Aosta. The sacristan of the cathedral

-has in his possession a gold chronometer bearing the

-duke's initials in diamonds, with a chain of pearls,

-which was presented by him when he went to pray

-in the chapel of Our Lady of the Desolate. In the

-hospice of the same name the poor remember that

-one day they received their daily bread from his

-hand. In the mosaic workshop of one Nolla they

-preserve two bricks, upon one of which he cut his

-own name with his sword, and upon the other the

-name of the queen. In the Plaza di Tetuan the

-people point out the house of Count di Cervellon,

-where he was entertained; it is the same house in

-which Ferdinand VII. signed the decrees annulling

-the constitution in 1814, in which Queen Christina

-abdicated the throne in 1840, in which Queen Isabella

-spent some days in 1858. In short, there is

-not a corner of the city of which it cannot be said,

-Here he shook hands with a working-man, here he

-visited a factory, there he passed on foot far from

-his suite, surrounded by a crowd, trustful, serene,

-and smiling.</p>

-

-<p>It was in Valencia, since I am speaking of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">263</span>

-duke d'Aosta,&mdash;it was in the city of Valencia that

-a little girl of five years in reciting some verses

-touched upon that terrible subject of a <i>foreign king</i>

-with probably the noblest and most considerate

-words spoken in Spain for many years previous to

-that time&mdash;words which, if all Spain had remembered

-and pondered then, would perhaps have spared

-her many of those calamities which have befallen

-her, and others which still threaten; words which

-perhaps one day some Spaniard may repeat with a

-sigh, and which already at this time draw from

-events a marvellous light of truth and beauty. And,

-since these verses are graceful and simple, I transcribe

-them here. The poem is entitled "God and

-the King," and runs as follows:</p>

-

-<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">

-  <div class="verse">"Dios, en todo soberano,</div>

-  <div class="verse">Creó un dia á los mortales,</div>

-  <div class="verse">Y á todos nos hizo iguales</div>

-  <div class="verse">Con su poderosa mano.</div>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-  <div class="verse">"No reconoció Naciones</div>

-  <div class="verse">Ni colores ni matices?</div>

-  <div class="verse">Y en ver los hombres felices</div>

-  <div class="verse">Cifró sus aspiraciones.</div>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-  <div class="verse">"El Rey, che su imágen es,</div>

-  <div class="verse">Su bondad debe imitar</div>

-  <div class="verse">Y el pueblo no ha de indagar</div>

-  <div class="verse">Si es aleman ó francés.</div>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-  <div class="verse">"Porqué con ceño iracundo</div>

-  <div class="verse">Rechazarle siendo bueno?</div>

-  <div class="verse">Un Rey de bondades lleno</div>

-  <div class="verse">Tiene por su patria el mundo.</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">264</span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-  <div class="verse">"Vino de nacion estraña</div>

-  <div class="verse">Cárlos Quinto emperador,</div>

-  <div class="verse">Y conquistó su valor</div>

-  <div class="verse">Mil laureles para España.</div>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-  <div class="verse">"Y es un recuerdo glorioso</div>

-  <div class="verse">Aunque en guerra cimentado,</div>

-  <div class="verse">El venturoso reinado</div>

-  <div class="verse">De Felipe el Animoso.</div>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-  <div class="verse">"Hoy el tercero sois vos</div>

-  <div class="verse">Nacido en estraño suelo</div>

-  <div class="verse">Que viene á ver nuestro cielo</div>

-  <div class="verse">Puro destello de Dios.</div>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-  <div class="verse">"Al rayo de nuestro sol</div>

-  <div class="verse">Sed bueno, justo y leal,</div>

-  <div class="verse">Que á un Rey bueno y liberal</div>

-  <div class="verse">Adora el pueblo español.</div>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-  <div class="verse">"Y á vuestra frente el trofeo</div>

-  <div class="verse">Ceñid de perpetua gloria,</div>

-  <div class="verse">Para que diga la historia</div>

-  <div class="verse">&mdash;Fué grande el Rey Amadeo."</div>

-</div></div></div>

-

-<p>"God, Ruler over all, created mortals one day,

-and made all equal with His mighty hand. He recognized

-neither nations nor colors nor divisions, and

-to behold men happy was His desire. The king,

-who is His image, ought to imitate His goodness,

-and the people have no need to ask whether he be

-German or French. Why, then, with angry frown

-repulse him if he be good? A king abounding

-in good deeds holds the world as his country.

-Charles V., the emperor, came from a foreign na<span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">265</span>tion,

-and by his valor won a thousand laurels for

-Spain. And the fortunate reign of Philip the Courageous

-is a glorious memory even though founded

-upon war.</p>

-

-<p>"To-day a third king rules you born on a foreign

-soil, who comes to look upon our sky, a clear spark

-of God. His love is true and just and loyal to the

-light of our sun, and this is a good and liberal king

-Spanish people adore. And around your brows

-you shall wear the trophy of perpetual glory upon

-which history shall write, 'Great was King Amadeus.'"</p>

-

-<p>Oh, poor little girl! how many wise things you

-have said! and how many foolish things others have

-done!</p>

-

-<p>The city of Valencia, if one enters it with one's

-mind full of the ballads in which the poets sang of

-its marvels, does not seem to correspond to the

-lovely image formed of it; neither, on the other

-hand, does it offer that sinister appearance for which

-one is prepared if one considers its just fame as a

-turbulent, warlike city, the fomenter of civil strife&mdash;a

-city prouder of the smell of its powder than of the

-fragrance of its orange-groves. It is a city built in

-the midst of a vast flowery plain on the right bank

-of the Guadalquivir, which separates it from the

-suburbs, a little way from the roadstead which serves

-as a port, and consists all of tortuous streets lined

-with high, ungainly, many-colored houses, and on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">266</span>

-this account less pleasing in appearance than the

-streets of the Andalusian cities, and entirely devoid

-of that evasive Oriental grace which so strangely

-stirs one's fancy. Along the left bank of the river

-extends a magnificent promenade formed of majestic

-avenues and beautiful gardens. These one reaches

-by going out of the city through the gate of the

-Cid, a structure flanked by two great embattled

-towers named after the hero because he passed

-through it in 1094 after he had expelled the Moors

-from Valencia. The cathedral, built upon the spot

-where stood a temple of Diana in Roman times, then

-a church of San Salvador in the time of the Goths,

-then a mosque in Moorish times, afterward converted

-into a church by the Cid, changed a second

-time into a mosque by the Moors in 1101, and

-for the third time into a church by King Don

-Jayme after the final overthrow of the invaders,

-is a vast structure, exceedingly rich in ornaments

-and treasures, but it cannot bear comparison with

-the greater number of the other Spanish cathedrals.

-There are a few palaces worth seeing, besides the

-palace of the Audiencia, a beautiful monument of

-the sixteenth century in which the Cortes of the

-kingdom of Valencia assembled; the <i>Casa de Ayuntamiento</i>,

-built between the fifteenth and sixteenth

-centuries, in which are preserved the sword of Don

-Jayme, the keys of the city, and the banner of the

-Moors; and, above all, <i>the Lonja</i>&mdash;the Bourse of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">267</span>

-merchants&mdash;notable for its celebrated hall consisting

-of three great naves divided by twenty-four spiral

-columns, above which curve the light arches of the

-vaulted roof in bold lines, the architecture imparting

-to the eye a pleasing impression of gayety and harmony.

-And, finally, there is the art-gallery, which

-is not one of the least in Spain.</p>

-

-<p>But, to tell the truth, in those few days that I remained

-at Valencia waiting for the boat I was more

-occupied by politics than by art. And I proved the

-truth of the words I heard an illustrious Italian say

-before I left Italy&mdash;one who knew Spain like his

-his own home: "The foreigner who lives even for a

-short time in Spain is drawn little by little, almost

-insensibly, to heat his blood and muddle his brain

-over politics, as if Spain were his own country or

-as if the fortunes of his country were depending

-upon those of Spain. The passions are so inflamed,

-the struggle is so furious, and in this struggle there

-is always so clearly at stake the future, the safety,

-and the life of the nation, that it is impossible for

-any one with the least tinge of the Latin blood in his

-imagination and his system to remain an indifferent

-spectator. You must needs grow excited, speak at

-party meetings, take the elections seriously, mingle

-with the crowd at the political demonstrations, break

-with your friends, form a clique of those who think

-as you think&mdash;make, in a word, a Spaniard of yourself,

-even to the whites of your eyes. And gradu<span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">268</span>ally,

-as you become Spanish, you forget Europe, as

-if it were at the antipodes, and end in seeing nothing

-beyond Spain, as if you were governing it, and as if

-all its interests were in your hands."</p>

-

-<p>Such is the case, and this was my experience. In

-those few days the Conservative ministry was shipwrecked

-and the Radicals had the wind behind

-them. Spain was all in a ferment; governors, generals,

-officials of all grades and of all administrations

-fell; a crowd of parvenus burst into the offices

-of the ministry with cries of joy: Zorilla was to inaugurate

-a new era of prosperity and peace; Don

-Amadeus had had an inspiration from heaven; liberty

-had conquered; Spain was saved. And I, as I

-listened to the band playing in front of the new governor's

-mansion under a clear starry sky in the

-midst of a joyous crowd,&mdash;I too had a ray of hope

-that the throne of Don Amadeus might finally extend

-its roots, and reproached myself for being too

-prone to predict evil. And that comedy which

-Zorilla played at his villa when he would by no

-means accept the presidency of the ministry, and

-sent back his friends and the members of the deputation,

-and finally, tired of continually saying no,

-fell into a swoon on saying yes, this, I say, gave

-me at the time a high opinion of the firmness of his

-character and led me to augur happily for the new

-government. And I said to myself that it was a sin

-to leave Spain just when the horizon was clearing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">269</span>

-and the royal palace of Madrid was tinted rose-color.

-And I had already considered the plan of returning

-to Madrid that I might have the satisfaction of sending

-some consoling news to Italy, and so be pardoned

-for the imprudence of sending unvarnished accounts

-of the situation up to that time. And I repeated

-the verses of Prati:</p>

-

-<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">

-  <div class="verse">"Oh qual destin t'aspetta</div>

-  <div class="verse">Aquila giovenetta!"</div>

-</div></div></div>

-

-<p>(Oh what a destiny awaits thee, young eagle!)

-And, save a little bombast in the appellation, it

-seemed to me that they contained a prophecy, and

-I imagined meeting the poet in the Piazza Colonna

-at Rome and running toward him to offer my congratulations

-and press his hand....</p>

-

-<p>The most beautiful sight in Valencia is the market.

-The Valencian peasants are the most artistic

-and bizarre in their dress of all the peasants of

-Spain. To cut a good figure in a group of maskers

-at one of our masquerades they need only enter the

-theatre dressed as they would be on a festival or

-market-day in the streets of Valencia and along

-the country roads. On first seeing them dressed in

-this style, one laughs, and cannot in any way be

-brought to believe that they are Spanish peasants.

-They have an indescribable air of Greeks, Bedouins,

-buffoons, tightrope-walkers, women partly undressed

-on their way to bed, the silent characters of a play<span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">270</span>

-not quite ready to make their appearance, or facetious

-people who wish to make themselves generally

-ridiculous. They wear a full white shirt that takes

-the place of a jacket; a parti-colored velvet waistcoat

-open at the breast; a pair of zouave linen

-breeches which do not reach the knee, looking like

-drawers and standing out like the skirts of a ballet-dancer;

-a red or blue sash around the waist; a sort

-of embroidered white woollen stockings that leave

-the knee bare; a pair of corded sandals like those

-of the Catalan peasants; and on their heads, which

-are almost all shaved like those of the Chinese,

-they wear a handkerchief, red, sky-blue, yellow,

-or white, bound around like a cornucopia, and

-knotted at the temples or at the nape of the neck.

-They sometimes wear small velvet hats similar in

-shape to those worn in the other provinces of Spain.

-When they go into the city they nearly all carry

-around their shoulders or on their arms, now like a

-shawl, now like a mantle, or again like a little cape,

-a woollen <i>capa</i>, long and narrow, in brightly-colored

-stripes in which white and red predominate, adorned

-with fringe and rosettes. One may easily imagine

-the appearance presented by a square where there

-are gathered some hundreds of men dressed after

-this fashion: it is a Carnival scene, a festival, a tumult

-of colors, that makes one feel as gay as a band

-of music; a spectacle at once clownish, pretty, imposing,

-and ridiculous, to which the haughty faces<span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">271</span>

-and the majestic bearing which distinguish the Valencian

-peasants add an air of gravity which heightens

-the extraordinary beauty of the scene.</p>

-

-<p>If there is an insolent, lying proverb, it is that

-old Spanish one which says, "In Valencia flesh is

-grass, grass is water, men are women, and the

-women nothing." Leaving that part about the flesh

-and the grass, which is a pun, the men, especially

-those of the lower classes, are tall and robust, and

-have the bold appearance of the Catalans and Arragonese,

-with a livelier and more luminous expression

-of the eye; and the women, by the consent of all

-the Spaniards and of as many foreigners as have

-travelled in Spain, are the most classically beautiful

-in the country. The Valencians, who know that the

-eastern coast of the Peninsula was originally settled

-by Greeks and Carthaginians, say, "It is a clear

-case. The Grecian type of beauty has lingered

-here." I do not venture to say yes or no to this

-assertion, for to describe the beauty of the women

-of a city where one has passed only a few hours

-would seem to me like a license to be taken only by

-the compiler of a "Guide." But one can easily discover

-a decided difference between the Andalusian

-and Valencian types of beauty. The Valencian is

-taller, more robust, and fairer, with more regular

-features, gentler eyes, and a more matronly walk

-and carriage. She does not possess the bewitching

-air of the Andalusian, which makes it necessary to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_272">272</span>

-bite one's finger as if to subdue the sudden and

-alarming insurrection of one's capricious desires at

-sight of her; but the Valencian is a woman whom

-one regards with a feeling of calmer admiration, and

-while one looks one says, as La Harpe said of the

-Apollo Belvidere, "<i>Notre tete se releve, notre maintien

-s'ennoblit</i>," and instead of imagining a little Andalusian

-house to hide her from the eyes of the

-world, one longs for a marble palace to receive the

-ladies and cavaliers who will come to render her

-homage.</p>

-

-<p>If one is to believe the rest of the Spaniards, the

-Valencian people are fierce and cruel beyond all imagination.

-If one wishes to get rid of an enemy, he

-finds an obliging man who for a few crowns undertakes

-the business with as much indifference as he

-would accept a commission to carry a letter to the

-post. A Valencian peasant who finds that he has a

-gun in his hands as he passes an unknown man in a

-lonely street says to his companion, "See if I can

-aim straight?" and takes aim and fires. This actually

-occurred not many years ago: I was assured

-of its truth. In the cities and villages of Spain the

-boys and young men of the people are accustomed

-to play at being bulls, as they call it. One takes the

-place of the bull and does the butting; another,

-with a sharp stick under his arm like a lance, climbs

-on the back of a third, who represents the horse, and

-repulses the assaults of the first. Once a band of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">273</span>

-young Valencians thought they would introduce

-some innovations into this sport, and so make it

-seem a little more realistic and afford the spectators

-and the participants a little more amusement

-than the customary way of playing it; and the innovations

-were to substitute for the stick a long

-sharp-pointed knife, one of those formidable <i>navajas</i>

-that we saw at Seville, and to give the man who took

-the part of the bull two other shorter knives, which,

-fastened firmly on either side of his head, answered

-the purpose of horns. It seems incredible, but it is

-true. They played with the knives, shed a sea of

-blood, several were killed, some were mortally

-wounded, and others badly hurt, without the game

-becoming a fight, without the rules of the sport

-being transgressed, and without any one raising his

-voice to end the slaughter.</p>

-

-<p>I tell these things as they were told to me,

-although I am far from believing all that is said

-against the Valencians; but it is certain that at Valencia

-the public safety, if not a myth, as our papers

-poetically say in speaking of Romagna and Sicily, is

-certainly not the first of the good things which one

-enjoys after the blessing of life. I was persuaded

-of this fact the first evening of my stay in the city.

-I did not know the way to the port, but thought I

-was near it, and asked a shop-woman which way I

-should take. She uttered a cry of astonishment:</p>

-

-<p>"Do you wish to go to the port, <i>caballero</i>?"</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">274</span></p>

-

-<p>"Yes."</p>

-

-<p>"<i>Ave Maria purissima!</i> to the port at this hour?"</p>

-

-<p>And she turned toward a group of women who

-were standing by the door, and said to them in the

-Valencian dialect, "Women, do you answer for me:

-this gentleman is asking me the way to the port!"</p>

-

-<p>The women replied in one voice, "God save him!"</p>

-

-<p>"But from what?"</p>

-

-<p>"Don't risk yourself, sir."</p>

-

-<p>"What is your reason?"</p>

-

-<p>"A thousand reasons."</p>

-

-<p>"Tell me one of them?"</p>

-

-<p>"You would be murdered."</p>

-

-<p>One reason was enough for me, as any one can imagine,

-and I did not go to the port.</p>

-

-<p>For the rest, at Valencia as elsewhere, in whatever

-intercourse I had with the people I met only with

-courtesy as a foreigner and as an Italian&mdash;a friendly

-welcome even among those who would not hear

-foreign kings discussed in general, and princes of

-the house of Savoy in particular, and such men were

-numerous, but they were courteous enough to say at

-once, "Let us not harp on that string." To a foreigner

-who, when asked whence he comes, replies, "I am

-a Frenchman," they respond with an agreeable smile,

-as if to say, "We recognize each other." To one

-who answers, "I am a German or an Englishman,"

-they make a slight inclination of the head, which

-implies, "I bow to you;" but when one replies, "I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">275</span>

-am an Italian," they eagerly extend the hand as if

-to say, "We are friends;" and they look at one with

-an air of curiosity, as you look for the first time at a

-person who is said to resemble you, and they smile

-pleasantly on hearing the Italian tongue, as you

-would smile on hearing some one, though in no

-mocking spirit, imitate your voice and accents. In

-no country in the world does an Italian feel nearer

-home than in Spain. The sky, the speech, the

-faces, and the dress remind him of his fatherland;

-the veneration with which the Spanish pronounce

-the names of our great poets and our great painters,

-that vague and pleasing sense of curiosity with

-which they speak of our famous cities, the enthusiasm

-with which they cultivate our music, the impulsiveness

-of their affections, the fire of their language,

-the rhythms of their poetry, the eyes of their women,

-the air and the sun,&mdash;oh! an Italian must be without

-a spark of love for his fatherland who does not feel

-an emotion of sympathy for this country, who does

-not feel inclined to excuse its errors, who does not

-sincerely deplore its misfortunes, who does not desire

-for it a happy future. O beautiful hills of Valencia,

-smiling banks of the Guadalquivir, charmed

-gardens of Granada, little white cottages of Seville,

-proud towers of Toledo, roaring streets of Madrid,

-and venerable walls of Saragossa! and you, kindly

-hosts and courteous companions of my travels&mdash;you

-who have spoken to me of Italy as of a second<span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">276</span>

-fatherland, who with your festal gayety have scattered

-my restless melancholy!&mdash;I shall always carry

-deep down in my heart a feeling of gratitude and

-love for you, and I shall cherish your images in my

-memory, as one of the dearest recollections of my

-youth, and shall always think of you as one of the

-loveliest dreams of my life.</p>

-

-<p>I repeated these words to myself at midnight as

-I looked over brightly-lighted Valencia, leaning

-against the rail of the good ship <i>Xenil</i>, which was

-on the point of sailing. Some young Spaniards had

-come on board with me. They were going to

-Marseilles to take ship from that port to the Antilles,

-where they expected to remain for some years. One

-of them stood alone weeping; suddenly he raised his

-head and looked toward the shore between two anchored

-vessels, and exclaimed in a tone of desolation,

-"Oh, my God! I hoped she would not come!"</p>

-

-<p>In a few moments a boat approached the ship; a

-little white figure, followed by a man enveloped in a

-cloak, hastily climbed the ladder, and with a deep

-sob threw herself into the arms of the young man,

-who had run to meet her.</p>

-

-<p>At that moment the boatswain called, "All off,

-gentlemen!"</p>

-

-<p>Then there followed a most distressing scene: the

-two young persons were torn apart, and the young

-lady was borne almost fainting to the boat, which

-pushed off a little and remained motionless.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">277</span></p>

-

-<p>The ship started.</p>

-

-<p>The young man dashed madly forward toward the

-rail, and, sobbing, cried in a voice that pierced one's

-heart, "Adieu, darling! adieu! adieu!"</p>

-

-<p>The little white figure stretched out her arms and

-perhaps responded, but her voice was not heard.

-The boat was dropped behind and disappeared.</p>

-

-<p>One of the young men said to me in a whisper,

-"They are betrothed."</p>

-

-<p>It was a lovely night, but sad. Valencia was soon

-lost to view, and I thought I should never see Spain

-again, and wept.</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap" />

-

-<p><span class="smcap">End of Vol. II.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a><br /><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></span></p>

-

-

-

-</div><div class="chapter">

-<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX.</h2>

-

-<div class="index">

-<ul class="index">

-<li class="ifrst">A.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Abdelasio reconstructs the Alcazar of Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Abdurrahman I. builds the mosque of Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Abdurrahman I. builds Medina Az-Zahra, ii. <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">his happy days, ii. <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Abencerrages, Hall of the, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Abrantes, duke d', at the bull-fights, 209.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Absolutist party,096.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Academy, a dream of the, 280.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Academy of San Fernando, Madrid, 193.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Acquasola gardens, Genoa, 10.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Alameda, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Alarcon y Mendoza, Juan Ruiz de, dramatist, 169.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Alarmed travellers, ii. <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Albaicin at Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">courtyard in, ii. <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">fortune-telling, ii. <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">government of, ii. <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">ignorance in, ii. <a href='#Page_256'>256</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Parisian quarter, ii. <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">squalor of, ii. <a href='#Page_251'>251</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Albornoz, Gil Carillo de, tomb of, Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Alcaiceria, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Alcala street, Madrid, 156, 168.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Alcanadre, Roman aqueduct at, 91.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Alcantara, bridge of, Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Alcazar de San Juan, ii. <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">of Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">of Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Alcayde of Saragossa's bold republicanism, 83.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Aleardi Gaetano, on the can-can, 171.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Alfonso and the Cid, 121.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Alfonso the Wise, MSS. of, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Alfonso VIII. defeats the Moors at las Navas de Tolosa, ii. <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Alfonso XII., favored by the Moderate party, 96.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Algaba, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Algeciras, Gulf of, ii. <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Alhambra, arabesques, ii. <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>, 208, ii. <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">baths, ii. <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">cabinet of Linderaja, ii. <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Charles V.'s palace, ii. <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Court of Lions, ii. <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Court of Myrtles, ii. <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">fascination of, ii. <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Gate of Justice, ii. <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">grounds of ii. <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Hall of Abencerrages, ii. <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Hall of Barca, ii. <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Hall of Divans, ii. <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Hall of Justice, ii. <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Hall of Oranges, ii. <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Hall of the Ambassadors, ii. <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Hall of the Two Sisters, ii. <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Mirador de la Reina, ii. <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">mosque, ii. <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">paintings in, ii. <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Patio de la Reja, ii. <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">realization of a dream, ii. <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">situation of, ii. <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Tower of Commares, ii. <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Tower of the Ambassadors, ii. <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">vastness of the, ii. <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">view from, ii. <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Ali Pacha, relics of, 176.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Almago, Melchiorre, republican journalist, ii. <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Almansa, plain of, ii. <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Almansur builds Zahira, ii. <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Almodovar, castle of, ii. <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Altimura, Count d', possesses the fiscal accounts of Gonzalez di Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">280</span>Alvarez, Gen., house of, at Gerona, 16.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Amadeus at Gerona, 16;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Logroño, 85;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Madrid, 166, 194;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Saragossa, 82;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at the bull-fights, 213;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">character of, 201;</li>

-<li class="isub1">courage of, 199;</li>

-<li class="isub1">court-life of, 194;</li>

-<li class="isub1">encourages bull-fights, 223, 235;</li>

-<li class="isub1">hostility of the newspapers to, 93, 200;</li>

-<li class="isub1">hostility of the soldiery to, 204;</li>

-<li class="isub1">prejudice against, 15, 33, 80.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Ambassadors, Hall of the, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Tower of the, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Amusements, 168.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Andalusian characteristics, 36;</li>

-<li class="isub1">dialect, ii. <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">scenery, ii. <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, 100, ii. <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">women, ii. <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Angels, convent of, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Ansurez, Pedro, tomb of, 137.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Aosta, duke d'. See Amadeus.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Aqueduct, Roman, at Segovia, 124.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Arabesques in the Alhambra, beauty of, ii. <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">intricacy of design, ii. <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Aranjuez, arrival at, ii. <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">gardens, ii. <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">historic associations, ii. <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">royal palace, ii. <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">suburbs of, ii. <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Argamasilla de Alba, birthplace of Don Quixote, ii. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Argensola, the brothers, 72;</li>

-<li class="isub1">sonnet by, 73.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Arjonilla, ii. <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Armory, royal, at Madrid, 174.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Arragon, decay of, 52;</li>

-<li class="isub1">dialect of, 54;</li>

-<li class="isub1">independence of, 49;</li>

-<li class="isub1">mountains of, 48.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Artillery museum at Madrid, 180.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Asturia, prince of, title instituted, 98.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Atocha, Church of Our Lady of, Madrid, 166, 204;</li>

-<li class="isub1">street of, Madrid, 174.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Avilo, 124.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">"Awaiting her in heaven," ii. <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Ayala, d', dramatist, 169.</li>

-

-

-<li class="ifrst">B.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Banderillas, de fuego, 226.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Barber of Seville, house of the, ii. <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Barcelona, arrival at, 20;</li>

-<li class="isub1">cafés, 30;</li>

-<li class="isub1">carnival masqueraders, 22;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Catalonian peculiarities, 35;</li>

-<li class="isub1">cathedral, 24;</li>

-<li class="isub1">cemetery, 27;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Cervantes on, 42;</li>

-<li class="isub1">circus, 235;</li>

-<li class="isub1">dialect, 21;</li>

-<li class="isub1">foreign hotel waiters, 20;</li>

-<li class="isub1">palaces, 26;</li>

-<li class="isub1">revolutionary proclivities, 35;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Roman ruins, 26;</li>

-<li class="isub1">streets, 22;</li>

-<li class="isub1">suburbs, 22;</li>

-<li class="isub1">theatre, 40;</li>

-<li class="isub1">women of, 41.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Baretti, Giuseppe, 206; ii. <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Barili, Anton Giulio, travelling companion, 10.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Batista, Juan, architect of the Escurial, 260.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Beatrice, Queen, tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Beggary, modest, 135.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Berruguete, Alonzo, carvings by, at Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Valladolid, 146.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Berseo, poet, 283.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Blanca, Florida, tomb of, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Boabdil's helmet, 176.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Boccanegra, paintings by, at Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Bohl, Catherine de Faber ("Fernan Caballero"), 281;</li>

-<li class="isub1">ascetic character of, ii. <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">charity of, ii. <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">genius of, ii. <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">history of, ii. <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Boldan, painting by, at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Bollo, a delicious cake, 31.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Boscan, Juan, poet, influence on Spanish literature, 37.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Bosch, Jacob van den, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Bourse, the, at Saragossa, 74;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Brazil, Dom Pedro, emperor of, arrives at Burgos, 123.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Breton de los Herreres, Manuel, dramatist, 169, 281.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Breughel, Jan, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Bridge of Alcantara, Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Briviesca, States-general, 98.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Brujola, mountain of, 98.</li>

-

-<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">281</span>Buen Retiro garden at Madrid, 166, 174.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Bull-fights at Madrid, 206;</li>

-<li class="isub1">accidents, 225;</li>

-<li class="isub1">anticipations of, 207;</li>

-<li class="isub1">arena, the, 203;</li>

-<li class="isub1">attendance, 208;</li>

-<li class="isub1">banderillas, de fuego, 226;</li>

-<li class="isub1">banderilleros, 214, 219, 220;</li>

-<li class="isub1">brutality of, 227, 229;</li>

-<li class="isub1">capeadors, 214, 217, 219, 220;</li>

-<li class="isub1">chulos or apprentices, 214, 216, 217;</li>

-<li class="isub1">dangers of, 229;</li>

-<li class="isub1">death of the bull, 222, 228;</li>

-<li class="isub1">disgusting spectacle, 218;</li>

-<li class="isub1">entrance of the cuadrilla, 214;</li>

-<li class="isub1">entrance of the bull, 215;</li>

-<li class="isub1">espadas, 221;</li>

-<li class="isub1">excitement of audience, 215, 224;</li>

-<li class="isub1">exits, the, 232;</li>

-<li class="isub1">fights in the audience, 230;</li>

-<li class="isub1">final impressions, 231;</li>

-<li class="isub1">getting into position, 215;</li>

-<li class="isub1">history of, 234;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Homeric struggle, 221;</li>

-<li class="isub1">national amusement, the, 235;</li>

-<li class="isub1">picadores, 214, 216, 218;</li>

-<li class="isub1">picturesque scene, 214;</li>

-<li class="isub1">sale of tickets, 207;</li>

-<li class="isub1">torturing the bulls into fighting, 226;</li>

-<li class="isub1">trophies of victory, 223;</li>

-<li class="isub1">with other wild animals, 239.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Bull-fighters, amateur, 237;</li>

-<li class="isub1">artistic gradations, 241;</li>

-<li class="isub1">dress, 240;</li>

-<li class="isub1">female toreros, 238;</li>

-<li class="isub1">lucrative business, 241.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Burgos, arrival at, 98;</li>

-<li class="isub1">birthplace of the Cid, 119;</li>

-<li class="isub1">cathedral, 104;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Cid's coffer, 112;</li>

-<li class="isub1">gate of St. Maria, 104;</li>

-<li class="isub1">houses, 101;</li>

-<li class="isub1">municipal palace, 103;</li>

-<li class="isub1">"remains of the Cid," 103;</li>

-<li class="isub1">seats of the first judges, 103;</li>

-<li class="isub1">"The Christ," 111;</li>

-<li class="isub1">streets, 101;</li>

-<li class="isub1">tobacco-shops, 118;</li>

-<li class="isub1">undertaker's shop, 117;</li>

-<li class="isub1">women hotel servants, 99.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Byron, Lord, writing of, at the Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.</li>

-

-

-<li class="ifrst">C.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Caballero, Fernan. See Bohl, Catherine.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cadiz, arrival at, ii. <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">astronomical facilities, ii. <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">bird's-eye view, ii. <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">cathedral, ii. <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">circus, 235;</li>

-<li class="isub1">commercial decay, ii. <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">historical remains, ii. <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">houses, ii. <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Murillo's last painting, ii. <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">revolutionary tendencies, ii. <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">streets, ii. <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">whiteness, ii. <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">women, ii. <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cafés: Barcelona, 30;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Madrid, 173;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Miranda, 95.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Calahorra, battle of, 91.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Calderon de la Barca, Pedro, poet, 169;</li>

-<li class="isub1">ii. <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Calderon, Francesco, the matador, 207;</li>

-<li class="isub1">patronizes cock-fights, 249, 250.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Campana, Pedro, paintings by, at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Can-can at Madrid, 171.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Candan, political leader, 96.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cano, Alonzo, character of, ii. <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">hatred of Jews, ii. <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">history of, ii. <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">paintings by, at Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Madrid, 182, 193;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Canovas del Castillo, political leader, 96.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Canovist party, 96.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Carbajal, Bernardino, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 193.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cardenas, paintings by, at Valladolid, 143.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cardenio's penance, scene of, ii. <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Carducci, Vincenzo, paintings by, at Madrid, 182;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Valladolid, 143.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Carlists, 32, 33, 96, 194.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Carlos I., Don, tomb of, 266.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Carlos II., Don, tomb of, 266.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Carlos III., Don, tomb of, 266.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Carnival masqueraders at Barcelona, 22;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Saragossa, 65, 68.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cartuja convent, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Castaños, Gen. Francisco Xavier, defeated at Tudela, 91.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Castelar, Emilio, as an orator, 279;</li>

-<li class="isub1">as a political leader, 80, 96;</li>

-<li class="isub1">eloquence, 276;</li>

-<li class="isub1">friendship, 291;</li>

-<li class="isub1">on Arragon, 50;</li>

-<li class="isub1">personal popularity, 277;</li>

-<li class="isub1">ruler of the Assembly, 279.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Castilian dialect, 39, 55;</li>

-<li class="isub1">scenery, 124.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Castillego, ii. <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Castles: Almodovar, ii. <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Hornachuelos, ii. <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">>Monzon, 51;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">282</span></li>

-<li class="isub1">Pancorbo, 98;</li>

-<li class="isub1">San Servando, ii. <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Catalan characteristics, 35;</li>

-<li class="isub1">dialect, 15, 39;</li>

-<li class="isub1">dress, 18;</li>

-<li class="isub1">hospitality, 148;</li>

-<li class="isub1">school-boys, 46.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Catalonia, description of, 18, 48.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cathedrals: Barcelona, 24;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Burgos, 104;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Cadiz, ii. <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Our Lady of the Pillar, Saragossa, 60;</li>

-<li class="isub1">San Salvador, Saragossa, 65;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Valladolid, 136.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cava, Los Baños de la, at Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cayetano, the matador, 214, 240.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cellini, Benvenuto, crucifix by, at the Escurial, 263.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cemetery, Barcelona, 27.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cervantes, Saavedra Miguel de, at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">house at Valladolid, 137;</li>

-<li class="isub1">imprisoned at Argamasilla de Alba, ii. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">naturalness of Don Quixote, ii. <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">on Barcelona, 42;</li>

-<li class="isub1">popularity of, 286;</li>

-<li class="isub1">statue at Madrid, 156;</li>

-<li class="isub1">story of, 139.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cervellon, Count di, entertains Amadeus at Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cervera, 48.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Ceuta, ii. <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cespedes, Pablo de, born at Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">paintings by, at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">quotation from, ii. <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Charlemagne and the Moor, ii. <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Charles I. (afterward Emperor Charles V. of Germany), altar at the Escurial, 272;</li>

-<li class="isub1">anger at the destruction of mosque of Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">apartments at Aranjuez, ii. <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">a bull-fighter, 234;</li>

-<li class="isub1">converts mosque of the Alhambra into a chapel, ii. <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">married in Alcazar of Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">monumental gate at Burgos, 104;</li>

-<li class="isub1">on the Spanish language, 160;</li>

-<li class="isub1">palace in the Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">relics of, 175, 176, ii. <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">statue at the Escurial, 262;</li>

-<li class="isub1">tomb at the Escurial, 265, 267.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Charles II. encourages bull-fights, 234;</li>

-<li class="isub1">portrait at the Escurial, 264.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Charles III. forbids bull-fights, 235;</li>

-<li class="isub1">statue at Burgos, 102.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Charles IV.'s billiard-room in palace of Aranjuez, ii. <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">resigns the crown, ii. <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Chateaubriaud, François Auguste, Viscount de, writing in the Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Chocolate, Spanish, 31.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Chorizos, 14, 162.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Christina abdicates the throne at Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">promenade, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Chulos, 214.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Churches: Nuestra Señora, Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Our Lady of Atocha, Madrid, 166;</li>

-<li class="isub1">San Geronimo, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">San Juan de los Reyes, Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Santiago, Saragossa, 74;</li>

-<li class="isub1">St. Agnes, Burgos, 121.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cid Campeador, the, and King Alfonso, 121;</li>

-<li class="isub1">and the Jew, 120;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">birthplace, 120;</li>

-<li class="isub1">coffer, 112;</li>

-<li class="isub1">portrait of, 104;</li>

-<li class="isub1">remains, 103;</li>

-<li class="isub1">statue, 104;</li>

-<li class="isub1">sword, 176;</li>

-<li class="isub1">originator of bull-fights, 234.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cigars and cigarettes, 118;</li>

-<li class="isub1">vs. pipes, 132.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cimbrios party, 96.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Claude, Lorraine, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Clot, 19.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cock-fighting at Madrid, 248;</li>

-<li class="isub1">arena, the, 249;</li>

-<li class="isub1">audience, 250;</li>

-<li class="isub1">disgusting spectacle, 256;</li>

-<li class="isub1">gambling on, 252, 254.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Coello, Claudio, paintings by, at Madrid, 193;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at the Escurial, 264.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Colantes as an orator, 276.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Collantes, Francisco, paintings by, at Madrid, 193.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">College of San Gregorio, Valladolid, 135;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Santa Cruz, Valladolid, 443.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Columbian library at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Columbus, Christopher, annotations in books in library of Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">armor of, 175;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">283</span></li>

-<li class="isub1">portrait of, 178;</li>

-<li class="isub1">mementoes of, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Columbus, Ferdinand, history of, ii. <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">library of, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">note on his father's annotations, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Concerts at Madrid, 173.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Conde, Henry II. de Bourbon, prince de, sword of, 176.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Conservative party, 96.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Consuelo the beautiful, ii. <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Consul, seeking the protection of the, ii. <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Convents: Angels, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Cartuja, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">of the Escurial, 268;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Santo Domingo, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">San Pablo, Valladolid, 134.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cook, Capt. James, cane of, 180.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cookery, Spanish, 14, 160; ii. <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cordova, arrival at, ii. <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at night, ii. <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">cathedral, ii. <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Consuelo the beautiful, ii. <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">departed glory, ii. <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">impressions of, ii. <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">mosque, ii. <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">patio, a, ii. <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">pearl of the Orient, ii. <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">preaching the Holy War, ii. <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">relics of the past, ii. <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">streets of, ii. <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cordova, General de, at Saragossa, 84.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Corregio, Antonio Allegri da, painting by, at Madrid, 182.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cortes, the, 274;</li>

-<li class="isub1">deputies, 274;</li>

-<li class="isub1">oratorical displays, 275.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cortez, Hernando, portrait of, 178;</li>

-<li class="isub1">sword of, 176.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cosa, Juan de la, map by, at Madrid, 178.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Costumes of peasantry: Andalusian, ii. <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Catalan, 18;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Cordovan, ii. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Granadan, ii. <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Madrid, 165;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Saragossan, 56;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Valencian, ii. <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Country houses, ii. <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Courts: Lions, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Myrtles, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Oranges, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Court-life under Amadeus, 198.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Courtesy inherent in the Spanish people, 53, 290.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cuco the matador, 207; ii. <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Currency, Spanish, 118.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Custejon, 92.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Customs officials, 14, 95.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Cybele, fountain of, at Madrid, 166.</li>

-

-

-<li class="ifrst">D.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">"Daggers," ii. <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Daguet, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">"Dance de los seises," ii. <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Darro, the, ii. <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Democratic party, 96.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Democratic Progressionist party, 96, 97.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Deronda, Francisco Romero, the torero, 235.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Dialects: Andalusian, ii. <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Arragonese, 55;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Barcelonian, 20;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Castilian, 55;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Catalan, 15, 39;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Madrid, 158;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Perpignan, 12;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Valencian, ii. <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Valladolid, 132.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Dinadamar, hill of, ii. <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Discoveries, cabinet of, Naval Museum, Madrid, 177.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Djihad, or Holy War, ii. <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Domenichino, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Dominoes, popularity of game of, 31.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Don Quixote on Barcelona, 42;</li>

-<li class="isub1">popularity of, 286;</li>

-<li class="isub1">true to life, ii. <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Door-keys in Madrid, 171.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Drama, 169.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Drunkenness rare in Spain, 162.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Dumas, Alexandre, on Spanish cookery, 160.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Dürer, Albert, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>

-

-

-<li class="ifrst">E.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Ebro, commerce on the, 51;</li>

-<li class="isub1">description of, 92.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Economist party, 96.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Education in Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Egon ad Agoncilla, ruins of, 91.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Elpidius, bishop of Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Elvira Gate, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Escurial, the, arrival at, 258;</li>

-<li class="isub1">altar of Santa Forma, 264;</li>

-<li class="isub1">cell of Philip II., 261;</li>

-<li class="isub1">church, 262;</li>

-<li class="isub1">convent, 268;</li>

-<li class="isub1">courtyard, 261;</li>

-<li class="isub1">gardens, 272;</li>

-<li class="isub1">gloominess, 273;</li>

-<li class="isub1">history of, 260;</li>

-<li class="isub1">holy relics, 272;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">284</span></li>

-<li class="isub1">horrible place, 267;</li>

-<li class="isub1">library, 268;</li>

-<li class="isub1">pantheon, 265;</li>

-<li class="isub1">picture-gallery, 268;</li>

-<li class="isub1">royal palace, 261;</li>

-<li class="isub1">sacristy, 264;</li>

-<li class="isub1">statues, 262;</li>

-<li class="isub1">tombs, 265;</li>

-<li class="isub1">view from, 153, 272;</li>

-<li class="isub1">village, 259.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Espadas, famous, 214;</li>

-<li class="isub1">dangerous life of, 230;</li>

-<li class="isub1">skill of, 221.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Espartero, Gen. Baldemero, addresses Amadeus, 85.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Esperondo la del Cielo, house of, ii. <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Esproncedo, Jose de, the Byron of Spain, 282;</li>

-<li class="isub1">popularity of, 287;</li>

-<li class="isub1">quotation from, 136.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Exaggeration, the national failing, 287.</li>

-

-

-<li class="ifrst">F.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Fadrique, Don, blood of, ii. <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">murdered by Don Pedro's orders, ii. <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Farcical revenge, a, 71.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Fatherly admonitions, 54.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Federalist party, 96, 97.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Ferdinand III. (the Saint) captures Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">relics of, ii. <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">tomb of, 109.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Ferdinand V. (the Catholic), oratory in Alcazar of Seville, 124;</li>

-<li class="isub1">relics of, ii. <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Ferdinand VII. annuls the constitution, ii. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">encourages bull-fighting, 235;</li>

-<li class="isub1">tomb of, 266.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Ferrer, Vincenzo, in Seville cathedral, ii. <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Figueras, political leader, 80, 96.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">First glimpses of Spain, 14.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Florinda, legend of, ii. <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Flor, Roger de, a typical Arragonese, 50.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Fomento picture-gallery, Madrid, 193.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Fortune-telling in the Albaicin, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Fountain of Cybele, Madrid, 166.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Fra Angelica, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Francis I., shield of, 176.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Frascuelo the matador, 207, 214, 221, 225, 240, 242; ii. <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">interview with, 242.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Fricci in opera at Madrid, 168; ii. <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Fronterizos party, 96.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Fruit, Spanish, 162.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Fugitive wife, a, 69.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Funeral memorial ceremonies of the second of May, 243.</li>

-

-

-<li class="ifrst">G.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Galafro, legend of King, ii. <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Galiana, palaces of, ii. <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Gallegos, Don Juan Nicasio, poet, 282.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Gamero, Antonio, historian of Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Garbanzos, 161.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Garcilaso de la Vega, poet, 37;</li>

-<li class="isub1">armor of, 176.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Gardens: Alcazar, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Aranjuez, ii. <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Buen Retiro, Madrid, 174;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Escurial, 271;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Montpensier, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Garrido, political leader, 96.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Gates: Elvira, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Justice, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Santa Maria, Burgos, 104.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Gayangos, Pascual y, the Orientalist, 281.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Geber, architect of the Giralda at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Generalife, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">description of, ii. <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">view from, ii. <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Genoa, 10.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Gerona, arrival at, 16;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Amadeus at, 16.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Gibraltar, rock of, ii. <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Straits of, ii. <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Giordano Luci, paintings by, at Madrid, 182;</li>

-<li class="isub1">frescoes by, at the Escurial, 262, 264, 268;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Giralda of Seville, the, ii. <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">first sight of, ii. <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">view from, ii. <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Gitane of Seville, the, ii. <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Godoy, Alvarez de Faria Rios Sanches y Zarsoa, Prince of Peace, ii. <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Golden Tower, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Gongora y Argote, Luis, poet, 129;</li>

-<li class="isub1">birthplace at Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Gongora, Señor, ii. <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>, <i>et seq.</i></li>

-

-<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_285">285</span>Gonzales, Ferdinand (first Count of Castile), monument to, 119;</li>

-<li class="isub1">portrait of, 104;</li>

-<li class="isub1">statue of, 104;</li>

-<li class="isub1">sword of, 176;</li>

-<li class="isub1">tomb of, 114.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Gonzalez, Fernandez y, novelist, 282.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Gonzalez di Cordova, anecdote of, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">tomb, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Goya, Francisco, criticism on, 185;</li>

-<li class="isub1">love of bull-fights, 184;</li>

-<li class="isub1">paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183;</li>

-<li class="isub1">sanguinary genius, a, 184;</li>

-<li class="isub1">tapestries by, in the Escurial, 261.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Granada, Alameda, ii. <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Albaicin, ii. <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Alcaiceria, ii. <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">arrival at, ii. <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Audiencia square, ii. <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">birthplace of famous men, ii. <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Cartuja, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">cathedral, ii. <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">church of San Geronimo, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">convent of Santa Domingo, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">convent of The Angels, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">education, ii. <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Generalife, ii. <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">markets, ii. <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Monte Sacro, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">royal chapel, ii. <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">ruins, ii. <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">streets, ii. <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Vega, ii. <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Granada, Fray Louis de, ii. <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Granallers, 19.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Gravina, Admiral Frederick de, relics of, 179.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Guadaira, ill-fated steamer, ii. <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Guadalquivir, the, ii. <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>; ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_150'>150</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Guadiana, valley of the, ii. <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Guerra, Fernandez, archæologist, 281, 291; ii. <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Guides, Spanish, persistency of, ii. <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Guido, Reni, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Guest-houses, 157.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Gutierrez, Antonio Garcia, dramatist, 169.</li>

-

-

-<li class="ifrst">H.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Halls: Abencerrages, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Ambassadors, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Barca, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Divans, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Justice, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Oranges, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Two Sisters, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Hartzenbusch, Juan Eugenio, dramatist, 169, 281, 291.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Heat, intense, ii. <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Henry II. (de Transtamare), defeated by Pedro the Cruel, 91;</li>

-<li class="isub1">tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_29'>29</a></li>

-

-<li class="indx">Henry III. and Papa Moscas, 113;</li>

-<li class="isub1">tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Hernandez, sculptures by, at Valladolid, 146.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Herrera, Francisco, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 193;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at the Escurial, 263.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Herrera, Juan de, architect of palace of Aranjuez, ii. <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">of the Escurial, 260.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Historical Progressionist party, 96.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Holy Cross, relics of the, 272.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">"Honor of Spain," 290.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Hornachuelos, castle of, ii. <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Hospitality, Catalan, 148.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Hospital of Santa Cruz, Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Hotel porters at Barcelona, 20;</li>

-<li class="isub1">women as, 99.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Huerva river, at Saragossa, 77.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Hugo Victor's Mirabeau, ii. <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at the Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.</li>

-

-

-<li class="ifrst">I.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">"Il Trovatore," quotation from, ii. <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Inquisition, palaces of; at Barcelona, 26;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Valladolid, 146.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">International Socialist party, 96.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Isabella the Catholic opposed to bull-fights, 234;</li>

-<li class="isub1">oratory in the Alcazar of Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">relics of, ii. <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">sword of, 176;</li>

-<li class="isub1">tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Isabella II. at Madrid, 197;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">dressing-chamber at Aranjuez, ii. <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">encourages bull-fighting, 235;</li>

-<li class="isub1">favored by the Moderate party, 96.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Isabella, Empress, statue of, 262.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Italian, the language of opera, 171.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Italians, prejudice against, 34, 138.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Italica, ruins of, ii. <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_286">286</span></li>

-

-<li class="indx">Italy and Spain, compared, ii. <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Itimad, a dream of, ii. <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>.</li>

-

-

-<li class="ifrst">J.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Jerez, circus at, 235.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Joanes, Juan de, criticism on, 192;</li>

-<li class="isub1">paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Joanna the Mad, tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">John, Don, of Austria, 25.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">John I. of Castile and the States-General, 98.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">John II. of Austria, heart of, 63;</li>

-<li class="isub1">sword of, 176.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">John II., admiration of de Mena's "Labyrinth," ii. <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">John Frederick, duke of Saxony, armor of, 176.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Jordaens, Jacob, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Juegos floreales, ii. <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Julian, Count, revenge of, ii. <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Juni, Juan de, sculptures by, at Valladolid, 146.</li>

-

-

-<li class="ifrst">K.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Knives, ii. <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>.</li>

-

-

-<li class="ifrst">L.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">La Costa, Gen., killed at Saragossa, 59.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">La Cruz, Ramon de, dramatist, 170.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Lagartijo the matador, 214, 240, 241; ii. <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">La Harpe, Jean François, on the Apollo Belvidere, ii. <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Lainus Calvo, judge of Castile, 103.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">La Mancha, ii. <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Language, Italian, in opera, 171;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Spanish, allied to the Italian, 159;</li>

-<li class="isub1">pronunciation of, 159.</li>

-<li class="isub1">See also Dialect.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Lauria, Roger de, 50.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Leon, Louis de, 54;</li>

-<li class="isub1">born in Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Leonardo, Lupercio, sonnet to, 73.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Leopardi Giacomo, Count, 283;</li>

-<li class="indx">ii. <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">in Seville cathedral, ii. <a href='#Page_111'>111</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">on Spanish pride, 284.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Lepanto, relics of battle of, 25, 174, 176.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Lerida, 48.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Light-fingered gentry, 98.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Literature, discouragements of, 282;</li>

-<li class="isub1">dramatic, 283;</li>

-<li class="isub1">national pride in, 287;</li>

-<li class="isub1">present state of, 280;</li>

-<li class="isub1">contests of genius at Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Logroño, Amadeus at, 85;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Moorish ruins at, 91.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Loneliness of travel, ii. <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Lope de Vega's criticism of Gongorist poets, ii. <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">houses at Madrid, 156;</li>

-<li class="isub1">popularity, ii. <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Lorraine. See Claude Lorraine.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Louis I., tomb of, 266.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Love, travelling for, 13.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Loyola, Ignatius, at Montserrat, 46.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Luna, Don Alvaro de, tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Lunatic asylum, Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>.</li>

-

-

-<li class="ifrst">M.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Madrazo, Federico de, paintings by, at Madrid, 183.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Madrid, academy of San Fernando, 193;</li>

-<li class="isub1">amusements, 168;</li>

-<li class="isub1">armory, 174;</li>

-<li class="isub1">arrival at, 154;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Buen Retiro garden, 174;</li>

-<li class="isub1">bull-fights, 206;</li>

-<li class="isub1">cafés, 173;</li>

-<li class="isub1">church of Our Lady of Atocha, 166;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Fomento art-gallery, 193;</li>

-<li class="isub1">guest-houses, 157;</li>

-<li class="isub1">language, 157;</li>

-<li class="isub1">markets, 174;</li>

-<li class="isub1">museum of artillery, 180;</li>

-<li class="isub1">museum of fine arts, 181;</li>

-<li class="isub1">naval museum, 177;</li>

-<li class="isub1">opera, 168;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Prado, 166;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Puerta del Sol, 155;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Recoletos promenade, 167;</li>

-<li class="isub1">royal palace, 154;</li>

-<li class="isub1">serenos, 172;</li>

-<li class="isub1">streets, 156, 163;</li>

-<li class="isub1">suburbs, 173.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Maksura of mosque of Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Malaga, ii. <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">literary academy, ii. <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">poetical contests, ii. <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">popular characteristics, ii. <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">streets, ii. <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">wine of, ii. <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Manners of the Spaniards, 290.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">287</span></li>

-

-<li class="indx">Manzoni, Alessandro, 189.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Margall, Pi y, political leader, 96;</li>

-<li class="isub1">oratory of, 276.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Maria, granddaughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Maria Louisa of Savoy, tomb of, 266.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Marini, Giambattista, influence on Italian poetry, ii. <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Markets: Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Madrid, 174;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Valladolid, 132.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Marseilles, 11.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Martina the torera, 238.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Martinez de la Rosa, Francisco, 282, ii. <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">exiled in London, 65;</li>

-<li class="isub1">quotation from, ii. <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Martos, political leader, 96;</li>

-<li class="isub1">oratory of, 226.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Mascagni, Donato, paintings by, at Valladolid, 143.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Masked balls, 86.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">May, second of, funeral memorial ceremonies, 243;</li>

-<li class="isub1">monument to, 247.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Medina Az-Zahra, ii. <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Medina-Coeli, family, owners of the Casa de Pilato, ii. <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Mena, Juan de, "Labyrinth," ii. <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">popularity of, 287;</li>

-<li class="isub1">street of, ii. <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Menendez, paintings by, at Madrid, 193.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Mengs, Anton Rafael, paintings by, at Madrid, 183.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Menjibar, ii. <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Merced, marquis de, 207.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Merriones, Gen., victories over Carlists, 288.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Michelangelo, Buonarroti, Cespedes's tribute to, ii. <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">paintings by, at Burgos, 109;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Madrid, 182.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Mihrab of mosque of Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Military Museum of London possesses Gonzalez di Cordova's fiscal accounts, ii. <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Militia system, 202.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Mirabeau, Victor Hugo's description of, ii. <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Miranda, 94.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Moderate party, 96, 97.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Monastery of Montserrat, 46.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Monegro, Battista, statue by, 262.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Montegna, paintings by, at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Montpensier gardens, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">palace, ii. <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Montpensier, duke of, at Madrid, 197;</li>

-<li class="isub1">party, 96, 97.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Montserrat, description of, 45;</li>

-<li class="isub1">excursion to, 46;</li>

-<li class="isub1">monastery of, 46.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Monzon, 50;</li>

-<li class="isub1">castle, 51.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Moorish art, ii. <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">ruins, ii. <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Morales, Ambrosio, born in Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Moret, political leader, 96.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Moreto, Don Augustin, dramatist, 169.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Mosque of Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">of the Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Mozarabe chapel, Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Mulato, paintings by, at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Murat, Joachim, 50.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Murillo, Bartolomé Esteban, a painter of saints and virgins, 191;</li>

-<li class="isub1">death of, ii. <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">estimate of his genius, 192;</li>

-<li class="isub1">last painting, ii. <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">mementoes of, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">painting by, at Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Madrid, 182, 183;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">statue at Madrid, 156, 292.</li>

-

-

-<li class="ifrst">N.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Naples, king of, demands an accounting from Gonzalez di Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Navagero, Andrea, influences poetry of Boscan, 37.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Navajas, ii. <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Navarrete, battle of, 91.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Navarrete, Juan Fernandez (El Mudo), paintings by, at Madrid, 193;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at the Escurial, 263.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">News from Spain, 10.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Newspapers hostile to Amadeus, 93, 200.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Nun, the flirting, 53.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Nunes, Duke Ferdinand, at the bull-fight, 209.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Night journey to Aranjuez, ii. <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">to Barcelona, 13;</li>

-<li class="isub1">to Burgos, 97;</li>

-<li class="isub1">to Cadiz, ii. <a href='#Page_149'>149</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">to Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">to Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">288</span></li>

-

-

-<li class="ifrst">O.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">O'Campo, Florian d', at Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">O'Donnell, Gen. Leopold, Spanish estimate of, 288.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Olesa de Montserrat, 47.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Olivares, Duke de, portrait of, by Velasquez, 183, 188;</li>

-<li class="isub1">sword of, 176.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Opera at Madrid, 168.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Oranges, Court of, Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Court of Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Hall of, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Our Lady of Atocha, church of, at Madrid, 166;</li>

-<li class="isub1">of the Pillar, Saragossa, 60.</li>

-

-

-<li class="ifrst">P.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Pacheco, Francisco, paintings by, at Madrid, 193;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Padilla, Lopez de, assists in the murder of Don Fadrique, ii. <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Padilla, Maria de, apartments of, in the Alcazar of Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>, 145;</li>

-<li class="isub1">mementoes of, ii. <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Painting, museums: Escurial, 268;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Fomento, Madrid, 193;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Madrid, 181;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Valladolid, 143.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Palaces: Audiencia, Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Burgos, 102;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Charles V., Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Consistorial, Barcelona, 26;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Deputation, Barcelona, 26;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Galiana, 43;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Inquisition, Barcelona, 26;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Inquisition, Valladolid, 146;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Royal, Aranjuez, ii. <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Royal, Escurial, 261;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Royal, Madrid, 154;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Royal, Valladolid, 133.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Palafox, José, at Saragossa, 77.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Palma, ii. <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Pancorbo, 98;</li>

-<li class="isub1">castle destroyed, 98.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Paolo Veronese, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Papal question, the, 12, 34, 138.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Papa Moscas, legend of, 113.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Pareja, Juan de, paintings by, at Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Madrid, 193.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Party spirit, 96, 289, ii. <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Patio, described, ii. <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Seville,</li>

-<li class="indx">ii. <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">de la Reja, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">de los Arrayanes, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Patriotism vs. common sense, ii. <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Peasantry: Andalusian, ii. <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Catalan, 18;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Cordovan, ii. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">of Madrid, 165;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Saragossan, 56.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Pedro Abad, ii. <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Pedro the Cruel, apartments of, in the Alcazar of Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">defeats Henry of Transtamare, 91;</li>

-<li class="isub1">mementoes of, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">murders Don Fadrique, ii. <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">restores the Alcazar of Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">treasure-house, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Perpignan dialect, 12.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Pescara, Marquis de, armor of, 176.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Philibert, Emmanuel, armor of, 175, 176.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Philip I., tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Philip II., armor of, 175, 176;</li>

-<li class="isub1">birthplace at Valladolid, 134;</li>

-<li class="isub1">books in the library of the Escurial, 268;</li>

-<li class="isub1">builds palace of Aranjuez, ii. <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">builds the Escurial, 260;</li>

-<li class="isub1">cell of, 261;</li>

-<li class="isub1">his personality pervades the Escurial, 271;</li>

-<li class="isub1">statue of, 262;</li>

-<li class="isub1">sword of, 176;</li>

-<li class="isub1">tomb of, 265, 266.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Philip III. encourages bull-fights, 234;</li>

-<li class="isub1">tomb of, 265, 266.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Philip IV., a royal bull-fighter, 235;</li>

-<li class="isub1">statue of, 156;</li>

-<li class="isub1">tomb of, 265, 266.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Philip V. encourages bull-fights, 235;</li>

-<li class="isub1">his garden of St. Ildefonso, 124.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Philip of Bourgoyne, carvings by, at Burgos, 111;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Piedmontese waiters in hotel at Barcelona, 20.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Pilate's house, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Pillar, church of Our Lady of the, Saragossa, 60.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Pius V. presents holy relics to Ribera, ii. <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Pizarro, Francisco, as a bull-fighter, 234;</li>

-<li class="isub1">portrait of, 178;</li>

-<li class="isub1">sword of, 176.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_289">289</span></li>

-

-<li class="indx">Plazas: Alameda, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Campo Grande, Valladolid, 131;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Constitution, Saragossa, 74;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Cortez, Madrid, 156;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Mayor, Burgos, 123;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Mayor, Madrid, 156;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Mayor, Valladolid, 131;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Orient, Madrid, 156;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Puerto del Sol, Madrid, 155;</li>

-<li class="isub1">San Pablo, Valladolid, 133.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Poetical contests, ii. <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">rivalry, 38.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Politeness, Spanish, 52.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Political leaders, 96.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Politics, absorbing interest in, 15, 32, 95, 147;</li>

-<li class="isub1">partisanship in, 289; ii. <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Pompey defeated by Sertorius at Calahorra, 91.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Poussin, Nicolas, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Prado, Madrid, 166.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Praga, Emile, on Nature, ii. <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Prati, Giovanni, quotation from, ii. <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Pride, national, characteristic of the Spanish, 284.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Priests, friendly, 46, 54.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Prim, Gen. Juan, assassination of, at Madrid, 156, 166;</li>

-<li class="isub1">high estimation of, 288.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Puchero, the national dish, 161.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Puerto del Sol, at Madrid, 155, 163;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Puerto Real, ii. <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Puerto de Santa Maria, ii. <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">circus at, 238.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Pyrenees, the, 48, 92;</li>

-<li class="isub1">crossing the, 13.</li>

-

-

-<li class="ifrst">Q.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Quintana, Manuel José, poet of the Revolution, 282, 291.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Quevedo, Francisco Gomez, on Valladolid, 129.</li>

-

-

-<li class="ifrst">R.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Radical party, 96.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Railway travel, 52; ii. <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>; ii. <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Raphael, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Rasura, Nunnius, judge of Castile, 103.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Recoletos promenade at Madrid, 167.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Rembrandt von, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Republican opinions, 15, 16, 32, 80;</li>

-<li class="isub1">of the soldiers, 205;</li>

-<li class="isub1">party, 96, 97.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Restaurants, Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Revenge, a farcical, 71.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Ribera, Enriquez de, builds the Casa de Pilato, ii. <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Ribera, José, criticism of his genius, 186;</li>

-<li class="isub1">a lover of the horrible, 188;</li>

-<li class="isub1">paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at the Escurial, 264.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Ribera, Pedro Afan de, viceroy of Naples, ii. <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Ribero, political leader, 96.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Ricanati, quotation from, ii. <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Rinconado, ii. <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Rios, Amador de los, critic, 281.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Rivas, Duke de, 282.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Rizzi, Francisco, paintings by, at Madrid, 193.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Roa, Ferdinand de, kills Don Fadrique, ii. <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Roderic and the enchanted tower, ii. <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">and Florinda, ii. <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Roelas, Juan de las, paintings by, at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Rojas, Francisco de, 169;</li>

-<li class="isub1">native of Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_49'>49</a></li>

-

-<li class="indx">Rodriguez as an orator, 276, 291;</li>

-<li class="isub1">political leader, 96.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Roman aqueduct at Alcanadre, 91;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Segovia, 124;</li>

-<li class="isub1">ruins at Barcelona, 26.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Ros de Olano invents the soldier cap, 24.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Rosas, Rios y, political leader, 96;</li>

-<li class="isub1">oratory of, 276.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Resell, Gen., at Saragossa, 84.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Rubens, Peter Paul, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Valladolid, 144.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Ruins of Alcanadre, 91;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Egon ad Agoncilla, 91;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Logroño, 91.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Ruiz Garcia, political leader, 96.</li>

-

-

-<li class="ifrst">S.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Saavedra, Señor, 291, 292.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Sagasta, Praxedes Mateo, political leader, 79, 96, 97;</li>

-<li class="isub1">a modern Cardenio, ii. <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">St. Agnes, church of, Burgos, 121.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_290">290</span></li>

-

-<li class="indx">St. Andrea de Palomar, 19.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">St. Anthony of Padua, Murillo's, ii. <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">St. Eugenia, tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">St. Eulalia, tomb of, 28.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">St. Ferdinand, chapel of, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">St. George Chapel, Barcelona, 26.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">St. Ildefonso, garden of Philip V., 124.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">St. Isadore, memorial ceremony at church of, 244.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">St. James, the first bishop of Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">and the Virgin Mary, 61.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">St. Lawrence, Philip II.'s vow to, 260;</li>

-<li class="isub1">relic of, 272.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">St. Leucadia, tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">St. Theresa, birthplace of, 124;</li>

-<li class="isub1">inkhorn of, 272;</li>

-<li class="isub1">mementoes of, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Salamanca, a suburb of Madrid, 167, 208.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Salvator Rosa, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Salvini, Tommaso, as Samson, ii. <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">San Fernando, Madrid, academy of, 193.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">San Geronimo, church of, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">San Ginés, church of, ii. <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">San Gregorio, college of, 135.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">San José, church of, Madrid, 204.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">San Juan de los Reyes, church of, ii. <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">San Pablo, convent of, 134.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">San Quentin, Philip II.'s vow at battle of, 260;</li>

-<li class="isub1">relics of, 174.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">San Salvador, Saragossa, 65.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">San Servando, castle of, ii. <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Santa Cruz, hospital of, ii. <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Santa Cruz de Mudela, ii. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Santa Cruz, Marquis of, armor of, 176.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Santa Domingo, convent of, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Santa Maria, gate of, Burgos, 104.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Santa Maria la Blanca, synagogue of, ii. <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Santi Ponce, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Saragossa, 56;</li>

-<li class="isub1">alcayde's bold</li>

-<li class="indx">speech, 82;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Amadeus enters, 82;</li>

-<li class="isub1">arrival at, 55;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Bourse, 74;</li>

-<li class="isub1">carnival maskers, 65, 68;</li>

-<li class="isub1">cathedral of Our Lady of the Pillar, 60;</li>

-<li class="isub1">cathedral of San Salvador, 65;</li>

-<li class="isub1">church of Santiago, 74;</li>

-<li class="isub1">costume of peasantry, 56;</li>

-<li class="isub1">masked balls, 87;</li>

-<li class="isub1">new tower, 75;</li>

-<li class="isub1">siege of, 59, 77;</li>

-<li class="isub1">streets, 58;</li>

-<li class="isub1">suburbs, 91.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Sarto, Andrea del, paintings by, at Burgos, 109;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Madrid, 182.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Schoen, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">School-boys, 46.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Shrack, Frederick, description of the Djihad, ii. <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Sea, beauty of the, ii. <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Sebastian of Portugal, a royal bull-fighter, 234.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Segovia, 124.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Segovia and Ardizone, Gonzalo, ii. <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>, 132, 145;</li>

-<li class="isub1">sad fate of, ii. <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Seneca, born in Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Seo, Saragossa, 65.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Serenos, 172.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Serrano, Gen. Francesco, political leader, 96, 97;</li>

-<li class="isub1">reputation of, 288.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Sertorius defeats Pompey at Calahorra, 91.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Seville, Alcazar, ii. <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at night, ii. <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Barber of, ii. <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, 14;</li>

-<li class="isub1">cathedral, ii. <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Columbian library, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">gaiety of, ii. <a href='#Page_143'>143</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">gardens, ii. <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Giralda, ii. <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">house of Pilate, ii. <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">literary and artistic fame, ii. <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">museum of painting, ii. <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Oriental character, ii. <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">patios, ii. <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">poetical character of, ii. <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">streets, ii. <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Torre del Oro, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>, 117;</li>

-<li class="isub1">tropical heat, ii. <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">women of, ii. <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Sierra de Segura, ii. <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Sierra Morena, ii. <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Sierra Nevada, ii. <a href='#Page_214'>214</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Siestas necessary, ii. <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Socialist party, 96.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Soldiers, 23;</li>

-<li class="isub1">political feeling shown by, 204;</li>

-<li class="isub1">reviewed by Amadeus, 202.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">291</span></li>

-

-<li class="indx">Soria, 124.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Stagno in opera at Madrid, 168.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Streets of Barcelona, 22, 27;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Burgos, 101;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Cadiz, ii. <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Madrid, 166;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Malaga, ii. <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Saragossa, 58;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_265'>265</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Studying for a degree, ii. <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>.</li>

-

-

-<li class="ifrst">T.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Tagus, the, at Aranjuez, ii. <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Tamayo, dramatist, 169, 281, 291.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Tangiers, ii. <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Tarifa, Cape, ii. <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Tasso, Torquato, influence on Italian poetry, ii. <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Tato, the one-legged torero, ii. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Teniers, David, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Theatres at Barcelona, 40;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Madrid, 168;</li>

-<li class="isub1">and literature, 169, 282.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Tiepolo, Giovanni Battista, paintings by, at Madrid, 183.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Tintoretto, Giacomo, paintings by, at Madrid, 182;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at the Escurial, 264.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Tirso de Molina, dramatist, 169.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Titian, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Tobacco manufactories at Burgos, 118;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Madrid, 173;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">cigarettes vs. pipes, 132.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Toledo, Alcazar, ii. <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">arrival at, ii. <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at night, ii. <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">bridge of Alcantara, ii. <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">cathedral, ii. <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">church of San Juan de los Reyes, ii. <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">church of San Ginés, ii. <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">church of Nuestra Señora di Transito, ii. <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">dead city, a, ii. <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">historical, ii. <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">hospital of Santa Cruz, ii. <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">legends of, ii. <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">lunatic asylum, ii. <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">manufactory of arms, ii. <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">popular characteristics, ii. <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Puerto del Sol, ii. <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Santa Maria la Blanca, ii. <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">view from cathedral, ii. <a href='#Page_34'>34</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">silent and gloomy, ii. <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">streets, ii. <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Tolosa, Las Navas de, battlefield, ii. <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Topete, Juan, ii. <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Toreros, 213;</li>

-<li class="isub1">dangers of, 229;</li>

-<li class="isub1">dress of, 240;</li>

-<li class="isub1">highly respectable, 239;</li>

-<li class="isub1">lucrative business, 241.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Torrigiano, Pietro, sculptures by, at Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Torquemada, Tomas de, founds the convent of Santa Domingo, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">origin of, 235.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Torre del Oro, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Tower, new, Saragossa, 75;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Golden, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Trafalgar, relics of, 179.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Trajan's ashes brought to Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Travelling for love, 13;</li>

-<li class="isub1">amenities of, 48, 52;</li>

-<li class="isub1">miseries of, ii. <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">opera troupes, ii. <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">philosophy of, ii. <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">soldiers, ii.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Triana, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Tudela, battle of, 91;</li>

-<li class="isub1">canal, 51, 92.</li>

-

-

-<li class="ifrst">U.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Undertaker's shop, 117.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Unionist party, 96, 97.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">University students at Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Valladolid, 148.</li>

-

-

-<li class="ifrst">V.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Val de Peñas, ii. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">wine of, 162; ii. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_265'>265</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Amadeus at, ii. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">art-gallery, ii. <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">bull-ring, 235; ii. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Casa de Ayuntamiento, ii. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">cathedral, ii. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">dress of peasantry, ii. <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">historic houses, ii. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Lonja, ii. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">market, ii. <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">palace of the Audiencia, ii. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">popular characteristics, ii. <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">streets, ii. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">women, ii. <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Valdes Leal, Juan de, paintings by, at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, 132.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Valera, Señor, 291.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Valladolid, 129;</li>

-<li class="isub1">cathedral, 136;</li>

-<li class="isub1">convent of San Pablo, 134;</li>

-<li class="isub1">college of San Gregorio, 135;</li>

-<li class="isub1">decay of, 131;</li>

-<li class="isub">dialect of, 132;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_292">292</span></li>

-<li class="isub1">hospitality, 148;</li>

-<li class="isub1">house of Cervantes, 137;</li>

-<li class="isub1">house of Zorilla, 141;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Inquisition, 146;</li>

-<li class="isub1">markets, 132;</li>

-<li class="isub1">picture-gallery, 143;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Plaza Major, 132;</li>

-<li class="isub1">polite beggary, 135;</li>

-<li class="isub1">royal palace, 133.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Van Dyke, Antonio, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Vega, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Vega, de Armijo, Marquis de, 207.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Vega, Garcilasso de la, armor of, 176;</li>

-<li class="isub1">native of Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Velasquez, Don Diego, masterpieces, 188;</li>

-<li class="isub1">mementoes of, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Ventas de Alcolea, ii. <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Ventura de la Vega, dramatist, 169.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Veragua, duke of, 207.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Victoria, at Madrid, 195;</li>

-<li class="isub1">charity of, 196;</li>

-<li class="isub1">learning of, 199;</li>

-<li class="isub1">universal respect for, 81, 200.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Vilches, ii. <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Villadomat, paintings by, at Barcelona, 26.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Villaseca, dowager of, 307.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Vinci, Leonardo da, paintings by, at Burgos, 109.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Virgin Mary appears to St. James at Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">miraculous image of, 61;</li>

-<li class="isub1">robes of, ii. <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>.</li>

-

-

-<li class="ifrst">W.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Walk of the Spanish women, 136.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">War of Independence influences Spanish national character, 35, 285;</li>

-<li class="isub1">relics of, 174.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Water abundant in the Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Wife, a fugitive, 69.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Wine of Malaga, ii. <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Val de Peñas, 162; ii. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Xeres, ii. <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Women of Barcelona, 41;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Cadiz, ii. <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Madrid, 165;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Saragossa, 57;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">Valladolid, 136;</li>

-<li class="isub1">toreros, 238;</li>

-<li class="isub1">walk of Spanish, 136.</li>

-

-

-<li class="ifrst">X.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Xenil river, ii. <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Xeres, wine of, ii. <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Ximenes, wife of the Cid, remains of, 103.</li>

-

-

-<li class="ifrst">Z.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Zafra, Don Fernando de, legend of, ii. <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Zahira, ii. <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Zainete, 170.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Zarzuela, the, 168, 170; ii. <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_156'>156</a></li>

-

-<li class="indx">Zorrilla, Ruiz, political leader, 86, 69, 97;</li>

-<li class="isub1">consents to accept office, ii. <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Zorrilla, José, 281;</li>

-<li class="isub1">birthplace at Valladolid, 141;</li>

-<li class="isub1">influence on Spanish literature, 141;</li>

-<li class="isub1">on people of Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">popularity of, 142.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Zouave officers, 11.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Zuera, 54.</li>

-

-<li class="indx">Zurbaran, Francisco de, paintings by, at Cadiz, ii. <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Madrid, 193;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at the Escurial, 264;</li>

-<li class="isub1">at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>.</li>

-</ul>

-</div>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_293">293</span></p>

-</div>

-

-<div class="figcenter" >

-<a href="images/illus-b293.jpg">

-<img src="images/illus-b293s.jpg" alt="Map of SPAIN &amp;

-PORTUGAL" /></a>

-</div>

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-<pre>

-

-

-

-

-

-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Spain, v. 2 (of 2), by Edmondo de Amicis

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+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" />
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Spain vol. II, by Edmondo De Amicis.
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+
+.box2     {border:solid 2px rgb(243,0,2);padding:.25em;
+padding:.5em;margin-top:2%;}
+
+
+/* Transcriber's notes */
+.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA;
+    color: black;
+     font-size:smaller;
+     padding:0.5em;
+     margin-bottom:5em;
+     font-family:sans-serif, serif; }
+    </style>
+  </head>
+<body>
+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 50727 ***</div>
+
+<div class="transnote">
+<h3>Transcriber's Notes</h3>
+
+<p>Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected and
+inconsistencies of hyphenation have been removed. Other variations in spelling,
+accents and punctuation remain as in the original.</p>
+
+<p>The following corrections have been made to the Index.<br />
+Rembrandt von changed to Rembrandt van Rijn<br />
+Pousin, Nicola changed to Poussin, Nicolas<br />
+
+Zorilla, Ruiz changed to Zorrilla, Ruiz</p>
+
+<p>Repetition of chapter titles on consecutive pages has been removed.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="half-title">SPAIN</p>
+
+<div class="figcenterb" ><a id="Alcazar_Seville"></a>
+<img src="images/illus-a004s.jpg" alt="" />
+<div class="caption"><i>Alcazar, Seville</i></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<div class="box1">
+<div class="box2">
+<p class="center"><i><b>EDITION ARTISTIQUE</b></i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="box2"><div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/title1.jpg"  alt="The World’s Famous Places and Peoples" />
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="box2">
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr valign="middle">
+<td>
+
+<img src="images/title2.jpg"
+style="border:2px solid rgb(243,0,2);padding:.1em;"
+width="97"
+height="374"
+alt="Flower"
+/>
+</td>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 4em;">&nbsp;</span></td>
+<td>
+
+<h1>SPAIN</h1>
+
+<p class="center"><small>BY</small><br />
+EDMONDO DE AMICIS</p>
+
+<p class="center small spaced"><i>Translated<br />
+by Stanley Rhoads Yarnall, M.A.</i></p>
+
+<p class="center"><b><i>In Two Volumes<br />
+Volume II</i>.</b></p></td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<div class="box2"><p class="center">
+MERRILL AND BAKER<br />
+New York &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; London</p>
+</div>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="pn">
+<p class="space-above"><small>THIS EDITION ARTISTIQUE OF THE WORLD'S
+FAMOUS PLACES AND PEOPLES IS LIMITED
+TO ONE THOUSAND NUMBERED AND REGISTERED
+COPIES, OF WHICH THIS COPY IS
+NO</small>. _______</p></div>
+
+
+<p class="center space-above xs">Copyright, Henry T. Coates &amp; Co., 1895</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td></td><td align="right"><span class="xs">PAGE</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#ARANJUEZ">Aranjuez</a></span></td><td> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </td><td align="right">7</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#TOLEDO">Toledo</a></span></td><td></td><td align="right">15</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CORDOVA">Cordova</a></span></td><td></td><td align="right">53</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#SEVILLE">Seville</a></span></td><td></td><td align="right">97</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CADIZ">Cadiz</a></span></td><td></td><td align="right">147</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#MALAGA">Malaga</a></span></td><td></td><td align="right">165</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#GRANADA">Granada</a></span></td><td></td><td align="right">175</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#VALENCIA">Valencia</a></span></td><td></td><td align="right">257</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+</div><div class="chapter">
+<h2><a name="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+<p class="center">VOLUME II</p>
+
+
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right"><span class="xs">PAGE</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Alcazar_Seville">Alcazar, Seville</a></span></td><td align="right"><i>Frontispiece</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Gate_of_the_Sun">Gate of the Sun, Toledo</a></span></td><td align="right">18</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Alcazar_and_Bridge_of_San_Martin">Alcazar and Bridge of San Martin, Toledo</a></span></td><td align="right">40</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Court_of_Oranges">Court of Oranges, Mosque of Cordova</a></span></td><td align="right">68</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Moorish_Arches">Moorish Arches, Alcazar, Seville</a></span></td><td align="right">124</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Cadiz_p">Cadiz</a></span></td><td align="right">158</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Malaga_p">Malaga</a></span></td><td align="right">170</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Court_of_Myrtles">Court of Myrtles, Alhambra</a></span></td><td align="right">194</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Court_of_Lions">Fountain in the Court of Lions, Alhambra</a></span></td><td align="right">200</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Queens_Boudoir">Queen's Boudoir, Alhambra</a></span></td><td align="right">212</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Court_of_the_Generalife">Court of Generalife, Granada</a></span></td><td align="right">226</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#The_Alhambra">The Alhambra and the Valley of the Darro</a></span></td><td align="right">250</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+</div><div class="chapter">
+<h2><a name="ARANJUEZ" id="ARANJUEZ"></a>ARANJUEZ.</h2>
+
+
+<p>As on arriving at Madrid by way of the north, so
+on leaving it by way of the south, one must pass
+through a desolate country that resembles the poorest
+provinces of Arragon and Old Castile. There
+are vast plains, parched and yellow, which look as
+though they would echo like a hollow passageway if
+one were to strike them, or crumble like the crust
+of a crisp tart. And through the plains are scattered
+a few wretched villages of the same color as
+the soil, which seem as though they would take fire
+like a pile of dry leaves if one were to touch a torch
+to the corner of one of the huts. After an hour of
+travel my shoulders sought the cushions of the carriage,
+my elbow sought for a support, my head
+sought my hand, and I fell into a deep sleep like a
+member of Leopardi's "Assembly of Listeners." A
+few minutes after I had closed my eyes I was rudely
+awakened by a desperate cry from the women and
+children, and leaped to my feet, demanding of my
+neighbors what had occurred.</p>
+
+<p>But before I had ended my question a general
+burst of laughter reassured me. A company of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">10</span>
+huntsmen, scattered over the plain, on noticing the
+approach of the train, had planned to give the travellers
+a little scare. At that time there was a rumor
+that a band of Carlists had appeared in the vicinity
+of Aranjuez. The huntsmen, pretending to be the
+vanguard of the band, had given a loud shout while
+the train was passing, as if to call the great body
+of their comrades to their assistance, and as they
+shouted they went through the motions of firing at
+the railway-carriages; hence arose the fright and
+the cries of my fellow-travellers. And then the
+huntsmen suddenly threw the butts of their guns
+into the air to show that it was all a joke.</p>
+
+<p>When the alarm, in which I too shared for a
+moment, had subsided, I fell once more into my
+academic doze, but was again awakened in a few
+moments in a manner much more pleasant than on
+the first occasion.</p>
+
+<p>I looked around: the vast barren plain had been
+transformed as by magic into a great garden full of
+the most charming groves, traversed in all directions
+by wide avenues, dotted with country-houses and
+cottages festooned with verdure; here and there the
+sparkling of fountains, shady grottoes, flowering
+meadows, vineyards, and bridle-paths&mdash;a verdure, a
+freshness, a vernal odor, an atmosphere of happiness
+and peace, that enchanted the soul. We had arrived
+at Aranjuez. I left the train, walked up a
+beautiful avenue shaded by two rows of noble trees,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">11</span>
+and after a few steps found myself in front of the
+royal palace.</p>
+
+<p>The minister Castelar had written in his memorandum
+a few days before that the fall of the ancient
+Spanish monarchy was predoomed on that day when
+a mob of the populace, with curses on their lips and
+hatred in their hearts, had invaded the palace of
+Aranjuez to disturb the majestic repose of their sovereigns.
+I had reached that square where on the 17th
+of March, 1808, occurred those events which were
+the prologue of the national war, and, as it were,
+the first word of the death-sentence of the ancient
+monarchy. My eyes quickly sought the windows of
+the apartments of the Prince of Peace; I imagined
+him, as he fled from room to room, pale and distracted,
+searching for a hiding-place as the echo of
+the cry followed him up the stairs; I saw poor
+Charles IV., as with trembling hands he placed the
+crown of Spain on the head of the prince of the
+Asturias; all the scenes of that terrible drama were
+enacted in fancy before my eyes, and the profound
+silence of the place and the sight of that palace,
+closed and desolate, sent a chill to my heart.</p>
+
+<p>The palace has the appearance of a castle: it is
+built of brick, with trimmings of light stone, and
+covered with a tile roof. Every one knows that it
+was built for Philip II. by the celebrated architect
+Herrera, and that it was adorned by all the later
+kings, who made it their summer residence. I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">12</span>
+enter: the interior is magnificent; there is the stupendous
+reception-hall of the ambassadors, the beautiful
+Chinese cabinet belonging to Charles V., the
+marvellous dressing-chamber of Isabella II., and a
+profusion of the most precious ornaments. But all
+the riches of the palace are as nothing to the beauty
+of the gardens. The expectation is not disappointed.</p>
+
+<p>The gardens of Aranjuez (Aranjuez is the name
+of a little town which lies a short distance from the
+palace) seem to have been laid out for a race of
+Titan kings, to whom the royal parks and gardens
+of our country would have seemed like the flower-beds
+on their terraces or the plots before their
+stables. Endless avenues, bordered by trees of
+measureless height with arched branches interlacing
+as if bent toward each other by contrary winds, extend
+in every direction like a forest whose boundaries
+one cannot see, and through this forest the
+Tagus, a wide, swift stream, flows in a majestic
+curve, forming here and there cascades and lakes:
+an abundant and luxuriant vegetation springs up
+amid a labyrinth of bypaths, crossways, and sylvan
+glades; and in every part gleam statues, vases,
+columns, and fountains rising to a great height and
+falling in spray, festoons, and drops of water, placed
+in the midst of all manner of flowers from Europe
+and America; and, mingling with the majestic roar
+of the cascades of the Tagus, a flood of song from
+innumerable nightingales, which make the mys<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">13</span>terious
+gloom of the lonely paths ring with their
+mellow notes. In the depths of the gardens rises
+a small marble palace of modest proportions which
+contains all the wonders of the most magnificent
+royal abode; and here one may still breathe, so to
+speak, the air of the inmost life of the kings of
+Spain. Here are the small secret chambers whose
+ceilings one may touch with the hand, the billiard-room
+of Charles IV., his cue, the cushions embroidered
+by the hands of his queens, the musical
+clocks which enlivened the playtime of his children,
+the narrow staircases, the little windows about which
+cluster a hundred traditions of princely caprices,
+and, finally, the richest retiring-room in Europe,
+created at a whim of Charles V., containing in itself
+alone sufficient riches to adorn a palace, without
+depriving it of the noble primacy which it proudly
+holds among all other cabinets designed for the same
+use. Beyond this palace and all around the groves
+extend vineyards and olive-groves and orchards of
+fruit-bearing trees and smiling meadows. It is a
+veritable oasis in the midst of the desert&mdash;an oasis
+which Philip II. chose to create on a day when he
+was in good humor, as if to enliven with one cheerful
+image the black melancholy of the Escurial. On
+returning from the little marble palace toward the
+great royal palace through those endless avenues, in
+the shade of those noble trees, in that profound
+forest silence, I thought of the splendid trains of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">14</span>
+ladies and cavaliers who once wandered about in the
+footsteps of the gay young monarchs or the capricious
+and dissolute queens to the sound of amorous music
+and songs which told of the grandeur and glory of
+unconquered Spain; and I sadly repeated with the
+poet, Ricanati,</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">... "All is peace and silence,</div>
+  <div class="verse indent4">And their names are no longer heard."</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>But as I looked at those marble seats, half hidden
+in the shrubbery, and fixed my eyes on the shadow
+of certain distant paths, and thought of those queens,
+those lovers, and those mad pranks, I could not
+refrain from a sigh, which was not one of pity, and
+a secret sense of bitterness stung me to the heart;
+and I said, like poor Adan in the poem <i>Diablo
+Mundo</i>, "How are these grand ladies made? How
+do they live? What do they do? Do they talk,
+make love, and enjoy like us?" And I left for
+Toledo, imagining the love of a queen like a young
+adventurer of the Arabian Nights.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">15</span></p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a><br /><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p>
+</div><div class="chapter">
+<h2><a name="TOLEDO" id="TOLEDO"></a>TOLEDO.</h2>
+
+
+<p>When one approaches an unknown city one ought
+to have near by some one who has already seen it
+and is able to indicate the opportune moment to put
+one's head out of the window and get the first view.
+I had the good fortune to be informed in time.
+Some one said to me, "There is Toledo!" and I
+sprang to the window with an exclamation of
+wonder.</p>
+
+<p>Toledo rises on a sheer rocky height, at whose
+foot the Tagus describes a grand curve. From the
+plain one sees only the rocks and the walls of the
+fortress, and beyond the wall the tips of the belfries
+and the towers. The houses are hidden from view;
+the city seems to be closed and inaccessible, and
+presents the appearance of an abandoned stronghold
+rather than of a city. From the walls to the river-banks
+there is not a single house nor tree; all is
+bare, parched, craggy, precipitous; not a soul is in
+sight; you would say that to make the ascent it
+would be necessary to climb, and it seems that at
+the first appearance of a man on the face of those
+rocks a shower of arrows would fall upon him from
+the top of the wall.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">18</span></p>
+
+<p>You leave the train, get into a carriage, and
+arrive at the entrance of a bridge. It is the famous
+bridge Alcantara, which spans the Tagus, surmounted
+by a beautiful Moorish gate in the form of
+a tower, which gives it a bold, severe appearance.
+Crossing the bridge, you turn into a wide roadway
+which winds up in large serpentine curves until it
+reaches the top of the mountain. Here it really
+seems that you are under a fortified city of the
+Middle Ages, and you imagine yourself in the guise
+of a Moor or a Goth or a soldier of Alfonso VI.
+From every part precipitous rocks hang over your
+head, crumbling walls, towers, and the ruins of
+ancient bastions, and higher up the last wall which
+encircles the city, black, crowned with enormous
+battlements, opened here and there by great
+breaches, behind which the imprisoned houses rear
+their heads; and as you climb higher and higher the
+city seems to draw back and hide itself. Halfway
+up the ascent you come to the <i>Puerto del Sol</i>, a
+jewel of Moorish architecture, consisting of two
+embattled towers which are joined over a very graceful
+double-arched colonnade, under which runs the
+ancient street; and from that point, if you look
+back, you may see at a glance the Tagus, the valley,
+and the hills. You go on and find other walls and
+other ruins, and finally the first houses of the city.</p>
+
+<p>What a city! At the first moment I caught my
+breath. The carriage had turned down a little
+street, so narrow that the hubs of the wheels almost
+touched the walls of the houses.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<div class="caption"><i><a id="Gate_of_the_Sun"></a>Gate of the Sun, Toledo</i></div>
+
+<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b018c.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">19</span></p>
+
+<p>"Why do you turn in here?" I asked the driver.</p>
+
+<p>He laughed and answered, "Because there is no
+wider street."</p>
+
+<p>"Is all Toledo like this?" I asked again.</p>
+
+<p>"It is all like this," he replied</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible!" I exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"You will see," he added.</p>
+
+<p>To tell the truth, I did not believe him. I entered
+a hotel, dropped my valise in a room, and ran headlong
+down the stairs to take a look at this very
+strange city. One of the hotel-porters stopped me
+at the door and asked with a smile,</p>
+
+<p>"Where are you going, <i>caballero</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"To see Toledo," I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Alone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"But have you ever been here before?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you cannot go alone."</p>
+
+<p>"And why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because you will get lost."</p>
+
+<p>"Where?"</p>
+
+<p>"As soon as you go out."</p>
+
+<p>"For what reason?"</p>
+
+<p>"The reason is this," he answered, pointing to a
+wall on which hung a map of Toledo. I approached
+and saw a network of white lines on a black back<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">20</span>ground
+that seemed like one of those flourishes
+which school-boys make on their slates to waste the
+chalk and vex their teacher.</p>
+
+<p>"No matter," said I; "I am going alone, and if
+I get lost, let them come and find me."</p>
+
+<p>"You will not go a hundred steps," observed the
+porter.</p>
+
+<p>I went out and turned down the first street I saw,
+so narrow that on extending my arms I touched both
+walls. After fifty paces I turned into another street,
+narrower than the first, and from this passed into a
+third, and so on.</p>
+
+<p>I seemed to be wandering not through the streets
+of the city, but through the corridors of a building,
+and I went forward, expecting momentarily to come
+out into an open place. It is impossible, I thought,
+that the whole city is built in this manner; no one
+could live in it. But as I proceeded the streets
+seemed to grow narrower and shorter; every
+moment I was obliged to turn; after a curving
+street came a zigzag one, and after this another in
+the form of a hook, which led me back into the
+first, and so I wandered on for a little while, always
+in the midst of the same houses. Now and then I
+came out at a crossway where several alleys ran off
+in opposite directions, one of which would lose itself
+in the dark shadow of a portico, another would end
+blindly in a few paces against the wall of a house,
+a third in a short distance would descend, as it were,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">21</span>
+into the bowels of the earth, while a fourth would
+clamber up a steep hill; some were hardly wide
+enough to give a man passage; others were confined
+between two walls without doors or windows; and
+all were flanked by buildings of great height, between
+whose roofs one could see a narrow streak
+of sky.</p>
+
+<p>One passed windows defended by heavy iron bars,
+great doors studded with enormous nails, and dark
+courtyards. I walked for some time without meeting
+anybody, until I came out into one of the principal
+streets, lined with shops and full of peasants,
+women, and children, but little larger than an ordinary
+corridor. Everything is in proportion to the
+streets: the doors are like windows, the shops like
+niches, and by glancing into them one sees all the
+secrets of the house&mdash;the table already spread, the
+babies in the cradle, the mother combing her hair,
+and the father changing his shirt; everything is on
+the street, and it does not seem like a city, but like
+a house containing a single great family.</p>
+
+<p>I turned into a less-frequented street, where I
+heard only the buzzing of a fly; my footsteps
+echoed to the fourth story of the houses and brought
+some old women to the windows. A horse passes;
+it seems like a squadron; everybody hurries to
+see what is going on. The least sound re-echoes in
+every direction; a book falls in a second story,
+an old man coughs in a courtyard, a woman blows<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">22</span>
+her nose in some unknown place; one hears
+everything.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes every sound will suddenly cease; you
+are alone, you see no sign of life: you seem to be
+surrounded by the houses of witches, crossways
+made for conspirators, blind alleys for traitors, narrow
+doorways suitable for any crime, windows for the
+whispers of guilty lovers, gloomy doorways suggestive
+of blood-stained steps. But yet in all this labyrinth
+of streets there are no two alike; each one
+has its individuality: here rises an arch, there a
+column, yonder a piece of statuary. Toledo is a
+storehouse of art-treasures. Every little while the
+walls crumble, and there are revealed in every part
+records of all the centuries&mdash;bas-reliefs, arabesques,
+Moorish windows, and statuettes. The palaces have
+doorways defended by plates of engraved metal, historical
+knockers, nails with carved heads, 'scutcheons
+and emblems; and they form a fine contrast to the
+modern houses painted with festoons, medallions,
+cupids, urns, and fantastic animals.</p>
+
+<p>But these embellishments detract in no way from
+the severe and gloomy aspect of Toledo. Wherever
+you look you see something to remind you of the
+city fortified by the Arabs; however little your imagination
+may exert itself, it will succeed in rearranging
+from the relics scattered here and there the
+whole fabric of that darkened image, and then the
+illusion is complete: you see again the glorious<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">23</span>
+Toledo of the Middle Ages, and forget the solitude
+and silence of its streets. But it is a fleeting illusion,
+and you soon relapse into sad meditation and
+see only the skeleton of the ancient city, the necropolis
+of three empires, the great sepulchre of the
+glory of three races. Toledo reminds you of the
+dreams which come to young men after reading the
+romantic legends of the Middle Ages. You have
+seen many a time in your dreams dark cities encircled
+by deep moats, frowning walls, and inaccessible
+rocks; and you have crossed those draw-bridges
+and entered those tortuous, grass-grown
+streets, and have breathed that damp, sepulchral,
+prison air. Well, then, you have dreamed of
+Toledo.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing to see, after making a general survey
+of the city, is the cathedral, which is justly considered
+one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the
+world. The history of this cathedral, according to
+popular tradition, dates from the times of the apostle
+Saint James, first bishop of Toledo, who selected the
+place where it should be erected; but the construction
+of the edifice as it appears to-day was begun in
+1227, during the reign of San Fernando, and was
+ended after twenty-five years of almost continuous
+labor. The exterior of this immense church is
+neither rich nor beautiful, as is that of the cathedral
+of Burgos. A little square extends in front of the
+façade, and is the only place from which one can get<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">24</span>
+a view of any considerable part of the building. It
+is entirely surrounded by a narrow street, from
+which, however much you may twist your neck, you
+can see only the high outer walls which enclose the
+church like a fortress. The façade has three great
+doorways, the first of which is named <i>Pardon</i>, the
+second <i>Inferno</i>, and the third <i>Justice</i>. Over it rises
+a substantial tower which terminates in a beautiful
+octagonal cupola. Although in walking around the
+building one may have remarked its great size, on
+first entering one is struck by a profound sense of
+wonder, which quickly gives place to another keen
+sense of pleasure, the result of the freshness, the
+repose, the soft shadow, and the mysterious light
+which steals through the stained glass of innumerable
+windows and breaks in a thousand rays of blue,
+golden, and rosy light which glides here and there
+along the arches and columns like the bands of a
+rainbow. The church is formed of five great naves
+divided by eighty-eight enormous pilasters, each of
+which is composed of sixteen turned columns as
+close together as a bunch of spears. A sixth nave
+cuts the other five at right angles, extending from
+the great altar to the choir, and the vaulted roof of
+this principal nave rises majestically above the
+others, which seem to be bowing to it as if in
+homage. The many-colored light and the clear
+tone of the stone give the church an air of quiet
+cheerfulness which tempers the melancholy appear<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">25</span>ance
+of the Gothic architecture without depriving it
+of its austere and serious character. To pass from
+the streets of the city to the naves of this cathedral
+seems like coming out of a dungeon into an open
+square: one looks around, draws a deep breath, and
+begins to live again.</p>
+
+<p>The high altar, if one wished to examine it minutely,
+would require as much time as the interior
+of a church: it is itself a church&mdash;a miracle of little
+columns, statuettes, traceries, and ornaments of endless
+variety, creeping along the iron frames, rising
+above the architraves, winding about the niches,
+supporting one another, climbing and disappearing,
+presenting on every side a thousand outlines, groups,
+combinations, effects in gilding and color, every sort
+of grace that art can devise&mdash;giving to the whole an
+effect of magnificence, dignity, and beauty. Opposite
+the high altar rises the choir, divided into three
+orders of stalls, marvellously carved by Philip of
+Bourgogne and Berruguete, with bas-reliefs representing
+historical events, allegories, and sacred legends&mdash;one
+of the most famous monuments of
+art.</p>
+
+<p>In the centre, in the form of a throne, stands the
+seat of the archbishop surrounded by a circle of
+enormous jasper columns, with colossal statues of
+alabaster resting on the architraves; on either side
+rise enormous bronze pulpits provided with two
+great missals, and two gigantic organs, one in front<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">26</span>
+of the other, from which it seems that at any moment
+a flood of melody may burst forth and make the
+vault tremble.</p>
+
+<p>The pleasure of one's admiration in these great
+cathedrals is almost always disturbed by importunate
+guides, who wish at any cost to amuse you after
+their fashion. And it was my misfortune to become
+convinced that the Spanish guides are the most persistent
+of their kind. When one of them has gotten
+it into his head that you are to spend the day with
+him, it is all over. You may shrug your shoulders,
+refuse to notice him, let him talk himself hoarse
+without so much as turning to look at him, wander
+about on your own account as though you had not
+seen him: it is all the same thing. In a moment of
+enthusiasm before some painting or statue a word
+escapes you, a gesture, a smile: it is enough. You
+are caught, you are his, you are the prey of this
+implacable human cuttle-fish, who, like the cuttle-fish
+of Victor Hugo, does not leave his victim until
+he has cut off his head. While I stood contemplating
+the statuary of the choir I saw one of these
+cuttle-fish out of the corner of my eye&mdash;a miserable
+old rake, who approached me with slow steps sidewise,
+like a cutthroat with the air of one who was
+saying, "Now I have got you!" I continued to look
+at the statues; the old man came up to my side, and
+he too began to look; then he suddenly asked me,
+"Do you wish my company?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">27</span></p>
+
+<p>"No," I replied, "I don't need you."</p>
+
+<p>And he continued, without any embarrassment,</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know who Elpidius was?"</p>
+
+<p>The question was so remarkable that I could not
+keep from asking in my turn,</p>
+
+<p>"Who was he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Elpidius," he replied, "was the second bishop
+of Toledo."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what of him?</p>
+
+<p>"'What of him?' It was the bishop Elpidius
+who conceived the idea of consecrating the church
+to the Virgin, and that is the reason why the Virgin
+came to visit the church."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! how do you know that?"</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know it? You see it."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean to say that it has been seen?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean to say that it is still to be seen: have
+the goodness to come with me."</p>
+
+<p>So saying, he started off, and I followed him,
+very curious to learn what this visible form of the
+descent of the Virgin might be. We stopped in
+front of a sort of chapel close to one of the great
+pilasters of the central nave. The guide pointed
+out a white stone set in the wall covered by
+an iron net, and with this inscription running
+around it:</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"Quando la reina del cielo</div>
+  <div class="verse">Puso los pies en el suelo,</div>
+  <div class="verse">En esta piedra los puso."</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">28</span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"When the Queen of heaven</div>
+  <div class="verse">Descended to the earth,</div>
+  <div class="verse">Her feet rested on this stone."</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>"Then the Holy Virgin has actually placed her
+feet on this stone?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"On this very stone," he replied; and, thrusting
+a finger between the strands of the iron net, he
+touched the stone, kissed his finger, made the sign
+of the cross, and turned toward me as if to say,
+"Now it is your turn."</p>
+
+<p>"My turn?" I replied. "Oh, really, my friend,
+I cannot do it."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I do not feel myself worthy to touch
+that sacred stone."</p>
+
+<p>The guide understood, and, looking hard at me
+with a serious aspect, he asked, "You do not
+believe?"</p>
+
+<p>I looked at a pilaster. Then the old man made
+a sign for me to follow, and started toward a corner
+of the church, murmuring with an air of sadness,
+"<i>Cadanno es dueño de su alma</i>" (Every man is
+master of his soul).</p>
+
+<p>A young priest who was standing near, and who
+had divined the cause of his words, cast a piercing
+glance at me, and went off in an opposite direction,
+muttering I know not what.</p>
+
+<p>The chapels correspond in style with that of the
+church: almost all of them contain some fine monu<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">29</span>ments.
+In the chapel of Santiago, behind the high
+altar, are two magnificent tombs of alabaster which
+contain the remains of the constable Alvaro de Luna
+and his wife; in the chapel of San Ildefonso, the
+tomb of the cardinal Gil Carrillo de Albornoz; in
+the chapel of the "New Kings," the tombs of Henry
+II., John II., and Henry III.; in the chapel of the
+sacristy, a stupendous group of statues and busts
+of marble, silver, ivory, and gold, and a collection of
+crosses and relics of inestimable value, the remains
+of Saint Leucadia and Saint Eugenia preserved in
+two silver caskets exquisitely chased.</p>
+
+<p>The Chapel Mozarabe, which is under the tower
+of the church, and was erected to perpetuate the
+tradition of the primitive Christian rite, is probably
+the most worthy of attention. One of its walls is
+entirely covered with a fresco, in the Gothic style,
+representing a conflict between the Moors and the
+Toledans&mdash;marvellously preserved, even to the most
+delicate lines. It is a painting worth a volume of
+history. In it one sees the Toledo of those times
+with all its walls and its houses; the habiliments
+of the two armies; the arms, faces, everything portrayed
+with an admirable finish and an unspeakable
+harmony of color which answers perfectly to the
+vague and fantastic idea which one may have formed
+of those centuries and those races. Two other frescoes
+on either side of the first represent the fleet
+which bore the Arabs into Spain, and they offer a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">30</span>
+thousand minute details of the mediæval marine and
+the very air of those times, if one may so speak,
+which makes one think of and see a thousand things
+not represented in the painting, as one hears distant
+music on looking at a landscape.</p>
+
+<p>After the chapels one goes to see the sacristy,
+where are gathered enough riches to restore the
+finances of Spain to a sound basis. There is, among
+others, a vast room on the ceiling of which one sees
+a fresco by Luca Giordano, which represents a vision
+of paradise, with a myriad of angels, saints, and
+allegorical figures floating in the air or standing out
+like statues from the cornices of the walls in a thousand
+bold attitudes, with so much action and foreshortening
+that one is bewildered. The guide,
+pointing out this miracle of imagination and genius,
+which in the estimation of all artists, to use a very
+curious Spanish expression, is a work of <i>merito atroz</i>
+(of atrocious merit),&mdash;the guide bids you to look attentively
+at the ray of light which falls upon the
+walls from the centre of the vaulted ceiling. You
+look at it and then make a circuit of the room, and
+wherever you find yourself that ray of light is falling
+directly upon your head.</p>
+
+<p>From this hall you pass into a room which is also
+beautifully painted in fresco by the nephew of
+Berruguete, and from it into a third, where a sacristan
+lays the treasures of the cathedral before
+your eyes&mdash;the enormous silver candlesticks; the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">31</span>
+pyxes flashing with rubies; the golden stands for the
+elevation of the Host, studded with diamonds; the
+damask vestments, embroidered in gold; the robes
+of the Virgin, covered with arabesques, garlands of
+flowers, and stars of pearl, which at every motion
+of the cloth flash forth in a thousand rays and colors
+and quite dazzle one's eyes. A hour is scarcely sufficient
+to see hurriedly all that display of treasures,
+which would certainly satisfy the ambition of ten
+queens and enrich the altars of ten cathedrals; and
+when, after he has shown you everything, the sacristan
+looks in your eyes for an expression of surprise,
+he finds only astonishment and stupefaction,
+which give evidence of an imagination wandering
+in far distant regions&mdash;in the realms of the Arabian
+legends where the kindly genii gather all the riches
+dreamed of by the glowing fancy of enamored
+sultans.</p>
+
+<p>It was the eve of <i>Corpus Domini</i>, and in the sacristy
+they were preparing the robes for the processional.
+Nothing can be more unpleasant or more at
+variance with the quiet and noble sadness of the
+church than the theatrical hurry-scurry which one
+sees on such occasions. It is like being behind the
+scenes on the evening of a dress rehearsal. From one
+room of the sacristy to another half-dressed boys
+were coming and going with a great clatter, carrying
+armfuls of surplices, stoles, and capes; here a sour-tempered
+sacristan was opening and banging the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">32</span>
+doors of a wardrobe; there a priest, all red in the
+face, was calling angrily to a chorister who did not
+hear him; yonder other priests were running through
+the room with their robes partly on their backs and
+partly trailing behind them; some laughing, some
+screaming, and some shouting from one room to
+another at the top of their voices; everywhere one
+heard a swish of skirts, a breathless panting, and an
+indescribable stamping and tramping.</p>
+
+<p>I went to see the cloister, but, as the door was
+open through which one reaches it from the church,
+I saw it before entering. From the middle of the
+church one gets a glimpse of a part of the cloister-garden,
+a group of fine leafy trees, a little grove, a
+mass of luxuriant plants which seem to close the
+doorway and look as though they are framed beneath
+a graceful arch and between the two slender columns
+of the portico which extends all around. It is a
+beautiful sight, which makes one think of Oriental
+gardens encircled by the columns of a mosque. The
+cloister, which is very large, is surrounded by a colonnade,
+graceful, though severe in form; the walls
+covered with great frescoes. The guide advised me
+to rest here a little while before ascending to the
+campanile. I leaned against a low wall in the shade
+of a tree, and remained there until I felt able to
+make another expedition, as the expression is.
+Meanwhile, my commander extolled in bombastic
+language the glories of Toledo, carrying his impu<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">33</span>dence
+so far, in his patriotism, as to call it "a great
+commercial city" which could buy and sell Barcelona
+and Valencia, and a city strong enough, if need be,
+to withstand ten German armies and a thousand batteries
+of Krupp guns. After each of his exaggerations
+I kept spurring him on, and the good man enjoyed
+himself to the full. What pleasure there is in
+knowing how to make others talk! Finally, when
+the proud Toledan was so swollen with glory that
+the cloister could no longer hold him, he said to me,
+"We may go now," and led the way toward the
+door of the campanile.</p>
+
+<p>When we were halfway up we stopped to take
+breath. The guide knocked at a little door, and out
+came a swaggering little sacristan, who opened
+another door, and made me enter a corridor where I
+saw a collection of gigantic puppets in very strange
+attire. Four of them, the guide told me, represented
+Europe, Asia, America, and Africa, and two others
+Faith and Religion; and they were so made that a
+man could hide in them and raise them from the
+ground.</p>
+
+<p>"They take them out on the occasions of the
+royal fêtes," the sacristan added, "and carry them
+around through the city;" and, to show me how it
+was done, he crept in under the robes of Asia.
+Then he led me to a corner where there was an
+enormous monster which when touched, I know not
+where, stretched out a very long neck and a horrible<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">34</span>
+head and made a dreadful noise. But he could not
+tell me what this ugly creature signified, and so
+invited me instead to admire the marvellous imagination
+of the Spaniards, which creates so "many new
+things" to sell in all the known world. I admired,
+paid, and continued the ascent with my Toledan
+cuttle-fish. From the top of the tower one enjoys
+a splendid view&mdash;the city, the hills, the river, a vast
+horizon, and, below, the great mass of the cathedral,
+which seems like a mountain of granite. But there
+is another elevation, a short distance away, from
+which one sees everything to a better advantage,
+and consequently I remained in the campanile only
+a few moments, especially as at that hour the sun
+was shining very strongly, confusing all the colors
+of the city and country in a flood of light.</p>
+
+<p>From the cathedral my guide led me to see the
+famous church of <i>San Juan de los Reyes</i>, situated on
+the banks of the Tagus. My mind is still confused
+when I think of the windings and turnings which we
+were obliged to make in order to reach it. It was
+mid-day, the streets were deserted; gradually, as
+we went farther from the centre of the city, the
+solitude became more depressing; not a door or
+window was open, not the slightest sound was heard.
+For a moment I suspected that the guide was in
+league with some assassin to entice me into an
+out-of-the-way place and rob me; he had a suspicious
+face, and then he kept glancing here and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">35</span>
+there with a suspicious air, like one meditating a
+crime.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it much farther?" I would ask from time to
+time, and he would always answer: "It is right
+here," and yet we never reached it.</p>
+
+<p>At a certain point my uneasiness changed into
+fear: in a narrow, tortuous street a door opened;
+two bearded men came out, made a sign to the
+cuttle-fish, and fell in behind us. I thought it was
+all over with me. There was only one way of
+escape&mdash;to strike the guide, knock him down, jump
+over his body, and run. But which way? And on
+the other side there came into my mind the high
+praises which Thiers bestows on the "Spanish legs"
+in his <i>History of the War of Independence</i>; and I
+thought that flight would only prove an opportunity
+to plant a dagger in my back instead of my stomach,
+Alas! to die without seeing Andalusia! To die after
+taking so many notes, after giving so many tips&mdash;to
+die with pockets full of letters of introduction, with
+a purse fat with doubloons&mdash;to die with a passport
+covered with seals&mdash;to die by treachery! As God
+willed, the two bearded men disappeared at the first
+corner and I was saved. Then, overwhelmed by
+compunction for suspecting that the poor old man
+could be capable of a crime, I came over to his left
+side, offered him a cigar, said that Toledo was worth
+two Romes, and showed him a thousand courtesies.
+Finally we arrived at <i>San Juan de los Reyes</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">36</span></p>
+
+<p>It is a church which seems like a royal palace:
+the highest part is covered by a balcony surrounded
+with a honeycombed and sculptured breastwork,
+upon which rises a series of statues of kings, and
+in the middle stands a graceful hexagonal cupola
+which completes the beautiful harmony of the edifice.
+From the walls hang long iron chains which
+were suspended there by the Christian prisoners
+released at the conquest of Granada, and which,
+together with the dark color of the stone, give the
+church a severe and picturesque appearance. We
+entered, passed through two or three large, bare
+rooms, unpaved, cluttered with piles of dirt and
+heaps of rubbish, climbed a staircase, and came out
+upon a high gallery inside the church, which is one
+of the most beautiful and noblest of the monuments
+of Gothic architecture. It has a single great nave
+divided into four vaults, whose arches intersect
+under rich rosettes. The pilasters are covered with
+festoons and arabesques; the walls ornamented with
+a profusion of bas-reliefs, with enormous shields
+bearing the arms of Castile and Arragon, eagles,
+dragons, heraldic animals, trailing vines, and emblematic
+inscriptions; the gallery running all around the
+room is perforated and carved with great elegance;
+the choir is supported by a bold arch; the color of
+the stone is light gray, and everything is admirably
+finished and preserved, as if the church had been<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">37</span>
+built but a few years ago, instead of at the end of
+the fifteenth century.</p>
+
+<p>From the church we descended to the cloister,
+which is, in truth, a miracle of architecture and
+sculpture. Graceful slender columns which could
+be broken in two by the stroke of a hammer, looking
+like the trunks of saplings, support capitals
+richly adorned like curving boughs; arches ornamented
+with flowers, birds, and grotesque animals in
+every sort of carving. The walls are covered with
+inscriptions in Gothic characters in a framework of
+leaves and very delicate arabesques. Wherever one
+looks one finds grace mingled with riches in enchanting
+harmony: it would not be possible to accumulate
+in an equal space and with more exquisite art a
+larger number of the most delicate and beautiful
+objects. It is a luxuriant garden of sculpture, a
+grand saloon embroidered, quilted, and brocaded in
+marble, a great monument, majestic as a temple,
+magnificent as a palace, delicate as a toy, and graceful
+as a flower.</p>
+
+<p>After the cloisters one goes to see a picture-gallery
+which contains only some paintings of little value,
+and then to the convent with its long corridors, its
+narrow stairs, and empty cells, almost on the point
+of falling into ruins, and in some parts already in
+ruins; throughout bare and squalid like a building
+gutted by fire.</p>
+
+<p>A little way from <i>San Juan de los Reyes</i> there is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">38</span>
+another monument well worthy of attention, a curious
+record of the Judaic period&mdash;the synagogue
+now known by the name of Santa Maria la Blanca.
+One enters an untidy garden and knocks at the door
+of a wretched-looking house. The door opens.
+There is a delightful sense of surprise, a vision of
+the Orient, a sudden revelation of another religion
+and another world. There are five narrow alleys
+divided by four long rows of little octagonal pilasters,
+which support as many Moorish arches with
+stucco capitals of various forms; the ceiling is of
+cedar-wood divided into squares, and here and there
+on the walls are arabesques and Arabic inscriptions.
+The light falls from above, and everything is white.
+The synagogue was converted into a mosque by the
+Arabs, and the mosque into a church by the Christians,
+so that, properly, it is none of the three,
+although it still preserves the character of the
+mosque, and the eye surveys it with delight, and
+the imagination follows from arch to arch the fleeting
+images of a sensuous paradise.</p>
+
+<p>When I had seen Santa Maria la Blanca, I had
+not the strength to see anything else, and, refusing
+all the tempting propositions of the guide, I told him
+to lead me back to the hotel. After a long walk
+through a labyrinth of narrow, deserted streets we
+arrived there; I put a <i>peseta</i> and a half in the hand
+of my innocent assassin, who found the fee too<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">39</span>
+small, and asked (how I laughed at the word!) for a
+little <i>gratificacion</i>.</p>
+
+<p>I went into the dining-room to eat a chop or <i>chuleta</i>
+(which is pronounced <i>cuileta</i>), as the Spanish call it&mdash;a
+name at which they would turn up their noses in
+some of the provinces of Italy.</p>
+
+<p>Toward evening I went to see the Alcazar. The
+name raises expectations of a Moorish palace, but
+there is nothing Moorish about it except the name.
+The building which one admires to-day was built
+in the reign of Charles V. on the ruins of a castle
+which was in existence as early as the eighth century,
+although the notices of it in contemporary chronicles
+are vague. This edifice rises upon a height overlooking
+the city, so that one sees its walls and towers
+from every point above the level of the streets, and
+the foreigner finds it a sure landmark amid the confusion
+and labyrinths of the city. I climbed the
+height by a broad winding street, like that one
+which runs from the plain up to the city, and found
+myself in front of the Alcazar. It is an immense
+square palace, at whose corners rise four great
+towers that give it the formidable appearance of a
+fortress. A vast square extends in front of the
+façade, and all around it runs a chain of embattled
+bulwarks of Oriental design. The entire building is
+of a decided chalky color, relieved by a thousand
+varied shades of that powerful painter of monuments,
+the burning sun of the South, and it appears<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">40</span>
+even lighter against the very clear sky upon which
+the majestic form of the building is outlined.</p>
+
+<p>The façade is carved in arabesques in a manner at
+once dignified and elegant. The interior of the
+palace corresponds with the exterior: it is a vast
+court surrounded by two orders of graceful arches,
+one above the other, supported by slender columns,
+with a monumental marble staircase starting at the
+centre of the side opposite the door, and a little
+way above the pavement divides into two parts that
+lead to the interior of the palace, the one on the
+right, the other on the left. To enjoy the beauty of
+the courtyard it is necessary to stand on the landing
+where the staircase separates: from that point one
+comprehends at a glance the complete harmony of
+the edifice, which inspires a sense of cheerfulness
+and pleasure, like fine music performed by hidden
+musicians.</p>
+
+<p>Excepting the courtyard, the other parts of the
+building&mdash;the stairways, the rooms, the corridors&mdash;everything
+is in ruins or falling to ruins. They
+were at work turning the palace into a military
+school, whitewashing the walls, breaking down the
+partitions to make great dormitories, numbering the
+doors, and converting the palace into a barracks.
+Nevertheless, they left intact the great subterranean
+chambers which were used for stables at the time of
+Charles V., and which are still able to hold several
+thousand horses. The guide made me approach a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">41</span>
+window from which I looked down into an abyss that
+gave me an idea of their vastness. Then we climbed
+a series of unsteady steps into one of the four towers;
+the guide opened with pincers and a hammer a window
+that had been nailed fast, and with the air of
+one who was announcing a miracle said to me,
+"Look, sir!"</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<div class="caption"><i><a id="Alcazar_and_Bridge_of_San_Martin"></a>Alcazar and Bridge of San Martin, Toledo</i></div>
+<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b040cs.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+</div>
+
+<p>It was a wonderful panorama. One had a bird's-eye
+view of the city of Toledo, street by street and
+house by house, as if one were looking at a map
+spread upon a table: here the cathedral, rising above
+the city like a measureless castle, and making all
+the buildings around it seem as small as toy houses;
+there the balcony of <i>San Juan de las Reyes</i>, crowned
+with statues; yonder the embattled towers of the
+New Gate, the circus, the Tagus running at the foot
+of the city between its rocky banks; and beyond
+the river, opposite the bridge of Alcantara, on a
+precipitous crag, the ruins of the ancient castle of
+San Servando; still farther off a verdant plain, and
+then rocks, hills, and mountains as far as the eye can
+see; and over all a very clear sky and the setting
+sun, which gilded the summits of the old buildings
+and flashed on the river like a great silver scarf.</p>
+
+<p>While I was contemplating this magic spectacle
+the guide, who had read the <i>History of Toledo</i> and
+wished me to know the fact, was telling all sorts of
+stories with that manner, half poetical and half
+facetious, which is distinctive of the Spaniards of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">42</span>
+the South. Above all, he wished to explain the history
+of the work of fortification, and although, where
+he said that he saw clear and unmistakable remains
+which he pointed out to me, I saw nothing at all, I
+succeeded, nevertheless, in learning something about
+it.</p>
+
+<p>He told me that Toledo had been thrice surrounded
+by a wall, and that the traces of all three walls were
+still clear. "Look!" he said; "follow the line
+which my finger indicates: that is the Roman wall,
+the innermost one, and its ruins are still visible.
+Now look a little farther on: that other one beyond
+it is the Gothic wall. Now let your glance describe
+a curve which embraces the first two: that is the
+Moorish wall, the most recent. But the Moors also
+built an inner wall on the ruins of the Roman wall:
+this you can easily see. Then observe the direction
+of the streets, which converge toward the highest
+point of the city; follow the line of the roofs&mdash;here,
+so; you will see that all the streets go up zigzag,
+and they were built purposely in this manner, so that
+the city could be defended even after the walls had
+been destroyed; and the houses were built so close
+one against another in order that it would be possible
+to jump from roof to roof, you see; and then the
+Arabs have left it in their writings. This is the
+reason that the Spanish gentlemen from Madrid
+make me laugh when they come here and say,
+'Pooh! what streets!' You see, they do not know<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">43</span>
+a particle of history: if they knew the least bit, if
+they read a little instead of spending their days on
+the Prado and in the Recoleto, they would understand
+that there is a reason for the narrow streets
+of Toledo, and that Toledo is not a city for ignoramuses."</p>
+
+<p>I began to laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you not believe?" continued the custodian:
+"it is a sacred fact. Not a week ago, to cite a
+case, here comes a dandy from Madrid with his wife.
+Well, even as they were climbing the stairs they
+began to run down the city, the narrow streets, and
+the dark houses. When they came to this window
+and saw those two old towers down yonder on the
+plain on the left bank of the Tagus, they asked me
+what they were, and I answered, '<i>Los palacios de
+Galiana</i>.' 'Oh! what beautiful palaces!' they exclaimed,
+and began to laugh and looked in another
+direction. Why? Because they did not know their
+history. Now, I imagine that you do not know any
+better; but you are a stranger, and that makes a
+difference. Know, then, that the great emperor
+Charlemagne came to Toledo when he was a very
+young man. King Galafro was reigning then, and
+dwelt in that palace. King Galafro had a daughter
+Galiana, as beautiful as an angel; and, as Charlemagne
+was a guest of the king and saw the princess
+every day, he fell in love with her with all his heart,
+and so did the princess with him. But there was a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">44</span>
+rival between them, and this rival was the king of
+Guadalajara, a Moorish giant of herculean strength
+and the courage of a lion. This king, to see the
+princess without being seen, had a subterranean
+passage made all the way from the city of Guadalajara
+to the very foundation of the palace. But
+what good did it do? The princess could not even
+bear to see him, and as often as he came, so often
+did he return crestfallen; but not for this did the
+enamored king stop paying his court. And so much
+did he come hanging around that Charlemagne, who
+was not a man to be imposed upon, as you can
+imagine, lost his patience, and to end the matter
+challenged him. They fought: it was a terrible
+struggle, but the Moor, for all he was a giant, got
+the worst of it. When he was dead Charlemagne
+cut off his head and laid it at the feet of his love,
+who approved the delicacy of his offering, became a
+Christian, gave her hand to the prince, and went
+away with him to France, where she was proclaimed
+empress."</p>
+
+<p>"And the head of the Moor?"</p>
+
+<p>"You may laugh, but these are sacred facts.
+Do you see that old building down there at the
+highest point of the city? It is the church of San
+Ginés. And do you know what is inside of it?
+Nothing less than the door of an underground
+passage which extends three leagues beyond Toledo.
+You do not believe it? Listen! At the place<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">45</span>
+where the church of San Ginés now stands there
+once was an enchanted palace before the Moors
+invaded Spain. No king had ever had the courage
+to enter it, and those who might possibly have been
+so bold did not do it because, according to the tradition,
+the first man who crossed that threshold
+would be the ruin of Spain. Finally King Roderic,
+before setting out for the battle of Guadalete, hoping
+to find in it some treasures which would furnish
+him means to resist the invasion of the Moors, had
+the doors broken open and entered, preceded by his
+warriors, who lighted the way. After a great deal
+of trouble to keep their torches lighted for the
+furious wind which came through the underground
+passages, they reached a mysterious room where
+they saw a chest which bore the inscription, 'He
+who opens me will see miracles.' The king commanded
+that it be opened: with incredible difficulty
+they succeeded in opening it, but, instead of gold or
+diamonds, they found only a roll of linen, on which
+were painted some armed Moors, with this inscription
+underneath: '<i>Spain will soon be destroyed by
+these</i>.' That very night a violent tempest arose,
+the enchanted palace fell, and a short time afterward
+the Moors entered Spain. You don't seem to
+believe it?"</p>
+
+<p>"What stuff you are talking! How can I
+believe it?"</p>
+
+<p>"But this history is connected with another.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">46</span>
+You know, without doubt, that Count Julian, the
+commandant of the fortress of Ceuta, betrayed
+Spain and allowed the Moors to pass when he might
+have barred the way. But you do not know why
+Count Julian turned traitor. He had a daughter at
+Toledo, and this daughter went every day with a
+number of her young friends to bathe in the Tagus.
+As misfortune willed it, the place where they went
+to bathe, which was called <i>Los Baños de la Cava</i>,
+was near a tower in which King Roderic was accustomed
+to pass the mid-day hours. One day Count
+Julian's daughter, who was called Florinda, tired of
+sporting in the water, sat down on the river-bank
+and said to her companions, 'Companions, let us
+see who is the most beautiful.'&mdash;'Let us see!' they
+cried, and as soon done as said. They seated themselves
+around Florinda, and each one revealed her
+beauty. But Florinda surpassed them all, and,
+unfortunately, just at the moment when she said to
+the others, 'Look!' King Roderic put his head out
+of the window and saw them. Young and dissolute,
+you may imagine he took fire like a match, paid his
+court to the beautiful Florinda, ruined and abandoned
+her; and from this followed the fury of the revenge
+of Count Julian, the treason, and the invasion."</p>
+
+<p>At this point it seemed that I had listened long
+enough: I gave the custodian two <i>reales</i>, which he
+took and put in his pocket with a dignified air, and,
+giving a last look at Toledo, I descended.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">47</span></p>
+
+<p>It was the hour for promenading. The principal
+street, hardly wide enough for a carriage to pass
+through, was full of people; there may have been a
+few hundred persons, but they seemed like a great
+crowd; it was dusk, the shops were closing, and a
+few stray lights began to flicker here and there. I
+went to get my dinner, but came out quickly, so as
+not to lose sight of the promenade. It was night:
+there was no other illumination save the moonlight,
+and one could not see the faces of the people; I
+seemed to be in the midst of a procession of spectres,
+and was overwhelmed with sadness. "To think that
+I am alone!" I said&mdash;"that in all this city there is
+not a soul who knows me; that if I fall dead at this
+moment, there would not be a dog to say, 'Poor
+man! he was a good fellow!'" I saw joyous young
+men pass, fathers of families with their children,
+husbands or those who had the air of husbands
+with beautiful creatures on their arms; every one
+had a companion; they laughed and talked, and
+passed without so much as looking at me. How
+wretched I was! How happy I should have been if
+a boy, a beggar, or a policeman had come up and
+said, "It seems to me that I recognize you, sir"!&mdash;"It
+is impossible, I am a foreigner, I have never
+been in Toledo before; but it makes no matter;
+don't go away; stay here, and we will talk a while,
+for I am lonely."</p>
+
+<p>In a happy moment I remembered that at Madrid<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">48</span>
+I had received a letter of introduction to a Toledan
+gentleman. I hurried to the hotel, took out my letter,
+and was at once shown to his house. The gentleman
+was at home and received me courteously.
+It was such a pleasure to hear my own name again
+that I could have thrown my arms around his neck.
+He was Antonio Gamero, the author of a highly esteemed
+<i>History of Toledo</i>. We spent the evening
+together. I asked him a hundred things; he told
+me a thousand, and read me some splendid passages
+from his book, which made me better acquainted with
+Toledo than I should otherwise have been in a
+month's residence there.</p>
+
+<p>The city is poor, and worse than poor: it is dead;
+the rich have abandoned it for Madrid; the men of
+genius have followed the rich; it has no commerce;
+the manufacture of cutlery, the only industry which
+flourishes, provides a livelihood for some hundreds
+of families, but not for the city; popular education
+is neglected; the people are lazy and miserable.</p>
+
+<p>But they have not lost their ancient character of
+nobility. Like all the peoples of great declining cities,
+they are proud and chivalrous; they abhor baseness,
+deal justice with their own hands, when they can, to
+assassins and thieves and murderers; and, although
+the poet Zorilla, in one of his ballads, has bluntly
+called them a silly people, they are not so; they are
+alert and bold. They combine the seriousness of the
+Spaniards of the North with the vivacity of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">49</span>
+Spaniards of the South; they hold the middle ground
+between the Castilian and the Andalusian; they
+speak the language with refinement, with a greater
+variety of inflexion than the people of Madrid, and
+with greater precision than the people of Cordova
+and Seville; they love poetry and music; they are
+proud to number among their great men the gentle
+Garcilaso de la Vega, the reformer of Spanish poetry,
+and the illustrious Francisco de Rojas, the author of
+the <i>Garcia del Castañar</i>; and they take pride in
+welcoming within their walls artists and students
+from all the countries in the world who come to
+study the history of three nations and the monuments
+of three civilizations. But, whatever its
+people may be, Toledo is dead; the city of Wamba,
+of Alfonso the Brave, and of Padilla is nothing but
+a tomb. Since Philip II. took from it the crown of
+the capital, it has been steadily declining, and is still
+declining, and it is consuming itself little by little,
+solitary on the summit of its gloomy mountain, like
+a skeleton abandoned on a rock in the midst of the
+waves of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>I returned to the hotel shortly before midnight.
+Although the moon was shining brightly&mdash;for on
+moonlight nights they do not illuminate the streets,
+although the light of that silvery orb does not penetrate
+those narrow ways&mdash;I was obliged to grope my
+way along like a thief. With my head full, as it
+was, of fantastic ballads which describe the streets<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">50</span>
+of Toledo traversed at night by cavaliers muffled in
+their cloaks, singing under the windows of their
+ladies, fighting and killing one another, climbing
+into palaces and stealing the maidens away, I
+imagined I should hear the tinkle of guitars, the
+clashing of swords, and the cries of the dying.
+Nothing of the kind: the streets were deserted and
+silent and the windows dark, and one heard faintly
+from time to time at the corners and crossways the
+light step of some one passing or a fugitive whisper,
+the source of which one could in no way discover.
+I reached the hotel without harming any fair Toledan,
+which might have caused me some annoyance,
+and also without having any holes made in my
+stomach, which was undoubtedly a consolation.</p>
+
+<p>The morning of the next day I visited the beautiful
+building of the hospital of San Cruz, the church
+of <i>Nuestra Señora del Transito</i>, an ancient synagogue,
+the ruins of an amphitheatre and of an arena
+where naval battles were fought in Roman times,
+and the famous manufactory of arms, where I bought
+a beautiful dagger with a silver handle and a blade
+covered with arabesques, which at this moment lies
+on my table, and when I shut my eyes and take it
+in my hand I seem to be still there, in the courtyard
+of the factory, a mile out of Toledo, under the mid-day
+sun, surrounded by a group of soldiers, and enveloped
+in a cloud of smoke from their cigarettes.
+I remember that as I was walking back to Toledo,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">51</span>
+as I was crossing a bit of country solitary as a desert
+and silent as the Catacombs, a terrible voice cried
+out, "Away with the foreigner!"</p>
+
+<p>The voice came from the city. I stopped&mdash;I was
+the foreigner, that cry was directed at me, and my
+blood curdled; the solitude and silence of the place
+increased my fear. I started forward and the voice
+cried again, "Away with the foreigner!"</p>
+
+<p>"Is it a dream?" I exclaimed, stopping again, "or
+am I awake? Who is shouting? Where is he?
+Why does he do it?"</p>
+
+<p>I started on again, and the voice came the third
+time, "Away with the foreigner!"</p>
+
+<p>I stopped the third time, and when, all disturbed,
+I cast my eyes around, I saw a boy sitting on the
+ground, who looked at me with a laugh and said,
+"He is a crazy man, who thinks he is living in the
+time of the War of Independence. Look, sir! that
+is the insane asylum." And he pointed out the
+place on a hill among the outermost houses of
+Toledo. I drew a long breath which would have
+blown out a torch.</p>
+
+<p>In the evening I left Toledo, regretting that I had
+not time to see once and again all that was ancient
+and wonderful in it: this regret was tempered, however,
+by my ardent desire for Andalusia, which had
+not allowed me a moment's peace. But how long I
+saw Toledo before my eyes! How long I remembered
+and dreamed of those headlong rocks, those enor<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">52</span>mous
+walls, those dark streets, that fantastic appearance
+of a mediæval city! Even to-day I review
+the picture with a sort of sombre pleasure and grave
+melancholy, and with this picture before me my
+mind wanders back in a thousand strange thoughts
+among distant times and marvellous events.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">53</span></p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a><br /><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p>
+
+</div><div class="chapter">
+<h2><a name="CORDOVA" id="CORDOVA"></a>CORDOVA.</h2>
+
+
+<p>On arriving at Castillejo I was obliged to wait
+until midnight for the Andalusia train. I dined on
+hard-boiled eggs and oranges, with a little sprinkling
+of Val de Peñas, murmured a poem of Espronceda,
+chatted a little with a custom-house officer who between
+parentheses made me a confession of his political
+faith&mdash;Amadeus, liberty, an increase of wages
+to the custom-house officers, etc; finally I heard
+the long-desired whistle, entered a railway-carriage
+crowded full of women, children, civil guards, boxes,
+cushions, and wraps, and away with a speed unusual
+for the Spanish railways. It was a beautiful night;
+my travelling-companions talked of bulls and Carlists;
+a beautiful girl, whom more than one devoured
+with his eyes, pretended to sleep that she might still
+further heighten their curiosity; some were rolling
+cigarettes, some peeling oranges, others humming
+songs from the <i>Zarzuela</i>. Nevertheless, I fell
+asleep in a few minutes. I believe I had already
+dreamed of the mosque of Cordova and the Alcazar
+of Seville, when I was aroused by a hoarse cry,
+"Daggers!"</p>
+
+<p>"Daggers? Heavens! for whom?" Before I dis<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">56</span>covered
+who had shouted there flashed before my
+eyes a long sharp blade, and the unknown voice
+asked again,</p>
+
+<p>"Do you like it?"</p>
+
+<p>One must admit that there are pleasanter ways to
+be awakened. I looked in the faces of my travelling-companions
+with an expression of consternation,
+which made them all burst into a shout of laughter.
+Then they explained that at every railway-station
+there are vendors of knives and daggers who offer
+tourists their wares, just as the boys offer newspapers
+and refreshments in our country. Assured that my
+life was safe, I bought my scarecrow&mdash;five francs;
+a splendid dagger for a villain in a tragedy, with an
+ornamented handle, inscriptions on the blade, and a
+sheath of embroidered velvet; and I put it in my
+pocket, thinking that I might find it useful in Italy
+to settle difficulties with my publishers.</p>
+
+<p>The vendor must have had fifty of those knives
+in a great red sash tied around his waist. Other
+travellers bought them, the civil guards complimented
+one of my neighbors on the good selection
+he had made; the boys cried, "Buy me one too!"
+The mammas answered, "We will buy you a bigger
+one some other time." "O happy Spain!" I exclaimed,
+and thought with horror of our barbarous
+laws, which forbid the innocent amusement of a little
+cold steel.</p>
+
+<p>We crossed La Mancha, the celebrated La Mancha,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">57</span>
+the immortal theatre of the adventures of Don
+Quixote. It is such a place as I imagined&mdash;wide,
+bare plains, long tracts of sandy soil, here and there
+a windmill, a few wretched villages, lonely lanes,
+and forsaken huts. On seeing these places I felt
+that vague sense of melancholy which steals over
+me as I read the book of Cervantes, and repeated to
+myself what I always say on reading it: "This man
+cannot make one laugh without also making one's
+tears flow as the laughter dies away."</p>
+
+<p>Don Quixote is a sad and sombre figure: his madness
+is a lament; his life is the history of the dreams,
+illusions, awakenings, and aberrations of each of us;
+the struggle of reason with imagination, of truth
+with falsehood, of the ideal with the real. We all
+have something of Don Quixote in our nature; we
+all mistake windmills for giants; we are all now and
+then spurred on by the impulse of enthusiasm, only
+to be driven back by the laugh of scorn; we are
+each a mixture of the sublime and the ridiculous;
+we all feel bitterly and profoundly the eternal conflict
+between the grandeur of our aspirations and the
+impotence of our powers. O beautiful dreams of
+childhood and youth! Generous impulses to consecrate
+our life to the defence of virtue and justice,
+fond imaginations of dangers faced, of adventurous
+struggles, of magnanimous deeds, and sublime loves,
+fallen one by one, like the petals of a flower, in the
+narrow and uneventful paths of life! To what new<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">58</span>
+life have they arisen in our soul, and what vague
+thoughts and profound inspirations have we derived
+from thee, O generous and hapless cavalier of the
+sad figure!</p>
+
+<p>We arrived at Argamasilla de Alba, where Don
+Quixote was born and died, and where poor Cervantes,
+the tax-gatherer of the great priory of San Juan,
+was arrested by angry debtors and imprisoned in a
+house which is said to be still in existence, and
+where he probably conceived the plan of his
+romance. We passed near the village of Val de
+Peñas, which gives its name to one of the most
+exquisite wines of Spain&mdash;dark, tingling, exhilarating,
+the only one, forsooth, which permits the
+foreigner from the North to indulge in copious
+libations at his meals; and finally we arrived at
+Santa Cruz de Mudela, a village famous for its
+manufactories of <i>navajas</i> (knives and razors), near
+which the way begins to slope gently upward toward
+the mountain.</p>
+
+<p>The sun had risen, the women and children had
+left the carriage, and a number of peasants, officers,
+and <i>toreros</i> had entered on their way to Seville.
+One saw in that small space a variety of costume
+which would not be seen even in an Italian market-place&mdash;the
+pointed caps of the peasants of the
+Sierra Morena, the red trousers of the soldiers, the
+great sombreros of the <i>picadores</i>, the shawls of the
+gypsies, the mantles of the Catalans, Toledo blades<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">59</span>
+hanging from the walls, capes, belts, and finery of
+all the colors of a harlequin.</p>
+
+<p>The train entered the rocks of the Sierra Morena,
+which separate the valley of the Guadiana from that
+of the Guadalquivir, famous for the songs of poets
+and the deeds of brigands. The railway runs at
+times between two walls of rock sheer from the very
+peaks, so high that to see the top one must put one's
+head all the way out of the window and turn one's
+face up, as if to look at the roof of the carriage.
+Sometimes the rocks are farther away and rise one
+above the other, the first like enormous broken
+stones, the last straight and sharp like bold towers
+rising upon measureless bastions; between them a
+mass of boulders cut into teeth, steps, crests, and
+humps, some almost hanging in the air, others separated
+by deep caverns and frightful precipices, presenting
+a confusion of curious forms, of fantastic suggestions
+of houses, gigantic figures and ruins, and
+offering at every step a thousand outlines and surprising
+appearances; and, together with this infinite
+variety of form, an infinite variety of color, shadow,
+dancing and changing light. For long distances, to
+the right, to the left, and overhead, one sees nothing
+but stone, without a house, a path, or a patch of
+ground where a man could set his foot, and, as one
+advances, rocks, ravines, and precipices: everything
+grows larger, deeper, and higher until one
+reaches the summit of the Sierra, where the solemn<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">60</span>
+majesty of the spectacle provokes a cry of wonder.</p>
+
+<p>The train stopped a few minutes, and all the travellers
+put their heads out of the window.</p>
+
+<p>"Here," said one in a loud voice,&mdash;"here Cardenio
+jumped from rock to rock to do penance for
+his sins" (Cardenio, one of the most remarkable characters
+in <i>Don Quixote</i>, who jumped about among
+the rocks of the Sierra in his shirt to do penance for
+his sins). "I wish," continued the traveller, "that
+Sagasta might have to do the same."</p>
+
+<p>They all laughed, and began to find, each one on
+his own account, some political enemy upon whom
+in imagination he might inflict this punishment:
+one proposed Serrano, another Topete, and a third
+another, and so on, until in a few minutes, if their
+desires had been realized, one might have seen the
+entire Sierra filled with ministers, generals, and
+deputies in their shirts skipping from crag to crag
+like the famous rock of Alessandro Manzoni.</p>
+
+<p>The train started, the rocks disappeared, and the
+delightful valley of the Guadalquivir, the garden of
+Spain, the Eden of the Arabs, the paradise of
+painters and of poets, blessed Andalusia, revealed
+herself to my eyes. I can still feel the thrill of
+childish joy with which I hurried to the window,
+saying to myself, "Let me enjoy it."</p>
+
+<p>For a long distance the country does not offer any
+new appearance to the ardent curiosity of the travel<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">61</span>ler.
+At Vilches there is a vast plain, and beyond it
+the level country of Tolosa, where Alfonso VIII.,
+king of Castile, won the celebrated victory of <i>de las
+Navas</i> over the Mussulman army. The sky was as
+clear as air&mdash;in the distance rose the mountains of
+the Sierra de Segura. Suddenly I made one of
+those quick motions which seemed to correspond to
+an unuttered cry of astonishment: the first aloes
+with their broad heavy leaves, the unexpected harbingers
+of the tropical vegetation, rise beside the
+road. Beyond them the fields sprinkled with flowers
+begin to appear. The first fields sprinkled, those
+which follow almost covered, then vast tracts of
+country wholly clothed, with wild poppies, daisies,
+iris, mushrooms, cowslips, and buttercups, so that
+the country appears like a succession of vast carpets
+of purple and gold and snowy white, and far away,
+among the trees, innumerable streaks of blue, white,
+and yellow until the eye is lost; and hard by, on the
+edge of the ditches, the mounds, and the banks, even
+to the very track, flowers in beds, groups, and clusters,
+one above the other, fashioned like great
+bouquets, trembling on their stems, which one can
+almost touch with the hand. Then waving fields of
+grain with great heavy bearded heads, bordered by
+long gardens of roses; then orange-orchards and
+vast olive-groves; hillocks varied by a hundred
+shades of green, surmounted by ancient Moorish
+towers, dotted with many-colored cottages, with here<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">62</span>
+and there white, graceful bridges, which span rivulets
+hidden by the trees. On the horizon rise the
+snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada, and below this
+white line other blue undulating lines of the nearer
+mountains. The country grows ever more various
+and blooming: Arjonilla, embowered in an orange-grove
+whose limits are lost in the distance; Pedro
+Abad, in the midst of a plain covered with vineyards
+and orchards; Ventas de Alcolea, on the hills
+of the Sierra Morena, crowned with villas and gardens.
+We are drawing near to Cordova: the train
+flies; one sees little stations half hidden among trees
+and flowers; the wind blows the rose-leaves into the
+cars, great butterflies sail past the windows, a delicious
+perfume fills the air, the travellers are singing,
+we pass through an enchanted garden, the aloes,
+oranges, palms, and villas become more frequent;
+one hears a cry: "Here is Cordova!"</p>
+
+<p>How many beautiful images and how many memories
+are recalled by that name!</p>
+
+<p>Cordova, the ancient pearl of the Occident, as the
+Moorish poets called her, the city of cities, Cordova
+of the thirty burgs and the three thousand mosques,
+which contained within her walls the greatest temple
+of Islam! Her fame spread through the Orient and
+obscured the glory of ancient Damascus,&mdash;from the
+remotest regions of Asia the faithful journeyed
+toward the banks of the Guadalquivir to prostrate
+themselves in the marvellous mihrab of her mosque,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">63</span>
+in the blaze of a thousand brazen lamps cast from
+the bells of the Spanish cathedrals. From every
+part of the Mohammedan world artists, scholars, and
+poets crowded to her flourishing schools, her vast
+libraries, and the magnificent courts of her caliphs.
+Hither flowed wealth and beauty, drawn by the
+fame of her splendor.</p>
+
+<p>And from here they separated, eager for knowledge,
+along the coasts of Africa, among the schools of Tunis,
+Cairo, Bagdad, and Cufa, as far as India and
+China, in search of books, inspiration, and memories;
+and the poems sung on the slopes of the Sierra
+Morena flew from harp to harp even to the valleys
+of the Caucasus, to make the hearts of pilgrims burn
+within them. The beautiful, the mighty, the wise
+Cordova, crowned with three thousand villages,
+proudly reared her white minarets among her orange-groves
+and spread through the divine valley a
+voluptuous air of gladness and glory.</p>
+
+<p>I descend from the train, cross a garden, and look
+around: I am alone; the travellers who came with
+me have disappeared in different directions; I still
+hear the rumble of the receding carriages; then all is
+silent.</p>
+
+<p>It is mid-day: the sky is very clear, the air burning.
+I see two white cottages; it is the opening of
+a street; I enter and go forward. The street is narrow,
+the houses small as the little villas built on the
+hillocks of artificial gardens; nearly all of them are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">64</span>
+one story in height, with windows a little way from
+the ground, roofs so low that one can almost touch
+them with a cane, and very white walls. The street
+makes a turn; I look down it; no one is in sight; I
+do not hear a step nor a voice. "It must be an
+abandoned street," I say, and turn in another direction:
+white cottages, closed windows, solitude, and
+silence. "Where am I?" I ask myself.</p>
+
+<p>I walk on: the street is so narrow and crooked
+that a carriage could not pass through it; to the
+right and left one sees other deserted streets, other
+white houses, and other closed windows; my step
+echoes as in a corridor; the white of the walls is so
+bright that the reflection almost blinds me, and I am
+obliged to walk with my eyes closed; I seem to be
+passing through snow. I reach a little square:
+everything is closed, there is no one about. Then a
+feeling of vague melancholy begins to steal into my
+heart, such as I have never felt before, a mingling
+of enjoyment and sorrow like that which children
+experience when after a long run they find themselves
+in a beautiful country-place and enjoy it, but
+with a tremor of fear at being so far away from
+home. Above the many roofs rise the palms of the
+inner gardens. O fantastic legends of odalisques
+and caliphs!</p>
+
+<p>On from street to street and square to square; I
+meet a few persons, but they all pass and disappear
+like phantoms. The streets are all alike, the houses<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">65</span>
+have only two or four windows; and there is not a
+stain, not a scratch, not a crack in the walls, which
+are as smooth and white as a sheet of paper. Now
+and then I hear a whisper behind a venetian blind,
+and almost at the same moment see a dark head with
+a flower in the hair peep out and disappear. I approach
+a door.</p>
+
+<p>A <i>patio</i>! How shall I describe a <i>patio</i>? It is not
+a courtyard, it is not a garden, it is not a room; it is
+the three in one. Between the <i>patio</i> and the street
+there is a vestibule. On the four sides of the <i>patio</i>
+rise graceful columns which support a sort of balcony
+enclosed in glass at the height of the second
+story; over the balcony extends a canvas which
+shades the court. The vestibule is flagged with
+marble, the doorway supported by columns surmounted
+by bas-reliefs and closed by a delicate iron
+lattice of very beautiful design. At the back of the
+<i>patio</i>, opposite the doorway, stands a statue, in the
+centre a fountain, and all around chairs, work-tables,
+paintings, and vases of flowers. I run to another
+door. Another <i>patio</i>, its walls covered with ivy,
+and a line of niches containing statuettes and urns.
+I hurry to a third door. A <i>patio</i> with its walls
+adorned with mosaic, a palm in the centre, and all
+around a mass of flowers. A fourth door. Behind
+the <i>patio</i> another vestibule, and then a second <i>patio</i>,
+in which one sees other statues, columns, and fountains.
+And all these rooms and gardens are clean<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">66</span>
+and tidy, so that you could pass your hands over the
+walls and along the floor without leaving a mark;
+and they are fresh and fragrant, lighted with a dim
+light which heightens their beauty and mystery.</p>
+
+<p>Still forward, from street to street, at random.
+Gradually, as I walk on, my curiosity increases and
+I hasten my steps. It seems impossible that the
+whole city can be like this: I am afraid of coming
+upon a house or finding a street which will remind
+me of other cities and rouse me from my pleasant
+dream.</p>
+
+<p>But, no: the dream is unbroken. Everything is
+small, graceful, mysterious. Every hundred paces a
+deserted little square, in which I stop breathless;
+now and then a crossway, and not a living soul;
+and everything always white&mdash;closed windows and
+silence. At every door there is a new spectacle:
+arches, columns, flowers, fountains, palms; a marvellous
+variety of design, color, light, perfume, here
+of roses, there of oranges, yonder of violets; and
+with the perfume a breath of fresh air, and borne on
+the air the subdued sound of women's voices, the
+rustling of leaves, and the singing of birds&mdash;a sweet
+and various harmony, which, without disturbing the
+silence of the street, soothes the ear like the echo of
+distant music. Ah! it is not a dream! Madrid,
+Italy, Europe, surely they are far, far away. Here
+one lives another life, here one breathes the air of
+another world; I am in the Orient.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">67</span></p>
+
+<p>I remember that at a certain point I stopped in
+the middle of the street and suddenly discovered, I
+know not how, that I was sad and restless, and that
+in my heart there was a void which neither admiration
+nor enjoyment could fill. I felt an irrepressible
+necessity of entering those houses and those gardens,
+of tearing asunder, so to speak, the mysterious veil
+which concealed the life of the unknown people
+within; of sharing in that life; of grasping some
+hand and gazing into two pitying eyes, and saying,
+"I am a stranger, I am alone; I too want to be
+happy; let me linger among your flowers, let me
+enjoy all the secrets of your paradise, teach me who
+you are and how you live; smile on me and calm me,
+for my head is burning!"</p>
+
+<p>And this sadness grew upon me until I said to
+myself, "I cannot stay in this city; I am suffering
+here; I will leave it!"</p>
+
+<p>And I believe I should have left if at a happy
+moment I had not remembered that I carried in my
+pocket a letter of introduction to two young men of
+Cordova, brothers of a friend of mine in Florence.
+I dismissed the idea of leaving, and started at once
+to find them.</p>
+
+<p>How they laughed when I told them of the impression
+Cordova had made upon me! They proposed
+that we go at once to see the cathedral; so
+we turned down a narrow white street and were
+off.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">68</span></p>
+
+<p>The mosque of Cordova, which was converted
+into a cathedral after the overthrow of the Moors,
+but which must always remain a mosque, was built
+on the ruins of the original cathedral, a little way
+back from the bank of the Guadalquivir. Abdurrahman
+commenced its construction in the year 785
+or 786 <span class="smcap">A. D.</span> "Let us rear a mosque," said he,
+"which shall surpass that of Bagdad, of Damascus,
+and of Jerusalem&mdash;a mosque which shall be the
+greatest temple of Islam, one which shall become
+the Mecca of the West." They undertook the work
+with great ardor. Christian slaves carried the stone
+for its foundations from their ruined churches; Abdurrahman
+himself worked an hour every day; in
+a few years the mosque was built, the caliphs who
+succeeded Abdurrahman embellished it, and after a
+century of almost continuous labor it was finished.</p>
+
+<p>"Here we are!" said one of my friends, stopping
+suddenly in front of a vast edifice.</p>
+
+<p>I thought it was a fortress, but it was the wall
+which surrounds the mosque&mdash;an old embattled wall
+in which there were at one time twenty great bronze
+doors ornamented with the most beautiful arabesques,
+and arched windows supported by graceful columns,
+now covered by a triple coat of plaster. A turn
+around this wall is a nice little walk to take after
+dinner: one may judge, therefore, of the vast size
+of the building.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<div class="caption"><i><a id="Court_of_Oranges"></a>Court of Oranges, Mosque of Cordova</i></div>
+<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b068c.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">69</span></p>
+
+<p>The principal door of the enclosure is north of
+the point where rises the minaret of Abdurrahman,
+from whose summit floated the Mohammedan standard.
+We entered: I expected to see at once the
+interior of the mosque, but found myself in a garden
+full of orange trees, cypresses, and palms, surrounded
+on three sides by a very beautiful portico and closed
+on the fourth side by the façade of the mosque.
+In the midst of this garden there was, in the time
+of the Moors, the fountain for their ablutions, and
+in the shade of these trees the faithful refreshed
+themselves before entering the sanctuary.</p>
+
+<p>I stood for some moments looking around and
+breathing in the fresh odorous air with the liveliest
+sense of pleasure, and my heart leaped at the
+thought of the famous mosque standing there before
+me, and I felt myself impelled toward the door by
+a boundless curiosity, and at the same time restrained
+by I know not what feeling of childish hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us enter," said my companions. "One
+moment more," I replied: "let me thoroughly enjoy
+the delight of anticipation." Finally I moved forward
+and entered, without so much as looking at
+the marvellous doorway which my companions
+pointed out.</p>
+
+<p>What I did or said on entering I do not know, but
+some strange exclamation must surely have escaped
+me or I must have made an odd gesture, for some
+persons who were just then coming toward me began
+to laugh and turned again to look around, as if to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">70</span>
+discover the reason of the profound emotion which
+I had manifested.</p>
+
+<p>Imagine a forest and suppose yourself in the
+thickest part, where you see only the trunks of
+trees. So in the mosque wherever you turn your
+gaze is lost among the columns. It is a forest of
+marble whose boundaries one cannot discover. One
+follows with the eye, one by one, those lengthening
+rows of columns crossed at every step by innumerable
+other rows, and perceives a dimly-lighted background
+in which one seems to see the gleaming of
+still other columns. There are nineteen naves which
+extend in the direction in which you enter, crossed
+by thirty-three other naves, and supported, in all,
+by more than nine hundred columns of porphyry,
+jasper, onyx, and marble of every color. Each
+column is surmounted by a pilaster, and between one
+column and the next bends an arch, and a second
+arch above the first extends from pilaster to pilaster,
+both of them in the form of a horseshoe; and so,
+imagining the columns to be the trunks of so many
+trees and the arches to represent the branches, the
+resemblance of the mosque to a forest is complete.</p>
+
+<p>The central nave, much larger than the others,
+leads to the Maksura, the most sacred part of the
+temple, where they worshipped the Koran. Here
+from the vaulted windows steals a faint ray of light
+which glides along a row of columns; there a dark
+place, and yonder another ray pierces the gloom of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">71</span>
+another nave. It is impossible to express the feeling
+of mystical wonder which fills one's mind at this
+spectacle. It is like the sudden revelation of a religion,
+a nature, and a life unknown, leading the
+fancy captive among the delights of that paradise
+of love and pleasure where the blessed, sitting in the
+shade of leafy plane trees and of thornless roses,
+drink from crystal beakers wine gleaming like
+pearls, mixed by immortal children, and repose in
+the embrace of lovely virgins with great dark eyes!
+All the images of that external pleasure, eager,
+warm, and glowing, which the Koran promises to
+the faithful, crowd upon the mind at the first sight
+of the mosque, and give one a delicious moment of
+intoxication which leaves in the heart an indescribable
+feeling of gentle melancholy. A brief tumult
+in the mind and a rapid thrill which goes tingling
+through the veins,&mdash;such is one's first sensation on
+entering the cathedral of Cordova.</p>
+
+<p>We began to wander from passage to passage, examining
+everything minutely. What a variety in
+that edifice which at first sight appears so uniform!
+The proportions of the columns, the design of the
+capitals, the form of the arches change, one may
+say, at every step. The greater part of the columns
+are old and were taken by the Moors from Northern
+Spain, Gaul, and Roman Africa, and one is said to
+have belonged to a temple of Janus, upon whose
+ruins stood the church which the Arabians destroyed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">72</span>
+to build the mosque. On several of the capitals one
+may still see the traces of the crosses carved upon
+them, which the Arabians broke off with their
+hammers. In some of the columns iron rings are
+fastened to which it is said the Arabians bound the
+Christians, and among the others there is one
+pointed out to which the popular tradition narrates
+a Christian was bound for many years, and in that
+time, by continually scratching with his nails, he
+succeeded in engraving a cross on the stone, which
+the guides show with profound veneration.</p>
+
+<p>We entered the Maksura, which is the most perfect
+and marvellous work of Moorish art of the twelfth
+century. At the entrance there are three continuous
+chapels, with vaulted roofs formed by indented
+arches, and walls covered with magnificent mosaics
+which represent wreaths and flowers and passages
+from the Koran. At the back of the middle chapel
+is the principal <i>mihrab</i>, the holy place, where dwelt
+the Spirit of God. It is a niche with an octagonal
+base enclosed above by a colossal marble shell. In
+the <i>mihrab</i> was kept the Koran written by the hands
+of the caliph Othman, covered with gold, adorned
+with pearls, suspended above a seat of aloe-wood;
+and here came thousands of the faithful to
+make the circuit of it seven times on their knees.
+On approaching the wall I felt the pavement slipping
+from under me: the marble had been worn
+hollow!</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">73</span></p>
+
+<p>On leaving the niche I stood a long time contemplating
+the vault and the walls of the principal
+chapel, the only part of the mosque which has been
+preserved almost intact. It is a dazzling flash of
+crystals of a thousand colors, an interweaving of
+arabesques which confuse the mind, a mingling of
+bas-reliefs, gilding, ornaments, and minute details of
+design and coloring of a delicacy, grace, and perfection
+which would prove the despair of the most patient
+artist. It is impossible to retain in one's mind
+any part of that prodigious work: you might return
+a hundred times to look at it, but in reality it would
+only remain before your eyes as a tantalizing blur
+of blue, red, green, golden, and luminous shades of
+colors, or a very intricate piece of embroidery continually
+and rapidly changing in color and design.
+Only from the ardent and tireless imagination of the
+Moors could such a miracle of art have issued.</p>
+
+<p>We began to wander through the mosque again,
+observing here and there on the walls the arabesques
+of the ancient doorways which are now and then
+discovered under the detestable plaster of the Christians.
+My companions looked at me, laughed, and
+whispered something to each other. "Have you
+not seen it yet?" one of them asked me.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>They looked at me again and smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"You think you have seen all the mosque, do
+you?" continued my companion.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">74</span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed," I replied, looking around.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said the first, "you have not seen it all,
+and what remains to be seen is nothing less than a
+church."</p>
+
+<p>"A church?" I exclaimed stupefied, "but where
+is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Look!" answered my other companion, pointing;
+"it is in the very centre of the mosque."</p>
+
+<p>"By the powers!" And I had not seen it!</p>
+
+<p>From this one may judge of the vastness of the
+mosque.</p>
+
+<p>We went to see the church. It is beautiful and
+very rich, with a magnificent high altar and a choir
+worthy to stand beside those in the cathedrals of
+Burgos and Toledo, but, like everything out of
+place, it moves one to anger rather than admiration.
+Without this church the appearance of the mosque
+would be much improved. Charles V., who himself
+gave the chapter permission to build it, repented
+when he saw the Mohammedan temple for the first
+time. Besides the church there is a sort of Moorish
+chapel in a good state of preservation, rich in mosaics
+not less varied and splendid than those of the
+Maksura, and where it is said the ministers of the
+faith used to assemble to discuss the book of the
+Prophet.</p>
+
+<p>Such is the mosque to-day. But what must it
+have been in the time of the Arabs! It was not entirely
+enclosed by a wall, but open, so that one could<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">75</span>
+see the garden from every side, and from the garden
+one could look to the very end of the long naves,
+and the fragrance of orange-blossoms and flowers
+was wafted even to the vaulted roofs of the Maksura.
+The columns, which now number less than a thousand,
+were then fourteen hundred in number; the
+ceiling was of cedar-wood and larch, carved and enamelled
+with exquisite workmanship; the walls were
+lined with marble; the light of eight hundred lamps
+filled with fragrant oil made the crystals in the mosaic-work
+flash like pearls, and produced on the pavement,
+the arches, and the walls a marvellous play of
+color and reflection. "A sea of splendors," sang a
+poet, filled the mysterious enclosure, and the warm
+air was laden with perfume and harmony, and the
+thoughts of the faithful wandered and were lost in
+the labyrinth of columns gleaming like lances in the
+sun.</p>
+
+<p>Frederick Schrack, the author of a good work on
+the <i>Poetry and Art of the Moors in Spain and Sicily</i>,
+gives a description of the mosque on a day of solemn
+festival, which forms a very lively image of the Mohammedan
+religion and completes the picture of the
+monument.</p>
+
+<p>On both sides of the almimbar, or pulpit, wave
+two banners, to signify that Islam has triumphed
+over Judaism and Christianity and that the Koran
+has conquered both the Old and the New Testament.
+The <i>almnedani</i> ascend to the gallery of the high<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">76</span>
+minaret and intone the salam, or salutation, to the
+Prophet. Then the aisles of the mosque are filled
+with believers, who with white vestments and in
+festal attire come together to worship. In a few
+moments, throughout the length and breadth of the
+edifice, one sees only kneeling people. The caliph
+enters by the secret way which leads from the Alcazar
+to the temple, and seats himself in his elevated
+station. A reader of the Koran reads a <i>sura</i> from
+the low desk of the pulpit.</p>
+
+<p>The voice of the muezzin sounds again, calling
+men to mid-day prayer. All the faithful rise and
+murmur their prayers, bowing as they do so. An
+attendant of the mosque opens the doors of the pulpit
+and seizes a sword, and, holding it, he turns
+toward Mecca, admonishing the people to worship
+Mohammed, while the <i>mubaliges</i> are chanting his
+praises from the gallery. Then the preacher mounts
+the pulpit, taking from the hand of the servant the
+sword, which calls to mind and symbolizes the subjection
+of Spain to the power of Islam. It is the
+day when the <i>Djihad</i>, or the holy war, must be proclaimed,
+the call for all able-bodied men to go to
+war and descend into the battlefield against the
+Christians. The multitude listens with silent devotion
+to the sermon, woven from texts of the Koran,
+which begins in this wise:</p>
+
+<p>"Praise be to Allah, who has increased the glory
+of Islam, thanks to the sword of the champion of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">77</span>
+faith, who in his holy book has promised succor and
+victory to the believer.</p>
+
+<p>"Allah scatters his benefits over the world.</p>
+
+<p>"If he did not put it in the hearts of men to take
+up arms against their fellows, the world would be lost.</p>
+
+<p>"Allah has ordained to fight against the people
+until they know that there is but one God.</p>
+
+<p>"The torch of war will not be extinguished until
+the end of the world.</p>
+
+<p>"The blessing of God will fall upon the mane of
+the war-horse to the day of judgment.</p>
+
+<p>"Armed from head to foot or but lightly clad, it
+matters not&mdash;up and away!</p>
+
+<p>"O believers! what shall be done to you if, when
+called to the battle, you remain with face turned to
+the earth?</p>
+
+<p>"Do you prefer the life of this world to the life
+to come?</p>
+
+<p>"Believe me, the gates of paradise stand in the
+shadow of the sword.</p>
+
+<p>"He who dies in battle for the cause of God shall
+wash away with his blood all the defilement of his
+sins.</p>
+
+<p>"His body shall not be wasted like the other
+bodies of the dead, for on the day of judgment his
+wounds shall yield a fragrance like musk.</p>
+
+<p>"When the warriors present themselves at the
+gates of paradise, a voice within shall ask, 'What
+have you done in your life?'</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">78</span></p>
+
+<p>"And they shall answer, 'We have brandished
+the sword in the struggle for the cause of God.'</p>
+
+<p>"Then the eternal doors will swing open, and the
+warriors will enter forty years before the rest.</p>
+
+<p>"Up, then, ye faithful; leave your women, your
+children, your kindred, and your goods, and go out
+to the holy war!</p>
+
+<p>"And thou, God, Lord of this present world
+and of that which is to come, fight for the armies
+of those who recognize thy unity! Cast down the
+unbelievers, the idolaters, and the enemies of thy
+holy faith! Overwhelm their standards, and give
+them, with whatever they possess, as a prey to the
+Mussulman!"</p>
+
+<p>The preacher as he ends his discourse turns toward
+the congregation and exclaims, "Ask of God!" and
+begins to pray in silence.</p>
+
+<p>All the faithful, with heads bowed to the ground,
+follow his example. The <i>mubaliges</i> chant, "Amen!
+Amen, O Lord of all being!" Burning like the heat
+which precedes the oncoming tempest, the enthusiasm
+of the multitude, restrained at first in awful silence,
+now breaks out into deep murmurs, which rise like
+the waves and swell through all parts of the temple,
+until finally the naves, the chapels, and the vaulted
+roofs resound to the echo of a thousand voices
+united in a single cry: "There is no God but
+Allah!"</p>
+
+<p>The mosque of Cordova is even to-day, by uni<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">79</span>versal
+consent, the most beautiful temple of Islam
+and one of the most marvellous monuments in the
+world.</p>
+
+<p>When we left the mosque it was already long past
+the hour of the siesta, which everybody takes in the
+cities of Southern Spain, and which is a necessity
+by reason of the insupportable heat of the noon
+hours. The streets began to fill with people.
+"Alas!" said I to my companions, "how badly the
+silk hat looks in the streets of Cordova! How have
+you the heart to introduce the fashion-plates in this
+beautiful Oriental picture? Why do you not adopt
+the dress of the Moors?" Coxcombs pass, workmen,
+and girls: I looked at them all with great
+curiosity, hoping to find one of those fantastic
+figures which Doré has represented as examples
+of the Andalusian type, with that dark-brown complexion,
+those thick lips, and large eyes, but I saw
+none. Walking toward the centre of the city, I
+saw the first Andalusian women&mdash;ladies, girls and
+women of the middle classes&mdash;almost all small, graceful,
+and well-formed, some of them beautiful, many
+attractive in appearance, but the greater part neither
+one thing nor the other, as is the case in all countries.
+In their dress, with the exception of the so-called
+mantilla, they do not differ at all from the
+French women nor from those of our country&mdash;great
+masses of false hair in plaits, knots, and long
+curls, short petticoats, long plaited over-skirts, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">80</span>
+boots with heels as sharp as daggers. The ancient
+Andalusian costume has disappeared from the city.</p>
+
+<p>I thought that in the evening the streets would be
+crowded, but I saw only a few people, and only in
+the streets of the principal quarters; the others
+remain as empty as at the hour of the siesta. And
+one must pass through those deserted streets at night
+to enjoy Cordova. One sees the light streaming
+from the <i>patios</i>; one sees in the dark corners fond
+lovers in close colloquy, the girls usually at the windows,
+with a hand resting lightly on the iron grating,
+and the young men close to the wall in poetic attitudes,
+with watchful eyes, but not so watchful, however,
+as to make them take their lips from those
+hands before they discover that some one is passing;
+and one hears the sound of guitars, the murmur
+of fountains, sighs, the laughter of children, and
+mysterious rustlings.</p>
+
+<p>The following morning, still stirred by the Oriental
+dreams of the night, I again began my wandering
+through the city. To describe all that is remarkable
+there one would require a volume: it is a
+very museum of Roman and Arabian antiquities,
+and one finds a profusion of martial columns and
+inscriptions in honor of the emperors; the remains
+of statues and bas-reliefs; six ancient gates; a great
+bridge over the Guadalquivir dating from the time
+of Octavius Augustus and restored by the Arabians;
+ruins of towers and walls; houses which belonged<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">81</span>
+to the caliphs, and which still contain the columns
+and the subterranean arches of the bathing apartments;
+and everywhere there are doors, vestibules,
+and stairways that would delight a legion of archæologists.</p>
+
+<p>Toward noon, as I was passing through a lonely
+little street, I saw a sign on the wall of a house
+beside a Roman inscription, <i>Casa de huespedes.
+Almuerzos y comidas</i>, and as I read I felt the gnawing,
+as Giusti says, of such a desperate hunger that
+I determined to give it a quietus in this little shop
+upon which I had stumbled. I passed through a
+little vestibule, and found myself in a <i>patio</i>. It was
+a poor little <i>patio</i>, without marble floor and without
+fountains, but white as snow and fresh as a garden.
+As I saw neither tables nor chairs, I feared I had
+mistaken the door and started to go out. A little
+old woman bustled out from I know not where and
+stopped me.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you anything to eat?" I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir," she answered.</p>
+
+<p>"What have you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Eggs, sausages, chops, peaches, oranges, and
+wine of Malaga."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good: you may bring everything you
+have."</p>
+
+<p>She commenced by bringing me a table and a
+chair, and I sat down and waited. Suddenly I heard
+a door open behind me and turned.... Angels of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">82</span>
+heaven! what a sight I saw!&mdash;the most beautiful of
+all the most beautiful Andalusians, not only of those
+whom I saw at Cordova, but of all those whom I
+afterward saw at Seville, Cadiz, and Granada: if I
+may be allowed to use the word, a superb girl, who
+would make one flee or commit some deviltry; one
+of those faces which make you cry, "O poor me!"
+like Giuseppe Baretti when he was travelling in
+Spain. For some moments she stood motionless
+with her eyes fixed on mine as if to say, "Admire
+me;" then she turned toward the kitchen and cried,
+"<i>Tia, despachate!</i>" ("Hurry up, aunty!") This
+gave me an opportunity of thanking her with a
+stammering tongue, and gave her a pretence for approaching
+me and replying, "It is nothing," with a
+voice so gentle that I was obliged to offer her a
+chair, whereupon she sat down. She was a girl
+about twenty years old, tall, straight as a palm, and
+dark, with two great eyes full of sweetness, lustrous
+and humid as though she had just been in tears:
+she wore a mass of wavy jet-black hair with a rose
+among her locks. She seemed like one of the Arabian
+virgins of the tribe of the Usras for whom men
+died of love.</p>
+
+<p>She herself opened the conversation:</p>
+
+<p>"You are a foreigner, I should think, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"French?"</p>
+
+<p>"Italian."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">83</span></p>
+
+<p>"Italian? A fellow-countryman of the king?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know him, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"By sight!"</p>
+
+<p>"They say he is a handsome young fellow."</p>
+
+<p>I did not answer, and she began to laugh, and
+asked me, "What are you looking at, sir?" and,
+still laughing, she hid her foot, which on taking her
+seat she thrust well forward that I might see it.
+Ah! there is not a woman in that country who does
+not know that the feet of the Andalusians are famous
+throughout the world.</p>
+
+<p>I seized the opportunity of turning the conversation
+upon the fame of the Andalusian women, and
+expressed my admiration in the most fervent words
+of my vocabulary. She allowed me to talk on, looking
+with great attention at the crack in the table,
+then raising her face, she asked me, "And in Italy,
+how are the women there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there are beautiful women in Italy too."</p>
+
+<p>"But ... they are cold?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, not at all," I hastened to respond; "but,
+you know, ... in every country the women have
+an <i>I-know-not-what</i> which distinguishes them from
+the women of all other countries; and among them all
+the <i>I-know-not-what</i> of the Andalusians is probably
+the most dangerous for a poor traveller whose hairs
+have not turned gray. There is a word to express
+what I mean: if I could remember it, I would say<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">84</span>
+it to you; I would say, "<i>Señorita</i>, you are the
+most ..."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Salada</i>," exclaimed the girl, covering her face
+with her hands.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Salada!</i> ... the most <i>salada</i> Andalusian in
+Cordova."</p>
+
+<p><i>Salada</i> is the word commonly used in Andalusia
+to describe a woman beautiful, charming, affectionate,
+languid, ardent, what you will&mdash;a woman with
+two lips which say, "Drink me," and two eyes
+which make one close one's teeth.</p>
+
+<p>The aunt brought me the eggs, chops, sausage,
+and oranges, and the girl continued the conversation:
+"Sir, you are an Italian: have you seen the
+Pope?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I am sorry to say."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it possible? An Italian who has not seen the
+Pope! And tell me, sir: why do the Italians make
+him suffer so much?"</p>
+
+<p>"Suffer in what way?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. They say that they have shut him up in
+his house and thrown stones at the windows."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no! Don't believe it! There is not a particle
+of truth in it," etc., etc.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you seen Venice, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Venice? oh yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it true that it is a city which floats on the
+sea?"</p>
+
+<p>And here she made a thousand requests that I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">85</span>
+would describe Venice, and that I would tell her
+what the people were like in that strange city, and
+what they do all the day long, and how they dress.
+And while I was talking besides the pains I took
+to express myself with a little grace, and to eat
+meanwhile the badly-cooked eggs and stale sausage&mdash;I
+was obliged to see her draw nearer and nearer
+to me, that she might hear me better perhaps, without
+being conscious of the act. She came so close
+that I could smell the fragrance of the rose in her
+hair and feel her warm breath; I was obliged, I may
+say, to make three efforts at once&mdash;one with my
+head, another with my stomach, and a third with
+both&mdash;especially when, now and then, she would say,
+"How beautiful!"&mdash;a compliment which applied to
+the Grand Canal, but which had upon me the effect
+a bag full of napoleons might have upon a beggar if
+swung under his nose by an insolent banker.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, señorita!" I said at last, beginning to lose
+patience, "what matters it, after all, whether cities
+are beautiful or not? Those who are born in them
+think nothing of it, and the traveller still less. I
+arrived at Cordova yesterday: it is a beautiful city,
+without doubt. Well&mdash;will you believe it?&mdash;I have
+already forgotten all that I have seen; I no longer
+wish to see anything; I do not even know what city
+I am in. Palaces, mosques, they make me laugh.
+When you have a consuming fire in your heart, do
+you go to the mosque to quench it?&mdash;Excuse me,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">86</span>
+will you move back a little?&mdash;When you feel such a
+madness that you could grind up a plate with your
+teeth, do you go to look at palaces? Believe me,
+the traveller's life is a sad one. It is a penance of
+the hardest sort. It is torture. It is...." A
+prudent blow with her fan closed my mouth, which
+was going too far both in words and action. I attacked
+the chop.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor fellow!" murmured the Andalusian with a
+laugh after she had given a glance around. "Are
+all the Italians as ardent as you?"</p>
+
+<p>"How should I know? Are all the Andalusians
+as beautiful as you?"</p>
+
+<p>The girl laid her hand on the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Take that hand away," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I want to eat in peace."</p>
+
+<p>"Eat with one hand."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!"</p>
+
+<p>I seemed to be pressing the little hand of a girl
+of six; my knife fell to the ground; a dark veil
+settled upon the chop.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly my hand was empty: I opened my
+eyes, saw the girl all disturbed, and looked behind
+me. Gracious Heavens! There was a handsome
+young fellow, with a stylish little jacket, tight
+breeches, and a velvet cap. Oh terrors! a <i>torero</i>!
+I gave a start as if I had felt two <i>banderillas de
+fuego</i> planted in my neck.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">87</span></p>
+
+<p>"I see it at a glance," said I to myself, like the
+man at the comedy; and one could not fail to understand.
+The girl, slightly embarrassed, made the introduction:
+"An Italian passing through Cordova,"
+and she hastened to add, "who wants to know when
+the train leaves for Seville."</p>
+
+<p>The <i>torero</i>, who had frowned at first sight of me,
+was reassured, told me the hour of departure, sat
+down, and entered into a friendly conversation. I
+asked for the news of the last bull-fight at Cordova:
+he was a <i>banderillero</i>, and he gave me a minute
+description of the day's sport. The girl in the
+mean time was gathering flowers from the vases in
+the <i>patio</i>. I finished my meal, offered a glass of
+Malaga to the <i>torero</i>, drank to the fortunate planting
+of all his <i>banderillas</i>, paid my bill (three <i>pesetas</i>,
+which included the beautiful eyes, you understand),
+and then, putting on a bold front, so as to dispel the
+least shadow of suspicion from the mind of my
+formidable rival, I said to the girl, "<i>Señorita!</i> one
+can refuse nothing to those who are taking leave.
+To you I am like a dying man; you will never see
+me again; you will never hear my name spoken:
+then let me take some memento; give me that bunch
+of flowers."</p>
+
+<p>"Take it," said the girl; "I picked it for you."</p>
+
+<p>She glanced at the <i>torero</i>, who gave a nod of
+approval.</p>
+
+<p>"I thank you with all my heart," I replied as I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">88</span>
+turned to leave. They both accompanied me to the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you bull-fights in Italy?" asked the young
+man.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh heavens! no, not yet!"</p>
+
+<p>"Too bad! Try to make them popular in Italy
+also, and I will come to <i>banderillar</i> at Rome."</p>
+
+<p>"I will do all in my power.&mdash;<i>Señorita</i>, have the
+goodness to tell me your name, so that I may bid
+you good-bye."</p>
+
+<p>"Consuelo."</p>
+
+<p>"God be with you, Consuelo!"</p>
+
+<p>"God be with you, <i>Señor Italiano</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>And I went out into the lonely little street.</p>
+
+<p>There are no remarkable Arabian monuments to
+be seen in the neighborhood of Cordova, although at
+one time the whole valley was covered with magnificent
+buildings. Three miles to the south of the
+city, on the side of the mountain, rose the Medina
+Az-Zahra, the city of flowers, one of the most
+marvellous architectural works of the caliph Abdurrahman,
+begun by the caliph himself in honor
+of his favorite Az-Zahra. The foundations were
+laid in the year 936, and ten thousand workmen
+labored on the edifice for twenty-five years. The
+Arabian poets celebrated Medina Az-Zahra as the
+most splendid of royal palaces and the most delightfullyl
+garden in the world. It was not an edifice, but
+a vast chain of palaces, gardens, courts, colonnades,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">89</span>
+and towers. There were rare plants from Syria&mdash;the
+fantastic playing of lofty fountains, streams of
+water flowing in the shade of palm trees, and great
+basins overflowing with quicksilver, which reflected
+the rays of the sun like lakes of fire; doors of
+ebony and ivory studded with gems; thousands of
+columns of the most precious marbles; great airy
+balconies; and between the innumerable multitudes
+of statues twelve images of animals of massy gold,
+gleaming with pearls, sprinkling sweetened water
+from their mouths and noses. In this vast palace
+swarmed thousands of servants, slaves, and women,
+and hither from every part of the world came poets
+and musicians. And yet this same Abdurrahman
+III., who lived among all these delights, who reigned
+for fifty years, who was powerful, glorious, and fortunate
+in every circumstance and enterprise, wrote
+before his death that during his long reign he had
+been happy only fourteen days, and his fabulous city
+of flowers seventy-four years after the laying of its
+first stone was invaded, sacked, and burned by a
+barbarian horde, and to-day there remain only a few
+stones which hardly recall its name.</p>
+
+<p>Of another splendid city, called Zahira, which rose
+to the east of Cordova, built by the powerful Almansur,
+governor of the kingdom, not even the ruins
+remain: a handful of rebels laid it in ashes a little
+while after the death of its founder.</p>
+
+<p>
+"All returns to the great ancient mother."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">90</span></p>
+
+<p>Instead of taking a drive around Cordova, I
+simply wandered here and there, weaving fancies
+from the names of the streets, which to me is one
+of the greatest pleasures in which a traveller may
+indulge in a foreign city. Cordova, <i>alma ingeniorum
+parens</i>, could write at every street-corner the name
+of an artist or an illustrious author born within her
+walls; to give her due honor, she has remembered
+them all with maternal gratitude. You find the
+little square of Seneca and the house where he may
+have been born; the street of Ambrosio Morales, the
+historian of Charles V., who continued the <i>Chronicle
+General of Spain</i> commenced by Florian d'Ocampo;
+the street of Pablo de Cespedes, painter, architect,
+sculptor, antiquary, and the author of a didactic
+poem, "The Art of Painting," unfortunately not
+finished, though adorned with splendid passages.
+He was an ardent enthusiast of Michelangelo, whose
+works he had admired in Italy, and in his poem he
+addressed a hymn of praise to him which is one of
+the most beautiful passages in Spanish poetry, and,
+in spite of myself, the last verses have slipped from
+my pen, which every Italian, even if he does not
+know the sister language, can appreciate and understand.
+He believes, he tells the reader, that one
+cannot find the perfection of painting anywhere
+except</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"Que en aquela escelente obra espantosa</div>
+  <div class="verse">Mayor de cuantas se han jamas pintado,</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">91</span>
+  <div class="verse">Que hizo el Buonarrota de su mano</div>
+  <div class="verse">Divina, en el etrusco Vaticano!</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"Cual nuevo Prometeo en alto vuelo</div>
+  <div class="verse">Alzándose, estendiò los alas tanto,</div>
+  <div class="verse">Que puesto encima el estrellado cielo</div>
+  <div class="verse">Una parte alcanzò del fuego santo;</div>
+  <div class="verse">Con que tornando enriquecido al suelo</div>
+  <div class="verse">Con nueva maravilla y nuevo espanto,</div>
+  <div class="verse">Diò vida con eternos resplandores</div>
+  <div class="verse">À marmoles, à bronces, à colores.</div>
+  <div class="verse">¡O mas que mortal hombre! ¿Angel divino</div>
+  <div class="verse">O cual te nomaré? No humano cierto</div>
+  <div class="verse">Es tu ser, que del cerco empireo vino</div>
+  <div class="verse">Al estilo y pincel vida y concierto:</div>
+  <div class="verse">Tu monstraste à los hombres el camino</div>
+  <div class="verse">Por mil edades escondido, incierto</div>
+  <div class="verse">De la reina virtud; a ti se debe</div>
+  <div class="verse">Honra que en cierto dia el sol renueve."</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>"In that excellent marvellous work, greater than
+all that has ever been painted, which Buonarroti
+made with his divine hand in the Etruscan Vatican!</p>
+
+<p>"Look how the new Prometheus, rising in lofty
+flight, extends his wings so wide that above the
+starry sky he has obtained a part of the celestial
+fire; with it, returning, he enriched the earth with
+new marvels and new surprises, giving life, with
+eternal splendors, to marble, bronze, and colors.
+More than mortal man! angel divine! or what shall
+I call thee? Surely thou art not human, who from
+the empyrean circle came, bringing life and harmony
+to chisel and brush! Thou hast shown men the road<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">92</span>
+hidden for a thousand ages, uncertain of the sovereign
+virtue; to thee belongs honor which one day the sun
+will bestow."</p>
+
+<p>Murmuring these lines, I came out into the street
+of Juan de Mena, the Ennius of Spain, as his compatriots
+call him, the author of a phantasmagorial
+poem called "The Labyrinth," an imitation of <i>The
+Divina Commedia</i> very famous in its day, and in
+truth not without some pages of inspired and noble
+poetry, but, on the whole, cold and overloaded with
+pedantic mysticism. John II., king of Castile, went
+mad over this "Labyrinth," kept it beside the missal
+in his cabinet, and carried it with him to the hunt;
+but witness the caprice of a king! The poem had
+only three hundred stanzas, and to John II. this
+number seemed too small, and do you know the
+reason? It was this: the year contains three
+hundred and sixty-five days, and it seemed to him
+that there ought to be as many stanzas in the poem
+as there are days in the year, and so he besought
+the poet to compose sixty-five other stanzas, and the
+poet complied with his request&mdash;most cheerfully, the
+flatterer!&mdash;to gain an occasion for flattering still
+more, although he had already flattered his sovereign
+to the extent of asking him to correct the poem.</p>
+
+<p>From the street of Juan de Mena I passed into the
+street of Gongora, the Marini of Spain, and no less
+a genius than he, but perhaps one who corrupted
+the literature of his country even more than Marini<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">93</span>
+corrupted that of Italy, for he spoiled, abused, and
+corrupted the language in a thousand ways: for this
+reason Lope de Vega wittily makes a poet of the
+Gongorist school ask one of his hearers, "Do you
+understand me?"&mdash;"Yes," he replies; and the poet
+retorts, "You lie! for I do not even understand
+myself." But Lope himself is not entirely free from
+Gongorism, for he has the courage to write that
+Tasso was only the rising of Marini's sun; nor is
+Calderon entirely free of it, nor some other great
+men. But enough of poetry: I must not digress.</p>
+
+<p>After the siesta I hunted up my two companions,
+who took me through the suburbs of the city, and
+here, for the first time, I saw men and women of the
+true Andalusian type as I had imagined them, with
+eyes, coloring, and attitudes like the Arabians, and
+here too, for the first time, I heard the real speech
+of the Andalusian people, softer and more musical
+than in the Castiles, and also gayer and more imaginative,
+and accompanied by livelier gestures. I
+asked my companions whether that report about
+Andalusia is true, affirming that with their early
+physical development vice is more common, manners
+more voluptuous, and passion less restrained. "Too
+true," they replied, giving explanations, descriptions,
+and citing cases which I forbear to repeat. On returning
+to the city they took me to a splendid casino,
+with gardens and magnificent rooms, in one of which,
+the largest and richest, adorned with paintings of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">94</span>
+all the illustrious men of Cordova, rises a sort of
+stage where the poets stand to read their works on
+evenings appointed for public contests of genius;
+and the victors receive a laurel crown from the
+hands of the most beautiful and cultured girls in the
+city, who, crowned with roses, look on from a semi-circle
+of seats. That evening I had the pleasure of
+meeting several young Cordovese ardently attached,
+as they say in Spain, to the cultivation of the Muses&mdash;frank,
+courteous, and vivacious, with a medley of
+verses in their heads, and a smattering of Italian
+literature; and so imagine how from dusk to midnight,
+through those mysterious streets, which from
+the first evening had made my head whirl, there was
+a constant, noisy interchange of sonnets, hymns, and
+ballads in the two languages, from Petrarch to Prati,
+from Cervantes to Zorilla; and a delightful conversation
+closed and sealed by many cordial hand-clasps
+and eager promises to write, to send books, to come
+to Italy, to visit Spain again, etc. etc.&mdash;merely
+words, as is always the case, but words not less dear
+on that account.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning I left for Seville. At the station
+I saw Frascuelo, Lagartijo, Cuco, and the whole
+band of <i>toreros</i> from Madrid, who saluted me with
+a benevolent look of protection. I hurried into a
+dusty carriage, and as the train moved off and my
+eyes rested on Cordova for the last time, I bade the
+city adieu in the lines of the Arabian poet&mdash;a little<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">95</span>
+too tropical, if you will, for the taste of a European,
+but, after all, admirable for the occasion:</p>
+
+<p>"Adieu, Cordova! Would that my life were as
+long as Noah's, that I might live for ever within thy
+walls! Would that I had the treasures of Pharaoh,
+to spend them upon wine and the beautiful women
+of Cordova with the gentle eyes which invite
+kisses!"</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a><br /><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a><br /><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p>
+
+</div><div class="chapter">
+<h2><a name="SEVILLE" id="SEVILLE"></a>SEVILLE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The journey from Cordova to Seville does not
+awaken a sense of astonishment, as does that from
+Toledo to Cordova, but it is even more beautiful:
+there are continuous orange-orchards, boundless
+olive-groves, hills clothed with vineyards, and
+meadows carpeted with flowers. A few miles from
+Cordova one sees the ruined towers of the frowning
+castle of Almodovar standing on a very high rock-platform,
+which overlooks a vast extent of the surrounding
+country; at Hornachuelos another old
+castle on the summit of a hill, in the midst of a
+lonely, melancholy landscape; and then, beyond,
+the white city of Palma, hidden in a dense orange-grove,
+which is surrounded in its turn by a circle
+of truck-farms and flower-gardens. As the train
+runs on one is carried through the midst of golden
+fields of grain, bordered by long hedges of Indian
+fig trees and rows of dwarf palms, and dotted with
+groves of pine and frequent orchards of fruit-bearing
+trees; and at short intervals there are hills and
+castles, roaring streams, the slender village belfries<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">100</span>
+hidden among the trees, and the purple peaks of
+distant mountains.</p>
+
+<p>Most beautiful of all are the little country-houses
+scattered along the road. I do not remember to
+have seen a single one of them that was not as
+white as snow. The house was white, the neighboring
+well-curb was white, the little wall around
+the kitchen-garden was white, as were also the two
+posts of the garden-gate: everything seemed as if
+it had been whitewashed the day before. Some of
+these houses have one or two mullioned windows of
+Moorish design; others have arabesques over the
+door; and still others roofs covered with variegated
+tiles like Arabian houses. Here and there through
+the fields one sees the red-and-white capes of the
+peasants, velvet hats against the green grass, and
+sashes of all colors. The peasants whom one sees
+in the furrows and those who run to see the train
+pass are dressed in the costumes of forty years ago
+as they are represented in paintings: they wear
+velvet hats with very broad brims which roll
+slightly back, with little crowns like a sugar-loaf;
+short jackets, open waistcoats, breeches gathered in
+at the knee like those of the priests, gaiters which
+almost meet the breeches, and sashes around the
+waist. This style of dress, picturesque but inconvenient,
+is exceedingly becoming to the slender
+figures of these men, who prefer discomfort, if it be
+attended by beauty, to comfort without it, and who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">101</span>
+spend half an hour every morning adorning themselves,
+besides the time required to get into a pair
+of tight breeches which will display a shapely thigh
+and a well-turned leg. They have nothing in common
+with our Northern peasant of the hard face and
+dull eye. Their great black eyes meet your own
+with a smile, as if they would say, "Don't you
+remember me?" They cast daring glances at the
+ladies who put their heads out of the windows, run
+to fetch a match before you have so much as asked
+for it, sometimes answer your questions in rhyme,
+and are even capable of laughing to show their
+white teeth.</p>
+
+<p>At Rinconado the campanile of the cathedral of
+Seville comes into view in a line with the railroad,
+and to the right, beyond the Guadalquivir, one sees
+the beautiful low hills, covered with olive-groves, at
+the foot of which lie the ruins of Italica. The train
+rolled on, and I said to myself, under my breath,
+speaking faster and faster as the houses became
+thicker, with that suspense, full of longing and
+delight, which one feels on approaching the doorway
+of one's love, "Seville! this is Seville! The
+queen of Andalusia is at hand, the Athens of Spain,
+the mother of Murillo, the city of poets and lovers,
+the storied Seville, whose name I have pronounced
+from a child with a sentiment of loving sympathy!
+What should I have given a few years since to have
+seen it? No, it is not a dream! Those are really<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">102</span>
+the houses of Seville; those peasants yonder are
+Sevillians; that campanile which I see is the
+Giralda! I am at Seville! How strange! It
+makes me laugh! What is my mother doing at
+this moment? Would that she were here! Would
+that this friend and that were here! It is a sin to
+be alone! See the white houses, the gardens, the
+streets.... We are in the city.... It is time to
+get out.... Ah! how beautiful is life!"</p>
+
+<p>I went to a hotel, threw down my valise in the
+<i>patio</i>, and began to stroll about the city. It seemed
+like seeing Cordova over again, on a large scale,
+embellished and enriched; the streets are wider, the
+houses higher, the <i>patios</i> more spacious, but the general
+appearance of the city is the same: there is the
+same spotless white, the same intricate network of
+streets, everywhere the fragrance of orange-blossoms,
+that subtile air of mystery, that Oriental atmosphere,
+filling one's heart with a delicious sense
+of amorous melancholy, and calling to mind a thousand
+fancies, desires, and visions of a distant world,
+a new life, an unknown people, and an earthly paradise
+of love, pleasure, and content. In those streets
+one reads the history of the city: every balcony,
+every fragment of sculpture, every lonely crossway,
+recalls some nocturnal adventure of a king, the inspiration
+of a poet, the romance of a beauty, an
+amour, a duel, an abduction, a story, or a festival.
+Here a memento of Maria de Padilla, there one of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">103</span>
+Don Pedro; yonder of Cervantes, Columbus, Saint
+Theresa, Velasquez, or Murillo. A column tells of
+the Roman dominion; a tower, the splendor of
+Charles V.'s monarchy; and an alcazar, the magnificence
+of the Arabian court. Beside the modest
+white cottages rise sumptuous marble palaces; the
+little tortuous streets open into vast squares full of
+orange trees; from silent, deserted corners one
+enters with a short turn a street filled with a noisy
+crowd: and wherever one passes one sees on the
+opposite side the graceful lattices of the <i>patios</i>,
+flowers, statues, fountains, flights of stairs, walls
+covered with arabesques, small Moorish windows,
+and slender columns of costly marble; and at every
+window and in every garden little women clothed in
+white, half hidden, like timid nymphs, among the
+leaves of grapevines and rosebushes.</p>
+
+<p>Passing from street to street, I came at length to
+the bank of the Guadalquivir, close to the avenues
+of the Christina promenade, which is to Seville what
+the Lung d'arno is to Florence. Here one enjoys a
+charming spectacle.</p>
+
+<p>I first approached the famous Torre del Oro.
+This famous tower was called the Golden, either
+because it received the gold which the Spanish ships
+brought from America or because King Don Pedro
+hid his treasures there. It is an octagonal structure
+of three stories, growing smaller as they ascend,
+crowned with battlements and washed by the river.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">104</span>
+The story runs that this tower was built in Roman
+times, and that for a long period the king's most
+beautiful favorite dwelt there after it had been
+joined to the Alcazar by an edifice which was torn
+away to make room for the Christina promenade.</p>
+
+<p>This promenade extends from the ducal palace of
+Montpensier to the Torre del Oro. It is entirely
+shaded with Oriental plane trees, oaks, cypresses,
+willows, poplars, and other trees of northern latitudes,
+which the Andalusians admire, as we admire
+the palms and aloes of the plains of Piedmont and
+Lombardy. A great bridge spans the river and
+leads to the suburb of Triana, from which one sees
+the first houses on the opposite bank. A long line
+of ships, coasting vessels, and barges extends along
+the river, and from the Torre del Oro to the ducal
+palace there is a coming and going of rowboats.
+The sun was setting. A crowd of ladies filled the
+avenues, groups of workmen were crossing the
+bridge, the workmen on the ships labored more
+busily, a band of music was playing among the
+trees, the river was rose-colored, the air was fragrant
+with the perfume of flowers, the sky seemed
+all on fire.</p>
+
+<p>I returned to the city and enjoyed the marvellous
+spectacle of Seville by night. All the <i>patios</i> were
+illuminated&mdash;those of the humble houses with a half
+light, which gave them an air of mysterious beauty,
+those of the palaces, full of little flames which were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">105</span>
+reflected in the mirrors and flashed like jets of quicksilver
+in the spray of the fountains, and shone with
+a thousand colors on the marbles of the vestibules,
+the mosaics of the walls, the glass of the doors, and
+the crystal of the candlesticks. Inside one saw a
+crowd of ladies, everywhere one heard the sound of
+laughter, low voices, and music; one seemed to be
+passing through so many ball-rooms; from every
+door flowed a stream of light, fragrance, and harmony;
+the streets were crowded; among the trees
+of the squares, in the avenues, at the end of the
+narrow streets, and on the balconies,&mdash;everywhere
+were seen white skirts fluttering, vanishing, and reappearing
+in the darkness, and little heads ornamented
+with flowers peeped coquettishly from the
+windows; groups of young men broke through the
+crowd with merry shouts; people called to each
+other and talked from window to street, and everywhere
+were rapid motion, shouting, laughter, and
+festal gaiety. Seville was simply an immense garden
+in which revelled a people intoxicated with
+youth and love.</p>
+
+<p>Such moments are very sad ones for a stranger.
+I remember that I could have struck my head
+against the wall. I wandered here and there almost
+abashed, with hanging head and sad heart, as if all
+that crowd was amusing itself for the sole purpose
+of insulting my loneliness and melancholy. It was
+too late to present my letters of introduction, too<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">106</span>
+early to go to bed: I was the slave of that crowd
+and that gaiety, and was obliged to endure it for
+many hours. I found a solace in resolving not to
+look at the faces of the women, but I could not
+always keep my resolve, and when my eyes inadvertently
+met two black pupils the wound, because
+so unexpected, was more grievous than if I had encountered
+the danger more boldly. Yes, I was
+in the midst of those wonderfully famous women
+of Seville! I saw them pass on the arms of their
+husbands and lovers; I touched their dresses,
+breathed their perfume, heard the sound of their
+soft speech, and the blood leaped to my head like a
+flame of fire. Fortunately, I remembered to have
+heard from a Sevillian at Madrid that the Italian
+consul was in the habit of spending the evening at
+the shop of his son, a merchant; I sought out the
+shop, entered, and found the consul, and as I handed
+him a letter from a friend I said, with a dramatic air
+which made him laugh, "Dear sir, protect me; Seville
+has terrified me."</p>
+
+<p>At midnight the appearance of the city was unchanged:
+the crowd and light had not disappeared;
+I returned to the hotel and locked my door with the
+intention of going to bed. Worse and worse! The
+windows of my room opened on a square where
+crowds of people were swarming around an orchestra
+that played without interruption, when the music
+finally ended the guitars commenced, together with the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">107</span>
+cries of the water-carriers and snatches of song and
+laughter; the whole night through there was noise
+enough to wake the dead. I had a dream at once
+delightful and tantalizing, but rather more tantalizing
+than delightful. I seemed to be tied to the bed by a
+very long tress of dark hair twisted into a thousand
+knots, and felt on my lips a mouth of burning coals
+which sucked my breath, and around my neck two
+vigorous little hands which were crushing my
+head against the handle of a guitar.</p>
+
+<p>The following morning I went at once to see the
+cathedral.</p>
+
+<p>To adequately describe this measureless edifice
+one should have at hand a collection of the most
+superlative adjectives and all the most extravagant
+similes which have come from the pens of the grand
+writers of every country whenever they have described
+something of prodigious height, enormous
+size, appalling depth, and incredible grandeur.
+When I talk to my friends about it, I too, like the
+Mirabeau of Victor Hugo, involuntarily make <i>un
+colossal mouvement d'epaules</i>, puff out my throat,
+and gradually raise my voice, like Tommaso Salvini
+in the tragedy of <i>Samson</i> when, in tones which make
+the parquet tremble, he says that he feels his strength
+returning to his limbs. To talk of the cathedral of
+Seville tires one like playing a great wind instrument
+or carrying on a conversation across a roaring
+torrent.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">108</span></p>
+
+<p>The cathedral of Seville stands alone in the centre
+of a vast square, and consequently one can measure
+its vastness at a single glance. At the first moment
+I thought of the famous motto which the chapter of
+the primitive church adopted on the eighth of July,
+1401, when they decreed the erection of the new
+cathedral: "Let us build a monument which will
+make posterity declare that we were mad." Those
+reverend canons did not fail in their intention. But
+one must enter to be sure of this.</p>
+
+<p>The exterior of the cathedral is grand and magnificent,
+but not to be compared with the interior.
+The façade is lacking: a high wall surrounds the
+entire building like a fortress. However much one
+walks around and looks at it, one cannot succeed in
+fixing in one's mind a single outline which, like the
+preface of a book, will give a clear conception of the
+design of the work; one admires and occasionally
+breaks out in the exclamation, "It is stupendous!"
+but it does not please, and one hurries into the
+church, hoping to feel a sentiment of deeper admiration.</p>
+
+<p>On first entering one is amazed, and feels as if
+one were lost in an abyss, and for some moments the
+eye can only describe immense curves through that
+vast space, as if to assure you that the sight is real
+and that fancy is not deceiving you. Then you approach
+one of the pilasters, measure it, and look at
+the others in the distance: they are as massive as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">109</span>
+towers, and yet they look so slender that one trembles
+to think the edifice is resting on them. You
+run from one to another with a rapid glance, follow
+their lines from pavement to vaulted arch, and seem
+to be able to count the moments which it would take
+for the eye to climb them. There are five naves,
+each of which would form a great church, and in the
+central nave one could build another high cathedral
+with its cupola and belfry. Altogether they form
+sixty light, noble vaults which seem to be slowly
+expanding and rising as one looks at them. Everything
+in this cathedral is enormous. The great
+chapel in the middle of the principal nave, so high
+that it almost touches the roof, seems like a chapel
+built for giant priests, to whose knees the common
+altars would scarcely reach; the Easter candle
+seems like the mast of a ship, the bronze candlestick
+which supports it, like the pilaster of a church;
+the organs are like houses; the choir is a museum
+of sculpture and carving which alone deserves a
+day's study. The chapels are worthy of the church:
+in them are scattered the masterpieces of sixty-seven
+sculptors and thirty-eight painters. Montegna,
+Zurbaran, Murillo, Valdes, Herrera, Boldan, Roelas,
+and Campana have left a thousand immortal traces
+of their handiwork. The chapel of Saint Ferdinand,
+which contains the tombs of this king, his
+wife Beatrice, Alfonso the Wise, the celebrated
+minister Florida Blanca, and other illustrious per<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">110</span>sonages,
+is one of the richest and most beautiful.
+The body of King Ferdinand, who rescued Seville
+from the dominion of the Arabs, clothed in his coat-of-mail
+with crown and royal robe, rests in a crystal
+casket covered with a pall; on one side lies the
+sword which he wore on the day of his entrance into
+Seville; on the other, the staff, an emblem of authority.
+In this same chapel is preserved a little
+ivory Virgin which the sainted king carried with
+him to war, and other relics of great value. In the
+other chapels there are great marble altars, Gothic
+tombs, statues of stone, wood, and silver enclosed
+in large glass cases, with the breast and hands
+covered with diamonds and rubies; there are also
+magnificent paintings, but, unfortunately, the dim
+light which falls from the high windows does not
+make them clear enough to be enjoyed in all their
+beauty.</p>
+
+<p>From the examination of the chapels, paintings,
+and sculptures one returns unwearied to admire the
+cathedral in its grand and, if one may say, its formidable
+aspect. After climbing to those dizzy
+heights one's glance and thoughts, as if exhausted
+by the effort, fall back to the earth to gather new
+strength for another ascent. And the images which
+multiply in one's head correspond to the vastness of
+the basilica&mdash;measureless angels, heads of enormous
+cherubim, great wings like the sails of a ship, and
+the fluttering of immense white robes. The impres<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">111</span>sion
+produced by this cathedral is wholly religious,
+but it is not depressing: it is that sentiment which
+bears the thought into interminable spaces and the
+awful silences where the thoughts of Leopardi lost
+themselves; it is a sentiment full of yearning and
+holy boldness, that delightful shudder which one
+feels on the brink of a precipice, the turbulence and
+confusion of great thoughts, the divine fear of the
+infinite.</p>
+
+<p>As the cathedral is the most various of Spain
+(since the Gothic, Germanic, Græco-Roman, Moorish,
+and, as it is vulgarly called, the plateresque
+styles of architecture, have each left their individual
+impress upon it), it is also the richest and has the
+greatest privileges. In the times of greater clerical
+power they burned in it every year twenty thousand
+pounds of wax; in it every day were celebrated
+five hundred masses on eighty altars; the wine consumed
+in the sacrifice amounted to the incredible
+quantity of eighteen thousand seven hundred and
+fifty litres. The canons had trains of male attendants
+like monarchs, came to church in splendid
+carriages drawn by superb horses, and while they
+were celebrating mass had priests to fan them with
+enormous fans adorned with feathers and pearls&mdash;a
+direct concession from the Pope of which some avail
+themselves even in this day. One need not speak
+of the festivals of Holy Week, which are still<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">112</span>
+famous the world over, and to which people gather
+from all parts of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>But the most curious privilege of the cathedral
+of Seville is the so-called dance <i>de los seises</i>, which
+takes place every evening at dusk for eight consecutive
+days after the festival of <i>Corpus Domini</i>.
+I was in Seville during those days, and went to see
+it, and it seems to me worth describing. From
+what had been told me I expected to see a scandalous
+piece of buffoonery, and entered the church
+with my mind prepared for a feeling of indignation
+at the desecration of the sanctuary. The church
+was dark; only the great chapel was lighted; a
+crowd of kneeling women filled the space between
+the chapel and the choir. Some priests were sitting
+to the right and left of the altar; in front of the
+altar-steps was spread a great carpet; two lines of
+boys from eight to thirteen years of age, dressed
+like Spanish cavaliers of the Middle Ages, with
+plumed hats and white stockings, were drawn up,
+one before the other, facing the altar. At a signal
+from a priest a soft strain from violins broke the
+profound silence of the church, and the two rows of
+boys advanced with the step of a contra-dance, and
+began to divide, intermingle, separate, and come together
+again with a thousand graceful movements, and
+then all together they broke into a harmonious musical
+chant, which echoed through the gloom of the
+vast cathedral like the singing of an angelic choir;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">113</span>
+and a moment later they began to accompany the
+dance and the chant with tamborines. No religious
+ceremony has ever moved me like this. It is impossible
+to express the effect produced by those young
+voices under those immense domes, those little
+creatures at the foot of the towering altars, that
+dance, solemn and almost humble, the ancient
+costume, the kneeling crowd, and the surrounding
+gloom. I left the church with my soul calmed as if
+I had been praying.</p>
+
+<p>A very curious anecdote is related in connection
+with this ceremony. Two centuries ago an archbishop
+of Seville, who regarded the dance and tamborines
+as unworthy instruments of praising God,
+wished to prohibit the ceremony. Everything was
+thrown into confusion: the people protested; the
+canons made themselves heard; the archbishop was
+obliged to appeal to the Pope. The Pope, whose
+curiosity was aroused, wished to see this silly dance
+with his own eyes, that he might decide intelligently
+in the matter. The boys in their cavalier dress
+were taken to Rome, received at the Vatican, and
+made to dance and sing before His Holiness. His
+Holiness laughed, did not disapprove, and, wishing
+to give one knock on the hoop and another on the
+barrel, and so to satisfy the canons without offending
+the archbishop, decreed that the boys should
+continue to dance so long as the clothes which they
+then wore lasted; after that time the ceremony was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">114</span>
+to be abolished. The archbishop laughed in his
+beard, if he had one; the canons laughed too, as if
+they had already found the way to outwit both the
+Pope and the archbishop. And, in fact, they renew
+some part of the boys' dress every year, so that the
+whole garment can never be said to have worn out,
+and the archbishop, as a scrupulous man, who observed
+the commands of the Pope to the letter, could
+not oppose the repetition of the ceremony. So they
+continued to dance, and they dance and will dance
+so long as it pleases the canons and the Lord.</p>
+
+<p>As I was leaving the church a sacristan made me
+a sign, led me behind the choir, and pointed out a
+tablet in the pavement, upon which I read an inscription
+which stirred my heart. Under that stone
+lay the bones of Ferdinand Columbus, the son of
+Christopher, who was born at Cordova, and died at
+Seville on the twelfth of July, 1536, in the fiftieth
+year of his age. Under the inscription run some
+Latin verses with the following significance:</p>
+
+<p>"Of what avail is it that I have bathed the entire
+universe with my sweat, that I have three times passed
+through the New World discovered by my father, that
+I have adorned the banks of the gentle Beti, and preferred
+my simple taste to riches, that I might again
+draw around thee the divinities of the Castalian spring,
+and offer thee the treasures already gathered by Ptolemy,&mdash;if
+thou, passing this stone in silence, returnest
+no salute to my father and givest no thought to me?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">115</span></p>
+
+<p>The sacristan, who knew more about the inscription
+than I did, explained it to me. Ferdinand Columbus
+was in his early youth a page of Isabella the
+Catholic and of the prince Don Juan; he travelled
+to the Indies with his father and his brother the admiral
+Don Diego, followed the emperor Charles V.
+in his wars, made other voyages to Asia, Africa, and
+America, and everywhere collected with infinite care
+and at great expense the most precious books, from
+which he composed a library which passed after his
+death into the hands of the chapter of the cathedral,
+and remains intact under the famous name of the
+Columbian Library. Before his death he wrote these
+same Latin verses which are inscribed on the tablet
+of his tomb, and expressed a desire to be buried in
+the cathedral. In the last moments of his life he
+had a vessel full of ashes brought to him and
+sprinkled his face with them, pronouncing as he did
+so the words of Holy Writ, <i>Memento homo quia pulvis
+es</i>, chanted the <i>Te Deum</i>, smiled, and expired
+with the serenity of a saint. I was at once seized
+with a desire to visit the library and left the church.</p>
+
+<p>A guide stopped me on the threshold to ask me if
+I had seen the <i>Patio de los Naranjos</i>&mdash;the Court of
+Oranges&mdash;and, as I had not done so, he conducted
+me thither. The Court of Oranges lies to the north
+of the cathedral, surrounded by a great embattled
+wall. In the centre rises a fountain encircled by an
+orange-grove, and on one side along the wall is a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">116</span>
+marble pulpit, from which, according to the tradition,
+Vincenzo Ferrer is said to have preached. In
+the area of this court, which is very large, rose the
+ancient mosque, which is thought to have been built
+toward the end of the twelfth century. There is
+not the least trace of it now. In the shade of the
+orange trees around the margins of the basin the
+good Sevillians come to take the air in the burning
+noons of summer, and only the delightful verdure
+and the perfumed air remain as memorials of the
+voluptuous paradise of Mohammed, while now and
+then a beautiful girl with great dark eyes darts between
+the distant trees.</p>
+
+<p>The famous Giralda of the cathedral of Seville is
+an ancient Moorish tower, built, it is affirmed, in the
+year one thousand after the design of the architect
+Geber, the inventor of algebra. The upper part has
+been changed since Spain was reconquered, and has
+been rebuilt like a Christian bell-tower, but it will
+always retain its Moorish appearance, and, after all,
+is prouder of the banished standards of the vanquished
+than of the cross recently planted upon it by
+the victors. It is a monument which produces a
+strange sensation: it makes one smile; it is measureless
+and imposing as an Egyptian pyramid, and
+at the same time light and graceful as a summer-house.
+It is a square brick tower of a mellow rose-color,
+unadorned to a certain height, and from that
+point up ornamented with mullioned Moorish win<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">117</span>dows,
+which appear here and there like the windows
+of a house provided with balconies, and give it a
+very beautiful appearance. From the platform, which
+was formerly covered by a variegated roof surmounted
+by an iron pole which supported four enormous golden
+balls, now rises the Christian bell-tower in three
+stories, the first of which is taken up by the bells,
+the second is encircled by a balcony, and the third
+consists of a sort of cupola upon which, like a
+weather-vane, turns a colossal gilded statue which
+represents Faith, with a palm in one hand and a
+banner in the other. This statue is visible a long
+distance from Seville, and flashes when the sun
+strikes it like an enormous ruby in the crown of a
+gigantic king, who sweeps with his glance the entire
+valley of Andalusia.</p>
+
+<p>I climbed all the way to the top, and was there
+amply rewarded for the fatigue of the ascent. Seville,
+all white like a city of marble, encircled by a
+diadem of gardens, groves, and avenues, surrounded
+by a landscape dotted with villas, lay open to the
+view in all the wealth of its Oriental beauty. The
+Guadalquivir, freighted with ships, divides and embraces
+it in a majestic curve. Here the Torre del
+Oro casts its graceful shadow on the azure waters
+of the river; there the Alcazar rears its frowning
+towers; yonder the gardens of Montpensier raise
+above the roofs of the building an enormous mass of
+verdure: one's glance penetrates the bull-ring, the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">118</span>
+public gardens, the <i>patios</i> of the homes, the cloisters
+of the churches, and all the streets which converge
+toward the cathedral; in the distance appear the
+villages of Santi Ponce, Algaba, and others which
+whiten the slopes of the hills; to the right of the
+Guadalquivir the great suburb of Triana; on one
+side along the horizon the broken peaks of the Sierra
+Morena; and in the opposite direction other mountains
+enlivened by infinite azure tints; and over all
+this marvellous panorama the clearest, most transparent,
+and entrancing sky which has ever smiled
+upon the face of man.</p>
+
+<p>I descended from the Giralda and went to see the
+Columbian Library, located in an old building beside
+the Court of Oranges. After I had seen a collection
+of missals, Bibles, and ancient manuscripts, one of
+which is attributed to Alfonso the Wise, entitled
+"The Book of the Treasure," written with the most
+scrupulous care in the ancient Spanish language, I
+saw&mdash;let me repeat it, I saw&mdash;I, with my own
+moist eyes, as I pressed my hand on my beating
+heart&mdash;I saw a book, a treatise on cosmography and
+astronomy in Latin, with the margins covered with
+notes written in the hand of Christopher Columbus!
+He had studied that book while he revolved his
+great design in his mind, had pored over its pages
+in the night-watches, had touched it perhaps with
+his divine forehead in those exhausting vigils when
+sometimes he bent over the parchments with utter<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">119</span>
+weariness and bathed them with his sweat. It is a
+tremendous thought! But there is something better.
+I saw a writing in the hand of Columbus in which
+are collected all the prophecies of the ancient
+writers, sacred and profane, in regard to the discovery
+of the New World, written, it is said, to induce
+the sovereigns of Spain to provide the means
+to carry out his enterprise. There is, among others,
+a passage from the <i>Medea</i> of Seneca, which runs:
+<i>Venient annis saecula seris, quibus oceanus vincula
+rerum laxet et ingens pateat tellus</i>. And in the
+volume of Seneca, which may also be found in the
+Columbian Library, alongside of this passage there
+is a note by Ferdinand Columbus, which says:
+"This prophecy was fulfilled by my father, the
+admiral Christopher Columbus, in the year 1492."
+My eyes filled with tears; I wished I were alone,
+that I might have kissed those books, have tired
+myself out turning and re-turning their leaves between
+my hands, have detached a tiny fragment,
+and carried it with me as a sacred thing. Christopher
+Columbus! I have seen his characters! I
+have touched the leaves which he has touched! I
+have felt him very near me! On leaving the library,
+I know not why&mdash;I could have leaped into the
+midst of the flames to rescue a child, I could have
+stripped myself to clothe a beggar, I could joyfully
+have made any sacrifice&mdash;I was so rich!</p>
+
+<p>After the library the Alcazar, but before reaching<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">120</span>
+it, although it is in the same square as the cathedral,
+I felt for the first time what the Andalusian sun is
+like. Seville is the hottest city of Spain, it was the
+hottest hour of the day, and I found myself in the
+hottest part of the city; there was a flood of light;
+not a door, not a window, was open, not a soul astir;
+if I had been told that Seville was uninhabited, I
+should have believed it. I crossed the square
+slowly with half-shut eyes and wrinkled face, with
+the sweat coursing in great drops down my cheeks
+and breast, while my hands seemed to have been
+dipped in a bucket of water. On nearing the
+Alcazar I saw a sort of booth belonging to a water-carrier,
+and dashed under it headlong, like a man
+fleeing from a shower of stones. I took a little
+breathing-spell, and went on toward the Alcazar.</p>
+
+<p>The Alcazar, the ancient palace of the Moorish
+kings, is one of the best-preserved monuments in
+Spain. From the outside it looks like a fortress:
+it is entirely surrounded by high walls, embattled
+towers, and old houses, which form two spacious
+courtyards in front of the façade. The façade is
+bare and severe, like the rest of the exterior; the
+gate is adorned with gilded and painted arabesques,
+between which one sees a Gothic inscription which
+refers to the time when the Alcazar was restored by
+order of King Don Pedro. The Alcazar, in fact,
+although a Moorish palace, is the work of Christian
+rather than of Moorish kings. It is not known<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">121</span>
+exactly in what year it was built: it was reconstructed
+by King Abdelasio toward the end of the
+twelfth century, conquered by King Ferdinand toward
+the middle of the thirteenth century; altered
+a second time, in the following century, by King Don
+Pedro; and then occupied for longer or shorter
+periods by nearly all the kings of Castile; and
+finally selected by Charles V. as the place for the
+celebration of his marriage with the infanta of
+Portugal. The Alcazar has witnessed the loves
+and crimes of three generations of kings; every
+stone awakens a memory and guards a secret.</p>
+
+<p>You enter, cross two or three rooms in which
+there remains little of the Moorish excepting the
+vaulted ceiling and the mosaics around the walls,
+and come out into a court where you stand speechless
+with wonder. A portico of very delicate arches
+extends along the four sides, supported by slender
+marble columns, joined two by two, and arches and
+walls and windows and doors are covered with carvings,
+mosaics, and arabesques most intricate and exquisite,
+here perforated like lace, there closely
+woven and elaborate like embroidered tapestry,
+yonder clinging and projecting like masses and
+garlands of flowers; and, except the mosaics, which
+are of a thousand colors, everything is white, clean,
+and smooth as ivory. On the four sides are four
+great doors, through which you enter the royal
+apartments. Here wonder becomes enchantment:<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">122</span>
+whatever is richest, most various, and most splendid,
+whatever the most ardent fancy sees in its most
+ardent dreams, is to be found in these rooms. From
+pavement to the vaulted ceiling, around the doors,
+along the window-frames, in the most hidden corners,
+wherever one's glance falls, one sees such a luxuriance
+of ornaments in gold and precious stones, such
+a close network of arabesques and inscriptions, such
+a marvellous profusion of designs and colors, that
+one has scarcely taken twenty steps before one is
+amazed and confused, and the wearied eye wanders
+here and there searching for a hand's breadth of
+bare wall where it may flee and rest. In one of
+these rooms the guide pointed out a red spot which
+covered a good part of the marble pavement, and
+said in a solemn voice, "These are the blood-stains
+of Don Fadrique, grand master of the order of
+Santiago, who was killed on this very spot, in the
+year 1358, by order of his brother, King Don
+Pedro."</p>
+
+<p>I remember that when I heard these words I
+looked in the face of the custodian, as if to say,
+"Come, let us be going," and that good man answered
+in a dry tone,</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Caballero</i>, if I had told you to believe this thing
+on my word, you would have had every reason to
+doubt; but when you can see the thing with your
+very eyes, I may be wrong, but&mdash;it seems to
+me...."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">123</span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I hastened to say&mdash;"yes, it is blood: I
+believe it, I see it; let's say no more about it."</p>
+
+<p>But if one can be playful over the blood-spots,
+one cannot be so over the story of the crime; the
+sight of the place revives in the mind all the most
+horrible details. Through the great gilded halls one
+seems to hear the echo of Don Fadrique's footsteps,
+followed by those of the bowmen armed with
+bludgeons; the palace is immersed in gloom; one
+hears no other sound save that of the executioners
+and their victim; Don Fadrique tries to enter the
+courtyard; Lopez de Padilla catches him; Fadrique
+throws him off and is in the court; he grasps his
+sword; curses on it! the cross of the hilt is held fast
+in the mantle of the order of Santiago; the bowmen
+gain upon him; he has not time to unsheath the
+sword; he flees here and there, groping his way;
+Fernandez de Roa overtakes him and fells him with
+a blow of his club; the others run up and set upon
+him, and Fadrique dies in a pool of blood....</p>
+
+<p>But this sad recollection is lost among the thousand
+images of the sensuous Moorish kings. Those
+graceful little windows, where it seems as if you
+ought to see every other moment the languid face
+of an odalisque; those secret doors, at which you
+pause in spite of yourself, as if you heard the rustle
+of garments; those sleeping chambers of the sultans,
+shrouded in mysterious gloom, where you seem to
+hear only the confused amorous lament of all the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">124</span>
+maidens who there lost the flower of their virgin
+purity; that prodigal variety of color and line, which
+like a tumultuous and ever-changing harmony arouses
+the senses to such fantastic flights that you doubt
+whether you are waking or sleeping; that delicate
+and lovely architecture, all of slender columns, that
+seem like the arms of women; capricious arches,
+little rooms, arched ceilings crowded with ornaments
+hanging in the form of stalactites, icicles, and clusters
+of grapes, of as many colors as a flower-garden;&mdash;all
+this stirs your desire to sit down in the middle
+of one of those rooms and to press to your heart a
+lovely brown Andalusian head which will make you
+forget the world and time, and, with one long kiss
+that drinks away your life, give you eternal sleep.</p>
+
+<p>On the ground floor the most beautiful room is the
+Hall of the Ambassadors, formed by four great
+arches which support a gallery with forty-four
+smaller arches, and above a beautiful cupola carved,
+painted, gilded, and chased with inimitable grace
+and fabulous splendor.</p>
+
+<p>On the upper floor, where were the winter apartments,
+there remain only an oratory of Ferdinand
+and Isabella the Catholic, and a little room in which
+the king Don Pedro is said to have slept. From it
+one descends by a narrow mysterious staircase to the
+rooms where dwelt the famous Maria de Padilla, the
+favorite of Don Pedro, whom popular tradition accuses
+of instigating the king to kill his brother.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<div class="caption"><i><a id="Moorish_Arches"></a>Moorish Arches, Alcazar, Seville</i></div>
+<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b124c.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">125</span></p>
+
+<p>The gardens of the Alcazar are neither very large
+nor particularly beautiful, but the memories which
+they recall are of greater value than extent or
+beauty. In the shade of those orange trees and
+cypresses, to the murmur of those fountains, when
+the great white moon was shining in that limpid Andalusian
+sky, and the many groups of courtiers and
+slaves rested there, how many long sighs of ardent
+sultanas! how many lowly words from proud kings!
+what passionate loves and embraces! "Itimad, my
+love!" I murmured, thinking of the famous mistress
+of King Al-Motamid as I wandered from path to
+path as if following her phantom,&mdash;"Itimad," I repeated,
+"do not leave me alone in this silent paradise!
+Dost thou remember how thou camest to me?
+Thy wealth of hair fell over my shoulder, and dearer
+than the sword to the warrior wert thou to me! How
+beautiful thou art! Thy neck is soft and white as
+the swan's, and like berries are thy red, red lips!
+How marvellous is the perfection of thy beauty!
+How dear thou art, Itimad, my love! Thy kisses
+are like wine, and thy eyes, like wine, steal away
+my reason!"</p>
+
+<p>While I was thus making my declarations of love
+with phrases and images stolen from the Arabian
+poets, at the very moment when I turned into a
+bypath all bordered with flowers, suddenly I felt a
+stream of water first on one leg and then on the
+other. I jumped aside, and received a spray in my<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">126</span>
+face; I turned to the right, and felt another stream
+against my neck; to the left, another jet between
+my shoulders. I began to run: there was water
+under me and around me in every direction, in jets,
+streams, and spray; in a moment I was as wet as if
+I had been dipped in the bath-tub. Just as I opened
+my mouth to call for help it all subsided, and I heard
+a ringing laugh at the end of the garden. I turned
+and saw a young fellow leaning against a low wall
+looking at me as if he were saying, "How did you
+like it?" When I came out he showed me the
+spring he had touched to play this little joke, and
+comforted me with the assurance that the sun of Seville
+would not leave me long in that dripping condition,
+into which I had passed so rudely, alas!
+from the lovely arms of my sultana.</p>
+
+<p>That evening, in spite of the voluptuous images
+which the Alcazar had called to my mind, I was sufficiently
+calm to contemplate the beauty of the
+women of Seville without fleeing to the arms of the
+consul for safety. I do not believe that the women
+of any other country are so bewitching as the fair
+Andalusians, not only because they tempt one into
+all sorts of mischief, but because they seem to have
+been made to be seized and carried away, so small,
+graceful, plump, elastic, and soft are they. Their
+little feet could both be put easily into one's coat-pocket,
+and with an arm one could lift them by the
+waist like babies, and by the mere pressure of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">127</span>
+finger could bend them like willow wands. To their
+natural beauty they add the art of walking and looking
+in a way to turn one's head. They fly along,
+glide, and walk with a wave-like motion, and in a
+single moment, as they pass, they show a little foot,
+make you admire an arm or a slender waist, reveal
+two rows of the whitest teeth, and dart at you a long
+veiled glance that melts and dies in your own; and
+on they go with an air of triumph, certain of having
+turned your blood topsy-turvy.</p>
+
+<p>To form an idea of the beauty of the women of
+the people and the picturesqueness of their dress
+you must go by day to visit the tobacco-manufactory,
+which is one of the largest establishments of
+the kind in Europe and employs not less than five
+thousand hands. The building faces the vast gardens
+of the duke of Montpensier: almost all of the
+women work in three immense rooms, each divided
+into three parts by as many rows of pillars. The
+first view is astounding: there, all at once, eight
+hundred girls present themselves before one's eyes
+in groups of five or six, sitting around work-tables
+as close as possible, the farthest indistinct and the
+last scarcely visible; all of them young and a few
+children&mdash;eight hundred jet-black heads and eight
+hundred brown faces from every province of
+Andalusia, from Jaen to Cadiz, from Granada to
+Seville!</p>
+
+<p>One hears a buzzing as of a square full of people.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">128</span>
+The walls, from one door to the other, in all three
+of the rooms are lined with skirts, shawls, kerchiefs,
+and scarfs; and&mdash;a very curious thing&mdash;that entire
+mass of garments, which would fill to overflowing a
+hundred old-clothes shops, presents two predominant
+colors, in two continuous lines one above the other,
+like the stripes of a very long flag&mdash;the black of the
+shawls above, and the red mixed with white, purple,
+and yellow&mdash;so that one seems to see an immense
+costumer's shop or an immense ball-room where the
+ballet-dancers, in order to be free, have hung on the
+walls every part of their dress which it is not absolutely
+necessary to wear. The girls put on these
+dresses when they go out, and wear old clothes to
+work in; but white and red predominate in those
+dresses also. The heat is insupportable, consequently
+they lighten their clothing as much as possible,
+and among those five thousand one will
+scarcely find fifty whose arms and shoulders the
+visitor may not contemplate at his pleasure, without
+counting the extraordinary cases which present
+themselves suddenly as one passes from room to
+room, behind the doors and columns, and around the
+distant corners. There are some very beautiful
+faces, and even those who are not beautiful have
+something about them which attracts one's glance
+and lingers in the memory&mdash;the complexion, the
+eyes, the brow, or the smile. Many of them,
+especially so-called <i>Gitane</i>, are as dark as dark<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">129</span>
+mulattos and have protruding lips; others have eyes
+so large that a faithful picture of them would be
+considered a monstrous exaggeration; the greater
+part are small and well-formed, and all have a rose
+or carnation or some sort of wild flower in their
+hair. They are paid in proportion to the work they
+do, and the most skilful and industrious earn as
+much as three francs per day; the lazy ones&mdash;<i>las
+holgazanas</i>&mdash;sleep with their arms crossed on the
+table and their heads resting on their arms; mothers
+are working, and swinging a leg to which is bound
+a cord that rocks the cradle. From the cigar-room
+one passes to the cigarette-room, and from it to the
+box-factory, and from the box-factory to the packing-room,
+and in them all one sees the red skirts,
+black hair, and fine eyes. In each of those rooms
+how many stories of love, jealousy, despair, and
+misery! On leaving the factory one seems for some
+time to see black eyes in every direction regarding
+him with a thousand varying expressions of curiosity,
+indifference, sympathy, cheerfulness, sadness, and
+drowsiness.</p>
+
+<p>The same day I went to see the Museum of
+Painting. The Seville gallery does not contain very
+many paintings, but those few are worth a great
+museum. There are the masterpieces of Murillo,
+and among them his immortal <i>Saint Anthony of
+Padua</i>, which is said to be the most divinely inspired
+of his works, and one of the greatest achieve<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">130</span>ments
+of human genius. I visited the gallery
+in the company of Señor Gonzalo Segovia and
+Ardizone, one of the most illustrious young men
+of Seville, and I wish he were here beside my table
+at this moment to testify in a foot-note that when
+my eyes first lit upon the picture I seized his arm
+and uttered a cry.</p>
+
+<p>Only once in my life have I felt such a profound
+stirring of my soul as that which I felt on seeing
+this picture. It was one beautiful summer night:
+the sky was bright with stars, and the vast plain lay
+extended before me from the high place where I
+stood in deep silence. One of the noblest creatures
+I have ever met in my life was at my side. A few
+hours before we had been reading some pages from
+one of Humboldt's works: we looked at the sky
+and talked of the motion of the earth, the millions
+of worlds, and the infinite with those suppressed
+tones as of distant voices which one unconsciously
+uses in speaking of such things in the silent night.
+Finally we were still, and each, with eyes fixed on
+the heavens, gave himself up to fancies. I know
+not by what train of thought I was led; I know not
+what mysterious chain of emotions was formed in
+my heart; I know not what I saw or felt or dreamed.
+I only know that suddenly a veil before my mind
+seemed to be rent asunder; I felt within me a perfect
+assurance of that which hitherto I had longed
+for rather than believed; my heart expanded with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">131</span>
+a feeling of supreme joy, angelic peace, and limitless
+hope; a flood of scalding tears suddenly filled my
+eyes, and, grasping the hand of my friend, which
+sought my own, I cried from the depths of my soul,
+"It is true! It is true!" and began to cry like a
+child.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Saint Anthony of Padua</i> brought back the
+emotions of that evening. The saint is kneeling in
+the middle of his cell; the child Jesus in a nebulous
+halo of white vaporous light, drawn by the power
+of his prayer, is descending into his arms. Saint
+Anthony, rapt in ecstasy, throws himself forward
+with all his power of body and soul, his head thrown
+back, radiant with an expression of supreme joy.
+So great was the shock which this picture gave me
+that when I had looked at it a few moments I was
+as exhausted as if I had visited a vast gallery, and a
+trembling seized me and continued so long as I
+remained in that room.</p>
+
+<p>Afterward I saw the other great paintings of
+Murillo&mdash;a <i>Conception</i>, a <i>Saint Francis embracing
+Christ</i>, another version of <i>Saint Anthony</i>, and others
+to the number of twenty or more, among them the
+famous and enchanting <i>Virgin of the Napkin</i>, painted
+by Murillo upon a real napkin in the Capuchin convent
+of Seville to gratify a desire of a lay brother
+who was serving him: it is one of his most delicate
+creations, in which is revealed all the magic of his
+inimitable coloring&mdash;but none of these paintings,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">132</span>
+although they are objects of wonder to all the artists
+of the world, drew my heart or thoughts from that
+divine <i>Saint Anthony</i>.</p>
+
+<p>There are also in this gallery paintings by the two
+Herreras, Pacheco, Alonzo Cano, Pablo de Cespedes,
+Valdes, Mulato, a servant of Murillo who ably imitated
+his style, and finally the large famous painting
+of the <i>Apotheosis of Saint Thomas of Aquinas</i>, by
+Francesco Zurbaran, one of the most eminent artists
+of the seventeenth century, called the Spanish Caravaggio,
+and possibly his superior in truth and
+moral sentiment,&mdash;a powerful naturalist, a strong
+colorist, and an inimitable painter of austere friars,
+macerated saints, brooding hermits, and terrible
+priests, and an unsurpassed poet of penitence, solitude,
+and meditation.</p>
+
+<p>After seeing the picture-gallery Señor Gonzalo
+Segovia led me through a succession of narrow
+streets to the street <i>Francos</i>, one of the principal
+ways of the city, and stopped me in front of a little
+draper's shop, saying with a laugh, "Look! Doesn't
+this shop make you think of something?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing at all," I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Look at the number."</p>
+
+<p>"It is number fifteen: what of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! plague on it!" exclaimed my amiable guide,</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"'Number fifteen,</div>
+  <div class="verse">On the left-hand side'!"</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>"The shop of the <i>Barber of Seville</i>!" I cried.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">133</span></p>
+
+<p>"Precisely!" he responded&mdash;"the shop of the
+Barber of Seville; but be on your guard when you
+speak of it in Italy; do not take your oath, for traditions
+are often misleading, and I would not assume
+the responsibility of confirming a fact of such importance."</p>
+
+<p>At that moment the merchant came to the door of
+the shop, and, divining why we were there, laughed
+and said, "<i>No esta</i>" ("Figaro is not here"), and
+with a gracious bow he retired.</p>
+
+<p>Then I besought Señor Gonzalo to show me a
+<i>patio</i>, one of those enchanting <i>patios</i> which as I
+looked at them from the street made me imagine so
+many delightful things. "I want to see at least
+one," I said to him&mdash;"to penetrate once into the
+midst of those mysteries, to touch the walls, to
+assure myself that it is a real thing and not a
+vision."</p>
+
+<p>My desire was at once fulfilled: we entered
+the <i>patio</i> of one of his friends. Señor Gonzalo told
+the servant the object of our visit, and we were
+left alone. The house was only two stories in
+height. The <i>patio</i> was no larger than an ordinary
+room, but all marble and flowers, and a little fountain
+in the middle, and paintings and statues around,
+and from roof to roof an awning which sheltered it
+from the sun. In a corner was a work-table, and
+here and there one saw low chairs and little benches
+whereon a few moments previously had doubtless<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">134</span>
+rested the feet of some fair Andalusian, who at that
+moment was watching us from between the slats of a
+blind. I examined everything minutely, as I would
+have done in a house abandoned by the fairies: I sat
+down, closed my eyes, imagined I was the master,
+then arose, wet my hand with the spray of the
+fountain, touched a slender column, went to the
+door, picked a flower, raised my eyes to the windows,
+laughed, sighed, and said, "How happy must
+those be who live here!" At that moment I heard
+a low laugh, and saw two great black eyes flash
+behind a blind and instantly disappear. "Truly," I
+said, "I did not believe that it was possible to still
+live so poetically upon this earth. And to think
+that you enjoy these houses all your life! and that
+you have the inclination to rack your brains about
+politics!"</p>
+
+<p>Señor Gonzalo showed me the secrets of the
+house. "All this furniture," said he, "these paintings,
+and these vases of flowers disappear on the approach
+of autumn and are taken to the second story,
+which is the living apartment from autumn to
+spring. When summer comes beds, wardrobes,
+tables, chairs&mdash;everything is brought down to the
+rooms on the ground floor, and here the family sleep
+and eat, receive their friends, and do their work,
+among the flowers and marbles to the murmur of
+the fountain. And at night they have the doors
+open, and from the sleeping-rooms one can see the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">135</span>
+<i>patio</i> flooded with moonlight and smell the fragrance
+of roses."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, stop!" I exclaimed, "stop, Señor Gonzalo!
+Have pity on strangers!" And, laughing heartily,
+we both went out on our way to see the famous <i>Casa
+de Pilato</i>.</p>
+
+<p>As we were passing along a lonely little street I
+looked in a window of a hardware-shop and saw an
+assortment of knives so long, broad, and unusual
+that I felt a desire to buy one. I entered: twenty
+were displayed before my eyes, and I had the salesman
+to open them one by one. As each knife was
+opened I took a step backward. I do not believe it
+is possible to imagine an instrument more barbarous
+and terrifying in appearance than one of them.
+The handles are of wood, copper, and horn, curved
+and carved in open patterns, so that one may see
+through their little pieces of isinglass. The knives
+open with a sound like a rattle, and out comes a
+large blade as broad as the palm of your hand, as
+long as both palms together, and as sharp as a
+dagger, in the form of a fish, ornamented with red
+inlaying, which suggests streaks of clotted blood,
+and adorned with fierce and threatening inscriptions.
+On the blade of one there will be written in Spanish,
+<i>Do not open me without reason, nor shut me without
+honor</i>; on another, <i>Where I strike, all is over</i>; on
+a third, <i>When this snake bites, there is nothing left
+for the doctor to do</i>; and other gallantries of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">136</span>
+same sort. The proper name of these knives is <i>navaja</i>&mdash;a
+word which also has the meaning of razor&mdash;and
+the <i>navaja</i> is the popular duelling weapon. Now
+it has fallen into disuse, but was at one time held in
+great honor; there were masters who taught its use,
+each of whom had his secret blow, and duels were
+fought in accordance with the rules of chivalry. I
+bought the most terrible <i>navaja</i> in the shop, and we
+entered the street again.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Casa de Pilato</i>, held by the Medina-Coeli
+family, is, after the Alcazar, the most beautiful monument
+of Moorish architecture in Seville. The name,
+<i>Casa de Pilato</i>, comes from the fact that its founder,
+Don Enriquez de Ribera, the first marquis of Tarifa,
+had it built, as the story goes, in imitation of the
+house of the Roman prætor, which he had seen in
+Jerusalem, where he went on a pilgrimage. The
+edifice has a modest exterior, but the interior is marvellous.
+One first enters a court not less beautiful
+than the enchanting court of the Alcazar, encircled
+by two orders of arches, supported by graceful
+marble columns, forming two very light galleries, one
+above the other, and so delicate that it seems as if
+the first puff of wind would cast them into ruins.
+In the centre is a lovely fountain resting on four
+marble dolphins and crowned by a bust of Janus.
+Around the lower part of the walls run brilliant
+mosaics, and above these every sort of fantastic
+arabesque, here and there framing beautiful niches<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">137</span>
+containing busts of the Roman emperors. At the
+four corners of the court the ceilings, the walls, and
+the doors are carved, embroidered, and covered
+with flowers and historic tapestries with the delicacy
+of a miniature. In an old chapel, partly Moorish
+and partly Gothic in style, and most delicate in form,
+there is preserved a little column, scarcely more than
+three feet in height, the gift of Pius V. to a descendant
+of the founder of the palace, at one time viceroy
+of Naples: to that column, says the tradition, was
+bound Jesus of Nazareth to be scourged. This fact,
+even if it were true, would prove that Pius V. did
+not believe it in the slightest degree. For he would
+not lightly have committed the unpardonable mistake
+of depriving himself of a valuable relic to make a
+present to the first comer. The entire palace is full
+of sacred memories. On the first floor the custodian
+points out a window which corresponds to that by
+which Peter sat when he denied his Lord, and the
+little window from which the maid-servant recognized
+him. From the street one sees another window
+with a little stone balcony, which represents the
+exact position of the window where Jesus, wearing
+the crown of thorns, was shown to the people.</p>
+
+<p>The garden is full of fragments of ancient statuary
+brought from Italy by that same Don Pedro Afan de
+Ribera, viceroy of Naples. Among the other fables
+that are told about this mysterious garden is one to
+the effect that Don Pedro Afan de Ribera placed in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">138</span>
+it an urn brought from Italy containing the ashes
+of the emperor Trajan, and a curious person carelessly
+struck the urn and overturned it; the emperor's
+ashes were thus scattered over the grass, and
+no one has ever succeeded in collecting them. So this
+august monarch, born at Italica, by a very strange
+fate has returned to the vicinity of his natal city,
+not in the very best condition in which to meditate
+upon its ruins, to tell the truth, but he was near it,
+at any rate.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of all that I have described, I may say
+that I did not see Seville, but just commenced to see
+it. Nevertheless, I shall stop here, because everything
+must have an end. I pass by the promenaders,
+the squares, the gates, the libraries, the public buildings,
+the mansions of the grandees, the gardens and
+the churches; but allow me to say that, after several
+days' wandering through Seville from sunrise to sunset,
+I was obliged to leave the city under the weight
+of a self-accusing conscience. I did not know which
+way to turn. I had reached such a condition of
+weariness that the announcement of a new object to
+be seen filled me with foreboding rather than pleasure.
+The good Señor Gonzalo kept up my courage,
+comforted me, and shortened the journeys with his
+delightful company, but, nevertheless, I have only a
+very confused remembrance of all that I saw during
+those last days.</p>
+
+<p>Seville, although it no longer merits the glorious<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">139</span>
+title of the Spanish Athens, as in the times of
+Charles V. and Philip II., when it was mother and
+patron of a large and chosen band of poets and
+artists, the seat of culture and of the arts in the vast
+empire of its monarchs, is even yet that one among
+the cities of Spain, with the exception of Madrid, in
+which the artistic life is most vigorously maintained,
+as is evidenced by the number of its men of genius,
+the liberality of its patrons, and the popular love of
+the fine arts. It contains a flourishing academy of
+literature, a society for the protection of the arts, a
+well-known university, and a colony of scholars and
+sculptors who enjoy an honorable distinction throughout
+Spain. But the highest literary fame in Seville
+belongs to a woman&mdash;Catharine Bohl, the author of
+the novels which bear the name of Fernan Caballero,
+widely read in Spain and America, translated into
+almost all the languages of Europe, and known also
+in Italy (where some of them were published not
+long since) by every one who at all occupies himself
+with foreign literature. They are admirable pictures
+of Andalusian manners, full of truth, passion, and
+grace, and, above all, possessing a vigor of faith and
+a religious enthusiasm so fearless and a Christian
+charity so broad that they would startle and confuse
+the most skeptical man in the world. Catharine
+Bohl is a woman who would undergo martyrdom
+with the firmness and serenity of a Saint Ignatius.
+The consciousness of her power is revealed in every<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">140</span>
+page: she does not hesitate to defend her religion,
+and confronts, assails, threatens, and overthrows its
+enemies; and not only the enemies of religion, but
+every man and everything that, to use a common
+expression, conforms to the spirit of the age, for
+she never forgives the least sin which has been committed
+from the times of the Inquisition to our own
+day, and she is more inexorable than the Pope's syllabus.
+And herein perhaps lies her greatest defect
+as a writer&mdash;that her religious convictions and her
+invectives are entirely too frequent and grow tiresome,
+and disgust and prejudice the reader rather
+than convince him of her own beliefs. But there is
+not a shadow of bitterness in her heart, and as her
+books, so is her life, noble, upright, and charitable.
+In Seville she is revered as a saint. Born in that
+city, she married early in life, and is now a widow
+for the third time. Her last husband, who was
+Spanish ambassador at London, committed suicide,
+and from that day she has never laid aside her
+mourning. At the time of my visit she was almost
+seventy; she had been very beautiful, and her noble,
+placid face still preserved the impress of beauty.
+Her father, who was a man of considerable genius
+and great culture, taught her several languages in
+early life: she knows Latin thoroughly and speaks
+Italian, German, and French with admirable facility.
+At this time, however, she is not writing at all,
+although the editors and publishers of Europe and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">141</span>
+America are offering her large sums for her works.
+But she does not live a life of inactivity. From
+morning to night she reads all sorts of books, and
+while she reads she is either knitting or embroidering,
+for she very firmly believes that her literary
+studies ought not to take one minute from her feminine
+employments. She has no children, and lives
+in a lonely house, the best part of which has been
+given to a poor family; she spends a great part of
+her income in charity. A curious trait of her character
+is her great love of animals: she has her
+house full of birds, cats, and dogs, and her sensibilities
+are so delicate that she has never consented
+to enter a carriage, for fear of seeing the horse beaten
+on her account. All suffering affects her as if she
+herself were bearing it: the sight of a blind man or
+of a sick person or of a cripple of any sort distresses
+her for an entire day; she cannot close her eyes to
+sleep unless she has wiped away a tear; she would
+joyfully forego all her honors to save any unknown
+person a heartache. Before the Revolution her life
+was not so isolated: the Montpensier family received
+her with great honor, and the most illustrious families
+of Seville vied with each other in entertaining
+her at their homes: now she lives only among her
+books and a few friends.</p>
+
+<p>In Moorish times Cordova took the lead in literature
+and Seville in music. "When a scholar dies
+at Seville," said Averroes, "and they wish to sell<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">142</span>
+his books, they send them to Cordova; but if a
+musician dies at Cordova, they send his instruments
+to Seville to be sold." Now Cordova has lost her
+literary primacy, and Seville holds first place both
+in literature and music. Truly the times are past
+in which a poet by singing of the beauty of a maiden
+draws around her a crowd of lovers from all parts
+of the realm, and when one prince envies another
+simply because a poet has sung in his praise a verse
+more beautiful than any which the other had inspired,
+and a caliph rewards the author of a noble
+hymn by a gift of a hundred camels, a troop of
+slaves, and a vase of gold&mdash;when a happy strophe
+improvised at an opportune time releases a slave
+from his chains or saves the life of one condemned
+to death, and when the musicians are followed
+through the streets of Seville by a train of monarchs,
+and the favor of poets is more sought than that of
+kings, and the lyre is more terrible than the sword.
+But the people of Seville are always the most poetic
+people of Spain. The <i>bon mot</i>, the word of love,
+the expression of joy and enthusiasm, fly from their
+lips with a fascinating spontaneity and grace. The
+common people of Seville improvise, and talk as
+though they are singing, gesticulate as if they are
+declaiming, laugh and play like children. One
+never grows old at Seville. It is a city where life
+melts away in a continuous smile, with no other
+thought than the enjoyment of the beautiful sky,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">143</span>
+the lovely little houses, and the delightful little
+gardens. It is the most peaceful city in Spain,
+and the only one which since the Revolution has
+not been agitated by those sad political commotions
+which have stirred the others: politics do not penetrate
+the surface; the Sevillians are content to make
+love; all else they take in jest. <i>Todo lo toman de
+broma</i>, say the other Spaniards of the Sevillians;
+and in truth with that fragrant air, with those little
+streets like those of an Oriental city, with those
+fiery little women, why should they trouble themselves?
+At Madrid they speak ill of them; they
+say they are vain, false, fickle, and silly. It is
+jealousy: they envy them their happy indolence,
+the sympathy which they inspire in strangers, their
+girls, their poets, their painters, their orators, their
+Giralda, their Alcazar, their Guadalquivir, their
+life, and their history. So say the Sevillians, striking
+their breasts with one hand and puffing into the
+air a cloud of smoke from the inseparable <i>cigaritto</i>;
+and their lovely little women revenge themselves
+upon their envious sisters and all the other women
+in the world, speaking with spiteful pity of long feet,
+large waists, and dull eyes, that in Andalusia would
+not receive the honor of a glance or the homage of
+a sigh. A charming and amiable people, in truth;
+but, alas! one must look at the reverse side of the
+medal: superstition reigns and schools are lacking,
+as is the case throughout all Southern Spain; this<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">144</span>
+is partly their own fault and partly not; but the
+negative is probably the smaller part.</p>
+
+<p>The day of my departure arrived unexpectedly.
+It is strange: I remember scarcely any particulars
+of my life at Seville; it is remarkable if I can tell
+where I dined, what I talked about with the consul,
+how I spent the evenings, and why I chose any
+given day to take my departure. I was not myself;
+I lived, if I may use the expression, out of myself;
+all the while I remained in the city I was a little
+dazed. Apart from the art-gallery and the <i>patio</i>
+my friend Segovia must have found that I knew very
+little; and now, I know not why, I think of those
+days as of a dream. Of no other city are my recollections
+so vague as of Seville. Even to-day, while
+I am certain of having been at Saragossa, Madrid,
+and Toledo, sometimes when I think of Seville a
+doubt steals upon me. It seems to me like a city
+much farther away than the most distant boundaries
+of Spain, and that to journey there again I must
+travel months and months, cross unknown continents
+and wide seas, among people totally different from
+our own. I think of the streets of Seville, of certain
+little squares and certain houses, as I would think
+of the spots on the moon. Sometimes the image of
+that city passes before my eyes like a white figure,
+and disappears almost before I can grasp it with my
+mind&mdash;sometimes in a breath of air, at certain hours
+of the day, at a garden-gate; in humming a song<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">145</span>
+which I heard a boy sing on the steps of the Giralda.
+I cannot explain this secret to myself; I think of
+Seville as of a city which I have still to see, and
+I enjoy looking at the prints and thumbing the
+books which I bought there, for they are tangible
+things that convince me of my visit. A month ago
+I received a letter from Segovia which said, "Come
+back to us." It gave me untold pleasure, but at the
+same time I laughed as if he had written, "Make a
+voyage to Pekin." It is for this very reason that
+Seville is dearer to me than all the other cities of
+Spain; I love it as I might love a beautiful unknown
+woman who, crossing a mysterious wood, might
+look my way and throw me a flower. How often in
+the theatre or at the café, when a friend shakes me
+and asks, "What are you thinking about?" I am
+obliged to leave the little room of Maria de Padilla
+to return to him, or a boat that is gliding along in
+the shade of the Christina plane trees, or Figaro's
+shop, or the vestibule of a <i>patio</i> full of flowers,
+fountains, and lights.</p>
+
+<p>I embarked on a boat of the Segovia Company,
+near the Torre del Oro, at an hour when Seville is
+wrapped in deep sleep and a burning sun covers it
+with a flood of light. I remember that a few
+moments before the boat started a young man came
+on board in search of me, and gave me a letter from
+Gonzalo Segovia, containing a sonnet which I still
+cherish as one of my most precious mementos of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">146</span>
+Seville. On the boat there was a company of Spanish
+singers, an English family, some laboring-men,
+and babies. The captain, being a good Andalusian,
+had a cheery word for everybody. I soon began a
+conversation with him. My friend Gonzalo was a
+son of the proprietor of the line, and we talked of
+the Segovia family, of Seville, the sea, and a thousand
+pleasant things. Ah! the poor man was far
+from thinking that a few days later the unlucky ship
+would founder in the midst of the sea and bring him
+to such a terrible end! It was the <i>Guadaira</i>, that
+was lost a short distance from Marseilles by the
+bursting of the boiler on the sixteenth day of June,
+1872.</p>
+
+<p>At three o'clock the boat started for Cadiz.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">147</span></p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a><br /><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p>
+</div><div class="chapter">
+<h2><a name="CADIZ" id="CADIZ"></a>CADIZ.</h2>
+
+
+<p>That was the most delightful evening of all my
+journey.</p>
+
+<p>A little while after the ship had commenced to
+move there sprang up one of those gentle breezes
+which played with one as an infant plays with one's
+cravat or a lock of one's hair, and from stem to
+stern there was a sound of the voices of women and
+children, like that which one hears among a group
+of friends at the first crack of the whip announcing
+their departure for a merry outing. All the passengers
+gathered at the stern in the shade of a gayly-colored
+awning like a Chinese pavilion: some were
+sitting on coils of rope, others were stretched at full
+length on the benches, others were leaning against
+the rail&mdash;every one looked back in the direction of
+the Torre del Oro to enjoy the famous and enchanting
+spectacle of Seville as it faded away in the distance.
+Some of the women had not yet dried the
+tears of parting, and some of the children were still
+a little frightened by the sound of the engine. And
+some ladies were still quarrelling with the porters
+for abusing their baggage; but in a few moments
+all was serene again, and the passengers began to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">150</span>
+peel oranges, light cigars, pass little flasks of liquor,
+converse with their unknown neighbors, sing and
+laugh, and in a quarter of an hour we were all
+friends.</p>
+
+<p>The boat glided along as smoothly as a gondola
+over the still, limpid waters, which reflected the
+white dresses of the ladies like a mirror, and the
+breeze brought the delightful fragrance from the
+orange-groves of the villas scattered along the shore.
+Seville was hidden behind her circle of gardens, and
+we saw only an immense mass of trees of vivid
+green, and above them the black pile of the cathedral
+and the rose-colored Giralda surmounted by
+its statue flaming like a tongue of fire. As the
+distance widened the cathedral appeared grander and
+more majestic, as if it were following the vessel and
+gaining upon her: now, although still following, it
+seemed to retire a great way from the shore; now it
+would seem to be spanning the river; one moment
+it would appear suddenly to return to its place; a
+moment later it looked so close that we suspected
+the boat had turned back. The Guadalquivir
+wound along in short curves, and as the boat turned
+this way and that Seville appeared and disappeared,
+now peeping out in one place as if it had stolen
+beyond its boundaries, now raising its head suddenly
+behind a wood, gleaming like a snowclad mountain,
+now revealing some white streaks here and there
+amid the verdure, and suddenly disappearing from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">151</span>
+view and performing all sorts of fantastic wiles, like
+a coquettish woman. Finally it disappeared and we
+saw it no more: the cathedral alone remained. Then
+every one turned to look at the shore. We seemed
+to be sailing on the lake of a garden. Here was a
+hillside clothed with cypresses, here a hilltop all
+covered with flowers, yonder a village extending
+along the shore, and under the garden trellises
+and along the terraces of the villas sat ladies looking
+at us with spy-glasses; and here and there
+were peasants' families in brightly-colored dresses,
+sail-boats; and naked boys who plunged into the
+water and turned sommersaults, frisked about,
+shouted, and waved their hands toward the ladies
+on the boat, who covered their faces with their fans.
+Some miles from Seville we met three steamboats,
+one after the other. The first came upon us so suddenly
+at a turn of the river that, having had no
+experience in that sort of navigation, I was afraid,
+for a moment, that we should not have time to avoid
+a collision; the two boats almost grazed each other
+in passing, and the passengers of each saluted each
+other and threw across oranges and cigars, and
+charged each other with messages to be borne to
+Cadiz or Seville.</p>
+
+<p>My fellow-voyagers were almost all Andalusians,
+and so, after an hour of conversation, I knew them
+from first to last as well as if we had all been friends
+from infancy. Every one instantly told every one<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">152</span>
+else, whether he wanted to know it or not, who he
+was, his age, occupation, and where he was going,
+and one even went so far as to tell how many sweethearts
+he had and how many pesetas were in his
+purse. I was taken for a singer; and this is not
+strange if one considers that in Spain the people
+think three-fourths of the Italians are trained to
+sing, dance, or declaim. One gentleman, noticing
+that I had an Italian book in my hand, asked me,
+point-blank, "Where did you leave the company?"</p>
+
+<p>"What company?" I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Weren't you singing with Fricci at the Zarzuela?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry, but I have never appeared on the
+stage."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I must say, then, that you and the second
+tenor look as much alike as two drops of water."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't say so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pray excuse me."</p>
+
+<p>"It's of no consequence."</p>
+
+<p>"But you are an Italian?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you sing?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry, but I do not sing."</p>
+
+<p>"How strange! To judge by your throat and
+breast, I should have said that you must have a
+splendid tenor voice."</p>
+
+<p>I put my hand to my chest and neck, and replied,
+"It may be so; I will try&mdash;one never knows. I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">153</span>
+have two of the necessary qualifications: I am an
+Italian and have the throat of a tenor; the voice
+ought to follow."</p>
+
+<p>At this point the prima donna of the company,
+who had overheard the dialogue, entered the conversation,
+and after her the entire company:</p>
+
+<p>"Is the gentleman an Italian?"</p>
+
+<p>"At your service, madam."</p>
+
+<p>"I ask the question because I wish him to do me
+a favor. What is the meaning of those short verses
+from <i>Il Trovatore</i> which run&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse indent4">"Non può nemmeno un Dio</div>
+  <div class="verse indent4">Donna rapirti a me."</div>
+  <div class="verse">(Not even a god can steal my lady from me.)</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>"Is the lady married?"</p>
+
+<p>They all began to laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied the prima donna; "but why do
+you ask me that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because ... 'not even a god can steal you
+from me' is what your husband ought to say, if he
+has two good eyes in his head, every morning when
+he rises and every night when he goes to bed."</p>
+
+<p>The others laughed, but to the prima donna this
+imaginary presumption on the part of her husband
+in affirming that he was secure even against a god
+seemed too extravagant, possibly because she knew
+that she had not always been sufficiently wary in her
+regard for men; and so she scarcely deigned by so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">154</span>
+much as a smile to show that she had understood
+my compliment. She at once asked the meaning of
+another verse, and after her the baritone, and after
+the baritone the tenor, and after the tenor the second
+lady, and so on, until for a little while I did nothing
+but translate poor Italian verses into worse Spanish
+prose, to the great satisfaction of some of them, who
+for the first time were able to repeat intelligently a
+little of what they had so often sung with an air of
+perfect knowledge. When every one had learned as
+much as he wished to know, the conversation came
+to a close, and I stood talking a little while with the
+baritone, who hummed me an air from the <i>Zarzuela</i>;
+then I attached myself to one of the chorus, who
+told me that the tenor was making love to the
+prima donna; then I went off with the tenor, who
+told me about the baritone's wife; then I talked
+with the prima donna, who said disagreeable things
+about the whole company; but they were all good
+friends, and when they met, as they walked about
+the boat and gathered under the awning, the men
+pulled each other's beards and the women kissed
+each other, and one and all exchanged glances and
+smiles which revealed secret understandings. Some
+ran through the gamut here, some hummed yonder,
+others practised trills in a corner, and others again
+tried a guttural <i>do</i> that ended in a wheezing sound
+in the throat; and meanwhile they all talked at once
+about a thousand trifles.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">155</span></p>
+
+<p>Finally, the bell sounded and we rushed headlong
+to the table, like so many officials invited to a spread
+at the unveiling of a monument. At this dinner,
+amid the cries and songs of all those people, I drank
+for the first time an unmixed glass of that terrible
+wine of Xeres whose wonders are sung in the four
+corners of the earth. I had scarcely swallowed it
+before I seemed to feel a spark run through all my
+veins, and my head burned as if it was full of sulphur.
+All the others drank, and all were filled with
+unrestrained mirth and became irresistibly loquacious;
+the prima donna began to talk in Italian, the
+tenor in French, the baritone in Portuguese, the
+others in dialect, and I in every tongue; and there
+were toasts and snatches of song, shouts, arch
+glances, clasping of hands above table and the
+kicking of feet below, and declarations of good fellowship
+exchanged on all sides, like the personalities
+in Parliament when the opposing factions join battle.
+After dinner we all went on deck, flushed and in
+great spirits, breathless and enveloped in a cloud of
+smoke from our cigarettes, and then, in the light of
+the moon, whose silvery rays gleamed on the wide
+river and covered the hillsides and the groves with
+limpid light, we began again a noisy conversation,
+and after the conversation there was singing, not
+only the trifling airs of <i>Zarzuela</i>, but passages from
+operas, with solos, duets, trios, and choruses, with
+appropriate gestures and stage strides, diversified<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">156</span>
+with declamations from the poets, stories, and anecdotes,
+hearty laughter, and tumultuous applause;
+finally, tired and breathless, we were all silent, and
+some fell asleep with upturned faces, others went to
+lie down under cover, and the prima donna seated
+herself in a corner to look at the moon. The tenor
+was snoring. I profited by the occasion to go and
+have an aria from the <i>Zarzuela</i>&mdash;<i>El Sargento Federico</i>&mdash;sung
+to me in a low voice. The courteous
+Andalusian did not wait to be pressed: she sang,
+but suddenly she was silent and hid her face. I
+looked at her: she was weeping. I asked her the
+cause of her distress, and she answered, sadly, "I
+am thinking of a perjury." Then she broke into
+a laugh and began to sing again. She had a melodious,
+flexible voice, and sang with a feeling of
+gentle sadness. The sky was all studded with stars,
+and the boat glided so smoothly through the water
+that it scarcely seemed to be moving; and I thought
+of the gardens of Seville, of the near African shore,
+and of the dear one waiting for me in Italy, and my
+eyes too were wet, and when the lady stopped singing,
+I said, "Sing on, for&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">'Mortal tongue cannot express</div>
+  <div class="verse">That which I felt within my breast....'"</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>At dawn the boat was just entering the ocean;
+the river was very wide. The right bank, scarcely
+visible in the distance, stretched along like a tongue<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">157</span>
+of land, beyond which shone the waters of the sea.
+A moment later the sun rose above the horizon, and
+the vessel left the river. Then there unfolded before
+my eyes a sight that could not be described if
+it were possible to join poetry, painting, and music
+in one supreme art&mdash;a spectacle whose magnificence
+and enchantment I believe not even Dante could
+describe with his grandest images, nor Titian with
+his most brilliant colors, nor Rossini with his most
+perfect harmonies, nor even all three of them together.
+The sky was a miracle of sapphire light
+unflecked by a cloud, and the sea was so beautiful
+that it seemed like an immense carpet of shimmering
+silk; the sun was shining on the crests of the little
+ripples caused by a light breeze, and it seemed as
+if they were tipped with amethyst. The sea was
+full of reflections and luminous bands of light, and
+in the distance were streaks of silver, with here and
+there great white sails, like the trailing wings of
+gigantic fallen angels. I have never seen such
+brilliancy of color, such splendor of light, such
+freshness, such transparency, such limpid water and
+sky. It seemed like a daybreak of creation, which
+the fancy of poets had pictured so pure and effulgent
+that our dawns are only pale reflections in comparison.
+It was more than Nature's awakening and
+the recurring stir of life: it was a hallelujah, a
+triumph, a new birth of creation, growing into the
+infinite by a second inspiration of God.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">158</span></p>
+
+<p>I went below deck to get my spyglass, and when
+I returned Cadiz was in sight.</p>
+
+<p>The first impression which it made upon me was
+a feeling of doubt whether it was a city or not. I
+first laughed, then turned toward my fellow-traveller
+with the air of one seeking to be assured that he is
+not deceived. Cadiz is like an island of chalk. It
+is a great white spot in the midst of the sea, without
+a cloud, without a black line, without a shadow&mdash;a
+white spot as clear and pure as a hilltop covered
+with untrodden snow, standing out against a sky of
+beryl and turquoise in the midst of a vast flooded
+plain. A long, narrow neck of land unites it to the
+continent; on all other sides it is surrounded by the
+sea, like a boat just ready to sail bound to the shore
+only by a cable. As we approached, the forms of
+the campaniles, the outlines of the houses, and the
+openings of the streets became clear, and everything
+seemed whiter, and, however much I looked through
+my spyglass, I could not have discovered the
+smallest spot in that whiteness, either on a building
+near the harbor or in the farthest suburbs. We
+entered the port, where there were but a few ships
+and those a great way apart. I stepped into a boat
+without even taking my valise with me, for I was
+obliged to leave for Malaga that same evening, and
+so eager was I to see the city that when the boat
+came to the bank, I jumped too soon and fell to the
+ground like a corpse, although, alas! I still felt the
+pains of a living body.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<div class="caption"><i><a id="Cadiz_p"></a>Cadiz</i></div>
+<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b158ct.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">159</span></p>
+
+<p>Cadiz is the whitest city in the world; and it is
+of no use to contradict me by saying that I have
+not seen every other city, for my common sense
+tells me that a city whiter than this, which is superlatively
+and perfectly white, cannot exist. Cordova
+and Seville cannot be compared with Cadiz:
+they are as white as a sheet, but Cadiz is as white
+as milk. To give an idea of it, one could not do
+better than to write the word "white" a thousand
+times with a white pencil on blue paper, and make
+a note on the margin: "Impressions of Cadiz."
+Cadiz is one of the most extravagant and graceful
+of human caprices: not only the outer walls of the
+houses are white, but the stairs are white, the courts
+are white, the shop-walls are white, the stones are
+white, the pilasters are white, the most secret and
+darkest corners of the poorest houses and the loneliest
+streets are white; everything is white from
+roof to cellar wherever the tip of a brush can enter,
+even to the holes, cracks, and birds' nests. In every
+house there is a pile of chalk and lime, and every
+time the eagle eye of the inmates spies the least
+spot the brush is seized and the spot covered.
+Servants are not taken into families unless they
+know how to whitewash. A pencil-scratch on a
+wall is a scandalous thing, an outrage upon the
+public peace, an act of vandalism: you might walk<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">160</span>
+through the entire city, look behind all the doors,
+and poke your nose into the very holes, and you
+would find white, only and always and eternally.</p>
+
+<p>But, for all this, Cadiz does not in the least resemble
+the other Andalusian cities. Its streets are
+long and straight, and the houses are high, and lack
+the <i>patios</i> of Cordova and Seville. But, although
+the appearance is different, the city does not appear
+less interesting and pleasant to the eye of the
+stranger. The streets are straight, but narrow, and,
+moreover, they are very long, and many of them
+cross the entire city, and so one can see at the end,
+as through the crack in a door, a slender strip of
+sky, which makes it seem as if the city was built on
+the summit of a mountain cut on all sides in regular
+channels: moreover, the houses have a great many
+windows, and, as at Burgos, every window is provided
+with a sort of glass balcony which rises in
+tiers from story to story, so that in many streets the
+houses are completely covered with glass, and one
+sees scarcely any traces of the walls. It seems like
+walking through a passage in an immense museum.
+Here and there, between one house and the next,
+rise the graceful fronds of a palm; in every square
+there is a luxuriant mass of verdure, and at all the
+windows bunches of grass and bouquets of flowers.</p>
+
+<p>Really, I had been far from imagining that Cadiz
+could be so gay and smiling&mdash;that terrible, ill-fated
+Cadiz, burned by the English in the sixteenth cen<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">161</span>tury,
+bombarded at the end of the eighteenth, devastated
+by the pestilence, hostess of the fleets of Trafalgar,
+the seat of the revolutionary council during
+the War of Independence, the theatre of the horrible
+butchery of the Revolution of 1820, the target
+of the French bombs in 1823, the standard-bearer
+of the Revolution which hurled the Bourbons from
+the throne,&mdash;Cadiz always restless and turbulent and
+first of all to raise the battle-cry. But of such
+calamities and such struggles there remain only
+some cannon-balls half buried in the walls, for over
+all the traces of destruction has passed the inexorable
+brush, covering every dishonor with a white veil.
+And as it is with the latest wars, so too there remains
+not a trace of the Phœnicians who founded
+the city, nor of the Carthaginians and Romans who
+enlarged and beautified it, unless one wishes to consider
+as a trace the tradition which says, "Here rose
+a temple to Hercules," "There rose a temple to
+Saturn." But time has done a worse thing than to
+deprive Cadiz of her ancient monuments: it has
+stolen away her commerce and her riches since
+Spain lost her possessions in America, and now Cadiz
+lies there inert on her solitary rock, waiting in
+vain for the thousand ships which once came with
+flags and festoons to offer her the tribute of the
+New World.</p>
+
+<p>I had a letter of introduction to the Italian consul,
+and after receiving it he courteously took me to the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">162</span>
+top of a tower from which I was able to get a bird's-eye
+view of the city. It was a novel sight and a
+very lively surprise: seen from above, Cadiz is
+white, entirely and perfectly white, just as it appears
+from the sea; there is not a roof in all the
+city; every house is covered on top by a terrace
+surrounded by a low whitewashed wall; on almost
+every terrace rises a little white tower, which is surmounted,
+in its turn, by another smaller terrace or
+by a little cupola or sort of sentry-box: everything
+is white; all these little cupolas, these pinnacles,
+and these towers, which give the city a very odd
+and uneven appearance, gleam and stand out white
+against the vivid blue of the sea. One's view extends
+over the entire length of the isthmus which
+connects Cadiz to the main land, embraces a far-off
+strip of distant coast whitened by the cities of
+Puerto Real and Puerto Santa Maria, dotted with villages,
+churches, and villas, and includes also the port
+and the clear and a very beautiful sky which vies
+with the sea in transparency and light. I could not
+look enough at that strange city. On closing my
+eyes it appeared as if covered by an immense sheet.
+Every house seemed to have been built for an astronomical
+observatory. The entire population, in
+case the sea should inundate the city, as in ancient
+times, might gather on the terraces and remain there
+in perfect ease, saving the fright.</p>
+
+<p>I was told that a few years ago, on the occasion<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">163</span>
+of some eclipse of the sun, this very spectacle was
+witnessed: the seventy thousand inhabitants of Cadiz
+all ascended to the terraces to watch the phenomenon.
+The city changed its perfect whiteness for
+a thousand colors; every terrace was thick with heads;
+one saw at a single glance, quarter after quarter, and
+finally the entire population: a low murmur rose to
+heaven like the roar of the sea, and a great movement
+of arms, fans, and spy-glasses, pointing upward,
+made it seem as if the people were awaiting the
+descent of some angel from the solar sphere. At a
+certain moment there was a profound silence: when
+the phenomenon was over the entire population gave
+a shout, which sounded like a clap of thunder, and
+a few moments later the city was white again.</p>
+
+<p>I descended from the tower and went to see the
+cathedral, a vast marble edifice of the sixteenth century,
+not to be compared to the cathedrals of Burgos
+and Toledo, but nevertheless dignified and bold in
+architecture and enriched by every sort of treasure,
+like all the other Spanish churches. I went to see
+the convent where Murillo was painting a picture
+over a high altar when he fell from the scaffold and
+received the wound which caused his death. I
+passed through the picture-gallery, which contains
+some fine paintings of Zurbaran; entered the bull-ring,
+built entirely of wood, which was created in a
+few days to provide a spectacle for Queen Isabella.
+Toward evening I took a turn in the delightful<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">164</span>
+promenade along the sea-shore, in the midst of
+orange trees and palms, where the most beautiful
+and elegant ladies of the city were pointed out to
+me, one by one. Whatever may be the judgment
+of the Spaniards, to me the feminine type of Cadiz
+did not seem at all inferior to the celebrated type
+of Seville. The women are a little taller, a little
+heavier, and are somewhat darker. Some observer
+has ventured to say that they closely resemble the
+Grecian type, but I do not know in what respect.
+I saw no difference from the Andalusian type except
+in stature, and that was enough to make me heave
+sighs which might have propelled a ship, and constrained
+me to return as soon as possible to the vessel
+as a place of refuge and peace.</p>
+
+<p>When I arrived on board it was night; the sky
+was all twinkling with stars, and the breeze bore
+faintly to my ears the music of a band playing on
+the promenade of Cadiz. The singers were asleep;
+I was alone, and the sight of the city lights and the
+recollection of the lovely faces filled me with melancholy.
+I did not know what to do with myself, so I
+went down to the cabin, took out my note-book, and
+commenced the description of Cadiz. But I only
+succeeded in writing ten times the words, "White,
+blue, snow, brightness, colors," after which I made a
+little sketch of a woman and then closed my eyes
+and dreamed of Italy.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">165</span></p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a><br /><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p>
+</div><div class="chapter">
+<h2><a name="MALAGA" id="MALAGA"></a>MALAGA.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The next day, at sunset, the vessel was passing
+through the Straits of Gibraltar.</p>
+
+<p>Now, as I look at that point on the map, it seems
+so near home that when I am in the humor and my
+domestic finances permit I ought not to hesitate a
+moment to pack my valise and run down to Genoa
+on my way to enjoy a second time the most beautiful
+sight of two continents. But then it seemed to
+be so far away that when I had written a letter to
+my mother on the rail of the ship, intending to give
+it to one of the passengers for Gibraltar to post, as I
+was writing the address I laughed at my confidence,
+as if it were impossible for a letter to travel all the
+way to Turin. "From here!" I thought&mdash;"from
+the Pillars of Hercules!" and I pronounced the Pillars
+of Hercules as if I had said the Cape of Good
+Hope or Japan.</p>
+
+<p>"... I am on the ship Guadaira: behind me is
+the ocean, and in front the Mediterranean, on the
+left Europe and on the right Africa. On this side
+I see the cape of Tarifa, and on that the mountains
+of the African coast, which look indistinct like a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">168</span>
+gray cloud; I see Ceuta, and a little beyond it
+Tangiers like a white spot, and in a direct line with
+the ship rises the Rock of Gibraltar. The sea is as
+placid as a lake, and the sky is red and gold; all is
+serene, beautiful, and magnificent, and I feel in my
+mind an inexpressible and delightful stirring of
+great thoughts, which, if I could put them into
+words, would become a joyful prayer beginning and
+ending with thy name...."</p>
+
+<p>The vessel stopped in the Gulf of Algeciras: the
+entire company of singers got into a large boat
+from Gibraltar, and went off, waving fans and handkerchiefs
+as a parting salute. It was growing dark
+when the boat started again. Then I was able to
+measure the enormous mass of the Rock of Gibraltar
+at every turn. At first I thought we should leave
+it behind in a few moments, but the moments became
+hours. Gradually, as we approached, it towered
+above us, and presented a new appearance every instant&mdash;now
+the silhouette of some measureless monster,
+now the image of an immense staircase, now
+the outline of a fantastic castle, now a shapeless
+mass like a monstrous aërolite fallen from a world
+shivered in a battle of the spheres. Then, on nearer
+view, behind a high rock like an Egyptian pyramid,
+there came into sight a great projection as large as
+a mountain, with fissures and broken boulders and
+vast curves which lost themselves in the plain. It
+was night; the rock stood outlined against the moon<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">169</span>lit
+sky as clear and sharp as a sheet of black paper
+on a pane of glass. One saw the lighted windows
+of the English barracks, the sentry-boxes on the
+summit of the dizzy crags, and a dim outline of
+trees which seemed little larger than a tuft of grass
+among the nearest rocks. For a long time the boat
+seemed motionless or else the rock was receding, so
+close and threatening did it always appear; then,
+little by little, it began to diminish, but our eyes
+were weary of gazing before the rock grew weary
+of threatening us with its fantastic transformations.
+At midnight I gave a final salute to that formidable,
+lifeless sentinel of Europe, and went to wrap myself
+up in my little corner.</p>
+
+<p>At break of day I awoke a few miles from the
+port of Malaga.</p>
+
+<p>The city of Malaga, seen from the port, presents
+a pleasing appearance not wholly without grandeur.
+On the right is a high rocky mountain, upon the top
+of which and down one side, even to the plain, are
+the enormous blackened ruins of the castle of Gibralfaro,
+and on the lower slopes stands the cathedral
+towering majestically above all the surrounding
+buildings, lifting toward heaven, as an inspired poet
+might say, two beautiful towers and a very high
+belfry. Between the castle and the church and on
+the face and sides of the mountain there is a mass&mdash;a
+<i>canaille</i>, as Victor Hugo would say&mdash;of smoky
+little houses, placed confusedly one above the other,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">170</span>
+as if they had been thrown down from above like
+stones. To the left of the cathedral, along the shore,
+is a row of houses, gray, violet, or pale yellow in
+color, with white window-and door-frames, that
+suggest the villages along the Ligurian Riviera.
+Beyond rises a circle of green and reddish hills enclosing
+the city like the walls of an amphitheatre,
+and to the right and left along the sea-shore extend
+other mountains, hills, and rocks as far as the eye
+can see. The port was almost deserted, the shore
+silent, and the sky very blue.</p>
+
+<p>Before landing I took my leave of the captain,
+who was going on to Marseilles, said good-bye to
+the boatswain and passengers, telling them all that I
+should arrive at Valencia a day ahead of the boat,
+and I should certainly join them again and go on to
+Barcelona and Marseilles, and the captain replied,
+"We shall look for you," and the steward promised
+that my place should be saved for me. How often
+since then have I remembered the last words of those
+poor people!</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<div class="caption"><i><a id="Malaga_p"></a>Malaga</i></div>
+<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b170cs.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+</div>
+
+<p>I stopped at Malaga with the intention of leaving
+that same evening for Granada. The city itself
+offers nothing worthy of note, excepting the new
+part, which occupies a tract of land formerly
+covered by the sea. This is built up in the modern
+style, with wide, straight streets and large, bare
+houses. The rest of the city is a labyrinth of narrow,
+winding streets and a mass of houses without<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">171</span>
+color, without <i>patios</i>, and without grace. There are
+some spacious squares with gardens and fountains;
+columns and arches of Moorish buildings, no modern
+monuments; a great deal of dirt, and not a great
+many people. The environs are very beautiful, and
+the climate is milder than that of Seville.</p>
+
+<p>I had a friend at Malaga, and after finding him
+we passed the day together. He told me a curious
+fact: At Malaga there is a literary academy of more
+than eight hundred members, where they celebrate
+the birthdays of all the great writers, and hold twice
+a week a public lecture on some subject connected
+with literature or science. That same evening they
+were to celebrate a solemn function. Some months
+earlier the academy had offered a prize of three
+golden flowers, enamelled in different colors, to the
+three poets who should compose the best ode on
+"Progress," the best ballad on the "Recovery of
+Malaga," and the best satire on one of the most prevalent
+vices of modern society. The invitation had
+been extended to all the poets of Spain; poems had
+poured in in abundance; a board of judges had secretly
+considered them; and that very evening the choice
+was to be announced. The ceremony was to be
+conducted with great pomp. The bishop, the governor,
+the admiral, the most conspicuous personages
+of the city, with dress-coats, orders, and shoulder-scarfs,
+and a great number of ladies in evening dress,
+were to be present. The three most beautiful Muses<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">172</span>
+of the city were to present themselves on a sort of
+stage adorned with garlands and flags, each of whom
+was to open the roll containing the prize poem and
+to proclaim three times the name of its author: if
+the author were present, he was to be invited to read
+his verses and receive his flower; if he were not
+present, his verses were to be read for him.
+Throughout the whole city they talked of nothing
+but the academy, guessed the names of the victors,
+predicted the wonders of the three poems, and extolled
+the decorations of the hall. This festival of
+poetry, called the <i>juegos floreales</i>, had not been celebrated
+for ten years. Others may judge whether
+such contests and displays benefit or injure poets
+and poetry. As for me, whatever may be the
+dubious and fleeting literary glory which is bestowed
+by the sentence of the jury and the homage of a
+bishop and a governor, I believe that to receive
+the gift of a golden flower from the hand of a most
+beautiful woman under the eyes of five hundred fair
+Andalusians, to the sound of soft music and amid
+the perfume of jessamine and roses, that would be
+a delight even truer and more lively than any which
+comes from real and enduring glory. No? Ah! we
+are sincere.</p>
+
+<p>One of my first thoughts was to taste a little of
+the genuine Malaga wine, for no other reason than
+to repay myself for the many headaches and stomachaches
+caused by the miserable concoctions sold in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">173</span>
+many Italian cities under the false recommendation
+of its name. But either I did not know how to ask
+or they did not wish to understand: the fact remains
+that the wine they gave me at the hotel burned my
+throat and made my head spin. I was not able to
+walk straight even to the cathedral, or from the
+cathedral to the castle of Gibralfaro, or to the other
+places, nor could I form an idea of the beauties of
+Malaga without seeing them double and unsteadily,
+as some spiteful person might suppose.</p>
+
+<p>On our walk my friend talked to me about the
+famous Republican people of Malaga, who are every
+moment doing something on their own account.
+They are a very fiery people, but fickle and yet
+tractable, like all people who feel much and think
+little; and they act upon the impulse of passion
+rather than the strength of conviction. The least
+trifle calls together an immense crowd and stirs up a
+tumult that turns the city topsy-turvy; but on most
+occasions a resolute act of a man in authority, an
+exhibition of courage, or a burst of eloquence is
+sufficient to quiet the tumult and disperse the crowd.
+The nature of the people is good on the whole, but
+superstition and passion have perverted them. And,
+above all, superstition is perhaps more firmly entrenched
+in Malaga than in any other city of Andalusia,
+by reason of the greater popular ignorance.
+Altogether, Malaga was the least Andalusian of the
+cities I had seen: even the very language has been<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">174</span>
+corrupted, and they speak worse Spanish than at
+Cadiz, where, forsooth! they speak badly enough.</p>
+
+<p>I was still at Malaga, but my imagination was far
+away among the streets of Granada and in the gardens
+of the Alhambra and the Generalife. Shortly
+after the noon hour I took my leave from the only
+city in Spain, to tell the truth, that I left without a
+sigh of regret. When the train started, instead of
+turning for a last look, as I had done in all of its
+sister towns, I murmured the verses sung by Giovanni
+Prati at Granada when the duke d'Aosta was leaving
+for Spain:</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"Non più Granata è sola</div>
+  <div class="verse indent2">Sulle sur mute pietre;</div>
+  <div class="verse">L'inno in Alhambra vola</div>
+  <div class="verse indent2">Sulle Moresche cetre."</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>(<i>No more does Granada stand alone on her silent
+stones: the hymn flies to the Alhambra on Moorish
+lyres.</i>)</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>And now, as I write them again, it seems to me
+that the music of the band of the National Guard of
+Turin inspires peace and gladness more even surely
+than Moorish lyres, and that the pavement of the
+porticoes of the Po, although it be ever so silent, is
+better laid and smoother than the stones of Granada.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">175</span></p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a><br /><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p>
+</div><div class="chapter">
+<h2><a name="GRANADA" id="GRANADA"></a>GRANADA.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The journey from Malaga to Granada was the
+most adventurous and unfortunate that I made in
+Spain.</p>
+
+<p>In order that my compassionate readers may pity
+me as much as I desire, they must know (I am
+ashamed to occupy people with these little details)
+that at Malaga I had eaten only the lightest sort of
+an Andalusian repast, of which at the moment of
+departure I retained a very vague recollection.
+But I started, feeling sure that I could alight at
+some railway-station where there would be one of
+those rooms or public choking-places where one
+enters at a gallop, eats until one is out of breath,
+pays as one scampers out to rush into a crowded
+carriage, suffocated and robbed, to curse the schedule,
+travel, and the minister of public works who
+deceives the country. I departed, and for the first
+hours it was delightful. The country was all gently
+sloping hills and green fields, dotted with villages
+crowned with palms and cypresses, and in the carriage,
+between two old men who rode with their eyes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">178</span>
+shut, there was a little Andalusian who kept looking
+around with a roguish smile which seemed to say,
+"Go on; your lovelorn glances do not offend me."
+But the train crept along as slowly as a worn-out
+diligence, and we stopped only a few moments at
+the stations. By sunset my stomach began to cry
+for help, and, to render the pangs of hunger even
+more severe, I was obliged to make a good part of
+the journey on foot. The train stopped at an unsafe
+bridge, and all the passengers got out and filed
+around, two by two, to meet the train on the other
+side of the river. We were surrounded by the
+rocks of the Sierra Nevada, in a wild, desert place,
+which made it seem as if we were a company of
+hostages led by a band of brigands. When we had
+clambered into the carriage the train crawled along
+no faster than before, and my stomach began to
+complain more desperately than at first. After a
+long time we arrived at a station all crowded with
+trains, where a large part of the travellers hurried
+out before I could reach the step.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are you going?" asked a railroad official,
+who had seen me alight.</p>
+
+<p>"To dine," I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"But aren't you going to Granada?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you won't have time; the train starts
+immediately."</p>
+
+<p>"But the others have gone."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">179</span></p>
+
+<p>"You will see them come back on the run in a
+minute."</p>
+
+<p>The freight-trains in front prevented me from
+seeing the station; I thought it was a great way
+off, and so stayed where I was. Two minutes
+passed, five, eight; the tourists did not return and
+the train did not start. I jumped out, ran to the
+station, saw a café, and entered a large room.
+Great heavens! Fifty starving people were standing
+around a refreshment-table with their noses in
+their plates, elbows in the air, and their eyes on the
+clock, devouring and shouting; another fifty were
+crowding around a counter seizing and pocketing
+bread, fruit, and candies, while the proprietor and
+the waiters, panting like horses and streaming with
+sweat, ran about, tucked up their sleeves, howled,
+tumbled over the seats and upset the customers,
+and scattered here and there streams of soup and
+drops of sauce; and one poor woman, who must
+have been the mistress of the café, imprisoned in a
+little niche behind the besieged counter, ran her
+hands through her hair in desperation. At this
+sight my arms hung down helplessly. But suddenly
+I roused myself and made an onslaught. Driven
+back by a feminine elbow in my chest, I rushed in
+again; repulsed by a jab in the stomach, I gathered
+all my strength to make a third attack. At this
+point the bell rang. There was a burst of imprecations
+and then a falling of seats, a scattering of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">180</span>
+plates, a hurry-scurry, and a perfect pandemonium.
+One man, choking in the fury of his last mouthfuls,
+became livid and his eyes seemed bursting from
+his head as though he were being hanged; another
+in stretching out his hand to seize an orange, struck
+by some one rushing past, plunged it into a bowl
+of cream; another was running through the room in
+search of his valise with a great smear of sauce on
+his cheeks; another, who had tried to drink his
+wine at one gulp, had strangled and coughed as if
+he would tear open his stomach; the officials at the
+door cried, "Hurry!" and the travellers called back
+from the room, "Ahogate!" (choked), and the
+waiters ran after those who had not paid, and those
+who wanted to pay could not find the waiters; and
+the ladies swooned, and the children cried, and
+everything was upside down.</p>
+
+<p>By good fortune I was able to get into my carriage
+before the train started.</p>
+
+<p>But there a new punishment awaited me. The
+two old men and the little Andalusian, who must
+have been the daughter of the one and niece of the
+other, had been successful in securing a little booty
+in the midst of that accursed crowd at the counter,
+and they were eating right and left. I began to
+watch them with sorrowful eyes like a dog beside
+his master's table, counting the mouthfuls and the
+number of times they chewed. The little Andalusian
+noticed it, and, pointing to something which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">181</span>
+looked like a croquet, made a gracious bow as if to
+ask if I would take it.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, thank you," I replied with the smile of
+a dying man; "I have eaten."</p>
+
+<p>My angel, I continued to myself, if you only knew
+that at this moment I would prefer those two croquets
+to the bitter apples&mdash;as Sir Niccolo Machiavelli
+would generously say&mdash;even those bitter apples
+from the famous garden of the Hesperides!</p>
+
+<p>"Try a drop of liquor at least," said the old
+uncle.</p>
+
+<p>I do not know what childish pique against myself
+or against those good people took possession of me,
+but it was a feeling which other men experience on
+similar occasions; however, I replied this time too,
+"No, thank you; it would be bad for me."</p>
+
+<p>The good old man looked me over from head to
+foot as if to say that I did not appear like a man to
+be the worse for a drop of liquor, and the Andalusian
+smiled, and I blushed for shame.</p>
+
+<p>Night settled down, and the train went on at the
+pace of Sancho Panza's steed for I knew not how
+many hours. That night I felt for the first time in
+my life the pangs of hunger, which I thought I had
+felt already on the famous day of the twenty-fourth
+of June, 1866. To relieve these torments I obstinately
+thought of all the dishes which filled me with
+repugnance&mdash;raw tomatoes, snails in soup, roasted
+crabs, and snails in salad. Alas! a voice of derision<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">182</span>
+told me, deep down in my vitals, that if I had any
+of them I should eat them and lick my fingers.
+Then I began to make imaginary messes of different
+dishes, as cream and fish, with a dash of wine, with
+a coat of pepper, and a layer of juniper preserves,
+to see if I could thus hold my stomach in check.
+Oh misery! my cowardly stomach did not repel
+even those. Then I made a final effort and imagined
+that I was at table in a Parisian hotel at the time of
+the siege, and that I gently lifted a mouse by the
+tail out of some pungent sauce, and the mouse, unexpectedly
+regaining life, bit my thumb and transfixed
+me with two wicked little eyes, and I, with
+raised fork, hesitated whether to let it go or to spit
+it without pity. But, thank Heaven! before I had
+settled this horrible question, to perform such an act
+as has never been recorded in the history of any
+siege, the train stopped and a ray of hope revived
+my drooping spirits.</p>
+
+<p>We had reached some nameless village, and while
+I was putting my head out of the window a voice
+cried, "All out for Granada!" I rushed headlong
+from the carriage and found myself face to face with
+a huge bearded fellow, who took my valise, telling
+me that he was going to put it in the diligence, for
+from that village to I know not how many miles
+from <i>imperial Granada</i> there is no railway.</p>
+
+<p>"One moment!" I cried to the unknown man in
+a supplicating voice: "how long before you start?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">183</span></p>
+
+<p>"Two minutes," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there an inn here?"</p>
+
+<p>"There it is." I flew to the inn, bolted a hard-boiled
+egg, and rushed back to the diligence, crying,
+"How much time now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Two minutes more," answered the same voice.</p>
+
+<p>I flew back to the hotel, seized another egg, and
+ran again to the diligence with the question, "Are
+you off?"</p>
+
+<p>"In a minute."</p>
+
+<p>Back again to the inn, and a third egg, and then
+to the diligence: "Are we going?"</p>
+
+<p>"In half a minute."</p>
+
+<p>This time I heaved a mighty sigh, ran to the inn,
+swallowed a fourth egg and a glass of wine, and
+rushed toward the diligence. But before I had
+taken ten steps my breath gave out, and I stopped
+with the egg halfway down my throat. At this
+point the whip cracked.&mdash;"Wait!" I cried in a
+hoarse voice, waving my hands like a drowning
+man.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Que hay?</i>" (What's the matter?) demanded the
+driver.</p>
+
+<p>I could not reply.</p>
+
+<p>"He has an egg stuck in his throat," some
+stranger answered for me.</p>
+
+<p>All the travellers burst into a laugh, the egg went
+down; I laughed too, overtook the diligence, which
+had already started, and, regaining my breath, gave<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">184</span>
+my companions an account of my troubles, and they
+were much interested, and pitied me even more than
+I had dared to hope after that cruel laugh at my
+suffocation.</p>
+
+<p>But my troubles were not ended. One of those
+irresistible attacks of sleepiness which used to come
+upon me treacherously in the long night-marches
+among the soldiers seized me all at once, and tormented
+me as far as the railway-station without my
+being able to get a moment of sleep. I believe that
+a cannon-ball suspended by a cord from the roof of
+the diligence would have given less annoyance to
+my unfortunate companions than my poor nodding
+head gave as it bobbed on all sides as if it was attached
+to my neck by a single tendon. On one side
+of me sat a nun, on the other a boy, and opposite a
+peasant-woman, and throughout the entire journey I
+did nothing but strike my head against these three
+victims with the monotonous motion of a bell-clapper.
+The nun, poor creature! endured the strokes
+in silence, perhaps in expiation for her sins of
+thought; but the boy and peasant-woman muttered
+from time to time, "He is a barbarian!"&mdash;"This
+must stop!"&mdash;"His head is like lead!" Finally, a
+witticism from one of the passengers released all four
+of us from this suffering. The peasant-woman was
+lamenting a little louder than usual, and a voice from
+the end of the diligence exclaimed, "Be consoled; if
+your head is not yet broken, you may be sure it will<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">185</span>
+not be, for it must certainly be proof against the
+hammer." They all laughed; I awakened, excused
+myself, and the three victims were so happy to
+find themselves released from that cruel thumping
+that, instead of taking revenge with bitter words,
+they said, "Poor fellow! you have slept badly.
+How you must have hurt your head!"</p>
+
+<p>We finally arrived at the railway, and behold
+what a perverse fate! Although I was alone in the
+railway-carriage, where I might have slept like a
+nabob, I could not close my eyes. A pang went
+through my heart at the thought of having made
+the journey by night when I could not see anything
+nor enjoy the distant view of Granada. And I
+remembered the lovely verses of Martinez de la
+Rosa:</p>
+
+<p>"O my dear fatherland! At last I see thee
+again! I see thy fair soil, thy joyful teeming fields,
+thy glorious sun, thy serene sky!</p>
+
+<p>"Yes! I see the fabled Granada stretching along
+the plain from hill to hill, her towers rising among
+her gardens of eternal green, the crystal streams
+kissing her walls, the noble mountains enclosing her
+valleys, and the Sierra Nevada crowning the distant
+horizon.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thy memory haunted me wherever I went,
+Granada! It destroyed my pleasures, my peace,
+and my glory, and oppressed my heart and soul!
+By the icy banks of the Seine and the Thames<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">186</span>
+I remembered with a sigh the happy waters of
+the Darro and the Genil, and many times, as I carolled
+a gay ballad, my bitter grief overcame me,
+and weeping, not to be repressed, choked my
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>"In vain the delightful Arno displayed her
+flower-strewn banks, sweet seats of love and peace!
+'The plain watered by the gentle Genil,' said I, 'is
+more flowery, the life of the lovely Granada is more
+dear.' And I murmured these words as one disconsolate,
+and, remembering the house of my fathers,
+I raised my sad eyes to heaven.</p>
+
+<p>"What is thy magic, what thy unspeakable spell,
+O fatherland! O sweet name! that thou art so dear?
+The swarthy African, far from his native desert,
+looks with sad disdain on fields of green; the rude
+Laplander, stolen from his mother-earth, sighs for
+perpetual night and snow; and I&mdash;I, to whom a
+kindly fate granted birth and nurture in thy bosom
+blest by so many gifts of God&mdash;though far from thee,
+could I forget thee, Granada?"</p>
+
+<p>When I reached Granada it was quite dark, and
+I could not see so much as the outlines of a house.
+A diligence drawn by two horses,</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"... anzi due cavallette</div>
+  <div class="verse indent4">Di quella de Mosé lá dell' Egitto,"</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>landed me at a hotel, where I was kept waiting an
+hour while my bed was being made, and finally, just<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">187</span>
+before three o'clock in the morning, I was at last
+able to lay my head on the pillow. But my troubles
+were not over: just as I was falling into a doze I
+heard an indistinct murmur in the next room, and
+then a masculine voice which said distinctly, "Oh,
+what a little foot!" You who have bowels of compassion,
+pity me. The pillow was torn a little; I
+pulled out two tufts of wool, stuffed them in my
+ears; and, rehearsing in thought the misfortunes
+of my journey, I slept the sleep of the just.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning I went out betimes and walked
+about through the streets of Granada until it was a
+decent hour to go and drag from his home a young
+gentleman of Granada whom I had met at Madrid
+at the house of Fernandez Guerra, Gongora by
+name, the son of a distinguished archeologist and a
+descendant of the famous Cordovan poet Luigi Gongora,
+of whom I spoke in passing. That part of
+the city which I saw in those few hours did not fulfil
+my expectation. I had expected to find narrow
+mysterious streets and white cottages like those of
+Cordova and Seville, but I found instead spacious
+squares and some handsome straight streets, and
+others tortuous and narrow enough, it is true, but
+flanked by high houses, for the most part painted in
+false bas-reliefs with cupids and garlands and flourishes
+and draperies, and hangings of a thousand
+colors, without the Oriental appearance of the other
+Andalusian cities.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">188</span></p>
+
+<p>The lowest part of Granada is almost all laid out
+with the regularity of a modern city. As I passed
+along those streets I was filled with contempt, and
+should certainly have carried a gloomy face to
+Señor Gongora if by chance as I walked at random
+I had not come out into the famous <i>Alameda</i>, which
+enjoys the reputation of being the most beautiful
+promenade in the world, and it repaid me a thousand
+times for the detestable regularity of the
+streets which lead to it.</p>
+
+<p>Imagine a long avenue of unusual width, along
+which fifty carriages might pass abreast, flanked by
+other smaller avenues, along which run rows of
+measureless trees, which at a noble height form an
+immense green arch, so dense that not a sunbeam
+can penetrate it, and at the two ends of the central
+avenue two monumental fountains throwing up the
+water in two great streams which fall again in the
+finest vaporous spray, and between the many
+avenues crystal streams, and in the middle a garden
+all roses and myrtle and jessamine and delicate
+fountains; and on one side the river Genil,
+which flows between banks covered with laurel-groves,
+and in the distance the snowclad mountains,
+upon whose sides distant palms raise their fantastic
+fronds; and everywhere a brilliant green, dense
+and luxuriant, through which one sees here and
+there an enchanting strip of azure sky.</p>
+
+<p>As I turned off of the Alameda I met a great<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">189</span>
+number of peasants going out of the city, two by
+two and in groups, with their wives and children,
+singing and jesting. Their dress did not seem to
+me different from that of the peasants in the neighborhood
+of Cordova and Seville. They wore velvet
+hats, some with very broad brims, others with high
+brims curved back; a little jacket made with bands
+of many-colored cloth; a scarf of red or blue;
+closely-fitting trousers buttoned along the hip;
+and a pair of leathern gaiters open at the side,
+so as to show the leg. The women were dressed
+like those in the other provinces, and even in their
+faces there was no noticeable difference.</p>
+
+<p>I reached my friend's house and found him buried
+in his archæological studies, sitting in front of a heap
+of old medals and historic stones. He received me
+with delight, with a charming Andalusian courtesy,
+and, after exchanging the first greetings, we both
+pronounced with one voice that magic word that in
+every part of the world stirs a tumult of great recollections
+in every heart and arouses a sense of secret
+longing; that gives a final spur toward Spain to one
+who has the desire to travel thither and has not yet
+finally resolved to start; that name at which hearts
+of poets and painters beat faster and the eyes of
+women flash&mdash;"The Alhambra!"</p>
+
+<p>We rushed out of the house.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">190</span></p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>The Alhambra is situated upon a high hill which
+overlooks the city, and from a distance presents the
+appearance of a fortress, like almost all Oriental
+palaces. But when, with Gongora, I climbed the
+street of <i>Los Gomeles</i> on our way toward the famous
+edifice, I had not yet seen the least trace of a distant
+wall, and I did not know in what part of the city we
+should find it. The street of <i>Los Gomeles</i> slopes upward
+and describes a slight curve, so that for a good
+way one sees only houses ahead, and supposes the
+Alhambra to be far away. Gongora did not speak,
+but I read in his face that in his heart he was greatly
+enjoying the thought of the surprise and delight that
+I should experience. He looked at the ground with
+a smile, answering all my questions with a sign
+which seemed to say, "Wait a minute!" and now
+and then raised his eyes almost furtively to measure
+the remaining distance. And I so enjoyed his pleasure
+that I could have thrown my arms around his
+neck in gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>We arrived before a great gate that closed the
+street. "Here we are!" said Gongora. I entered.</p>
+
+<p>I found myself in a great grove of enormously
+high trees, leaning one toward another, on this side
+and on that, along a great avenue which climbs the
+hill and is lost in the shade: so close are the trees
+that a man could scarcely pass among them, and
+wherever one looks one sees only their trunks,
+which close the way like a continuous wall. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">191</span>
+branches meet above the avenues; not a sunbeam
+penetrates the wood; the shade is very dense;
+on every side glide murmuring streams, and the
+birds sing, and one feels a vernal freshness in the
+air.</p>
+
+<p>"We are now in the Alhambra," said Gongora:
+"turn around, and you will see the towers and the
+embattled barrier-wall."</p>
+
+<p>"But where is the palace?" I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"That is a mystery," he answered; "let us go
+forward at random."</p>
+
+<p>We climbed an avenue running along beside the
+great central avenue that winds up toward the summit.
+The trees form overhead a green pavilion
+through which not a particle of sky is visible, and
+the grass, the shrubbery, and the flowers make on
+either side a lovely border, bright and fragrant,
+sloping slightly toward each other, as if they are
+trying to unite, mutually attracted by the beauty of
+their colors and the fragrance of their perfume.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us rest a moment," I said: "I want to take
+a great breath of this air; it seems to contain some
+secret germs that if infused into the blood must
+prolong one's life; it is air redolent of youth and
+health."</p>
+
+<p>"Behold the door!" exclaimed Gongora.</p>
+
+<p>I turned as if I had been struck in the back, and
+saw a few steps ahead a great square tower, of a
+deep-red color, crowned with battlements, with an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">192</span>
+arched door, above which one sees a key and a
+hand cut in the stone.</p>
+
+<p>I questioned my guide, and he told me that this
+was the principal entrance of the Alhambra, and that
+it was called the Gate of Justice, because the Moorish
+kings used to pronounce sentence beneath that arch.
+The key signifies that this door is the key to the
+fortress, and the hand symbolizes the five cardinal
+virtues of Islam&mdash;Prayer, Fasting, Beneficence, Holy
+War, and the Pilgrimage to Mecca. The Arabian
+inscription attests that the edifice was erected four
+centuries ago by the Sultan Abul Hagag Yusuf, and
+another inscription, which one sees everywhere on
+the columns, says, "There is no God but Allah, and
+Mohammed is his Prophet! and there is no power,
+no strength, apart from Allah!"</p>
+
+<p>We passed under the arch and continued the
+ascent along an enclosed street until we found ourselves
+at the top of the hill, in the middle of an
+esplanade surrounded by a parapet and dotted with
+shrubs and flowers. I turned at once toward the
+valley to enjoy the view, but Gongora seized me
+by the arm and made me look in the opposite direction.
+I was standing in front of the great palace of
+the Renaissance, partly in ruins and flanked by some
+wretched little houses.</p>
+
+<p>"Is this a joke?" I demanded. "Have you
+brought me here to see a Moorish castle, for me to
+find the way closed by a modern palace? Whose<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">193</span>
+abominable idea was it to run up this building in the
+gardens of the caliphs?"</p>
+
+<p>"Charles V.'s."</p>
+
+<p>"He was a vandal. I have not yet forgiven him
+for the Gothic church he planted in the middle of
+the mosque of Cordova, and now these barracks
+fill me with utter loathing of his crown and his
+glory. But, in the name of Heaven, where is the
+Alhambra?"</p>
+
+<p>"There it is."</p>
+
+<p>"Where?"</p>
+
+<p>"Among those huts."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, fudge!"</p>
+
+<p>"I pledge you my word of honor."</p>
+
+<p>I folded my arms and looked at him, and he
+laughed."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then," I exclaimed, "this great name of
+the Alhambra is only another of those usual false
+exaggerations of the poets. I, Europe, and the world
+have been shamefully deceived. Was it worth while
+to dream of the Alhambra for three hundred and
+sixty-five nights in succession, and then to come to
+see a group of ruins with some broken columns and
+smoky inscriptions?"</p>
+
+<p>"How I enjoy this!" answered Gongora with a
+peal of laughter. "Cheer up now; come and be
+persuaded that the world has not been deceived:
+let us enter this rubbish-pile."</p>
+
+<p>We entered by a little door, crossed a corridor,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">194</span>
+and found ourselves in a court. With a sudden cry
+I seized Gongora's hand, and he asked with a tone
+of triumph,</p>
+
+<p>"Are you persuaded?"</p>
+
+<p>I did not answer, I did not see him: I was already
+far away; the Alhambra had already begun to exercise
+upon me that mysterious and powerful fascination
+which no one can avoid nor any one express.</p>
+
+<p>We were in the <i>Patio de los Arrayanes</i>, the Court
+of the Myrtles, which is the largest in the edifice,
+and presents at once the appearance of a room, a
+courtyard, and a garden. A great rectangular basin
+full of water, surrounded by a myrtle hedge, extends
+from one side of the <i>patio</i> to the other, and like a
+mirror reflects the arches, arabesques, and the mural
+inscriptions.</p>
+
+<p>To the right of the entrance there extend two
+orders of Moorish arches, one above the other, supported
+by slender columns, and on the opposite side
+of the court rises a tower with a door through which
+one sees the inner rooms in semi-darkness and the
+mullioned windows, and through the windows the
+blue sky and the summits of the distant mountains.
+The walls are ornamented to a certain height from
+the pavement with brilliant mosaics, and above the
+mosaics with arabesques of very intricate design
+that seem to tremble and change at every step, and
+here and there among the arabesques and along the
+arches they stretch and creep and intertwine, like
+garlands, Moorish inscriptions containing greetings,
+proverbs, and legends.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<div class="caption"><i><a id="Court_of_Myrtles"></a>Court of Myrtles, Alhambra</i></div>
+<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b194cs.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">195</span></p>
+
+<p>Beside the door of entrance is written in Cufic characters:
+Eternal Happiness!&mdash;Blessing!&mdash;Prosperity!&mdash;Felicity!&mdash;Praised
+be God for the blessing
+of Islam!</p>
+
+<p>In another place it is written: I seek my refuge
+in the Lord of the Morning.</p>
+
+<p>In another place: O God! to thee belong eternal
+thanksgiving and undying praise.</p>
+
+<p>Elsewhere there are verses from the Koran and
+entire poems in praise of the caliphs.</p>
+
+<p>We stood some minutes in silent admiration; not
+the buzz of a fly was heard; now and then Gongora
+started toward the tower, but I clutched him by the
+arm and felt that he was trembling with impatience.</p>
+
+<p>"But we must make haste," said he, finally,
+"or else we shall not get back to Granada before
+evening."</p>
+
+<p>"What do I know of Granada?" I answered;
+"what do I know of morning or evening or of
+myself? I am in the Orient!"</p>
+
+<p>"But this is only the antechamber of the Alhambra,
+my dear Arabian," said Gongora, urging me
+forward. "Come, come with me where it will
+really seem like being in the Orient."</p>
+
+<p>And he led me, reluctant though I was, to the
+very threshold of the tower-door. There I turned
+to look once more at the Court of Myrtles and gave<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">196</span>
+a cry of surprise. Between two slender columns
+of the arched gallery which faces the tower, on the
+opposite side of the courtyard, stood a girl, a beautiful
+dark Andalusian face, with a white mantle
+wound around her head and falling over her shoulder:
+she stood leaning upon the railing in a languid
+attitude, with her eyes fixed upon us. I cannot
+tell the fantastic effect produced by that figure
+at that moment&mdash;the grace imparted by the arch
+which curved above the girl's head and the two
+columns which formed a frame around her, and the
+beautiful harmony which she gave to the whole
+court, as if she were an ornament necessary to its
+architecture conceived in the mind of the architect
+at the moment he imagined the whole design. She
+seemed like a sultana awaiting her lord, thinking
+of another sky and another love. She continued
+looking at us, and my heart began to beat faster.
+I questioned my friend with my eyes, as if to be
+assured that I was not deceived. Suddenly the
+sultana laughed, dropped her white mantle, and
+disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>"She is a servant," said Gongora.</p>
+
+<p>Still I remained in the mist.</p>
+
+<p>She was, in fact, a servant of the custodian of
+the Alhambra who was in the habit of practising
+that joke upon strangers.</p>
+
+<p>We entered the tower called the Tower of Comares,
+or, vulgarly, the Tower of the Ambassadors.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">197</span>
+The interior forms two halls, the first of which is
+called the Hall of the Barca, and takes its name
+either from the fact that it is shaped like a boat or
+because it was called by the Moors the Hall of
+<i>Baraka</i>, or Blessing, a word which might have been
+contracted by the people into <i>barca</i> (a boat.) This
+hall hardly seems the work of human hands: it is
+all a vast network of tracery in the form of garlands,
+rosettes, boughs of trees, and leaves, covering
+the vaulted ceiling, the arches, and the walls in
+every part and in every way&mdash;closely twining,
+checkered, climbing higher and higher, and yet
+marvellously distinct and combined in such a manner
+that the parts are presented to the eye altogether
+at a single glance, affording a spectacle of
+dazzling magnificence and enchanting grace. I
+approached one of the walls, fixed my eyes upon
+the extreme point of an arabesque, and tried to
+follow its windings and turnings: it was impossible;
+my eye was lost, my mind confused, and all the
+arabesques from pavement to ceiling seemed to be
+moving and blending, as if to conceal the thread of
+their inextricable network. You may make an
+effort not to look around, to centre your whole
+attention upon a single spot of the wall, to scan
+it closely and follow the thread with your finger:
+it is futile; in a moment the tracery is a tangled
+skein, a veil steals between you and the wall, and
+your arm falls. The wall seems woven like a web,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">198</span>
+wrought like brocade, netted like lace, and veined
+like a leaf; one cannot look at it closely nor fix its
+design in one's mind: it would be like trying to
+count the ants in an anthill: one must be content
+to look at the walls with a wandering glance, then
+to rest and look again later, and then to think of
+something else and talk. After I had looked around
+a little with the air of a man overcome with vertigo
+rather than admiration, I turned toward Gongora,
+so that he might read in my face what I would have
+spoken.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us enter the other pile of ruins," he answered
+with a smile as he drew me into the great
+Hall of the Ambassadors, which fills all the interior
+of the tower, for, really, the Hall of the <i>Barca</i>
+belongs to a little building which does not form a
+part of the tower, although it is joined to it. The
+tower is square in form, spacious, and lighted with
+nine great arched windows in the form of doors,
+which present almost the appearance of so many
+alcoves, so great is the thickness of the wall; each
+one is divided down the middle toward the outside
+by a little marble column that supports two beautiful
+arches surmounted in their turn by two little
+arched windows. The walls are covered with
+mosaics and arabesques indescribably delicate and
+multiform, and with innumerable inscriptions extending
+like wide embroidered ribbons over the arches
+of the windows, up the massive cornices, along the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">199</span>
+friezes, and around the niches where once stood
+vases full of flowers and perfumed water. The
+ceiling, which rises to a great height, is inlaid with
+cedar-wood, white, gold, and azure, joined together
+in circles, stars, and crowns, and forming many
+little arches, cells, and vaulted windows, through
+which falls a wavering light, and from the cornice
+which joins the ceiling to the walls hang tablets
+of stucco-work cut in facets chiselled and moulded
+like stalactites and bunches of flowers. The throne
+stood at the central window on the side opposite the
+door of entrance. From the windows on that side
+one enjoys a stupendous view of the valley of the
+Darro, deep and silent, as if it too felt the fascination
+of the Alhambra's grandeur; from the windows
+on the other two sides one sees the boundary-wall
+and the towers of the fortress; and through the
+entrance the light arches of the Court of the Myrtles
+in the distance and the water of the basin, which
+reflects the blue of the sky.</p>
+
+<p>"Well!" Gongora demanded; "was it worth
+dreaming of the Alhambra for three hundred and
+sixty-five nights?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is a strange thought passing through
+my brain at this moment," I replied. "That court
+as it looks from here, that hall, those windows, those
+colors, everything that surrounds me, seems familiar;
+it seems to correspond with a picture which I have
+carried in my head I know not how long and I know<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">200</span>
+not in what manner, confused with a thousand other
+things, perhaps born of a dream&mdash;how should I
+know? When I was sixteen years old I was a
+lover, and the young girl and I alone in a garden
+in the shade of a summer-house, as we gazed in
+each other's eyes, uttered unconsciously a cry of
+joy that stirred our blood as if it had come from
+the mouth of a third person who had discovered our
+secret. Well, since that time I have often longed
+to be a king and to have a palace; but in giving
+form to that desire my imagination did not rest
+merely in the grand gilded palaces of our country;
+it flew to distant lands, and there on the summit of
+a lofty mountain reared a castle of its own in which
+everything was small and graceful and illumined by
+a mysterious light; and there were long suites of
+rooms adorned with a thousand fanciful and delicate
+ornaments, with windows through which we two
+alone might look, and little columns behind which
+my little one might almost hide her face playfully
+as she listened to my step approaching from hall to
+hall, or heard my voice mingled with the murmur
+of the fountains in the garden. All unconsciously,
+in building that castle in fantasy, I was building
+the Alhambra; in those moments I imagined something
+like these halls, these windows, and this court
+that we see before us&mdash;so similar, indeed, that the
+more I look around the better I remember and seem
+to recognize the place just as I have seen it a thou<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">201</span>sand
+times. All lovers dream a little of the Alhambra,
+and if they were able to reproduce all their
+dreams in line and color, they would make pictures
+that would amaze us by their likeness to all one sees
+here. This architecture does not express power,
+glory, and grandeur; it expresses love and passion&mdash;love
+with its mysteries, its caprices, its fervor,
+its bursts of God-given gratitude; passion with its
+melancholy and its silences. There is, then, a close
+connection, a harmony, between the beauty of this
+Alhambra and the souls of those who have loved at
+sixteen, when longings are but dreams and visions.
+And hence arises the indescribable fascination exercised
+by this beauty, and hence the Alhambra, although
+deserted and ruined as it is, is still the most
+enchanting castle in the world, and to the end of
+time visitors will leave it with a tear. For in parting
+with the Alhambra we bid a last adieu to the
+most beautiful dreams of youth revived among these
+walls for the last time. We bid adieu to faces unspeakably
+dear that have broken the oblivion of
+many years to stand beside us a last time by the
+little columns of these windows. We bid adieu to
+all the fancies of youth. We bid adieu to that love
+which will never live again."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<div class="caption"><i>Fountain in the <a id="Court_of_Lions"></a>Court of Lions, Alhambra</i></div>
+<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b200cs.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+</div>
+
+<p>"It is true," answered my friend, "but what will
+you say when you have seen the Court of the Lions?
+Come, let us hurry."</p>
+
+<p>We left the tower with hasty steps, crossed the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">202</span>
+Court of Myrtles, and came to a little door opposite
+the door of entrance.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop!" cried Gongora.</p>
+
+<p>I stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"Do me a favor?"</p>
+
+<p>"A hundred."</p>
+
+<p>"Only one: shut your eyes and don't open them
+until I tell you."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, they are shut."</p>
+
+<p>"See that you keep them so; I sha'n't like it if
+you open them."</p>
+
+<p>"Never fear."</p>
+
+<p>Gongora took me by the hand and led me forward:
+I trembled like a leaf.</p>
+
+<p>We took about fifteen steps and stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"Look!" said Gongora in an agitated voice.</p>
+
+<p>I looked, and I swear by the head of my reader I
+felt two tears trickling down my cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>We were in the Court of the Lions.</p>
+
+<p>If at that moment I had been obliged to go out as
+I had come in, I could not have told what I had seen.
+A forest of columns, a vision of arches and tracery,
+an indefinable elegance, an unimaginable delicacy,
+prodigious wealth; an irrepressible sense of airiness,
+transparency, and wavy motion like a great
+pavilion of lace; an appearance as of an edifice
+which must dissolve at a breath; a variety of lights
+and mysterious shadows; a confusion, a capricious
+disorder, of little things; the grandeur of a castle,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">203</span>
+the gayety of a summer-house; an harmonious grace,
+an extravagance, a delight; the fancy of an enamored
+girl, the dream of an angel; a madness, a
+nameless something,&mdash;such is the first effect of the
+Court of the Lions.</p>
+
+<p>The court is not larger than a great ball-room; it
+is rectangular in form, with walls no higher than a
+two-storied Andalusian cottage. A light portico
+runs all around, supported by very slender white
+marble columns grouped in symmetrical disorder, two
+by two and three by three, almost without pedestals, so
+that they are like the trunks of trees standing on the
+ground: they have varied capitals, high and graceful,
+in the form of little pilasters, above which bend
+little arches of very graceful form, which do not
+seem to rest upon the columns, but rather to be
+suspended over them like curtains upholding the
+columns themselves and resembling ribbons and
+twining garlands. From the middle of the two
+shortest sides advance two groups of columns forming
+two little square temples of nine arches in the
+form of stalactites, fringes, pendants, and tassels that
+seem as though they ought to swing and become
+tangled with the slightest breeze. Large Arabian
+inscriptions run along the four walls, over the arches,
+around the capitals, and along the walls of the little
+temple. In the middle of the court rises a great
+marble basin supported by twelve lions and surrounded
+by a paved channel, from which flow four<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">204</span>
+other smaller channels that make a cross between
+the four sides of the court, cross the portico, enter
+the adjoining rooms, and join the other water-courses
+which surround the entire edifice. Behind the two
+two little temples and in the middle of the other two
+sides there appear halls and suites of rooms with
+great open doors, through which one can see the
+dark background broken by the white columns,
+gleaming as if they stood at the mouth of a grotto.
+At every step the forest of columns seems to move
+and rearrange itself in a new way; behind a
+column that is apparently single spring up two,
+three, a row of columns; some fade away, others
+unite, and still others separate: on looking back
+from the end of one of the halls everything appears
+different; the arches on the opposite side seem very
+far away; the columns appear out of place; the little
+temples have changed their form; one sees new
+arches rising beyond the walls, and new columns
+gleaming here in the sunlight, there in the shadow,
+yonder scarcely visible by the dim light which sifts
+through the tracery of the stucco, and the farthest
+lost in the darkness. There is a constant variety of
+scene, distance, deceptive effects, mysteries, and
+playful tricks of the eye, produced by the architecture,
+the sun, and one's heightened imagination.</p>
+
+<p>"What must this <i>patio</i> have been," said Gongora,
+"when the inner walls of the portico were resplendent
+with mosaics, the capitals of the columns flashed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">205</span>
+with gold, the ceilings and vaults were painted in
+a thousand colors, the doors hung with silken curtains,
+the niches full of flowers, and under the little
+temples and through the halls ran streams of perfumed
+water, and from the nostrils of the lions
+spurted twelve jets which fell into the basin, and
+the air was heavy with the most delicious perfumes
+of Arabia!"</p>
+
+<p>We remained in the court over an hour, and the
+time passed like a flash; and I too did what all have
+done in that place&mdash;Spaniards and foreigners alike,
+men and women, poets and those who are not poets.
+I ran my hand along the walls, touched all the little
+columns, clasped them one by one with my two hands
+like the waist of a child, hid among them, counted
+them, looked at them from a hundred directions,
+crossed the court in a hundred ways; tried if it were
+true that by speaking a word in a deep voice in the
+mouth of one of the lions you could hear it distinctly
+from the mouths of all the others; searched
+along the marbles for the blood-spots of the romantic
+legends, and wearied my eyes and brain in following
+the arabesques. There were a number of ladies
+present. In the Court of the Lions ladies show every
+sort of childish delight: they look out between two
+twin columns, hide in the dark corners, sit on the
+floor, and stand for hours motionless, resting their
+heads upon their hands, dreaming. These ladies did
+likewise. There was one dressed in white who, as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">206</span>
+she passed behind the distant columns, when she
+thought no one saw her assumed a certain majestic
+air, like a melancholy sultana, and then laughed
+with one of her friends: it was enchanting.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us go," said my friend.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us go," I replied, and could not move a step.
+I was experiencing not only a delightful sense of
+surprise, but I was trembling with pleasure, and was
+filled with a longing to touch, to probe, and in some
+way to see behind those walls and those columns, as
+if they were made of some secret material and ought
+to disclose in their inmost part the first cause of the
+fascination which the place exerts. In all my life I
+have never thought or said, or shall ever say, so
+many fond words, so many foolish expressions, so
+many pretty, happy, senseless things, as I thought
+and said at that hour.</p>
+
+<p>"But one must come here at sunrise," said Gongora,
+"one must come at sunset, or at night when
+the moon is full, to see the miracles of color, light,
+and shade. It is enough to make one lose one's
+head."</p>
+
+<p>We went to see the halls. On the eastern side is
+the Hall of Justice, which is reached by passing
+under three great arches, each of which corresponds
+with a door opening into the court. It is a long, narrow
+hall, with intricate arabesques and precious mosaics,
+and its vaulted ceiling all points and hollows
+and clusters of stucco that hang down from the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">207</span>
+arches and run along the walls, clustered together
+here and there, drooping, growing one out of the
+other, crowding and overtopping each other, so that
+they seem to dispute the space like the bubbles in boiling
+water, and still presenting in many parts traces of
+old colors that must have given the ceiling the appearance
+of a pavilion covered with flowers and hanging
+fruit. The hall has three little alcoves, in each of
+which one may see a Moorish painting, to which
+time and the extreme rarity of works remaining
+from the brush of Moorish artists have given a very
+high value. The paintings are on leather, and the
+leather is fastened to the wall. In the central alcove
+there are painted on a golden ground ten men, supposed
+to be ten kings of Granada, clothed in white,
+with cowls on their heads and scimitars in their
+hands, sitting on embroidered cushions. The paintings
+in the other two alcoves represent castles,
+ladies and cavaliers, hunting scenes, and love episodes
+whose significance it is difficult to understand.
+But the faces of the ten kings are marvellously true
+to the picture one has formed of their race: there is
+the dark olive complexion, the sensuous lips, the
+black eyes, with an intense mysterious glance that
+seems always to be shining in the dark corners of
+the halls of the Alhambra.</p>
+
+<p>On the north side of the court there is another
+hall, called the hall <i>De las dos Hermanas</i> (of the two
+sisters), so called from two great marble slabs which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">208</span>
+form the pavement. It is the most beautiful hall in
+the Alhambra&mdash;a little square arched room, with one
+of those ceilings in the form of a cupola which the
+Spaniards call half oranges, supported by slender
+columns and arches arranged in a circle, all adorned,
+like a grotto full of stalactites, with an infinite number
+of points and hollows, colored and gilded, and
+so light to the view that it seems as if they are
+suspended in the air, and would tremble at a touch
+like a curtain or separate like a cloud or disappear
+like a cluster of soap-bubbles. The walls, like those
+of all the other halls, are bedecked with stucco and
+carved with arabesques incredibly intricate and delicate,
+forming one of the most marvellous works of
+human patience and imagination. The more one
+looks, the more numberless become the lines which
+blend and cross, and from one figure springs another,
+and from that a third, and all three produce a fourth
+that has escaped the eye, and this divides suddenly
+into ten other figures that have passed unnoticed,
+and then they mingle again and are again transformed;
+and one never ceases to discover new combinations,
+for when the first reappear they are
+already forgotten, and produce the same effect as at
+the beginning. One would lose sight and reason in
+trying to comprehend that labyrinth: it would require
+an hour to study the outlines of a window, the
+ornaments of a pilaster, and the arabesques of a
+frieze; an hour would not be sufficient to fix upon<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">209</span>
+the mind the design of one of the stupendous cedar
+doors. On either side of the hall there are two
+little alcoves, and in the centre a little basin with a
+pipe for a fountain that empties into the channel that
+crosses the portico and flows to the Fountain of the
+Lions.</p>
+
+<p>Directly opposite the entrance there is another
+door, through which one passes into another long,
+narrow room called the Hall of the Oranges. And
+from this hall, through a third door, one enters a
+little chamber called the Cabinet of Lindaraja, very
+richly ornamented, at the end of which there is a
+graceful window with two arches overlooking a
+garden.</p>
+
+<p>To enjoy all the beauty of this magical architecture
+one must leave the Hall of the Two Sisters,
+cross the Court of the Lions, and enter a room called
+the Hall of the Abencerrages, which lies on the
+southern side, opposite the Hall of the Two Sisters, to
+which it is very similar in form and ornamentation.
+From the end of this hall one looks across the
+Court of the Lions through the Hall of the Two
+Sisters into the Hall of the Oranges and even into
+the Cabinet of Lindaraja and the garden beyond,
+where a mass of verdure appears under the arches
+of that jewel of a window. The two sides of this
+window, so diminutive and full of light when seen in
+the distance from the end of that suite of darkened
+rooms, look like two great open eyes, that look at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">210</span>
+you and make you imagine that beyond them must
+lie the unfathomable mysteries of paradise.</p>
+
+<p>After seeing the Hall of the Abencerrages we
+went to see the baths, which are situated between
+the Hall of the Two Sisters and the Court of the
+Myrtles. We descended a flight of stairs, passed a
+long narrow corridor, and came out into a splendid
+hall called the hall <i>De las Divans</i>, where the favorites
+of the king came to rest on their Persian rugs
+to the sound of the lyre after they had bathed in
+the adjoining rooms. This hall was reconstructed
+on the plans of the ancient ruins, and adorned with
+arabesques, gilded and painted, by Spanish artists
+after the ancient patterns; consequently one may
+consider it a room of the Moorish period remaining
+intact in every part. In the middle is a fountain,
+and in the opposite walls are two alcoves where the
+women reposed on divans, and overhead the galleries
+where the musicians played. The walls are
+laced, dotted, checkered, and mottled with a thousand
+brilliant hues, presenting the appearance of a
+tapestry of Chinese stuff shot with golden threads,
+with an endless interweaving of figures that must
+have maddened the most patient mosaic-worker on
+earth.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, a painter was at work in the hall.
+He was a German who had worked for three months
+in copying the walls. Gongora knew him, and
+asked, "It is wearisome work, is it not?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">211</span></p>
+
+<p>And he answered with a smile, "I don't find it
+so," and bent again over his picture.</p>
+
+<p>I looked at him as if he had been a creature from
+another world.</p>
+
+<p>We entered the little bathing-chambers, vaulted
+and lighted from above by some star-and flower-shaped
+apertures in the wall. The bathing-tubs
+are very large, single blocks of marble enclosed between
+two walls. The corridors which lead from
+one room to the other are low and narrow, so that
+a man can scarcely pass through them; they are
+delightfully cool. As I stood looking into one of
+these little rooms I was suddenly impressed with
+a sad thought.</p>
+
+<p>"What makes you sad?" asked my friend.</p>
+
+<p>"I was thinking," I replied, "of how we live,
+summer and winter, in houses like barracks, in
+rooms on the third floor, which are either dark or
+else flooded with a torrent of light, without marble,
+without water, without flowers, without columns; I
+was thinking that we must live so all our lives and
+die between those walls without once experiencing
+the delights of these charmed palaces; I was thinking
+that even in this wretched earthly life one may
+enjoy vastly, and that I shall not share this enjoyment
+at all; I was thinking that I might have been
+born four centuries ago a king of Granada, and that
+I was born instead a poor man."</p>
+
+<p>My friend laughed, and, taking my arm between<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">212</span>
+his thumb and finger, as if to give me a pinch, he
+said, "Don't think of that. Think of how much
+beauty, grace, and mystery these tubs must have
+seen; of the little feet that have played in their
+perfumed waters; of the long hair which has fallen
+over their rims; of the great languid eyes that have
+looked at the sky through the openings in the
+vaulted ceiling, while beneath the arches of the
+Court of the Lions sounded the hastening step of
+an impatient caliph, and the hundred fountains of
+the castle sighed with a quickening murmur, 'Come!
+come! come!' and in a perfumed hall a trembling
+slave reverently closed the windows with the rose-colored
+curtains."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! leave my soul in peace!" I replied, shrugging
+my shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>We crossed the garden of the Cabinet of Lindaraja
+and a mysterious court called the <i>Patio de la
+Reja</i>, and by a long gallery that commands a view
+of the country reached the top of one of the
+farthest towers of the Alhambra, called the <i>Mirador
+de la Reina</i> (the Queen's toilet), shaded by a little
+pavilion and open all round, hanging over an abyss
+like an eagle's nest. The view one enjoys from
+this point&mdash;one may say it without fear of contradiction&mdash;has
+not its equal on the face of the
+earth.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<div class="caption"><i><a id="Queens_Boudoir"></a>Queen's Boudoir, Alhambra</i></div>
+<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b212cs.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">213</span></p>
+
+<p>Imagine an immense plain, green as a meadow,
+covered with young grass, crossed in all directions
+by endless rows of cypresses, pines, oaks, and
+poplars, dotted with dense orange-groves that in the
+distance look no larger than shrubs, and with great
+orchards and gardens so crowded with fruit trees
+that they look like green hillocks; and the river
+Xenil winding through this immense plain, gleaming
+among the groves and gardens like a great silver
+ribbon; and all around wooded hills, and beyond
+the hills lofty rocks of fantastic form, which complete
+the picture of a barrier-wall with gigantic
+towers separating that earthly paradise from the
+world; and there, just beneath one's eyes, the city
+of Granada, partly extending to the plain and partly
+on the slope of the hill, all interspersed with groups
+of trees, shapeless masses of verdure which rise and
+wave above the roofs of the houses like enormous
+plumes, until it seems as if they were striving to expand
+and unite and cover the entire city; and still
+nearer the deep valley of the Darro more than
+covered&mdash;yes, filled to overflowing and almost
+heaped full&mdash;with its prodigious growth of vegetation,
+rising like a mountain, and above it there rises
+yet again a grove of gigantic poplars tossing their
+topmost boughs so close under the windows of the
+tower that one can almost touch them; and to the
+right beyond the Darro, on a high hill towering
+toward heaven, bold and rounded like a cupola, the
+palace of the Generalife, encircled by its aërial
+gardens and almost hidden in a grove of laurels,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">214</span>
+poplars, and pomegranates; and in the opposite
+direction a marvellous spectacle, a thing incredible,
+a vision of a dream&mdash;the Sierra Nevada, after the
+Alps, the highest mountain-range in Europe crowned
+with snow, white even to a few miles from the gates
+of Granada, white even to the hills on whose sides
+spread the pomegranates and palms, and where a
+vegetation almost tropical expands in all its splendid
+pomp.</p>
+
+<p>Imagine now over this vast paradise, containing
+all the smiling graces of the Orient and all the severe
+beauties of the North, wedding Europe to
+Africa, and bringing to the nuptials all the choicest
+marvels of nature, and exhaling to heaven all the
+perfumes of the earth blended in one breath,&mdash;imagine
+above this happy valley the sky and sun of
+Andalusia, rolling on to its setting and tinting the
+peaks with a divine rose-color, and painting the
+mountain-sides of the Sierra with all the colors of
+the rainbow, and clothing them with all the reflections
+of the most limpid azure pearls, its rays breaking
+in a thousand mists of gold, purple, and gray
+upon the rocks encircling the plain, and, as it sinks
+in a flame of fire, casting like a last good-night a
+luminous crown about the gloomy towers of the Alhambra
+and the flower-crowned pinnacles of the
+Generalife, and tell me if this world can give anything
+more solemn, more glorious, more intoxicating
+than this love-feast of the earth and sky, before<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">215</span>
+which for nine centuries Granada has trembled with
+delight and throbbed with pride?</p>
+
+<p>The roof of the <i>Mirador de la Reina</i> is supported
+by little Moorish columns, between which extend
+flattened arches which give the pavilion an extremely
+fanciful and graceful appearance. The
+walls are frescoed, and one may see along the friezes
+the initials of Isabella and Philip interwoven with
+cupids and flowers. Close by the door there still remains
+a stone of the ancient pavement, all perforated,
+upon which it is said the sultanas sat to be enveloped
+in the clouds of perfumed vapor which arose from
+below.</p>
+
+<p>Everything in this place tells of love and happiness.
+There one breathes an air as pure as that on a
+mountain-peak, there one perceives a mingled fragrance
+of myrtles and roses, and no other sound
+reaches the ear save the murmur of the Darro as it
+dashes among the rocks of its stony bed, and the
+singing of a thousand birds hidden in the dense
+foliage of the valley; it is truly a nest of loves, a
+hanging alcove where to go and dream of an aërial
+balcony to which one might climb and thank God
+for being happy.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Gongora," I exclaimed after contemplating
+for some moments that enchanting spectacle, "I
+would give years of my life to be able to summon
+here, with a stroke of a magic wand, all the dear
+ones who are looking for me in Italy."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">216</span></p>
+
+<p>Gongora pointed out a large space on the wall, all
+black with dates and names of visitors to the Alhambra,
+written with crayon and charcoal and cut
+with knives.</p>
+
+<p>"What is this written here?" he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>I approached and uttered a cry: "Chateaubriand!"</p>
+
+<p>"And here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Byron!"</p>
+
+<p>"And here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Victor Hugo!"</p>
+
+<p>After descending from the <i>Mirador de la Reina</i> I
+thought I had seen the Alhambra, and was so imprudent
+as to tell my friend so. If he had had a stick
+in his hand, I verily believe he would have struck
+me; but, as he had not, he contented himself by
+regarding me with the air of one demanding whether
+or not I had lost my senses.</p>
+
+<p>We returned to the Court of the Myrtles and
+visited the rooms situated on the other side of the
+Tower of Comares, the greater part in ruins, the rest
+altered, some absolutely bare, without either pavement
+or roof, but all worth seeing, both in remembrance
+of what they had been and for the sake of
+understanding the plan of the edifice. The ancient
+mosque was converted into a chapel by Charles V., and
+a great Moorish hall was changed into an oratory;
+here and there one still sees the fragments of arabesques
+and carved ceilings of cedar-wood; the gal<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">217</span>leries,
+the courts, and the vestibules remind one of a
+palace dismantled by fire.</p>
+
+<p>After seeing that part of the Alhambra I really
+thought there was nothing else left to see, and a
+second time was imprudent enough to say so to Gongora:
+this time he could no longer contain himself,
+and, leading me into a vestibule of the Court of Myrtles
+and pointing to a map of the building hanging on
+the wall, he said, "Look, and you will see that all the
+rooms of the courts and the towers that we have so
+far visited do not occupy one-twentieth part of the
+space embraced within the walls of the Alhambra;
+you will see that we have not yet visited the remains
+of the three other mosques, the ruins of the House of
+Cadi, the water-tower, the tower of the Infantas, the
+tower of the Prisoner, the tower of Candil, the tower
+of the Picos, the tower of the Daggers, the tower of
+the <i>Siete Suelos</i>, the tower of the Captain, the tower
+of the Witch, the tower of the Heads, the tower of
+Arms, the tower of the Hidalgos, the tower of the
+Cocks, the tower of the Cube, the tower of Homage,
+the tower of Vela, the Powder Tower, the remains
+of the House of Mondejar, the military quarters,
+the iron gate, the inner walls, the cisterns, the
+promenades; for I would have you know that the
+Alhambra is not a palace: it is a city, and one
+could spend his life in studying its arabesques,
+reading its inscriptions, and every day discovering
+a new view of the hills and mountains, and going<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">218</span>
+into ecstasies regularly once every twenty-four
+hours."</p>
+
+<p>And I thought I had seen the Alhambra!</p>
+
+<p>On that day I did not wish to learn anything
+more, and the dear knows how my head ached when
+I returned to the hotel. The day after, at the peep
+of dawn, I was back at the Alhambra, and again in
+the evening, and I continued to go there every day
+so long as I remained at Granada, with Gongora,
+with other friends, with guides, or alone; and the Alhambra
+always seemed vaster and more beautiful
+as I wandered through the courts and halls, and
+passed hour after hour sitting among the columns or
+gazing out of the windows with an ever-heightening
+pleasure, every time discovering new beauties, and
+ever abandoning myself to those vague and delightful
+fancies among which my mind had strayed on the
+first day. I cannot tell through which entrances my
+friends led me into the Alhambra, but I remember
+that every day on going there I saw walls and towers
+and deserted streets that I had not seen before, and
+the Alhambra seemed to me to have changed its site,
+to have been transformed, and surrounded as if by
+enchantment with new buildings that changed its
+original appearance. Who could describe the beauty
+of those sunset views; those fantastic groves flooded
+with moonlight; the immense plain and the snow-covered
+mountains on clear, serene nights; the imposing
+outlines of those enormous walls, superb<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">219</span>
+towers, and those measureless trees under a starry
+sky; the prolonged rustling of those vast masses of
+verdure overflowing the valleys and climbing the
+hillsides? It was a spectacle before which my companions
+remained speechless, although they were
+born in Granada and accustomed from infancy to
+look upon these scenes. So we would walk along in
+silence, each buried in his own thoughts, with hearts
+oppressed by mild melancholy, and sometimes our
+eyes were wet with tears, and we raised our faces to
+heaven with a burst of gratitude and love.</p>
+
+<p>On the day of my arrival at Granada, when I
+entered the hotel at midnight, instead of finding
+silence and quiet, I found the <i>patio</i> illuminated like
+a ball-room, people sipping sherbet at the tables,
+coming and going along the galleries, laughing and
+talking, and I was obliged to wait an hour before
+going to sleep. But I passed that hour very pleasantly.
+While I stood looking at a map of Spain on
+the wall a great burly fellow, with a face as red as a
+beet and a great stomach extending nearly to his
+knees, approached me and, touching his cap, asked
+if I was an Italian. I replied that I was, and he
+continued with a smile, "And so am I; I am the
+proprietor of the hotel."</p>
+
+<p>"I am delighted to hear it, the more so because
+I see you are making money."</p>
+
+<p>"Great Heavens!" he replied in a tone which he
+wished to seem melancholy. "Yes, ... I cannot<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">220</span>
+complain; but, ... believe me, my dear sir, however
+well things may go, when one is far from his
+native land one always feels a void here;" and he
+put his hand upon his enormous chest.</p>
+
+<p>I looked at his stomach.</p>
+
+<p>"A great void," repeated mine host; "one never
+forgets one's country.... From what province are
+you, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"From Liguria. And you?"</p>
+
+<p>"From Piedmont. Liguria! Piedmont! Lombardy!
+They are countries!"</p>
+
+<p>"They are fine countries, there is no doubt of
+that, but, after all, you cannot complain of Spain.
+You are living in one of the most beautiful cities in
+the world, and are proprietor of one of the finest
+hotels in the city; you have a crowd of guests all
+the year round, and then I see you enjoy enviable
+health."</p>
+
+<p>"But the void?"</p>
+
+<p>I looked again at his stomach.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I see, sir; but you are deceived, you know,
+if you judge me by appearances. You cannot imagine
+what a pleasure it is when an Italian comes here.
+What you will? Weakness it may be.... I know
+not, ... but I should like to see him every day at
+table, and I believe that if my wife did not laugh at
+me I should send him a dozen dishes on my own
+account, as a foretaste."</p>
+
+<p>"At what hour do you dine to-morrow?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">221</span></p>
+
+<p>"At five. But, after all, ... one eats little
+here, ... hot country, ... everybody lives lightly, ...
+whatever their nationality may be.... That
+is the rule.... But you have not seen the other
+Italian who is here?"</p>
+
+<p>So saying, he turned around, and a man came
+forward from a corner of the court where he had
+been watching us. The proprietor, after a few
+words, left us alone. The stranger was a man of
+about forty, miserably dressed, who spoke through
+closed teeth, and kept continually clenching his
+hands with a convulsive motion as if he was making
+an effort to keep from using his fists. He told me
+he was a chorus-singer from Lombardy, and that he
+had arrived the day before at Granada with other
+artists booked to sing at the opera for the summer
+season.</p>
+
+<p>"A beastly country!" he exclaimed without any
+preamble, looking around as if he wished to make
+a speech.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you do not remain in Spain voluntarily?"
+I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"In Spain? I? Excuse me: it is just as if you
+had asked me whether I was staying voluntarily in a
+galley."</p>
+
+<p>"But why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why? But can't you see what sort of people the
+Spaniards are&mdash;ignorant, superstitious, proud, bloodthirsty,
+impostors, thieves, charlatans, villains?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">222</span></p>
+
+<p>And he stood a moment motionless in a questioning
+attitude, with the veins of his neck so swollen that
+they seemed ready to burst.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me," I replied; "your judgment does
+not seem favorable enough to admit of my agreeing
+with you. When it comes to ignorance, excuse me,
+it will not do for us Italians, for us who still have
+cities where the schoolmasters are stoned and the
+professors are stabbed if they give a zero to their
+scholars,&mdash;it will not do for us, I say, to pick flaws
+in others. As for superstition, alas for us again!
+since we may still see in that city of Italy in which
+popular instruction is most widely diffused an unspeakable
+uproar over a miraculous image of the
+Madonna found by a poor ignorant woman in the
+middle of a street! As for crime, I frankly declare
+that if I were obliged to draw a comparison between
+the two countries before an audience of Spaniards,
+with the statistics now in hand, without first proving
+my data and conclusions, I should be very much
+alarmed.... I do not wish to say by this that
+we are not, on the whole, sailing in smoother water
+than is Spain. I wish to say that an Italian in
+judging the Spanish, if he would be just, must be
+indulgent."</p>
+
+<p>"Excuse me: I don't think so. A country without
+political direction! a country a prey to anarchy!
+a country&mdash;Come, now, cite me one great Spaniard
+of the present day."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">223</span></p>
+
+<p>"I cannot, ... there are so few great men anywhere."</p>
+
+<p>"Cite me a Galileo."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there are no Galileos."</p>
+
+<p>"Cite me a Ratazzi."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, they have none."</p>
+
+<p>"Cite me ... But, really, they have nothing.
+And then, does the country seem beautiful to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! excuse me; that point I will not yield:
+Andalusia, to cite a single province, is a paradise;
+Seville, Cadiz, and Granada are splendid cities."</p>
+
+<p>"How? Do you like the houses of Seville and
+Cadiz, with walls that whiten a poor devil from head
+to foot whenever he happens to touch them? Do
+you like those streets along which one can hardly
+pass after a good dinner? And do you find the Andalusian
+women beautiful with their devilish eyes?
+Come, now, you are too indulgent. They are not a
+<i>serious</i> people. They have summoned Don Amadeus,
+and now they don't want him. They are not worthy
+of being governed by a <i>civilized man</i>." (These were
+his actual words.)</p>
+
+<p>"Then you don't find any good in Spain?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not the least."</p>
+
+<p>"But why do you stay?"</p>
+
+<p>"I stay ... because I make my living here."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that is something."</p>
+
+<p>"But what a living! It is a dog's life! Everybody
+knows what Spanish cooking is."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">224</span></p>
+
+<p>"Excuse me: instead of living like a dog in
+Spain, why not go and live like a man in Italy?"</p>
+
+<p>Here the poor artist seemed somewhat disconcerted,
+and I, to relieve his annoyance, offered him a
+cigar, which he took and lighted without a word.
+And he was not the only Italian in Spain who had
+spoken to me in those terms of the country and its
+inhabitants, denying even the clearness of the sky
+and the grace of the Andalusian women. I do not
+know what enjoyment there can be in travelling
+after this fashion, with the heart closed to every
+kindly sentiment, and continually on the lookout to
+censure and despise, as if everything good and
+beautiful which one finds in a foreign country has
+been stolen from our own, and as if we are of no
+account unless we run down everybody else. The
+people who travel in such a mental attitude make
+me pity rather than condemn them, because they
+voluntarily deprive themselves of many pleasures
+and comforts. So it appears to me, at least, to
+judge others by myself, for wherever I go the first
+sentiment which the sights and the people inspire
+in me is a feeling of sympathy; a desire not to find
+anything which I shall be obliged to censure; an inclination
+to imagine every beautiful thing more beautiful;
+to conceal the unpleasant things, to excuse the
+defects, to be able to say candidly to myself and
+others that I am content with everything and everybody.
+And to arrive at this end I do not have to make<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">225</span>
+any effort: everything presents itself almost spontaneously
+in its most pleasing aspect, and my imagination
+benignly paints the other aspects a delicate
+rose-color. I know well that one cannot study a
+country in this way, nor write sage essays, nor
+acquire fame as a profound thinker; but I know
+that one travels with a peaceful mind, and that such
+travels are of unspeakable benefit.</p>
+
+<p>The next day I went to see the Generalife, which
+was a sort of villa of the Moorish kings, and whose
+name is linked to that of the Alhambra as is that
+of the Alhambra to Granada; but now only a few
+arches and arabesques remain of the ancient Generalife.
+It is a small palace, simple and white, with
+few windows, and an arched gallery surrounded with
+a terrace, and half hidden in the midst of a grove
+of laurel and myrtles, standing on the summit of a
+mountain covered with flowers, rising upon the right
+bank of the Darro opposite the hill of the Alhambra.
+In front of the façade of the palace extends a little
+garden, and other gardens rise one above another
+almost in the form of a vast staircase to the very
+top of the mountain, where there extends a very
+high terrace that encloses the Generalife. The
+avenues of the gardens and the wide staircases that
+lead from one to another of the flower-beds are
+flanked by high espaliers surmounted by arches and
+divided by arbors of myrtle, curved and intertwined
+with graceful designs, and at every landing-place<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">226</span>
+rise white summer-houses shaded by trellises and
+picturesque groups of orange trees and cypresses.
+Water is still as abundant as in Moorish times,
+and gives the place a grace, freshness, and luxuriance
+impossible to describe. From every part
+one hears the murmur of rivulets and fountains;
+one turns down an avenue and finds a jet of water;
+one approaches a window and sees a stream
+reaching almost to the window-sill; one enters
+a group of trees and the spray of a little waterfall
+strikes one's face; one turns and sees water
+leaping, running, and trickling through the grass
+and shrubbery.</p>
+
+<p>From the height of the terrace one commands
+a view of all those gardens as they slope downward
+in platforms and terraces; one peers down into
+the abyss of vegetation which separates the two
+mountains; one overlooks the whole enclosure of
+the Alhambra, with the cupolas of its little temples,
+its distant towers, and the paths winding among its
+ruins; the view extends over the city of Granada
+with its plain and its hills, and runs with a single
+glance along all the summits of the Sierra Nevada,
+that appear so near that one imagines they are not
+an hour's walk distant. And while you contemplate
+that spectacle your ear is soothed by the murmur
+of a hundred fountains and the faint sound of the
+bells of the city, which comes in waves scarcely
+audible, bearing with it the mysterious fragrance of
+this earthly paradise which makes you tremble and
+grow pale with delight.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<div class="caption"><i><a id="Court_of_the_Generalife"></a>Court of the Generalife, Granada</i></div>
+<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b226cs.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">227</span></p>
+
+<p>Beyond the Generalife, on the summit of a
+higher mountain, now bleak and bare, there rose
+in Moorish times other royal palaces, with gardens
+connected with each other by great avenues
+lined with myrtle hedges. Now all these marvels
+of architecture encircled by groves, fountains,
+and flowers, those fabulous castles in the air, those
+magnificent and fragrant nests of love and delight,
+have disappeared, and scarcely a heap of rubbish or
+a short stretch of wall remains to tell their story to
+the passer-by. But these ruins, that elsewhere
+would arouse a feeling of melancholy, do not have
+such an influence in the presence of that glorious
+nature whose enchantment not even the most marvellous
+works of man have ever been able to equal.</p>
+
+<p>On re-entering the city I stopped at one end of the
+<i>Carrera del Darro</i>, in front of a house richly adorned
+with bas-reliefs representing heraldic shields, armor,
+cherubs, and lions, with a little balcony, over one
+corner of which, partly on one wall and partly on
+another, I read the following mysterious inscription
+stamped in great letters:</p>
+
+<p class="center">"<span class="smcap">Esperando la del Cielo</span>,"</p>
+
+<p>which, literally translated, signifies "<i>Awaiting her
+in Heaven</i>." Curious to learn the hidden meaning of
+those words, I made a note of them, so that I might<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">228</span>
+ask the learned father of my friend about them. He
+gave me two interpretations, the one almost certainly
+correct, but not at all romantic; the other romantic,
+but very doubtful. I give the last: The house
+belonged to Don Fernando de Zafra, the secretary of
+the Catholic kings. He had a very beautiful daughter.
+A young hidalgo, of a family hostile or inferior in
+rank to the house of Zafra, became enamored of the
+daughter, and, as his love was returned, he asked for
+her hand in marriage, but was refused. The refusal
+of her father stirred the love of the two young hearts
+to flame: the windows of the house were low; the
+lover one night succeeded in making the ascent and
+entered the maiden's room. Whether he upset a
+chair on entering, or coughed, or uttered a low cry
+of joy on seeing his beautiful love welcoming him
+with open arms, the tradition does not tell, and no
+one knows; but certain it is that Don Fernando de
+Zafra heard a noise, ran in, saw, and, blind with
+fury, rushed upon the ill-fated young man to put
+him to death. But he succeeded in making his escape,
+and Don Fernando in following him ran into
+one of his own pages, a partisan of the lovers, who
+had helped the hidalgo to enter the house: in his
+haste his master mistook him for the betrayer, and,
+without hearing his protests and prayers, he had him
+bound and hanged from the balcony. The tradition
+runs that while the poor victim kept crying, "Pity!
+pity!" the outraged father responded as he pointed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">229</span>
+toward the balcony, "Thou shalt stay there <i>esperando
+la del Cielo</i>!" (awaiting her in heaven)&mdash;a reply
+which he afterward had cut in the stone walls as
+a perpetual warning to evil-doers.</p>
+
+<p>I devoted the rest of the day to the churches and
+monasteries.</p>
+
+<p>The cathedral of Granada deserves to be described
+part by part in an even higher degree than the cathedral
+of Malaga, although it too is beautiful and
+magnificent; but I have already described enough
+churches. Its foundation was laid by the Catholic
+kings in 1529 upon the ruins of the principal mosque
+of the city, but it has never been finished. It has a
+great façade with three doorways, adorned with
+statues and bas-reliefs, and it consists of five naves,
+divided by twenty measureless pilasters, each composed
+of a bundle of slender columns. The chapels
+contain paintings by Boccanegra, sculptures by Torrigiano,
+and tombs and other precious ornaments.
+Admirable above all is the great chapel, supported
+by twenty Corinthian columns divided into two
+orders, upon the first of which rise colossal statues
+of the twelve apostles, and on the second an entablature
+covered with garlands and heads of cherubs.
+Overhead runs a circle of magnificent stained-glass
+windows, which represent the Passion, and from the
+frieze which crowns them leap ten bold arches forming
+the vault of the chapel. Within the arches that
+support the columns are six great paintings by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">230</span>
+Alonzo Cano, which are said to be his most beautiful
+and finished work.</p>
+
+<p>And since I have spoken of Alonzo Cano, a native
+of Granada, one of the strongest Spanish painters of
+the seventeenth century, although a disciple of the
+Sevillian school rather than the founder, as some
+assert, of a school of his own, but less original than
+his greatest contemporaries,&mdash;since I have spoken of
+him, I wish here to record some traits of his genius
+and anecdotes of his life little known outside of Spain,
+although exceedingly remarkable. Alonzo Cano was
+the most quarrelsome, the most irascible, and the
+most violent of the Spanish painters. He spent his
+life in contention. He was a priest. From 1652 to
+1658, for six consecutive years, without a day's intermission,
+he wrangled with the canons of the cathedral
+of Granada, of which he was steward, because
+he was not willing to become subdeacon in accordance
+with the stipulated agreement; before leaving
+Granada he broke into pieces with his own hands a
+statue of Saint Anthony of Padua which he had
+made to the order of an auditor of the chancery,
+because the man allowed himself to observe that the
+price demanded seemed a little dear. Chosen master
+of design to the royal prince, who, as it appears,
+was not born with a talent for painting, he so exasperated
+his pupil that the boy was obliged to have
+recourse to the king that he might be taken out of
+his hands. Remanded to Granada, to the neighbor<span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">231</span>hood
+of the chapter of the cathedral, as an especial
+favor, he bore such a deep rancor from his old litigations
+with his canons that throughout his life he
+would not do a stroke of work for them. But this
+is a small matter. He nursed a blind, bestial, inextinguishable
+hatred against the Hebrews, and was
+firmly convinced that in any way to touch a Hebrew
+or any object that a Hebrew had touched
+would bring him misfortune. Owing to this conviction
+he did some of the most extravagant feats in
+the world. If in walking along the street he ran
+against a Jew, he would strip off the infected garment
+and return home in his shirt-sleeves. If by
+chance he succeeded in discovering that in his absence
+a servant had admitted a Jew into the house,
+he discharged the servant, threw away the shoes
+with which he had touched the pavement profaned
+by the circumcised, and sometimes even had the
+pavement torn up and reset. And he found something
+to find fault with even as he was dying.
+When he was approaching the end of life the confessor
+handed him a clumsily-made crucifix that he
+might kiss it, but he pushed it away with his hand,
+saying, "Father, give me a naked cross, that I may
+worship Jesus Christ as He Himself is and as I behold
+Him in my mind." But, after all, his was a
+rare, charitable nature which abhorred every vulgar
+action, and loved with a deep and very pure love the
+art in which he remains immortal.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">232</span></p>
+
+<p>On returning to the church after I had made the
+round of all the chapels and was preparing to leave,
+I was impressed by a suspicion that there was something
+else still to be seen. I had not read the Guidebook
+and had been told nothing, but I heard an
+inner voice which said to me, "Seek!" and, in fact,
+I sought with my eyes in every direction, without
+knowing what I sought. A cicerone noticed me and
+sidled up to me, as all of his kind do, like an assassin,
+and asked me with an air of mystery, "<i>Quiere
+usted algo?</i>" (Do you wish something, sir?)</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to know," I replied, "if there is
+anything to see in this cathedral besides that which
+I have seen already?"</p>
+
+<p>"How!" exclaimed the cicerone; "you have not
+seen the royal chapel, have you, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"What is there in the royal chapel?"</p>
+
+<p>"What is there? Caramba! Nothing less than
+the tombs of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholics."</p>
+
+<p>I could have said so! I had in my mind a place
+ready for this idea, and the idea was lacking! The
+Catholic kings must certainly have been buried in
+Granada, where they fought the last great chivalrous
+war of the Middle Ages, and where they gave Christopher
+Columbus a commission to fit out ships which
+bore him to the New World. I ran rather than
+walked to the royal chapel, preceded by the limping
+cicerone; an old sacristan opened the door of the
+sacristy, and before he allowed me to enter and see<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">233</span>
+the tombs he led me to a sort of glass cupboard full
+of precious objects, and said to me, "You will remember
+that Isabella the Catholic, to furnish Christopher
+Columbus with the money that he needed to
+supply the ships for the voyage, not knowing where
+to turn because the coffers of the state were empty,
+put her jewels in pawn."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes: well?" I demanded impatiently; and, divining
+the answer, felt my heart beat faster the
+while.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," replied the sacristan, "that is the box in
+which the queen locked her jewels to send them to
+be pawned."</p>
+
+<p>And so saying he opened the cupboard and took
+out the box and handed it to me.</p>
+
+<p>Oh! brave men may say what they will; as for
+me, there are things that make me tremble and
+weep. I have touched the box that contained the
+treasure by which Columbus was enabled to discover
+America. Every time I repeat those words my
+blood is stirred, and I add, "I have touched it with
+these hands," and I look at my hands.</p>
+
+<p>That cupboard contains also the sword of King
+Ferdinand, the crown and sceptre of Isabella, a missal
+and some other ornaments of the king and queen.</p>
+
+<p>We entered the chapel. Between the altar and a
+great iron chancel that separates it from the remaining
+space stand two great mausoleums of marble
+adorned with statuettes and bas-reliefs of great<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">234</span>
+value. Upon one of them lie the statues of Ferdinand
+and Isabella in their royal robes, with crown,
+sword, and sceptre; on the other the statues of the
+other two princes of Spain, and around the statues
+lions, angels, and arms, and various ornaments, presenting
+a regal appearance, austere and magnificent.</p>
+
+<p>The sacristan lighted a flambeau, and, pointing
+out a sort of trap-door in the pavement between the
+two mausoleums, asked me to open it and descend
+into the subterranean chamber. With the cicerone's
+aid I opened the trap-door; the sacristan descended,
+and I followed him down a narrow little staircase
+until we reached a little room. There were five
+caskets of lead, bound with iron bands, each sealed
+with two initials under a crown. The sacristan
+lowered the torch, and, touching all five of them,
+one after another, with his hand, said in a slow,
+solemn voice,</p>
+
+<p>"Here rests the great queen Isabella the Catholic.</p>
+
+<p>"Here rests the great king Ferdinand V.</p>
+
+<p>"Here rests the king Philip I.</p>
+
+<p>"Here rests Queen Joanna the Mad.</p>
+
+<p>"Here rests Lady Maria, her daughter, who died
+at the age of nine years.</p>
+
+<p>"God keep them all in his holy peace!"</p>
+
+<p>And, placing the torch on the ground, he crossed
+his arms and closed his eyes, as if to give me time
+for meditation.</p>
+
+<p>One would become a hunchback at his desk if he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">235</span>
+were to describe all the religious monuments of
+Granada&mdash;the stupendous Cartuja; the Monte Sacro,
+containing the grottoes of the martyrs; the church
+of San Geronimo, where the great leader Gonzalez
+di Cordova is buried; the convent of Santo Domingo,
+founded by Torquemada the Inquisitor; the
+convent of the Angels, containing paintings by
+Cano and Murillo and many others; but I suppose
+that my readers may be even more weary than I am,
+and will consequently pardon me for passing by a
+mountain of description which probably would only
+give them a confused idea of the things described.</p>
+
+<p>But as I have mentioned the sepulchre of the
+great commander, Gonzalez di Cordova, I cannot
+forbear translating a curious document in reference
+to him which was shown me in the church of San
+Geronimo by a sacristan who was an admirer of the
+deeds of that hero. The document, in the form of
+an anecdote, is as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"Every step of the great captain Don Gonzalez
+di Cordova was an assault, and every assault a victory;
+his sepulchre in the convent of the Geronomites
+at Granada was adorned with two hundred
+banners which he had taken. His envious rivals,
+and the treasurers of the kingdom of Naples in particular,
+induced the king in 1506 to demand a statement
+from Gonzalez of the use he had made of the
+great sums received from Spain for the conduct of
+the war in Italy; and, in fact, the king was so small<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">236</span>
+as to consent, and even to be present on the occasion
+of the conference.</p>
+
+<p>"Gonzalez acceded to the demand with the
+haughtiest disdain, and proposed to give a severe
+lesson to the treasurers and the king upon the treatment
+and consideration to be accorded a conqueror
+of kingdoms.</p>
+
+<p>"He replied with great indifference and calmness
+that he would prepare his accounts for the following
+day, and would let it appear which was the debtor,
+himself or the exchequer, which demanded an account
+of one hundred and thirty thousand ducats
+delivered upon the first payment, eighty thousand
+crowns upon the second, three millions upon the
+third, eleven millions upon the fourth, thirteen millions
+upon the fifth, and so on as the solemn, nasal,
+foolish secretary who authorized so important an act
+continued to enumerate the sums.</p>
+
+<p>"The great Gonzalez kept his word, presented
+himself at the second audience, and, bringing out a
+voluminous book in which he had noted his justification,
+he began with the following words in a deep,
+sonorous voice:</p>
+
+<p>"'Two hundred thousand seven hundred and
+thirty-six ducats and nine reales to the fathers, the
+nuns, and the poor, to the end that they might pray
+God for the triumph of the Spanish arms.</p>
+
+<p>"'One hundred thousand ducats for powder and
+shot.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">237</span></p>
+
+<p>"'Ten thousand ducats for perfumed gloves to
+protect the soldiers from the stench of the corpses
+of the enemy left on the field of battle.</p>
+
+<p>"'One hundred and seventy thousand ducats for
+renewing bells worn out by continuous ringing for
+constant new victories over the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>"'Fifty thousand ducats for brandy for the soldiers
+on the day of battle.</p>
+
+<p>"'A million and a half ducats for the maintenance
+of the prisoners and wounded.</p>
+
+<p>"'A million for returning thanks and Te Deums
+to the Omnipotent.</p>
+
+<p>"'Three hundred millions in masses for the dead.</p>
+
+<p>"'Seven hundred thousand four hundred and
+ninety-four ducats for spies and ...</p>
+
+<p>"'One hundred millions for the patience which I
+showed yesterday on hearing that the king demanded
+an account from the man who has given him his
+kingdom.'</p>
+
+<p>"These are the celebrated accounts of the great
+captain, the originals of which are in the possession
+of Count d'Altimira.</p>
+
+<p>"One of the original accounts, with the autograph
+seal of the great captain, exists in the Military
+Museum of London, where it is guarded with great
+care."</p>
+
+<p>On reading this document I returned to the hotel,
+making invidious comparisons between Gonzalez di
+Cordova and the Spanish generals of our times,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">238</span>
+which, for grave state reasons, as they say in the
+tragedies, I dare not repeat.</p>
+
+<p>In the hotel I saw something new every day.
+There were many university students who had come
+from Malaga and other Andalusian cities to take the
+examination for the doctor's degree at Granada,
+whether because they were a little easier there or
+for what other reason I do not know. We all ate
+at a round table. One morning at breakfast one of
+the students, a young man of about twenty, announced
+that at two o'clock he was to be examined
+in canon law, and that, not feeling very sure of himself,
+he had decided to take a glass of wine to refresh
+the springs of eloquence. He was accustomed to
+drink only wine weakened with water, and committed
+the imprudence of emptying at a single
+draught a glass of the vintage of Xerez. His face
+changed in an instant in so strange a manner that if
+I had not seen the transformation with my own eyes
+I should not have believed that he was the same
+person.</p>
+
+<p>"There! that is enough!" cried his friends.</p>
+
+<p>But the young man, who already felt that he had
+become suddenly strong, keen, and confident, cast a
+compassionate glance at his companions, and with
+a lordly gesture ordered the waiter to fetch him
+another glass.</p>
+
+<p>"You will be drunk," they said.</p>
+
+<p>His only response was to drain a second glass.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">239</span></p>
+
+<p>Then he became wonderfully talkative. There
+was a score of persons at table: in a few minutes he
+was conversing with them all, and he revealed a
+thousand secrets of his past life and his plans for
+the future. He said that he was from Cadiz, that he
+had eight thousand francs a year to spend, and that
+he wished to devote himself to a diplomatic career,
+because with that revenue, added to something
+which his uncle would leave him, he should be able
+to cut a good figure wherever he might be; that he
+had decided to take a wife at thirty, and to marry a
+woman as tall as himself, because it was his opinion
+that the wife should be of the same stature as her
+husband, to keep either from getting the upper hand
+of the other; that when he was a boy he was in
+love with the daughter of an American consul as
+beautiful as a flower and strong as a pine, but she
+had a red birth-mark behind one ear, which looked
+badly, although she knew how to cover it very well
+with her scarf, and he showed us with his napkin
+how she covered it; and that Don Amadeus was too
+ingenuous a man to succeed in governing Spain;
+that of the poets Zorilla and Espronceda, he had
+always preferred Espronceda; that it would be folly
+to cede Cuba to America; that the examination on
+canon law made him laugh; and that he wished to
+drink another four fingers of Xerez, the finest wine
+in Europe.</p>
+
+<p>He drank a third glass in spite of the good coun<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">240</span>sel
+and disapprobation of his friends, and after prattling
+a little longer amid the laughter of his audience,
+he suddenly became silent, looked fixedly at a
+lady sitting opposite to him, dropped his head, and
+fell asleep. I thought that he could not present himself
+for the examination that day, but was mistaken.
+A short hour later they awakened him; he went up
+stairs to wash his face, ran off to the university still
+drowsy, took his examination, and was promoted, to
+the greater glory of the wine of Xerez and Spanish
+diplomacy.</p>
+
+<p>I devoted the following days to visiting the monuments,
+or, to be more accurate, the ruins of the
+Moorish monuments which besides the Alhambra
+and the Generalife attest the ancient splendor of
+Granada. Insomuch as it was the last bulwark of
+Islam, Granada is the city which presents the most
+numerous relics of all the cities of Spain. On the
+hill called the hill of <i>Dinadamar</i> (the Fountain of
+Tears) one may still see the ruins of four towers
+rising at the four corners of a great cistern into
+which flowed the waters from the Sierra to supply
+the highest part of the city. There were baths, gardens,
+and villas of which not a trace remains: from
+that point one overlooked the city with its minarets,
+its terraces, and its mosques gleaming among the
+palms and cypresses. Near there one sees a Moorish
+gate called the gate of Elvira&mdash;a great arch
+crowned with battlements&mdash;and beyond it are the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">241</span>
+ruins of the palaces of the caliphs. Near the Alameda
+promenade stands a square tower in which
+there is a great hall ornamented with the usual Arabian
+inscriptions. Near the convent of San Domingo
+are the remains of gardens and palaces once
+joined to the Alhambra by a subterranean passage.
+Within the city is the Alcaiceria, a Moorish market
+almost perfectly preserved, formed of a few little
+streets as straight and narrow as corridors, lined
+with two rows of shops, one adjoining the other, and
+presenting the strange appearance of an Asiatic
+bazaar. In short, one cannot take a step in Granada
+without coming face to face with an arch, an
+arabesque, a column, or a pile of stones which suggests
+its fantastic, luxurious past.</p>
+
+<p>What turns and windings have I not made through
+those tortuous streets at the hottest hour of the day,
+under a sun that shrivelled my brain, without meeting
+a living soul! At Granada, as in the other
+cities of Andalusia, the people are alive only at
+night, and the night repays them for the imprisonment
+of the day; the public promenades are crowded
+and confused by the hurry and jostling of a multitude,
+one half of which seems to be seeking the
+other half upon urgent business. The crowd is
+densest in the Alameda, but, for all that, I spent my
+evenings on the Alameda with Gongora, who talked
+to me of Moorish monuments, and with a journalist
+who discoursed on politics, and also with another<span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">242</span>
+young man who talked of women, and frequently
+with all three of them together, to my infinite
+pleasure, because those cheery meetings, like those of
+school-boys, at odd times and places, refreshed my
+mind, to steal a beautiful simile, like a summer
+shower refreshes the grass as it falls faster and
+faster, dancing for joy.</p>
+
+<p>If I were obliged to say something about the
+people of Granada, I should be embarrassed, because
+I have not seen them. In the day-time I met no
+one in the streets, and at night I could not see them.
+The theatres were not open, and when I might have
+found some one in the city I was wandering through
+the halls or avenues of the Alhambra; and then I
+had so much to do to see everything in the short
+time which I had allowed myself that no unoccupied
+moments remained for those chance conversations,
+like the ones I had in the other cities, in the streets
+and the cafés, with whomever I happened to meet.</p>
+
+<p>But from what I learned from men who were in
+a position to give me trustworthy information, the
+people of Granada do not enjoy an enviable reputation
+in Spain. They are said to be ill-tempered,
+violent, vindictive, and bloodthirsty; and this arraignment
+is not disproved by the pages of the city
+newspapers. It is not publicly stated, but every one
+knows it for a fact, that popular instruction in Granada
+is at a lower ebb than even in Seville and the
+other smaller Spanish cities, and, as a rule, every<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">243</span>thing
+that cannot be produced by the sun and the
+soil, which produce so bountifully, goes to the bad,
+either through indolence or ignorance or shiftlessness.
+Granada is not connected by railway with
+any important city: she lives alone, surrounded by
+her gardens, enclosed by her mountains, happy with
+the fruits which Nature produces under her hand,
+gently lulling herself to sleep in the vanity of her
+beauty and the pride of her history&mdash;idle, drowsy,
+and fanciful, content to answer with a yawn to any
+one who reproves her for her condition: "I gave
+Spain the painter Alonzo Cano, the poet Louis de
+Leon, the historian Fernando de Castillo, the sacred
+orator Luis di Grenada, and the minister Martinez
+de la Rosas. I have paid my debt, leave me in
+peace;" and this is the reply made by almost all the
+southern cities of Spain, more beautiful, alas! than
+wise and industrious, and proud rather than civilized.
+Ah! one who has seen them can never have
+done exclaiming, "What a pity!"</p>
+
+<p>"Now that you have seen all the marvels of Moorish
+art and tropical vegetation there remains the suburb
+of the Albaicin to be seen before you can say
+that you know Granada. Prepare your mind for a
+new world, put your hand on your purse, and follow
+me."</p>
+
+<p>So said Gongora to me on the last evening of my
+sojourn in Granada. A Republican journalist was
+with us, Melchiorre Almago by name, the director<span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">244</span>
+of the <i>Idea</i>, a congenial, affable young man, who to
+accompany us sacrificed his dinner and a leading
+article that he had been cogitating since morning.</p>
+
+<p>We walked on until we came to the square of the
+<i>Audiencia</i>. There Gongora pointed out an alley
+winding up a hill, and said to me, "Here commences
+the Albaicin;" and Señor Melchiorre, touching
+a house with his cane, added, "Here commences
+the territory of the republic."</p>
+
+<p>We turned up the alley, passed from it into another,
+and from that into a third, always ascending,
+without my seeing anything extraordinary, although
+I looked curiously in every direction. Narrow streets,
+squalid houses, old women dozing on the doorsteps,
+mothers carefully inspecting their children's heads,
+gaping dogs, crowing cocks, ragged boys running
+and shouting, and the other things that one always
+sees in the suburbs; but in those streets nothing
+more. But gradually, as we ascended, the appearance
+of the houses and the people began to change;
+the roofs became lower, the windows fewer, the doors
+smaller, and the people more ragged. In the middle
+of every street ran a little stream in a walled gutter,
+in the Moorish style; here and there over the doors
+and around the windows one saw the remains of arabesques
+and fragments of columns, and in the corners
+of the squares fountains and well-curbs of the
+time of the Moorish dominion. At every hundred
+steps it seemed as if we had gone back fifty years<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">245</span>
+toward the age of the caliphs. My two companions
+touched me on the elbow from time to time, saying
+as they did so, "Look at that old woman!"&mdash;"Look
+at that little girl!"&mdash;"Look at that man!" and I
+looked, and asked, "Who are these people?" If I
+had unexpectedly found myself in that place, I
+should have believed on seeing those men and
+women that I was in an African village, so strange
+were the faces, the dress, the manner of moving,
+talking, and looking, at so short a distance from the
+centre of Granada&mdash;so different were they from the
+people that I had seen up to that time. At every
+turn I stopped to look in the face of my companions,
+and they answered, "That is nothing; we are now
+in the civilized part of the Albaicin; this is the
+Parisian quarter of the suburb; let us go on."</p>
+
+<p>We went on, and the streets seemed like the bed
+of a torrent&mdash;paths hollowed out among the rocks,
+all banks and gullies, broken and stony&mdash;some so
+steep that a mule could not climb them, others so
+narrow that a man could scarcely pass; some
+blocked by women and children sitting on the
+ground, others grass-grown and deserted; and all so
+squalid, wild, and uncouth that the most wretched of
+our villages cannot give one an idea of them, because
+this is a poverty that bears the impress of
+another race and another continent. We turned
+into a labyrinth of streets, passing from time to
+time under a great Moorish arch or through a high<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">246</span>
+square from which one commanded a view of the
+wide valleys, the snow-covered mountains, and a
+part of the lower city, until finally we arrived at a
+street rougher and narrower than any we had yet
+seen; and there we stopped to take breath.</p>
+
+<p>"Here commences the real Albaicin," said the
+young archeologist. "Look at that house!"</p>
+
+<p>I looked; it was a low, smoke-stained, ruinous
+house, with a door that seemed like the mouth of a
+cavern, before which one saw, under a mass of rags,
+a group, or rather a heap, of old women and little
+children, who upon our approach raised their eyes
+heavy with sleep, and with bony hands removed
+from the threshold some filth which impeded our
+passage.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us enter," said my friend.</p>
+
+<p>"Enter?" I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>If they had told me that beyond those walls there
+was a facsimile of the famous Court of Miracles
+which Victor Hugo has described, I should not have
+doubted their word. No door has ever said more
+emphatically than that, "Stand back!" I cannot
+find a better comparison than the gaping mouth of
+a gigantic witch breathing out pestilential vapors.
+But I took courage and entered.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, marvellous! It was the court of a Moorish
+house surrounded by graceful little columns surmounted
+by lovely arches, with those indescribable
+traceries of the Alhambra along the porticoes and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">247</span>
+around the mullioned windows, with the beams and
+ceiling carved and enamelled with little niches for
+vases of flowers and urns of perfume, with a pool
+in the middle, and all the traces and memorials of
+the delicate life of an opulent family. And in that
+house lived those wretched people!</p>
+
+<p>We went out and entered other houses, in all of
+which I found some fragments of Moorish architecture
+and sculpture. From time to time Gongora
+would say to me, "This was a harem. Those were
+the baths of the women; up yonder was the chamber
+of a favorite;" and I fixed my eyes upon every
+bit of the arabesqued wall and upon all the little
+columns of the windows, as if to ask them for a revelation
+of their secrets&mdash;only a name or a magic
+word with which I might reconstruct in an instant
+the ruined edifice and summon the beautiful Arabians
+who had dwelt there. But, alas! amid the
+columns and under the arches of the windows there
+were only rags and wrinkled faces.</p>
+
+<p>Among other houses, we entered one where we
+found a group of girls sewing under the shade of a
+tree in the courtyard, directed by an old woman.
+They were all working upon a great piece of cloth
+that seemed like a mat or a bed-spread, in black and
+gray stripes. I approached and asked one of the
+girls, "What is this?"</p>
+
+<p>They all looked up and with a concerted movement
+spread the cloth open, so that I could see their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">248</span>
+work plainly. Almost before I had seen it I cried,
+"I will buy it."</p>
+
+<p>They all began to laugh. It was the mantle of an
+Andalusian mountaineer, made to wear in the saddle,
+rectangular in form, with an opening in the middle
+to put one's head through, embroidered in bright-colored
+worsteds along the two shortest sides and
+around the opening. The design of the embroideries,
+which represented birds and fantastic flowers,
+green, blue, white, red, and yellow, all in a mass,
+was as crude as a pattern a child might make: the
+beauty of the work lay altogether in the harmony
+of the colors, which was truly marvellous. I cannot
+express the sensation produced by the sight of that
+mantle, except by saying that it laughed and filled
+one with its cheerfulness; and it seems to me impossible
+to imagine anything gayer, more festive, or
+more childishly and gracefully capricious. It was a
+thing to look upon in order to bring yourself out of
+a bad humor, or when you wish to write a pretty
+verse in a lady's album, or when you are expecting
+a person whom you wish to receive with your
+brightest smile.</p>
+
+<p>"When will you finish these embroideries?" I
+asked one of the girls.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Hoy mismo</i>" (to-day), they all replied in chorus.</p>
+
+<p>"And what is the mantle worth?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Cinco</i>" (five), stammered one.</p>
+
+<p>The old women pierced her with a glance which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">249</span>
+seemed to say, "Blockhead!" and answered hastily,
+"Six <i>duros</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Six <i>duros</i> are thirty francs; it did not seem much
+to me, and I put my hand in my pocket.</p>
+
+<p>Gongora cast a withering glance at me which
+seemed to say, "You simpleton!" and, drawing me
+back by the arm, said, "One moment: six <i>duros</i> is
+an exorbitant price."</p>
+
+<p>The old woman shot him another glance which
+seemed to say, "Brigand!" and replied, "I cannot
+take less."</p>
+
+<p>Gongora gave her another glance, which seemed
+to say, "Liar!" and said, "Come, now; you can
+take four <i>duros</i>; you would not ask more from the
+country-people."</p>
+
+<p>The old woman insisted, and for a while we continued
+to exchange with our eyes the titles of simpleton,
+swindler, marplot, liar, pinch-penny, spend-thrift,
+until the mantle was sold to me for five duros,
+and I paid and left my address, and we went out
+blessed and commended to God by the old woman
+and followed a good way by the black eyes of the
+embroiderers.</p>
+
+<p>We went on from street to street, among houses
+increasingly wretched and growing blacker and
+blacker, and more revolting rags and faces. But
+we never came to the end, and I asked my companions,
+"Will you have the goodness to tell me if Granada
+has any limits, and if so where they are?<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">250</span>
+May one ask where we are going and how we shall
+return home?" But they simply laughed and went
+forward.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there anything stranger than this to be seen?"
+I asked at a certain point.</p>
+
+<p>"Stranger?" they both replied. "This second
+part of the suburb which you have seen still belongs
+to civilization: if not the Parisian, it is at least the
+Madrid, quarter of the Albaicin, and there <i>is</i> something
+else; let us go on."</p>
+
+<p>We passed through a very small street containing
+some scantily-clothed women, who looked like people
+fallen from the moon; crossed a little square full of
+babies and pigs in friendly confusion; passed through
+two or three other alleys, now climbing, now descending,
+now in the midst of houses, now among piles of
+rubbish, now between trees and now among rocks,
+until we finally arrived at the solitary place on a
+hillside from which we saw in front the Generalife,
+to the right the Alhambra, and below a deep valley
+filled with a dense wood.</p>
+
+<p>It was growing dark; no one was in sight and not
+a voice was heard.</p>
+
+<p>"Is this the end of the suburb?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>My two companions laughed and said, "Look in
+that direction."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<div class="caption"> <i><a id="The_Alhambra"></a>The Alhambra and the Valley of
+the Darro</i></div>
+<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b250cs.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+</div>
+
+<p>I turned and saw along the street that was lost in
+a distant grove an interminable row of houses. Of
+houses? Rather of dens dug in the earth, with a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">251</span>
+bit of wall in front, with holes for windows and crevices
+for doors, and wild plants of every sort on top
+and along the sides&mdash;veritable caves of beasts, in
+which by the glow of faint lights, scarcely visible,
+swarmed the gypsies by hundreds; a people multiplying
+in the bowels of the mountain, poorer, blacker, and
+more savage than any seen before; another city,
+unknown to the greater part of Granada, inaccessible
+to the police, closed to the census-officers, ignorant
+of every law and of all government, living
+one knows not how, how numerous no one knows,
+foreign to the city, to Spain, and to modern civilization,
+with a language and statutes and manners of
+their own&mdash;superstitious, false, thieving, beggarly,
+and fierce.</p>
+
+<p>"Button up your coat and look out for your
+watch," said Gongora to me, "and let us go forward."</p>
+
+<p>We had not taken a hundred steps when a half-naked
+boy, black as the walls of his hovel, ran out,
+gave a cry, and, making a sign to the other boys
+who followed him, dashed toward us; behind the
+boys came the women; behind the women the men,
+and then old men, old women, and more children;
+and in less time than it takes to tell it we were surrounded
+by a crowd. My two friends, recognized as
+Granadines, succeeded in saving themselves; I was
+left in the lurch. I can still see those horrid faces,
+still hear those voices, and still feel the pressure of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">252</span>
+those hands: gesticulating, shouting, saying a thousand
+things which I did not understand; dragging at
+my coat, my waistcoat, and my sleeves, they pressed
+upon me like a pack of famished people, breathed in
+my face, and cut off my very breath. They were,
+for the most part, half naked and emaciated&mdash;their
+garments falling in tatters, with unkempt hair, horrible
+to see; I seemed to be like Don Roderick in
+the midst of a crowd of the infected in that famous
+dream of the August night.</p>
+
+<p>"What do these people want?" I asked myself.
+"Where have I been brought? How shall I get out
+of this?" I felt almost a sense of fear, and looked
+around uneasily. Little by little I began to understand.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a sore on my shoulder," said one; "I
+cannot work; give me a penny."</p>
+
+<p>"I have a broken leg," said another.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a palsied arm."</p>
+
+<p>"I have had a long sickness."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Un cuarto, Señorito!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Un real, caballero!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Una peseta para todos!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>This last request was received with a general cry
+of approval: "<i>Una peseta para todos!</i>" (a <i>peseta</i> for
+us all).</p>
+
+<p>With some little trepidation I drew out my purse;
+they all stood on tiptoe; the nearest poked their
+chins into it; those behind put their chins on the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">253</span>
+heads of those in front; the farthest stretched out
+their arms.</p>
+
+<p>"One moment," I cried. "Who has the most
+authority among you all?"</p>
+
+<p>They all replied with one voice, stretching out
+their arms toward the same person, "That one."</p>
+
+<p>It was a terrible old hag, all nose and chin, with a
+great tuft of white hair standing straight above her
+head like a bunch of feathers, and a mouth which
+seemed like a letter-box, with little clothing save a
+chemise&mdash;black, shrivelled, and mummified; she approached
+me bowing and smiling, and held out her
+hands to take mine.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want?" I demanded, taking a step
+backward.</p>
+
+<p>"Your fortune," they all cried.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell my fortune, then," I replied, holding out my
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>The old woman took my poor hand between her
+ten&mdash;I cannot say fingers, but shapeless bones&mdash;placed
+her sharp nose on it, raised her head, looked
+hard at me, pointed her finger toward me, and,
+swaying and pausing at every sentence as if she
+were reciting poetry, said to me in inspired accents,
+"Thou wert born upon a famous day.</p>
+
+<p>"Upon a famous day also shalt thou die.</p>
+
+<p>"Thou art the possessor of amazing riches."</p>
+
+<p>Here she muttered I know not what about sweethearts
+and marriage and felicity, from which I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">254</span>
+understood that she supposed I was married, and
+then she continued: "On the day of thy marriage
+there was great feasting in thy house; there were
+many to give and take.</p>
+
+<p>"And another woman wept.</p>
+
+<p>"And when thou seest her the wings of thy heart
+open."</p>
+
+<p>And so on in this strain, saying that I had sweethearts
+and friends and treasures and jewels in store
+for me every day of the year, in every country of
+the world. While the old woman was speaking
+they were all silent, as if they believed she had
+prophesied truly. She finally closed her prophecy
+with a formula of dismissal, and ended the formula
+by extending her arms and making a skip in a dancing
+attitude. I gave her the peseta, and the crowd
+broke into shouting, applause, and singing, making
+a thousand uncanny hops and gestures around me,
+saluting me with nudges and slaps of the hand on
+my back, as if I were an old friend, until finally, by
+dint of wriggling and striking now one and then
+another, I succeeded in opening a passage and rejoined
+my friends. But a new danger threatened
+us. The news of the arrival of a foreigner had
+spread, the tribes were in motion, the city of the
+gypsies was all in an uproar; from the neighboring
+houses and from the distant huts, from the top of the
+hill and the bottom of the valley, ran boys, women
+with babies about their necks, old men with canes,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">255</span>
+cripples, and professional imposters, septuagenarian
+prophetesses who wished to tell my fortune&mdash;an
+army of beggars coming upon us from every direction.
+It was night; there was no time for hesitation;
+we broke into a run toward the city like
+school-boys. Then a devilish cry broke out behind
+us, and the nimblest began to chase us. Thanks to
+Heaven! after a short race we found ourselves in
+safety&mdash;tired and breathless, and covered with dust,
+but safe.</p>
+
+<p>"It was necessary to escape at any cost," said
+Señor Melchiorre with a laugh; "otherwise we
+should have gone home without our shirts."</p>
+
+<p>"And take notice," added Gongora, "that we
+have seen only the door of Gypsy-town, the civilized
+part, not the Paris nor the Madrid, but at least
+the Granada, of the Albaicin. If we could only have
+gone on! if you could have seen the rest!"</p>
+
+<p>"But how many thousand are there of those
+people?" I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"No one knows."</p>
+
+<p>"How do they live?"</p>
+
+<p>"No one can imagine."</p>
+
+<p>"What authority do they recognize?"</p>
+
+<p>"One only&mdash;<i>los reyes</i> (the kings), the heads of families
+or of houses, those who have the most money
+and years. They never go out of their city; they
+know nothing, they live in the dark as to all that
+happens beyond the circle of their hovels. Dy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">256</span>nasties
+fall, governments change, armies clash, and
+it is a miracle if the news ever reaches their ears.
+Ask them if Isabella is still on the throne; they do
+not know. Ask them who Amadeus is; they have
+never heard his name. They are born and perish
+like flies, and they live as they lived centuries ago,
+multiplying without leaving their own boundaries,
+ignorant and unknown, seeing nothing all their
+lives beyond the valleys lying below their feet and
+the Alhambra towering above their heads."</p>
+
+<p>We passed again through all the streets that we
+had traversed, now dark and deserted, and endless
+as it seemed to me; and, climbing and descending,
+turning and twisting, and turning again, we finally
+arrived at the square of the Audiencia in the middle
+of the city of Granada&mdash;in the civilized world. At
+the sight of the brightly-lighted cafés and shops I
+experienced a feeling of pleasure, as if I had just
+returned to city-life after a year's sojourn in an
+uninhabited wilderness.</p>
+
+<p>On the evening of the next day I left for Valencia.
+I remember that a few moments before starting, as I
+was paying my hotel-bill, I observed to the proprietor
+that there was an overcharge for one candle,
+and playfully asked him, "Will you deduct it for
+me?" The proprietor seized his pen, and, deducting
+twenty centimes from the total charge, replied
+in a voice which he wished to appear emotional,
+"The devil! among Italians!"</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">257</span></p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a><br /><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p>
+</div><div class="chapter">
+<h2><a name="VALENCIA" id="VALENCIA"></a>VALENCIA.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The journey from Granada to Valencia, made all
+<i>de un tiron</i> (at one breath), as they say in Spain, is
+one of those recreations in which a rational man
+indulges only once in his life. From Granada to
+Menjibar, a village on the left bank of the Guadalquivir,
+between Jaen and Andujar, is a night's
+ride by diligence; from Menjibar to the Alcazar de
+San Juan is a half-day's journey by railway in an
+uncurtained carriage, through a plain as bare as the
+palm of one's hand, under a blazing sun; and from
+the Alcazar de San Juan to Valencia, taking account
+of an entire evening spent in the station of the Alcazar,
+makes another night and another morning
+before one reaches the longed-for city at noon,
+where Nature, as Emile Praga would say, is horrified
+at the dreadful idea that there are still four
+months of summer.</p>
+
+<p>But it must be said that the country through
+which one passes is so beautiful from beginning to
+the end that if one were capable of appreciation
+when one is dead with sleep and finds one's self
+turning into water by reason of the heat, one would<span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">260</span>
+go into ecstasies a thousand times. It is a journey
+of unexpected landscapes, sudden vistas, remarkable
+contrasts, theatrical effects of Nature, so to speak&mdash;marvellous
+and fantastic transformations, which leave
+in the mind an indescribable, vague illusion of having
+passed not through a part of Spain, but along an
+entire meridian of the earth across the most dissimilar
+countries. From the <i>vega</i> of Granada, which
+you cross in the moonlight, almost opening a way
+among the groves and gardens, in the midst of a
+luxuriant vegetation that seems to crowd around
+you like a tossing sea, ready to overflow and engulf
+you with its billows of verdure,&mdash;from this you
+emerge into the midst of ragged and precipitous
+mountains, where not a trace of human habitation
+is to be seen; you graze the edge of precipices, wind
+along the banks of mountain-torrents, run along at
+the bottom of the ravines, and seem to be lost in a
+rocky labyrinth. Then you come out a second time
+among the green hills and flowery fields of upper
+Andalusia, and then, all suddenly, the fields and hills
+disappear and you find yourself in the midst of the
+rocky mountains of the Sierra Morena, that hang
+over your head from every direction and close the
+horizon all around like the walls of an immense
+abyss. You leave the Sierra Morena, and the desert
+plains of La Mancha stretch before you; you leave
+La Mancha and advance through the flowery plain
+of Almansa, varied by every sort of cultivation,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">261</span>
+presenting the appearance of a vast carpet of checkered
+pattern colored in all the shades of green that
+can be found upon the pallet of a landscape-painter.
+And, finally, the plain of Almansa opens into a delightful
+oasis, a land blest of God, a true earthly
+paradise, the kingdom of Valencia, from whose
+boundaries, even to the city itself, you pass through
+gardens, vineyards, fragrant orange-groves, white
+villas encircled by terraces, cheerful, brightly-colored
+villages, clusters, avenues, and groves of palms,
+pomegranates, aloes, and sugar-canes, interminable
+hedges of Indian fig, long chains of low hills, and
+conical mounds cultivated as kitchen-gardens and
+flower-beds, laid out with minute care from top to
+bottom, and variegated like great bunches of grass
+and flowers; and everywhere a vigorous vegetation
+which hides every bare spot, covers every height,
+clothes every projection, climbs, falls, trails along,
+marches forward, overflows, intertwines, shuts off
+the view, impedes the road, dazzles with its verdure,
+wearies with its beauty, confounds with its caprices
+and its frolics, and produces an effect as of a sudden
+parting of the earth raised to fever heat by the fires
+of a secret volcano.</p>
+
+<p>The first building which meets the eye on entering
+Valencia is an immense bull-ring situated to the right
+of the railway. The building consists of four orders
+of superimposed arches rising on stout pilasters, all
+of brick, and in the distance resembling the Colos<span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">262</span>seum.
+It is the bull-ring where on the fourth of
+September, 1871, King Amadeus, in the presence of
+thousands of spectators, shook hands with Tato, the
+celebrated one-legged <i>torero</i>, who as director of the
+spectacle had asked permission to render his homage
+in the royal box. Valencia is full of mementos of
+the duke d'Aosta. The sacristan of the cathedral
+has in his possession a gold chronometer bearing the
+duke's initials in diamonds, with a chain of pearls,
+which was presented by him when he went to pray
+in the chapel of Our Lady of the Desolate. In the
+hospice of the same name the poor remember that
+one day they received their daily bread from his
+hand. In the mosaic workshop of one Nolla they
+preserve two bricks, upon one of which he cut his
+own name with his sword, and upon the other the
+name of the queen. In the Plaza di Tetuan the
+people point out the house of Count di Cervellon,
+where he was entertained; it is the same house in
+which Ferdinand VII. signed the decrees annulling
+the constitution in 1814, in which Queen Christina
+abdicated the throne in 1840, in which Queen Isabella
+spent some days in 1858. In short, there is
+not a corner of the city of which it cannot be said,
+Here he shook hands with a working-man, here he
+visited a factory, there he passed on foot far from
+his suite, surrounded by a crowd, trustful, serene,
+and smiling.</p>
+
+<p>It was in Valencia, since I am speaking of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">263</span>
+duke d'Aosta,&mdash;it was in the city of Valencia that
+a little girl of five years in reciting some verses
+touched upon that terrible subject of a <i>foreign king</i>
+with probably the noblest and most considerate
+words spoken in Spain for many years previous to
+that time&mdash;words which, if all Spain had remembered
+and pondered then, would perhaps have spared
+her many of those calamities which have befallen
+her, and others which still threaten; words which
+perhaps one day some Spaniard may repeat with a
+sigh, and which already at this time draw from
+events a marvellous light of truth and beauty. And,
+since these verses are graceful and simple, I transcribe
+them here. The poem is entitled "God and
+the King," and runs as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"Dios, en todo soberano,</div>
+  <div class="verse">Creó un dia á los mortales,</div>
+  <div class="verse">Y á todos nos hizo iguales</div>
+  <div class="verse">Con su poderosa mano.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"No reconoció Naciones</div>
+  <div class="verse">Ni colores ni matices?</div>
+  <div class="verse">Y en ver los hombres felices</div>
+  <div class="verse">Cifró sus aspiraciones.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"El Rey, che su imágen es,</div>
+  <div class="verse">Su bondad debe imitar</div>
+  <div class="verse">Y el pueblo no ha de indagar</div>
+  <div class="verse">Si es aleman ó francés.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"Porqué con ceño iracundo</div>
+  <div class="verse">Rechazarle siendo bueno?</div>
+  <div class="verse">Un Rey de bondades lleno</div>
+  <div class="verse">Tiene por su patria el mundo.</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">264</span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"Vino de nacion estraña</div>
+  <div class="verse">Cárlos Quinto emperador,</div>
+  <div class="verse">Y conquistó su valor</div>
+  <div class="verse">Mil laureles para España.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"Y es un recuerdo glorioso</div>
+  <div class="verse">Aunque en guerra cimentado,</div>
+  <div class="verse">El venturoso reinado</div>
+  <div class="verse">De Felipe el Animoso.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"Hoy el tercero sois vos</div>
+  <div class="verse">Nacido en estraño suelo</div>
+  <div class="verse">Que viene á ver nuestro cielo</div>
+  <div class="verse">Puro destello de Dios.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"Al rayo de nuestro sol</div>
+  <div class="verse">Sed bueno, justo y leal,</div>
+  <div class="verse">Que á un Rey bueno y liberal</div>
+  <div class="verse">Adora el pueblo español.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"Y á vuestra frente el trofeo</div>
+  <div class="verse">Ceñid de perpetua gloria,</div>
+  <div class="verse">Para que diga la historia</div>
+  <div class="verse">&mdash;Fué grande el Rey Amadeo."</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>"God, Ruler over all, created mortals one day,
+and made all equal with His mighty hand. He recognized
+neither nations nor colors nor divisions, and
+to behold men happy was His desire. The king,
+who is His image, ought to imitate His goodness,
+and the people have no need to ask whether he be
+German or French. Why, then, with angry frown
+repulse him if he be good? A king abounding
+in good deeds holds the world as his country.
+Charles V., the emperor, came from a foreign na<span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">265</span>tion,
+and by his valor won a thousand laurels for
+Spain. And the fortunate reign of Philip the Courageous
+is a glorious memory even though founded
+upon war.</p>
+
+<p>"To-day a third king rules you born on a foreign
+soil, who comes to look upon our sky, a clear spark
+of God. His love is true and just and loyal to the
+light of our sun, and this is a good and liberal king
+Spanish people adore. And around your brows
+you shall wear the trophy of perpetual glory upon
+which history shall write, 'Great was King Amadeus.'"</p>
+
+<p>Oh, poor little girl! how many wise things you
+have said! and how many foolish things others have
+done!</p>
+
+<p>The city of Valencia, if one enters it with one's
+mind full of the ballads in which the poets sang of
+its marvels, does not seem to correspond to the
+lovely image formed of it; neither, on the other
+hand, does it offer that sinister appearance for which
+one is prepared if one considers its just fame as a
+turbulent, warlike city, the fomenter of civil strife&mdash;a
+city prouder of the smell of its powder than of the
+fragrance of its orange-groves. It is a city built in
+the midst of a vast flowery plain on the right bank
+of the Guadalquivir, which separates it from the
+suburbs, a little way from the roadstead which serves
+as a port, and consists all of tortuous streets lined
+with high, ungainly, many-colored houses, and on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">266</span>
+this account less pleasing in appearance than the
+streets of the Andalusian cities, and entirely devoid
+of that evasive Oriental grace which so strangely
+stirs one's fancy. Along the left bank of the river
+extends a magnificent promenade formed of majestic
+avenues and beautiful gardens. These one reaches
+by going out of the city through the gate of the
+Cid, a structure flanked by two great embattled
+towers named after the hero because he passed
+through it in 1094 after he had expelled the Moors
+from Valencia. The cathedral, built upon the spot
+where stood a temple of Diana in Roman times, then
+a church of San Salvador in the time of the Goths,
+then a mosque in Moorish times, afterward converted
+into a church by the Cid, changed a second
+time into a mosque by the Moors in 1101, and
+for the third time into a church by King Don
+Jayme after the final overthrow of the invaders,
+is a vast structure, exceedingly rich in ornaments
+and treasures, but it cannot bear comparison with
+the greater number of the other Spanish cathedrals.
+There are a few palaces worth seeing, besides the
+palace of the Audiencia, a beautiful monument of
+the sixteenth century in which the Cortes of the
+kingdom of Valencia assembled; the <i>Casa de Ayuntamiento</i>,
+built between the fifteenth and sixteenth
+centuries, in which are preserved the sword of Don
+Jayme, the keys of the city, and the banner of the
+Moors; and, above all, <i>the Lonja</i>&mdash;the Bourse of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">267</span>
+merchants&mdash;notable for its celebrated hall consisting
+of three great naves divided by twenty-four spiral
+columns, above which curve the light arches of the
+vaulted roof in bold lines, the architecture imparting
+to the eye a pleasing impression of gayety and harmony.
+And, finally, there is the art-gallery, which
+is not one of the least in Spain.</p>
+
+<p>But, to tell the truth, in those few days that I remained
+at Valencia waiting for the boat I was more
+occupied by politics than by art. And I proved the
+truth of the words I heard an illustrious Italian say
+before I left Italy&mdash;one who knew Spain like his
+his own home: "The foreigner who lives even for a
+short time in Spain is drawn little by little, almost
+insensibly, to heat his blood and muddle his brain
+over politics, as if Spain were his own country or
+as if the fortunes of his country were depending
+upon those of Spain. The passions are so inflamed,
+the struggle is so furious, and in this struggle there
+is always so clearly at stake the future, the safety,
+and the life of the nation, that it is impossible for
+any one with the least tinge of the Latin blood in his
+imagination and his system to remain an indifferent
+spectator. You must needs grow excited, speak at
+party meetings, take the elections seriously, mingle
+with the crowd at the political demonstrations, break
+with your friends, form a clique of those who think
+as you think&mdash;make, in a word, a Spaniard of yourself,
+even to the whites of your eyes. And gradu<span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">268</span>ally,
+as you become Spanish, you forget Europe, as
+if it were at the antipodes, and end in seeing nothing
+beyond Spain, as if you were governing it, and as if
+all its interests were in your hands."</p>
+
+<p>Such is the case, and this was my experience. In
+those few days the Conservative ministry was shipwrecked
+and the Radicals had the wind behind
+them. Spain was all in a ferment; governors, generals,
+officials of all grades and of all administrations
+fell; a crowd of parvenus burst into the offices
+of the ministry with cries of joy: Zorilla was to inaugurate
+a new era of prosperity and peace; Don
+Amadeus had had an inspiration from heaven; liberty
+had conquered; Spain was saved. And I, as I
+listened to the band playing in front of the new governor's
+mansion under a clear starry sky in the
+midst of a joyous crowd,&mdash;I too had a ray of hope
+that the throne of Don Amadeus might finally extend
+its roots, and reproached myself for being too
+prone to predict evil. And that comedy which
+Zorilla played at his villa when he would by no
+means accept the presidency of the ministry, and
+sent back his friends and the members of the deputation,
+and finally, tired of continually saying no,
+fell into a swoon on saying yes, this, I say, gave
+me at the time a high opinion of the firmness of his
+character and led me to augur happily for the new
+government. And I said to myself that it was a sin
+to leave Spain just when the horizon was clearing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">269</span>
+and the royal palace of Madrid was tinted rose-color.
+And I had already considered the plan of returning
+to Madrid that I might have the satisfaction of sending
+some consoling news to Italy, and so be pardoned
+for the imprudence of sending unvarnished accounts
+of the situation up to that time. And I repeated
+the verses of Prati:</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"Oh qual destin t'aspetta</div>
+  <div class="verse">Aquila giovenetta!"</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>(Oh what a destiny awaits thee, young eagle!)
+And, save a little bombast in the appellation, it
+seemed to me that they contained a prophecy, and
+I imagined meeting the poet in the Piazza Colonna
+at Rome and running toward him to offer my congratulations
+and press his hand....</p>
+
+<p>The most beautiful sight in Valencia is the market.
+The Valencian peasants are the most artistic
+and bizarre in their dress of all the peasants of
+Spain. To cut a good figure in a group of maskers
+at one of our masquerades they need only enter the
+theatre dressed as they would be on a festival or
+market-day in the streets of Valencia and along
+the country roads. On first seeing them dressed in
+this style, one laughs, and cannot in any way be
+brought to believe that they are Spanish peasants.
+They have an indescribable air of Greeks, Bedouins,
+buffoons, tightrope-walkers, women partly undressed
+on their way to bed, the silent characters of a play<span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">270</span>
+not quite ready to make their appearance, or facetious
+people who wish to make themselves generally
+ridiculous. They wear a full white shirt that takes
+the place of a jacket; a parti-colored velvet waistcoat
+open at the breast; a pair of zouave linen
+breeches which do not reach the knee, looking like
+drawers and standing out like the skirts of a ballet-dancer;
+a red or blue sash around the waist; a sort
+of embroidered white woollen stockings that leave
+the knee bare; a pair of corded sandals like those
+of the Catalan peasants; and on their heads, which
+are almost all shaved like those of the Chinese,
+they wear a handkerchief, red, sky-blue, yellow,
+or white, bound around like a cornucopia, and
+knotted at the temples or at the nape of the neck.
+They sometimes wear small velvet hats similar in
+shape to those worn in the other provinces of Spain.
+When they go into the city they nearly all carry
+around their shoulders or on their arms, now like a
+shawl, now like a mantle, or again like a little cape,
+a woollen <i>capa</i>, long and narrow, in brightly-colored
+stripes in which white and red predominate, adorned
+with fringe and rosettes. One may easily imagine
+the appearance presented by a square where there
+are gathered some hundreds of men dressed after
+this fashion: it is a Carnival scene, a festival, a tumult
+of colors, that makes one feel as gay as a band
+of music; a spectacle at once clownish, pretty, imposing,
+and ridiculous, to which the haughty faces<span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">271</span>
+and the majestic bearing which distinguish the Valencian
+peasants add an air of gravity which heightens
+the extraordinary beauty of the scene.</p>
+
+<p>If there is an insolent, lying proverb, it is that
+old Spanish one which says, "In Valencia flesh is
+grass, grass is water, men are women, and the
+women nothing." Leaving that part about the flesh
+and the grass, which is a pun, the men, especially
+those of the lower classes, are tall and robust, and
+have the bold appearance of the Catalans and Arragonese,
+with a livelier and more luminous expression
+of the eye; and the women, by the consent of all
+the Spaniards and of as many foreigners as have
+travelled in Spain, are the most classically beautiful
+in the country. The Valencians, who know that the
+eastern coast of the Peninsula was originally settled
+by Greeks and Carthaginians, say, "It is a clear
+case. The Grecian type of beauty has lingered
+here." I do not venture to say yes or no to this
+assertion, for to describe the beauty of the women
+of a city where one has passed only a few hours
+would seem to me like a license to be taken only by
+the compiler of a "Guide." But one can easily discover
+a decided difference between the Andalusian
+and Valencian types of beauty. The Valencian is
+taller, more robust, and fairer, with more regular
+features, gentler eyes, and a more matronly walk
+and carriage. She does not possess the bewitching
+air of the Andalusian, which makes it necessary to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_272">272</span>
+bite one's finger as if to subdue the sudden and
+alarming insurrection of one's capricious desires at
+sight of her; but the Valencian is a woman whom
+one regards with a feeling of calmer admiration, and
+while one looks one says, as La Harpe said of the
+Apollo Belvidere, "<i>Notre tete se releve, notre maintien
+s'ennoblit</i>," and instead of imagining a little Andalusian
+house to hide her from the eyes of the
+world, one longs for a marble palace to receive the
+ladies and cavaliers who will come to render her
+homage.</p>
+
+<p>If one is to believe the rest of the Spaniards, the
+Valencian people are fierce and cruel beyond all imagination.
+If one wishes to get rid of an enemy, he
+finds an obliging man who for a few crowns undertakes
+the business with as much indifference as he
+would accept a commission to carry a letter to the
+post. A Valencian peasant who finds that he has a
+gun in his hands as he passes an unknown man in a
+lonely street says to his companion, "See if I can
+aim straight?" and takes aim and fires. This actually
+occurred not many years ago: I was assured
+of its truth. In the cities and villages of Spain the
+boys and young men of the people are accustomed
+to play at being bulls, as they call it. One takes the
+place of the bull and does the butting; another,
+with a sharp stick under his arm like a lance, climbs
+on the back of a third, who represents the horse, and
+repulses the assaults of the first. Once a band of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">273</span>
+young Valencians thought they would introduce
+some innovations into this sport, and so make it
+seem a little more realistic and afford the spectators
+and the participants a little more amusement
+than the customary way of playing it; and the innovations
+were to substitute for the stick a long
+sharp-pointed knife, one of those formidable <i>navajas</i>
+that we saw at Seville, and to give the man who took
+the part of the bull two other shorter knives, which,
+fastened firmly on either side of his head, answered
+the purpose of horns. It seems incredible, but it is
+true. They played with the knives, shed a sea of
+blood, several were killed, some were mortally
+wounded, and others badly hurt, without the game
+becoming a fight, without the rules of the sport
+being transgressed, and without any one raising his
+voice to end the slaughter.</p>
+
+<p>I tell these things as they were told to me,
+although I am far from believing all that is said
+against the Valencians; but it is certain that at Valencia
+the public safety, if not a myth, as our papers
+poetically say in speaking of Romagna and Sicily, is
+certainly not the first of the good things which one
+enjoys after the blessing of life. I was persuaded
+of this fact the first evening of my stay in the city.
+I did not know the way to the port, but thought I
+was near it, and asked a shop-woman which way I
+should take. She uttered a cry of astonishment:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you wish to go to the port, <i>caballero</i>?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">274</span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Ave Maria purissima!</i> to the port at this hour?"</p>
+
+<p>And she turned toward a group of women who
+were standing by the door, and said to them in the
+Valencian dialect, "Women, do you answer for me:
+this gentleman is asking me the way to the port!"</p>
+
+<p>The women replied in one voice, "God save him!"</p>
+
+<p>"But from what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't risk yourself, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"What is your reason?"</p>
+
+<p>"A thousand reasons."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me one of them?"</p>
+
+<p>"You would be murdered."</p>
+
+<p>One reason was enough for me, as any one can imagine,
+and I did not go to the port.</p>
+
+<p>For the rest, at Valencia as elsewhere, in whatever
+intercourse I had with the people I met only with
+courtesy as a foreigner and as an Italian&mdash;a friendly
+welcome even among those who would not hear
+foreign kings discussed in general, and princes of
+the house of Savoy in particular, and such men were
+numerous, but they were courteous enough to say at
+once, "Let us not harp on that string." To a foreigner
+who, when asked whence he comes, replies, "I am
+a Frenchman," they respond with an agreeable smile,
+as if to say, "We recognize each other." To one
+who answers, "I am a German or an Englishman,"
+they make a slight inclination of the head, which
+implies, "I bow to you;" but when one replies, "I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">275</span>
+am an Italian," they eagerly extend the hand as if
+to say, "We are friends;" and they look at one with
+an air of curiosity, as you look for the first time at a
+person who is said to resemble you, and they smile
+pleasantly on hearing the Italian tongue, as you
+would smile on hearing some one, though in no
+mocking spirit, imitate your voice and accents. In
+no country in the world does an Italian feel nearer
+home than in Spain. The sky, the speech, the
+faces, and the dress remind him of his fatherland;
+the veneration with which the Spanish pronounce
+the names of our great poets and our great painters,
+that vague and pleasing sense of curiosity with
+which they speak of our famous cities, the enthusiasm
+with which they cultivate our music, the impulsiveness
+of their affections, the fire of their language,
+the rhythms of their poetry, the eyes of their women,
+the air and the sun,&mdash;oh! an Italian must be without
+a spark of love for his fatherland who does not feel
+an emotion of sympathy for this country, who does
+not feel inclined to excuse its errors, who does not
+sincerely deplore its misfortunes, who does not desire
+for it a happy future. O beautiful hills of Valencia,
+smiling banks of the Guadalquivir, charmed
+gardens of Granada, little white cottages of Seville,
+proud towers of Toledo, roaring streets of Madrid,
+and venerable walls of Saragossa! and you, kindly
+hosts and courteous companions of my travels&mdash;you
+who have spoken to me of Italy as of a second<span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">276</span>
+fatherland, who with your festal gayety have scattered
+my restless melancholy!&mdash;I shall always carry
+deep down in my heart a feeling of gratitude and
+love for you, and I shall cherish your images in my
+memory, as one of the dearest recollections of my
+youth, and shall always think of you as one of the
+loveliest dreams of my life.</p>
+
+<p>I repeated these words to myself at midnight as
+I looked over brightly-lighted Valencia, leaning
+against the rail of the good ship <i>Xenil</i>, which was
+on the point of sailing. Some young Spaniards had
+come on board with me. They were going to
+Marseilles to take ship from that port to the Antilles,
+where they expected to remain for some years. One
+of them stood alone weeping; suddenly he raised his
+head and looked toward the shore between two anchored
+vessels, and exclaimed in a tone of desolation,
+"Oh, my God! I hoped she would not come!"</p>
+
+<p>In a few moments a boat approached the ship; a
+little white figure, followed by a man enveloped in a
+cloak, hastily climbed the ladder, and with a deep
+sob threw herself into the arms of the young man,
+who had run to meet her.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment the boatswain called, "All off,
+gentlemen!"</p>
+
+<p>Then there followed a most distressing scene: the
+two young persons were torn apart, and the young
+lady was borne almost fainting to the boat, which
+pushed off a little and remained motionless.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">277</span></p>
+
+<p>The ship started.</p>
+
+<p>The young man dashed madly forward toward the
+rail, and, sobbing, cried in a voice that pierced one's
+heart, "Adieu, darling! adieu! adieu!"</p>
+
+<p>The little white figure stretched out her arms and
+perhaps responded, but her voice was not heard.
+The boat was dropped behind and disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>One of the young men said to me in a whisper,
+"They are betrothed."</p>
+
+<p>It was a lovely night, but sad. Valencia was soon
+lost to view, and I thought I should never see Spain
+again, and wept.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="smcap">End of Vol. II.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a><br /><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></span></p>
+
+
+
+</div><div class="chapter">
+<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX.</h2>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="index">
+<li class="ifrst">A.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Abdelasio reconstructs the Alcazar of Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Abdurrahman I. builds the mosque of Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Abdurrahman I. builds Medina Az-Zahra, ii. <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">his happy days, ii. <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Abencerrages, Hall of the, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Abrantes, duke d', at the bull-fights, 209.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Absolutist party,096.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Academy, a dream of the, 280.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Academy of San Fernando, Madrid, 193.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Acquasola gardens, Genoa, 10.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alameda, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alarcon y Mendoza, Juan Ruiz de, dramatist, 169.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alarmed travellers, ii. <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Albaicin at Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">courtyard in, ii. <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">fortune-telling, ii. <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">government of, ii. <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">ignorance in, ii. <a href='#Page_256'>256</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Parisian quarter, ii. <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">squalor of, ii. <a href='#Page_251'>251</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Albornoz, Gil Carillo de, tomb of, Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alcaiceria, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alcala street, Madrid, 156, 168.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alcanadre, Roman aqueduct at, 91.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alcantara, bridge of, Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alcazar de San Juan, ii. <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alcayde of Saragossa's bold republicanism, 83.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Aleardi Gaetano, on the can-can, 171.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alfonso and the Cid, 121.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alfonso the Wise, MSS. of, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alfonso VIII. defeats the Moors at las Navas de Tolosa, ii. <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alfonso XII., favored by the Moderate party, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Algaba, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Algeciras, Gulf of, ii. <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alhambra, arabesques, ii. <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>, 208, ii. <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">baths, ii. <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cabinet of Linderaja, ii. <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Charles V.'s palace, ii. <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Court of Lions, ii. <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Court of Myrtles, ii. <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">fascination of, ii. <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Gate of Justice, ii. <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">grounds of ii. <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Hall of Abencerrages, ii. <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Hall of Barca, ii. <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Hall of Divans, ii. <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Hall of Justice, ii. <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Hall of Oranges, ii. <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Hall of the Ambassadors, ii. <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Hall of the Two Sisters, ii. <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Mirador de la Reina, ii. <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">mosque, ii. <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">paintings in, ii. <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Patio de la Reja, ii. <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">realization of a dream, ii. <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">situation of, ii. <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Tower of Commares, ii. <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Tower of the Ambassadors, ii. <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">vastness of the, ii. <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">view from, ii. <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ali Pacha, relics of, 176.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Almago, Melchiorre, republican journalist, ii. <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Almansa, plain of, ii. <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Almansur builds Zahira, ii. <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Almodovar, castle of, ii. <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Altimura, Count d', possesses the fiscal accounts of Gonzalez di Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">280</span>Alvarez, Gen., house of, at Gerona, 16.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Amadeus at Gerona, 16;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Logroño, 85;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Madrid, 166, 194;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Saragossa, 82;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at the bull-fights, 213;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">character of, 201;</li>
+<li class="isub1">courage of, 199;</li>
+<li class="isub1">court-life of, 194;</li>
+<li class="isub1">encourages bull-fights, 223, 235;</li>
+<li class="isub1">hostility of the newspapers to, 93, 200;</li>
+<li class="isub1">hostility of the soldiery to, 204;</li>
+<li class="isub1">prejudice against, 15, 33, 80.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ambassadors, Hall of the, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Tower of the, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Amusements, 168.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Andalusian characteristics, 36;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dialect, ii. <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">scenery, ii. <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, 100, ii. <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">women, ii. <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Angels, convent of, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ansurez, Pedro, tomb of, 137.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Aosta, duke d'. See Amadeus.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Aqueduct, Roman, at Segovia, 124.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Arabesques in the Alhambra, beauty of, ii. <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">intricacy of design, ii. <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Aranjuez, arrival at, ii. <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">gardens, ii. <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">historic associations, ii. <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">royal palace, ii. <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">suburbs of, ii. <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Argamasilla de Alba, birthplace of Don Quixote, ii. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Argensola, the brothers, 72;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sonnet by, 73.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Arjonilla, ii. <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Armory, royal, at Madrid, 174.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Arragon, decay of, 52;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dialect of, 54;</li>
+<li class="isub1">independence of, 49;</li>
+<li class="isub1">mountains of, 48.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Artillery museum at Madrid, 180.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Asturia, prince of, title instituted, 98.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Atocha, Church of Our Lady of, Madrid, 166, 204;</li>
+<li class="isub1">street of, Madrid, 174.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Avilo, 124.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">"Awaiting her in heaven," ii. <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ayala, d', dramatist, 169.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">B.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Banderillas, de fuego, 226.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Barber of Seville, house of the, ii. <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Barcelona, arrival at, 20;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cafés, 30;</li>
+<li class="isub1">carnival masqueraders, 22;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Catalonian peculiarities, 35;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cathedral, 24;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cemetery, 27;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cervantes on, 42;</li>
+<li class="isub1">circus, 235;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dialect, 21;</li>
+<li class="isub1">foreign hotel waiters, 20;</li>
+<li class="isub1">palaces, 26;</li>
+<li class="isub1">revolutionary proclivities, 35;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Roman ruins, 26;</li>
+<li class="isub1">streets, 22;</li>
+<li class="isub1">suburbs, 22;</li>
+<li class="isub1">theatre, 40;</li>
+<li class="isub1">women of, 41.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Baretti, Giuseppe, 206; ii. <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Barili, Anton Giulio, travelling companion, 10.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Batista, Juan, architect of the Escurial, 260.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Beatrice, Queen, tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Beggary, modest, 135.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Berruguete, Alonzo, carvings by, at Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Valladolid, 146.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Berseo, poet, 283.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Blanca, Florida, tomb of, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Boabdil's helmet, 176.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Boccanegra, paintings by, at Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Bohl, Catherine de Faber ("Fernan Caballero"), 281;</li>
+<li class="isub1">ascetic character of, ii. <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">charity of, ii. <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">genius of, ii. <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">history of, ii. <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Boldan, painting by, at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Bollo, a delicious cake, 31.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Boscan, Juan, poet, influence on Spanish literature, 37.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Bosch, Jacob van den, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Bourse, the, at Saragossa, 74;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Brazil, Dom Pedro, emperor of, arrives at Burgos, 123.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Breton de los Herreres, Manuel, dramatist, 169, 281.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Breughel, Jan, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Bridge of Alcantara, Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Briviesca, States-general, 98.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Brujola, mountain of, 98.</li>
+
+<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">281</span>Buen Retiro garden at Madrid, 166, 174.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Bull-fights at Madrid, 206;</li>
+<li class="isub1">accidents, 225;</li>
+<li class="isub1">anticipations of, 207;</li>
+<li class="isub1">arena, the, 203;</li>
+<li class="isub1">attendance, 208;</li>
+<li class="isub1">banderillas, de fuego, 226;</li>
+<li class="isub1">banderilleros, 214, 219, 220;</li>
+<li class="isub1">brutality of, 227, 229;</li>
+<li class="isub1">capeadors, 214, 217, 219, 220;</li>
+<li class="isub1">chulos or apprentices, 214, 216, 217;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dangers of, 229;</li>
+<li class="isub1">death of the bull, 222, 228;</li>
+<li class="isub1">disgusting spectacle, 218;</li>
+<li class="isub1">entrance of the cuadrilla, 214;</li>
+<li class="isub1">entrance of the bull, 215;</li>
+<li class="isub1">espadas, 221;</li>
+<li class="isub1">excitement of audience, 215, 224;</li>
+<li class="isub1">exits, the, 232;</li>
+<li class="isub1">fights in the audience, 230;</li>
+<li class="isub1">final impressions, 231;</li>
+<li class="isub1">getting into position, 215;</li>
+<li class="isub1">history of, 234;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Homeric struggle, 221;</li>
+<li class="isub1">national amusement, the, 235;</li>
+<li class="isub1">picadores, 214, 216, 218;</li>
+<li class="isub1">picturesque scene, 214;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sale of tickets, 207;</li>
+<li class="isub1">torturing the bulls into fighting, 226;</li>
+<li class="isub1">trophies of victory, 223;</li>
+<li class="isub1">with other wild animals, 239.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Bull-fighters, amateur, 237;</li>
+<li class="isub1">artistic gradations, 241;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dress, 240;</li>
+<li class="isub1">female toreros, 238;</li>
+<li class="isub1">lucrative business, 241.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Burgos, arrival at, 98;</li>
+<li class="isub1">birthplace of the Cid, 119;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cathedral, 104;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cid's coffer, 112;</li>
+<li class="isub1">gate of St. Maria, 104;</li>
+<li class="isub1">houses, 101;</li>
+<li class="isub1">municipal palace, 103;</li>
+<li class="isub1">"remains of the Cid," 103;</li>
+<li class="isub1">seats of the first judges, 103;</li>
+<li class="isub1">"The Christ," 111;</li>
+<li class="isub1">streets, 101;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tobacco-shops, 118;</li>
+<li class="isub1">undertaker's shop, 117;</li>
+<li class="isub1">women hotel servants, 99.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Byron, Lord, writing of, at the Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">C.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Caballero, Fernan. See Bohl, Catherine.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cadiz, arrival at, ii. <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">astronomical facilities, ii. <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">bird's-eye view, ii. <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cathedral, ii. <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">circus, 235;</li>
+<li class="isub1">commercial decay, ii. <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">historical remains, ii. <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">houses, ii. <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Murillo's last painting, ii. <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">revolutionary tendencies, ii. <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">streets, ii. <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">whiteness, ii. <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">women, ii. <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cafés: Barcelona, 30;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Madrid, 173;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Miranda, 95.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Calahorra, battle of, 91.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Calderon de la Barca, Pedro, poet, 169;</li>
+<li class="isub1">ii. <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Calderon, Francesco, the matador, 207;</li>
+<li class="isub1">patronizes cock-fights, 249, 250.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Campana, Pedro, paintings by, at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Can-can at Madrid, 171.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Candan, political leader, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cano, Alonzo, character of, ii. <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">hatred of Jews, ii. <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">history of, ii. <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">paintings by, at Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Madrid, 182, 193;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Canovas del Castillo, political leader, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Canovist party, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Carbajal, Bernardino, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 193.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cardenas, paintings by, at Valladolid, 143.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cardenio's penance, scene of, ii. <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Carducci, Vincenzo, paintings by, at Madrid, 182;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Valladolid, 143.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Carlists, 32, 33, 96, 194.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Carlos I., Don, tomb of, 266.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Carlos II., Don, tomb of, 266.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Carlos III., Don, tomb of, 266.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Carnival masqueraders at Barcelona, 22;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Saragossa, 65, 68.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cartuja convent, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Castaños, Gen. Francisco Xavier, defeated at Tudela, 91.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Castelar, Emilio, as an orator, 279;</li>
+<li class="isub1">as a political leader, 80, 96;</li>
+<li class="isub1">eloquence, 276;</li>
+<li class="isub1">friendship, 291;</li>
+<li class="isub1">on Arragon, 50;</li>
+<li class="isub1">personal popularity, 277;</li>
+<li class="isub1">ruler of the Assembly, 279.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Castilian dialect, 39, 55;</li>
+<li class="isub1">scenery, 124.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Castillego, ii. <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Castles: Almodovar, ii. <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Hornachuelos, ii. <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">>Monzon, 51;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">282</span></li>
+<li class="isub1">Pancorbo, 98;</li>
+<li class="isub1">San Servando, ii. <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Catalan characteristics, 35;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dialect, 15, 39;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dress, 18;</li>
+<li class="isub1">hospitality, 148;</li>
+<li class="isub1">school-boys, 46.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Catalonia, description of, 18, 48.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cathedrals: Barcelona, 24;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Burgos, 104;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cadiz, ii. <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Our Lady of the Pillar, Saragossa, 60;</li>
+<li class="isub1">San Salvador, Saragossa, 65;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Valladolid, 136.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cava, Los Baños de la, at Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cayetano, the matador, 214, 240.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cellini, Benvenuto, crucifix by, at the Escurial, 263.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cemetery, Barcelona, 27.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cervantes, Saavedra Miguel de, at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">house at Valladolid, 137;</li>
+<li class="isub1">imprisoned at Argamasilla de Alba, ii. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">naturalness of Don Quixote, ii. <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">on Barcelona, 42;</li>
+<li class="isub1">popularity of, 286;</li>
+<li class="isub1">statue at Madrid, 156;</li>
+<li class="isub1">story of, 139.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cervellon, Count di, entertains Amadeus at Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cervera, 48.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ceuta, ii. <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cespedes, Pablo de, born at Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">paintings by, at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">quotation from, ii. <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Charlemagne and the Moor, ii. <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Charles I. (afterward Emperor Charles V. of Germany), altar at the Escurial, 272;</li>
+<li class="isub1">anger at the destruction of mosque of Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">apartments at Aranjuez, ii. <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">a bull-fighter, 234;</li>
+<li class="isub1">converts mosque of the Alhambra into a chapel, ii. <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">married in Alcazar of Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">monumental gate at Burgos, 104;</li>
+<li class="isub1">on the Spanish language, 160;</li>
+<li class="isub1">palace in the Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">relics of, 175, 176, ii. <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">statue at the Escurial, 262;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb at the Escurial, 265, 267.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Charles II. encourages bull-fights, 234;</li>
+<li class="isub1">portrait at the Escurial, 264.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Charles III. forbids bull-fights, 235;</li>
+<li class="isub1">statue at Burgos, 102.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Charles IV.'s billiard-room in palace of Aranjuez, ii. <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">resigns the crown, ii. <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Chateaubriaud, François Auguste, Viscount de, writing in the Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Chocolate, Spanish, 31.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Chorizos, 14, 162.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Christina abdicates the throne at Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">promenade, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Chulos, 214.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Churches: Nuestra Señora, Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Our Lady of Atocha, Madrid, 166;</li>
+<li class="isub1">San Geronimo, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">San Juan de los Reyes, Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Santiago, Saragossa, 74;</li>
+<li class="isub1">St. Agnes, Burgos, 121.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cid Campeador, the, and King Alfonso, 121;</li>
+<li class="isub1">and the Jew, 120;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">birthplace, 120;</li>
+<li class="isub1">coffer, 112;</li>
+<li class="isub1">portrait of, 104;</li>
+<li class="isub1">remains, 103;</li>
+<li class="isub1">statue, 104;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sword, 176;</li>
+<li class="isub1">originator of bull-fights, 234.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cigars and cigarettes, 118;</li>
+<li class="isub1">vs. pipes, 132.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cimbrios party, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Claude, Lorraine, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Clot, 19.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cock-fighting at Madrid, 248;</li>
+<li class="isub1">arena, the, 249;</li>
+<li class="isub1">audience, 250;</li>
+<li class="isub1">disgusting spectacle, 256;</li>
+<li class="isub1">gambling on, 252, 254.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Coello, Claudio, paintings by, at Madrid, 193;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at the Escurial, 264.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Colantes as an orator, 276.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Collantes, Francisco, paintings by, at Madrid, 193.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">College of San Gregorio, Valladolid, 135;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Santa Cruz, Valladolid, 443.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Columbian library at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Columbus, Christopher, annotations in books in library of Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">armor of, 175;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">283</span></li>
+<li class="isub1">portrait of, 178;</li>
+<li class="isub1">mementoes of, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Columbus, Ferdinand, history of, ii. <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">library of, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">note on his father's annotations, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Concerts at Madrid, 173.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Conde, Henry II. de Bourbon, prince de, sword of, 176.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Conservative party, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Consuelo the beautiful, ii. <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Consul, seeking the protection of the, ii. <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Convents: Angels, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cartuja, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of the Escurial, 268;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Santo Domingo, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">San Pablo, Valladolid, 134.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cook, Capt. James, cane of, 180.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cookery, Spanish, 14, 160; ii. <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cordova, arrival at, ii. <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at night, ii. <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cathedral, ii. <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Consuelo the beautiful, ii. <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">departed glory, ii. <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">impressions of, ii. <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">mosque, ii. <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">patio, a, ii. <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">pearl of the Orient, ii. <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">preaching the Holy War, ii. <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">relics of the past, ii. <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">streets of, ii. <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cordova, General de, at Saragossa, 84.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Corregio, Antonio Allegri da, painting by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cortes, the, 274;</li>
+<li class="isub1">deputies, 274;</li>
+<li class="isub1">oratorical displays, 275.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cortez, Hernando, portrait of, 178;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sword of, 176.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cosa, Juan de la, map by, at Madrid, 178.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Costumes of peasantry: Andalusian, ii. <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Catalan, 18;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cordovan, ii. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Granadan, ii. <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Madrid, 165;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Saragossan, 56;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Valencian, ii. <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Country houses, ii. <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Courts: Lions, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Myrtles, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Oranges, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Court-life under Amadeus, 198.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Courtesy inherent in the Spanish people, 53, 290.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cuco the matador, 207; ii. <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Currency, Spanish, 118.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Custejon, 92.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Customs officials, 14, 95.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cybele, fountain of, at Madrid, 166.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">D.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">"Daggers," ii. <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Daguet, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">"Dance de los seises," ii. <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Darro, the, ii. <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Democratic party, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Democratic Progressionist party, 96, 97.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Deronda, Francisco Romero, the torero, 235.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Dialects: Andalusian, ii. <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Arragonese, 55;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Barcelonian, 20;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Castilian, 55;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Catalan, 15, 39;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Madrid, 158;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Perpignan, 12;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Valencian, ii. <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Valladolid, 132.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Dinadamar, hill of, ii. <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Discoveries, cabinet of, Naval Museum, Madrid, 177.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Djihad, or Holy War, ii. <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Domenichino, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Dominoes, popularity of game of, 31.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Don Quixote on Barcelona, 42;</li>
+<li class="isub1">popularity of, 286;</li>
+<li class="isub1">true to life, ii. <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Door-keys in Madrid, 171.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Drama, 169.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Drunkenness rare in Spain, 162.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Dumas, Alexandre, on Spanish cookery, 160.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Dürer, Albert, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">E.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ebro, commerce on the, 51;</li>
+<li class="isub1">description of, 92.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Economist party, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Education in Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Egon ad Agoncilla, ruins of, 91.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Elpidius, bishop of Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Elvira Gate, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Escurial, the, arrival at, 258;</li>
+<li class="isub1">altar of Santa Forma, 264;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cell of Philip II., 261;</li>
+<li class="isub1">church, 262;</li>
+<li class="isub1">convent, 268;</li>
+<li class="isub1">courtyard, 261;</li>
+<li class="isub1">gardens, 272;</li>
+<li class="isub1">gloominess, 273;</li>
+<li class="isub1">history of, 260;</li>
+<li class="isub1">holy relics, 272;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">284</span></li>
+<li class="isub1">horrible place, 267;</li>
+<li class="isub1">library, 268;</li>
+<li class="isub1">pantheon, 265;</li>
+<li class="isub1">picture-gallery, 268;</li>
+<li class="isub1">royal palace, 261;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sacristy, 264;</li>
+<li class="isub1">statues, 262;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tombs, 265;</li>
+<li class="isub1">view from, 153, 272;</li>
+<li class="isub1">village, 259.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Espadas, famous, 214;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dangerous life of, 230;</li>
+<li class="isub1">skill of, 221.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Espartero, Gen. Baldemero, addresses Amadeus, 85.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Esperondo la del Cielo, house of, ii. <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Esproncedo, Jose de, the Byron of Spain, 282;</li>
+<li class="isub1">popularity of, 287;</li>
+<li class="isub1">quotation from, 136.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Exaggeration, the national failing, 287.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">F.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Fadrique, Don, blood of, ii. <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">murdered by Don Pedro's orders, ii. <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Farcical revenge, a, 71.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Fatherly admonitions, 54.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Federalist party, 96, 97.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ferdinand III. (the Saint) captures Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">relics of, ii. <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb of, 109.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ferdinand V. (the Catholic), oratory in Alcazar of Seville, 124;</li>
+<li class="isub1">relics of, ii. <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ferdinand VII. annuls the constitution, ii. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">encourages bull-fighting, 235;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb of, 266.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ferrer, Vincenzo, in Seville cathedral, ii. <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Figueras, political leader, 80, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">First glimpses of Spain, 14.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Florinda, legend of, ii. <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Flor, Roger de, a typical Arragonese, 50.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Fomento picture-gallery, Madrid, 193.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Fortune-telling in the Albaicin, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Fountain of Cybele, Madrid, 166.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Fra Angelica, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Francis I., shield of, 176.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Frascuelo the matador, 207, 214, 221, 225, 240, 242; ii. <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">interview with, 242.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Fricci in opera at Madrid, 168; ii. <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Fronterizos party, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Fruit, Spanish, 162.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Fugitive wife, a, 69.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Funeral memorial ceremonies of the second of May, 243.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">G.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Galafro, legend of King, ii. <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Galiana, palaces of, ii. <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gallegos, Don Juan Nicasio, poet, 282.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gamero, Antonio, historian of Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Garbanzos, 161.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Garcilaso de la Vega, poet, 37;</li>
+<li class="isub1">armor of, 176.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gardens: Alcazar, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Aranjuez, ii. <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Buen Retiro, Madrid, 174;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Escurial, 271;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Montpensier, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Garrido, political leader, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gates: Elvira, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Justice, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Santa Maria, Burgos, 104.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gayangos, Pascual y, the Orientalist, 281.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Geber, architect of the Giralda at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Generalife, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">description of, ii. <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">view from, ii. <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Genoa, 10.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gerona, arrival at, 16;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Amadeus at, 16.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gibraltar, rock of, ii. <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Straits of, ii. <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Giordano Luci, paintings by, at Madrid, 182;</li>
+<li class="isub1">frescoes by, at the Escurial, 262, 264, 268;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Giralda of Seville, the, ii. <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">first sight of, ii. <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">view from, ii. <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gitane of Seville, the, ii. <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Godoy, Alvarez de Faria Rios Sanches y Zarsoa, Prince of Peace, ii. <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Golden Tower, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gongora y Argote, Luis, poet, 129;</li>
+<li class="isub1">birthplace at Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gongora, Señor, ii. <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>, <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_285">285</span>Gonzales, Ferdinand (first Count of Castile), monument to, 119;</li>
+<li class="isub1">portrait of, 104;</li>
+<li class="isub1">statue of, 104;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sword of, 176;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb of, 114.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gonzalez, Fernandez y, novelist, 282.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gonzalez di Cordova, anecdote of, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Goya, Francisco, criticism on, 185;</li>
+<li class="isub1">love of bull-fights, 184;</li>
+<li class="isub1">paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sanguinary genius, a, 184;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tapestries by, in the Escurial, 261.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Granada, Alameda, ii. <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Albaicin, ii. <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Alcaiceria, ii. <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">arrival at, ii. <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Audiencia square, ii. <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">birthplace of famous men, ii. <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cartuja, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cathedral, ii. <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">church of San Geronimo, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">convent of Santa Domingo, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">convent of The Angels, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">education, ii. <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Generalife, ii. <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">markets, ii. <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Monte Sacro, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">royal chapel, ii. <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">ruins, ii. <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">streets, ii. <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Vega, ii. <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Granada, Fray Louis de, ii. <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Granallers, 19.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gravina, Admiral Frederick de, relics of, 179.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Guadaira, ill-fated steamer, ii. <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Guadalquivir, the, ii. <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>; ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_150'>150</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Guadiana, valley of the, ii. <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Guerra, Fernandez, archæologist, 281, 291; ii. <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Guides, Spanish, persistency of, ii. <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Guido, Reni, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Guest-houses, 157.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gutierrez, Antonio Garcia, dramatist, 169.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">H.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Halls: Abencerrages, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Ambassadors, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Barca, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Divans, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Justice, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Oranges, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Two Sisters, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Hartzenbusch, Juan Eugenio, dramatist, 169, 281, 291.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Heat, intense, ii. <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Henry II. (de Transtamare), defeated by Pedro the Cruel, 91;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_29'>29</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Henry III. and Papa Moscas, 113;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Hernandez, sculptures by, at Valladolid, 146.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Herrera, Francisco, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 193;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at the Escurial, 263.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Herrera, Juan de, architect of palace of Aranjuez, ii. <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of the Escurial, 260.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Historical Progressionist party, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Holy Cross, relics of the, 272.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">"Honor of Spain," 290.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Hornachuelos, castle of, ii. <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Hospitality, Catalan, 148.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Hospital of Santa Cruz, Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Hotel porters at Barcelona, 20;</li>
+<li class="isub1">women as, 99.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Huerva river, at Saragossa, 77.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Hugo Victor's Mirabeau, ii. <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at the Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">I.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">"Il Trovatore," quotation from, ii. <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Inquisition, palaces of; at Barcelona, 26;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Valladolid, 146.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">International Socialist party, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Isabella the Catholic opposed to bull-fights, 234;</li>
+<li class="isub1">oratory in the Alcazar of Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">relics of, ii. <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sword of, 176;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Isabella II. at Madrid, 197;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dressing-chamber at Aranjuez, ii. <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">encourages bull-fighting, 235;</li>
+<li class="isub1">favored by the Moderate party, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Isabella, Empress, statue of, 262.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Italian, the language of opera, 171.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Italians, prejudice against, 34, 138.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Italica, ruins of, ii. <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_286">286</span></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Italy and Spain, compared, ii. <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Itimad, a dream of, ii. <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">J.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Jerez, circus at, 235.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Joanes, Juan de, criticism on, 192;</li>
+<li class="isub1">paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Joanna the Mad, tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">John, Don, of Austria, 25.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">John I. of Castile and the States-General, 98.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">John II. of Austria, heart of, 63;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sword of, 176.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">John II., admiration of de Mena's "Labyrinth," ii. <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">John Frederick, duke of Saxony, armor of, 176.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Jordaens, Jacob, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Juegos floreales, ii. <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Julian, Count, revenge of, ii. <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Juni, Juan de, sculptures by, at Valladolid, 146.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">K.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Knives, ii. <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">L.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">La Costa, Gen., killed at Saragossa, 59.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">La Cruz, Ramon de, dramatist, 170.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Lagartijo the matador, 214, 240, 241; ii. <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">La Harpe, Jean François, on the Apollo Belvidere, ii. <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Lainus Calvo, judge of Castile, 103.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">La Mancha, ii. <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Language, Italian, in opera, 171;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Spanish, allied to the Italian, 159;</li>
+<li class="isub1">pronunciation of, 159.</li>
+<li class="isub1">See also Dialect.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Lauria, Roger de, 50.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Leon, Louis de, 54;</li>
+<li class="isub1">born in Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Leonardo, Lupercio, sonnet to, 73.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Leopardi Giacomo, Count, 283;</li>
+<li class="indx">ii. <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">in Seville cathedral, ii. <a href='#Page_111'>111</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">on Spanish pride, 284.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Lepanto, relics of battle of, 25, 174, 176.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Lerida, 48.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Light-fingered gentry, 98.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Literature, discouragements of, 282;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dramatic, 283;</li>
+<li class="isub1">national pride in, 287;</li>
+<li class="isub1">present state of, 280;</li>
+<li class="isub1">contests of genius at Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Logroño, Amadeus at, 85;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Moorish ruins at, 91.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Loneliness of travel, ii. <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Lope de Vega's criticism of Gongorist poets, ii. <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">houses at Madrid, 156;</li>
+<li class="isub1">popularity, ii. <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Lorraine. See Claude Lorraine.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Louis I., tomb of, 266.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Love, travelling for, 13.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Loyola, Ignatius, at Montserrat, 46.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Luna, Don Alvaro de, tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Lunatic asylum, Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">M.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Madrazo, Federico de, paintings by, at Madrid, 183.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Madrid, academy of San Fernando, 193;</li>
+<li class="isub1">amusements, 168;</li>
+<li class="isub1">armory, 174;</li>
+<li class="isub1">arrival at, 154;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Buen Retiro garden, 174;</li>
+<li class="isub1">bull-fights, 206;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cafés, 173;</li>
+<li class="isub1">church of Our Lady of Atocha, 166;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Fomento art-gallery, 193;</li>
+<li class="isub1">guest-houses, 157;</li>
+<li class="isub1">language, 157;</li>
+<li class="isub1">markets, 174;</li>
+<li class="isub1">museum of artillery, 180;</li>
+<li class="isub1">museum of fine arts, 181;</li>
+<li class="isub1">naval museum, 177;</li>
+<li class="isub1">opera, 168;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Prado, 166;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Puerta del Sol, 155;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Recoletos promenade, 167;</li>
+<li class="isub1">royal palace, 154;</li>
+<li class="isub1">serenos, 172;</li>
+<li class="isub1">streets, 156, 163;</li>
+<li class="isub1">suburbs, 173.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Maksura of mosque of Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Malaga, ii. <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">literary academy, ii. <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">poetical contests, ii. <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">popular characteristics, ii. <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">streets, ii. <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">wine of, ii. <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Manners of the Spaniards, 290.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">287</span></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Manzoni, Alessandro, 189.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Margall, Pi y, political leader, 96;</li>
+<li class="isub1">oratory of, 276.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Maria, granddaughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Maria Louisa of Savoy, tomb of, 266.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Marini, Giambattista, influence on Italian poetry, ii. <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Markets: Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Madrid, 174;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Valladolid, 132.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Marseilles, 11.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Martina the torera, 238.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Martinez de la Rosa, Francisco, 282, ii. <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">exiled in London, 65;</li>
+<li class="isub1">quotation from, ii. <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Martos, political leader, 96;</li>
+<li class="isub1">oratory of, 226.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Mascagni, Donato, paintings by, at Valladolid, 143.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Masked balls, 86.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">May, second of, funeral memorial ceremonies, 243;</li>
+<li class="isub1">monument to, 247.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Medina Az-Zahra, ii. <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Medina-Coeli, family, owners of the Casa de Pilato, ii. <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Mena, Juan de, "Labyrinth," ii. <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">popularity of, 287;</li>
+<li class="isub1">street of, ii. <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Menendez, paintings by, at Madrid, 193.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Mengs, Anton Rafael, paintings by, at Madrid, 183.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Menjibar, ii. <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Merced, marquis de, 207.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Merriones, Gen., victories over Carlists, 288.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Michelangelo, Buonarroti, Cespedes's tribute to, ii. <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">paintings by, at Burgos, 109;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Mihrab of mosque of Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Military Museum of London possesses Gonzalez di Cordova's fiscal accounts, ii. <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Militia system, 202.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Mirabeau, Victor Hugo's description of, ii. <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Miranda, 94.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Moderate party, 96, 97.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Monastery of Montserrat, 46.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Monegro, Battista, statue by, 262.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Montegna, paintings by, at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Montpensier gardens, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">palace, ii. <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Montpensier, duke of, at Madrid, 197;</li>
+<li class="isub1">party, 96, 97.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Montserrat, description of, 45;</li>
+<li class="isub1">excursion to, 46;</li>
+<li class="isub1">monastery of, 46.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Monzon, 50;</li>
+<li class="isub1">castle, 51.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Moorish art, ii. <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">ruins, ii. <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Morales, Ambrosio, born in Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Moret, political leader, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Moreto, Don Augustin, dramatist, 169.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Mosque of Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of the Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Mozarabe chapel, Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Mulato, paintings by, at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Murat, Joachim, 50.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Murillo, Bartolomé Esteban, a painter of saints and virgins, 191;</li>
+<li class="isub1">death of, ii. <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">estimate of his genius, 192;</li>
+<li class="isub1">last painting, ii. <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">mementoes of, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">painting by, at Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Madrid, 182, 183;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">statue at Madrid, 156, 292.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">N.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Naples, king of, demands an accounting from Gonzalez di Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Navagero, Andrea, influences poetry of Boscan, 37.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Navajas, ii. <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Navarrete, battle of, 91.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Navarrete, Juan Fernandez (El Mudo), paintings by, at Madrid, 193;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at the Escurial, 263.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">News from Spain, 10.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Newspapers hostile to Amadeus, 93, 200.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Nun, the flirting, 53.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Nunes, Duke Ferdinand, at the bull-fight, 209.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Night journey to Aranjuez, ii. <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">to Barcelona, 13;</li>
+<li class="isub1">to Burgos, 97;</li>
+<li class="isub1">to Cadiz, ii. <a href='#Page_149'>149</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">to Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">to Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">288</span></li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">O.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">O'Campo, Florian d', at Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">O'Donnell, Gen. Leopold, Spanish estimate of, 288.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Olesa de Montserrat, 47.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Olivares, Duke de, portrait of, by Velasquez, 183, 188;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sword of, 176.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Opera at Madrid, 168.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Oranges, Court of, Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Court of Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Hall of, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Our Lady of Atocha, church of, at Madrid, 166;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of the Pillar, Saragossa, 60.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">P.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pacheco, Francisco, paintings by, at Madrid, 193;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Padilla, Lopez de, assists in the murder of Don Fadrique, ii. <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Padilla, Maria de, apartments of, in the Alcazar of Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>, 145;</li>
+<li class="isub1">mementoes of, ii. <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Painting, museums: Escurial, 268;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Fomento, Madrid, 193;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Madrid, 181;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Valladolid, 143.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Palaces: Audiencia, Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Burgos, 102;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Charles V., Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Consistorial, Barcelona, 26;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Deputation, Barcelona, 26;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Galiana, 43;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Inquisition, Barcelona, 26;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Inquisition, Valladolid, 146;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Royal, Aranjuez, ii. <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Royal, Escurial, 261;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Royal, Madrid, 154;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Royal, Valladolid, 133.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Palafox, José, at Saragossa, 77.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Palma, ii. <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pancorbo, 98;</li>
+<li class="isub1">castle destroyed, 98.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Paolo Veronese, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Papal question, the, 12, 34, 138.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Papa Moscas, legend of, 113.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pareja, Juan de, paintings by, at Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Madrid, 193.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Party spirit, 96, 289, ii. <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Patio, described, ii. <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Seville,</li>
+<li class="indx">ii. <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">de la Reja, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">de los Arrayanes, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Patriotism vs. common sense, ii. <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Peasantry: Andalusian, ii. <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Catalan, 18;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cordovan, ii. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of Madrid, 165;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Saragossan, 56.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pedro Abad, ii. <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pedro the Cruel, apartments of, in the Alcazar of Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">defeats Henry of Transtamare, 91;</li>
+<li class="isub1">mementoes of, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">murders Don Fadrique, ii. <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">restores the Alcazar of Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">treasure-house, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Perpignan dialect, 12.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pescara, Marquis de, armor of, 176.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Philibert, Emmanuel, armor of, 175, 176.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Philip I., tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Philip II., armor of, 175, 176;</li>
+<li class="isub1">birthplace at Valladolid, 134;</li>
+<li class="isub1">books in the library of the Escurial, 268;</li>
+<li class="isub1">builds palace of Aranjuez, ii. <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">builds the Escurial, 260;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cell of, 261;</li>
+<li class="isub1">his personality pervades the Escurial, 271;</li>
+<li class="isub1">statue of, 262;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sword of, 176;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb of, 265, 266.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Philip III. encourages bull-fights, 234;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb of, 265, 266.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Philip IV., a royal bull-fighter, 235;</li>
+<li class="isub1">statue of, 156;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb of, 265, 266.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Philip V. encourages bull-fights, 235;</li>
+<li class="isub1">his garden of St. Ildefonso, 124.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Philip of Bourgoyne, carvings by, at Burgos, 111;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Piedmontese waiters in hotel at Barcelona, 20.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pilate's house, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pillar, church of Our Lady of the, Saragossa, 60.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pius V. presents holy relics to Ribera, ii. <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pizarro, Francisco, as a bull-fighter, 234;</li>
+<li class="isub1">portrait of, 178;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sword of, 176.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_289">289</span></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Plazas: Alameda, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Campo Grande, Valladolid, 131;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Constitution, Saragossa, 74;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cortez, Madrid, 156;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Mayor, Burgos, 123;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Mayor, Madrid, 156;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Mayor, Valladolid, 131;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Orient, Madrid, 156;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Puerto del Sol, Madrid, 155;</li>
+<li class="isub1">San Pablo, Valladolid, 133.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Poetical contests, ii. <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">rivalry, 38.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Politeness, Spanish, 52.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Political leaders, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Politics, absorbing interest in, 15, 32, 95, 147;</li>
+<li class="isub1">partisanship in, 289; ii. <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pompey defeated by Sertorius at Calahorra, 91.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Poussin, Nicolas, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Prado, Madrid, 166.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Praga, Emile, on Nature, ii. <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Prati, Giovanni, quotation from, ii. <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pride, national, characteristic of the Spanish, 284.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Priests, friendly, 46, 54.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Prim, Gen. Juan, assassination of, at Madrid, 156, 166;</li>
+<li class="isub1">high estimation of, 288.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Puchero, the national dish, 161.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Puerto del Sol, at Madrid, 155, 163;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Puerto Real, ii. <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Puerto de Santa Maria, ii. <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">circus at, 238.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pyrenees, the, 48, 92;</li>
+<li class="isub1">crossing the, 13.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">Q.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Quintana, Manuel José, poet of the Revolution, 282, 291.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Quevedo, Francisco Gomez, on Valladolid, 129.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">R.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Radical party, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Railway travel, 52; ii. <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>; ii. <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Raphael, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Rasura, Nunnius, judge of Castile, 103.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Recoletos promenade at Madrid, 167.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Rembrandt von, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Republican opinions, 15, 16, 32, 80;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of the soldiers, 205;</li>
+<li class="isub1">party, 96, 97.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Restaurants, Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Revenge, a farcical, 71.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ribera, Enriquez de, builds the Casa de Pilato, ii. <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ribera, José, criticism of his genius, 186;</li>
+<li class="isub1">a lover of the horrible, 188;</li>
+<li class="isub1">paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at the Escurial, 264.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ribera, Pedro Afan de, viceroy of Naples, ii. <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ribero, political leader, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ricanati, quotation from, ii. <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Rinconado, ii. <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Rios, Amador de los, critic, 281.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Rivas, Duke de, 282.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Rizzi, Francisco, paintings by, at Madrid, 193.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Roa, Ferdinand de, kills Don Fadrique, ii. <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Roderic and the enchanted tower, ii. <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">and Florinda, ii. <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Roelas, Juan de las, paintings by, at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Rojas, Francisco de, 169;</li>
+<li class="isub1">native of Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_49'>49</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Rodriguez as an orator, 276, 291;</li>
+<li class="isub1">political leader, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Roman aqueduct at Alcanadre, 91;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Segovia, 124;</li>
+<li class="isub1">ruins at Barcelona, 26.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ros de Olano invents the soldier cap, 24.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Rosas, Rios y, political leader, 96;</li>
+<li class="isub1">oratory of, 276.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Resell, Gen., at Saragossa, 84.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Rubens, Peter Paul, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Valladolid, 144.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ruins of Alcanadre, 91;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Egon ad Agoncilla, 91;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Logroño, 91.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ruiz Garcia, political leader, 96.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">S.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Saavedra, Señor, 291, 292.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Sagasta, Praxedes Mateo, political leader, 79, 96, 97;</li>
+<li class="isub1">a modern Cardenio, ii. <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">St. Agnes, church of, Burgos, 121.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_290">290</span></li>
+
+<li class="indx">St. Andrea de Palomar, 19.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">St. Anthony of Padua, Murillo's, ii. <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">St. Eugenia, tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">St. Eulalia, tomb of, 28.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">St. Ferdinand, chapel of, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">St. George Chapel, Barcelona, 26.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">St. Ildefonso, garden of Philip V., 124.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">St. Isadore, memorial ceremony at church of, 244.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">St. James, the first bishop of Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">and the Virgin Mary, 61.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">St. Lawrence, Philip II.'s vow to, 260;</li>
+<li class="isub1">relic of, 272.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">St. Leucadia, tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">St. Theresa, birthplace of, 124;</li>
+<li class="isub1">inkhorn of, 272;</li>
+<li class="isub1">mementoes of, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Salamanca, a suburb of Madrid, 167, 208.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Salvator Rosa, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Salvini, Tommaso, as Samson, ii. <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">San Fernando, Madrid, academy of, 193.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">San Geronimo, church of, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">San Ginés, church of, ii. <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">San Gregorio, college of, 135.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">San José, church of, Madrid, 204.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">San Juan de los Reyes, church of, ii. <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">San Pablo, convent of, 134.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">San Quentin, Philip II.'s vow at battle of, 260;</li>
+<li class="isub1">relics of, 174.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">San Salvador, Saragossa, 65.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">San Servando, castle of, ii. <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Santa Cruz, hospital of, ii. <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Santa Cruz de Mudela, ii. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Santa Cruz, Marquis of, armor of, 176.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Santa Domingo, convent of, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Santa Maria, gate of, Burgos, 104.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Santa Maria la Blanca, synagogue of, ii. <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Santi Ponce, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Saragossa, 56;</li>
+<li class="isub1">alcayde's bold</li>
+<li class="indx">speech, 82;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Amadeus enters, 82;</li>
+<li class="isub1">arrival at, 55;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Bourse, 74;</li>
+<li class="isub1">carnival maskers, 65, 68;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cathedral of Our Lady of the Pillar, 60;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cathedral of San Salvador, 65;</li>
+<li class="isub1">church of Santiago, 74;</li>
+<li class="isub1">costume of peasantry, 56;</li>
+<li class="isub1">masked balls, 87;</li>
+<li class="isub1">new tower, 75;</li>
+<li class="isub1">siege of, 59, 77;</li>
+<li class="isub1">streets, 58;</li>
+<li class="isub1">suburbs, 91.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Sarto, Andrea del, paintings by, at Burgos, 109;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Schoen, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">School-boys, 46.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Shrack, Frederick, description of the Djihad, ii. <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Sea, beauty of the, ii. <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Sebastian of Portugal, a royal bull-fighter, 234.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Segovia, 124.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Segovia and Ardizone, Gonzalo, ii. <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>, 132, 145;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sad fate of, ii. <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Seneca, born in Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Seo, Saragossa, 65.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Serenos, 172.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Serrano, Gen. Francesco, political leader, 96, 97;</li>
+<li class="isub1">reputation of, 288.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Sertorius defeats Pompey at Calahorra, 91.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Seville, Alcazar, ii. <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at night, ii. <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Barber of, ii. <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, 14;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cathedral, ii. <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Columbian library, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">gaiety of, ii. <a href='#Page_143'>143</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">gardens, ii. <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Giralda, ii. <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">house of Pilate, ii. <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">literary and artistic fame, ii. <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">museum of painting, ii. <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Oriental character, ii. <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">patios, ii. <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">poetical character of, ii. <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">streets, ii. <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Torre del Oro, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>, 117;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tropical heat, ii. <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">women of, ii. <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Sierra de Segura, ii. <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Sierra Morena, ii. <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Sierra Nevada, ii. <a href='#Page_214'>214</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Siestas necessary, ii. <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Socialist party, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Soldiers, 23;</li>
+<li class="isub1">political feeling shown by, 204;</li>
+<li class="isub1">reviewed by Amadeus, 202.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">291</span></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Soria, 124.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Stagno in opera at Madrid, 168.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Streets of Barcelona, 22, 27;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Burgos, 101;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cadiz, ii. <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Madrid, 166;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Malaga, ii. <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Saragossa, 58;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_265'>265</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Studying for a degree, ii. <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">T.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Tagus, the, at Aranjuez, ii. <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Tamayo, dramatist, 169, 281, 291.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Tangiers, ii. <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Tarifa, Cape, ii. <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Tasso, Torquato, influence on Italian poetry, ii. <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Tato, the one-legged torero, ii. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Teniers, David, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Theatres at Barcelona, 40;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Madrid, 168;</li>
+<li class="isub1">and literature, 169, 282.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Tiepolo, Giovanni Battista, paintings by, at Madrid, 183.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Tintoretto, Giacomo, paintings by, at Madrid, 182;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at the Escurial, 264.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Tirso de Molina, dramatist, 169.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Titian, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Tobacco manufactories at Burgos, 118;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Madrid, 173;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cigarettes vs. pipes, 132.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Toledo, Alcazar, ii. <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">arrival at, ii. <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at night, ii. <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">bridge of Alcantara, ii. <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cathedral, ii. <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">church of San Juan de los Reyes, ii. <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">church of San Ginés, ii. <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">church of Nuestra Señora di Transito, ii. <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dead city, a, ii. <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">historical, ii. <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">hospital of Santa Cruz, ii. <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">legends of, ii. <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">lunatic asylum, ii. <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">manufactory of arms, ii. <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">popular characteristics, ii. <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Puerto del Sol, ii. <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Santa Maria la Blanca, ii. <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">view from cathedral, ii. <a href='#Page_34'>34</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">silent and gloomy, ii. <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">streets, ii. <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Tolosa, Las Navas de, battlefield, ii. <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Topete, Juan, ii. <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Toreros, 213;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dangers of, 229;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dress of, 240;</li>
+<li class="isub1">highly respectable, 239;</li>
+<li class="isub1">lucrative business, 241.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Torrigiano, Pietro, sculptures by, at Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Torquemada, Tomas de, founds the convent of Santa Domingo, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">origin of, 235.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Torre del Oro, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Tower, new, Saragossa, 75;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Golden, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Trafalgar, relics of, 179.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Trajan's ashes brought to Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Travelling for love, 13;</li>
+<li class="isub1">amenities of, 48, 52;</li>
+<li class="isub1">miseries of, ii. <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">opera troupes, ii. <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">philosophy of, ii. <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">soldiers, ii.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Triana, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Tudela, battle of, 91;</li>
+<li class="isub1">canal, 51, 92.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">U.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Undertaker's shop, 117.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Unionist party, 96, 97.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">University students at Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Valladolid, 148.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">V.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Val de Peñas, ii. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">wine of, 162; ii. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_265'>265</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Amadeus at, ii. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">art-gallery, ii. <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">bull-ring, 235; ii. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Casa de Ayuntamiento, ii. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cathedral, ii. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dress of peasantry, ii. <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">historic houses, ii. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Lonja, ii. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">market, ii. <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">palace of the Audiencia, ii. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">popular characteristics, ii. <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">streets, ii. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">women, ii. <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Valdes Leal, Juan de, paintings by, at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, 132.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Valera, Señor, 291.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Valladolid, 129;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cathedral, 136;</li>
+<li class="isub1">convent of San Pablo, 134;</li>
+<li class="isub1">college of San Gregorio, 135;</li>
+<li class="isub1">decay of, 131;</li>
+<li class="isub">dialect of, 132;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_292">292</span></li>
+<li class="isub1">hospitality, 148;</li>
+<li class="isub1">house of Cervantes, 137;</li>
+<li class="isub1">house of Zorilla, 141;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Inquisition, 146;</li>
+<li class="isub1">markets, 132;</li>
+<li class="isub1">picture-gallery, 143;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Plaza Major, 132;</li>
+<li class="isub1">polite beggary, 135;</li>
+<li class="isub1">royal palace, 133.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Van Dyke, Antonio, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Vega, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Vega, de Armijo, Marquis de, 207.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Vega, Garcilasso de la, armor of, 176;</li>
+<li class="isub1">native of Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Velasquez, Don Diego, masterpieces, 188;</li>
+<li class="isub1">mementoes of, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ventas de Alcolea, ii. <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ventura de la Vega, dramatist, 169.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Veragua, duke of, 207.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Victoria, at Madrid, 195;</li>
+<li class="isub1">charity of, 196;</li>
+<li class="isub1">learning of, 199;</li>
+<li class="isub1">universal respect for, 81, 200.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Vilches, ii. <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Villadomat, paintings by, at Barcelona, 26.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Villaseca, dowager of, 307.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Vinci, Leonardo da, paintings by, at Burgos, 109.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Virgin Mary appears to St. James at Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">miraculous image of, 61;</li>
+<li class="isub1">robes of, ii. <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">W.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Walk of the Spanish women, 136.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">War of Independence influences Spanish national character, 35, 285;</li>
+<li class="isub1">relics of, 174.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Water abundant in the Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Wife, a fugitive, 69.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Wine of Malaga, ii. <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Val de Peñas, 162; ii. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Xeres, ii. <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Women of Barcelona, 41;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cadiz, ii. <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Madrid, 165;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Saragossa, 57;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Valladolid, 136;</li>
+<li class="isub1">toreros, 238;</li>
+<li class="isub1">walk of Spanish, 136.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">X.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Xenil river, ii. <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Xeres, wine of, ii. <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ximenes, wife of the Cid, remains of, 103.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">Z.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Zafra, Don Fernando de, legend of, ii. <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Zahira, ii. <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Zainete, 170.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Zarzuela, the, 168, 170; ii. <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_156'>156</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Zorrilla, Ruiz, political leader, 86, 69, 97;</li>
+<li class="isub1">consents to accept office, ii. <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Zorrilla, José, 281;</li>
+<li class="isub1">birthplace at Valladolid, 141;</li>
+<li class="isub1">influence on Spanish literature, 141;</li>
+<li class="isub1">on people of Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">popularity of, 142.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Zouave officers, 11.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Zuera, 54.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Zurbaran, Francisco de, paintings by, at Cadiz, ii. <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Madrid, 193;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at the Escurial, 264;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_293">293</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" >
+<a href="images/illus-b293.jpg">
+<img src="images/illus-b293s.jpg" alt="Map of SPAIN &amp;
+PORTUGAL" /></a>
+</div>
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 50727 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/old/50727-0.txt b/old/50727-0.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Spain, v. 2 (of 2), by Edmondo de Amicis
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
+the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
+to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
+
+
+
+Title: Spain, v. 2 (of 2)
+
+Author: Edmondo de Amicis
+
+Translator: Stanley Rhoads Varnall
+
+Release Date: December 20, 2015 [EBook #50727]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPAIN, V. 2 (OF 2) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Josep Cols Canals, Les Galloway and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes
+
+ Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected and
+ inconsistencies of hyphenation have been removed. All other variations
+ in spelling, punctuation and accents are unchanged from the original.
+
+ The following corrections have been made to the Index.
+ Rembrandt von changed to Rembrandt van Rijn
+ Pousin, Nicola changed to Poussin, Nicolas
+ Zorilla, Ruiz changed to Zorrilla, Ruiz
+
+ Repetition of chapter titles on consecutive pages has been removed.
+
+ Italics are indicated thus _italic_.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+                   SPAIN
+
+
+[Illustration: _Alcazar, Seville_]
+
+
+            _EDITION ARTISTIQUE_
+
+             The World's Famous
+             Places and Peoples
+
+
+[Illustration: Flower]
+
+
+                   SPAIN
+
+
+                     BY
+
+              EDMONDO DE AMICIS
+
+
+                _Translated
+        by Stanley Rhoads Yarnall, M.A._
+
+
+               In Two Volumes
+
+                  Volume II.
+
+
+             MERRILL AND BAKER
+           New York          London
+
+
+THIS EDITION ARTISTIQUE OF THE WORLD'S FAMOUS PLACES AND PEOPLES IS
+LIMITED TO ONE THOUSAND NUMBERED AND REGISTERED COPIES, OF WHICH THIS
+COPY IS NO. _______
+
+
+    Copyright, Henry T. Coates & Co., 1895
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                  PAGE
+
+ ARANJUEZ                            7
+
+ TOLEDO                             15
+
+ CORDOVA                            53
+
+ SEVILLE                            97
+
+ CADIZ                             147
+
+ MALAGA                            165
+
+ GRANADA                           175
+
+ VALENCIA                          257
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+VOLUME II
+
+
+                                             PAGE
+
+ ALCAZAR, SEVILLE                   _Frontispiece_
+
+ GATE OF THE SUN, TOLEDO                       18
+
+ ALCAZAR AND BRIDGE OF SAN MARTIN, TOLEDO      40
+
+ COURT OF ORANGES, MOSQUE OF CORDOVA           68
+
+ MOORISH ARCHES, ALCAZAR, SEVILLE             124
+
+ CADIZ                                        158
+
+ MALAGA                                       170
+
+ COURT OF MYRTLES, ALHAMBRA                   194
+
+ FOUNTAIN IN THE COURT OF LIONS, ALHAMBRA     200
+
+ QUEEN'S BOUDOIR, ALHAMBRA                    212
+
+ COURT OF GENERALIFE, GRANADA                 226
+
+ THE ALHAMBRA AND THE VALLEY OF THE DARRO     250
+
+
+
+
+ARANJUEZ.
+
+
+As on arriving at Madrid by way of the north, so on leaving it by way
+of the south, one must pass through a desolate country that resembles
+the poorest provinces of Arragon and Old Castile. There are vast
+plains, parched and yellow, which look as though they would echo like a
+hollow passageway if one were to strike them, or crumble like the crust
+of a crisp tart. And through the plains are scattered a few wretched
+villages of the same color as the soil, which seem as though they would
+take fire like a pile of dry leaves if one were to touch a torch to
+the corner of one of the huts. After an hour of travel my shoulders
+sought the cushions of the carriage, my elbow sought for a support,
+my head sought my hand, and I fell into a deep sleep like a member of
+Leopardi's "Assembly of Listeners." A few minutes after I had closed
+my eyes I was rudely awakened by a desperate cry from the women and
+children, and leaped to my feet, demanding of my neighbors what had
+occurred.
+
+But before I had ended my question a general burst of laughter
+reassured me. A company of huntsmen, scattered over the plain, on
+noticing the approach of the train, had planned to give the travellers
+a little scare. At that time there was a rumor that a band of Carlists
+had appeared in the vicinity of Aranjuez. The huntsmen, pretending to
+be the vanguard of the band, had given a loud shout while the train
+was passing, as if to call the great body of their comrades to their
+assistance, and as they shouted they went through the motions of firing
+at the railway-carriages; hence arose the fright and the cries of my
+fellow-travellers. And then the huntsmen suddenly threw the butts of
+their guns into the air to show that it was all a joke.
+
+When the alarm, in which I too shared for a moment, had subsided, I
+fell once more into my academic doze, but was again awakened in a few
+moments in a manner much more pleasant than on the first occasion.
+
+I looked around: the vast barren plain had been transformed as by magic
+into a great garden full of the most charming groves, traversed in all
+directions by wide avenues, dotted with country-houses and cottages
+festooned with verdure; here and there the sparkling of fountains,
+shady grottoes, flowering meadows, vineyards, and bridle-paths--a
+verdure, a freshness, a vernal odor, an atmosphere of happiness and
+peace, that enchanted the soul. We had arrived at Aranjuez. I left the
+train, walked up a beautiful avenue shaded by two rows of noble trees,
+and after a few steps found myself in front of the royal palace.
+
+The minister Castelar had written in his memorandum a few days before
+that the fall of the ancient Spanish monarchy was predoomed on that
+day when a mob of the populace, with curses on their lips and hatred
+in their hearts, had invaded the palace of Aranjuez to disturb the
+majestic repose of their sovereigns. I had reached that square where
+on the 17th of March, 1808, occurred those events which were the
+prologue of the national war, and, as it were, the first word of the
+death-sentence of the ancient monarchy. My eyes quickly sought the
+windows of the apartments of the Prince of Peace; I imagined him,
+as he fled from room to room, pale and distracted, searching for a
+hiding-place as the echo of the cry followed him up the stairs; I saw
+poor Charles IV., as with trembling hands he placed the crown of Spain
+on the head of the prince of the Asturias; all the scenes of that
+terrible drama were enacted in fancy before my eyes, and the profound
+silence of the place and the sight of that palace, closed and desolate,
+sent a chill to my heart.
+
+The palace has the appearance of a castle: it is built of brick, with
+trimmings of light stone, and covered with a tile roof. Every one knows
+that it was built for Philip II. by the celebrated architect Herrera,
+and that it was adorned by all the later kings, who made it their
+summer residence. I enter: the interior is magnificent; there is the
+stupendous reception-hall of the ambassadors, the beautiful Chinese
+cabinet belonging to Charles V., the marvellous dressing-chamber of
+Isabella II., and a profusion of the most precious ornaments. But all
+the riches of the palace are as nothing to the beauty of the gardens.
+The expectation is not disappointed.
+
+The gardens of Aranjuez (Aranjuez is the name of a little town which
+lies a short distance from the palace) seem to have been laid out for
+a race of Titan kings, to whom the royal parks and gardens of our
+country would have seemed like the flower-beds on their terraces or
+the plots before their stables. Endless avenues, bordered by trees
+of measureless height with arched branches interlacing as if bent
+toward each other by contrary winds, extend in every direction like a
+forest whose boundaries one cannot see, and through this forest the
+Tagus, a wide, swift stream, flows in a majestic curve, forming here
+and there cascades and lakes: an abundant and luxuriant vegetation
+springs up amid a labyrinth of bypaths, crossways, and sylvan glades;
+and in every part gleam statues, vases, columns, and fountains rising
+to a great height and falling in spray, festoons, and drops of water,
+placed in the midst of all manner of flowers from Europe and America;
+and, mingling with the majestic roar of the cascades of the Tagus, a
+flood of song from innumerable nightingales, which make the mysterious
+gloom of the lonely paths ring with their mellow notes. In the depths
+of the gardens rises a small marble palace of modest proportions
+which contains all the wonders of the most magnificent royal abode;
+and here one may still breathe, so to speak, the air of the inmost
+life of the kings of Spain. Here are the small secret chambers whose
+ceilings one may touch with the hand, the billiard-room of Charles
+IV., his cue, the cushions embroidered by the hands of his queens, the
+musical clocks which enlivened the playtime of his children, the narrow
+staircases, the little windows about which cluster a hundred traditions
+of princely caprices, and, finally, the richest retiring-room in
+Europe, created at a whim of Charles V., containing in itself alone
+sufficient riches to adorn a palace, without depriving it of the noble
+primacy which it proudly holds among all other cabinets designed for
+the same use. Beyond this palace and all around the groves extend
+vineyards and olive-groves and orchards of fruit-bearing trees and
+smiling meadows. It is a veritable oasis in the midst of the desert--an
+oasis which Philip II. chose to create on a day when he was in good
+humor, as if to enliven with one cheerful image the black melancholy
+of the Escurial. On returning from the little marble palace toward
+the great royal palace through those endless avenues, in the shade of
+those noble trees, in that profound forest silence, I thought of the
+splendid trains of ladies and cavaliers who once wandered about in the
+footsteps of the gay young monarchs or the capricious and dissolute
+queens to the sound of amorous music and songs which told of the
+grandeur and glory of unconquered Spain; and I sadly repeated with the
+poet, Ricanati,
+
+    ... "All is peace and silence,
+        And their names are no longer heard."
+
+But as I looked at those marble seats, half hidden in the shrubbery,
+and fixed my eyes on the shadow of certain distant paths, and thought
+of those queens, those lovers, and those mad pranks, I could not
+refrain from a sigh, which was not one of pity, and a secret sense of
+bitterness stung me to the heart; and I said, like poor Adan in the
+poem _Diablo Mundo_, "How are these grand ladies made? How do they
+live? What do they do? Do they talk, make love, and enjoy like us?"
+And I left for Toledo, imagining the love of a queen like a young
+adventurer of the Arabian Nights.
+
+
+
+
+TOLEDO.
+
+
+When one approaches an unknown city one ought to have near by some one
+who has already seen it and is able to indicate the opportune moment to
+put one's head out of the window and get the first view. I had the good
+fortune to be informed in time. Some one said to me, "There is Toledo!"
+and I sprang to the window with an exclamation of wonder.
+
+Toledo rises on a sheer rocky height, at whose foot the Tagus describes
+a grand curve. From the plain one sees only the rocks and the walls
+of the fortress, and beyond the wall the tips of the belfries and
+the towers. The houses are hidden from view; the city seems to be
+closed and inaccessible, and presents the appearance of an abandoned
+stronghold rather than of a city. From the walls to the river-banks
+there is not a single house nor tree; all is bare, parched, craggy,
+precipitous; not a soul is in sight; you would say that to make the
+ascent it would be necessary to climb, and it seems that at the first
+appearance of a man on the face of those rocks a shower of arrows would
+fall upon him from the top of the wall.
+
+You leave the train, get into a carriage, and arrive at the entrance
+of a bridge. It is the famous bridge Alcantara, which spans the Tagus,
+surmounted by a beautiful Moorish gate in the form of a tower, which
+gives it a bold, severe appearance. Crossing the bridge, you turn
+into a wide roadway which winds up in large serpentine curves until
+it reaches the top of the mountain. Here it really seems that you are
+under a fortified city of the Middle Ages, and you imagine yourself in
+the guise of a Moor or a Goth or a soldier of Alfonso VI. From every
+part precipitous rocks hang over your head, crumbling walls, towers,
+and the ruins of ancient bastions, and higher up the last wall which
+encircles the city, black, crowned with enormous battlements, opened
+here and there by great breaches, behind which the imprisoned houses
+rear their heads; and as you climb higher and higher the city seems
+to draw back and hide itself. Halfway up the ascent you come to the
+_Puerto del Sol_, a jewel of Moorish architecture, consisting of two
+embattled towers which are joined over a very graceful double-arched
+colonnade, under which runs the ancient street; and from that point, if
+you look back, you may see at a glance the Tagus, the valley, and the
+hills. You go on and find other walls and other ruins, and finally the
+first houses of the city.
+
+What a city! At the first moment I caught my breath. The carriage had
+turned down a little street, so narrow that the hubs of the wheels
+almost touched the walls of the houses.
+
+[Illustration: _Gate of the Sun, Toledo_]
+
+"Why do you turn in here?" I asked the driver.
+
+He laughed and answered, "Because there is no wider street."
+
+"Is all Toledo like this?" I asked again.
+
+"It is all like this," he replied
+
+"Impossible!" I exclaimed.
+
+"You will see," he added.
+
+To tell the truth, I did not believe him. I entered a hotel, dropped my
+valise in a room, and ran headlong down the stairs to take a look at
+this very strange city. One of the hotel-porters stopped me at the door
+and asked with a smile,
+
+"Where are you going, _caballero_?"
+
+"To see Toledo," I replied.
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"Yes; why not?"
+
+"But have you ever been here before?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"Then you cannot go alone."
+
+"And why not?"
+
+"Because you will get lost."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"As soon as you go out."
+
+"For what reason?"
+
+"The reason is this," he answered, pointing to a wall on which hung a
+map of Toledo. I approached and saw a network of white lines on a black
+background that seemed like one of those flourishes which school-boys
+make on their slates to waste the chalk and vex their teacher.
+
+"No matter," said I; "I am going alone, and if I get lost, let them
+come and find me."
+
+"You will not go a hundred steps," observed the porter.
+
+I went out and turned down the first street I saw, so narrow that on
+extending my arms I touched both walls. After fifty paces I turned into
+another street, narrower than the first, and from this passed into a
+third, and so on.
+
+I seemed to be wandering not through the streets of the city, but
+through the corridors of a building, and I went forward, expecting
+momentarily to come out into an open place. It is impossible, I
+thought, that the whole city is built in this manner; no one could
+live in it. But as I proceeded the streets seemed to grow narrower and
+shorter; every moment I was obliged to turn; after a curving street
+came a zigzag one, and after this another in the form of a hook, which
+led me back into the first, and so I wandered on for a little while,
+always in the midst of the same houses. Now and then I came out at a
+crossway where several alleys ran off in opposite directions, one of
+which would lose itself in the dark shadow of a portico, another would
+end blindly in a few paces against the wall of a house, a third in
+a short distance would descend, as it were, into the bowels of the
+earth, while a fourth would clamber up a steep hill; some were hardly
+wide enough to give a man passage; others were confined between two
+walls without doors or windows; and all were flanked by buildings of
+great height, between whose roofs one could see a narrow streak of sky.
+
+One passed windows defended by heavy iron bars, great doors studded
+with enormous nails, and dark courtyards. I walked for some time
+without meeting anybody, until I came out into one of the principal
+streets, lined with shops and full of peasants, women, and children,
+but little larger than an ordinary corridor. Everything is in
+proportion to the streets: the doors are like windows, the shops like
+niches, and by glancing into them one sees all the secrets of the
+house--the table already spread, the babies in the cradle, the mother
+combing her hair, and the father changing his shirt; everything is
+on the street, and it does not seem like a city, but like a house
+containing a single great family.
+
+I turned into a less-frequented street, where I heard only the buzzing
+of a fly; my footsteps echoed to the fourth story of the houses and
+brought some old women to the windows. A horse passes; it seems like a
+squadron; everybody hurries to see what is going on. The least sound
+re-echoes in every direction; a book falls in a second story, an old
+man coughs in a courtyard, a woman blows her nose in some unknown
+place; one hears everything.
+
+Sometimes every sound will suddenly cease; you are alone, you see no
+sign of life: you seem to be surrounded by the houses of witches,
+crossways made for conspirators, blind alleys for traitors, narrow
+doorways suitable for any crime, windows for the whispers of guilty
+lovers, gloomy doorways suggestive of blood-stained steps. But yet in
+all this labyrinth of streets there are no two alike; each one has
+its individuality: here rises an arch, there a column, yonder a piece
+of statuary. Toledo is a storehouse of art-treasures. Every little
+while the walls crumble, and there are revealed in every part records
+of all the centuries--bas-reliefs, arabesques, Moorish windows, and
+statuettes. The palaces have doorways defended by plates of engraved
+metal, historical knockers, nails with carved heads, 'scutcheons and
+emblems; and they form a fine contrast to the modern houses painted
+with festoons, medallions, cupids, urns, and fantastic animals.
+
+But these embellishments detract in no way from the severe and gloomy
+aspect of Toledo. Wherever you look you see something to remind you of
+the city fortified by the Arabs; however little your imagination may
+exert itself, it will succeed in rearranging from the relics scattered
+here and there the whole fabric of that darkened image, and then the
+illusion is complete: you see again the glorious Toledo of the Middle
+Ages, and forget the solitude and silence of its streets. But it is a
+fleeting illusion, and you soon relapse into sad meditation and see
+only the skeleton of the ancient city, the necropolis of three empires,
+the great sepulchre of the glory of three races. Toledo reminds you of
+the dreams which come to young men after reading the romantic legends
+of the Middle Ages. You have seen many a time in your dreams dark
+cities encircled by deep moats, frowning walls, and inaccessible rocks;
+and you have crossed those draw-bridges and entered those tortuous,
+grass-grown streets, and have breathed that damp, sepulchral, prison
+air. Well, then, you have dreamed of Toledo.
+
+The first thing to see, after making a general survey of the city, is
+the cathedral, which is justly considered one of the most beautiful
+cathedrals in the world. The history of this cathedral, according to
+popular tradition, dates from the times of the apostle Saint James,
+first bishop of Toledo, who selected the place where it should be
+erected; but the construction of the edifice as it appears to-day
+was begun in 1227, during the reign of San Fernando, and was ended
+after twenty-five years of almost continuous labor. The exterior of
+this immense church is neither rich nor beautiful, as is that of
+the cathedral of Burgos. A little square extends in front of the
+façade, and is the only place from which one can get a view of any
+considerable part of the building. It is entirely surrounded by a
+narrow street, from which, however much you may twist your neck, you
+can see only the high outer walls which enclose the church like a
+fortress. The façade has three great doorways, the first of which is
+named _Pardon_, the second _Inferno_, and the third _Justice_. Over it
+rises a substantial tower which terminates in a beautiful octagonal
+cupola. Although in walking around the building one may have remarked
+its great size, on first entering one is struck by a profound sense of
+wonder, which quickly gives place to another keen sense of pleasure,
+the result of the freshness, the repose, the soft shadow, and the
+mysterious light which steals through the stained glass of innumerable
+windows and breaks in a thousand rays of blue, golden, and rosy light
+which glides here and there along the arches and columns like the
+bands of a rainbow. The church is formed of five great naves divided
+by eighty-eight enormous pilasters, each of which is composed of
+sixteen turned columns as close together as a bunch of spears. A sixth
+nave cuts the other five at right angles, extending from the great
+altar to the choir, and the vaulted roof of this principal nave rises
+majestically above the others, which seem to be bowing to it as if in
+homage. The many-colored light and the clear tone of the stone give
+the church an air of quiet cheerfulness which tempers the melancholy
+appearance of the Gothic architecture without depriving it of its
+austere and serious character. To pass from the streets of the city to
+the naves of this cathedral seems like coming out of a dungeon into an
+open square: one looks around, draws a deep breath, and begins to live
+again.
+
+The high altar, if one wished to examine it minutely, would require
+as much time as the interior of a church: it is itself a church--a
+miracle of little columns, statuettes, traceries, and ornaments of
+endless variety, creeping along the iron frames, rising above the
+architraves, winding about the niches, supporting one another, climbing
+and disappearing, presenting on every side a thousand outlines, groups,
+combinations, effects in gilding and color, every sort of grace that
+art can devise--giving to the whole an effect of magnificence, dignity,
+and beauty. Opposite the high altar rises the choir, divided into
+three orders of stalls, marvellously carved by Philip of Bourgogne
+and Berruguete, with bas-reliefs representing historical events,
+allegories, and sacred legends--one of the most famous monuments of art.
+
+In the centre, in the form of a throne, stands the seat of the
+archbishop surrounded by a circle of enormous jasper columns, with
+colossal statues of alabaster resting on the architraves; on either
+side rise enormous bronze pulpits provided with two great missals, and
+two gigantic organs, one in front of the other, from which it seems
+that at any moment a flood of melody may burst forth and make the vault
+tremble.
+
+The pleasure of one's admiration in these great cathedrals is almost
+always disturbed by importunate guides, who wish at any cost to amuse
+you after their fashion. And it was my misfortune to become convinced
+that the Spanish guides are the most persistent of their kind. When
+one of them has gotten it into his head that you are to spend the day
+with him, it is all over. You may shrug your shoulders, refuse to
+notice him, let him talk himself hoarse without so much as turning to
+look at him, wander about on your own account as though you had not
+seen him: it is all the same thing. In a moment of enthusiasm before
+some painting or statue a word escapes you, a gesture, a smile: it
+is enough. You are caught, you are his, you are the prey of this
+implacable human cuttle-fish, who, like the cuttle-fish of Victor Hugo,
+does not leave his victim until he has cut off his head. While I stood
+contemplating the statuary of the choir I saw one of these cuttle-fish
+out of the corner of my eye--a miserable old rake, who approached me
+with slow steps sidewise, like a cutthroat with the air of one who was
+saying, "Now I have got you!" I continued to look at the statues; the
+old man came up to my side, and he too began to look; then he suddenly
+asked me, "Do you wish my company?"
+
+"No," I replied, "I don't need you."
+
+And he continued, without any embarrassment,
+
+"Do you know who Elpidius was?"
+
+The question was so remarkable that I could not keep from asking in my
+turn,
+
+"Who was he?"
+
+"Elpidius," he replied, "was the second bishop of Toledo."
+
+"Well, what of him?
+
+"'What of him?' It was the bishop Elpidius who conceived the idea of
+consecrating the church to the Virgin, and that is the reason why the
+Virgin came to visit the church."
+
+"Ah! how do you know that?"
+
+"How do you know it? You see it."
+
+"Do you mean to say that it has been seen?"
+
+"I mean to say that it is still to be seen: have the goodness to come
+with me."
+
+So saying, he started off, and I followed him, very curious to
+learn what this visible form of the descent of the Virgin might be.
+We stopped in front of a sort of chapel close to one of the great
+pilasters of the central nave. The guide pointed out a white stone set
+in the wall covered by an iron net, and with this inscription running
+around it:
+
+    "Quando la reina del cielo
+    Puso los pies en el suelo,
+    En esta piedra los puso."
+
+    "When the Queen of heaven
+    Descended to the earth,
+    Her feet rested on this stone."
+
+"Then the Holy Virgin has actually placed her feet on this stone?" I
+asked.
+
+"On this very stone," he replied; and, thrusting a finger between the
+strands of the iron net, he touched the stone, kissed his finger, made
+the sign of the cross, and turned toward me as if to say, "Now it is
+your turn."
+
+"My turn?" I replied. "Oh, really, my friend, I cannot do it."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because I do not feel myself worthy to touch that sacred stone."
+
+The guide understood, and, looking hard at me with a serious aspect, he
+asked, "You do not believe?"
+
+I looked at a pilaster. Then the old man made a sign for me to follow,
+and started toward a corner of the church, murmuring with an air of
+sadness, "_Cadanno es dueño de su alma_" (Every man is master of his
+soul).
+
+A young priest who was standing near, and who had divined the cause of
+his words, cast a piercing glance at me, and went off in an opposite
+direction, muttering I know not what.
+
+The chapels correspond in style with that of the church: almost all of
+them contain some fine monuments. In the chapel of Santiago, behind
+the high altar, are two magnificent tombs of alabaster which contain
+the remains of the constable Alvaro de Luna and his wife; in the chapel
+of San Ildefonso, the tomb of the cardinal Gil Carrillo de Albornoz;
+in the chapel of the "New Kings," the tombs of Henry II., John II.,
+and Henry III.; in the chapel of the sacristy, a stupendous group of
+statues and busts of marble, silver, ivory, and gold, and a collection
+of crosses and relics of inestimable value, the remains of Saint
+Leucadia and Saint Eugenia preserved in two silver caskets exquisitely
+chased.
+
+The Chapel Mozarabe, which is under the tower of the church, and was
+erected to perpetuate the tradition of the primitive Christian rite,
+is probably the most worthy of attention. One of its walls is entirely
+covered with a fresco, in the Gothic style, representing a conflict
+between the Moors and the Toledans--marvellously preserved, even to
+the most delicate lines. It is a painting worth a volume of history.
+In it one sees the Toledo of those times with all its walls and its
+houses; the habiliments of the two armies; the arms, faces, everything
+portrayed with an admirable finish and an unspeakable harmony of color
+which answers perfectly to the vague and fantastic idea which one may
+have formed of those centuries and those races. Two other frescoes on
+either side of the first represent the fleet which bore the Arabs into
+Spain, and they offer a thousand minute details of the mediæval marine
+and the very air of those times, if one may so speak, which makes one
+think of and see a thousand things not represented in the painting, as
+one hears distant music on looking at a landscape.
+
+After the chapels one goes to see the sacristy, where are gathered
+enough riches to restore the finances of Spain to a sound basis. There
+is, among others, a vast room on the ceiling of which one sees a
+fresco by Luca Giordano, which represents a vision of paradise, with
+a myriad of angels, saints, and allegorical figures floating in the
+air or standing out like statues from the cornices of the walls in a
+thousand bold attitudes, with so much action and foreshortening that
+one is bewildered. The guide, pointing out this miracle of imagination
+and genius, which in the estimation of all artists, to use a very
+curious Spanish expression, is a work of _merito atroz_ (of atrocious
+merit),--the guide bids you to look attentively at the ray of light
+which falls upon the walls from the centre of the vaulted ceiling. You
+look at it and then make a circuit of the room, and wherever you find
+yourself that ray of light is falling directly upon your head.
+
+From this hall you pass into a room which is also beautifully painted
+in fresco by the nephew of Berruguete, and from it into a third, where
+a sacristan lays the treasures of the cathedral before your eyes--the
+enormous silver candlesticks; the pyxes flashing with rubies; the
+golden stands for the elevation of the Host, studded with diamonds;
+the damask vestments, embroidered in gold; the robes of the Virgin,
+covered with arabesques, garlands of flowers, and stars of pearl, which
+at every motion of the cloth flash forth in a thousand rays and colors
+and quite dazzle one's eyes. A hour is scarcely sufficient to see
+hurriedly all that display of treasures, which would certainly satisfy
+the ambition of ten queens and enrich the altars of ten cathedrals;
+and when, after he has shown you everything, the sacristan looks in
+your eyes for an expression of surprise, he finds only astonishment and
+stupefaction, which give evidence of an imagination wandering in far
+distant regions--in the realms of the Arabian legends where the kindly
+genii gather all the riches dreamed of by the glowing fancy of enamored
+sultans.
+
+It was the eve of _Corpus Domini_, and in the sacristy they were
+preparing the robes for the processional. Nothing can be more
+unpleasant or more at variance with the quiet and noble sadness of
+the church than the theatrical hurry-scurry which one sees on such
+occasions. It is like being behind the scenes on the evening of a
+dress rehearsal. From one room of the sacristy to another half-dressed
+boys were coming and going with a great clatter, carrying armfuls
+of surplices, stoles, and capes; here a sour-tempered sacristan was
+opening and banging the doors of a wardrobe; there a priest, all red
+in the face, was calling angrily to a chorister who did not hear him;
+yonder other priests were running through the room with their robes
+partly on their backs and partly trailing behind them; some laughing,
+some screaming, and some shouting from one room to another at the top
+of their voices; everywhere one heard a swish of skirts, a breathless
+panting, and an indescribable stamping and tramping.
+
+I went to see the cloister, but, as the door was open through which one
+reaches it from the church, I saw it before entering. From the middle
+of the church one gets a glimpse of a part of the cloister-garden, a
+group of fine leafy trees, a little grove, a mass of luxuriant plants
+which seem to close the doorway and look as though they are framed
+beneath a graceful arch and between the two slender columns of the
+portico which extends all around. It is a beautiful sight, which makes
+one think of Oriental gardens encircled by the columns of a mosque.
+The cloister, which is very large, is surrounded by a colonnade,
+graceful, though severe in form; the walls covered with great frescoes.
+The guide advised me to rest here a little while before ascending to
+the campanile. I leaned against a low wall in the shade of a tree,
+and remained there until I felt able to make another expedition, as
+the expression is. Meanwhile, my commander extolled in bombastic
+language the glories of Toledo, carrying his impudence so far, in his
+patriotism, as to call it "a great commercial city" which could buy
+and sell Barcelona and Valencia, and a city strong enough, if need be,
+to withstand ten German armies and a thousand batteries of Krupp guns.
+After each of his exaggerations I kept spurring him on, and the good
+man enjoyed himself to the full. What pleasure there is in knowing how
+to make others talk! Finally, when the proud Toledan was so swollen
+with glory that the cloister could no longer hold him, he said to me,
+"We may go now," and led the way toward the door of the campanile.
+
+When we were halfway up we stopped to take breath. The guide knocked at
+a little door, and out came a swaggering little sacristan, who opened
+another door, and made me enter a corridor where I saw a collection of
+gigantic puppets in very strange attire. Four of them, the guide told
+me, represented Europe, Asia, America, and Africa, and two others Faith
+and Religion; and they were so made that a man could hide in them and
+raise them from the ground.
+
+"They take them out on the occasions of the royal fêtes," the sacristan
+added, "and carry them around through the city;" and, to show me how
+it was done, he crept in under the robes of Asia. Then he led me to
+a corner where there was an enormous monster which when touched, I
+know not where, stretched out a very long neck and a horrible head
+and made a dreadful noise. But he could not tell me what this ugly
+creature signified, and so invited me instead to admire the marvellous
+imagination of the Spaniards, which creates so "many new things" to
+sell in all the known world. I admired, paid, and continued the ascent
+with my Toledan cuttle-fish. From the top of the tower one enjoys a
+splendid view--the city, the hills, the river, a vast horizon, and,
+below, the great mass of the cathedral, which seems like a mountain of
+granite. But there is another elevation, a short distance away, from
+which one sees everything to a better advantage, and consequently I
+remained in the campanile only a few moments, especially as at that
+hour the sun was shining very strongly, confusing all the colors of the
+city and country in a flood of light.
+
+From the cathedral my guide led me to see the famous church of _San
+Juan de los Reyes_, situated on the banks of the Tagus. My mind is
+still confused when I think of the windings and turnings which we were
+obliged to make in order to reach it. It was mid-day, the streets were
+deserted; gradually, as we went farther from the centre of the city,
+the solitude became more depressing; not a door or window was open, not
+the slightest sound was heard. For a moment I suspected that the guide
+was in league with some assassin to entice me into an out-of-the-way
+place and rob me; he had a suspicious face, and then he kept glancing
+here and there with a suspicious air, like one meditating a crime.
+
+"Is it much farther?" I would ask from time to time, and he would
+always answer: "It is right here," and yet we never reached it.
+
+At a certain point my uneasiness changed into fear: in a narrow,
+tortuous street a door opened; two bearded men came out, made a sign
+to the cuttle-fish, and fell in behind us. I thought it was all over
+with me. There was only one way of escape--to strike the guide, knock
+him down, jump over his body, and run. But which way? And on the other
+side there came into my mind the high praises which Thiers bestows
+on the "Spanish legs" in his _History of the War of Independence_;
+and I thought that flight would only prove an opportunity to plant a
+dagger in my back instead of my stomach, Alas! to die without seeing
+Andalusia! To die after taking so many notes, after giving so many
+tips--to die with pockets full of letters of introduction, with a purse
+fat with doubloons--to die with a passport covered with seals--to die
+by treachery! As God willed, the two bearded men disappeared at the
+first corner and I was saved. Then, overwhelmed by compunction for
+suspecting that the poor old man could be capable of a crime, I came
+over to his left side, offered him a cigar, said that Toledo was worth
+two Romes, and showed him a thousand courtesies. Finally we arrived at
+_San Juan de los Reyes_.
+
+It is a church which seems like a royal palace: the highest part is
+covered by a balcony surrounded with a honeycombed and sculptured
+breastwork, upon which rises a series of statues of kings, and in the
+middle stands a graceful hexagonal cupola which completes the beautiful
+harmony of the edifice. From the walls hang long iron chains which were
+suspended there by the Christian prisoners released at the conquest of
+Granada, and which, together with the dark color of the stone, give
+the church a severe and picturesque appearance. We entered, passed
+through two or three large, bare rooms, unpaved, cluttered with piles
+of dirt and heaps of rubbish, climbed a staircase, and came out upon
+a high gallery inside the church, which is one of the most beautiful
+and noblest of the monuments of Gothic architecture. It has a single
+great nave divided into four vaults, whose arches intersect under rich
+rosettes. The pilasters are covered with festoons and arabesques;
+the walls ornamented with a profusion of bas-reliefs, with enormous
+shields bearing the arms of Castile and Arragon, eagles, dragons,
+heraldic animals, trailing vines, and emblematic inscriptions; the
+gallery running all around the room is perforated and carved with great
+elegance; the choir is supported by a bold arch; the color of the stone
+is light gray, and everything is admirably finished and preserved, as
+if the church had been built but a few years ago, instead of at the
+end of the fifteenth century.
+
+From the church we descended to the cloister, which is, in truth,
+a miracle of architecture and sculpture. Graceful slender columns
+which could be broken in two by the stroke of a hammer, looking like
+the trunks of saplings, support capitals richly adorned like curving
+boughs; arches ornamented with flowers, birds, and grotesque animals
+in every sort of carving. The walls are covered with inscriptions
+in Gothic characters in a framework of leaves and very delicate
+arabesques. Wherever one looks one finds grace mingled with riches in
+enchanting harmony: it would not be possible to accumulate in an equal
+space and with more exquisite art a larger number of the most delicate
+and beautiful objects. It is a luxuriant garden of sculpture, a grand
+saloon embroidered, quilted, and brocaded in marble, a great monument,
+majestic as a temple, magnificent as a palace, delicate as a toy, and
+graceful as a flower.
+
+After the cloisters one goes to see a picture-gallery which contains
+only some paintings of little value, and then to the convent with its
+long corridors, its narrow stairs, and empty cells, almost on the point
+of falling into ruins, and in some parts already in ruins; throughout
+bare and squalid like a building gutted by fire.
+
+A little way from _San Juan de los Reyes_ there is another monument
+well worthy of attention, a curious record of the Judaic period--the
+synagogue now known by the name of Santa Maria la Blanca. One enters
+an untidy garden and knocks at the door of a wretched-looking house.
+The door opens. There is a delightful sense of surprise, a vision of
+the Orient, a sudden revelation of another religion and another world.
+There are five narrow alleys divided by four long rows of little
+octagonal pilasters, which support as many Moorish arches with stucco
+capitals of various forms; the ceiling is of cedar-wood divided into
+squares, and here and there on the walls are arabesques and Arabic
+inscriptions. The light falls from above, and everything is white. The
+synagogue was converted into a mosque by the Arabs, and the mosque into
+a church by the Christians, so that, properly, it is none of the three,
+although it still preserves the character of the mosque, and the eye
+surveys it with delight, and the imagination follows from arch to arch
+the fleeting images of a sensuous paradise.
+
+When I had seen Santa Maria la Blanca, I had not the strength to see
+anything else, and, refusing all the tempting propositions of the
+guide, I told him to lead me back to the hotel. After a long walk
+through a labyrinth of narrow, deserted streets we arrived there; I put
+a _peseta_ and a half in the hand of my innocent assassin, who found
+the fee too small, and asked (how I laughed at the word!) for a little
+_gratificacion_.
+
+I went into the dining-room to eat a chop or _chuleta_ (which is
+pronounced _cuileta_), as the Spanish call it--a name at which they
+would turn up their noses in some of the provinces of Italy.
+
+Toward evening I went to see the Alcazar. The name raises expectations
+of a Moorish palace, but there is nothing Moorish about it except the
+name. The building which one admires to-day was built in the reign of
+Charles V. on the ruins of a castle which was in existence as early
+as the eighth century, although the notices of it in contemporary
+chronicles are vague. This edifice rises upon a height overlooking the
+city, so that one sees its walls and towers from every point above the
+level of the streets, and the foreigner finds it a sure landmark amid
+the confusion and labyrinths of the city. I climbed the height by a
+broad winding street, like that one which runs from the plain up to
+the city, and found myself in front of the Alcazar. It is an immense
+square palace, at whose corners rise four great towers that give it the
+formidable appearance of a fortress. A vast square extends in front
+of the façade, and all around it runs a chain of embattled bulwarks
+of Oriental design. The entire building is of a decided chalky color,
+relieved by a thousand varied shades of that powerful painter of
+monuments, the burning sun of the South, and it appears even lighter
+against the very clear sky upon which the majestic form of the building
+is outlined.
+
+The façade is carved in arabesques in a manner at once dignified and
+elegant. The interior of the palace corresponds with the exterior: it
+is a vast court surrounded by two orders of graceful arches, one above
+the other, supported by slender columns, with a monumental marble
+staircase starting at the centre of the side opposite the door, and a
+little way above the pavement divides into two parts that lead to the
+interior of the palace, the one on the right, the other on the left.
+To enjoy the beauty of the courtyard it is necessary to stand on the
+landing where the staircase separates: from that point one comprehends
+at a glance the complete harmony of the edifice, which inspires a sense
+of cheerfulness and pleasure, like fine music performed by hidden
+musicians.
+
+Excepting the courtyard, the other parts of the building--the
+stairways, the rooms, the corridors--everything is in ruins or falling
+to ruins. They were at work turning the palace into a military school,
+whitewashing the walls, breaking down the partitions to make great
+dormitories, numbering the doors, and converting the palace into
+a barracks. Nevertheless, they left intact the great subterranean
+chambers which were used for stables at the time of Charles V., and
+which are still able to hold several thousand horses. The guide made
+me approach a window from which I looked down into an abyss that
+gave me an idea of their vastness. Then we climbed a series of unsteady
+steps into one of the four towers; the guide opened with pincers and a
+hammer a window that had been nailed fast, and with the air of one who
+was announcing a miracle said to me, "Look, sir!"
+
+[Illustration: _Alcazar and Bridge of San Martin, Toledo_]
+
+It was a wonderful panorama. One had a bird's-eye view of the city of
+Toledo, street by street and house by house, as if one were looking at
+a map spread upon a table: here the cathedral, rising above the city
+like a measureless castle, and making all the buildings around it seem
+as small as toy houses; there the balcony of _San Juan de las Reyes_,
+crowned with statues; yonder the embattled towers of the New Gate, the
+circus, the Tagus running at the foot of the city between its rocky
+banks; and beyond the river, opposite the bridge of Alcantara, on a
+precipitous crag, the ruins of the ancient castle of San Servando;
+still farther off a verdant plain, and then rocks, hills, and mountains
+as far as the eye can see; and over all a very clear sky and the
+setting sun, which gilded the summits of the old buildings and flashed
+on the river like a great silver scarf.
+
+While I was contemplating this magic spectacle the guide, who had
+read the _History of Toledo_ and wished me to know the fact, was
+telling all sorts of stories with that manner, half poetical and half
+facetious, which is distinctive of the Spaniards of the South. Above
+all, he wished to explain the history of the work of fortification,
+and although, where he said that he saw clear and unmistakable remains
+which he pointed out to me, I saw nothing at all, I succeeded,
+nevertheless, in learning something about it.
+
+He told me that Toledo had been thrice surrounded by a wall, and that
+the traces of all three walls were still clear. "Look!" he said;
+"follow the line which my finger indicates: that is the Roman wall,
+the innermost one, and its ruins are still visible. Now look a little
+farther on: that other one beyond it is the Gothic wall. Now let your
+glance describe a curve which embraces the first two: that is the
+Moorish wall, the most recent. But the Moors also built an inner wall
+on the ruins of the Roman wall: this you can easily see. Then observe
+the direction of the streets, which converge toward the highest point
+of the city; follow the line of the roofs--here, so; you will see that
+all the streets go up zigzag, and they were built purposely in this
+manner, so that the city could be defended even after the walls had
+been destroyed; and the houses were built so close one against another
+in order that it would be possible to jump from roof to roof, you
+see; and then the Arabs have left it in their writings. This is the
+reason that the Spanish gentlemen from Madrid make me laugh when they
+come here and say, 'Pooh! what streets!' You see, they do not know a
+particle of history: if they knew the least bit, if they read a little
+instead of spending their days on the Prado and in the Recoleto, they
+would understand that there is a reason for the narrow streets of
+Toledo, and that Toledo is not a city for ignoramuses."
+
+I began to laugh.
+
+"Do you not believe?" continued the custodian: "it is a sacred fact.
+Not a week ago, to cite a case, here comes a dandy from Madrid with
+his wife. Well, even as they were climbing the stairs they began to
+run down the city, the narrow streets, and the dark houses. When they
+came to this window and saw those two old towers down yonder on the
+plain on the left bank of the Tagus, they asked me what they were, and
+I answered, '_Los palacios de Galiana_.' 'Oh! what beautiful palaces!'
+they exclaimed, and began to laugh and looked in another direction.
+Why? Because they did not know their history. Now, I imagine that
+you do not know any better; but you are a stranger, and that makes a
+difference. Know, then, that the great emperor Charlemagne came to
+Toledo when he was a very young man. King Galafro was reigning then,
+and dwelt in that palace. King Galafro had a daughter Galiana, as
+beautiful as an angel; and, as Charlemagne was a guest of the king
+and saw the princess every day, he fell in love with her with all
+his heart, and so did the princess with him. But there was a rival
+between them, and this rival was the king of Guadalajara, a Moorish
+giant of herculean strength and the courage of a lion. This king, to
+see the princess without being seen, had a subterranean passage made
+all the way from the city of Guadalajara to the very foundation of the
+palace. But what good did it do? The princess could not even bear to
+see him, and as often as he came, so often did he return crestfallen;
+but not for this did the enamored king stop paying his court. And so
+much did he come hanging around that Charlemagne, who was not a man to
+be imposed upon, as you can imagine, lost his patience, and to end the
+matter challenged him. They fought: it was a terrible struggle, but the
+Moor, for all he was a giant, got the worst of it. When he was dead
+Charlemagne cut off his head and laid it at the feet of his love, who
+approved the delicacy of his offering, became a Christian, gave her
+hand to the prince, and went away with him to France, where she was
+proclaimed empress."
+
+"And the head of the Moor?"
+
+"You may laugh, but these are sacred facts. Do you see that old
+building down there at the highest point of the city? It is the church
+of San Ginés. And do you know what is inside of it? Nothing less than
+the door of an underground passage which extends three leagues beyond
+Toledo. You do not believe it? Listen! At the place where the church
+of San Ginés now stands there once was an enchanted palace before the
+Moors invaded Spain. No king had ever had the courage to enter it,
+and those who might possibly have been so bold did not do it because,
+according to the tradition, the first man who crossed that threshold
+would be the ruin of Spain. Finally King Roderic, before setting out
+for the battle of Guadalete, hoping to find in it some treasures which
+would furnish him means to resist the invasion of the Moors, had the
+doors broken open and entered, preceded by his warriors, who lighted
+the way. After a great deal of trouble to keep their torches lighted
+for the furious wind which came through the underground passages,
+they reached a mysterious room where they saw a chest which bore the
+inscription, 'He who opens me will see miracles.' The king commanded
+that it be opened: with incredible difficulty they succeeded in opening
+it, but, instead of gold or diamonds, they found only a roll of
+linen, on which were painted some armed Moors, with this inscription
+underneath: '_Spain will soon be destroyed by these_.' That very night
+a violent tempest arose, the enchanted palace fell, and a short time
+afterward the Moors entered Spain. You don't seem to believe it?"
+
+"What stuff you are talking! How can I believe it?"
+
+"But this history is connected with another. You know, without doubt,
+that Count Julian, the commandant of the fortress of Ceuta, betrayed
+Spain and allowed the Moors to pass when he might have barred the way.
+But you do not know why Count Julian turned traitor. He had a daughter
+at Toledo, and this daughter went every day with a number of her young
+friends to bathe in the Tagus. As misfortune willed it, the place
+where they went to bathe, which was called _Los Baños de la Cava_, was
+near a tower in which King Roderic was accustomed to pass the mid-day
+hours. One day Count Julian's daughter, who was called Florinda, tired
+of sporting in the water, sat down on the river-bank and said to her
+companions, 'Companions, let us see who is the most beautiful.'--'Let
+us see!' they cried, and as soon done as said. They seated themselves
+around Florinda, and each one revealed her beauty. But Florinda
+surpassed them all, and, unfortunately, just at the moment when she
+said to the others, 'Look!' King Roderic put his head out of the window
+and saw them. Young and dissolute, you may imagine he took fire like a
+match, paid his court to the beautiful Florinda, ruined and abandoned
+her; and from this followed the fury of the revenge of Count Julian,
+the treason, and the invasion."
+
+At this point it seemed that I had listened long enough: I gave the
+custodian two _reales_, which he took and put in his pocket with a
+dignified air, and, giving a last look at Toledo, I descended.
+
+It was the hour for promenading. The principal street, hardly wide
+enough for a carriage to pass through, was full of people; there may
+have been a few hundred persons, but they seemed like a great crowd;
+it was dusk, the shops were closing, and a few stray lights began to
+flicker here and there. I went to get my dinner, but came out quickly,
+so as not to lose sight of the promenade. It was night: there was
+no other illumination save the moonlight, and one could not see the
+faces of the people; I seemed to be in the midst of a procession
+of spectres, and was overwhelmed with sadness. "To think that I am
+alone!" I said--"that in all this city there is not a soul who knows
+me; that if I fall dead at this moment, there would not be a dog to
+say, 'Poor man! he was a good fellow!'" I saw joyous young men pass,
+fathers of families with their children, husbands or those who had
+the air of husbands with beautiful creatures on their arms; every one
+had a companion; they laughed and talked, and passed without so much
+as looking at me. How wretched I was! How happy I should have been if
+a boy, a beggar, or a policeman had come up and said, "It seems to
+me that I recognize you, sir"!--"It is impossible, I am a foreigner,
+I have never been in Toledo before; but it makes no matter; don't go
+away; stay here, and we will talk a while, for I am lonely."
+
+In a happy moment I remembered that at Madrid I had received a letter
+of introduction to a Toledan gentleman. I hurried to the hotel, took
+out my letter, and was at once shown to his house. The gentleman was
+at home and received me courteously. It was such a pleasure to hear my
+own name again that I could have thrown my arms around his neck. He was
+Antonio Gamero, the author of a highly esteemed _History of Toledo_. We
+spent the evening together. I asked him a hundred things; he told me a
+thousand, and read me some splendid passages from his book, which made
+me better acquainted with Toledo than I should otherwise have been in a
+month's residence there.
+
+The city is poor, and worse than poor: it is dead; the rich have
+abandoned it for Madrid; the men of genius have followed the rich; it
+has no commerce; the manufacture of cutlery, the only industry which
+flourishes, provides a livelihood for some hundreds of families, but
+not for the city; popular education is neglected; the people are lazy
+and miserable.
+
+But they have not lost their ancient character of nobility. Like all
+the peoples of great declining cities, they are proud and chivalrous;
+they abhor baseness, deal justice with their own hands, when they
+can, to assassins and thieves and murderers; and, although the poet
+Zorilla, in one of his ballads, has bluntly called them a silly
+people, they are not so; they are alert and bold. They combine the
+seriousness of the Spaniards of the North with the vivacity of the
+Spaniards of the South; they hold the middle ground between the
+Castilian and the Andalusian; they speak the language with refinement,
+with a greater variety of inflexion than the people of Madrid, and
+with greater precision than the people of Cordova and Seville; they
+love poetry and music; they are proud to number among their great men
+the gentle Garcilaso de la Vega, the reformer of Spanish poetry, and
+the illustrious Francisco de Rojas, the author of the _Garcia del
+Castañar_; and they take pride in welcoming within their walls artists
+and students from all the countries in the world who come to study the
+history of three nations and the monuments of three civilizations.
+But, whatever its people may be, Toledo is dead; the city of Wamba,
+of Alfonso the Brave, and of Padilla is nothing but a tomb. Since
+Philip II. took from it the crown of the capital, it has been steadily
+declining, and is still declining, and it is consuming itself little by
+little, solitary on the summit of its gloomy mountain, like a skeleton
+abandoned on a rock in the midst of the waves of the sea.
+
+I returned to the hotel shortly before midnight. Although the moon was
+shining brightly--for on moonlight nights they do not illuminate the
+streets, although the light of that silvery orb does not penetrate
+those narrow ways--I was obliged to grope my way along like a thief.
+With my head full, as it was, of fantastic ballads which describe the
+streets of Toledo traversed at night by cavaliers muffled in their
+cloaks, singing under the windows of their ladies, fighting and killing
+one another, climbing into palaces and stealing the maidens away, I
+imagined I should hear the tinkle of guitars, the clashing of swords,
+and the cries of the dying. Nothing of the kind: the streets were
+deserted and silent and the windows dark, and one heard faintly from
+time to time at the corners and crossways the light step of some one
+passing or a fugitive whisper, the source of which one could in no way
+discover. I reached the hotel without harming any fair Toledan, which
+might have caused me some annoyance, and also without having any holes
+made in my stomach, which was undoubtedly a consolation.
+
+The morning of the next day I visited the beautiful building of the
+hospital of San Cruz, the church of _Nuestra Señora del Transito_, an
+ancient synagogue, the ruins of an amphitheatre and of an arena where
+naval battles were fought in Roman times, and the famous manufactory
+of arms, where I bought a beautiful dagger with a silver handle and a
+blade covered with arabesques, which at this moment lies on my table,
+and when I shut my eyes and take it in my hand I seem to be still
+there, in the courtyard of the factory, a mile out of Toledo, under
+the mid-day sun, surrounded by a group of soldiers, and enveloped in a
+cloud of smoke from their cigarettes. I remember that as I was walking
+back to Toledo, as I was crossing a bit of country solitary as a
+desert and silent as the Catacombs, a terrible voice cried out, "Away
+with the foreigner!"
+
+The voice came from the city. I stopped--I was the foreigner, that cry
+was directed at me, and my blood curdled; the solitude and silence of
+the place increased my fear. I started forward and the voice cried
+again, "Away with the foreigner!"
+
+"Is it a dream?" I exclaimed, stopping again, "or am I awake? Who is
+shouting? Where is he? Why does he do it?"
+
+I started on again, and the voice came the third time, "Away with the
+foreigner!"
+
+I stopped the third time, and when, all disturbed, I cast my eyes
+around, I saw a boy sitting on the ground, who looked at me with a
+laugh and said, "He is a crazy man, who thinks he is living in the time
+of the War of Independence. Look, sir! that is the insane asylum."
+And he pointed out the place on a hill among the outermost houses of
+Toledo. I drew a long breath which would have blown out a torch.
+
+In the evening I left Toledo, regretting that I had not time to see
+once and again all that was ancient and wonderful in it: this regret
+was tempered, however, by my ardent desire for Andalusia, which had
+not allowed me a moment's peace. But how long I saw Toledo before my
+eyes! How long I remembered and dreamed of those headlong rocks, those
+enormous walls, those dark streets, that fantastic appearance of a
+mediæval city! Even to-day I review the picture with a sort of sombre
+pleasure and grave melancholy, and with this picture before me my mind
+wanders back in a thousand strange thoughts among distant times and
+marvellous events.
+
+
+
+
+CORDOVA.
+
+
+On arriving at Castillejo I was obliged to wait until midnight for
+the Andalusia train. I dined on hard-boiled eggs and oranges, with
+a little sprinkling of Val de Peñas, murmured a poem of Espronceda,
+chatted a little with a custom-house officer who between parentheses
+made me a confession of his political faith--Amadeus, liberty, an
+increase of wages to the custom-house officers, etc; finally I heard
+the long-desired whistle, entered a railway-carriage crowded full of
+women, children, civil guards, boxes, cushions, and wraps, and away
+with a speed unusual for the Spanish railways. It was a beautiful
+night; my travelling-companions talked of bulls and Carlists; a
+beautiful girl, whom more than one devoured with his eyes, pretended
+to sleep that she might still further heighten their curiosity; some
+were rolling cigarettes, some peeling oranges, others humming songs
+from the _Zarzuela_. Nevertheless, I fell asleep in a few minutes. I
+believe I had already dreamed of the mosque of Cordova and the Alcazar
+of Seville, when I was aroused by a hoarse cry, "Daggers!"
+
+"Daggers? Heavens! for whom?" Before I discovered who had shouted
+there flashed before my eyes a long sharp blade, and the unknown voice
+asked again,
+
+"Do you like it?"
+
+One must admit that there are pleasanter ways to be awakened. I
+looked in the faces of my travelling-companions with an expression of
+consternation, which made them all burst into a shout of laughter.
+Then they explained that at every railway-station there are vendors of
+knives and daggers who offer tourists their wares, just as the boys
+offer newspapers and refreshments in our country. Assured that my life
+was safe, I bought my scarecrow--five francs; a splendid dagger for a
+villain in a tragedy, with an ornamented handle, inscriptions on the
+blade, and a sheath of embroidered velvet; and I put it in my pocket,
+thinking that I might find it useful in Italy to settle difficulties
+with my publishers.
+
+The vendor must have had fifty of those knives in a great red sash
+tied around his waist. Other travellers bought them, the civil guards
+complimented one of my neighbors on the good selection he had made; the
+boys cried, "Buy me one too!" The mammas answered, "We will buy you a
+bigger one some other time." "O happy Spain!" I exclaimed, and thought
+with horror of our barbarous laws, which forbid the innocent amusement
+of a little cold steel.
+
+We crossed La Mancha, the celebrated La Mancha, the immortal
+theatre of the adventures of Don Quixote. It is such a place as I
+imagined--wide, bare plains, long tracts of sandy soil, here and there
+a windmill, a few wretched villages, lonely lanes, and forsaken huts.
+On seeing these places I felt that vague sense of melancholy which
+steals over me as I read the book of Cervantes, and repeated to myself
+what I always say on reading it: "This man cannot make one laugh
+without also making one's tears flow as the laughter dies away."
+
+Don Quixote is a sad and sombre figure: his madness is a lament;
+his life is the history of the dreams, illusions, awakenings, and
+aberrations of each of us; the struggle of reason with imagination, of
+truth with falsehood, of the ideal with the real. We all have something
+of Don Quixote in our nature; we all mistake windmills for giants; we
+are all now and then spurred on by the impulse of enthusiasm, only
+to be driven back by the laugh of scorn; we are each a mixture of
+the sublime and the ridiculous; we all feel bitterly and profoundly
+the eternal conflict between the grandeur of our aspirations and the
+impotence of our powers. O beautiful dreams of childhood and youth!
+Generous impulses to consecrate our life to the defence of virtue and
+justice, fond imaginations of dangers faced, of adventurous struggles,
+of magnanimous deeds, and sublime loves, fallen one by one, like the
+petals of a flower, in the narrow and uneventful paths of life! To what
+new life have they arisen in our soul, and what vague thoughts and
+profound inspirations have we derived from thee, O generous and hapless
+cavalier of the sad figure!
+
+We arrived at Argamasilla de Alba, where Don Quixote was born and died,
+and where poor Cervantes, the tax-gatherer of the great priory of San
+Juan, was arrested by angry debtors and imprisoned in a house which is
+said to be still in existence, and where he probably conceived the plan
+of his romance. We passed near the village of Val de Peñas, which gives
+its name to one of the most exquisite wines of Spain--dark, tingling,
+exhilarating, the only one, forsooth, which permits the foreigner from
+the North to indulge in copious libations at his meals; and finally we
+arrived at Santa Cruz de Mudela, a village famous for its manufactories
+of _navajas_ (knives and razors), near which the way begins to slope
+gently upward toward the mountain.
+
+The sun had risen, the women and children had left the carriage, and a
+number of peasants, officers, and _toreros_ had entered on their way
+to Seville. One saw in that small space a variety of costume which
+would not be seen even in an Italian market-place--the pointed caps of
+the peasants of the Sierra Morena, the red trousers of the soldiers,
+the great sombreros of the _picadores_, the shawls of the gypsies, the
+mantles of the Catalans, Toledo blades hanging from the walls, capes,
+belts, and finery of all the colors of a harlequin.
+
+The train entered the rocks of the Sierra Morena, which separate the
+valley of the Guadiana from that of the Guadalquivir, famous for the
+songs of poets and the deeds of brigands. The railway runs at times
+between two walls of rock sheer from the very peaks, so high that to
+see the top one must put one's head all the way out of the window
+and turn one's face up, as if to look at the roof of the carriage.
+Sometimes the rocks are farther away and rise one above the other, the
+first like enormous broken stones, the last straight and sharp like
+bold towers rising upon measureless bastions; between them a mass of
+boulders cut into teeth, steps, crests, and humps, some almost hanging
+in the air, others separated by deep caverns and frightful precipices,
+presenting a confusion of curious forms, of fantastic suggestions
+of houses, gigantic figures and ruins, and offering at every step a
+thousand outlines and surprising appearances; and, together with this
+infinite variety of form, an infinite variety of color, shadow, dancing
+and changing light. For long distances, to the right, to the left, and
+overhead, one sees nothing but stone, without a house, a path, or a
+patch of ground where a man could set his foot, and, as one advances,
+rocks, ravines, and precipices: everything grows larger, deeper, and
+higher until one reaches the summit of the Sierra, where the solemn
+majesty of the spectacle provokes a cry of wonder.
+
+The train stopped a few minutes, and all the travellers put their heads
+out of the window.
+
+"Here," said one in a loud voice,--"here Cardenio jumped from rock to
+rock to do penance for his sins" (Cardenio, one of the most remarkable
+characters in _Don Quixote_, who jumped about among the rocks of the
+Sierra in his shirt to do penance for his sins). "I wish," continued
+the traveller, "that Sagasta might have to do the same."
+
+They all laughed, and began to find, each one on his own account,
+some political enemy upon whom in imagination he might inflict this
+punishment: one proposed Serrano, another Topete, and a third another,
+and so on, until in a few minutes, if their desires had been realized,
+one might have seen the entire Sierra filled with ministers, generals,
+and deputies in their shirts skipping from crag to crag like the famous
+rock of Alessandro Manzoni.
+
+The train started, the rocks disappeared, and the delightful valley
+of the Guadalquivir, the garden of Spain, the Eden of the Arabs, the
+paradise of painters and of poets, blessed Andalusia, revealed herself
+to my eyes. I can still feel the thrill of childish joy with which I
+hurried to the window, saying to myself, "Let me enjoy it."
+
+For a long distance the country does not offer any new appearance to
+the ardent curiosity of the traveller. At Vilches there is a vast
+plain, and beyond it the level country of Tolosa, where Alfonso VIII.,
+king of Castile, won the celebrated victory of _de las Navas_ over the
+Mussulman army. The sky was as clear as air--in the distance rose the
+mountains of the Sierra de Segura. Suddenly I made one of those quick
+motions which seemed to correspond to an unuttered cry of astonishment:
+the first aloes with their broad heavy leaves, the unexpected
+harbingers of the tropical vegetation, rise beside the road. Beyond
+them the fields sprinkled with flowers begin to appear. The first
+fields sprinkled, those which follow almost covered, then vast tracts
+of country wholly clothed, with wild poppies, daisies, iris, mushrooms,
+cowslips, and buttercups, so that the country appears like a succession
+of vast carpets of purple and gold and snowy white, and far away, among
+the trees, innumerable streaks of blue, white, and yellow until the eye
+is lost; and hard by, on the edge of the ditches, the mounds, and the
+banks, even to the very track, flowers in beds, groups, and clusters,
+one above the other, fashioned like great bouquets, trembling on their
+stems, which one can almost touch with the hand. Then waving fields
+of grain with great heavy bearded heads, bordered by long gardens of
+roses; then orange-orchards and vast olive-groves; hillocks varied
+by a hundred shades of green, surmounted by ancient Moorish towers,
+dotted with many-colored cottages, with here and there white, graceful
+bridges, which span rivulets hidden by the trees. On the horizon rise
+the snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada, and below this white line other
+blue undulating lines of the nearer mountains. The country grows ever
+more various and blooming: Arjonilla, embowered in an orange-grove
+whose limits are lost in the distance; Pedro Abad, in the midst of a
+plain covered with vineyards and orchards; Ventas de Alcolea, on the
+hills of the Sierra Morena, crowned with villas and gardens. We are
+drawing near to Cordova: the train flies; one sees little stations half
+hidden among trees and flowers; the wind blows the rose-leaves into
+the cars, great butterflies sail past the windows, a delicious perfume
+fills the air, the travellers are singing, we pass through an enchanted
+garden, the aloes, oranges, palms, and villas become more frequent; one
+hears a cry: "Here is Cordova!"
+
+How many beautiful images and how many memories are recalled by that
+name!
+
+Cordova, the ancient pearl of the Occident, as the Moorish poets called
+her, the city of cities, Cordova of the thirty burgs and the three
+thousand mosques, which contained within her walls the greatest temple
+of Islam! Her fame spread through the Orient and obscured the glory
+of ancient Damascus,--from the remotest regions of Asia the faithful
+journeyed toward the banks of the Guadalquivir to prostrate themselves
+in the marvellous mihrab of her mosque, in the blaze of a thousand
+brazen lamps cast from the bells of the Spanish cathedrals. From every
+part of the Mohammedan world artists, scholars, and poets crowded to
+her flourishing schools, her vast libraries, and the magnificent courts
+of her caliphs. Hither flowed wealth and beauty, drawn by the fame of
+her splendor.
+
+And from here they separated, eager for knowledge, along the coasts of
+Africa, among the schools of Tunis, Cairo, Bagdad, and Cufa, as far as
+India and China, in search of books, inspiration, and memories; and the
+poems sung on the slopes of the Sierra Morena flew from harp to harp
+even to the valleys of the Caucasus, to make the hearts of pilgrims
+burn within them. The beautiful, the mighty, the wise Cordova, crowned
+with three thousand villages, proudly reared her white minarets among
+her orange-groves and spread through the divine valley a voluptuous air
+of gladness and glory.
+
+I descend from the train, cross a garden, and look around: I am
+alone; the travellers who came with me have disappeared in different
+directions; I still hear the rumble of the receding carriages; then all
+is silent.
+
+It is mid-day: the sky is very clear, the air burning. I see two white
+cottages; it is the opening of a street; I enter and go forward. The
+street is narrow, the houses small as the little villas built on the
+hillocks of artificial gardens; nearly all of them are one story in
+height, with windows a little way from the ground, roofs so low that
+one can almost touch them with a cane, and very white walls. The street
+makes a turn; I look down it; no one is in sight; I do not hear a
+step nor a voice. "It must be an abandoned street," I say, and turn
+in another direction: white cottages, closed windows, solitude, and
+silence. "Where am I?" I ask myself.
+
+I walk on: the street is so narrow and crooked that a carriage could
+not pass through it; to the right and left one sees other deserted
+streets, other white houses, and other closed windows; my step echoes
+as in a corridor; the white of the walls is so bright that the
+reflection almost blinds me, and I am obliged to walk with my eyes
+closed; I seem to be passing through snow. I reach a little square:
+everything is closed, there is no one about. Then a feeling of vague
+melancholy begins to steal into my heart, such as I have never felt
+before, a mingling of enjoyment and sorrow like that which children
+experience when after a long run they find themselves in a beautiful
+country-place and enjoy it, but with a tremor of fear at being so
+far away from home. Above the many roofs rise the palms of the inner
+gardens. O fantastic legends of odalisques and caliphs!
+
+On from street to street and square to square; I meet a few persons,
+but they all pass and disappear like phantoms. The streets are all
+alike, the houses have only two or four windows; and there is not a
+stain, not a scratch, not a crack in the walls, which are as smooth
+and white as a sheet of paper. Now and then I hear a whisper behind a
+venetian blind, and almost at the same moment see a dark head with a
+flower in the hair peep out and disappear. I approach a door.
+
+A _patio_! How shall I describe a _patio_? It is not a courtyard, it
+is not a garden, it is not a room; it is the three in one. Between the
+_patio_ and the street there is a vestibule. On the four sides of the
+_patio_ rise graceful columns which support a sort of balcony enclosed
+in glass at the height of the second story; over the balcony extends a
+canvas which shades the court. The vestibule is flagged with marble,
+the doorway supported by columns surmounted by bas-reliefs and closed
+by a delicate iron lattice of very beautiful design. At the back of
+the _patio_, opposite the doorway, stands a statue, in the centre a
+fountain, and all around chairs, work-tables, paintings, and vases of
+flowers. I run to another door. Another _patio_, its walls covered with
+ivy, and a line of niches containing statuettes and urns. I hurry to
+a third door. A _patio_ with its walls adorned with mosaic, a palm in
+the centre, and all around a mass of flowers. A fourth door. Behind
+the _patio_ another vestibule, and then a second _patio_, in which one
+sees other statues, columns, and fountains. And all these rooms and
+gardens are clean and tidy, so that you could pass your hands over the
+walls and along the floor without leaving a mark; and they are fresh
+and fragrant, lighted with a dim light which heightens their beauty and
+mystery.
+
+Still forward, from street to street, at random. Gradually, as I walk
+on, my curiosity increases and I hasten my steps. It seems impossible
+that the whole city can be like this: I am afraid of coming upon a
+house or finding a street which will remind me of other cities and
+rouse me from my pleasant dream.
+
+But, no: the dream is unbroken. Everything is small, graceful,
+mysterious. Every hundred paces a deserted little square, in which I
+stop breathless; now and then a crossway, and not a living soul; and
+everything always white--closed windows and silence. At every door
+there is a new spectacle: arches, columns, flowers, fountains, palms;
+a marvellous variety of design, color, light, perfume, here of roses,
+there of oranges, yonder of violets; and with the perfume a breath of
+fresh air, and borne on the air the subdued sound of women's voices,
+the rustling of leaves, and the singing of birds--a sweet and various
+harmony, which, without disturbing the silence of the street, soothes
+the ear like the echo of distant music. Ah! it is not a dream! Madrid,
+Italy, Europe, surely they are far, far away. Here one lives another
+life, here one breathes the air of another world; I am in the Orient.
+
+I remember that at a certain point I stopped in the middle of the
+street and suddenly discovered, I know not how, that I was sad
+and restless, and that in my heart there was a void which neither
+admiration nor enjoyment could fill. I felt an irrepressible necessity
+of entering those houses and those gardens, of tearing asunder, so to
+speak, the mysterious veil which concealed the life of the unknown
+people within; of sharing in that life; of grasping some hand and
+gazing into two pitying eyes, and saying, "I am a stranger, I am alone;
+I too want to be happy; let me linger among your flowers, let me enjoy
+all the secrets of your paradise, teach me who you are and how you
+live; smile on me and calm me, for my head is burning!"
+
+And this sadness grew upon me until I said to myself, "I cannot stay in
+this city; I am suffering here; I will leave it!"
+
+And I believe I should have left if at a happy moment I had not
+remembered that I carried in my pocket a letter of introduction to
+two young men of Cordova, brothers of a friend of mine in Florence. I
+dismissed the idea of leaving, and started at once to find them.
+
+How they laughed when I told them of the impression Cordova had made
+upon me! They proposed that we go at once to see the cathedral; so we
+turned down a narrow white street and were off.
+
+The mosque of Cordova, which was converted into a cathedral after the
+overthrow of the Moors, but which must always remain a mosque, was
+built on the ruins of the original cathedral, a little way back from
+the bank of the Guadalquivir. Abdurrahman commenced its construction
+in the year 785 or 786 A. D. "Let us rear a mosque," said he, "which
+shall surpass that of Bagdad, of Damascus, and of Jerusalem--a mosque
+which shall be the greatest temple of Islam, one which shall become the
+Mecca of the West." They undertook the work with great ardor. Christian
+slaves carried the stone for its foundations from their ruined
+churches; Abdurrahman himself worked an hour every day; in a few years
+the mosque was built, the caliphs who succeeded Abdurrahman embellished
+it, and after a century of almost continuous labor it was finished.
+
+"Here we are!" said one of my friends, stopping suddenly in front of a
+vast edifice.
+
+I thought it was a fortress, but it was the wall which surrounds the
+mosque--an old embattled wall in which there were at one time twenty
+great bronze doors ornamented with the most beautiful arabesques, and
+arched windows supported by graceful columns, now covered by a triple
+coat of plaster. A turn around this wall is a nice little walk to
+take after dinner: one may judge, therefore, of the vast size of the
+building.
+
+[Illustration: _Court of Oranges, Mosque of Cordova_]
+
+The principal door of the enclosure is north of the point where rises
+the minaret of Abdurrahman, from whose summit floated the Mohammedan
+standard. We entered: I expected to see at once the interior of the
+mosque, but found myself in a garden full of orange trees, cypresses,
+and palms, surrounded on three sides by a very beautiful portico and
+closed on the fourth side by the façade of the mosque. In the midst
+of this garden there was, in the time of the Moors, the fountain for
+their ablutions, and in the shade of these trees the faithful refreshed
+themselves before entering the sanctuary.
+
+I stood for some moments looking around and breathing in the fresh
+odorous air with the liveliest sense of pleasure, and my heart leaped
+at the thought of the famous mosque standing there before me, and I
+felt myself impelled toward the door by a boundless curiosity, and
+at the same time restrained by I know not what feeling of childish
+hesitation.
+
+"Let us enter," said my companions. "One moment more," I replied: "let
+me thoroughly enjoy the delight of anticipation." Finally I moved
+forward and entered, without so much as looking at the marvellous
+doorway which my companions pointed out.
+
+What I did or said on entering I do not know, but some strange
+exclamation must surely have escaped me or I must have made an odd
+gesture, for some persons who were just then coming toward me began to
+laugh and turned again to look around, as if to discover the reason of
+the profound emotion which I had manifested.
+
+Imagine a forest and suppose yourself in the thickest part, where
+you see only the trunks of trees. So in the mosque wherever you turn
+your gaze is lost among the columns. It is a forest of marble whose
+boundaries one cannot discover. One follows with the eye, one by one,
+those lengthening rows of columns crossed at every step by innumerable
+other rows, and perceives a dimly-lighted background in which one
+seems to see the gleaming of still other columns. There are nineteen
+naves which extend in the direction in which you enter, crossed by
+thirty-three other naves, and supported, in all, by more than nine
+hundred columns of porphyry, jasper, onyx, and marble of every color.
+Each column is surmounted by a pilaster, and between one column and
+the next bends an arch, and a second arch above the first extends from
+pilaster to pilaster, both of them in the form of a horseshoe; and so,
+imagining the columns to be the trunks of so many trees and the arches
+to represent the branches, the resemblance of the mosque to a forest is
+complete.
+
+The central nave, much larger than the others, leads to the Maksura,
+the most sacred part of the temple, where they worshipped the Koran.
+Here from the vaulted windows steals a faint ray of light which glides
+along a row of columns; there a dark place, and yonder another ray
+pierces the gloom of another nave. It is impossible to express the
+feeling of mystical wonder which fills one's mind at this spectacle.
+It is like the sudden revelation of a religion, a nature, and a life
+unknown, leading the fancy captive among the delights of that paradise
+of love and pleasure where the blessed, sitting in the shade of leafy
+plane trees and of thornless roses, drink from crystal beakers wine
+gleaming like pearls, mixed by immortal children, and repose in the
+embrace of lovely virgins with great dark eyes! All the images of
+that external pleasure, eager, warm, and glowing, which the Koran
+promises to the faithful, crowd upon the mind at the first sight of the
+mosque, and give one a delicious moment of intoxication which leaves
+in the heart an indescribable feeling of gentle melancholy. A brief
+tumult in the mind and a rapid thrill which goes tingling through the
+veins,--such is one's first sensation on entering the cathedral of
+Cordova.
+
+We began to wander from passage to passage, examining everything
+minutely. What a variety in that edifice which at first sight appears
+so uniform! The proportions of the columns, the design of the capitals,
+the form of the arches change, one may say, at every step. The greater
+part of the columns are old and were taken by the Moors from Northern
+Spain, Gaul, and Roman Africa, and one is said to have belonged
+to a temple of Janus, upon whose ruins stood the church which the
+Arabians destroyed to build the mosque. On several of the capitals
+one may still see the traces of the crosses carved upon them, which
+the Arabians broke off with their hammers. In some of the columns
+iron rings are fastened to which it is said the Arabians bound the
+Christians, and among the others there is one pointed out to which the
+popular tradition narrates a Christian was bound for many years, and
+in that time, by continually scratching with his nails, he succeeded
+in engraving a cross on the stone, which the guides show with profound
+veneration.
+
+We entered the Maksura, which is the most perfect and marvellous work
+of Moorish art of the twelfth century. At the entrance there are three
+continuous chapels, with vaulted roofs formed by indented arches, and
+walls covered with magnificent mosaics which represent wreaths and
+flowers and passages from the Koran. At the back of the middle chapel
+is the principal _mihrab_, the holy place, where dwelt the Spirit of
+God. It is a niche with an octagonal base enclosed above by a colossal
+marble shell. In the _mihrab_ was kept the Koran written by the hands
+of the caliph Othman, covered with gold, adorned with pearls, suspended
+above a seat of aloe-wood; and here came thousands of the faithful to
+make the circuit of it seven times on their knees. On approaching the
+wall I felt the pavement slipping from under me: the marble had been
+worn hollow!
+
+On leaving the niche I stood a long time contemplating the vault and
+the walls of the principal chapel, the only part of the mosque which
+has been preserved almost intact. It is a dazzling flash of crystals
+of a thousand colors, an interweaving of arabesques which confuse the
+mind, a mingling of bas-reliefs, gilding, ornaments, and minute details
+of design and coloring of a delicacy, grace, and perfection which would
+prove the despair of the most patient artist. It is impossible to
+retain in one's mind any part of that prodigious work: you might return
+a hundred times to look at it, but in reality it would only remain
+before your eyes as a tantalizing blur of blue, red, green, golden,
+and luminous shades of colors, or a very intricate piece of embroidery
+continually and rapidly changing in color and design. Only from the
+ardent and tireless imagination of the Moors could such a miracle of
+art have issued.
+
+We began to wander through the mosque again, observing here and there
+on the walls the arabesques of the ancient doorways which are now
+and then discovered under the detestable plaster of the Christians.
+My companions looked at me, laughed, and whispered something to each
+other. "Have you not seen it yet?" one of them asked me.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+They looked at me again and smiled.
+
+"You think you have seen all the mosque, do you?" continued my
+companion.
+
+"Yes, indeed," I replied, looking around.
+
+"Well," said the first, "you have not seen it all, and what remains to
+be seen is nothing less than a church."
+
+"A church?" I exclaimed stupefied, "but where is it?"
+
+"Look!" answered my other companion, pointing; "it is in the very
+centre of the mosque."
+
+"By the powers!" And I had not seen it!
+
+From this one may judge of the vastness of the mosque.
+
+We went to see the church. It is beautiful and very rich, with a
+magnificent high altar and a choir worthy to stand beside those in the
+cathedrals of Burgos and Toledo, but, like everything out of place,
+it moves one to anger rather than admiration. Without this church
+the appearance of the mosque would be much improved. Charles V., who
+himself gave the chapter permission to build it, repented when he saw
+the Mohammedan temple for the first time. Besides the church there is a
+sort of Moorish chapel in a good state of preservation, rich in mosaics
+not less varied and splendid than those of the Maksura, and where it is
+said the ministers of the faith used to assemble to discuss the book of
+the Prophet.
+
+Such is the mosque to-day. But what must it have been in the time of
+the Arabs! It was not entirely enclosed by a wall, but open, so that
+one could see the garden from every side, and from the garden one
+could look to the very end of the long naves, and the fragrance of
+orange-blossoms and flowers was wafted even to the vaulted roofs of the
+Maksura. The columns, which now number less than a thousand, were then
+fourteen hundred in number; the ceiling was of cedar-wood and larch,
+carved and enamelled with exquisite workmanship; the walls were lined
+with marble; the light of eight hundred lamps filled with fragrant oil
+made the crystals in the mosaic-work flash like pearls, and produced on
+the pavement, the arches, and the walls a marvellous play of color and
+reflection. "A sea of splendors," sang a poet, filled the mysterious
+enclosure, and the warm air was laden with perfume and harmony, and the
+thoughts of the faithful wandered and were lost in the labyrinth of
+columns gleaming like lances in the sun.
+
+Frederick Schrack, the author of a good work on the _Poetry and Art
+of the Moors in Spain and Sicily_, gives a description of the mosque
+on a day of solemn festival, which forms a very lively image of the
+Mohammedan religion and completes the picture of the monument.
+
+On both sides of the almimbar, or pulpit, wave two banners, to signify
+that Islam has triumphed over Judaism and Christianity and that the
+Koran has conquered both the Old and the New Testament. The _almnedani_
+ascend to the gallery of the high minaret and intone the salam, or
+salutation, to the Prophet. Then the aisles of the mosque are filled
+with believers, who with white vestments and in festal attire come
+together to worship. In a few moments, throughout the length and
+breadth of the edifice, one sees only kneeling people. The caliph
+enters by the secret way which leads from the Alcazar to the temple,
+and seats himself in his elevated station. A reader of the Koran reads
+a _sura_ from the low desk of the pulpit.
+
+The voice of the muezzin sounds again, calling men to mid-day prayer.
+All the faithful rise and murmur their prayers, bowing as they do so.
+An attendant of the mosque opens the doors of the pulpit and seizes a
+sword, and, holding it, he turns toward Mecca, admonishing the people
+to worship Mohammed, while the _mubaliges_ are chanting his praises
+from the gallery. Then the preacher mounts the pulpit, taking from
+the hand of the servant the sword, which calls to mind and symbolizes
+the subjection of Spain to the power of Islam. It is the day when
+the _Djihad_, or the holy war, must be proclaimed, the call for all
+able-bodied men to go to war and descend into the battlefield against
+the Christians. The multitude listens with silent devotion to the
+sermon, woven from texts of the Koran, which begins in this wise:
+
+"Praise be to Allah, who has increased the glory of Islam, thanks to
+the sword of the champion of the faith, who in his holy book has
+promised succor and victory to the believer.
+
+"Allah scatters his benefits over the world.
+
+"If he did not put it in the hearts of men to take up arms against
+their fellows, the world would be lost.
+
+"Allah has ordained to fight against the people until they know that
+there is but one God.
+
+"The torch of war will not be extinguished until the end of the world.
+
+"The blessing of God will fall upon the mane of the war-horse to the
+day of judgment.
+
+"Armed from head to foot or but lightly clad, it matters not--up and
+away!
+
+"O believers! what shall be done to you if, when called to the battle,
+you remain with face turned to the earth?
+
+"Do you prefer the life of this world to the life to come?
+
+"Believe me, the gates of paradise stand in the shadow of the sword.
+
+"He who dies in battle for the cause of God shall wash away with his
+blood all the defilement of his sins.
+
+"His body shall not be wasted like the other bodies of the dead, for on
+the day of judgment his wounds shall yield a fragrance like musk.
+
+"When the warriors present themselves at the gates of paradise, a voice
+within shall ask, 'What have you done in your life?'
+
+"And they shall answer, 'We have brandished the sword in the struggle
+for the cause of God.'
+
+"Then the eternal doors will swing open, and the warriors will enter
+forty years before the rest.
+
+"Up, then, ye faithful; leave your women, your children, your kindred,
+and your goods, and go out to the holy war!
+
+"And thou, God, Lord of this present world and of that which is to
+come, fight for the armies of those who recognize thy unity! Cast down
+the unbelievers, the idolaters, and the enemies of thy holy faith!
+Overwhelm their standards, and give them, with whatever they possess,
+as a prey to the Mussulman!"
+
+The preacher as he ends his discourse turns toward the congregation and
+exclaims, "Ask of God!" and begins to pray in silence.
+
+All the faithful, with heads bowed to the ground, follow his example.
+The _mubaliges_ chant, "Amen! Amen, O Lord of all being!" Burning like
+the heat which precedes the oncoming tempest, the enthusiasm of the
+multitude, restrained at first in awful silence, now breaks out into
+deep murmurs, which rise like the waves and swell through all parts of
+the temple, until finally the naves, the chapels, and the vaulted roofs
+resound to the echo of a thousand voices united in a single cry: "There
+is no God but Allah!"
+
+The mosque of Cordova is even to-day, by universal consent, the most
+beautiful temple of Islam and one of the most marvellous monuments in
+the world.
+
+When we left the mosque it was already long past the hour of the
+siesta, which everybody takes in the cities of Southern Spain, and
+which is a necessity by reason of the insupportable heat of the noon
+hours. The streets began to fill with people. "Alas!" said I to my
+companions, "how badly the silk hat looks in the streets of Cordova!
+How have you the heart to introduce the fashion-plates in this
+beautiful Oriental picture? Why do you not adopt the dress of the
+Moors?" Coxcombs pass, workmen, and girls: I looked at them all with
+great curiosity, hoping to find one of those fantastic figures which
+Doré has represented as examples of the Andalusian type, with that
+dark-brown complexion, those thick lips, and large eyes, but I saw
+none. Walking toward the centre of the city, I saw the first Andalusian
+women--ladies, girls and women of the middle classes--almost all small,
+graceful, and well-formed, some of them beautiful, many attractive in
+appearance, but the greater part neither one thing nor the other, as is
+the case in all countries. In their dress, with the exception of the
+so-called mantilla, they do not differ at all from the French women nor
+from those of our country--great masses of false hair in plaits, knots,
+and long curls, short petticoats, long plaited over-skirts, and boots
+with heels as sharp as daggers. The ancient Andalusian costume has
+disappeared from the city.
+
+I thought that in the evening the streets would be crowded, but I saw
+only a few people, and only in the streets of the principal quarters;
+the others remain as empty as at the hour of the siesta. And one must
+pass through those deserted streets at night to enjoy Cordova. One sees
+the light streaming from the _patios_; one sees in the dark corners
+fond lovers in close colloquy, the girls usually at the windows, with
+a hand resting lightly on the iron grating, and the young men close to
+the wall in poetic attitudes, with watchful eyes, but not so watchful,
+however, as to make them take their lips from those hands before
+they discover that some one is passing; and one hears the sound of
+guitars, the murmur of fountains, sighs, the laughter of children, and
+mysterious rustlings.
+
+The following morning, still stirred by the Oriental dreams of the
+night, I again began my wandering through the city. To describe all
+that is remarkable there one would require a volume: it is a very
+museum of Roman and Arabian antiquities, and one finds a profusion of
+martial columns and inscriptions in honor of the emperors; the remains
+of statues and bas-reliefs; six ancient gates; a great bridge over the
+Guadalquivir dating from the time of Octavius Augustus and restored
+by the Arabians; ruins of towers and walls; houses which belonged to
+the caliphs, and which still contain the columns and the subterranean
+arches of the bathing apartments; and everywhere there are doors,
+vestibules, and stairways that would delight a legion of archæologists.
+
+Toward noon, as I was passing through a lonely little street, I saw
+a sign on the wall of a house beside a Roman inscription, _Casa de
+huespedes. Almuerzos y comidas_, and as I read I felt the gnawing, as
+Giusti says, of such a desperate hunger that I determined to give it a
+quietus in this little shop upon which I had stumbled. I passed through
+a little vestibule, and found myself in a _patio_. It was a poor little
+_patio_, without marble floor and without fountains, but white as snow
+and fresh as a garden. As I saw neither tables nor chairs, I feared I
+had mistaken the door and started to go out. A little old woman bustled
+out from I know not where and stopped me.
+
+"Have you anything to eat?" I demanded.
+
+"Yes, sir," she answered.
+
+"What have you?"
+
+"Eggs, sausages, chops, peaches, oranges, and wine of Malaga."
+
+"Very good: you may bring everything you have."
+
+She commenced by bringing me a table and a chair, and I sat down and
+waited. Suddenly I heard a door open behind me and turned.... Angels
+of heaven! what a sight I saw!--the most beautiful of all the most
+beautiful Andalusians, not only of those whom I saw at Cordova, but
+of all those whom I afterward saw at Seville, Cadiz, and Granada: if
+I may be allowed to use the word, a superb girl, who would make one
+flee or commit some deviltry; one of those faces which make you cry,
+"O poor me!" like Giuseppe Baretti when he was travelling in Spain.
+For some moments she stood motionless with her eyes fixed on mine as
+if to say, "Admire me;" then she turned toward the kitchen and cried,
+"_Tia, despachate!_" ("Hurry up, aunty!") This gave me an opportunity
+of thanking her with a stammering tongue, and gave her a pretence for
+approaching me and replying, "It is nothing," with a voice so gentle
+that I was obliged to offer her a chair, whereupon she sat down. She
+was a girl about twenty years old, tall, straight as a palm, and dark,
+with two great eyes full of sweetness, lustrous and humid as though she
+had just been in tears: she wore a mass of wavy jet-black hair with a
+rose among her locks. She seemed like one of the Arabian virgins of the
+tribe of the Usras for whom men died of love.
+
+She herself opened the conversation:
+
+"You are a foreigner, I should think, sir?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"French?"
+
+"Italian."
+
+"Italian? A fellow-countryman of the king?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Do you know him, sir?"
+
+"By sight!"
+
+"They say he is a handsome young fellow."
+
+I did not answer, and she began to laugh, and asked me, "What are you
+looking at, sir?" and, still laughing, she hid her foot, which on
+taking her seat she thrust well forward that I might see it. Ah! there
+is not a woman in that country who does not know that the feet of the
+Andalusians are famous throughout the world.
+
+I seized the opportunity of turning the conversation upon the fame of
+the Andalusian women, and expressed my admiration in the most fervent
+words of my vocabulary. She allowed me to talk on, looking with great
+attention at the crack in the table, then raising her face, she asked
+me, "And in Italy, how are the women there?"
+
+"Oh, there are beautiful women in Italy too."
+
+"But ... they are cold?"
+
+"Oh no, not at all," I hastened to respond; "but, you know, ... in
+every country the women have an _I-know-not-what_ which distinguishes
+them from the women of all other countries; and among them all the
+_I-know-not-what_ of the Andalusians is probably the most dangerous for
+a poor traveller whose hairs have not turned gray. There is a word to
+express what I mean: if I could remember it, I would say it to you; I
+would say, "_Señorita_, you are the most ..."
+
+"_Salada_," exclaimed the girl, covering her face with her hands.
+
+"_Salada!_ ... the most _salada_ Andalusian in Cordova."
+
+_Salada_ is the word commonly used in Andalusia to describe a woman
+beautiful, charming, affectionate, languid, ardent, what you will--a
+woman with two lips which say, "Drink me," and two eyes which make one
+close one's teeth.
+
+The aunt brought me the eggs, chops, sausage, and oranges, and the girl
+continued the conversation: "Sir, you are an Italian: have you seen the
+Pope?"
+
+"No, I am sorry to say."
+
+"Is it possible? An Italian who has not seen the Pope! And tell me,
+sir: why do the Italians make him suffer so much?"
+
+"Suffer in what way?"
+
+"Yes. They say that they have shut him up in his house and thrown
+stones at the windows."
+
+"Oh no! Don't believe it! There is not a particle of truth in it,"
+etc., etc.
+
+"Have you seen Venice, sir?"
+
+"Venice? oh yes."
+
+"Is it true that it is a city which floats on the sea?"
+
+And here she made a thousand requests that I would describe Venice,
+and that I would tell her what the people were like in that strange
+city, and what they do all the day long, and how they dress. And while
+I was talking besides the pains I took to express myself with a little
+grace, and to eat meanwhile the badly-cooked eggs and stale sausage--I
+was obliged to see her draw nearer and nearer to me, that she might
+hear me better perhaps, without being conscious of the act. She came
+so close that I could smell the fragrance of the rose in her hair and
+feel her warm breath; I was obliged, I may say, to make three efforts
+at once--one with my head, another with my stomach, and a third with
+both--especially when, now and then, she would say, "How beautiful!"--a
+compliment which applied to the Grand Canal, but which had upon me the
+effect a bag full of napoleons might have upon a beggar if swung under
+his nose by an insolent banker.
+
+"Ah, señorita!" I said at last, beginning to lose patience, "what
+matters it, after all, whether cities are beautiful or not? Those who
+are born in them think nothing of it, and the traveller still less. I
+arrived at Cordova yesterday: it is a beautiful city, without doubt.
+Well--will you believe it?--I have already forgotten all that I have
+seen; I no longer wish to see anything; I do not even know what city I
+am in. Palaces, mosques, they make me laugh. When you have a consuming
+fire in your heart, do you go to the mosque to quench it?--Excuse me,
+will you move back a little?--When you feel such a madness that you
+could grind up a plate with your teeth, do you go to look at palaces?
+Believe me, the traveller's life is a sad one. It is a penance of the
+hardest sort. It is torture. It is...." A prudent blow with her fan
+closed my mouth, which was going too far both in words and action. I
+attacked the chop.
+
+"Poor fellow!" murmured the Andalusian with a laugh after she had given
+a glance around. "Are all the Italians as ardent as you?"
+
+"How should I know? Are all the Andalusians as beautiful as you?"
+
+The girl laid her hand on the table.
+
+"Take that hand away," I said.
+
+"Why?" she asked.
+
+"Because I want to eat in peace."
+
+"Eat with one hand."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+I seemed to be pressing the little hand of a girl of six; my knife fell
+to the ground; a dark veil settled upon the chop.
+
+Suddenly my hand was empty: I opened my eyes, saw the girl all
+disturbed, and looked behind me. Gracious Heavens! There was a handsome
+young fellow, with a stylish little jacket, tight breeches, and a
+velvet cap. Oh terrors! a _torero_! I gave a start as if I had felt two
+_banderillas de fuego_ planted in my neck.
+
+"I see it at a glance," said I to myself, like the man at the comedy;
+and one could not fail to understand. The girl, slightly embarrassed,
+made the introduction: "An Italian passing through Cordova," and she
+hastened to add, "who wants to know when the train leaves for Seville."
+
+The _torero_, who had frowned at first sight of me, was reassured,
+told me the hour of departure, sat down, and entered into a friendly
+conversation. I asked for the news of the last bull-fight at Cordova:
+he was a _banderillero_, and he gave me a minute description of the
+day's sport. The girl in the mean time was gathering flowers from the
+vases in the _patio_. I finished my meal, offered a glass of Malaga to
+the _torero_, drank to the fortunate planting of all his _banderillas_,
+paid my bill (three _pesetas_, which included the beautiful eyes,
+you understand), and then, putting on a bold front, so as to dispel
+the least shadow of suspicion from the mind of my formidable rival,
+I said to the girl, "_Señorita!_ one can refuse nothing to those who
+are taking leave. To you I am like a dying man; you will never see
+me again; you will never hear my name spoken: then let me take some
+memento; give me that bunch of flowers."
+
+"Take it," said the girl; "I picked it for you."
+
+She glanced at the _torero_, who gave a nod of approval.
+
+"I thank you with all my heart," I replied as I turned to leave. They
+both accompanied me to the door.
+
+"Have you bull-fights in Italy?" asked the young man.
+
+"Oh heavens! no, not yet!"
+
+"Too bad! Try to make them popular in Italy also, and I will come to
+_banderillar_ at Rome."
+
+"I will do all in my power.--_Señorita_, have the goodness to tell me
+your name, so that I may bid you good-bye."
+
+"Consuelo."
+
+"God be with you, Consuelo!"
+
+"God be with you, _Señor Italiano_!"
+
+And I went out into the lonely little street.
+
+There are no remarkable Arabian monuments to be seen in the
+neighborhood of Cordova, although at one time the whole valley was
+covered with magnificent buildings. Three miles to the south of the
+city, on the side of the mountain, rose the Medina Az-Zahra, the
+city of flowers, one of the most marvellous architectural works of
+the caliph Abdurrahman, begun by the caliph himself in honor of his
+favorite Az-Zahra. The foundations were laid in the year 936, and ten
+thousand workmen labored on the edifice for twenty-five years. The
+Arabian poets celebrated Medina Az-Zahra as the most splendid of royal
+palaces and the most delightfullyl garden in the world. It was not an
+edifice, but a vast chain of palaces, gardens, courts, colonnades,
+and towers. There were rare plants from Syria--the fantastic playing
+of lofty fountains, streams of water flowing in the shade of palm
+trees, and great basins overflowing with quicksilver, which reflected
+the rays of the sun like lakes of fire; doors of ebony and ivory
+studded with gems; thousands of columns of the most precious marbles;
+great airy balconies; and between the innumerable multitudes of
+statues twelve images of animals of massy gold, gleaming with pearls,
+sprinkling sweetened water from their mouths and noses. In this vast
+palace swarmed thousands of servants, slaves, and women, and hither
+from every part of the world came poets and musicians. And yet this
+same Abdurrahman III., who lived among all these delights, who reigned
+for fifty years, who was powerful, glorious, and fortunate in every
+circumstance and enterprise, wrote before his death that during his
+long reign he had been happy only fourteen days, and his fabulous city
+of flowers seventy-four years after the laying of its first stone was
+invaded, sacked, and burned by a barbarian horde, and to-day there
+remain only a few stones which hardly recall its name.
+
+Of another splendid city, called Zahira, which rose to the east of
+Cordova, built by the powerful Almansur, governor of the kingdom, not
+even the ruins remain: a handful of rebels laid it in ashes a little
+while after the death of its founder.
+
+  "All returns to the great ancient mother."
+
+Instead of taking a drive around Cordova, I simply wandered here and
+there, weaving fancies from the names of the streets, which to me is
+one of the greatest pleasures in which a traveller may indulge in a
+foreign city. Cordova, _alma ingeniorum parens_, could write at every
+street-corner the name of an artist or an illustrious author born
+within her walls; to give her due honor, she has remembered them all
+with maternal gratitude. You find the little square of Seneca and the
+house where he may have been born; the street of Ambrosio Morales,
+the historian of Charles V., who continued the _Chronicle General of
+Spain_ commenced by Florian d'Ocampo; the street of Pablo de Cespedes,
+painter, architect, sculptor, antiquary, and the author of a didactic
+poem, "The Art of Painting," unfortunately not finished, though adorned
+with splendid passages. He was an ardent enthusiast of Michelangelo,
+whose works he had admired in Italy, and in his poem he addressed a
+hymn of praise to him which is one of the most beautiful passages in
+Spanish poetry, and, in spite of myself, the last verses have slipped
+from my pen, which every Italian, even if he does not know the sister
+language, can appreciate and understand. He believes, he tells the
+reader, that one cannot find the perfection of painting anywhere except
+
+    "Que en aquela escelente obra espantosa
+    Mayor de cuantas se han jamas pintado,
+    Que hizo el Buonarrota de su mano
+    Divina, en el etrusco Vaticano!
+
+    "Cual nuevo Prometeo en alto vuelo
+    Alzándose, estendiò los alas tanto,
+    Que puesto encima el estrellado cielo
+    Una parte alcanzò del fuego santo;
+    Con que tornando enriquecido al suelo
+    Con nueva maravilla y nuevo espanto,
+    Diò vida con eternos resplandores
+    À marmoles, à bronces, à colores.
+    ¡O mas que mortal hombre! ¿Angel divino
+    O cual te nomaré? No humano cierto
+    Es tu ser, que del cerco empireo vino
+    Al estilo y pincel vida y concierto:
+    Tu monstraste à los hombres el camino
+    Por mil edades escondido, incierto
+    De la reina virtud; a ti se debe
+    Honra que en cierto dia el sol renueve."
+
+"In that excellent marvellous work, greater than all that has ever been
+painted, which Buonarroti made with his divine hand in the Etruscan
+Vatican!
+
+"Look how the new Prometheus, rising in lofty flight, extends his
+wings so wide that above the starry sky he has obtained a part of
+the celestial fire; with it, returning, he enriched the earth with
+new marvels and new surprises, giving life, with eternal splendors,
+to marble, bronze, and colors. More than mortal man! angel divine!
+or what shall I call thee? Surely thou art not human, who from the
+empyrean circle came, bringing life and harmony to chisel and brush!
+Thou hast shown men the road hidden for a thousand ages, uncertain of
+the sovereign virtue; to thee belongs honor which one day the sun will
+bestow."
+
+Murmuring these lines, I came out into the street of Juan de Mena,
+the Ennius of Spain, as his compatriots call him, the author of a
+phantasmagorial poem called "The Labyrinth," an imitation of _The
+Divina Commedia_ very famous in its day, and in truth not without
+some pages of inspired and noble poetry, but, on the whole, cold and
+overloaded with pedantic mysticism. John II., king of Castile, went mad
+over this "Labyrinth," kept it beside the missal in his cabinet, and
+carried it with him to the hunt; but witness the caprice of a king! The
+poem had only three hundred stanzas, and to John II. this number seemed
+too small, and do you know the reason? It was this: the year contains
+three hundred and sixty-five days, and it seemed to him that there
+ought to be as many stanzas in the poem as there are days in the year,
+and so he besought the poet to compose sixty-five other stanzas, and
+the poet complied with his request--most cheerfully, the flatterer!--to
+gain an occasion for flattering still more, although he had already
+flattered his sovereign to the extent of asking him to correct the poem.
+
+From the street of Juan de Mena I passed into the street of Gongora,
+the Marini of Spain, and no less a genius than he, but perhaps one
+who corrupted the literature of his country even more than Marini
+corrupted that of Italy, for he spoiled, abused, and corrupted the
+language in a thousand ways: for this reason Lope de Vega wittily
+makes a poet of the Gongorist school ask one of his hearers, "Do you
+understand me?"--"Yes," he replies; and the poet retorts, "You lie! for
+I do not even understand myself." But Lope himself is not entirely free
+from Gongorism, for he has the courage to write that Tasso was only the
+rising of Marini's sun; nor is Calderon entirely free of it, nor some
+other great men. But enough of poetry: I must not digress.
+
+After the siesta I hunted up my two companions, who took me through
+the suburbs of the city, and here, for the first time, I saw men and
+women of the true Andalusian type as I had imagined them, with eyes,
+coloring, and attitudes like the Arabians, and here too, for the first
+time, I heard the real speech of the Andalusian people, softer and more
+musical than in the Castiles, and also gayer and more imaginative,
+and accompanied by livelier gestures. I asked my companions whether
+that report about Andalusia is true, affirming that with their early
+physical development vice is more common, manners more voluptuous, and
+passion less restrained. "Too true," they replied, giving explanations,
+descriptions, and citing cases which I forbear to repeat. On returning
+to the city they took me to a splendid casino, with gardens and
+magnificent rooms, in one of which, the largest and richest, adorned
+with paintings of all the illustrious men of Cordova, rises a sort of
+stage where the poets stand to read their works on evenings appointed
+for public contests of genius; and the victors receive a laurel crown
+from the hands of the most beautiful and cultured girls in the city,
+who, crowned with roses, look on from a semi-circle of seats. That
+evening I had the pleasure of meeting several young Cordovese ardently
+attached, as they say in Spain, to the cultivation of the Muses--frank,
+courteous, and vivacious, with a medley of verses in their heads,
+and a smattering of Italian literature; and so imagine how from dusk
+to midnight, through those mysterious streets, which from the first
+evening had made my head whirl, there was a constant, noisy interchange
+of sonnets, hymns, and ballads in the two languages, from Petrarch to
+Prati, from Cervantes to Zorilla; and a delightful conversation closed
+and sealed by many cordial hand-clasps and eager promises to write, to
+send books, to come to Italy, to visit Spain again, etc. etc.--merely
+words, as is always the case, but words not less dear on that account.
+
+In the morning I left for Seville. At the station I saw Frascuelo,
+Lagartijo, Cuco, and the whole band of _toreros_ from Madrid, who
+saluted me with a benevolent look of protection. I hurried into a dusty
+carriage, and as the train moved off and my eyes rested on Cordova
+for the last time, I bade the city adieu in the lines of the Arabian
+poet--a little too tropical, if you will, for the taste of a European,
+but, after all, admirable for the occasion:
+
+"Adieu, Cordova! Would that my life were as long as Noah's, that I
+might live for ever within thy walls! Would that I had the treasures
+of Pharaoh, to spend them upon wine and the beautiful women of Cordova
+with the gentle eyes which invite kisses!"
+
+
+
+
+SEVILLE.
+
+
+The journey from Cordova to Seville does not awaken a sense of
+astonishment, as does that from Toledo to Cordova, but it is even
+more beautiful: there are continuous orange-orchards, boundless
+olive-groves, hills clothed with vineyards, and meadows carpeted with
+flowers. A few miles from Cordova one sees the ruined towers of the
+frowning castle of Almodovar standing on a very high rock-platform,
+which overlooks a vast extent of the surrounding country; at
+Hornachuelos another old castle on the summit of a hill, in the midst
+of a lonely, melancholy landscape; and then, beyond, the white city of
+Palma, hidden in a dense orange-grove, which is surrounded in its turn
+by a circle of truck-farms and flower-gardens. As the train runs on
+one is carried through the midst of golden fields of grain, bordered
+by long hedges of Indian fig trees and rows of dwarf palms, and dotted
+with groves of pine and frequent orchards of fruit-bearing trees; and
+at short intervals there are hills and castles, roaring streams, the
+slender village belfries hidden among the trees, and the purple peaks
+of distant mountains.
+
+Most beautiful of all are the little country-houses scattered along the
+road. I do not remember to have seen a single one of them that was not
+as white as snow. The house was white, the neighboring well-curb was
+white, the little wall around the kitchen-garden was white, as were
+also the two posts of the garden-gate: everything seemed as if it had
+been whitewashed the day before. Some of these houses have one or two
+mullioned windows of Moorish design; others have arabesques over the
+door; and still others roofs covered with variegated tiles like Arabian
+houses. Here and there through the fields one sees the red-and-white
+capes of the peasants, velvet hats against the green grass, and sashes
+of all colors. The peasants whom one sees in the furrows and those who
+run to see the train pass are dressed in the costumes of forty years
+ago as they are represented in paintings: they wear velvet hats with
+very broad brims which roll slightly back, with little crowns like
+a sugar-loaf; short jackets, open waistcoats, breeches gathered in
+at the knee like those of the priests, gaiters which almost meet the
+breeches, and sashes around the waist. This style of dress, picturesque
+but inconvenient, is exceedingly becoming to the slender figures of
+these men, who prefer discomfort, if it be attended by beauty, to
+comfort without it, and who spend half an hour every morning adorning
+themselves, besides the time required to get into a pair of tight
+breeches which will display a shapely thigh and a well-turned leg.
+They have nothing in common with our Northern peasant of the hard face
+and dull eye. Their great black eyes meet your own with a smile, as
+if they would say, "Don't you remember me?" They cast daring glances
+at the ladies who put their heads out of the windows, run to fetch a
+match before you have so much as asked for it, sometimes answer your
+questions in rhyme, and are even capable of laughing to show their
+white teeth.
+
+At Rinconado the campanile of the cathedral of Seville comes into view
+in a line with the railroad, and to the right, beyond the Guadalquivir,
+one sees the beautiful low hills, covered with olive-groves, at the
+foot of which lie the ruins of Italica. The train rolled on, and I said
+to myself, under my breath, speaking faster and faster as the houses
+became thicker, with that suspense, full of longing and delight, which
+one feels on approaching the doorway of one's love, "Seville! this is
+Seville! The queen of Andalusia is at hand, the Athens of Spain, the
+mother of Murillo, the city of poets and lovers, the storied Seville,
+whose name I have pronounced from a child with a sentiment of loving
+sympathy! What should I have given a few years since to have seen
+it? No, it is not a dream! Those are really the houses of Seville;
+those peasants yonder are Sevillians; that campanile which I see is
+the Giralda! I am at Seville! How strange! It makes me laugh! What is
+my mother doing at this moment? Would that she were here! Would that
+this friend and that were here! It is a sin to be alone! See the white
+houses, the gardens, the streets.... We are in the city.... It is time
+to get out.... Ah! how beautiful is life!"
+
+I went to a hotel, threw down my valise in the _patio_, and began
+to stroll about the city. It seemed like seeing Cordova over again,
+on a large scale, embellished and enriched; the streets are wider,
+the houses higher, the _patios_ more spacious, but the general
+appearance of the city is the same: there is the same spotless white,
+the same intricate network of streets, everywhere the fragrance of
+orange-blossoms, that subtile air of mystery, that Oriental atmosphere,
+filling one's heart with a delicious sense of amorous melancholy, and
+calling to mind a thousand fancies, desires, and visions of a distant
+world, a new life, an unknown people, and an earthly paradise of
+love, pleasure, and content. In those streets one reads the history
+of the city: every balcony, every fragment of sculpture, every lonely
+crossway, recalls some nocturnal adventure of a king, the inspiration
+of a poet, the romance of a beauty, an amour, a duel, an abduction, a
+story, or a festival. Here a memento of Maria de Padilla, there one of
+Don Pedro; yonder of Cervantes, Columbus, Saint Theresa, Velasquez, or
+Murillo. A column tells of the Roman dominion; a tower, the splendor of
+Charles V.'s monarchy; and an alcazar, the magnificence of the Arabian
+court. Beside the modest white cottages rise sumptuous marble palaces;
+the little tortuous streets open into vast squares full of orange
+trees; from silent, deserted corners one enters with a short turn a
+street filled with a noisy crowd: and wherever one passes one sees
+on the opposite side the graceful lattices of the _patios_, flowers,
+statues, fountains, flights of stairs, walls covered with arabesques,
+small Moorish windows, and slender columns of costly marble; and
+at every window and in every garden little women clothed in white,
+half hidden, like timid nymphs, among the leaves of grapevines and
+rosebushes.
+
+Passing from street to street, I came at length to the bank of the
+Guadalquivir, close to the avenues of the Christina promenade, which
+is to Seville what the Lung d'arno is to Florence. Here one enjoys a
+charming spectacle.
+
+I first approached the famous Torre del Oro. This famous tower was
+called the Golden, either because it received the gold which the
+Spanish ships brought from America or because King Don Pedro hid his
+treasures there. It is an octagonal structure of three stories, growing
+smaller as they ascend, crowned with battlements and washed by the
+river. The story runs that this tower was built in Roman times, and
+that for a long period the king's most beautiful favorite dwelt there
+after it had been joined to the Alcazar by an edifice which was torn
+away to make room for the Christina promenade.
+
+This promenade extends from the ducal palace of Montpensier to the
+Torre del Oro. It is entirely shaded with Oriental plane trees, oaks,
+cypresses, willows, poplars, and other trees of northern latitudes,
+which the Andalusians admire, as we admire the palms and aloes of the
+plains of Piedmont and Lombardy. A great bridge spans the river and
+leads to the suburb of Triana, from which one sees the first houses on
+the opposite bank. A long line of ships, coasting vessels, and barges
+extends along the river, and from the Torre del Oro to the ducal palace
+there is a coming and going of rowboats. The sun was setting. A crowd
+of ladies filled the avenues, groups of workmen were crossing the
+bridge, the workmen on the ships labored more busily, a band of music
+was playing among the trees, the river was rose-colored, the air was
+fragrant with the perfume of flowers, the sky seemed all on fire.
+
+I returned to the city and enjoyed the marvellous spectacle of Seville
+by night. All the _patios_ were illuminated--those of the humble
+houses with a half light, which gave them an air of mysterious beauty,
+those of the palaces, full of little flames which were reflected in
+the mirrors and flashed like jets of quicksilver in the spray of the
+fountains, and shone with a thousand colors on the marbles of the
+vestibules, the mosaics of the walls, the glass of the doors, and
+the crystal of the candlesticks. Inside one saw a crowd of ladies,
+everywhere one heard the sound of laughter, low voices, and music;
+one seemed to be passing through so many ball-rooms; from every door
+flowed a stream of light, fragrance, and harmony; the streets were
+crowded; among the trees of the squares, in the avenues, at the end
+of the narrow streets, and on the balconies,--everywhere were seen
+white skirts fluttering, vanishing, and reappearing in the darkness,
+and little heads ornamented with flowers peeped coquettishly from
+the windows; groups of young men broke through the crowd with merry
+shouts; people called to each other and talked from window to street,
+and everywhere were rapid motion, shouting, laughter, and festal
+gaiety. Seville was simply an immense garden in which revelled a people
+intoxicated with youth and love.
+
+Such moments are very sad ones for a stranger. I remember that I could
+have struck my head against the wall. I wandered here and there almost
+abashed, with hanging head and sad heart, as if all that crowd was
+amusing itself for the sole purpose of insulting my loneliness and
+melancholy. It was too late to present my letters of introduction, too
+early to go to bed: I was the slave of that crowd and that gaiety, and
+was obliged to endure it for many hours. I found a solace in resolving
+not to look at the faces of the women, but I could not always keep my
+resolve, and when my eyes inadvertently met two black pupils the wound,
+because so unexpected, was more grievous than if I had encountered
+the danger more boldly. Yes, I was in the midst of those wonderfully
+famous women of Seville! I saw them pass on the arms of their husbands
+and lovers; I touched their dresses, breathed their perfume, heard the
+sound of their soft speech, and the blood leaped to my head like a
+flame of fire. Fortunately, I remembered to have heard from a Sevillian
+at Madrid that the Italian consul was in the habit of spending the
+evening at the shop of his son, a merchant; I sought out the shop,
+entered, and found the consul, and as I handed him a letter from a
+friend I said, with a dramatic air which made him laugh, "Dear sir,
+protect me; Seville has terrified me."
+
+At midnight the appearance of the city was unchanged: the crowd and
+light had not disappeared; I returned to the hotel and locked my door
+with the intention of going to bed. Worse and worse! The windows
+of my room opened on a square where crowds of people were swarming
+around an orchestra that played without interruption, when the music
+finally ended the guitars commenced, together with the cries of the
+water-carriers and snatches of song and laughter; the whole night
+through there was noise enough to wake the dead. I had a dream at
+once delightful and tantalizing, but rather more tantalizing than
+delightful. I seemed to be tied to the bed by a very long tress of dark
+hair twisted into a thousand knots, and felt on my lips a mouth of
+burning coals which sucked my breath, and around my neck two vigorous
+little hands which were crushing my head against the handle of a guitar.
+
+The following morning I went at once to see the cathedral.
+
+To adequately describe this measureless edifice one should have at
+hand a collection of the most superlative adjectives and all the most
+extravagant similes which have come from the pens of the grand writers
+of every country whenever they have described something of prodigious
+height, enormous size, appalling depth, and incredible grandeur. When
+I talk to my friends about it, I too, like the Mirabeau of Victor
+Hugo, involuntarily make _un colossal mouvement d'epaules_, puff out
+my throat, and gradually raise my voice, like Tommaso Salvini in the
+tragedy of _Samson_ when, in tones which make the parquet tremble, he
+says that he feels his strength returning to his limbs. To talk of the
+cathedral of Seville tires one like playing a great wind instrument or
+carrying on a conversation across a roaring torrent.
+
+The cathedral of Seville stands alone in the centre of a vast square,
+and consequently one can measure its vastness at a single glance. At
+the first moment I thought of the famous motto which the chapter of the
+primitive church adopted on the eighth of July, 1401, when they decreed
+the erection of the new cathedral: "Let us build a monument which will
+make posterity declare that we were mad." Those reverend canons did not
+fail in their intention. But one must enter to be sure of this.
+
+The exterior of the cathedral is grand and magnificent, but not to
+be compared with the interior. The façade is lacking: a high wall
+surrounds the entire building like a fortress. However much one walks
+around and looks at it, one cannot succeed in fixing in one's mind a
+single outline which, like the preface of a book, will give a clear
+conception of the design of the work; one admires and occasionally
+breaks out in the exclamation, "It is stupendous!" but it does not
+please, and one hurries into the church, hoping to feel a sentiment of
+deeper admiration.
+
+On first entering one is amazed, and feels as if one were lost in an
+abyss, and for some moments the eye can only describe immense curves
+through that vast space, as if to assure you that the sight is real
+and that fancy is not deceiving you. Then you approach one of the
+pilasters, measure it, and look at the others in the distance: they are
+as massive as towers, and yet they look so slender that one trembles
+to think the edifice is resting on them. You run from one to another
+with a rapid glance, follow their lines from pavement to vaulted
+arch, and seem to be able to count the moments which it would take
+for the eye to climb them. There are five naves, each of which would
+form a great church, and in the central nave one could build another
+high cathedral with its cupola and belfry. Altogether they form sixty
+light, noble vaults which seem to be slowly expanding and rising as
+one looks at them. Everything in this cathedral is enormous. The great
+chapel in the middle of the principal nave, so high that it almost
+touches the roof, seems like a chapel built for giant priests, to whose
+knees the common altars would scarcely reach; the Easter candle seems
+like the mast of a ship, the bronze candlestick which supports it,
+like the pilaster of a church; the organs are like houses; the choir
+is a museum of sculpture and carving which alone deserves a day's
+study. The chapels are worthy of the church: in them are scattered
+the masterpieces of sixty-seven sculptors and thirty-eight painters.
+Montegna, Zurbaran, Murillo, Valdes, Herrera, Boldan, Roelas, and
+Campana have left a thousand immortal traces of their handiwork. The
+chapel of Saint Ferdinand, which contains the tombs of this king,
+his wife Beatrice, Alfonso the Wise, the celebrated minister Florida
+Blanca, and other illustrious personages, is one of the richest and
+most beautiful. The body of King Ferdinand, who rescued Seville from
+the dominion of the Arabs, clothed in his coat-of-mail with crown and
+royal robe, rests in a crystal casket covered with a pall; on one side
+lies the sword which he wore on the day of his entrance into Seville;
+on the other, the staff, an emblem of authority. In this same chapel
+is preserved a little ivory Virgin which the sainted king carried with
+him to war, and other relics of great value. In the other chapels there
+are great marble altars, Gothic tombs, statues of stone, wood, and
+silver enclosed in large glass cases, with the breast and hands covered
+with diamonds and rubies; there are also magnificent paintings, but,
+unfortunately, the dim light which falls from the high windows does not
+make them clear enough to be enjoyed in all their beauty.
+
+From the examination of the chapels, paintings, and sculptures one
+returns unwearied to admire the cathedral in its grand and, if one
+may say, its formidable aspect. After climbing to those dizzy heights
+one's glance and thoughts, as if exhausted by the effort, fall back
+to the earth to gather new strength for another ascent. And the
+images which multiply in one's head correspond to the vastness of the
+basilica--measureless angels, heads of enormous cherubim, great wings
+like the sails of a ship, and the fluttering of immense white robes.
+The impression produced by this cathedral is wholly religious, but
+it is not depressing: it is that sentiment which bears the thought
+into interminable spaces and the awful silences where the thoughts of
+Leopardi lost themselves; it is a sentiment full of yearning and holy
+boldness, that delightful shudder which one feels on the brink of a
+precipice, the turbulence and confusion of great thoughts, the divine
+fear of the infinite.
+
+As the cathedral is the most various of Spain (since the Gothic,
+Germanic, Græco-Roman, Moorish, and, as it is vulgarly called, the
+plateresque styles of architecture, have each left their individual
+impress upon it), it is also the richest and has the greatest
+privileges. In the times of greater clerical power they burned in
+it every year twenty thousand pounds of wax; in it every day were
+celebrated five hundred masses on eighty altars; the wine consumed
+in the sacrifice amounted to the incredible quantity of eighteen
+thousand seven hundred and fifty litres. The canons had trains of male
+attendants like monarchs, came to church in splendid carriages drawn
+by superb horses, and while they were celebrating mass had priests to
+fan them with enormous fans adorned with feathers and pearls--a direct
+concession from the Pope of which some avail themselves even in this
+day. One need not speak of the festivals of Holy Week, which are still
+famous the world over, and to which people gather from all parts of
+Europe.
+
+But the most curious privilege of the cathedral of Seville is the
+so-called dance _de los seises_, which takes place every evening at
+dusk for eight consecutive days after the festival of _Corpus Domini_.
+I was in Seville during those days, and went to see it, and it seems
+to me worth describing. From what had been told me I expected to see
+a scandalous piece of buffoonery, and entered the church with my
+mind prepared for a feeling of indignation at the desecration of the
+sanctuary. The church was dark; only the great chapel was lighted; a
+crowd of kneeling women filled the space between the chapel and the
+choir. Some priests were sitting to the right and left of the altar; in
+front of the altar-steps was spread a great carpet; two lines of boys
+from eight to thirteen years of age, dressed like Spanish cavaliers
+of the Middle Ages, with plumed hats and white stockings, were drawn
+up, one before the other, facing the altar. At a signal from a priest
+a soft strain from violins broke the profound silence of the church,
+and the two rows of boys advanced with the step of a contra-dance, and
+began to divide, intermingle, separate, and come together again with a
+thousand graceful movements, and then all together they broke into a
+harmonious musical chant, which echoed through the gloom of the vast
+cathedral like the singing of an angelic choir; and a moment later
+they began to accompany the dance and the chant with tamborines. No
+religious ceremony has ever moved me like this. It is impossible to
+express the effect produced by those young voices under those immense
+domes, those little creatures at the foot of the towering altars, that
+dance, solemn and almost humble, the ancient costume, the kneeling
+crowd, and the surrounding gloom. I left the church with my soul calmed
+as if I had been praying.
+
+A very curious anecdote is related in connection with this ceremony.
+Two centuries ago an archbishop of Seville, who regarded the dance
+and tamborines as unworthy instruments of praising God, wished to
+prohibit the ceremony. Everything was thrown into confusion: the
+people protested; the canons made themselves heard; the archbishop was
+obliged to appeal to the Pope. The Pope, whose curiosity was aroused,
+wished to see this silly dance with his own eyes, that he might decide
+intelligently in the matter. The boys in their cavalier dress were
+taken to Rome, received at the Vatican, and made to dance and sing
+before His Holiness. His Holiness laughed, did not disapprove, and,
+wishing to give one knock on the hoop and another on the barrel, and so
+to satisfy the canons without offending the archbishop, decreed that
+the boys should continue to dance so long as the clothes which they
+then wore lasted; after that time the ceremony was to be abolished.
+The archbishop laughed in his beard, if he had one; the canons laughed
+too, as if they had already found the way to outwit both the Pope and
+the archbishop. And, in fact, they renew some part of the boys' dress
+every year, so that the whole garment can never be said to have worn
+out, and the archbishop, as a scrupulous man, who observed the commands
+of the Pope to the letter, could not oppose the repetition of the
+ceremony. So they continued to dance, and they dance and will dance so
+long as it pleases the canons and the Lord.
+
+As I was leaving the church a sacristan made me a sign, led me behind
+the choir, and pointed out a tablet in the pavement, upon which I read
+an inscription which stirred my heart. Under that stone lay the bones
+of Ferdinand Columbus, the son of Christopher, who was born at Cordova,
+and died at Seville on the twelfth of July, 1536, in the fiftieth
+year of his age. Under the inscription run some Latin verses with the
+following significance:
+
+"Of what avail is it that I have bathed the entire universe with my
+sweat, that I have three times passed through the New World discovered
+by my father, that I have adorned the banks of the gentle Beti, and
+preferred my simple taste to riches, that I might again draw around
+thee the divinities of the Castalian spring, and offer thee the
+treasures already gathered by Ptolemy,--if thou, passing this stone in
+silence, returnest no salute to my father and givest no thought to me?"
+
+The sacristan, who knew more about the inscription than I did,
+explained it to me. Ferdinand Columbus was in his early youth a page of
+Isabella the Catholic and of the prince Don Juan; he travelled to the
+Indies with his father and his brother the admiral Don Diego, followed
+the emperor Charles V. in his wars, made other voyages to Asia, Africa,
+and America, and everywhere collected with infinite care and at great
+expense the most precious books, from which he composed a library which
+passed after his death into the hands of the chapter of the cathedral,
+and remains intact under the famous name of the Columbian Library.
+Before his death he wrote these same Latin verses which are inscribed
+on the tablet of his tomb, and expressed a desire to be buried in the
+cathedral. In the last moments of his life he had a vessel full of
+ashes brought to him and sprinkled his face with them, pronouncing
+as he did so the words of Holy Writ, _Memento homo quia pulvis es_,
+chanted the _Te Deum_, smiled, and expired with the serenity of a
+saint. I was at once seized with a desire to visit the library and left
+the church.
+
+A guide stopped me on the threshold to ask me if I had seen the _Patio
+de los Naranjos_--the Court of Oranges--and, as I had not done so, he
+conducted me thither. The Court of Oranges lies to the north of the
+cathedral, surrounded by a great embattled wall. In the centre rises a
+fountain encircled by an orange-grove, and on one side along the wall
+is a marble pulpit, from which, according to the tradition, Vincenzo
+Ferrer is said to have preached. In the area of this court, which is
+very large, rose the ancient mosque, which is thought to have been
+built toward the end of the twelfth century. There is not the least
+trace of it now. In the shade of the orange trees around the margins of
+the basin the good Sevillians come to take the air in the burning noons
+of summer, and only the delightful verdure and the perfumed air remain
+as memorials of the voluptuous paradise of Mohammed, while now and then
+a beautiful girl with great dark eyes darts between the distant trees.
+
+The famous Giralda of the cathedral of Seville is an ancient Moorish
+tower, built, it is affirmed, in the year one thousand after the design
+of the architect Geber, the inventor of algebra. The upper part has
+been changed since Spain was reconquered, and has been rebuilt like a
+Christian bell-tower, but it will always retain its Moorish appearance,
+and, after all, is prouder of the banished standards of the vanquished
+than of the cross recently planted upon it by the victors. It is a
+monument which produces a strange sensation: it makes one smile; it is
+measureless and imposing as an Egyptian pyramid, and at the same time
+light and graceful as a summer-house. It is a square brick tower of a
+mellow rose-color, unadorned to a certain height, and from that point
+up ornamented with mullioned Moorish windows, which appear here and
+there like the windows of a house provided with balconies, and give
+it a very beautiful appearance. From the platform, which was formerly
+covered by a variegated roof surmounted by an iron pole which supported
+four enormous golden balls, now rises the Christian bell-tower in three
+stories, the first of which is taken up by the bells, the second is
+encircled by a balcony, and the third consists of a sort of cupola
+upon which, like a weather-vane, turns a colossal gilded statue which
+represents Faith, with a palm in one hand and a banner in the other.
+This statue is visible a long distance from Seville, and flashes when
+the sun strikes it like an enormous ruby in the crown of a gigantic
+king, who sweeps with his glance the entire valley of Andalusia.
+
+I climbed all the way to the top, and was there amply rewarded for
+the fatigue of the ascent. Seville, all white like a city of marble,
+encircled by a diadem of gardens, groves, and avenues, surrounded by a
+landscape dotted with villas, lay open to the view in all the wealth of
+its Oriental beauty. The Guadalquivir, freighted with ships, divides
+and embraces it in a majestic curve. Here the Torre del Oro casts its
+graceful shadow on the azure waters of the river; there the Alcazar
+rears its frowning towers; yonder the gardens of Montpensier raise
+above the roofs of the building an enormous mass of verdure: one's
+glance penetrates the bull-ring, the public gardens, the _patios_ of
+the homes, the cloisters of the churches, and all the streets which
+converge toward the cathedral; in the distance appear the villages
+of Santi Ponce, Algaba, and others which whiten the slopes of the
+hills; to the right of the Guadalquivir the great suburb of Triana;
+on one side along the horizon the broken peaks of the Sierra Morena;
+and in the opposite direction other mountains enlivened by infinite
+azure tints; and over all this marvellous panorama the clearest, most
+transparent, and entrancing sky which has ever smiled upon the face of
+man.
+
+I descended from the Giralda and went to see the Columbian Library,
+located in an old building beside the Court of Oranges. After I had
+seen a collection of missals, Bibles, and ancient manuscripts, one of
+which is attributed to Alfonso the Wise, entitled "The Book of the
+Treasure," written with the most scrupulous care in the ancient Spanish
+language, I saw--let me repeat it, I saw--I, with my own moist eyes,
+as I pressed my hand on my beating heart--I saw a book, a treatise
+on cosmography and astronomy in Latin, with the margins covered with
+notes written in the hand of Christopher Columbus! He had studied that
+book while he revolved his great design in his mind, had pored over
+its pages in the night-watches, had touched it perhaps with his divine
+forehead in those exhausting vigils when sometimes he bent over the
+parchments with utter weariness and bathed them with his sweat. It is
+a tremendous thought! But there is something better. I saw a writing
+in the hand of Columbus in which are collected all the prophecies of
+the ancient writers, sacred and profane, in regard to the discovery of
+the New World, written, it is said, to induce the sovereigns of Spain
+to provide the means to carry out his enterprise. There is, among
+others, a passage from the _Medea_ of Seneca, which runs: _Venient
+annis saecula seris, quibus oceanus vincula rerum laxet et ingens
+pateat tellus_. And in the volume of Seneca, which may also be found
+in the Columbian Library, alongside of this passage there is a note
+by Ferdinand Columbus, which says: "This prophecy was fulfilled by my
+father, the admiral Christopher Columbus, in the year 1492." My eyes
+filled with tears; I wished I were alone, that I might have kissed
+those books, have tired myself out turning and re-turning their leaves
+between my hands, have detached a tiny fragment, and carried it with me
+as a sacred thing. Christopher Columbus! I have seen his characters! I
+have touched the leaves which he has touched! I have felt him very near
+me! On leaving the library, I know not why--I could have leaped into
+the midst of the flames to rescue a child, I could have stripped myself
+to clothe a beggar, I could joyfully have made any sacrifice--I was so
+rich!
+
+After the library the Alcazar, but before reaching it, although it is
+in the same square as the cathedral, I felt for the first time what the
+Andalusian sun is like. Seville is the hottest city of Spain, it was
+the hottest hour of the day, and I found myself in the hottest part
+of the city; there was a flood of light; not a door, not a window,
+was open, not a soul astir; if I had been told that Seville was
+uninhabited, I should have believed it. I crossed the square slowly
+with half-shut eyes and wrinkled face, with the sweat coursing in great
+drops down my cheeks and breast, while my hands seemed to have been
+dipped in a bucket of water. On nearing the Alcazar I saw a sort of
+booth belonging to a water-carrier, and dashed under it headlong, like
+a man fleeing from a shower of stones. I took a little breathing-spell,
+and went on toward the Alcazar.
+
+The Alcazar, the ancient palace of the Moorish kings, is one of the
+best-preserved monuments in Spain. From the outside it looks like a
+fortress: it is entirely surrounded by high walls, embattled towers,
+and old houses, which form two spacious courtyards in front of the
+façade. The façade is bare and severe, like the rest of the exterior;
+the gate is adorned with gilded and painted arabesques, between which
+one sees a Gothic inscription which refers to the time when the Alcazar
+was restored by order of King Don Pedro. The Alcazar, in fact, although
+a Moorish palace, is the work of Christian rather than of Moorish
+kings. It is not known exactly in what year it was built: it was
+reconstructed by King Abdelasio toward the end of the twelfth century,
+conquered by King Ferdinand toward the middle of the thirteenth
+century; altered a second time, in the following century, by King Don
+Pedro; and then occupied for longer or shorter periods by nearly all
+the kings of Castile; and finally selected by Charles V. as the place
+for the celebration of his marriage with the infanta of Portugal. The
+Alcazar has witnessed the loves and crimes of three generations of
+kings; every stone awakens a memory and guards a secret.
+
+You enter, cross two or three rooms in which there remains little
+of the Moorish excepting the vaulted ceiling and the mosaics around
+the walls, and come out into a court where you stand speechless with
+wonder. A portico of very delicate arches extends along the four sides,
+supported by slender marble columns, joined two by two, and arches
+and walls and windows and doors are covered with carvings, mosaics,
+and arabesques most intricate and exquisite, here perforated like
+lace, there closely woven and elaborate like embroidered tapestry,
+yonder clinging and projecting like masses and garlands of flowers;
+and, except the mosaics, which are of a thousand colors, everything
+is white, clean, and smooth as ivory. On the four sides are four
+great doors, through which you enter the royal apartments. Here
+wonder becomes enchantment: whatever is richest, most various, and
+most splendid, whatever the most ardent fancy sees in its most ardent
+dreams, is to be found in these rooms. From pavement to the vaulted
+ceiling, around the doors, along the window-frames, in the most hidden
+corners, wherever one's glance falls, one sees such a luxuriance
+of ornaments in gold and precious stones, such a close network of
+arabesques and inscriptions, such a marvellous profusion of designs and
+colors, that one has scarcely taken twenty steps before one is amazed
+and confused, and the wearied eye wanders here and there searching for
+a hand's breadth of bare wall where it may flee and rest. In one of
+these rooms the guide pointed out a red spot which covered a good part
+of the marble pavement, and said in a solemn voice, "These are the
+blood-stains of Don Fadrique, grand master of the order of Santiago,
+who was killed on this very spot, in the year 1358, by order of his
+brother, King Don Pedro."
+
+I remember that when I heard these words I looked in the face of the
+custodian, as if to say, "Come, let us be going," and that good man
+answered in a dry tone,
+
+"_Caballero_, if I had told you to believe this thing on my word, you
+would have had every reason to doubt; but when you can see the thing
+with your very eyes, I may be wrong, but--it seems to me...."
+
+"Yes," I hastened to say--"yes, it is blood: I believe it, I see it;
+let's say no more about it."
+
+But if one can be playful over the blood-spots, one cannot be so over
+the story of the crime; the sight of the place revives in the mind all
+the most horrible details. Through the great gilded halls one seems
+to hear the echo of Don Fadrique's footsteps, followed by those of
+the bowmen armed with bludgeons; the palace is immersed in gloom; one
+hears no other sound save that of the executioners and their victim;
+Don Fadrique tries to enter the courtyard; Lopez de Padilla catches
+him; Fadrique throws him off and is in the court; he grasps his sword;
+curses on it! the cross of the hilt is held fast in the mantle of
+the order of Santiago; the bowmen gain upon him; he has not time to
+unsheath the sword; he flees here and there, groping his way; Fernandez
+de Roa overtakes him and fells him with a blow of his club; the others
+run up and set upon him, and Fadrique dies in a pool of blood....
+
+But this sad recollection is lost among the thousand images of the
+sensuous Moorish kings. Those graceful little windows, where it seems
+as if you ought to see every other moment the languid face of an
+odalisque; those secret doors, at which you pause in spite of yourself,
+as if you heard the rustle of garments; those sleeping chambers of
+the sultans, shrouded in mysterious gloom, where you seem to hear
+only the confused amorous lament of all the maidens who there lost
+the flower of their virgin purity; that prodigal variety of color and
+line, which like a tumultuous and ever-changing harmony arouses the
+senses to such fantastic flights that you doubt whether you are waking
+or sleeping; that delicate and lovely architecture, all of slender
+columns, that seem like the arms of women; capricious arches, little
+rooms, arched ceilings crowded with ornaments hanging in the form of
+stalactites, icicles, and clusters of grapes, of as many colors as a
+flower-garden;--all this stirs your desire to sit down in the middle of
+one of those rooms and to press to your heart a lovely brown Andalusian
+head which will make you forget the world and time, and, with one long
+kiss that drinks away your life, give you eternal sleep.
+
+On the ground floor the most beautiful room is the Hall of the
+Ambassadors, formed by four great arches which support a gallery
+with forty-four smaller arches, and above a beautiful cupola carved,
+painted, gilded, and chased with inimitable grace and fabulous splendor.
+
+On the upper floor, where were the winter apartments, there remain only
+an oratory of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic, and a little room in
+which the king Don Pedro is said to have slept. From it one descends by
+a narrow mysterious staircase to the rooms where dwelt the famous Maria
+de Padilla, the favorite of Don Pedro, whom popular tradition accuses
+of instigating the king to kill his brother.
+
+[Illustration: _Moorish Arches, Alcazar, Seville_]
+
+The gardens of the Alcazar are neither very large nor particularly
+beautiful, but the memories which they recall are of greater value than
+extent or beauty. In the shade of those orange trees and cypresses, to
+the murmur of those fountains, when the great white moon was shining in
+that limpid Andalusian sky, and the many groups of courtiers and slaves
+rested there, how many long sighs of ardent sultanas! how many lowly
+words from proud kings! what passionate loves and embraces! "Itimad, my
+love!" I murmured, thinking of the famous mistress of King Al-Motamid
+as I wandered from path to path as if following her phantom,--"Itimad,"
+I repeated, "do not leave me alone in this silent paradise! Dost
+thou remember how thou camest to me? Thy wealth of hair fell over my
+shoulder, and dearer than the sword to the warrior wert thou to me! How
+beautiful thou art! Thy neck is soft and white as the swan's, and like
+berries are thy red, red lips! How marvellous is the perfection of thy
+beauty! How dear thou art, Itimad, my love! Thy kisses are like wine,
+and thy eyes, like wine, steal away my reason!"
+
+While I was thus making my declarations of love with phrases and images
+stolen from the Arabian poets, at the very moment when I turned into
+a bypath all bordered with flowers, suddenly I felt a stream of water
+first on one leg and then on the other. I jumped aside, and received
+a spray in my face; I turned to the right, and felt another stream
+against my neck; to the left, another jet between my shoulders. I began
+to run: there was water under me and around me in every direction, in
+jets, streams, and spray; in a moment I was as wet as if I had been
+dipped in the bath-tub. Just as I opened my mouth to call for help it
+all subsided, and I heard a ringing laugh at the end of the garden. I
+turned and saw a young fellow leaning against a low wall looking at me
+as if he were saying, "How did you like it?" When I came out he showed
+me the spring he had touched to play this little joke, and comforted me
+with the assurance that the sun of Seville would not leave me long in
+that dripping condition, into which I had passed so rudely, alas! from
+the lovely arms of my sultana.
+
+That evening, in spite of the voluptuous images which the Alcazar had
+called to my mind, I was sufficiently calm to contemplate the beauty
+of the women of Seville without fleeing to the arms of the consul for
+safety. I do not believe that the women of any other country are so
+bewitching as the fair Andalusians, not only because they tempt one
+into all sorts of mischief, but because they seem to have been made to
+be seized and carried away, so small, graceful, plump, elastic, and
+soft are they. Their little feet could both be put easily into one's
+coat-pocket, and with an arm one could lift them by the waist like
+babies, and by the mere pressure of the finger could bend them like
+willow wands. To their natural beauty they add the art of walking and
+looking in a way to turn one's head. They fly along, glide, and walk
+with a wave-like motion, and in a single moment, as they pass, they
+show a little foot, make you admire an arm or a slender waist, reveal
+two rows of the whitest teeth, and dart at you a long veiled glance
+that melts and dies in your own; and on they go with an air of triumph,
+certain of having turned your blood topsy-turvy.
+
+To form an idea of the beauty of the women of the people and the
+picturesqueness of their dress you must go by day to visit the
+tobacco-manufactory, which is one of the largest establishments of
+the kind in Europe and employs not less than five thousand hands. The
+building faces the vast gardens of the duke of Montpensier: almost all
+of the women work in three immense rooms, each divided into three parts
+by as many rows of pillars. The first view is astounding: there, all
+at once, eight hundred girls present themselves before one's eyes in
+groups of five or six, sitting around work-tables as close as possible,
+the farthest indistinct and the last scarcely visible; all of them
+young and a few children--eight hundred jet-black heads and eight
+hundred brown faces from every province of Andalusia, from Jaen to
+Cadiz, from Granada to Seville!
+
+One hears a buzzing as of a square full of people. The walls, from one
+door to the other, in all three of the rooms are lined with skirts,
+shawls, kerchiefs, and scarfs; and--a very curious thing--that entire
+mass of garments, which would fill to overflowing a hundred old-clothes
+shops, presents two predominant colors, in two continuous lines one
+above the other, like the stripes of a very long flag--the black of the
+shawls above, and the red mixed with white, purple, and yellow--so that
+one seems to see an immense costumer's shop or an immense ball-room
+where the ballet-dancers, in order to be free, have hung on the walls
+every part of their dress which it is not absolutely necessary to wear.
+The girls put on these dresses when they go out, and wear old clothes
+to work in; but white and red predominate in those dresses also. The
+heat is insupportable, consequently they lighten their clothing as
+much as possible, and among those five thousand one will scarcely find
+fifty whose arms and shoulders the visitor may not contemplate at
+his pleasure, without counting the extraordinary cases which present
+themselves suddenly as one passes from room to room, behind the doors
+and columns, and around the distant corners. There are some very
+beautiful faces, and even those who are not beautiful have something
+about them which attracts one's glance and lingers in the memory--the
+complexion, the eyes, the brow, or the smile. Many of them, especially
+so-called _Gitane_, are as dark as dark mulattos and have protruding
+lips; others have eyes so large that a faithful picture of them would
+be considered a monstrous exaggeration; the greater part are small and
+well-formed, and all have a rose or carnation or some sort of wild
+flower in their hair. They are paid in proportion to the work they do,
+and the most skilful and industrious earn as much as three francs per
+day; the lazy ones--_las holgazanas_--sleep with their arms crossed on
+the table and their heads resting on their arms; mothers are working,
+and swinging a leg to which is bound a cord that rocks the cradle.
+From the cigar-room one passes to the cigarette-room, and from it to
+the box-factory, and from the box-factory to the packing-room, and in
+them all one sees the red skirts, black hair, and fine eyes. In each of
+those rooms how many stories of love, jealousy, despair, and misery!
+On leaving the factory one seems for some time to see black eyes in
+every direction regarding him with a thousand varying expressions
+of curiosity, indifference, sympathy, cheerfulness, sadness, and
+drowsiness.
+
+The same day I went to see the Museum of Painting. The Seville gallery
+does not contain very many paintings, but those few are worth a
+great museum. There are the masterpieces of Murillo, and among them
+his immortal _Saint Anthony of Padua_, which is said to be the most
+divinely inspired of his works, and one of the greatest achievements
+of human genius. I visited the gallery in the company of Señor Gonzalo
+Segovia and Ardizone, one of the most illustrious young men of Seville,
+and I wish he were here beside my table at this moment to testify in a
+foot-note that when my eyes first lit upon the picture I seized his arm
+and uttered a cry.
+
+Only once in my life have I felt such a profound stirring of my soul as
+that which I felt on seeing this picture. It was one beautiful summer
+night: the sky was bright with stars, and the vast plain lay extended
+before me from the high place where I stood in deep silence. One of
+the noblest creatures I have ever met in my life was at my side. A few
+hours before we had been reading some pages from one of Humboldt's
+works: we looked at the sky and talked of the motion of the earth, the
+millions of worlds, and the infinite with those suppressed tones as of
+distant voices which one unconsciously uses in speaking of such things
+in the silent night. Finally we were still, and each, with eyes fixed
+on the heavens, gave himself up to fancies. I know not by what train
+of thought I was led; I know not what mysterious chain of emotions was
+formed in my heart; I know not what I saw or felt or dreamed. I only
+know that suddenly a veil before my mind seemed to be rent asunder; I
+felt within me a perfect assurance of that which hitherto I had longed
+for rather than believed; my heart expanded with a feeling of supreme
+joy, angelic peace, and limitless hope; a flood of scalding tears
+suddenly filled my eyes, and, grasping the hand of my friend, which
+sought my own, I cried from the depths of my soul, "It is true! It is
+true!" and began to cry like a child.
+
+The _Saint Anthony of Padua_ brought back the emotions of that evening.
+The saint is kneeling in the middle of his cell; the child Jesus in
+a nebulous halo of white vaporous light, drawn by the power of his
+prayer, is descending into his arms. Saint Anthony, rapt in ecstasy,
+throws himself forward with all his power of body and soul, his head
+thrown back, radiant with an expression of supreme joy. So great was
+the shock which this picture gave me that when I had looked at it a few
+moments I was as exhausted as if I had visited a vast gallery, and a
+trembling seized me and continued so long as I remained in that room.
+
+Afterward I saw the other great paintings of Murillo--a _Conception_, a
+_Saint Francis embracing Christ_, another version of _Saint Anthony_,
+and others to the number of twenty or more, among them the famous and
+enchanting _Virgin of the Napkin_, painted by Murillo upon a real
+napkin in the Capuchin convent of Seville to gratify a desire of a lay
+brother who was serving him: it is one of his most delicate creations,
+in which is revealed all the magic of his inimitable coloring--but none
+of these paintings, although they are objects of wonder to all the
+artists of the world, drew my heart or thoughts from that divine _Saint
+Anthony_.
+
+There are also in this gallery paintings by the two Herreras, Pacheco,
+Alonzo Cano, Pablo de Cespedes, Valdes, Mulato, a servant of Murillo
+who ably imitated his style, and finally the large famous painting of
+the _Apotheosis of Saint Thomas of Aquinas_, by Francesco Zurbaran,
+one of the most eminent artists of the seventeenth century, called
+the Spanish Caravaggio, and possibly his superior in truth and moral
+sentiment,--a powerful naturalist, a strong colorist, and an inimitable
+painter of austere friars, macerated saints, brooding hermits, and
+terrible priests, and an unsurpassed poet of penitence, solitude, and
+meditation.
+
+After seeing the picture-gallery Señor Gonzalo Segovia led me through
+a succession of narrow streets to the street _Francos_, one of the
+principal ways of the city, and stopped me in front of a little
+draper's shop, saying with a laugh, "Look! Doesn't this shop make you
+think of something?"
+
+"Nothing at all," I replied.
+
+"Look at the number."
+
+"It is number fifteen: what of it?"
+
+"Oh! plague on it!" exclaimed my amiable guide,
+
+    "'Number fifteen,
+    On the left-hand side'!"
+
+"The shop of the _Barber of Seville_!" I cried.
+
+"Precisely!" he responded--"the shop of the Barber of Seville; but
+be on your guard when you speak of it in Italy; do not take your
+oath, for traditions are often misleading, and I would not assume the
+responsibility of confirming a fact of such importance."
+
+At that moment the merchant came to the door of the shop, and, divining
+why we were there, laughed and said, "_No esta_" ("Figaro is not
+here"), and with a gracious bow he retired.
+
+Then I besought Señor Gonzalo to show me a _patio_, one of those
+enchanting _patios_ which as I looked at them from the street made me
+imagine so many delightful things. "I want to see at least one," I said
+to him--"to penetrate once into the midst of those mysteries, to touch
+the walls, to assure myself that it is a real thing and not a vision."
+
+My desire was at once fulfilled: we entered the _patio_ of one of his
+friends. Señor Gonzalo told the servant the object of our visit, and we
+were left alone. The house was only two stories in height. The _patio_
+was no larger than an ordinary room, but all marble and flowers, and
+a little fountain in the middle, and paintings and statues around,
+and from roof to roof an awning which sheltered it from the sun. In
+a corner was a work-table, and here and there one saw low chairs and
+little benches whereon a few moments previously had doubtless rested
+the feet of some fair Andalusian, who at that moment was watching us
+from between the slats of a blind. I examined everything minutely, as
+I would have done in a house abandoned by the fairies: I sat down,
+closed my eyes, imagined I was the master, then arose, wet my hand with
+the spray of the fountain, touched a slender column, went to the door,
+picked a flower, raised my eyes to the windows, laughed, sighed, and
+said, "How happy must those be who live here!" At that moment I heard
+a low laugh, and saw two great black eyes flash behind a blind and
+instantly disappear. "Truly," I said, "I did not believe that it was
+possible to still live so poetically upon this earth. And to think that
+you enjoy these houses all your life! and that you have the inclination
+to rack your brains about politics!"
+
+Señor Gonzalo showed me the secrets of the house. "All this furniture,"
+said he, "these paintings, and these vases of flowers disappear on
+the approach of autumn and are taken to the second story, which is
+the living apartment from autumn to spring. When summer comes beds,
+wardrobes, tables, chairs--everything is brought down to the rooms on
+the ground floor, and here the family sleep and eat, receive their
+friends, and do their work, among the flowers and marbles to the murmur
+of the fountain. And at night they have the doors open, and from the
+sleeping-rooms one can see the _patio_ flooded with moonlight and
+smell the fragrance of roses."
+
+"Oh, stop!" I exclaimed, "stop, Señor Gonzalo! Have pity on strangers!"
+And, laughing heartily, we both went out on our way to see the famous
+_Casa de Pilato_.
+
+As we were passing along a lonely little street I looked in a window
+of a hardware-shop and saw an assortment of knives so long, broad,
+and unusual that I felt a desire to buy one. I entered: twenty were
+displayed before my eyes, and I had the salesman to open them one by
+one. As each knife was opened I took a step backward. I do not believe
+it is possible to imagine an instrument more barbarous and terrifying
+in appearance than one of them. The handles are of wood, copper, and
+horn, curved and carved in open patterns, so that one may see through
+their little pieces of isinglass. The knives open with a sound like a
+rattle, and out comes a large blade as broad as the palm of your hand,
+as long as both palms together, and as sharp as a dagger, in the form
+of a fish, ornamented with red inlaying, which suggests streaks of
+clotted blood, and adorned with fierce and threatening inscriptions.
+On the blade of one there will be written in Spanish, _Do not open
+me without reason, nor shut me without honor_; on another, _Where I
+strike, all is over_; on a third, _When this snake bites, there is
+nothing left for the doctor to do_; and other gallantries of the same
+sort. The proper name of these knives is _navaja_--a word which also
+has the meaning of razor--and the _navaja_ is the popular duelling
+weapon. Now it has fallen into disuse, but was at one time held in
+great honor; there were masters who taught its use, each of whom had
+his secret blow, and duels were fought in accordance with the rules
+of chivalry. I bought the most terrible _navaja_ in the shop, and we
+entered the street again.
+
+The _Casa de Pilato_, held by the Medina-Coeli family, is, after
+the Alcazar, the most beautiful monument of Moorish architecture in
+Seville. The name, _Casa de Pilato_, comes from the fact that its
+founder, Don Enriquez de Ribera, the first marquis of Tarifa, had
+it built, as the story goes, in imitation of the house of the Roman
+prætor, which he had seen in Jerusalem, where he went on a pilgrimage.
+The edifice has a modest exterior, but the interior is marvellous.
+One first enters a court not less beautiful than the enchanting court
+of the Alcazar, encircled by two orders of arches, supported by
+graceful marble columns, forming two very light galleries, one above
+the other, and so delicate that it seems as if the first puff of wind
+would cast them into ruins. In the centre is a lovely fountain resting
+on four marble dolphins and crowned by a bust of Janus. Around the
+lower part of the walls run brilliant mosaics, and above these every
+sort of fantastic arabesque, here and there framing beautiful niches
+containing busts of the Roman emperors. At the four corners of the
+court the ceilings, the walls, and the doors are carved, embroidered,
+and covered with flowers and historic tapestries with the delicacy of
+a miniature. In an old chapel, partly Moorish and partly Gothic in
+style, and most delicate in form, there is preserved a little column,
+scarcely more than three feet in height, the gift of Pius V. to a
+descendant of the founder of the palace, at one time viceroy of Naples:
+to that column, says the tradition, was bound Jesus of Nazareth to be
+scourged. This fact, even if it were true, would prove that Pius V. did
+not believe it in the slightest degree. For he would not lightly have
+committed the unpardonable mistake of depriving himself of a valuable
+relic to make a present to the first comer. The entire palace is full
+of sacred memories. On the first floor the custodian points out a
+window which corresponds to that by which Peter sat when he denied his
+Lord, and the little window from which the maid-servant recognized him.
+From the street one sees another window with a little stone balcony,
+which represents the exact position of the window where Jesus, wearing
+the crown of thorns, was shown to the people.
+
+The garden is full of fragments of ancient statuary brought from Italy
+by that same Don Pedro Afan de Ribera, viceroy of Naples. Among the
+other fables that are told about this mysterious garden is one to the
+effect that Don Pedro Afan de Ribera placed in it an urn brought
+from Italy containing the ashes of the emperor Trajan, and a curious
+person carelessly struck the urn and overturned it; the emperor's ashes
+were thus scattered over the grass, and no one has ever succeeded in
+collecting them. So this august monarch, born at Italica, by a very
+strange fate has returned to the vicinity of his natal city, not in the
+very best condition in which to meditate upon its ruins, to tell the
+truth, but he was near it, at any rate.
+
+In spite of all that I have described, I may say that I did not see
+Seville, but just commenced to see it. Nevertheless, I shall stop
+here, because everything must have an end. I pass by the promenaders,
+the squares, the gates, the libraries, the public buildings, the
+mansions of the grandees, the gardens and the churches; but allow
+me to say that, after several days' wandering through Seville from
+sunrise to sunset, I was obliged to leave the city under the weight of
+a self-accusing conscience. I did not know which way to turn. I had
+reached such a condition of weariness that the announcement of a new
+object to be seen filled me with foreboding rather than pleasure. The
+good Señor Gonzalo kept up my courage, comforted me, and shortened the
+journeys with his delightful company, but, nevertheless, I have only a
+very confused remembrance of all that I saw during those last days.
+
+Seville, although it no longer merits the glorious title of the
+Spanish Athens, as in the times of Charles V. and Philip II., when it
+was mother and patron of a large and chosen band of poets and artists,
+the seat of culture and of the arts in the vast empire of its monarchs,
+is even yet that one among the cities of Spain, with the exception
+of Madrid, in which the artistic life is most vigorously maintained,
+as is evidenced by the number of its men of genius, the liberality
+of its patrons, and the popular love of the fine arts. It contains a
+flourishing academy of literature, a society for the protection of the
+arts, a well-known university, and a colony of scholars and sculptors
+who enjoy an honorable distinction throughout Spain. But the highest
+literary fame in Seville belongs to a woman--Catharine Bohl, the
+author of the novels which bear the name of Fernan Caballero, widely
+read in Spain and America, translated into almost all the languages
+of Europe, and known also in Italy (where some of them were published
+not long since) by every one who at all occupies himself with foreign
+literature. They are admirable pictures of Andalusian manners, full
+of truth, passion, and grace, and, above all, possessing a vigor of
+faith and a religious enthusiasm so fearless and a Christian charity
+so broad that they would startle and confuse the most skeptical man
+in the world. Catharine Bohl is a woman who would undergo martyrdom
+with the firmness and serenity of a Saint Ignatius. The consciousness
+of her power is revealed in every page: she does not hesitate to
+defend her religion, and confronts, assails, threatens, and overthrows
+its enemies; and not only the enemies of religion, but every man and
+everything that, to use a common expression, conforms to the spirit
+of the age, for she never forgives the least sin which has been
+committed from the times of the Inquisition to our own day, and she is
+more inexorable than the Pope's syllabus. And herein perhaps lies her
+greatest defect as a writer--that her religious convictions and her
+invectives are entirely too frequent and grow tiresome, and disgust and
+prejudice the reader rather than convince him of her own beliefs. But
+there is not a shadow of bitterness in her heart, and as her books, so
+is her life, noble, upright, and charitable. In Seville she is revered
+as a saint. Born in that city, she married early in life, and is now a
+widow for the third time. Her last husband, who was Spanish ambassador
+at London, committed suicide, and from that day she has never laid
+aside her mourning. At the time of my visit she was almost seventy; she
+had been very beautiful, and her noble, placid face still preserved
+the impress of beauty. Her father, who was a man of considerable
+genius and great culture, taught her several languages in early life:
+she knows Latin thoroughly and speaks Italian, German, and French
+with admirable facility. At this time, however, she is not writing at
+all, although the editors and publishers of Europe and America are
+offering her large sums for her works. But she does not live a life of
+inactivity. From morning to night she reads all sorts of books, and
+while she reads she is either knitting or embroidering, for she very
+firmly believes that her literary studies ought not to take one minute
+from her feminine employments. She has no children, and lives in a
+lonely house, the best part of which has been given to a poor family;
+she spends a great part of her income in charity. A curious trait of
+her character is her great love of animals: she has her house full of
+birds, cats, and dogs, and her sensibilities are so delicate that she
+has never consented to enter a carriage, for fear of seeing the horse
+beaten on her account. All suffering affects her as if she herself
+were bearing it: the sight of a blind man or of a sick person or of a
+cripple of any sort distresses her for an entire day; she cannot close
+her eyes to sleep unless she has wiped away a tear; she would joyfully
+forego all her honors to save any unknown person a heartache. Before
+the Revolution her life was not so isolated: the Montpensier family
+received her with great honor, and the most illustrious families of
+Seville vied with each other in entertaining her at their homes: now
+she lives only among her books and a few friends.
+
+In Moorish times Cordova took the lead in literature and Seville in
+music. "When a scholar dies at Seville," said Averroes, "and they wish
+to sell his books, they send them to Cordova; but if a musician dies
+at Cordova, they send his instruments to Seville to be sold." Now
+Cordova has lost her literary primacy, and Seville holds first place
+both in literature and music. Truly the times are past in which a poet
+by singing of the beauty of a maiden draws around her a crowd of lovers
+from all parts of the realm, and when one prince envies another simply
+because a poet has sung in his praise a verse more beautiful than any
+which the other had inspired, and a caliph rewards the author of a
+noble hymn by a gift of a hundred camels, a troop of slaves, and a vase
+of gold--when a happy strophe improvised at an opportune time releases
+a slave from his chains or saves the life of one condemned to death,
+and when the musicians are followed through the streets of Seville by
+a train of monarchs, and the favor of poets is more sought than that
+of kings, and the lyre is more terrible than the sword. But the people
+of Seville are always the most poetic people of Spain. The _bon mot_,
+the word of love, the expression of joy and enthusiasm, fly from their
+lips with a fascinating spontaneity and grace. The common people of
+Seville improvise, and talk as though they are singing, gesticulate as
+if they are declaiming, laugh and play like children. One never grows
+old at Seville. It is a city where life melts away in a continuous
+smile, with no other thought than the enjoyment of the beautiful sky,
+the lovely little houses, and the delightful little gardens. It is
+the most peaceful city in Spain, and the only one which since the
+Revolution has not been agitated by those sad political commotions
+which have stirred the others: politics do not penetrate the surface;
+the Sevillians are content to make love; all else they take in jest.
+_Todo lo toman de broma_, say the other Spaniards of the Sevillians;
+and in truth with that fragrant air, with those little streets like
+those of an Oriental city, with those fiery little women, why should
+they trouble themselves? At Madrid they speak ill of them; they say
+they are vain, false, fickle, and silly. It is jealousy: they envy them
+their happy indolence, the sympathy which they inspire in strangers,
+their girls, their poets, their painters, their orators, their Giralda,
+their Alcazar, their Guadalquivir, their life, and their history. So
+say the Sevillians, striking their breasts with one hand and puffing
+into the air a cloud of smoke from the inseparable _cigaritto_; and
+their lovely little women revenge themselves upon their envious sisters
+and all the other women in the world, speaking with spiteful pity of
+long feet, large waists, and dull eyes, that in Andalusia would not
+receive the honor of a glance or the homage of a sigh. A charming and
+amiable people, in truth; but, alas! one must look at the reverse side
+of the medal: superstition reigns and schools are lacking, as is the
+case throughout all Southern Spain; this is partly their own fault and
+partly not; but the negative is probably the smaller part.
+
+The day of my departure arrived unexpectedly. It is strange: I remember
+scarcely any particulars of my life at Seville; it is remarkable if
+I can tell where I dined, what I talked about with the consul, how I
+spent the evenings, and why I chose any given day to take my departure.
+I was not myself; I lived, if I may use the expression, out of myself;
+all the while I remained in the city I was a little dazed. Apart from
+the art-gallery and the _patio_ my friend Segovia must have found that
+I knew very little; and now, I know not why, I think of those days
+as of a dream. Of no other city are my recollections so vague as of
+Seville. Even to-day, while I am certain of having been at Saragossa,
+Madrid, and Toledo, sometimes when I think of Seville a doubt steals
+upon me. It seems to me like a city much farther away than the most
+distant boundaries of Spain, and that to journey there again I must
+travel months and months, cross unknown continents and wide seas,
+among people totally different from our own. I think of the streets
+of Seville, of certain little squares and certain houses, as I would
+think of the spots on the moon. Sometimes the image of that city passes
+before my eyes like a white figure, and disappears almost before I
+can grasp it with my mind--sometimes in a breath of air, at certain
+hours of the day, at a garden-gate; in humming a song which I heard a
+boy sing on the steps of the Giralda. I cannot explain this secret to
+myself; I think of Seville as of a city which I have still to see, and
+I enjoy looking at the prints and thumbing the books which I bought
+there, for they are tangible things that convince me of my visit. A
+month ago I received a letter from Segovia which said, "Come back to
+us." It gave me untold pleasure, but at the same time I laughed as if
+he had written, "Make a voyage to Pekin." It is for this very reason
+that Seville is dearer to me than all the other cities of Spain; I
+love it as I might love a beautiful unknown woman who, crossing a
+mysterious wood, might look my way and throw me a flower. How often in
+the theatre or at the café, when a friend shakes me and asks, "What are
+you thinking about?" I am obliged to leave the little room of Maria de
+Padilla to return to him, or a boat that is gliding along in the shade
+of the Christina plane trees, or Figaro's shop, or the vestibule of a
+_patio_ full of flowers, fountains, and lights.
+
+I embarked on a boat of the Segovia Company, near the Torre del Oro, at
+an hour when Seville is wrapped in deep sleep and a burning sun covers
+it with a flood of light. I remember that a few moments before the
+boat started a young man came on board in search of me, and gave me a
+letter from Gonzalo Segovia, containing a sonnet which I still cherish
+as one of my most precious mementos of Seville. On the boat there was
+a company of Spanish singers, an English family, some laboring-men,
+and babies. The captain, being a good Andalusian, had a cheery word
+for everybody. I soon began a conversation with him. My friend Gonzalo
+was a son of the proprietor of the line, and we talked of the Segovia
+family, of Seville, the sea, and a thousand pleasant things. Ah! the
+poor man was far from thinking that a few days later the unlucky ship
+would founder in the midst of the sea and bring him to such a terrible
+end! It was the _Guadaira_, that was lost a short distance from
+Marseilles by the bursting of the boiler on the sixteenth day of June,
+1872.
+
+At three o'clock the boat started for Cadiz.
+
+
+
+
+CADIZ.
+
+
+That was the most delightful evening of all my journey.
+
+A little while after the ship had commenced to move there sprang up one
+of those gentle breezes which played with one as an infant plays with
+one's cravat or a lock of one's hair, and from stem to stern there was
+a sound of the voices of women and children, like that which one hears
+among a group of friends at the first crack of the whip announcing
+their departure for a merry outing. All the passengers gathered at the
+stern in the shade of a gayly-colored awning like a Chinese pavilion:
+some were sitting on coils of rope, others were stretched at full
+length on the benches, others were leaning against the rail--every one
+looked back in the direction of the Torre del Oro to enjoy the famous
+and enchanting spectacle of Seville as it faded away in the distance.
+Some of the women had not yet dried the tears of parting, and some of
+the children were still a little frightened by the sound of the engine.
+And some ladies were still quarrelling with the porters for abusing
+their baggage; but in a few moments all was serene again, and the
+passengers began to peel oranges, light cigars, pass little flasks of
+liquor, converse with their unknown neighbors, sing and laugh, and in a
+quarter of an hour we were all friends.
+
+The boat glided along as smoothly as a gondola over the still, limpid
+waters, which reflected the white dresses of the ladies like a mirror,
+and the breeze brought the delightful fragrance from the orange-groves
+of the villas scattered along the shore. Seville was hidden behind
+her circle of gardens, and we saw only an immense mass of trees of
+vivid green, and above them the black pile of the cathedral and the
+rose-colored Giralda surmounted by its statue flaming like a tongue
+of fire. As the distance widened the cathedral appeared grander and
+more majestic, as if it were following the vessel and gaining upon
+her: now, although still following, it seemed to retire a great way
+from the shore; now it would seem to be spanning the river; one
+moment it would appear suddenly to return to its place; a moment
+later it looked so close that we suspected the boat had turned back.
+The Guadalquivir wound along in short curves, and as the boat turned
+this way and that Seville appeared and disappeared, now peeping out
+in one place as if it had stolen beyond its boundaries, now raising
+its head suddenly behind a wood, gleaming like a snowclad mountain,
+now revealing some white streaks here and there amid the verdure, and
+suddenly disappearing from view and performing all sorts of fantastic
+wiles, like a coquettish woman. Finally it disappeared and we saw it
+no more: the cathedral alone remained. Then every one turned to look
+at the shore. We seemed to be sailing on the lake of a garden. Here
+was a hillside clothed with cypresses, here a hilltop all covered
+with flowers, yonder a village extending along the shore, and under
+the garden trellises and along the terraces of the villas sat ladies
+looking at us with spy-glasses; and here and there were peasants'
+families in brightly-colored dresses, sail-boats; and naked boys who
+plunged into the water and turned sommersaults, frisked about, shouted,
+and waved their hands toward the ladies on the boat, who covered their
+faces with their fans. Some miles from Seville we met three steamboats,
+one after the other. The first came upon us so suddenly at a turn of
+the river that, having had no experience in that sort of navigation,
+I was afraid, for a moment, that we should not have time to avoid a
+collision; the two boats almost grazed each other in passing, and the
+passengers of each saluted each other and threw across oranges and
+cigars, and charged each other with messages to be borne to Cadiz or
+Seville.
+
+My fellow-voyagers were almost all Andalusians, and so, after an
+hour of conversation, I knew them from first to last as well as if
+we had all been friends from infancy. Every one instantly told every
+one else, whether he wanted to know it or not, who he was, his age,
+occupation, and where he was going, and one even went so far as to tell
+how many sweethearts he had and how many pesetas were in his purse. I
+was taken for a singer; and this is not strange if one considers that
+in Spain the people think three-fourths of the Italians are trained to
+sing, dance, or declaim. One gentleman, noticing that I had an Italian
+book in my hand, asked me, point-blank, "Where did you leave the
+company?"
+
+"What company?" I demanded.
+
+"Weren't you singing with Fricci at the Zarzuela?"
+
+"I am sorry, but I have never appeared on the stage."
+
+"Well, I must say, then, that you and the second tenor look as much
+alike as two drops of water."
+
+"You don't say so?"
+
+"Pray excuse me."
+
+"It's of no consequence."
+
+"But you are an Italian?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Do you sing?"
+
+"I am sorry, but I do not sing."
+
+"How strange! To judge by your throat and breast, I should have said
+that you must have a splendid tenor voice."
+
+I put my hand to my chest and neck, and replied, "It may be so; I will
+try--one never knows. I have two of the necessary qualifications: I am
+an Italian and have the throat of a tenor; the voice ought to follow."
+
+At this point the prima donna of the company, who had overheard the
+dialogue, entered the conversation, and after her the entire company:
+
+"Is the gentleman an Italian?"
+
+"At your service, madam."
+
+"I ask the question because I wish him to do me a favor. What is the
+meaning of those short verses from _Il Trovatore_ which run--
+
+              "Non può nemmeno un Dio
+              Donna rapirti a me."
+    (Not even a god can steal my lady from me.)
+
+"Is the lady married?"
+
+They all began to laugh.
+
+"Yes," replied the prima donna; "but why do you ask me that?"
+
+"Because ... 'not even a god can steal you from me' is what your
+husband ought to say, if he has two good eyes in his head, every
+morning when he rises and every night when he goes to bed."
+
+The others laughed, but to the prima donna this imaginary presumption
+on the part of her husband in affirming that he was secure even against
+a god seemed too extravagant, possibly because she knew that she had
+not always been sufficiently wary in her regard for men; and so she
+scarcely deigned by so much as a smile to show that she had understood
+my compliment. She at once asked the meaning of another verse, and
+after her the baritone, and after the baritone the tenor, and after
+the tenor the second lady, and so on, until for a little while I did
+nothing but translate poor Italian verses into worse Spanish prose, to
+the great satisfaction of some of them, who for the first time were
+able to repeat intelligently a little of what they had so often sung
+with an air of perfect knowledge. When every one had learned as much
+as he wished to know, the conversation came to a close, and I stood
+talking a little while with the baritone, who hummed me an air from
+the _Zarzuela_; then I attached myself to one of the chorus, who told
+me that the tenor was making love to the prima donna; then I went off
+with the tenor, who told me about the baritone's wife; then I talked
+with the prima donna, who said disagreeable things about the whole
+company; but they were all good friends, and when they met, as they
+walked about the boat and gathered under the awning, the men pulled
+each other's beards and the women kissed each other, and one and all
+exchanged glances and smiles which revealed secret understandings. Some
+ran through the gamut here, some hummed yonder, others practised trills
+in a corner, and others again tried a guttural _do_ that ended in a
+wheezing sound in the throat; and meanwhile they all talked at once
+about a thousand trifles.
+
+Finally, the bell sounded and we rushed headlong to the table, like
+so many officials invited to a spread at the unveiling of a monument.
+At this dinner, amid the cries and songs of all those people, I drank
+for the first time an unmixed glass of that terrible wine of Xeres
+whose wonders are sung in the four corners of the earth. I had scarcely
+swallowed it before I seemed to feel a spark run through all my veins,
+and my head burned as if it was full of sulphur. All the others drank,
+and all were filled with unrestrained mirth and became irresistibly
+loquacious; the prima donna began to talk in Italian, the tenor in
+French, the baritone in Portuguese, the others in dialect, and I in
+every tongue; and there were toasts and snatches of song, shouts,
+arch glances, clasping of hands above table and the kicking of feet
+below, and declarations of good fellowship exchanged on all sides,
+like the personalities in Parliament when the opposing factions join
+battle. After dinner we all went on deck, flushed and in great spirits,
+breathless and enveloped in a cloud of smoke from our cigarettes, and
+then, in the light of the moon, whose silvery rays gleamed on the wide
+river and covered the hillsides and the groves with limpid light, we
+began again a noisy conversation, and after the conversation there
+was singing, not only the trifling airs of _Zarzuela_, but passages
+from operas, with solos, duets, trios, and choruses, with appropriate
+gestures and stage strides, diversified with declamations from
+the poets, stories, and anecdotes, hearty laughter, and tumultuous
+applause; finally, tired and breathless, we were all silent, and some
+fell asleep with upturned faces, others went to lie down under cover,
+and the prima donna seated herself in a corner to look at the moon.
+The tenor was snoring. I profited by the occasion to go and have an
+aria from the _Zarzuela_--_El Sargento Federico_--sung to me in a low
+voice. The courteous Andalusian did not wait to be pressed: she sang,
+but suddenly she was silent and hid her face. I looked at her: she
+was weeping. I asked her the cause of her distress, and she answered,
+sadly, "I am thinking of a perjury." Then she broke into a laugh and
+began to sing again. She had a melodious, flexible voice, and sang with
+a feeling of gentle sadness. The sky was all studded with stars, and
+the boat glided so smoothly through the water that it scarcely seemed
+to be moving; and I thought of the gardens of Seville, of the near
+African shore, and of the dear one waiting for me in Italy, and my eyes
+too were wet, and when the lady stopped singing, I said, "Sing on, for--
+
+    'Mortal tongue cannot express
+    That which I felt within my breast....'"
+
+At dawn the boat was just entering the ocean; the river was very wide.
+The right bank, scarcely visible in the distance, stretched along like
+a tongue of land, beyond which shone the waters of the sea. A moment
+later the sun rose above the horizon, and the vessel left the river.
+Then there unfolded before my eyes a sight that could not be described
+if it were possible to join poetry, painting, and music in one supreme
+art--a spectacle whose magnificence and enchantment I believe not even
+Dante could describe with his grandest images, nor Titian with his
+most brilliant colors, nor Rossini with his most perfect harmonies,
+nor even all three of them together. The sky was a miracle of sapphire
+light unflecked by a cloud, and the sea was so beautiful that it seemed
+like an immense carpet of shimmering silk; the sun was shining on the
+crests of the little ripples caused by a light breeze, and it seemed as
+if they were tipped with amethyst. The sea was full of reflections and
+luminous bands of light, and in the distance were streaks of silver,
+with here and there great white sails, like the trailing wings of
+gigantic fallen angels. I have never seen such brilliancy of color,
+such splendor of light, such freshness, such transparency, such limpid
+water and sky. It seemed like a daybreak of creation, which the fancy
+of poets had pictured so pure and effulgent that our dawns are only
+pale reflections in comparison. It was more than Nature's awakening and
+the recurring stir of life: it was a hallelujah, a triumph, a new birth
+of creation, growing into the infinite by a second inspiration of God.
+
+I went below deck to get my spyglass, and when I returned Cadiz was in
+sight.
+
+The first impression which it made upon me was a feeling of doubt
+whether it was a city or not. I first laughed, then turned toward my
+fellow-traveller with the air of one seeking to be assured that he is
+not deceived. Cadiz is like an island of chalk. It is a great white
+spot in the midst of the sea, without a cloud, without a black line,
+without a shadow--a white spot as clear and pure as a hilltop covered
+with untrodden snow, standing out against a sky of beryl and turquoise
+in the midst of a vast flooded plain. A long, narrow neck of land
+unites it to the continent; on all other sides it is surrounded by the
+sea, like a boat just ready to sail bound to the shore only by a cable.
+As we approached, the forms of the campaniles, the outlines of the
+houses, and the openings of the streets became clear, and everything
+seemed whiter, and, however much I looked through my spyglass, I could
+not have discovered the smallest spot in that whiteness, either on a
+building near the harbor or in the farthest suburbs. We entered the
+port, where there were but a few ships and those a great way apart. I
+stepped into a boat without even taking my valise with me, for I was
+obliged to leave for Malaga that same evening, and so eager was I to
+see the city that when the boat came to the bank, I jumped too soon
+and fell to the ground like a corpse, although, alas! I still felt the
+pains of a living body.
+
+[Illustration: _Cadiz_]
+
+Cadiz is the whitest city in the world; and it is of no use to
+contradict me by saying that I have not seen every other city, for
+my common sense tells me that a city whiter than this, which is
+superlatively and perfectly white, cannot exist. Cordova and Seville
+cannot be compared with Cadiz: they are as white as a sheet, but Cadiz
+is as white as milk. To give an idea of it, one could not do better
+than to write the word "white" a thousand times with a white pencil
+on blue paper, and make a note on the margin: "Impressions of Cadiz."
+Cadiz is one of the most extravagant and graceful of human caprices:
+not only the outer walls of the houses are white, but the stairs are
+white, the courts are white, the shop-walls are white, the stones are
+white, the pilasters are white, the most secret and darkest corners
+of the poorest houses and the loneliest streets are white; everything
+is white from roof to cellar wherever the tip of a brush can enter,
+even to the holes, cracks, and birds' nests. In every house there is
+a pile of chalk and lime, and every time the eagle eye of the inmates
+spies the least spot the brush is seized and the spot covered. Servants
+are not taken into families unless they know how to whitewash. A
+pencil-scratch on a wall is a scandalous thing, an outrage upon the
+public peace, an act of vandalism: you might walk through the entire
+city, look behind all the doors, and poke your nose into the very
+holes, and you would find white, only and always and eternally.
+
+But, for all this, Cadiz does not in the least resemble the other
+Andalusian cities. Its streets are long and straight, and the houses
+are high, and lack the _patios_ of Cordova and Seville. But, although
+the appearance is different, the city does not appear less interesting
+and pleasant to the eye of the stranger. The streets are straight, but
+narrow, and, moreover, they are very long, and many of them cross the
+entire city, and so one can see at the end, as through the crack in a
+door, a slender strip of sky, which makes it seem as if the city was
+built on the summit of a mountain cut on all sides in regular channels:
+moreover, the houses have a great many windows, and, as at Burgos,
+every window is provided with a sort of glass balcony which rises in
+tiers from story to story, so that in many streets the houses are
+completely covered with glass, and one sees scarcely any traces of the
+walls. It seems like walking through a passage in an immense museum.
+Here and there, between one house and the next, rise the graceful
+fronds of a palm; in every square there is a luxuriant mass of verdure,
+and at all the windows bunches of grass and bouquets of flowers.
+
+Really, I had been far from imagining that Cadiz could be so gay
+and smiling--that terrible, ill-fated Cadiz, burned by the English
+in the sixteenth century, bombarded at the end of the eighteenth,
+devastated by the pestilence, hostess of the fleets of Trafalgar, the
+seat of the revolutionary council during the War of Independence, the
+theatre of the horrible butchery of the Revolution of 1820, the target
+of the French bombs in 1823, the standard-bearer of the Revolution
+which hurled the Bourbons from the throne,--Cadiz always restless
+and turbulent and first of all to raise the battle-cry. But of such
+calamities and such struggles there remain only some cannon-balls
+half buried in the walls, for over all the traces of destruction has
+passed the inexorable brush, covering every dishonor with a white veil.
+And as it is with the latest wars, so too there remains not a trace
+of the Phœnicians who founded the city, nor of the Carthaginians and
+Romans who enlarged and beautified it, unless one wishes to consider
+as a trace the tradition which says, "Here rose a temple to Hercules,"
+"There rose a temple to Saturn." But time has done a worse thing than
+to deprive Cadiz of her ancient monuments: it has stolen away her
+commerce and her riches since Spain lost her possessions in America,
+and now Cadiz lies there inert on her solitary rock, waiting in vain
+for the thousand ships which once came with flags and festoons to offer
+her the tribute of the New World.
+
+I had a letter of introduction to the Italian consul, and after
+receiving it he courteously took me to the top of a tower from which I
+was able to get a bird's-eye view of the city. It was a novel sight and
+a very lively surprise: seen from above, Cadiz is white, entirely and
+perfectly white, just as it appears from the sea; there is not a roof
+in all the city; every house is covered on top by a terrace surrounded
+by a low whitewashed wall; on almost every terrace rises a little white
+tower, which is surmounted, in its turn, by another smaller terrace
+or by a little cupola or sort of sentry-box: everything is white; all
+these little cupolas, these pinnacles, and these towers, which give
+the city a very odd and uneven appearance, gleam and stand out white
+against the vivid blue of the sea. One's view extends over the entire
+length of the isthmus which connects Cadiz to the main land, embraces
+a far-off strip of distant coast whitened by the cities of Puerto Real
+and Puerto Santa Maria, dotted with villages, churches, and villas, and
+includes also the port and the clear and a very beautiful sky which
+vies with the sea in transparency and light. I could not look enough
+at that strange city. On closing my eyes it appeared as if covered
+by an immense sheet. Every house seemed to have been built for an
+astronomical observatory. The entire population, in case the sea should
+inundate the city, as in ancient times, might gather on the terraces
+and remain there in perfect ease, saving the fright.
+
+I was told that a few years ago, on the occasion of some eclipse
+of the sun, this very spectacle was witnessed: the seventy thousand
+inhabitants of Cadiz all ascended to the terraces to watch the
+phenomenon. The city changed its perfect whiteness for a thousand
+colors; every terrace was thick with heads; one saw at a single glance,
+quarter after quarter, and finally the entire population: a low murmur
+rose to heaven like the roar of the sea, and a great movement of arms,
+fans, and spy-glasses, pointing upward, made it seem as if the people
+were awaiting the descent of some angel from the solar sphere. At a
+certain moment there was a profound silence: when the phenomenon was
+over the entire population gave a shout, which sounded like a clap of
+thunder, and a few moments later the city was white again.
+
+I descended from the tower and went to see the cathedral, a vast
+marble edifice of the sixteenth century, not to be compared to the
+cathedrals of Burgos and Toledo, but nevertheless dignified and bold in
+architecture and enriched by every sort of treasure, like all the other
+Spanish churches. I went to see the convent where Murillo was painting
+a picture over a high altar when he fell from the scaffold and received
+the wound which caused his death. I passed through the picture-gallery,
+which contains some fine paintings of Zurbaran; entered the bull-ring,
+built entirely of wood, which was created in a few days to provide
+a spectacle for Queen Isabella. Toward evening I took a turn in the
+delightful promenade along the sea-shore, in the midst of orange trees
+and palms, where the most beautiful and elegant ladies of the city
+were pointed out to me, one by one. Whatever may be the judgment of
+the Spaniards, to me the feminine type of Cadiz did not seem at all
+inferior to the celebrated type of Seville. The women are a little
+taller, a little heavier, and are somewhat darker. Some observer has
+ventured to say that they closely resemble the Grecian type, but I do
+not know in what respect. I saw no difference from the Andalusian type
+except in stature, and that was enough to make me heave sighs which
+might have propelled a ship, and constrained me to return as soon as
+possible to the vessel as a place of refuge and peace.
+
+When I arrived on board it was night; the sky was all twinkling with
+stars, and the breeze bore faintly to my ears the music of a band
+playing on the promenade of Cadiz. The singers were asleep; I was
+alone, and the sight of the city lights and the recollection of the
+lovely faces filled me with melancholy. I did not know what to do
+with myself, so I went down to the cabin, took out my note-book, and
+commenced the description of Cadiz. But I only succeeded in writing ten
+times the words, "White, blue, snow, brightness, colors," after which I
+made a little sketch of a woman and then closed my eyes and dreamed of
+Italy.
+
+
+
+
+MALAGA.
+
+
+The next day, at sunset, the vessel was passing through the Straits of
+Gibraltar.
+
+Now, as I look at that point on the map, it seems so near home that
+when I am in the humor and my domestic finances permit I ought not to
+hesitate a moment to pack my valise and run down to Genoa on my way
+to enjoy a second time the most beautiful sight of two continents.
+But then it seemed to be so far away that when I had written a letter
+to my mother on the rail of the ship, intending to give it to one of
+the passengers for Gibraltar to post, as I was writing the address I
+laughed at my confidence, as if it were impossible for a letter to
+travel all the way to Turin. "From here!" I thought--"from the Pillars
+of Hercules!" and I pronounced the Pillars of Hercules as if I had said
+the Cape of Good Hope or Japan.
+
+"... I am on the ship Guadaira: behind me is the ocean, and in front
+the Mediterranean, on the left Europe and on the right Africa. On this
+side I see the cape of Tarifa, and on that the mountains of the African
+coast, which look indistinct like a gray cloud; I see Ceuta, and a
+little beyond it Tangiers like a white spot, and in a direct line with
+the ship rises the Rock of Gibraltar. The sea is as placid as a lake,
+and the sky is red and gold; all is serene, beautiful, and magnificent,
+and I feel in my mind an inexpressible and delightful stirring of great
+thoughts, which, if I could put them into words, would become a joyful
+prayer beginning and ending with thy name...."
+
+The vessel stopped in the Gulf of Algeciras: the entire company of
+singers got into a large boat from Gibraltar, and went off, waving fans
+and handkerchiefs as a parting salute. It was growing dark when the
+boat started again. Then I was able to measure the enormous mass of the
+Rock of Gibraltar at every turn. At first I thought we should leave
+it behind in a few moments, but the moments became hours. Gradually,
+as we approached, it towered above us, and presented a new appearance
+every instant--now the silhouette of some measureless monster, now the
+image of an immense staircase, now the outline of a fantastic castle,
+now a shapeless mass like a monstrous aërolite fallen from a world
+shivered in a battle of the spheres. Then, on nearer view, behind a
+high rock like an Egyptian pyramid, there came into sight a great
+projection as large as a mountain, with fissures and broken boulders
+and vast curves which lost themselves in the plain. It was night; the
+rock stood outlined against the moonlit sky as clear and sharp as a
+sheet of black paper on a pane of glass. One saw the lighted windows
+of the English barracks, the sentry-boxes on the summit of the dizzy
+crags, and a dim outline of trees which seemed little larger than a
+tuft of grass among the nearest rocks. For a long time the boat seemed
+motionless or else the rock was receding, so close and threatening did
+it always appear; then, little by little, it began to diminish, but our
+eyes were weary of gazing before the rock grew weary of threatening us
+with its fantastic transformations. At midnight I gave a final salute
+to that formidable, lifeless sentinel of Europe, and went to wrap
+myself up in my little corner.
+
+At break of day I awoke a few miles from the port of Malaga.
+
+The city of Malaga, seen from the port, presents a pleasing appearance
+not wholly without grandeur. On the right is a high rocky mountain,
+upon the top of which and down one side, even to the plain, are the
+enormous blackened ruins of the castle of Gibralfaro, and on the
+lower slopes stands the cathedral towering majestically above all the
+surrounding buildings, lifting toward heaven, as an inspired poet might
+say, two beautiful towers and a very high belfry. Between the castle
+and the church and on the face and sides of the mountain there is a
+mass--a _canaille_, as Victor Hugo would say--of smoky little houses,
+placed confusedly one above the other, as if they had been thrown down
+from above like stones. To the left of the cathedral, along the shore,
+is a row of houses, gray, violet, or pale yellow in color, with white
+window-and door-frames, that suggest the villages along the Ligurian
+Riviera. Beyond rises a circle of green and reddish hills enclosing the
+city like the walls of an amphitheatre, and to the right and left along
+the sea-shore extend other mountains, hills, and rocks as far as the
+eye can see. The port was almost deserted, the shore silent, and the
+sky very blue.
+
+Before landing I took my leave of the captain, who was going on to
+Marseilles, said good-bye to the boatswain and passengers, telling them
+all that I should arrive at Valencia a day ahead of the boat, and I
+should certainly join them again and go on to Barcelona and Marseilles,
+and the captain replied, "We shall look for you," and the steward
+promised that my place should be saved for me. How often since then
+have I remembered the last words of those poor people!
+
+[Illustration: _Malaga_]
+
+I stopped at Malaga with the intention of leaving that same evening
+for Granada. The city itself offers nothing worthy of note, excepting
+the new part, which occupies a tract of land formerly covered by
+the sea. This is built up in the modern style, with wide, straight
+streets and large, bare houses. The rest of the city is a labyrinth
+of narrow, winding streets and a mass of houses without color,
+without _patios_, and without grace. There are some spacious squares
+with gardens and fountains; columns and arches of Moorish buildings, no
+modern monuments; a great deal of dirt, and not a great many people.
+The environs are very beautiful, and the climate is milder than that of
+Seville.
+
+I had a friend at Malaga, and after finding him we passed the day
+together. He told me a curious fact: At Malaga there is a literary
+academy of more than eight hundred members, where they celebrate the
+birthdays of all the great writers, and hold twice a week a public
+lecture on some subject connected with literature or science. That same
+evening they were to celebrate a solemn function. Some months earlier
+the academy had offered a prize of three golden flowers, enamelled
+in different colors, to the three poets who should compose the best
+ode on "Progress," the best ballad on the "Recovery of Malaga," and
+the best satire on one of the most prevalent vices of modern society.
+The invitation had been extended to all the poets of Spain; poems had
+poured in in abundance; a board of judges had secretly considered them;
+and that very evening the choice was to be announced. The ceremony was
+to be conducted with great pomp. The bishop, the governor, the admiral,
+the most conspicuous personages of the city, with dress-coats, orders,
+and shoulder-scarfs, and a great number of ladies in evening dress,
+were to be present. The three most beautiful Muses of the city were
+to present themselves on a sort of stage adorned with garlands and
+flags, each of whom was to open the roll containing the prize poem
+and to proclaim three times the name of its author: if the author
+were present, he was to be invited to read his verses and receive his
+flower; if he were not present, his verses were to be read for him.
+Throughout the whole city they talked of nothing but the academy,
+guessed the names of the victors, predicted the wonders of the three
+poems, and extolled the decorations of the hall. This festival of
+poetry, called the _juegos floreales_, had not been celebrated for ten
+years. Others may judge whether such contests and displays benefit or
+injure poets and poetry. As for me, whatever may be the dubious and
+fleeting literary glory which is bestowed by the sentence of the jury
+and the homage of a bishop and a governor, I believe that to receive
+the gift of a golden flower from the hand of a most beautiful woman
+under the eyes of five hundred fair Andalusians, to the sound of soft
+music and amid the perfume of jessamine and roses, that would be a
+delight even truer and more lively than any which comes from real and
+enduring glory. No? Ah! we are sincere.
+
+One of my first thoughts was to taste a little of the genuine Malaga
+wine, for no other reason than to repay myself for the many headaches
+and stomachaches caused by the miserable concoctions sold in many
+Italian cities under the false recommendation of its name. But either
+I did not know how to ask or they did not wish to understand: the
+fact remains that the wine they gave me at the hotel burned my throat
+and made my head spin. I was not able to walk straight even to the
+cathedral, or from the cathedral to the castle of Gibralfaro, or to
+the other places, nor could I form an idea of the beauties of Malaga
+without seeing them double and unsteadily, as some spiteful person
+might suppose.
+
+On our walk my friend talked to me about the famous Republican people
+of Malaga, who are every moment doing something on their own account.
+They are a very fiery people, but fickle and yet tractable, like all
+people who feel much and think little; and they act upon the impulse
+of passion rather than the strength of conviction. The least trifle
+calls together an immense crowd and stirs up a tumult that turns
+the city topsy-turvy; but on most occasions a resolute act of a man
+in authority, an exhibition of courage, or a burst of eloquence is
+sufficient to quiet the tumult and disperse the crowd. The nature of
+the people is good on the whole, but superstition and passion have
+perverted them. And, above all, superstition is perhaps more firmly
+entrenched in Malaga than in any other city of Andalusia, by reason
+of the greater popular ignorance. Altogether, Malaga was the least
+Andalusian of the cities I had seen: even the very language has been
+corrupted, and they speak worse Spanish than at Cadiz, where, forsooth!
+they speak badly enough.
+
+I was still at Malaga, but my imagination was far away among the
+streets of Granada and in the gardens of the Alhambra and the
+Generalife. Shortly after the noon hour I took my leave from the only
+city in Spain, to tell the truth, that I left without a sigh of regret.
+When the train started, instead of turning for a last look, as I had
+done in all of its sister towns, I murmured the verses sung by Giovanni
+Prati at Granada when the duke d'Aosta was leaving for Spain:
+
+    "Non più Granata è sola
+      Sulle sur mute pietre;
+    L'inno in Alhambra vola
+      Sulle Moresche cetre."
+
+(_No more does Granada stand alone on her silent stones: the hymn flies
+to the Alhambra on Moorish lyres._)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now, as I write them again, it seems to me that the music of the
+band of the National Guard of Turin inspires peace and gladness more
+even surely than Moorish lyres, and that the pavement of the porticoes
+of the Po, although it be ever so silent, is better laid and smoother
+than the stones of Granada.
+
+
+
+
+GRANADA.
+
+
+GRANADA.
+
+
+The journey from Malaga to Granada was the most adventurous and
+unfortunate that I made in Spain.
+
+In order that my compassionate readers may pity me as much as I
+desire, they must know (I am ashamed to occupy people with these
+little details) that at Malaga I had eaten only the lightest sort of
+an Andalusian repast, of which at the moment of departure I retained
+a very vague recollection. But I started, feeling sure that I could
+alight at some railway-station where there would be one of those rooms
+or public choking-places where one enters at a gallop, eats until one
+is out of breath, pays as one scampers out to rush into a crowded
+carriage, suffocated and robbed, to curse the schedule, travel, and the
+minister of public works who deceives the country. I departed, and for
+the first hours it was delightful. The country was all gently sloping
+hills and green fields, dotted with villages crowned with palms and
+cypresses, and in the carriage, between two old men who rode with their
+eyes shut, there was a little Andalusian who kept looking around with
+a roguish smile which seemed to say, "Go on; your lovelorn glances
+do not offend me." But the train crept along as slowly as a worn-out
+diligence, and we stopped only a few moments at the stations. By sunset
+my stomach began to cry for help, and, to render the pangs of hunger
+even more severe, I was obliged to make a good part of the journey on
+foot. The train stopped at an unsafe bridge, and all the passengers got
+out and filed around, two by two, to meet the train on the other side
+of the river. We were surrounded by the rocks of the Sierra Nevada,
+in a wild, desert place, which made it seem as if we were a company
+of hostages led by a band of brigands. When we had clambered into the
+carriage the train crawled along no faster than before, and my stomach
+began to complain more desperately than at first. After a long time we
+arrived at a station all crowded with trains, where a large part of the
+travellers hurried out before I could reach the step.
+
+"Where are you going?" asked a railroad official, who had seen me
+alight.
+
+"To dine," I replied.
+
+"But aren't you going to Granada?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then you won't have time; the train starts immediately."
+
+"But the others have gone."
+
+"You will see them come back on the run in a minute."
+
+The freight-trains in front prevented me from seeing the station; I
+thought it was a great way off, and so stayed where I was. Two minutes
+passed, five, eight; the tourists did not return and the train did not
+start. I jumped out, ran to the station, saw a café, and entered a
+large room. Great heavens! Fifty starving people were standing around
+a refreshment-table with their noses in their plates, elbows in the
+air, and their eyes on the clock, devouring and shouting; another fifty
+were crowding around a counter seizing and pocketing bread, fruit, and
+candies, while the proprietor and the waiters, panting like horses
+and streaming with sweat, ran about, tucked up their sleeves, howled,
+tumbled over the seats and upset the customers, and scattered here and
+there streams of soup and drops of sauce; and one poor woman, who must
+have been the mistress of the café, imprisoned in a little niche behind
+the besieged counter, ran her hands through her hair in desperation. At
+this sight my arms hung down helplessly. But suddenly I roused myself
+and made an onslaught. Driven back by a feminine elbow in my chest, I
+rushed in again; repulsed by a jab in the stomach, I gathered all my
+strength to make a third attack. At this point the bell rang. There was
+a burst of imprecations and then a falling of seats, a scattering of
+plates, a hurry-scurry, and a perfect pandemonium. One man, choking
+in the fury of his last mouthfuls, became livid and his eyes seemed
+bursting from his head as though he were being hanged; another in
+stretching out his hand to seize an orange, struck by some one rushing
+past, plunged it into a bowl of cream; another was running through the
+room in search of his valise with a great smear of sauce on his cheeks;
+another, who had tried to drink his wine at one gulp, had strangled
+and coughed as if he would tear open his stomach; the officials at the
+door cried, "Hurry!" and the travellers called back from the room,
+"Ahogate!" (choked), and the waiters ran after those who had not paid,
+and those who wanted to pay could not find the waiters; and the ladies
+swooned, and the children cried, and everything was upside down.
+
+By good fortune I was able to get into my carriage before the train
+started.
+
+But there a new punishment awaited me. The two old men and the little
+Andalusian, who must have been the daughter of the one and niece of
+the other, had been successful in securing a little booty in the midst
+of that accursed crowd at the counter, and they were eating right and
+left. I began to watch them with sorrowful eyes like a dog beside his
+master's table, counting the mouthfuls and the number of times they
+chewed. The little Andalusian noticed it, and, pointing to something
+which looked like a croquet, made a gracious bow as if to ask if I
+would take it.
+
+"Oh no, thank you," I replied with the smile of a dying man; "I have
+eaten."
+
+My angel, I continued to myself, if you only knew that at this moment
+I would prefer those two croquets to the bitter apples--as Sir Niccolo
+Machiavelli would generously say--even those bitter apples from the
+famous garden of the Hesperides!
+
+"Try a drop of liquor at least," said the old uncle.
+
+I do not know what childish pique against myself or against those good
+people took possession of me, but it was a feeling which other men
+experience on similar occasions; however, I replied this time too, "No,
+thank you; it would be bad for me."
+
+The good old man looked me over from head to foot as if to say that I
+did not appear like a man to be the worse for a drop of liquor, and the
+Andalusian smiled, and I blushed for shame.
+
+Night settled down, and the train went on at the pace of Sancho Panza's
+steed for I knew not how many hours. That night I felt for the first
+time in my life the pangs of hunger, which I thought I had felt already
+on the famous day of the twenty-fourth of June, 1866. To relieve these
+torments I obstinately thought of all the dishes which filled me with
+repugnance--raw tomatoes, snails in soup, roasted crabs, and snails
+in salad. Alas! a voice of derision told me, deep down in my vitals,
+that if I had any of them I should eat them and lick my fingers. Then I
+began to make imaginary messes of different dishes, as cream and fish,
+with a dash of wine, with a coat of pepper, and a layer of juniper
+preserves, to see if I could thus hold my stomach in check. Oh misery!
+my cowardly stomach did not repel even those. Then I made a final
+effort and imagined that I was at table in a Parisian hotel at the time
+of the siege, and that I gently lifted a mouse by the tail out of some
+pungent sauce, and the mouse, unexpectedly regaining life, bit my thumb
+and transfixed me with two wicked little eyes, and I, with raised fork,
+hesitated whether to let it go or to spit it without pity. But, thank
+Heaven! before I had settled this horrible question, to perform such an
+act as has never been recorded in the history of any siege, the train
+stopped and a ray of hope revived my drooping spirits.
+
+We had reached some nameless village, and while I was putting my head
+out of the window a voice cried, "All out for Granada!" I rushed
+headlong from the carriage and found myself face to face with a huge
+bearded fellow, who took my valise, telling me that he was going to put
+it in the diligence, for from that village to I know not how many miles
+from _imperial Granada_ there is no railway.
+
+"One moment!" I cried to the unknown man in a supplicating voice: "how
+long before you start?"
+
+"Two minutes," he replied.
+
+"Is there an inn here?"
+
+"There it is." I flew to the inn, bolted a hard-boiled egg, and rushed
+back to the diligence, crying, "How much time now?"
+
+"Two minutes more," answered the same voice.
+
+I flew back to the hotel, seized another egg, and ran again to the
+diligence with the question, "Are you off?"
+
+"In a minute."
+
+Back again to the inn, and a third egg, and then to the diligence: "Are
+we going?"
+
+"In half a minute."
+
+This time I heaved a mighty sigh, ran to the inn, swallowed a fourth
+egg and a glass of wine, and rushed toward the diligence. But before
+I had taken ten steps my breath gave out, and I stopped with the egg
+halfway down my throat. At this point the whip cracked.--"Wait!" I
+cried in a hoarse voice, waving my hands like a drowning man.
+
+"_Que hay?_" (What's the matter?) demanded the driver.
+
+I could not reply.
+
+"He has an egg stuck in his throat," some stranger answered for me.
+
+All the travellers burst into a laugh, the egg went down; I laughed
+too, overtook the diligence, which had already started, and, regaining
+my breath, gave my companions an account of my troubles, and they were
+much interested, and pitied me even more than I had dared to hope after
+that cruel laugh at my suffocation.
+
+But my troubles were not ended. One of those irresistible attacks
+of sleepiness which used to come upon me treacherously in the long
+night-marches among the soldiers seized me all at once, and tormented
+me as far as the railway-station without my being able to get a moment
+of sleep. I believe that a cannon-ball suspended by a cord from the
+roof of the diligence would have given less annoyance to my unfortunate
+companions than my poor nodding head gave as it bobbed on all sides as
+if it was attached to my neck by a single tendon. On one side of me sat
+a nun, on the other a boy, and opposite a peasant-woman, and throughout
+the entire journey I did nothing but strike my head against these three
+victims with the monotonous motion of a bell-clapper. The nun, poor
+creature! endured the strokes in silence, perhaps in expiation for her
+sins of thought; but the boy and peasant-woman muttered from time to
+time, "He is a barbarian!"--"This must stop!"--"His head is like lead!"
+Finally, a witticism from one of the passengers released all four of us
+from this suffering. The peasant-woman was lamenting a little louder
+than usual, and a voice from the end of the diligence exclaimed, "Be
+consoled; if your head is not yet broken, you may be sure it will
+not be, for it must certainly be proof against the hammer." They
+all laughed; I awakened, excused myself, and the three victims were
+so happy to find themselves released from that cruel thumping that,
+instead of taking revenge with bitter words, they said, "Poor fellow!
+you have slept badly. How you must have hurt your head!"
+
+We finally arrived at the railway, and behold what a perverse fate!
+Although I was alone in the railway-carriage, where I might have slept
+like a nabob, I could not close my eyes. A pang went through my heart
+at the thought of having made the journey by night when I could not see
+anything nor enjoy the distant view of Granada. And I remembered the
+lovely verses of Martinez de la Rosa:
+
+"O my dear fatherland! At last I see thee again! I see thy fair soil,
+thy joyful teeming fields, thy glorious sun, thy serene sky!
+
+"Yes! I see the fabled Granada stretching along the plain from hill to
+hill, her towers rising among her gardens of eternal green, the crystal
+streams kissing her walls, the noble mountains enclosing her valleys,
+and the Sierra Nevada crowning the distant horizon.
+
+"Oh, thy memory haunted me wherever I went, Granada! It destroyed my
+pleasures, my peace, and my glory, and oppressed my heart and soul! By
+the icy banks of the Seine and the Thames I remembered with a sigh the
+happy waters of the Darro and the Genil, and many times, as I carolled
+a gay ballad, my bitter grief overcame me, and weeping, not to be
+repressed, choked my voice.
+
+"In vain the delightful Arno displayed her flower-strewn banks, sweet
+seats of love and peace! 'The plain watered by the gentle Genil,' said
+I, 'is more flowery, the life of the lovely Granada is more dear.' And
+I murmured these words as one disconsolate, and, remembering the house
+of my fathers, I raised my sad eyes to heaven.
+
+"What is thy magic, what thy unspeakable spell, O fatherland! O sweet
+name! that thou art so dear? The swarthy African, far from his native
+desert, looks with sad disdain on fields of green; the rude Laplander,
+stolen from his mother-earth, sighs for perpetual night and snow; and
+I--I, to whom a kindly fate granted birth and nurture in thy bosom
+blest by so many gifts of God--though far from thee, could I forget
+thee, Granada?"
+
+When I reached Granada it was quite dark, and I could not see so much
+as the outlines of a house. A diligence drawn by two horses,
+
+    "... anzi due cavallette
+        Di quella de Mosé lá dell' Egitto,"
+
+landed me at a hotel, where I was kept waiting an hour while my bed was
+being made, and finally, just before three o'clock in the morning, I
+was at last able to lay my head on the pillow. But my troubles were not
+over: just as I was falling into a doze I heard an indistinct murmur in
+the next room, and then a masculine voice which said distinctly, "Oh,
+what a little foot!" You who have bowels of compassion, pity me. The
+pillow was torn a little; I pulled out two tufts of wool, stuffed them
+in my ears; and, rehearsing in thought the misfortunes of my journey, I
+slept the sleep of the just.
+
+In the morning I went out betimes and walked about through the streets
+of Granada until it was a decent hour to go and drag from his home
+a young gentleman of Granada whom I had met at Madrid at the house
+of Fernandez Guerra, Gongora by name, the son of a distinguished
+archeologist and a descendant of the famous Cordovan poet Luigi
+Gongora, of whom I spoke in passing. That part of the city which I
+saw in those few hours did not fulfil my expectation. I had expected
+to find narrow mysterious streets and white cottages like those of
+Cordova and Seville, but I found instead spacious squares and some
+handsome straight streets, and others tortuous and narrow enough, it is
+true, but flanked by high houses, for the most part painted in false
+bas-reliefs with cupids and garlands and flourishes and draperies, and
+hangings of a thousand colors, without the Oriental appearance of the
+other Andalusian cities.
+
+The lowest part of Granada is almost all laid out with the regularity
+of a modern city. As I passed along those streets I was filled with
+contempt, and should certainly have carried a gloomy face to Señor
+Gongora if by chance as I walked at random I had not come out into
+the famous _Alameda_, which enjoys the reputation of being the most
+beautiful promenade in the world, and it repaid me a thousand times for
+the detestable regularity of the streets which lead to it.
+
+Imagine a long avenue of unusual width, along which fifty carriages
+might pass abreast, flanked by other smaller avenues, along which run
+rows of measureless trees, which at a noble height form an immense
+green arch, so dense that not a sunbeam can penetrate it, and at the
+two ends of the central avenue two monumental fountains throwing up
+the water in two great streams which fall again in the finest vaporous
+spray, and between the many avenues crystal streams, and in the middle
+a garden all roses and myrtle and jessamine and delicate fountains; and
+on one side the river Genil, which flows between banks covered with
+laurel-groves, and in the distance the snowclad mountains, upon whose
+sides distant palms raise their fantastic fronds; and everywhere a
+brilliant green, dense and luxuriant, through which one sees here and
+there an enchanting strip of azure sky.
+
+As I turned off of the Alameda I met a great number of peasants
+going out of the city, two by two and in groups, with their wives and
+children, singing and jesting. Their dress did not seem to me different
+from that of the peasants in the neighborhood of Cordova and Seville.
+They wore velvet hats, some with very broad brims, others with high
+brims curved back; a little jacket made with bands of many-colored
+cloth; a scarf of red or blue; closely-fitting trousers buttoned along
+the hip; and a pair of leathern gaiters open at the side, so as to show
+the leg. The women were dressed like those in the other provinces, and
+even in their faces there was no noticeable difference.
+
+I reached my friend's house and found him buried in his archæological
+studies, sitting in front of a heap of old medals and historic stones.
+He received me with delight, with a charming Andalusian courtesy, and,
+after exchanging the first greetings, we both pronounced with one voice
+that magic word that in every part of the world stirs a tumult of great
+recollections in every heart and arouses a sense of secret longing;
+that gives a final spur toward Spain to one who has the desire to
+travel thither and has not yet finally resolved to start; that name at
+which hearts of poets and painters beat faster and the eyes of women
+flash--"The Alhambra!"
+
+We rushed out of the house.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Alhambra is situated upon a high hill which overlooks the city,
+and from a distance presents the appearance of a fortress, like almost
+all Oriental palaces. But when, with Gongora, I climbed the street of
+_Los Gomeles_ on our way toward the famous edifice, I had not yet seen
+the least trace of a distant wall, and I did not know in what part of
+the city we should find it. The street of _Los Gomeles_ slopes upward
+and describes a slight curve, so that for a good way one sees only
+houses ahead, and supposes the Alhambra to be far away. Gongora did not
+speak, but I read in his face that in his heart he was greatly enjoying
+the thought of the surprise and delight that I should experience. He
+looked at the ground with a smile, answering all my questions with a
+sign which seemed to say, "Wait a minute!" and now and then raised
+his eyes almost furtively to measure the remaining distance. And I so
+enjoyed his pleasure that I could have thrown my arms around his neck
+in gratitude.
+
+We arrived before a great gate that closed the street. "Here we are!"
+said Gongora. I entered.
+
+I found myself in a great grove of enormously high trees, leaning one
+toward another, on this side and on that, along a great avenue which
+climbs the hill and is lost in the shade: so close are the trees that
+a man could scarcely pass among them, and wherever one looks one sees
+only their trunks, which close the way like a continuous wall. The
+branches meet above the avenues; not a sunbeam penetrates the wood; the
+shade is very dense; on every side glide murmuring streams, and the
+birds sing, and one feels a vernal freshness in the air.
+
+"We are now in the Alhambra," said Gongora: "turn around, and you will
+see the towers and the embattled barrier-wall."
+
+"But where is the palace?" I demanded.
+
+"That is a mystery," he answered; "let us go forward at random."
+
+We climbed an avenue running along beside the great central avenue that
+winds up toward the summit. The trees form overhead a green pavilion
+through which not a particle of sky is visible, and the grass, the
+shrubbery, and the flowers make on either side a lovely border, bright
+and fragrant, sloping slightly toward each other, as if they are trying
+to unite, mutually attracted by the beauty of their colors and the
+fragrance of their perfume.
+
+"Let us rest a moment," I said: "I want to take a great breath of this
+air; it seems to contain some secret germs that if infused into the
+blood must prolong one's life; it is air redolent of youth and health."
+
+"Behold the door!" exclaimed Gongora.
+
+I turned as if I had been struck in the back, and saw a few steps ahead
+a great square tower, of a deep-red color, crowned with battlements,
+with an arched door, above which one sees a key and a hand cut in the
+stone.
+
+I questioned my guide, and he told me that this was the principal
+entrance of the Alhambra, and that it was called the Gate of Justice,
+because the Moorish kings used to pronounce sentence beneath that arch.
+The key signifies that this door is the key to the fortress, and the
+hand symbolizes the five cardinal virtues of Islam--Prayer, Fasting,
+Beneficence, Holy War, and the Pilgrimage to Mecca. The Arabian
+inscription attests that the edifice was erected four centuries ago
+by the Sultan Abul Hagag Yusuf, and another inscription, which one
+sees everywhere on the columns, says, "There is no God but Allah, and
+Mohammed is his Prophet! and there is no power, no strength, apart from
+Allah!"
+
+We passed under the arch and continued the ascent along an enclosed
+street until we found ourselves at the top of the hill, in the middle
+of an esplanade surrounded by a parapet and dotted with shrubs and
+flowers. I turned at once toward the valley to enjoy the view,
+but Gongora seized me by the arm and made me look in the opposite
+direction. I was standing in front of the great palace of the
+Renaissance, partly in ruins and flanked by some wretched little houses.
+
+"Is this a joke?" I demanded. "Have you brought me here to see a
+Moorish castle, for me to find the way closed by a modern palace?
+Whose abominable idea was it to run up this building in the gardens of
+the caliphs?"
+
+"Charles V.'s."
+
+"He was a vandal. I have not yet forgiven him for the Gothic church he
+planted in the middle of the mosque of Cordova, and now these barracks
+fill me with utter loathing of his crown and his glory. But, in the
+name of Heaven, where is the Alhambra?"
+
+"There it is."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Among those huts."
+
+"Oh, fudge!"
+
+"I pledge you my word of honor."
+
+I folded my arms and looked at him, and he laughed."
+
+"Well, then," I exclaimed, "this great name of the Alhambra is only
+another of those usual false exaggerations of the poets. I, Europe, and
+the world have been shamefully deceived. Was it worth while to dream of
+the Alhambra for three hundred and sixty-five nights in succession, and
+then to come to see a group of ruins with some broken columns and smoky
+inscriptions?"
+
+"How I enjoy this!" answered Gongora with a peal of laughter. "Cheer up
+now; come and be persuaded that the world has not been deceived: let us
+enter this rubbish-pile."
+
+We entered by a little door, crossed a corridor, and found ourselves
+in a court. With a sudden cry I seized Gongora's hand, and he asked
+with a tone of triumph,
+
+"Are you persuaded?"
+
+I did not answer, I did not see him: I was already far away; the
+Alhambra had already begun to exercise upon me that mysterious and
+powerful fascination which no one can avoid nor any one express.
+
+We were in the _Patio de los Arrayanes_, the Court of the Myrtles,
+which is the largest in the edifice, and presents at once the
+appearance of a room, a courtyard, and a garden. A great rectangular
+basin full of water, surrounded by a myrtle hedge, extends from one
+side of the _patio_ to the other, and like a mirror reflects the
+arches, arabesques, and the mural inscriptions.
+
+To the right of the entrance there extend two orders of Moorish
+arches, one above the other, supported by slender columns, and on the
+opposite side of the court rises a tower with a door through which
+one sees the inner rooms in semi-darkness and the mullioned windows,
+and through the windows the blue sky and the summits of the distant
+mountains. The walls are ornamented to a certain height from the
+pavement with brilliant mosaics, and above the mosaics with arabesques
+of very intricate design that seem to tremble and change at every step,
+and here and there among the arabesques and along the arches they
+stretch and creep and intertwine, like garlands, Moorish inscriptions
+containing greetings, proverbs, and legends.
+
+[Illustration: _Court of Myrtles, Alhambra_]
+
+Beside the door of entrance is written in Cufic characters: Eternal
+Happiness!--Blessing!--Prosperity!--Felicity!--Praised be God for the
+blessing of Islam!
+
+In another place it is written: I seek my refuge in the Lord of the
+Morning.
+
+In another place: O God! to thee belong eternal thanksgiving and
+undying praise.
+
+Elsewhere there are verses from the Koran and entire poems in praise of
+the caliphs.
+
+We stood some minutes in silent admiration; not the buzz of a fly was
+heard; now and then Gongora started toward the tower, but I clutched
+him by the arm and felt that he was trembling with impatience.
+
+"But we must make haste," said he, finally, "or else we shall not get
+back to Granada before evening."
+
+"What do I know of Granada?" I answered; "what do I know of morning or
+evening or of myself? I am in the Orient!"
+
+"But this is only the antechamber of the Alhambra, my dear Arabian,"
+said Gongora, urging me forward. "Come, come with me where it will
+really seem like being in the Orient."
+
+And he led me, reluctant though I was, to the very threshold of the
+tower-door. There I turned to look once more at the Court of Myrtles
+and gave a cry of surprise. Between two slender columns of the arched
+gallery which faces the tower, on the opposite side of the courtyard,
+stood a girl, a beautiful dark Andalusian face, with a white mantle
+wound around her head and falling over her shoulder: she stood leaning
+upon the railing in a languid attitude, with her eyes fixed upon us.
+I cannot tell the fantastic effect produced by that figure at that
+moment--the grace imparted by the arch which curved above the girl's
+head and the two columns which formed a frame around her, and the
+beautiful harmony which she gave to the whole court, as if she were
+an ornament necessary to its architecture conceived in the mind of
+the architect at the moment he imagined the whole design. She seemed
+like a sultana awaiting her lord, thinking of another sky and another
+love. She continued looking at us, and my heart began to beat faster. I
+questioned my friend with my eyes, as if to be assured that I was not
+deceived. Suddenly the sultana laughed, dropped her white mantle, and
+disappeared.
+
+"She is a servant," said Gongora.
+
+Still I remained in the mist.
+
+She was, in fact, a servant of the custodian of the Alhambra who was in
+the habit of practising that joke upon strangers.
+
+We entered the tower called the Tower of Comares, or, vulgarly, the
+Tower of the Ambassadors. The interior forms two halls, the first of
+which is called the Hall of the Barca, and takes its name either from
+the fact that it is shaped like a boat or because it was called by the
+Moors the Hall of _Baraka_, or Blessing, a word which might have been
+contracted by the people into _barca_ (a boat.) This hall hardly seems
+the work of human hands: it is all a vast network of tracery in the
+form of garlands, rosettes, boughs of trees, and leaves, covering the
+vaulted ceiling, the arches, and the walls in every part and in every
+way--closely twining, checkered, climbing higher and higher, and yet
+marvellously distinct and combined in such a manner that the parts
+are presented to the eye altogether at a single glance, affording a
+spectacle of dazzling magnificence and enchanting grace. I approached
+one of the walls, fixed my eyes upon the extreme point of an arabesque,
+and tried to follow its windings and turnings: it was impossible; my
+eye was lost, my mind confused, and all the arabesques from pavement
+to ceiling seemed to be moving and blending, as if to conceal the
+thread of their inextricable network. You may make an effort not to
+look around, to centre your whole attention upon a single spot of the
+wall, to scan it closely and follow the thread with your finger: it
+is futile; in a moment the tracery is a tangled skein, a veil steals
+between you and the wall, and your arm falls. The wall seems woven
+like a web, wrought like brocade, netted like lace, and veined like a
+leaf; one cannot look at it closely nor fix its design in one's mind:
+it would be like trying to count the ants in an anthill: one must be
+content to look at the walls with a wandering glance, then to rest and
+look again later, and then to think of something else and talk. After I
+had looked around a little with the air of a man overcome with vertigo
+rather than admiration, I turned toward Gongora, so that he might read
+in my face what I would have spoken.
+
+"Let us enter the other pile of ruins," he answered with a smile as he
+drew me into the great Hall of the Ambassadors, which fills all the
+interior of the tower, for, really, the Hall of the _Barca_ belongs to
+a little building which does not form a part of the tower, although it
+is joined to it. The tower is square in form, spacious, and lighted
+with nine great arched windows in the form of doors, which present
+almost the appearance of so many alcoves, so great is the thickness of
+the wall; each one is divided down the middle toward the outside by a
+little marble column that supports two beautiful arches surmounted in
+their turn by two little arched windows. The walls are covered with
+mosaics and arabesques indescribably delicate and multiform, and with
+innumerable inscriptions extending like wide embroidered ribbons over
+the arches of the windows, up the massive cornices, along the friezes,
+and around the niches where once stood vases full of flowers and
+perfumed water. The ceiling, which rises to a great height, is inlaid
+with cedar-wood, white, gold, and azure, joined together in circles,
+stars, and crowns, and forming many little arches, cells, and vaulted
+windows, through which falls a wavering light, and from the cornice
+which joins the ceiling to the walls hang tablets of stucco-work cut in
+facets chiselled and moulded like stalactites and bunches of flowers.
+The throne stood at the central window on the side opposite the door of
+entrance. From the windows on that side one enjoys a stupendous view
+of the valley of the Darro, deep and silent, as if it too felt the
+fascination of the Alhambra's grandeur; from the windows on the other
+two sides one sees the boundary-wall and the towers of the fortress;
+and through the entrance the light arches of the Court of the Myrtles
+in the distance and the water of the basin, which reflects the blue of
+the sky.
+
+"Well!" Gongora demanded; "was it worth dreaming of the Alhambra for
+three hundred and sixty-five nights?"
+
+"There is a strange thought passing through my brain at this moment," I
+replied. "That court as it looks from here, that hall, those windows,
+those colors, everything that surrounds me, seems familiar; it seems to
+correspond with a picture which I have carried in my head I know not
+how long and I know not in what manner, confused with a thousand other
+things, perhaps born of a dream--how should I know? When I was sixteen
+years old I was a lover, and the young girl and I alone in a garden in
+the shade of a summer-house, as we gazed in each other's eyes, uttered
+unconsciously a cry of joy that stirred our blood as if it had come
+from the mouth of a third person who had discovered our secret. Well,
+since that time I have often longed to be a king and to have a palace;
+but in giving form to that desire my imagination did not rest merely in
+the grand gilded palaces of our country; it flew to distant lands, and
+there on the summit of a lofty mountain reared a castle of its own in
+which everything was small and graceful and illumined by a mysterious
+light; and there were long suites of rooms adorned with a thousand
+fanciful and delicate ornaments, with windows through which we two
+alone might look, and little columns behind which my little one might
+almost hide her face playfully as she listened to my step approaching
+from hall to hall, or heard my voice mingled with the murmur of the
+fountains in the garden. All unconsciously, in building that castle
+in fantasy, I was building the Alhambra; in those moments I imagined
+something like these halls, these windows, and this court that we see
+before us--so similar, indeed, that the more I look around the better
+I remember and seem to recognize the place just as I have seen it a
+thousand times. All lovers dream a little of the Alhambra, and
+if they were able to reproduce all their dreams in line and color,
+they would make pictures that would amaze us by their likeness to all
+one sees here. This architecture does not express power, glory, and
+grandeur; it expresses love and passion--love with its mysteries, its
+caprices, its fervor, its bursts of God-given gratitude; passion with
+its melancholy and its silences. There is, then, a close connection, a
+harmony, between the beauty of this Alhambra and the souls of those who
+have loved at sixteen, when longings are but dreams and visions. And
+hence arises the indescribable fascination exercised by this beauty,
+and hence the Alhambra, although deserted and ruined as it is, is
+still the most enchanting castle in the world, and to the end of time
+visitors will leave it with a tear. For in parting with the Alhambra
+we bid a last adieu to the most beautiful dreams of youth revived
+among these walls for the last time. We bid adieu to faces unspeakably
+dear that have broken the oblivion of many years to stand beside us a
+last time by the little columns of these windows. We bid adieu to all
+the fancies of youth. We bid adieu to that love which will never live
+again."
+
+[Illustration: _Fountain in the Court of Lions, Alhambra_]
+
+"It is true," answered my friend, "but what will you say when you have
+seen the Court of the Lions? Come, let us hurry."
+
+We left the tower with hasty steps, crossed the Court of Myrtles, and
+came to a little door opposite the door of entrance.
+
+"Stop!" cried Gongora.
+
+I stopped.
+
+"Do me a favor?"
+
+"A hundred."
+
+"Only one: shut your eyes and don't open them until I tell you."
+
+"Well, they are shut."
+
+"See that you keep them so; I sha'n't like it if you open them."
+
+"Never fear."
+
+Gongora took me by the hand and led me forward: I trembled like a leaf.
+
+We took about fifteen steps and stopped.
+
+"Look!" said Gongora in an agitated voice.
+
+I looked, and I swear by the head of my reader I felt two tears
+trickling down my cheeks.
+
+We were in the Court of the Lions.
+
+If at that moment I had been obliged to go out as I had come in, I
+could not have told what I had seen. A forest of columns, a vision of
+arches and tracery, an indefinable elegance, an unimaginable delicacy,
+prodigious wealth; an irrepressible sense of airiness, transparency,
+and wavy motion like a great pavilion of lace; an appearance as of
+an edifice which must dissolve at a breath; a variety of lights and
+mysterious shadows; a confusion, a capricious disorder, of little
+things; the grandeur of a castle, the gayety of a summer-house; an
+harmonious grace, an extravagance, a delight; the fancy of an enamored
+girl, the dream of an angel; a madness, a nameless something,--such is
+the first effect of the Court of the Lions.
+
+The court is not larger than a great ball-room; it is rectangular in
+form, with walls no higher than a two-storied Andalusian cottage.
+A light portico runs all around, supported by very slender white
+marble columns grouped in symmetrical disorder, two by two and three
+by three, almost without pedestals, so that they are like the trunks
+of trees standing on the ground: they have varied capitals, high and
+graceful, in the form of little pilasters, above which bend little
+arches of very graceful form, which do not seem to rest upon the
+columns, but rather to be suspended over them like curtains upholding
+the columns themselves and resembling ribbons and twining garlands.
+From the middle of the two shortest sides advance two groups of
+columns forming two little square temples of nine arches in the form
+of stalactites, fringes, pendants, and tassels that seem as though
+they ought to swing and become tangled with the slightest breeze.
+Large Arabian inscriptions run along the four walls, over the arches,
+around the capitals, and along the walls of the little temple. In the
+middle of the court rises a great marble basin supported by twelve
+lions and surrounded by a paved channel, from which flow four other
+smaller channels that make a cross between the four sides of the
+court, cross the portico, enter the adjoining rooms, and join the
+other water-courses which surround the entire edifice. Behind the two
+two little temples and in the middle of the other two sides there
+appear halls and suites of rooms with great open doors, through which
+one can see the dark background broken by the white columns, gleaming
+as if they stood at the mouth of a grotto. At every step the forest
+of columns seems to move and rearrange itself in a new way; behind
+a column that is apparently single spring up two, three, a row of
+columns; some fade away, others unite, and still others separate:
+on looking back from the end of one of the halls everything appears
+different; the arches on the opposite side seem very far away; the
+columns appear out of place; the little temples have changed their
+form; one sees new arches rising beyond the walls, and new columns
+gleaming here in the sunlight, there in the shadow, yonder scarcely
+visible by the dim light which sifts through the tracery of the stucco,
+and the farthest lost in the darkness. There is a constant variety of
+scene, distance, deceptive effects, mysteries, and playful tricks of
+the eye, produced by the architecture, the sun, and one's heightened
+imagination.
+
+"What must this _patio_ have been," said Gongora, "when the inner
+walls of the portico were resplendent with mosaics, the capitals of
+the columns flashed with gold, the ceilings and vaults were painted
+in a thousand colors, the doors hung with silken curtains, the niches
+full of flowers, and under the little temples and through the halls ran
+streams of perfumed water, and from the nostrils of the lions spurted
+twelve jets which fell into the basin, and the air was heavy with the
+most delicious perfumes of Arabia!"
+
+We remained in the court over an hour, and the time passed like a
+flash; and I too did what all have done in that place--Spaniards and
+foreigners alike, men and women, poets and those who are not poets. I
+ran my hand along the walls, touched all the little columns, clasped
+them one by one with my two hands like the waist of a child, hid among
+them, counted them, looked at them from a hundred directions, crossed
+the court in a hundred ways; tried if it were true that by speaking a
+word in a deep voice in the mouth of one of the lions you could hear
+it distinctly from the mouths of all the others; searched along the
+marbles for the blood-spots of the romantic legends, and wearied my
+eyes and brain in following the arabesques. There were a number of
+ladies present. In the Court of the Lions ladies show every sort of
+childish delight: they look out between two twin columns, hide in the
+dark corners, sit on the floor, and stand for hours motionless, resting
+their heads upon their hands, dreaming. These ladies did likewise.
+There was one dressed in white who, as she passed behind the distant
+columns, when she thought no one saw her assumed a certain majestic
+air, like a melancholy sultana, and then laughed with one of her
+friends: it was enchanting.
+
+"Let us go," said my friend.
+
+"Let us go," I replied, and could not move a step. I was experiencing
+not only a delightful sense of surprise, but I was trembling with
+pleasure, and was filled with a longing to touch, to probe, and in some
+way to see behind those walls and those columns, as if they were made
+of some secret material and ought to disclose in their inmost part the
+first cause of the fascination which the place exerts. In all my life I
+have never thought or said, or shall ever say, so many fond words, so
+many foolish expressions, so many pretty, happy, senseless things, as I
+thought and said at that hour.
+
+"But one must come here at sunrise," said Gongora, "one must come at
+sunset, or at night when the moon is full, to see the miracles of
+color, light, and shade. It is enough to make one lose one's head."
+
+We went to see the halls. On the eastern side is the Hall of Justice,
+which is reached by passing under three great arches, each of which
+corresponds with a door opening into the court. It is a long, narrow
+hall, with intricate arabesques and precious mosaics, and its vaulted
+ceiling all points and hollows and clusters of stucco that hang down
+from the arches and run along the walls, clustered together here and
+there, drooping, growing one out of the other, crowding and overtopping
+each other, so that they seem to dispute the space like the bubbles
+in boiling water, and still presenting in many parts traces of old
+colors that must have given the ceiling the appearance of a pavilion
+covered with flowers and hanging fruit. The hall has three little
+alcoves, in each of which one may see a Moorish painting, to which time
+and the extreme rarity of works remaining from the brush of Moorish
+artists have given a very high value. The paintings are on leather,
+and the leather is fastened to the wall. In the central alcove there
+are painted on a golden ground ten men, supposed to be ten kings of
+Granada, clothed in white, with cowls on their heads and scimitars in
+their hands, sitting on embroidered cushions. The paintings in the
+other two alcoves represent castles, ladies and cavaliers, hunting
+scenes, and love episodes whose significance it is difficult to
+understand. But the faces of the ten kings are marvellously true to
+the picture one has formed of their race: there is the dark olive
+complexion, the sensuous lips, the black eyes, with an intense
+mysterious glance that seems always to be shining in the dark corners
+of the halls of the Alhambra.
+
+On the north side of the court there is another hall, called the
+hall _De las dos Hermanas_ (of the two sisters), so called from two
+great marble slabs which form the pavement. It is the most beautiful
+hall in the Alhambra--a little square arched room, with one of those
+ceilings in the form of a cupola which the Spaniards call half oranges,
+supported by slender columns and arches arranged in a circle, all
+adorned, like a grotto full of stalactites, with an infinite number
+of points and hollows, colored and gilded, and so light to the view
+that it seems as if they are suspended in the air, and would tremble
+at a touch like a curtain or separate like a cloud or disappear like
+a cluster of soap-bubbles. The walls, like those of all the other
+halls, are bedecked with stucco and carved with arabesques incredibly
+intricate and delicate, forming one of the most marvellous works of
+human patience and imagination. The more one looks, the more numberless
+become the lines which blend and cross, and from one figure springs
+another, and from that a third, and all three produce a fourth that
+has escaped the eye, and this divides suddenly into ten other figures
+that have passed unnoticed, and then they mingle again and are again
+transformed; and one never ceases to discover new combinations, for
+when the first reappear they are already forgotten, and produce the
+same effect as at the beginning. One would lose sight and reason in
+trying to comprehend that labyrinth: it would require an hour to
+study the outlines of a window, the ornaments of a pilaster, and the
+arabesques of a frieze; an hour would not be sufficient to fix upon
+the mind the design of one of the stupendous cedar doors. On either
+side of the hall there are two little alcoves, and in the centre a
+little basin with a pipe for a fountain that empties into the channel
+that crosses the portico and flows to the Fountain of the Lions.
+
+Directly opposite the entrance there is another door, through which one
+passes into another long, narrow room called the Hall of the Oranges.
+And from this hall, through a third door, one enters a little chamber
+called the Cabinet of Lindaraja, very richly ornamented, at the end of
+which there is a graceful window with two arches overlooking a garden.
+
+To enjoy all the beauty of this magical architecture one must leave the
+Hall of the Two Sisters, cross the Court of the Lions, and enter a room
+called the Hall of the Abencerrages, which lies on the southern side,
+opposite the Hall of the Two Sisters, to which it is very similar in
+form and ornamentation. From the end of this hall one looks across the
+Court of the Lions through the Hall of the Two Sisters into the Hall
+of the Oranges and even into the Cabinet of Lindaraja and the garden
+beyond, where a mass of verdure appears under the arches of that jewel
+of a window. The two sides of this window, so diminutive and full of
+light when seen in the distance from the end of that suite of darkened
+rooms, look like two great open eyes, that look at you and make
+you imagine that beyond them must lie the unfathomable mysteries of
+paradise.
+
+After seeing the Hall of the Abencerrages we went to see the baths,
+which are situated between the Hall of the Two Sisters and the Court
+of the Myrtles. We descended a flight of stairs, passed a long narrow
+corridor, and came out into a splendid hall called the hall _De las
+Divans_, where the favorites of the king came to rest on their Persian
+rugs to the sound of the lyre after they had bathed in the adjoining
+rooms. This hall was reconstructed on the plans of the ancient ruins,
+and adorned with arabesques, gilded and painted, by Spanish artists
+after the ancient patterns; consequently one may consider it a room of
+the Moorish period remaining intact in every part. In the middle is a
+fountain, and in the opposite walls are two alcoves where the women
+reposed on divans, and overhead the galleries where the musicians
+played. The walls are laced, dotted, checkered, and mottled with a
+thousand brilliant hues, presenting the appearance of a tapestry of
+Chinese stuff shot with golden threads, with an endless interweaving of
+figures that must have maddened the most patient mosaic-worker on earth.
+
+Nevertheless, a painter was at work in the hall. He was a German who
+had worked for three months in copying the walls. Gongora knew him, and
+asked, "It is wearisome work, is it not?"
+
+And he answered with a smile, "I don't find it so," and bent again over
+his picture.
+
+I looked at him as if he had been a creature from another world.
+
+We entered the little bathing-chambers, vaulted and lighted from above
+by some star-and flower-shaped apertures in the wall. The bathing-tubs
+are very large, single blocks of marble enclosed between two walls. The
+corridors which lead from one room to the other are low and narrow,
+so that a man can scarcely pass through them; they are delightfully
+cool. As I stood looking into one of these little rooms I was suddenly
+impressed with a sad thought.
+
+"What makes you sad?" asked my friend.
+
+"I was thinking," I replied, "of how we live, summer and winter, in
+houses like barracks, in rooms on the third floor, which are either
+dark or else flooded with a torrent of light, without marble, without
+water, without flowers, without columns; I was thinking that we
+must live so all our lives and die between those walls without once
+experiencing the delights of these charmed palaces; I was thinking that
+even in this wretched earthly life one may enjoy vastly, and that I
+shall not share this enjoyment at all; I was thinking that I might have
+been born four centuries ago a king of Granada, and that I was born
+instead a poor man."
+
+My friend laughed, and, taking my arm between his thumb and finger, as
+if to give me a pinch, he said, "Don't think of that. Think of how much
+beauty, grace, and mystery these tubs must have seen; of the little
+feet that have played in their perfumed waters; of the long hair which
+has fallen over their rims; of the great languid eyes that have looked
+at the sky through the openings in the vaulted ceiling, while beneath
+the arches of the Court of the Lions sounded the hastening step of
+an impatient caliph, and the hundred fountains of the castle sighed
+with a quickening murmur, 'Come! come! come!' and in a perfumed hall
+a trembling slave reverently closed the windows with the rose-colored
+curtains."
+
+"Ah! leave my soul in peace!" I replied, shrugging my shoulders.
+
+We crossed the garden of the Cabinet of Lindaraja and a mysterious
+court called the _Patio de la Reja_, and by a long gallery that
+commands a view of the country reached the top of one of the farthest
+towers of the Alhambra, called the _Mirador de la Reina_ (the Queen's
+toilet), shaded by a little pavilion and open all round, hanging over
+an abyss like an eagle's nest. The view one enjoys from this point--one
+may say it without fear of contradiction--has not its equal on the face
+of the earth.
+
+[Illustration: _Queen's Boudoir, Alhambra_]
+
+Imagine an immense plain, green as a meadow, covered with young grass,
+crossed in all directions by endless rows of cypresses, pines, oaks,
+and poplars, dotted with dense orange-groves that in the distance look
+no larger than shrubs, and with great orchards and gardens so crowded
+with fruit trees that they look like green hillocks; and the river
+Xenil winding through this immense plain, gleaming among the groves
+and gardens like a great silver ribbon; and all around wooded hills,
+and beyond the hills lofty rocks of fantastic form, which complete the
+picture of a barrier-wall with gigantic towers separating that earthly
+paradise from the world; and there, just beneath one's eyes, the city
+of Granada, partly extending to the plain and partly on the slope of
+the hill, all interspersed with groups of trees, shapeless masses of
+verdure which rise and wave above the roofs of the houses like enormous
+plumes, until it seems as if they were striving to expand and unite
+and cover the entire city; and still nearer the deep valley of the
+Darro more than covered--yes, filled to overflowing and almost heaped
+full--with its prodigious growth of vegetation, rising like a mountain,
+and above it there rises yet again a grove of gigantic poplars tossing
+their topmost boughs so close under the windows of the tower that one
+can almost touch them; and to the right beyond the Darro, on a high
+hill towering toward heaven, bold and rounded like a cupola, the palace
+of the Generalife, encircled by its aërial gardens and almost hidden
+in a grove of laurels, poplars, and pomegranates; and in the opposite
+direction a marvellous spectacle, a thing incredible, a vision of a
+dream--the Sierra Nevada, after the Alps, the highest mountain-range in
+Europe crowned with snow, white even to a few miles from the gates of
+Granada, white even to the hills on whose sides spread the pomegranates
+and palms, and where a vegetation almost tropical expands in all its
+splendid pomp.
+
+Imagine now over this vast paradise, containing all the smiling graces
+of the Orient and all the severe beauties of the North, wedding Europe
+to Africa, and bringing to the nuptials all the choicest marvels of
+nature, and exhaling to heaven all the perfumes of the earth blended
+in one breath,--imagine above this happy valley the sky and sun of
+Andalusia, rolling on to its setting and tinting the peaks with a
+divine rose-color, and painting the mountain-sides of the Sierra
+with all the colors of the rainbow, and clothing them with all the
+reflections of the most limpid azure pearls, its rays breaking in a
+thousand mists of gold, purple, and gray upon the rocks encircling
+the plain, and, as it sinks in a flame of fire, casting like a last
+good-night a luminous crown about the gloomy towers of the Alhambra and
+the flower-crowned pinnacles of the Generalife, and tell me if this
+world can give anything more solemn, more glorious, more intoxicating
+than this love-feast of the earth and sky, before which for nine
+centuries Granada has trembled with delight and throbbed with pride?
+
+The roof of the _Mirador de la Reina_ is supported by little Moorish
+columns, between which extend flattened arches which give the pavilion
+an extremely fanciful and graceful appearance. The walls are frescoed,
+and one may see along the friezes the initials of Isabella and Philip
+interwoven with cupids and flowers. Close by the door there still
+remains a stone of the ancient pavement, all perforated, upon which
+it is said the sultanas sat to be enveloped in the clouds of perfumed
+vapor which arose from below.
+
+Everything in this place tells of love and happiness. There one
+breathes an air as pure as that on a mountain-peak, there one perceives
+a mingled fragrance of myrtles and roses, and no other sound reaches
+the ear save the murmur of the Darro as it dashes among the rocks of
+its stony bed, and the singing of a thousand birds hidden in the dense
+foliage of the valley; it is truly a nest of loves, a hanging alcove
+where to go and dream of an aërial balcony to which one might climb and
+thank God for being happy.
+
+"Ah, Gongora," I exclaimed after contemplating for some moments that
+enchanting spectacle, "I would give years of my life to be able to
+summon here, with a stroke of a magic wand, all the dear ones who are
+looking for me in Italy."
+
+Gongora pointed out a large space on the wall, all black with dates and
+names of visitors to the Alhambra, written with crayon and charcoal and
+cut with knives.
+
+"What is this written here?" he demanded.
+
+I approached and uttered a cry: "Chateaubriand!"
+
+"And here?"
+
+"Byron!"
+
+"And here?"
+
+"Victor Hugo!"
+
+After descending from the _Mirador de la Reina_ I thought I had seen
+the Alhambra, and was so imprudent as to tell my friend so. If he had
+had a stick in his hand, I verily believe he would have struck me; but,
+as he had not, he contented himself by regarding me with the air of one
+demanding whether or not I had lost my senses.
+
+We returned to the Court of the Myrtles and visited the rooms situated
+on the other side of the Tower of Comares, the greater part in ruins,
+the rest altered, some absolutely bare, without either pavement or
+roof, but all worth seeing, both in remembrance of what they had
+been and for the sake of understanding the plan of the edifice. The
+ancient mosque was converted into a chapel by Charles V., and a great
+Moorish hall was changed into an oratory; here and there one still
+sees the fragments of arabesques and carved ceilings of cedar-wood;
+the galleries, the courts, and the vestibules remind one of a palace
+dismantled by fire.
+
+After seeing that part of the Alhambra I really thought there was
+nothing else left to see, and a second time was imprudent enough to
+say so to Gongora: this time he could no longer contain himself, and,
+leading me into a vestibule of the Court of Myrtles and pointing to a
+map of the building hanging on the wall, he said, "Look, and you will
+see that all the rooms of the courts and the towers that we have so far
+visited do not occupy one-twentieth part of the space embraced within
+the walls of the Alhambra; you will see that we have not yet visited
+the remains of the three other mosques, the ruins of the House of Cadi,
+the water-tower, the tower of the Infantas, the tower of the Prisoner,
+the tower of Candil, the tower of the Picos, the tower of the Daggers,
+the tower of the _Siete Suelos_, the tower of the Captain, the tower of
+the Witch, the tower of the Heads, the tower of Arms, the tower of the
+Hidalgos, the tower of the Cocks, the tower of the Cube, the tower of
+Homage, the tower of Vela, the Powder Tower, the remains of the House
+of Mondejar, the military quarters, the iron gate, the inner walls, the
+cisterns, the promenades; for I would have you know that the Alhambra
+is not a palace: it is a city, and one could spend his life in studying
+its arabesques, reading its inscriptions, and every day discovering
+a new view of the hills and mountains, and going into ecstasies
+regularly once every twenty-four hours."
+
+And I thought I had seen the Alhambra!
+
+On that day I did not wish to learn anything more, and the dear
+knows how my head ached when I returned to the hotel. The day after,
+at the peep of dawn, I was back at the Alhambra, and again in the
+evening, and I continued to go there every day so long as I remained
+at Granada, with Gongora, with other friends, with guides, or alone;
+and the Alhambra always seemed vaster and more beautiful as I wandered
+through the courts and halls, and passed hour after hour sitting among
+the columns or gazing out of the windows with an ever-heightening
+pleasure, every time discovering new beauties, and ever abandoning
+myself to those vague and delightful fancies among which my mind had
+strayed on the first day. I cannot tell through which entrances my
+friends led me into the Alhambra, but I remember that every day on
+going there I saw walls and towers and deserted streets that I had not
+seen before, and the Alhambra seemed to me to have changed its site,
+to have been transformed, and surrounded as if by enchantment with new
+buildings that changed its original appearance. Who could describe
+the beauty of those sunset views; those fantastic groves flooded with
+moonlight; the immense plain and the snow-covered mountains on clear,
+serene nights; the imposing outlines of those enormous walls, superb
+towers, and those measureless trees under a starry sky; the prolonged
+rustling of those vast masses of verdure overflowing the valleys and
+climbing the hillsides? It was a spectacle before which my companions
+remained speechless, although they were born in Granada and accustomed
+from infancy to look upon these scenes. So we would walk along in
+silence, each buried in his own thoughts, with hearts oppressed by mild
+melancholy, and sometimes our eyes were wet with tears, and we raised
+our faces to heaven with a burst of gratitude and love.
+
+On the day of my arrival at Granada, when I entered the hotel at
+midnight, instead of finding silence and quiet, I found the _patio_
+illuminated like a ball-room, people sipping sherbet at the tables,
+coming and going along the galleries, laughing and talking, and I was
+obliged to wait an hour before going to sleep. But I passed that hour
+very pleasantly. While I stood looking at a map of Spain on the wall a
+great burly fellow, with a face as red as a beet and a great stomach
+extending nearly to his knees, approached me and, touching his cap,
+asked if I was an Italian. I replied that I was, and he continued with
+a smile, "And so am I; I am the proprietor of the hotel."
+
+"I am delighted to hear it, the more so because I see you are making
+money."
+
+"Great Heavens!" he replied in a tone which he wished to seem
+melancholy. "Yes, ... I cannot complain; but, ... believe me, my dear
+sir, however well things may go, when one is far from his native land
+one always feels a void here;" and he put his hand upon his enormous
+chest.
+
+I looked at his stomach.
+
+"A great void," repeated mine host; "one never forgets one's
+country.... From what province are you, sir?"
+
+"From Liguria. And you?"
+
+"From Piedmont. Liguria! Piedmont! Lombardy! They are countries!"
+
+"They are fine countries, there is no doubt of that, but, after all,
+you cannot complain of Spain. You are living in one of the most
+beautiful cities in the world, and are proprietor of one of the finest
+hotels in the city; you have a crowd of guests all the year round, and
+then I see you enjoy enviable health."
+
+"But the void?"
+
+I looked again at his stomach.
+
+"Oh, I see, sir; but you are deceived, you know, if you judge me by
+appearances. You cannot imagine what a pleasure it is when an Italian
+comes here. What you will? Weakness it may be.... I know not, ... but
+I should like to see him every day at table, and I believe that if my
+wife did not laugh at me I should send him a dozen dishes on my own
+account, as a foretaste."
+
+"At what hour do you dine to-morrow?"
+
+"At five. But, after all, ... one eats little here, ... hot country,
+... everybody lives lightly, ... whatever their nationality may be....
+That is the rule.... But you have not seen the other Italian who is
+here?"
+
+So saying, he turned around, and a man came forward from a corner of
+the court where he had been watching us. The proprietor, after a few
+words, left us alone. The stranger was a man of about forty, miserably
+dressed, who spoke through closed teeth, and kept continually clenching
+his hands with a convulsive motion as if he was making an effort to
+keep from using his fists. He told me he was a chorus-singer from
+Lombardy, and that he had arrived the day before at Granada with other
+artists booked to sing at the opera for the summer season.
+
+"A beastly country!" he exclaimed without any preamble, looking around
+as if he wished to make a speech.
+
+"Then you do not remain in Spain voluntarily?" I asked.
+
+"In Spain? I? Excuse me: it is just as if you had asked me whether I
+was staying voluntarily in a galley."
+
+"But why?"
+
+"Why? But can't you see what sort of people the Spaniards
+are--ignorant, superstitious, proud, bloodthirsty, impostors, thieves,
+charlatans, villains?"
+
+And he stood a moment motionless in a questioning attitude, with the
+veins of his neck so swollen that they seemed ready to burst.
+
+"Pardon me," I replied; "your judgment does not seem favorable enough
+to admit of my agreeing with you. When it comes to ignorance, excuse
+me, it will not do for us Italians, for us who still have cities where
+the schoolmasters are stoned and the professors are stabbed if they
+give a zero to their scholars,--it will not do for us, I say, to pick
+flaws in others. As for superstition, alas for us again! since we may
+still see in that city of Italy in which popular instruction is most
+widely diffused an unspeakable uproar over a miraculous image of the
+Madonna found by a poor ignorant woman in the middle of a street!
+As for crime, I frankly declare that if I were obliged to draw a
+comparison between the two countries before an audience of Spaniards,
+with the statistics now in hand, without first proving my data and
+conclusions, I should be very much alarmed.... I do not wish to say
+by this that we are not, on the whole, sailing in smoother water than
+is Spain. I wish to say that an Italian in judging the Spanish, if he
+would be just, must be indulgent."
+
+"Excuse me: I don't think so. A country without political direction!
+a country a prey to anarchy! a country--Come, now, cite me one great
+Spaniard of the present day."
+
+"I cannot, ... there are so few great men anywhere."
+
+"Cite me a Galileo."
+
+"Oh, there are no Galileos."
+
+"Cite me a Ratazzi."
+
+"Well, they have none."
+
+"Cite me ... But, really, they have nothing. And then, does the country
+seem beautiful to you?"
+
+"Ah! excuse me; that point I will not yield: Andalusia, to cite a
+single province, is a paradise; Seville, Cadiz, and Granada are
+splendid cities."
+
+"How? Do you like the houses of Seville and Cadiz, with walls that
+whiten a poor devil from head to foot whenever he happens to touch
+them? Do you like those streets along which one can hardly pass after
+a good dinner? And do you find the Andalusian women beautiful with
+their devilish eyes? Come, now, you are too indulgent. They are not a
+_serious_ people. They have summoned Don Amadeus, and now they don't
+want him. They are not worthy of being governed by a _civilized man_."
+(These were his actual words.)
+
+"Then you don't find any good in Spain?"
+
+"Not the least."
+
+"But why do you stay?"
+
+"I stay ... because I make my living here."
+
+"Well, that is something."
+
+"But what a living! It is a dog's life! Everybody knows what Spanish
+cooking is."
+
+"Excuse me: instead of living like a dog in Spain, why not go and live
+like a man in Italy?"
+
+Here the poor artist seemed somewhat disconcerted, and I, to relieve
+his annoyance, offered him a cigar, which he took and lighted without
+a word. And he was not the only Italian in Spain who had spoken to me
+in those terms of the country and its inhabitants, denying even the
+clearness of the sky and the grace of the Andalusian women. I do not
+know what enjoyment there can be in travelling after this fashion, with
+the heart closed to every kindly sentiment, and continually on the
+lookout to censure and despise, as if everything good and beautiful
+which one finds in a foreign country has been stolen from our own,
+and as if we are of no account unless we run down everybody else. The
+people who travel in such a mental attitude make me pity rather than
+condemn them, because they voluntarily deprive themselves of many
+pleasures and comforts. So it appears to me, at least, to judge others
+by myself, for wherever I go the first sentiment which the sights and
+the people inspire in me is a feeling of sympathy; a desire not to find
+anything which I shall be obliged to censure; an inclination to imagine
+every beautiful thing more beautiful; to conceal the unpleasant things,
+to excuse the defects, to be able to say candidly to myself and others
+that I am content with everything and everybody. And to arrive at this
+end I do not have to make any effort: everything presents itself
+almost spontaneously in its most pleasing aspect, and my imagination
+benignly paints the other aspects a delicate rose-color. I know well
+that one cannot study a country in this way, nor write sage essays, nor
+acquire fame as a profound thinker; but I know that one travels with a
+peaceful mind, and that such travels are of unspeakable benefit.
+
+The next day I went to see the Generalife, which was a sort of villa
+of the Moorish kings, and whose name is linked to that of the Alhambra
+as is that of the Alhambra to Granada; but now only a few arches and
+arabesques remain of the ancient Generalife. It is a small palace,
+simple and white, with few windows, and an arched gallery surrounded
+with a terrace, and half hidden in the midst of a grove of laurel and
+myrtles, standing on the summit of a mountain covered with flowers,
+rising upon the right bank of the Darro opposite the hill of the
+Alhambra. In front of the façade of the palace extends a little garden,
+and other gardens rise one above another almost in the form of a
+vast staircase to the very top of the mountain, where there extends
+a very high terrace that encloses the Generalife. The avenues of the
+gardens and the wide staircases that lead from one to another of the
+flower-beds are flanked by high espaliers surmounted by arches and
+divided by arbors of myrtle, curved and intertwined with graceful
+designs, and at every landing-place rise white summer-houses shaded by
+trellises and picturesque groups of orange trees and cypresses. Water
+is still as abundant as in Moorish times, and gives the place a grace,
+freshness, and luxuriance impossible to describe. From every part one
+hears the murmur of rivulets and fountains; one turns down an avenue
+and finds a jet of water; one approaches a window and sees a stream
+reaching almost to the window-sill; one enters a group of trees and
+the spray of a little waterfall strikes one's face; one turns and sees
+water leaping, running, and trickling through the grass and shrubbery.
+
+From the height of the terrace one commands a view of all those gardens
+as they slope downward in platforms and terraces; one peers down
+into the abyss of vegetation which separates the two mountains; one
+overlooks the whole enclosure of the Alhambra, with the cupolas of its
+little temples, its distant towers, and the paths winding among its
+ruins; the view extends over the city of Granada with its plain and
+its hills, and runs with a single glance along all the summits of the
+Sierra Nevada, that appear so near that one imagines they are not an
+hour's walk distant. And while you contemplate that spectacle your ear
+is soothed by the murmur of a hundred fountains and the faint sound of
+the bells of the city, which comes in waves scarcely audible, bearing
+with it the mysterious fragrance of this earthly paradise which makes
+you tremble and grow pale with delight.
+
+[Illustration: _Court of the Generalife, Granada_]
+
+Beyond the Generalife, on the summit of a higher mountain, now bleak
+and bare, there rose in Moorish times other royal palaces, with gardens
+connected with each other by great avenues lined with myrtle hedges.
+Now all these marvels of architecture encircled by groves, fountains,
+and flowers, those fabulous castles in the air, those magnificent and
+fragrant nests of love and delight, have disappeared, and scarcely
+a heap of rubbish or a short stretch of wall remains to tell their
+story to the passer-by. But these ruins, that elsewhere would arouse a
+feeling of melancholy, do not have such an influence in the presence
+of that glorious nature whose enchantment not even the most marvellous
+works of man have ever been able to equal.
+
+On re-entering the city I stopped at one end of the _Carrera
+del Darro_, in front of a house richly adorned with bas-reliefs
+representing heraldic shields, armor, cherubs, and lions, with a little
+balcony, over one corner of which, partly on one wall and partly on
+another, I read the following mysterious inscription stamped in great
+letters:
+
+          "ESPERANDO LA DEL CIELO,"
+
+which, literally translated, signifies "_Awaiting her in Heaven_."
+Curious to learn the hidden meaning of those words, I made a note of
+them, so that I might ask the learned father of my friend about them.
+He gave me two interpretations, the one almost certainly correct, but
+not at all romantic; the other romantic, but very doubtful. I give the
+last: The house belonged to Don Fernando de Zafra, the secretary of
+the Catholic kings. He had a very beautiful daughter. A young hidalgo,
+of a family hostile or inferior in rank to the house of Zafra, became
+enamored of the daughter, and, as his love was returned, he asked
+for her hand in marriage, but was refused. The refusal of her father
+stirred the love of the two young hearts to flame: the windows of the
+house were low; the lover one night succeeded in making the ascent
+and entered the maiden's room. Whether he upset a chair on entering,
+or coughed, or uttered a low cry of joy on seeing his beautiful love
+welcoming him with open arms, the tradition does not tell, and no one
+knows; but certain it is that Don Fernando de Zafra heard a noise, ran
+in, saw, and, blind with fury, rushed upon the ill-fated young man
+to put him to death. But he succeeded in making his escape, and Don
+Fernando in following him ran into one of his own pages, a partisan
+of the lovers, who had helped the hidalgo to enter the house: in his
+haste his master mistook him for the betrayer, and, without hearing his
+protests and prayers, he had him bound and hanged from the balcony. The
+tradition runs that while the poor victim kept crying, "Pity! pity!"
+the outraged father responded as he pointed toward the balcony, "Thou
+shalt stay there _esperando la del Cielo_!" (awaiting her in heaven)--a
+reply which he afterward had cut in the stone walls as a perpetual
+warning to evil-doers.
+
+I devoted the rest of the day to the churches and monasteries.
+
+The cathedral of Granada deserves to be described part by part in
+an even higher degree than the cathedral of Malaga, although it too
+is beautiful and magnificent; but I have already described enough
+churches. Its foundation was laid by the Catholic kings in 1529 upon
+the ruins of the principal mosque of the city, but it has never been
+finished. It has a great façade with three doorways, adorned with
+statues and bas-reliefs, and it consists of five naves, divided by
+twenty measureless pilasters, each composed of a bundle of slender
+columns. The chapels contain paintings by Boccanegra, sculptures by
+Torrigiano, and tombs and other precious ornaments. Admirable above all
+is the great chapel, supported by twenty Corinthian columns divided
+into two orders, upon the first of which rise colossal statues of
+the twelve apostles, and on the second an entablature covered with
+garlands and heads of cherubs. Overhead runs a circle of magnificent
+stained-glass windows, which represent the Passion, and from the frieze
+which crowns them leap ten bold arches forming the vault of the chapel.
+Within the arches that support the columns are six great paintings by
+Alonzo Cano, which are said to be his most beautiful and finished work.
+
+And since I have spoken of Alonzo Cano, a native of Granada, one of
+the strongest Spanish painters of the seventeenth century, although
+a disciple of the Sevillian school rather than the founder, as some
+assert, of a school of his own, but less original than his greatest
+contemporaries,--since I have spoken of him, I wish here to record some
+traits of his genius and anecdotes of his life little known outside
+of Spain, although exceedingly remarkable. Alonzo Cano was the most
+quarrelsome, the most irascible, and the most violent of the Spanish
+painters. He spent his life in contention. He was a priest. From 1652
+to 1658, for six consecutive years, without a day's intermission, he
+wrangled with the canons of the cathedral of Granada, of which he was
+steward, because he was not willing to become subdeacon in accordance
+with the stipulated agreement; before leaving Granada he broke into
+pieces with his own hands a statue of Saint Anthony of Padua which he
+had made to the order of an auditor of the chancery, because the man
+allowed himself to observe that the price demanded seemed a little
+dear. Chosen master of design to the royal prince, who, as it appears,
+was not born with a talent for painting, he so exasperated his pupil
+that the boy was obliged to have recourse to the king that he might
+be taken out of his hands. Remanded to Granada, to the neighborhood
+of the chapter of the cathedral, as an especial favor, he bore such a
+deep rancor from his old litigations with his canons that throughout
+his life he would not do a stroke of work for them. But this is a small
+matter. He nursed a blind, bestial, inextinguishable hatred against the
+Hebrews, and was firmly convinced that in any way to touch a Hebrew or
+any object that a Hebrew had touched would bring him misfortune. Owing
+to this conviction he did some of the most extravagant feats in the
+world. If in walking along the street he ran against a Jew, he would
+strip off the infected garment and return home in his shirt-sleeves.
+If by chance he succeeded in discovering that in his absence a servant
+had admitted a Jew into the house, he discharged the servant, threw
+away the shoes with which he had touched the pavement profaned by the
+circumcised, and sometimes even had the pavement torn up and reset. And
+he found something to find fault with even as he was dying. When he was
+approaching the end of life the confessor handed him a clumsily-made
+crucifix that he might kiss it, but he pushed it away with his hand,
+saying, "Father, give me a naked cross, that I may worship Jesus Christ
+as He Himself is and as I behold Him in my mind." But, after all, his
+was a rare, charitable nature which abhorred every vulgar action,
+and loved with a deep and very pure love the art in which he remains
+immortal.
+
+On returning to the church after I had made the round of all the
+chapels and was preparing to leave, I was impressed by a suspicion that
+there was something else still to be seen. I had not read the Guidebook
+and had been told nothing, but I heard an inner voice which said to
+me, "Seek!" and, in fact, I sought with my eyes in every direction,
+without knowing what I sought. A cicerone noticed me and sidled up to
+me, as all of his kind do, like an assassin, and asked me with an air
+of mystery, "_Quiere usted algo?_" (Do you wish something, sir?)
+
+"I should like to know," I replied, "if there is anything to see in
+this cathedral besides that which I have seen already?"
+
+"How!" exclaimed the cicerone; "you have not seen the royal chapel,
+have you, sir?"
+
+"What is there in the royal chapel?"
+
+"What is there? Caramba! Nothing less than the tombs of Ferdinand and
+Isabella the Catholics."
+
+I could have said so! I had in my mind a place ready for this idea,
+and the idea was lacking! The Catholic kings must certainly have been
+buried in Granada, where they fought the last great chivalrous war of
+the Middle Ages, and where they gave Christopher Columbus a commission
+to fit out ships which bore him to the New World. I ran rather than
+walked to the royal chapel, preceded by the limping cicerone; an old
+sacristan opened the door of the sacristy, and before he allowed me to
+enter and see the tombs he led me to a sort of glass cupboard full of
+precious objects, and said to me, "You will remember that Isabella the
+Catholic, to furnish Christopher Columbus with the money that he needed
+to supply the ships for the voyage, not knowing where to turn because
+the coffers of the state were empty, put her jewels in pawn."
+
+"Yes: well?" I demanded impatiently; and, divining the answer, felt my
+heart beat faster the while.
+
+"Well," replied the sacristan, "that is the box in which the queen
+locked her jewels to send them to be pawned."
+
+And so saying he opened the cupboard and took out the box and handed it
+to me.
+
+Oh! brave men may say what they will; as for me, there are things that
+make me tremble and weep. I have touched the box that contained the
+treasure by which Columbus was enabled to discover America. Every time
+I repeat those words my blood is stirred, and I add, "I have touched it
+with these hands," and I look at my hands.
+
+That cupboard contains also the sword of King Ferdinand, the crown and
+sceptre of Isabella, a missal and some other ornaments of the king and
+queen.
+
+We entered the chapel. Between the altar and a great iron chancel that
+separates it from the remaining space stand two great mausoleums of
+marble adorned with statuettes and bas-reliefs of great value. Upon
+one of them lie the statues of Ferdinand and Isabella in their royal
+robes, with crown, sword, and sceptre; on the other the statues of the
+other two princes of Spain, and around the statues lions, angels, and
+arms, and various ornaments, presenting a regal appearance, austere and
+magnificent.
+
+The sacristan lighted a flambeau, and, pointing out a sort of trap-door
+in the pavement between the two mausoleums, asked me to open it and
+descend into the subterranean chamber. With the cicerone's aid I opened
+the trap-door; the sacristan descended, and I followed him down a
+narrow little staircase until we reached a little room. There were five
+caskets of lead, bound with iron bands, each sealed with two initials
+under a crown. The sacristan lowered the torch, and, touching all five
+of them, one after another, with his hand, said in a slow, solemn voice,
+
+"Here rests the great queen Isabella the Catholic.
+
+"Here rests the great king Ferdinand V.
+
+"Here rests the king Philip I.
+
+"Here rests Queen Joanna the Mad.
+
+"Here rests Lady Maria, her daughter, who died at the age of nine years.
+
+"God keep them all in his holy peace!"
+
+And, placing the torch on the ground, he crossed his arms and closed
+his eyes, as if to give me time for meditation.
+
+One would become a hunchback at his desk if he were to describe all
+the religious monuments of Granada--the stupendous Cartuja; the Monte
+Sacro, containing the grottoes of the martyrs; the church of San
+Geronimo, where the great leader Gonzalez di Cordova is buried; the
+convent of Santo Domingo, founded by Torquemada the Inquisitor; the
+convent of the Angels, containing paintings by Cano and Murillo and
+many others; but I suppose that my readers may be even more weary than
+I am, and will consequently pardon me for passing by a mountain of
+description which probably would only give them a confused idea of the
+things described.
+
+But as I have mentioned the sepulchre of the great commander, Gonzalez
+di Cordova, I cannot forbear translating a curious document in
+reference to him which was shown me in the church of San Geronimo by a
+sacristan who was an admirer of the deeds of that hero. The document,
+in the form of an anecdote, is as follows:
+
+"Every step of the great captain Don Gonzalez di Cordova was an
+assault, and every assault a victory; his sepulchre in the convent of
+the Geronomites at Granada was adorned with two hundred banners which
+he had taken. His envious rivals, and the treasurers of the kingdom of
+Naples in particular, induced the king in 1506 to demand a statement
+from Gonzalez of the use he had made of the great sums received from
+Spain for the conduct of the war in Italy; and, in fact, the king was
+so small as to consent, and even to be present on the occasion of the
+conference.
+
+"Gonzalez acceded to the demand with the haughtiest disdain, and
+proposed to give a severe lesson to the treasurers and the king upon
+the treatment and consideration to be accorded a conqueror of kingdoms.
+
+"He replied with great indifference and calmness that he would prepare
+his accounts for the following day, and would let it appear which was
+the debtor, himself or the exchequer, which demanded an account of one
+hundred and thirty thousand ducats delivered upon the first payment,
+eighty thousand crowns upon the second, three millions upon the third,
+eleven millions upon the fourth, thirteen millions upon the fifth,
+and so on as the solemn, nasal, foolish secretary who authorized so
+important an act continued to enumerate the sums.
+
+"The great Gonzalez kept his word, presented himself at the second
+audience, and, bringing out a voluminous book in which he had noted his
+justification, he began with the following words in a deep, sonorous
+voice:
+
+"'Two hundred thousand seven hundred and thirty-six ducats and nine
+reales to the fathers, the nuns, and the poor, to the end that they
+might pray God for the triumph of the Spanish arms.
+
+"'One hundred thousand ducats for powder and shot.
+
+"'Ten thousand ducats for perfumed gloves to protect the soldiers from
+the stench of the corpses of the enemy left on the field of battle.
+
+"'One hundred and seventy thousand ducats for renewing bells worn out
+by continuous ringing for constant new victories over the enemy.
+
+"'Fifty thousand ducats for brandy for the soldiers on the day of
+battle.
+
+"'A million and a half ducats for the maintenance of the prisoners and
+wounded.
+
+"'A million for returning thanks and Te Deums to the Omnipotent.
+
+"'Three hundred millions in masses for the dead.
+
+"'Seven hundred thousand four hundred and ninety-four ducats for spies
+and ...
+
+"'One hundred millions for the patience which I showed yesterday on
+hearing that the king demanded an account from the man who has given
+him his kingdom.'
+
+"These are the celebrated accounts of the great captain, the originals
+of which are in the possession of Count d'Altimira.
+
+"One of the original accounts, with the autograph seal of the great
+captain, exists in the Military Museum of London, where it is guarded
+with great care."
+
+On reading this document I returned to the hotel, making invidious
+comparisons between Gonzalez di Cordova and the Spanish generals of our
+times, which, for grave state reasons, as they say in the tragedies, I
+dare not repeat.
+
+In the hotel I saw something new every day. There were many university
+students who had come from Malaga and other Andalusian cities to take
+the examination for the doctor's degree at Granada, whether because
+they were a little easier there or for what other reason I do not
+know. We all ate at a round table. One morning at breakfast one of the
+students, a young man of about twenty, announced that at two o'clock
+he was to be examined in canon law, and that, not feeling very sure of
+himself, he had decided to take a glass of wine to refresh the springs
+of eloquence. He was accustomed to drink only wine weakened with water,
+and committed the imprudence of emptying at a single draught a glass
+of the vintage of Xerez. His face changed in an instant in so strange
+a manner that if I had not seen the transformation with my own eyes I
+should not have believed that he was the same person.
+
+"There! that is enough!" cried his friends.
+
+But the young man, who already felt that he had become suddenly strong,
+keen, and confident, cast a compassionate glance at his companions, and
+with a lordly gesture ordered the waiter to fetch him another glass.
+
+"You will be drunk," they said.
+
+His only response was to drain a second glass.
+
+Then he became wonderfully talkative. There was a score of persons
+at table: in a few minutes he was conversing with them all, and he
+revealed a thousand secrets of his past life and his plans for the
+future. He said that he was from Cadiz, that he had eight thousand
+francs a year to spend, and that he wished to devote himself to a
+diplomatic career, because with that revenue, added to something which
+his uncle would leave him, he should be able to cut a good figure
+wherever he might be; that he had decided to take a wife at thirty, and
+to marry a woman as tall as himself, because it was his opinion that
+the wife should be of the same stature as her husband, to keep either
+from getting the upper hand of the other; that when he was a boy he
+was in love with the daughter of an American consul as beautiful as a
+flower and strong as a pine, but she had a red birth-mark behind one
+ear, which looked badly, although she knew how to cover it very well
+with her scarf, and he showed us with his napkin how she covered it;
+and that Don Amadeus was too ingenuous a man to succeed in governing
+Spain; that of the poets Zorilla and Espronceda, he had always
+preferred Espronceda; that it would be folly to cede Cuba to America;
+that the examination on canon law made him laugh; and that he wished to
+drink another four fingers of Xerez, the finest wine in Europe.
+
+He drank a third glass in spite of the good counsel and disapprobation
+of his friends, and after prattling a little longer amid the laughter
+of his audience, he suddenly became silent, looked fixedly at a lady
+sitting opposite to him, dropped his head, and fell asleep. I thought
+that he could not present himself for the examination that day, but
+was mistaken. A short hour later they awakened him; he went up stairs
+to wash his face, ran off to the university still drowsy, took his
+examination, and was promoted, to the greater glory of the wine of
+Xerez and Spanish diplomacy.
+
+I devoted the following days to visiting the monuments, or, to be
+more accurate, the ruins of the Moorish monuments which besides the
+Alhambra and the Generalife attest the ancient splendor of Granada.
+Insomuch as it was the last bulwark of Islam, Granada is the city which
+presents the most numerous relics of all the cities of Spain. On the
+hill called the hill of _Dinadamar_ (the Fountain of Tears) one may
+still see the ruins of four towers rising at the four corners of a
+great cistern into which flowed the waters from the Sierra to supply
+the highest part of the city. There were baths, gardens, and villas of
+which not a trace remains: from that point one overlooked the city with
+its minarets, its terraces, and its mosques gleaming among the palms
+and cypresses. Near there one sees a Moorish gate called the gate of
+Elvira--a great arch crowned with battlements--and beyond it are the
+ruins of the palaces of the caliphs. Near the Alameda promenade stands
+a square tower in which there is a great hall ornamented with the usual
+Arabian inscriptions. Near the convent of San Domingo are the remains
+of gardens and palaces once joined to the Alhambra by a subterranean
+passage. Within the city is the Alcaiceria, a Moorish market almost
+perfectly preserved, formed of a few little streets as straight and
+narrow as corridors, lined with two rows of shops, one adjoining the
+other, and presenting the strange appearance of an Asiatic bazaar.
+In short, one cannot take a step in Granada without coming face to
+face with an arch, an arabesque, a column, or a pile of stones which
+suggests its fantastic, luxurious past.
+
+What turns and windings have I not made through those tortuous streets
+at the hottest hour of the day, under a sun that shrivelled my brain,
+without meeting a living soul! At Granada, as in the other cities of
+Andalusia, the people are alive only at night, and the night repays
+them for the imprisonment of the day; the public promenades are crowded
+and confused by the hurry and jostling of a multitude, one half of
+which seems to be seeking the other half upon urgent business. The
+crowd is densest in the Alameda, but, for all that, I spent my evenings
+on the Alameda with Gongora, who talked to me of Moorish monuments, and
+with a journalist who discoursed on politics, and also with another
+young man who talked of women, and frequently with all three of them
+together, to my infinite pleasure, because those cheery meetings, like
+those of school-boys, at odd times and places, refreshed my mind, to
+steal a beautiful simile, like a summer shower refreshes the grass as
+it falls faster and faster, dancing for joy.
+
+If I were obliged to say something about the people of Granada, I
+should be embarrassed, because I have not seen them. In the day-time
+I met no one in the streets, and at night I could not see them. The
+theatres were not open, and when I might have found some one in the
+city I was wandering through the halls or avenues of the Alhambra; and
+then I had so much to do to see everything in the short time which I
+had allowed myself that no unoccupied moments remained for those chance
+conversations, like the ones I had in the other cities, in the streets
+and the cafés, with whomever I happened to meet.
+
+But from what I learned from men who were in a position to give me
+trustworthy information, the people of Granada do not enjoy an enviable
+reputation in Spain. They are said to be ill-tempered, violent,
+vindictive, and bloodthirsty; and this arraignment is not disproved by
+the pages of the city newspapers. It is not publicly stated, but every
+one knows it for a fact, that popular instruction in Granada is at a
+lower ebb than even in Seville and the other smaller Spanish cities,
+and, as a rule, everything that cannot be produced by the sun and the
+soil, which produce so bountifully, goes to the bad, either through
+indolence or ignorance or shiftlessness. Granada is not connected
+by railway with any important city: she lives alone, surrounded by
+her gardens, enclosed by her mountains, happy with the fruits which
+Nature produces under her hand, gently lulling herself to sleep in the
+vanity of her beauty and the pride of her history--idle, drowsy, and
+fanciful, content to answer with a yawn to any one who reproves her
+for her condition: "I gave Spain the painter Alonzo Cano, the poet
+Louis de Leon, the historian Fernando de Castillo, the sacred orator
+Luis di Grenada, and the minister Martinez de la Rosas. I have paid
+my debt, leave me in peace;" and this is the reply made by almost all
+the southern cities of Spain, more beautiful, alas! than wise and
+industrious, and proud rather than civilized. Ah! one who has seen them
+can never have done exclaiming, "What a pity!"
+
+"Now that you have seen all the marvels of Moorish art and tropical
+vegetation there remains the suburb of the Albaicin to be seen before
+you can say that you know Granada. Prepare your mind for a new world,
+put your hand on your purse, and follow me."
+
+So said Gongora to me on the last evening of my sojourn in Granada.
+A Republican journalist was with us, Melchiorre Almago by name, the
+director of the _Idea_, a congenial, affable young man, who to
+accompany us sacrificed his dinner and a leading article that he had
+been cogitating since morning.
+
+We walked on until we came to the square of the _Audiencia_. There
+Gongora pointed out an alley winding up a hill, and said to me, "Here
+commences the Albaicin;" and Señor Melchiorre, touching a house with
+his cane, added, "Here commences the territory of the republic."
+
+We turned up the alley, passed from it into another, and from that into
+a third, always ascending, without my seeing anything extraordinary,
+although I looked curiously in every direction. Narrow streets, squalid
+houses, old women dozing on the doorsteps, mothers carefully inspecting
+their children's heads, gaping dogs, crowing cocks, ragged boys running
+and shouting, and the other things that one always sees in the suburbs;
+but in those streets nothing more. But gradually, as we ascended, the
+appearance of the houses and the people began to change; the roofs
+became lower, the windows fewer, the doors smaller, and the people more
+ragged. In the middle of every street ran a little stream in a walled
+gutter, in the Moorish style; here and there over the doors and around
+the windows one saw the remains of arabesques and fragments of columns,
+and in the corners of the squares fountains and well-curbs of the time
+of the Moorish dominion. At every hundred steps it seemed as if we had
+gone back fifty years toward the age of the caliphs. My two companions
+touched me on the elbow from time to time, saying as they did so, "Look
+at that old woman!"--"Look at that little girl!"--"Look at that man!"
+and I looked, and asked, "Who are these people?" If I had unexpectedly
+found myself in that place, I should have believed on seeing those men
+and women that I was in an African village, so strange were the faces,
+the dress, the manner of moving, talking, and looking, at so short a
+distance from the centre of Granada--so different were they from the
+people that I had seen up to that time. At every turn I stopped to look
+in the face of my companions, and they answered, "That is nothing; we
+are now in the civilized part of the Albaicin; this is the Parisian
+quarter of the suburb; let us go on."
+
+We went on, and the streets seemed like the bed of a torrent--paths
+hollowed out among the rocks, all banks and gullies, broken and
+stony--some so steep that a mule could not climb them, others so narrow
+that a man could scarcely pass; some blocked by women and children
+sitting on the ground, others grass-grown and deserted; and all so
+squalid, wild, and uncouth that the most wretched of our villages
+cannot give one an idea of them, because this is a poverty that bears
+the impress of another race and another continent. We turned into a
+labyrinth of streets, passing from time to time under a great Moorish
+arch or through a high square from which one commanded a view of the
+wide valleys, the snow-covered mountains, and a part of the lower city,
+until finally we arrived at a street rougher and narrower than any we
+had yet seen; and there we stopped to take breath.
+
+"Here commences the real Albaicin," said the young archeologist. "Look
+at that house!"
+
+I looked; it was a low, smoke-stained, ruinous house, with a door that
+seemed like the mouth of a cavern, before which one saw, under a mass
+of rags, a group, or rather a heap, of old women and little children,
+who upon our approach raised their eyes heavy with sleep, and with bony
+hands removed from the threshold some filth which impeded our passage.
+
+"Let us enter," said my friend.
+
+"Enter?" I demanded.
+
+If they had told me that beyond those walls there was a facsimile of
+the famous Court of Miracles which Victor Hugo has described, I should
+not have doubted their word. No door has ever said more emphatically
+than that, "Stand back!" I cannot find a better comparison than the
+gaping mouth of a gigantic witch breathing out pestilential vapors. But
+I took courage and entered.
+
+Oh, marvellous! It was the court of a Moorish house surrounded by
+graceful little columns surmounted by lovely arches, with those
+indescribable traceries of the Alhambra along the porticoes and around
+the mullioned windows, with the beams and ceiling carved and enamelled
+with little niches for vases of flowers and urns of perfume, with a
+pool in the middle, and all the traces and memorials of the delicate
+life of an opulent family. And in that house lived those wretched
+people!
+
+We went out and entered other houses, in all of which I found some
+fragments of Moorish architecture and sculpture. From time to time
+Gongora would say to me, "This was a harem. Those were the baths of
+the women; up yonder was the chamber of a favorite;" and I fixed my
+eyes upon every bit of the arabesqued wall and upon all the little
+columns of the windows, as if to ask them for a revelation of their
+secrets--only a name or a magic word with which I might reconstruct in
+an instant the ruined edifice and summon the beautiful Arabians who had
+dwelt there. But, alas! amid the columns and under the arches of the
+windows there were only rags and wrinkled faces.
+
+Among other houses, we entered one where we found a group of girls
+sewing under the shade of a tree in the courtyard, directed by an old
+woman. They were all working upon a great piece of cloth that seemed
+like a mat or a bed-spread, in black and gray stripes. I approached and
+asked one of the girls, "What is this?"
+
+They all looked up and with a concerted movement spread the cloth open,
+so that I could see their work plainly. Almost before I had seen it I
+cried, "I will buy it."
+
+They all began to laugh. It was the mantle of an Andalusian
+mountaineer, made to wear in the saddle, rectangular in form, with
+an opening in the middle to put one's head through, embroidered in
+bright-colored worsteds along the two shortest sides and around the
+opening. The design of the embroideries, which represented birds
+and fantastic flowers, green, blue, white, red, and yellow, all in
+a mass, was as crude as a pattern a child might make: the beauty of
+the work lay altogether in the harmony of the colors, which was truly
+marvellous. I cannot express the sensation produced by the sight of
+that mantle, except by saying that it laughed and filled one with its
+cheerfulness; and it seems to me impossible to imagine anything gayer,
+more festive, or more childishly and gracefully capricious. It was a
+thing to look upon in order to bring yourself out of a bad humor, or
+when you wish to write a pretty verse in a lady's album, or when you
+are expecting a person whom you wish to receive with your brightest
+smile.
+
+"When will you finish these embroideries?" I asked one of the girls.
+
+"_Hoy mismo_" (to-day), they all replied in chorus.
+
+"And what is the mantle worth?"
+
+"_Cinco_" (five), stammered one.
+
+The old women pierced her with a glance which seemed to say,
+"Blockhead!" and answered hastily, "Six _duros_."
+
+Six _duros_ are thirty francs; it did not seem much to me, and I put my
+hand in my pocket.
+
+Gongora cast a withering glance at me which seemed to say, "You
+simpleton!" and, drawing me back by the arm, said, "One moment: six
+_duros_ is an exorbitant price."
+
+The old woman shot him another glance which seemed to say, "Brigand!"
+and replied, "I cannot take less."
+
+Gongora gave her another glance, which seemed to say, "Liar!" and said,
+"Come, now; you can take four _duros_; you would not ask more from the
+country-people."
+
+The old woman insisted, and for a while we continued to exchange with
+our eyes the titles of simpleton, swindler, marplot, liar, pinch-penny,
+spend-thrift, until the mantle was sold to me for five duros, and I
+paid and left my address, and we went out blessed and commended to
+God by the old woman and followed a good way by the black eyes of the
+embroiderers.
+
+We went on from street to street, among houses increasingly wretched
+and growing blacker and blacker, and more revolting rags and faces. But
+we never came to the end, and I asked my companions, "Will you have the
+goodness to tell me if Granada has any limits, and if so where they
+are? May one ask where we are going and how we shall return home?" But
+they simply laughed and went forward.
+
+"Is there anything stranger than this to be seen?" I asked at a certain
+point.
+
+"Stranger?" they both replied. "This second part of the suburb which
+you have seen still belongs to civilization: if not the Parisian, it is
+at least the Madrid, quarter of the Albaicin, and there _is_ something
+else; let us go on."
+
+We passed through a very small street containing some scantily-clothed
+women, who looked like people fallen from the moon; crossed a little
+square full of babies and pigs in friendly confusion; passed through
+two or three other alleys, now climbing, now descending, now in the
+midst of houses, now among piles of rubbish, now between trees and
+now among rocks, until we finally arrived at the solitary place on a
+hillside from which we saw in front the Generalife, to the right the
+Alhambra, and below a deep valley filled with a dense wood.
+
+It was growing dark; no one was in sight and not a voice was heard.
+
+"Is this the end of the suburb?" I asked.
+
+My two companions laughed and said, "Look in that direction."
+
+[Illustration: _The Alhambra and the Valley of the Darro_]
+
+I turned and saw along the street that was lost in a distant grove
+an interminable row of houses. Of houses? Rather of dens dug in the
+earth, with a bit of wall in front, with holes for windows and
+crevices for doors, and wild plants of every sort on top and along
+the sides--veritable caves of beasts, in which by the glow of faint
+lights, scarcely visible, swarmed the gypsies by hundreds; a people
+multiplying in the bowels of the mountain, poorer, blacker, and more
+savage than any seen before; another city, unknown to the greater part
+of Granada, inaccessible to the police, closed to the census-officers,
+ignorant of every law and of all government, living one knows not
+how, how numerous no one knows, foreign to the city, to Spain, and to
+modern civilization, with a language and statutes and manners of their
+own--superstitious, false, thieving, beggarly, and fierce.
+
+"Button up your coat and look out for your watch," said Gongora to me,
+"and let us go forward."
+
+We had not taken a hundred steps when a half-naked boy, black as the
+walls of his hovel, ran out, gave a cry, and, making a sign to the
+other boys who followed him, dashed toward us; behind the boys came the
+women; behind the women the men, and then old men, old women, and more
+children; and in less time than it takes to tell it we were surrounded
+by a crowd. My two friends, recognized as Granadines, succeeded in
+saving themselves; I was left in the lurch. I can still see those
+horrid faces, still hear those voices, and still feel the pressure of
+those hands: gesticulating, shouting, saying a thousand things which I
+did not understand; dragging at my coat, my waistcoat, and my sleeves,
+they pressed upon me like a pack of famished people, breathed in my
+face, and cut off my very breath. They were, for the most part, half
+naked and emaciated--their garments falling in tatters, with unkempt
+hair, horrible to see; I seemed to be like Don Roderick in the midst of
+a crowd of the infected in that famous dream of the August night.
+
+"What do these people want?" I asked myself. "Where have I been
+brought? How shall I get out of this?" I felt almost a sense of fear,
+and looked around uneasily. Little by little I began to understand.
+
+"I have a sore on my shoulder," said one; "I cannot work; give me a
+penny."
+
+"I have a broken leg," said another.
+
+"I have a palsied arm."
+
+"I have had a long sickness."
+
+"_Un cuarto, Señorito!_"
+
+"_Un real, caballero!_"
+
+"_Una peseta para todos!_"
+
+This last request was received with a general cry of approval: "_Una
+peseta para todos!_" (a _peseta_ for us all).
+
+With some little trepidation I drew out my purse; they all stood on
+tiptoe; the nearest poked their chins into it; those behind put their
+chins on the heads of those in front; the farthest stretched out their
+arms.
+
+"One moment," I cried. "Who has the most authority among you all?"
+
+They all replied with one voice, stretching out their arms toward the
+same person, "That one."
+
+It was a terrible old hag, all nose and chin, with a great tuft of
+white hair standing straight above her head like a bunch of feathers,
+and a mouth which seemed like a letter-box, with little clothing save a
+chemise--black, shrivelled, and mummified; she approached me bowing and
+smiling, and held out her hands to take mine.
+
+"What do you want?" I demanded, taking a step backward.
+
+"Your fortune," they all cried.
+
+"Tell my fortune, then," I replied, holding out my hand.
+
+The old woman took my poor hand between her ten--I cannot say fingers,
+but shapeless bones--placed her sharp nose on it, raised her head,
+looked hard at me, pointed her finger toward me, and, swaying and
+pausing at every sentence as if she were reciting poetry, said to me in
+inspired accents, "Thou wert born upon a famous day.
+
+"Upon a famous day also shalt thou die.
+
+"Thou art the possessor of amazing riches."
+
+Here she muttered I know not what about sweethearts and marriage and
+felicity, from which I understood that she supposed I was married,
+and then she continued: "On the day of thy marriage there was great
+feasting in thy house; there were many to give and take.
+
+"And another woman wept.
+
+"And when thou seest her the wings of thy heart open."
+
+And so on in this strain, saying that I had sweethearts and friends
+and treasures and jewels in store for me every day of the year, in
+every country of the world. While the old woman was speaking they
+were all silent, as if they believed she had prophesied truly. She
+finally closed her prophecy with a formula of dismissal, and ended the
+formula by extending her arms and making a skip in a dancing attitude.
+I gave her the peseta, and the crowd broke into shouting, applause,
+and singing, making a thousand uncanny hops and gestures around me,
+saluting me with nudges and slaps of the hand on my back, as if I were
+an old friend, until finally, by dint of wriggling and striking now
+one and then another, I succeeded in opening a passage and rejoined
+my friends. But a new danger threatened us. The news of the arrival
+of a foreigner had spread, the tribes were in motion, the city of the
+gypsies was all in an uproar; from the neighboring houses and from the
+distant huts, from the top of the hill and the bottom of the valley,
+ran boys, women with babies about their necks, old men with canes,
+cripples, and professional imposters, septuagenarian prophetesses who
+wished to tell my fortune--an army of beggars coming upon us from every
+direction. It was night; there was no time for hesitation; we broke
+into a run toward the city like school-boys. Then a devilish cry broke
+out behind us, and the nimblest began to chase us. Thanks to Heaven!
+after a short race we found ourselves in safety--tired and breathless,
+and covered with dust, but safe.
+
+"It was necessary to escape at any cost," said Señor Melchiorre with a
+laugh; "otherwise we should have gone home without our shirts."
+
+"And take notice," added Gongora, "that we have seen only the door of
+Gypsy-town, the civilized part, not the Paris nor the Madrid, but at
+least the Granada, of the Albaicin. If we could only have gone on! if
+you could have seen the rest!"
+
+"But how many thousand are there of those people?" I demanded.
+
+"No one knows."
+
+"How do they live?"
+
+"No one can imagine."
+
+"What authority do they recognize?"
+
+"One only--_los reyes_ (the kings), the heads of families or of houses,
+those who have the most money and years. They never go out of their
+city; they know nothing, they live in the dark as to all that happens
+beyond the circle of their hovels. Dynasties fall, governments change,
+armies clash, and it is a miracle if the news ever reaches their ears.
+Ask them if Isabella is still on the throne; they do not know. Ask
+them who Amadeus is; they have never heard his name. They are born
+and perish like flies, and they live as they lived centuries ago,
+multiplying without leaving their own boundaries, ignorant and unknown,
+seeing nothing all their lives beyond the valleys lying below their
+feet and the Alhambra towering above their heads."
+
+We passed again through all the streets that we had traversed, now
+dark and deserted, and endless as it seemed to me; and, climbing and
+descending, turning and twisting, and turning again, we finally arrived
+at the square of the Audiencia in the middle of the city of Granada--in
+the civilized world. At the sight of the brightly-lighted cafés and
+shops I experienced a feeling of pleasure, as if I had just returned to
+city-life after a year's sojourn in an uninhabited wilderness.
+
+On the evening of the next day I left for Valencia. I remember that a
+few moments before starting, as I was paying my hotel-bill, I observed
+to the proprietor that there was an overcharge for one candle, and
+playfully asked him, "Will you deduct it for me?" The proprietor seized
+his pen, and, deducting twenty centimes from the total charge, replied
+in a voice which he wished to appear emotional, "The devil! among
+Italians!"
+
+
+
+
+VALENCIA.
+
+
+The journey from Granada to Valencia, made all _de un tiron_ (at one
+breath), as they say in Spain, is one of those recreations in which a
+rational man indulges only once in his life. From Granada to Menjibar,
+a village on the left bank of the Guadalquivir, between Jaen and
+Andujar, is a night's ride by diligence; from Menjibar to the Alcazar
+de San Juan is a half-day's journey by railway in an uncurtained
+carriage, through a plain as bare as the palm of one's hand, under
+a blazing sun; and from the Alcazar de San Juan to Valencia, taking
+account of an entire evening spent in the station of the Alcazar, makes
+another night and another morning before one reaches the longed-for
+city at noon, where Nature, as Emile Praga would say, is horrified at
+the dreadful idea that there are still four months of summer.
+
+But it must be said that the country through which one passes is
+so beautiful from beginning to the end that if one were capable of
+appreciation when one is dead with sleep and finds one's self turning
+into water by reason of the heat, one would go into ecstasies a
+thousand times. It is a journey of unexpected landscapes, sudden
+vistas, remarkable contrasts, theatrical effects of Nature, so to
+speak--marvellous and fantastic transformations, which leave in the
+mind an indescribable, vague illusion of having passed not through a
+part of Spain, but along an entire meridian of the earth across the
+most dissimilar countries. From the _vega_ of Granada, which you cross
+in the moonlight, almost opening a way among the groves and gardens,
+in the midst of a luxuriant vegetation that seems to crowd around
+you like a tossing sea, ready to overflow and engulf you with its
+billows of verdure,--from this you emerge into the midst of ragged
+and precipitous mountains, where not a trace of human habitation is
+to be seen; you graze the edge of precipices, wind along the banks of
+mountain-torrents, run along at the bottom of the ravines, and seem to
+be lost in a rocky labyrinth. Then you come out a second time among
+the green hills and flowery fields of upper Andalusia, and then, all
+suddenly, the fields and hills disappear and you find yourself in the
+midst of the rocky mountains of the Sierra Morena, that hang over
+your head from every direction and close the horizon all around like
+the walls of an immense abyss. You leave the Sierra Morena, and the
+desert plains of La Mancha stretch before you; you leave La Mancha and
+advance through the flowery plain of Almansa, varied by every sort of
+cultivation, presenting the appearance of a vast carpet of checkered
+pattern colored in all the shades of green that can be found upon the
+pallet of a landscape-painter. And, finally, the plain of Almansa opens
+into a delightful oasis, a land blest of God, a true earthly paradise,
+the kingdom of Valencia, from whose boundaries, even to the city
+itself, you pass through gardens, vineyards, fragrant orange-groves,
+white villas encircled by terraces, cheerful, brightly-colored
+villages, clusters, avenues, and groves of palms, pomegranates,
+aloes, and sugar-canes, interminable hedges of Indian fig, long
+chains of low hills, and conical mounds cultivated as kitchen-gardens
+and flower-beds, laid out with minute care from top to bottom, and
+variegated like great bunches of grass and flowers; and everywhere a
+vigorous vegetation which hides every bare spot, covers every height,
+clothes every projection, climbs, falls, trails along, marches forward,
+overflows, intertwines, shuts off the view, impedes the road, dazzles
+with its verdure, wearies with its beauty, confounds with its caprices
+and its frolics, and produces an effect as of a sudden parting of the
+earth raised to fever heat by the fires of a secret volcano.
+
+The first building which meets the eye on entering Valencia is an
+immense bull-ring situated to the right of the railway. The building
+consists of four orders of superimposed arches rising on stout
+pilasters, all of brick, and in the distance resembling the Colosseum.
+It is the bull-ring where on the fourth of September, 1871, King
+Amadeus, in the presence of thousands of spectators, shook hands with
+Tato, the celebrated one-legged _torero_, who as director of the
+spectacle had asked permission to render his homage in the royal box.
+Valencia is full of mementos of the duke d'Aosta. The sacristan of the
+cathedral has in his possession a gold chronometer bearing the duke's
+initials in diamonds, with a chain of pearls, which was presented by
+him when he went to pray in the chapel of Our Lady of the Desolate.
+In the hospice of the same name the poor remember that one day they
+received their daily bread from his hand. In the mosaic workshop of
+one Nolla they preserve two bricks, upon one of which he cut his own
+name with his sword, and upon the other the name of the queen. In the
+Plaza di Tetuan the people point out the house of Count di Cervellon,
+where he was entertained; it is the same house in which Ferdinand
+VII. signed the decrees annulling the constitution in 1814, in which
+Queen Christina abdicated the throne in 1840, in which Queen Isabella
+spent some days in 1858. In short, there is not a corner of the city
+of which it cannot be said, Here he shook hands with a working-man,
+here he visited a factory, there he passed on foot far from his suite,
+surrounded by a crowd, trustful, serene, and smiling.
+
+It was in Valencia, since I am speaking of the duke d'Aosta,--it was
+in the city of Valencia that a little girl of five years in reciting
+some verses touched upon that terrible subject of a _foreign king_
+with probably the noblest and most considerate words spoken in Spain
+for many years previous to that time--words which, if all Spain had
+remembered and pondered then, would perhaps have spared her many of
+those calamities which have befallen her, and others which still
+threaten; words which perhaps one day some Spaniard may repeat with
+a sigh, and which already at this time draw from events a marvellous
+light of truth and beauty. And, since these verses are graceful and
+simple, I transcribe them here. The poem is entitled "God and the
+King," and runs as follows:
+
+    "Dios, en todo soberano,
+    Creó un dia á los mortales,
+    Y á todos nos hizo iguales
+    Con su poderosa mano.
+
+    "No reconoció Naciones
+    Ni colores ni matices?
+    Y en ver los hombres felices
+    Cifró sus aspiraciones.
+
+    "El Rey, che su imágen es,
+    Su bondad debe imitar
+    Y el pueblo no ha de indagar
+    Si es aleman ó francés.
+
+    "Porqué con ceño iracundo
+    Rechazarle siendo bueno?
+    Un Rey de bondades lleno
+    Tiene por su patria el mundo.
+
+    "Vino de nacion estraña
+    Cárlos Quinto emperador,
+    Y conquistó su valor
+    Mil laureles para España.
+
+    "Y es un recuerdo glorioso
+    Aunque en guerra cimentado,
+    El venturoso reinado
+    De Felipe el Animoso.
+
+    "Hoy el tercero sois vos
+    Nacido en estraño suelo
+    Que viene á ver nuestro cielo
+    Puro destello de Dios.
+
+    "Al rayo de nuestro sol
+    Sed bueno, justo y leal,
+    Que á un Rey bueno y liberal
+    Adora el pueblo español.
+
+    "Y á vuestra frente el trofeo
+    Ceñid de perpetua gloria,
+    Para que diga la historia
+    --Fué grande el Rey Amadeo."
+
+"God, Ruler over all, created mortals one day, and made all equal
+with His mighty hand. He recognized neither nations nor colors nor
+divisions, and to behold men happy was His desire. The king, who is His
+image, ought to imitate His goodness, and the people have no need to
+ask whether he be German or French. Why, then, with angry frown repulse
+him if he be good? A king abounding in good deeds holds the world as
+his country. Charles V., the emperor, came from a foreign nation, and
+by his valor won a thousand laurels for Spain. And the fortunate reign
+of Philip the Courageous is a glorious memory even though founded upon
+war.
+
+"To-day a third king rules you born on a foreign soil, who comes to
+look upon our sky, a clear spark of God. His love is true and just and
+loyal to the light of our sun, and this is a good and liberal king
+Spanish people adore. And around your brows you shall wear the trophy
+of perpetual glory upon which history shall write, 'Great was King
+Amadeus.'"
+
+Oh, poor little girl! how many wise things you have said! and how many
+foolish things others have done!
+
+The city of Valencia, if one enters it with one's mind full of the
+ballads in which the poets sang of its marvels, does not seem to
+correspond to the lovely image formed of it; neither, on the other
+hand, does it offer that sinister appearance for which one is prepared
+if one considers its just fame as a turbulent, warlike city, the
+fomenter of civil strife--a city prouder of the smell of its powder
+than of the fragrance of its orange-groves. It is a city built in the
+midst of a vast flowery plain on the right bank of the Guadalquivir,
+which separates it from the suburbs, a little way from the roadstead
+which serves as a port, and consists all of tortuous streets lined with
+high, ungainly, many-colored houses, and on this account less pleasing
+in appearance than the streets of the Andalusian cities, and entirely
+devoid of that evasive Oriental grace which so strangely stirs one's
+fancy. Along the left bank of the river extends a magnificent promenade
+formed of majestic avenues and beautiful gardens. These one reaches by
+going out of the city through the gate of the Cid, a structure flanked
+by two great embattled towers named after the hero because he passed
+through it in 1094 after he had expelled the Moors from Valencia. The
+cathedral, built upon the spot where stood a temple of Diana in Roman
+times, then a church of San Salvador in the time of the Goths, then
+a mosque in Moorish times, afterward converted into a church by the
+Cid, changed a second time into a mosque by the Moors in 1101, and
+for the third time into a church by King Don Jayme after the final
+overthrow of the invaders, is a vast structure, exceedingly rich in
+ornaments and treasures, but it cannot bear comparison with the greater
+number of the other Spanish cathedrals. There are a few palaces worth
+seeing, besides the palace of the Audiencia, a beautiful monument of
+the sixteenth century in which the Cortes of the kingdom of Valencia
+assembled; the _Casa de Ayuntamiento_, built between the fifteenth and
+sixteenth centuries, in which are preserved the sword of Don Jayme, the
+keys of the city, and the banner of the Moors; and, above all, _the
+Lonja_--the Bourse of the merchants--notable for its celebrated hall
+consisting of three great naves divided by twenty-four spiral columns,
+above which curve the light arches of the vaulted roof in bold lines,
+the architecture imparting to the eye a pleasing impression of gayety
+and harmony. And, finally, there is the art-gallery, which is not one
+of the least in Spain.
+
+But, to tell the truth, in those few days that I remained at Valencia
+waiting for the boat I was more occupied by politics than by art. And
+I proved the truth of the words I heard an illustrious Italian say
+before I left Italy--one who knew Spain like his his own home: "The
+foreigner who lives even for a short time in Spain is drawn little
+by little, almost insensibly, to heat his blood and muddle his brain
+over politics, as if Spain were his own country or as if the fortunes
+of his country were depending upon those of Spain. The passions are
+so inflamed, the struggle is so furious, and in this struggle there
+is always so clearly at stake the future, the safety, and the life of
+the nation, that it is impossible for any one with the least tinge
+of the Latin blood in his imagination and his system to remain an
+indifferent spectator. You must needs grow excited, speak at party
+meetings, take the elections seriously, mingle with the crowd at the
+political demonstrations, break with your friends, form a clique of
+those who think as you think--make, in a word, a Spaniard of yourself,
+even to the whites of your eyes. And gradually, as you become Spanish,
+you forget Europe, as if it were at the antipodes, and end in seeing
+nothing beyond Spain, as if you were governing it, and as if all its
+interests were in your hands."
+
+Such is the case, and this was my experience. In those few days the
+Conservative ministry was shipwrecked and the Radicals had the wind
+behind them. Spain was all in a ferment; governors, generals, officials
+of all grades and of all administrations fell; a crowd of parvenus
+burst into the offices of the ministry with cries of joy: Zorilla was
+to inaugurate a new era of prosperity and peace; Don Amadeus had had an
+inspiration from heaven; liberty had conquered; Spain was saved. And
+I, as I listened to the band playing in front of the new governor's
+mansion under a clear starry sky in the midst of a joyous crowd,--I too
+had a ray of hope that the throne of Don Amadeus might finally extend
+its roots, and reproached myself for being too prone to predict evil.
+And that comedy which Zorilla played at his villa when he would by no
+means accept the presidency of the ministry, and sent back his friends
+and the members of the deputation, and finally, tired of continually
+saying no, fell into a swoon on saying yes, this, I say, gave me at
+the time a high opinion of the firmness of his character and led me to
+augur happily for the new government. And I said to myself that it was
+a sin to leave Spain just when the horizon was clearing and the royal
+palace of Madrid was tinted rose-color. And I had already considered
+the plan of returning to Madrid that I might have the satisfaction
+of sending some consoling news to Italy, and so be pardoned for the
+imprudence of sending unvarnished accounts of the situation up to that
+time. And I repeated the verses of Prati:
+
+    "Oh qual destin t'aspetta
+    Aquila giovenetta!"
+
+(Oh what a destiny awaits thee, young eagle!) And, save a little
+bombast in the appellation, it seemed to me that they contained a
+prophecy, and I imagined meeting the poet in the Piazza Colonna at
+Rome and running toward him to offer my congratulations and press his
+hand....
+
+The most beautiful sight in Valencia is the market. The Valencian
+peasants are the most artistic and bizarre in their dress of all the
+peasants of Spain. To cut a good figure in a group of maskers at one
+of our masquerades they need only enter the theatre dressed as they
+would be on a festival or market-day in the streets of Valencia and
+along the country roads. On first seeing them dressed in this style,
+one laughs, and cannot in any way be brought to believe that they are
+Spanish peasants. They have an indescribable air of Greeks, Bedouins,
+buffoons, tightrope-walkers, women partly undressed on their way to
+bed, the silent characters of a play not quite ready to make their
+appearance, or facetious people who wish to make themselves generally
+ridiculous. They wear a full white shirt that takes the place of a
+jacket; a parti-colored velvet waistcoat open at the breast; a pair of
+zouave linen breeches which do not reach the knee, looking like drawers
+and standing out like the skirts of a ballet-dancer; a red or blue sash
+around the waist; a sort of embroidered white woollen stockings that
+leave the knee bare; a pair of corded sandals like those of the Catalan
+peasants; and on their heads, which are almost all shaved like those
+of the Chinese, they wear a handkerchief, red, sky-blue, yellow, or
+white, bound around like a cornucopia, and knotted at the temples or
+at the nape of the neck. They sometimes wear small velvet hats similar
+in shape to those worn in the other provinces of Spain. When they go
+into the city they nearly all carry around their shoulders or on their
+arms, now like a shawl, now like a mantle, or again like a little
+cape, a woollen _capa_, long and narrow, in brightly-colored stripes
+in which white and red predominate, adorned with fringe and rosettes.
+One may easily imagine the appearance presented by a square where there
+are gathered some hundreds of men dressed after this fashion: it is a
+Carnival scene, a festival, a tumult of colors, that makes one feel as
+gay as a band of music; a spectacle at once clownish, pretty, imposing,
+and ridiculous, to which the haughty faces and the majestic bearing
+which distinguish the Valencian peasants add an air of gravity which
+heightens the extraordinary beauty of the scene.
+
+If there is an insolent, lying proverb, it is that old Spanish one
+which says, "In Valencia flesh is grass, grass is water, men are
+women, and the women nothing." Leaving that part about the flesh and
+the grass, which is a pun, the men, especially those of the lower
+classes, are tall and robust, and have the bold appearance of the
+Catalans and Arragonese, with a livelier and more luminous expression
+of the eye; and the women, by the consent of all the Spaniards and
+of as many foreigners as have travelled in Spain, are the most
+classically beautiful in the country. The Valencians, who know that
+the eastern coast of the Peninsula was originally settled by Greeks
+and Carthaginians, say, "It is a clear case. The Grecian type of
+beauty has lingered here." I do not venture to say yes or no to this
+assertion, for to describe the beauty of the women of a city where
+one has passed only a few hours would seem to me like a license to be
+taken only by the compiler of a "Guide." But one can easily discover
+a decided difference between the Andalusian and Valencian types of
+beauty. The Valencian is taller, more robust, and fairer, with more
+regular features, gentler eyes, and a more matronly walk and carriage.
+She does not possess the bewitching air of the Andalusian, which makes
+it necessary to bite one's finger as if to subdue the sudden and
+alarming insurrection of one's capricious desires at sight of her; but
+the Valencian is a woman whom one regards with a feeling of calmer
+admiration, and while one looks one says, as La Harpe said of the
+Apollo Belvidere, "_Notre tete se releve, notre maintien s'ennoblit_,"
+and instead of imagining a little Andalusian house to hide her from the
+eyes of the world, one longs for a marble palace to receive the ladies
+and cavaliers who will come to render her homage.
+
+If one is to believe the rest of the Spaniards, the Valencian people
+are fierce and cruel beyond all imagination. If one wishes to get rid
+of an enemy, he finds an obliging man who for a few crowns undertakes
+the business with as much indifference as he would accept a commission
+to carry a letter to the post. A Valencian peasant who finds that he
+has a gun in his hands as he passes an unknown man in a lonely street
+says to his companion, "See if I can aim straight?" and takes aim and
+fires. This actually occurred not many years ago: I was assured of its
+truth. In the cities and villages of Spain the boys and young men of
+the people are accustomed to play at being bulls, as they call it. One
+takes the place of the bull and does the butting; another, with a sharp
+stick under his arm like a lance, climbs on the back of a third, who
+represents the horse, and repulses the assaults of the first. Once a
+band of young Valencians thought they would introduce some innovations
+into this sport, and so make it seem a little more realistic and afford
+the spectators and the participants a little more amusement than the
+customary way of playing it; and the innovations were to substitute
+for the stick a long sharp-pointed knife, one of those formidable
+_navajas_ that we saw at Seville, and to give the man who took the part
+of the bull two other shorter knives, which, fastened firmly on either
+side of his head, answered the purpose of horns. It seems incredible,
+but it is true. They played with the knives, shed a sea of blood,
+several were killed, some were mortally wounded, and others badly hurt,
+without the game becoming a fight, without the rules of the sport
+being transgressed, and without any one raising his voice to end the
+slaughter.
+
+I tell these things as they were told to me, although I am far from
+believing all that is said against the Valencians; but it is certain
+that at Valencia the public safety, if not a myth, as our papers
+poetically say in speaking of Romagna and Sicily, is certainly not the
+first of the good things which one enjoys after the blessing of life. I
+was persuaded of this fact the first evening of my stay in the city. I
+did not know the way to the port, but thought I was near it, and asked
+a shop-woman which way I should take. She uttered a cry of astonishment:
+
+"Do you wish to go to the port, _caballero_?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"_Ave Maria purissima!_ to the port at this hour?"
+
+And she turned toward a group of women who were standing by the door,
+and said to them in the Valencian dialect, "Women, do you answer for
+me: this gentleman is asking me the way to the port!"
+
+The women replied in one voice, "God save him!"
+
+"But from what?"
+
+"Don't risk yourself, sir."
+
+"What is your reason?"
+
+"A thousand reasons."
+
+"Tell me one of them?"
+
+"You would be murdered."
+
+One reason was enough for me, as any one can imagine, and I did not go
+to the port.
+
+For the rest, at Valencia as elsewhere, in whatever intercourse I had
+with the people I met only with courtesy as a foreigner and as an
+Italian--a friendly welcome even among those who would not hear foreign
+kings discussed in general, and princes of the house of Savoy in
+particular, and such men were numerous, but they were courteous enough
+to say at once, "Let us not harp on that string." To a foreigner who,
+when asked whence he comes, replies, "I am a Frenchman," they respond
+with an agreeable smile, as if to say, "We recognize each other." To
+one who answers, "I am a German or an Englishman," they make a slight
+inclination of the head, which implies, "I bow to you;" but when one
+replies, "I am an Italian," they eagerly extend the hand as if to
+say, "We are friends;" and they look at one with an air of curiosity,
+as you look for the first time at a person who is said to resemble
+you, and they smile pleasantly on hearing the Italian tongue, as you
+would smile on hearing some one, though in no mocking spirit, imitate
+your voice and accents. In no country in the world does an Italian
+feel nearer home than in Spain. The sky, the speech, the faces, and
+the dress remind him of his fatherland; the veneration with which
+the Spanish pronounce the names of our great poets and our great
+painters, that vague and pleasing sense of curiosity with which they
+speak of our famous cities, the enthusiasm with which they cultivate
+our music, the impulsiveness of their affections, the fire of their
+language, the rhythms of their poetry, the eyes of their women, the air
+and the sun,--oh! an Italian must be without a spark of love for his
+fatherland who does not feel an emotion of sympathy for this country,
+who does not feel inclined to excuse its errors, who does not sincerely
+deplore its misfortunes, who does not desire for it a happy future. O
+beautiful hills of Valencia, smiling banks of the Guadalquivir, charmed
+gardens of Granada, little white cottages of Seville, proud towers of
+Toledo, roaring streets of Madrid, and venerable walls of Saragossa!
+and you, kindly hosts and courteous companions of my travels--you who
+have spoken to me of Italy as of a second fatherland, who with your
+festal gayety have scattered my restless melancholy!--I shall always
+carry deep down in my heart a feeling of gratitude and love for you,
+and I shall cherish your images in my memory, as one of the dearest
+recollections of my youth, and shall always think of you as one of the
+loveliest dreams of my life.
+
+I repeated these words to myself at midnight as I looked over
+brightly-lighted Valencia, leaning against the rail of the good ship
+_Xenil_, which was on the point of sailing. Some young Spaniards had
+come on board with me. They were going to Marseilles to take ship from
+that port to the Antilles, where they expected to remain for some
+years. One of them stood alone weeping; suddenly he raised his head and
+looked toward the shore between two anchored vessels, and exclaimed in
+a tone of desolation, "Oh, my God! I hoped she would not come!"
+
+In a few moments a boat approached the ship; a little white figure,
+followed by a man enveloped in a cloak, hastily climbed the ladder, and
+with a deep sob threw herself into the arms of the young man, who had
+run to meet her.
+
+At that moment the boatswain called, "All off, gentlemen!"
+
+Then there followed a most distressing scene: the two young persons
+were torn apart, and the young lady was borne almost fainting to the
+boat, which pushed off a little and remained motionless.
+
+The ship started.
+
+The young man dashed madly forward toward the rail, and, sobbing, cried
+in a voice that pierced one's heart, "Adieu, darling! adieu! adieu!"
+
+The little white figure stretched out her arms and perhaps responded,
+but her voice was not heard. The boat was dropped behind and
+disappeared.
+
+One of the young men said to me in a whisper, "They are betrothed."
+
+It was a lovely night, but sad. Valencia was soon lost to view, and I
+thought I should never see Spain again, and wept.
+
+
+END OF VOL. II.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+A.
+
+  Abdelasio reconstructs the Alcazar of Seville, ii. 121.
+
+  Abdurrahman I. builds the mosque of Cordova, ii. 68.
+
+  Abdurrahman I. builds Medina Az-Zahra, ii. 88;
+    his happy days, ii. 89.
+
+  Abencerrages, Hall of the, Alhambra, ii. 209.
+
+  Abrantes, duke d', at the bull-fights, 209.
+
+  Absolutist party, 96.
+
+  Academy, a dream of the, 280.
+
+  Academy of San Fernando, Madrid, 193.
+
+  Acquasola gardens, Genoa, 10.
+
+  Alameda, Granada, ii. 188, ii. 241.
+
+  Alarcon y Mendoza, Juan Ruiz de, dramatist, 169.
+
+  Alarmed travellers, ii. 9, ii. 55.
+
+  Albaicin at Granada, ii. 244;
+    courtyard in, ii. 246;
+    fortune-telling, ii. 253;
+    government of, ii. 255;
+    ignorance in, ii. 256;
+    Parisian quarter, ii. 245;
+    squalor of, ii. 251.
+
+  Albornoz, Gil Carillo de, tomb of, Toledo, ii. 29.
+
+  Alcaiceria, Granada, ii. 241.
+
+  Alcala street, Madrid, 156, 168.
+
+  Alcanadre, Roman aqueduct at, 91.
+
+  Alcantara, bridge of, Toledo, ii. 18.
+
+  Alcazar de San Juan, ii. 259;
+    of Seville, ii. 120;
+    of Toledo, ii. 39.
+
+  Alcayde of Saragossa's bold republicanism, 83.
+
+  Aleardi Gaetano, on the can-can, 171.
+
+  Alfonso and the Cid, 121.
+
+  Alfonso the Wise, MSS. of, ii. 118;
+    tomb of, ii. 109.
+
+  Alfonso VIII. defeats the Moors at las Navas de Tolosa, ii. 61.
+
+  Alfonso XII., favored by the Moderate party, 96.
+
+  Algaba, ii. 118.
+
+  Algeciras, Gulf of, ii. 168.
+
+  Alhambra, arabesques, ii. 197, 208, ii. 210, ii. 211;
+    baths, ii. 211;
+    cabinet of Linderaja, ii. 209;
+    Charles V.'s palace, ii. 192;
+    Court of Lions, ii. 201;
+    Court of Myrtles, ii. 194;
+    fascination of, ii. 205;
+    Gate of Justice, ii. 192;
+    grounds of ii. 190;
+    Hall of Abencerrages, ii. 209;
+    Hall of Barca, ii. 197;
+    Hall of Divans, ii. 210;
+    Hall of Justice, ii. 206;
+    Hall of Oranges, ii. 209;
+    Hall of the Ambassadors, ii. 198;
+    Hall of the Two Sisters, ii. 207;
+    Mirador de la Reina, ii. 212, ii, 215;
+    mosque, ii. 216;
+    paintings in, ii. 207;
+    Patio de la Reja, ii. 212;
+    realization of a dream, ii. 200;
+    situation of, ii. 190;
+    Tower of Commares, ii. 196;
+    Tower of the Ambassadors, ii. 196;
+    vastness of the, ii. 217;
+    view from, ii. 213.
+
+  Ali Pacha, relics of, 176.
+
+  Almago, Melchiorre, republican journalist, ii. 243.
+
+  Almansa, plain of, ii. 260.
+
+  Almansur builds Zahira, ii. 89.
+
+  Almodovar, castle of, ii. 99.
+
+  Altimura, Count d', possesses the fiscal accounts of Gonzalez di
+    Cordova, ii. 237.
+
+  Alvarez, Gen., house of, at Gerona, 16.
+
+  Amadeus at Gerona, 16;
+    at Logroño, 85;
+    at Madrid, 166, 194;
+    at Saragossa, 82;
+    at the bull-fights, 213;
+    at Valencia, ii. 262;
+    character of, 201;
+    courage of, 199;
+    court-life of, 194;
+    encourages bull-fights, 223, 235;
+    hostility of the newspapers to, 93, 200;
+    hostility of the soldiery to, 204;
+    prejudice against, 15, 33, 80.
+
+  Ambassadors, Hall of the, Alhambra, ii. 198;
+    at Seville, ii. 124;
+    Tower of the, Alhambra, ii. 196.
+
+  Amusements, 168.
+
+  Andalusian characteristics, 36;
+    dialect, ii. 93;
+    scenery, ii. 61, 100, ii. 177;
+    women, ii. 79, ii. 93, ii. 126.
+
+  Angels, convent of, Granada, ii. 238.
+
+  Ansurez, Pedro, tomb of, 137.
+
+  Aosta, duke d'. See Amadeus.
+
+  Aqueduct, Roman, at Segovia, 124.
+
+  Arabesques in the Alhambra, beauty of, ii. 197;
+    intricacy of design, ii. 197, ii. 208, ii. 210, ii. 211.
+
+  Aranjuez, arrival at, ii. 10;
+    gardens, ii. 12;
+    historic associations, ii. 11;
+    royal palace, ii. 11;
+    suburbs of, ii. 10.
+
+  Argamasilla de Alba, birthplace of Don Quixote, ii. 58.
+
+  Argensola, the brothers, 72;
+    sonnet by, 73.
+
+  Arjonilla, ii. 62.
+
+  Armory, royal, at Madrid, 174.
+
+  Arragon, decay of, 52;
+    dialect of, 54;
+    independence of, 49;
+    mountains of, 48.
+
+  Artillery museum at Madrid, 180.
+
+  Asturia, prince of, title instituted, 98.
+
+  Atocha, Church of Our Lady of, Madrid, 166, 204;
+    street of, Madrid, 174.
+
+  Avilo, 124.
+
+  "Awaiting her in heaven," ii. 227.
+
+  Ayala, d', dramatist, 169.
+
+
+  B.
+
+  Banderillas, de fuego, 226.
+
+  Barber of Seville, house of the, ii. 132.
+
+  Barcelona, arrival at, 20;
+    cafés, 30;
+    carnival masqueraders, 22;
+    Catalonian peculiarities, 35;
+    cathedral, 24;
+    cemetery, 27;
+    Cervantes on, 42;
+    circus, 235;
+    dialect, 21;
+    foreign hotel waiters, 20;
+    palaces, 26;
+    revolutionary proclivities, 35;
+    Roman ruins, 26;
+    streets, 22;
+    suburbs, 22;
+    theatre, 40;
+    women of, 41.
+
+  Baretti, Giuseppe, 206; ii. 82.
+
+  Barili, Anton Giulio, travelling companion, 10.
+
+  Batista, Juan, architect of the Escurial, 260.
+
+  Beatrice, Queen, tomb of, ii. 109.
+
+  Beggary, modest, 135.
+
+  Berruguete, Alonzo, carvings by, at Toledo, ii. 25;
+    at Valladolid, 146.
+
+  Berseo, poet, 283.
+
+  Blanca, Florida, tomb of, Seville, ii. 109.
+
+  Boabdil's helmet, 176.
+
+  Boccanegra, paintings by, at Granada, ii. 229.
+
+  Bohl, Catherine de Faber ("Fernan Caballero"), 281;
+    ascetic character of, ii. 140;
+    charity of, ii. 141;
+    genius of, ii. 139;
+    history of, ii. 140.
+
+  Boldan, painting by, at Seville, ii. 109.
+
+  Bollo, a delicious cake, 31.
+
+  Boscan, Juan, poet, influence on Spanish literature, 37.
+
+  Bosch, Jacob van den, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Bourse, the, at Saragossa, 74;
+    at Valencia, ii. 266.
+
+  Brazil, Dom Pedro, emperor of, arrives at Burgos, 123.
+
+  Breton de los Herreres, Manuel, dramatist, 169, 281.
+
+  Breughel, Jan, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Bridge of Alcantara, Toledo, ii. 18.
+
+  Briviesca, States-general, 98.
+
+  Brujola, mountain of, 98.
+
+  Buen Retiro garden at Madrid, 166, 174.
+
+  Bull-fights at Madrid, 206;
+    accidents, 225;
+    anticipations of, 207;
+    arena, the, 203;
+    attendance, 208;
+    banderillas, de fuego, 226;
+    banderilleros, 214, 219, 220;
+    brutality of, 227, 229;
+    capeadors, 214, 217, 219, 220;
+    chulos or apprentices, 214, 216, 217;
+    dangers of, 229;
+    death of the bull, 222, 228;
+    disgusting spectacle, 218;
+    entrance of the cuadrilla, 214;
+    entrance of the bull, 215;
+    espadas, 221;
+    excitement of audience, 215, 224;
+    exits, the, 232;
+    fights in the audience, 230;
+    final impressions, 231;
+    getting into position, 215;
+    history of, 234;
+    Homeric struggle, 221;
+    national amusement, the, 235;
+    picadores, 214, 216, 218;
+    picturesque scene, 214;
+    sale of tickets, 207;
+    torturing the bulls into fighting, 226;
+    trophies of victory, 223;
+    with other wild animals, 239.
+
+  Bull-fighters, amateur, 237;
+    artistic gradations, 241;
+    dress, 240;
+    female toreros, 238;
+    lucrative business, 241.
+
+  Burgos, arrival at, 98;
+    birthplace of the Cid, 119;
+    cathedral, 104;
+    Cid's coffer, 112;
+    gate of St. Maria, 104;
+    houses, 101;
+    municipal palace, 103;
+    "remains of the Cid," 103;
+    seats of the first judges, 103;
+    "The Christ," 111;
+    streets, 101;
+    tobacco-shops, 118;
+    undertaker's shop, 117;
+    women hotel servants, 99.
+
+  Byron, Lord, writing of, at the Alhambra, ii. 216.
+
+
+  C.
+
+  Caballero, Fernan. See Bohl, Catherine.
+
+  Cadiz, arrival at, ii. 158;
+    astronomical facilities, ii. 163;
+    bird's-eye view, ii. 162;
+    cathedral, ii. 163;
+    circus, 235;
+    commercial decay, ii. 161;
+    historical remains, ii. 161;
+    houses, ii. 160;
+    Murillo's last painting, ii. 163;
+    revolutionary tendencies, ii. 160;
+    streets, ii. 160;
+    whiteness, ii. 158;
+    women, ii. 164.
+
+  Cafés: Barcelona, 30;
+    Madrid, 173;
+    Miranda, 95.
+
+  Calahorra, battle of, 91.
+
+  Calderon de la Barca, Pedro, poet, 169;
+    ii. 93.
+
+  Calderon, Francesco, the matador, 207;
+    patronizes cock-fights, 249, 250.
+
+  Campana, Pedro, paintings by, at Seville, ii. 109.
+
+  Can-can at Madrid, 171.
+
+  Candan, political leader, 96.
+
+  Cano, Alonzo, character of, ii. 231;
+    hatred of Jews, ii. 231;
+    history of, ii. 230;
+    paintings by, at Granada, ii. 230, ii. 235;
+    at Madrid, 182, 193;
+    at Seville, ii. 132.
+
+  Canovas del Castillo, political leader, 96.
+
+  Canovist party, 96.
+
+  Carbajal, Bernardino, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 193.
+
+  Cardenas, paintings by, at Valladolid, 143.
+
+  Cardenio's penance, scene of, ii. 60.
+
+  Carducci, Vincenzo, paintings by, at Madrid, 182;
+    at Valladolid, 143.
+
+  Carlists, 32, 33, 96, 194.
+
+  Carlos I., Don, tomb of, 266.
+
+  Carlos II., Don, tomb of, 266.
+
+  Carlos III., Don, tomb of, 266.
+
+  Carnival masqueraders at Barcelona, 22;
+    at Saragossa, 65, 68.
+
+  Cartuja convent, Granada, ii. 245.
+
+  Castaños, Gen. Francisco Xavier, defeated at Tudela, 91.
+
+  Castelar, Emilio, as an orator, 279;
+    as a political leader, 80, 96;
+    eloquence, 276;
+    friendship, 291;
+    on Arragon, 50;
+    personal popularity, 277;
+    ruler of the Assembly, 279.
+
+  Castilian dialect, 39, 55;
+    scenery, 124.
+
+  Castillego, ii. 55.
+
+  Castles: Almodovar, ii. 99;
+    Hornachuelos, ii. 99;
+    Monzon, 51;
+    Pancorbo, 98;
+    San Servando, ii. 41.
+
+  Catalan characteristics, 35;
+    dialect, 15, 39;
+    dress, 18;
+    hospitality, 148;
+    school-boys, 46.
+
+  Catalonia, description of, 18, 48.
+
+  Cathedrals: Barcelona, 24;
+    Burgos, 104;
+    Cadiz, ii. 163;
+    Cordova, ii. 74;
+    Granada, ii. 329;
+    Our Lady of the Pillar, Saragossa, 60;
+    San Salvador, Saragossa, 65;
+    Seville, ii. 108;
+    Toledo, ii. 23;
+    Valencia, ii. 266;
+    Valladolid, 136.
+
+  Cava, Los Baños de la, at Toledo, ii. 46.
+
+  Cayetano, the matador, 214, 240.
+
+  Cellini, Benvenuto, crucifix by, at the Escurial, 263.
+
+  Cemetery, Barcelona, 27.
+
+  Cervantes, Saavedra Miguel de, at Seville, ii. 103;
+    house at Valladolid, 137;
+    imprisoned at Argamasilla de Alba, ii. 58;
+    naturalness of Don Quixote, ii. 57;
+    on Barcelona, 42;
+    popularity of, 286;
+    statue at Madrid, 156;
+    story of, 139.
+
+  Cervellon, Count di, entertains Amadeus at Valencia, ii. 262.
+
+  Cervera, 48.
+
+  Ceuta, ii. 168.
+
+  Cespedes, Pablo de, born at Cordova, ii. 90;
+    paintings by, at Seville, ii. 132;
+    quotation from, ii. 90.
+
+  Charlemagne and the Moor, ii. 43.
+
+  Charles I. (afterward Emperor Charles V. of Germany), altar at
+    the Escurial, 272;
+    anger at the destruction of mosque of Cordova, ii. 74;
+    apartments at Aranjuez, ii. 13;
+    a bull-fighter, 234;
+    converts mosque of the Alhambra into a chapel, ii. 216;
+    married in Alcazar of Seville, ii. 121;
+    monumental gate at Burgos, 104;
+    on the Spanish language, 160;
+    palace in the Alhambra, ii. 192;
+    relics of, 175, 176, ii. 112;
+    statue at the Escurial, 262;
+    tomb at the Escurial, 265, 267.
+
+  Charles II. encourages bull-fights, 234;
+    portrait at the Escurial, 264.
+
+  Charles III. forbids bull-fights, 235;
+    statue at Burgos, 102.
+
+  Charles IV.'s billiard-room in palace of Aranjuez, ii. 13;
+    resigns the crown, ii. 11.
+
+  Chateaubriaud, François Auguste, Viscount de, writing in the
+    Alhambra, ii. 216.
+
+  Chocolate, Spanish, 31.
+
+  Chorizos, 14, 162.
+
+  Christina abdicates the throne at Valencia, ii. 262;
+    promenade, Seville, ii. 104.
+
+  Chulos, 214.
+
+  Churches: Nuestra Señora, Toledo, ii. 50;
+    Our Lady of Atocha, Madrid, 166;
+    San Geronimo, Granada, ii. 235;
+    San Juan de los Reyes, Toledo, ii. 36;
+    Santiago, Saragossa, 74;
+    St. Agnes, Burgos, 121.
+
+  Cid Campeador, the, and King Alfonso, 121;
+    and the Jew, 120;
+    at Valencia, ii. 266;
+    birthplace, 120;
+    coffer, 112;
+    portrait of, 104;
+    remains, 103;
+    statue, 104;
+    sword, 176;
+    originator of bull-fights, 234.
+
+  Cigars and cigarettes, 118;
+    vs. pipes, 132.
+
+  Cimbrios party, 96.
+
+  Claude, Lorraine, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Clot, 19.
+
+  Cock-fighting at Madrid, 248;
+    arena, the, 249;
+    audience, 250;
+    disgusting spectacle, 256;
+    gambling on, 252, 254.
+
+  Coello, Claudio, paintings by, at Madrid, 193;
+    at the Escurial, 264.
+
+  Colantes as an orator, 276.
+
+  Collantes, Francisco, paintings by, at Madrid, 193.
+
+  College of San Gregorio, Valladolid, 135;
+    Santa Cruz, Valladolid, 443.
+
+  Columbian library at Seville, ii. 118.
+
+  Columbus, Christopher, annotations in books in library of
+    Seville, ii. 118;
+    armor of, 175;
+    portrait of, 178;
+    mementoes of, ii. 103.
+
+  Columbus, Ferdinand, history of, ii. 115;
+    library of, ii, 118;
+    note on his father's annotations, ii. 118;
+    tomb of, ii. 114.
+
+  Concerts at Madrid, 173.
+
+  Conde, Henry II. de Bourbon, prince de, sword of, 176.
+
+  Conservative party, 96.
+
+  Consuelo the beautiful, ii. 81.
+
+  Consul, seeking the protection of the, ii. 106.
+
+  Convents: Angels, Granada, ii. 235;
+    Cartuja, Granada, ii. 235;
+    of the Escurial, 268;
+    Santo Domingo, Granada, ii. 235;
+    San Pablo, Valladolid, 134.
+
+  Cook, Capt. James, cane of, 180.
+
+  Cookery, Spanish, 14, 160; ii. 223.
+
+  Cordova, arrival at, ii. 62;
+    at night, ii. 80;
+    cathedral, ii. 74;
+    Consuelo the beautiful, ii. 81;
+    departed glory, ii. 62;
+    impressions of, ii. 67;
+    mosque, ii. 68;
+    patio, a, ii. 65;
+    pearl of the Orient, ii. 66;
+    preaching the Holy War, ii. 75;
+    relics of the past, ii. 80;
+    streets of, ii. 64.
+
+  Cordova, General de, at Saragossa, 84.
+
+  Corregio, Antonio Allegri da, painting by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Cortes, the, 274;
+    deputies, 274;
+    oratorical displays, 275.
+
+  Cortez, Hernando, portrait of, 178;
+    sword of, 176.
+
+  Cosa, Juan de la, map by, at Madrid, 178.
+
+  Costumes of peasantry: Andalusian, ii. 100;
+    Catalan, 18;
+    Cordovan, ii. 58;
+    Granadan, ii. 189;
+    Madrid, 165;
+    Saragossan, 56;
+    Valencian, ii. 270.
+
+  Country houses, ii. 100.
+
+  Courts: Lions, Alhambra, ii. 201;
+    Myrtles, Alhambra, ii. 194;
+    Oranges, Seville, ii. 115.
+
+  Court-life under Amadeus, 198.
+
+  Courtesy inherent in the Spanish people, 53, 290.
+
+  Cuco the matador, 207; ii. 94.
+
+  Currency, Spanish, 118.
+
+  Custejon, 92.
+
+  Customs officials, 14, 95.
+
+  Cybele, fountain of, at Madrid, 166.
+
+
+  D.
+
+  "Daggers," ii. 55.
+
+  Daguet, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  "Dance de los seises," ii. 112.
+
+  Darro, the, ii. 213.
+
+  Democratic party, 96.
+
+  Democratic Progressionist party, 96, 97.
+
+  Deronda, Francisco Romero, the torero, 235.
+
+  Dialects: Andalusian, ii. 93;
+    Arragonese, 55;
+    Barcelonian, 20;
+    Castilian, 55;
+    Catalan, 15, 39;
+    Madrid, 158;
+    Perpignan, 12;
+    Valencian, ii. 275;
+    Valladolid, 132.
+
+  Dinadamar, hill of, ii. 240.
+
+  Discoveries, cabinet of, Naval Museum, Madrid, 177.
+
+  Djihad, or Holy War, ii. 76.
+
+  Domenichino, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Dominoes, popularity of game of, 31.
+
+  Don Quixote on Barcelona, 42;
+    popularity of, 286;
+    true to life, ii. 57.
+
+  Door-keys in Madrid, 171.
+
+  Drama, 169.
+
+  Drunkenness rare in Spain, 162.
+
+  Dumas, Alexandre, on Spanish cookery, 160.
+
+  Dürer, Albert, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+
+  E.
+
+  Ebro, commerce on the, 51;
+    description of, 92.
+
+  Economist party, 96.
+
+  Education in Granada, ii. 242.
+
+  Egon ad Agoncilla, ruins of, 91.
+
+  Elpidius, bishop of Toledo, ii. 27.
+
+  Elvira Gate, Granada, ii. 240.
+
+  Escurial, the, arrival at, 258;
+    altar of Santa Forma, 264;
+    cell of Philip II., 261;
+    church, 262;
+    convent, 268;
+    courtyard, 261;
+    gardens, 272;
+    gloominess, 273;
+    history of, 260;
+    holy relics, 272;
+    horrible place, 267;
+    library, 268;
+    pantheon, 265;
+    picture-gallery, 268;
+    royal palace, 261;
+    sacristy, 264;
+    statues, 262;
+    tombs, 265;
+    view from, 153, 272;
+    village, 259.
+
+  Espadas, famous, 214;
+    dangerous life of, 230;
+    skill of, 221.
+
+  Espartero, Gen. Baldemero, addresses Amadeus, 85.
+
+  Esperondo la del Cielo, house of, ii. 227.
+
+  Esproncedo, Jose de, the Byron of Spain, 282;
+    popularity of, 287;
+    quotation from, 136.
+
+  Exaggeration, the national failing, 287.
+
+
+  F.
+
+  Fadrique, Don, blood of, ii. 122;
+    murdered by Don Pedro's orders, ii. 123.
+
+  Farcical revenge, a, 71.
+
+  Fatherly admonitions, 54.
+
+  Federalist party, 96, 97.
+
+  Ferdinand III. (the Saint) captures Seville, ii. 121;
+    relics of, ii. 110;
+    tomb of, 109.
+
+  Ferdinand V. (the Catholic), oratory in Alcazar of Seville, 124;
+    relics of, ii. 233;
+    tomb of, ii. 234.
+
+  Ferdinand VII. annuls the constitution, ii. 262;
+    encourages bull-fighting, 235;
+    tomb of, 266.
+
+  Ferrer, Vincenzo, in Seville cathedral, ii. 116.
+
+  Figueras, political leader, 80, 96.
+
+  First glimpses of Spain, 14.
+
+  Florinda, legend of, ii. 46.
+
+  Flor, Roger de, a typical Arragonese, 50.
+
+  Fomento picture-gallery, Madrid, 193.
+
+  Fortune-telling in the Albaicin, Granada, ii. 253.
+
+  Fountain of Cybele, Madrid, 166.
+
+  Fra Angelica, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Francis I., shield of, 176.
+
+  Frascuelo the matador, 207, 214, 221, 225, 240, 242; ii. 94;
+    interview with, 242.
+
+  Fricci in opera at Madrid, 168; ii. 152.
+
+  Fronterizos party, 96.
+
+  Fruit, Spanish, 162.
+
+  Fugitive wife, a, 69.
+
+  Funeral memorial ceremonies of the second of May, 243.
+
+
+  G.
+
+  Galafro, legend of King, ii. 43.
+
+  Galiana, palaces of, ii. 43.
+
+  Gallegos, Don Juan Nicasio, poet, 282.
+
+  Gamero, Antonio, historian of Toledo, ii. 48.
+
+  Garbanzos, 161.
+
+  Garcilaso de la Vega, poet, 37;
+    armor of, 176.
+
+  Gardens: Alcazar, Seville, ii. 125;
+    Aranjuez, ii. 12;
+    Buen Retiro, Madrid, 174;
+    Escurial, 271;
+    Montpensier, Seville, ii. 117.
+
+  Garrido, political leader, 96.
+
+  Gates: Elvira, Granada, ii. 240;
+    Justice, Alhambra, ii. 192;
+    Santa Maria, Burgos, 104.
+
+  Gayangos, Pascual y, the Orientalist, 281.
+
+  Geber, architect of the Giralda at Seville, ii. 116.
+
+  Generalife, Granada, ii. 213;
+    description of, ii. 225;
+    view from, ii. 226.
+
+  Genoa, 10.
+
+  Gerona, arrival at, 16;
+    Amadeus at, 16.
+
+  Gibraltar, rock of, ii. 168;
+    Straits of, ii. 167.
+
+  Giordano Luci, paintings by, at Madrid, 182;
+    frescoes by, at the Escurial, 262, 264, 268;
+    at Toledo, ii. 30.
+
+  Giralda of Seville, the, ii. 116;
+    first sight of, ii. 101;
+    view from, ii. 117.
+
+  Gitane of Seville, the, ii. 128.
+
+  Godoy, Alvarez de Faria Rios Sanches y Zarsoa, Prince of Peace, ii. 11.
+
+  Golden Tower, Seville, ii. 103.
+
+  Gongora y Argote, Luis, poet, 129;
+    birthplace at Cordova, ii. 92.
+
+  Gongora, Señor, ii. 187, _et seq._
+
+  Gonzales, Ferdinand (first Count of Castile), monument to, 119;
+    portrait of, 104;
+    statue of, 104;
+    sword of, 176;
+    tomb of, 114.
+
+  Gonzalez, Fernandez y, novelist, 282.
+
+  Gonzalez di Cordova, anecdote of, ii. 235;
+    tomb, ii. 235.
+
+  Goya, Francisco, criticism on, 185;
+    love of bull-fights, 184;
+    paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183;
+    sanguinary genius, a, 184;
+    tapestries by, in the Escurial, 261.
+
+  Granada, Alameda, ii. 188;
+    Albaicin, ii. 244;
+    Alcaiceria, ii. 241;
+    Alhambra, ii. 190;
+    arrival at, ii. 186;
+    Audiencia square, ii. 244;
+    birthplace of famous men, ii. 243;
+    Cartuja, ii. 235;
+    cathedral, ii. 229;
+    church of San Geronimo, ii. 235;
+    convent of Santa Domingo, ii. 235;
+    convent of The Angels, ii. 235;
+    education, ii. 242;
+    Generalife, ii. 213, ii. 225;
+    markets, ii. 241;
+    Monte Sacro, ii. 235;
+    royal chapel, ii. 232;
+    ruins, ii. 240;
+    streets, ii. 187, ii. 190, ii. 241;
+    Vega, ii. 260.
+
+  Granada, Fray Louis de, ii. 243.
+
+  Granallers, 19.
+
+  Gravina, Admiral Frederick de, relics of, 179.
+
+  Guadaira, ill-fated steamer, ii. 146.
+
+  Guadalquivir, the, ii. 59, ii. 60, ii. 101; ii. 118, ii. 150.
+
+  Guadiana, valley of the, ii. 59.
+
+  Guerra, Fernandez, archæologist, 281, 291; ii. 187.
+
+  Guides, Spanish, persistency of, ii. 26.
+
+  Guido, Reni, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Guest-houses, 157.
+
+  Gutierrez, Antonio Garcia, dramatist, 169.
+
+
+  H.
+
+  Halls: Abencerrages, Alhambra, ii. 209;
+    Ambassadors, Alhambra, ii. 198;
+    Barca, Alhambra, ii. 197;
+    Divans, Alhambra, ii. 210;
+    Justice, Alhambra, ii. 206;
+    Oranges, Alhambra, ii. 209;
+    Two Sisters, Alhambra, ii. 207.
+
+
+  Hartzenbusch, Juan Eugenio, dramatist, 169, 281, 291.
+
+  Heat, intense, ii. 260.
+
+  Henry II. (de Transtamare), defeated by Pedro the Cruel, 91;
+    tomb of, ii. 29
+
+  Henry III. and Papa Moscas, 113;
+    tomb of, ii. 29.
+
+  Hernandez, sculptures by, at Valladolid, 146.
+
+  Herrera, Francisco, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 193;
+    at Seville, ii. 109, ii. 132;
+    at the Escurial, 263.
+
+  Herrera, Juan de, architect of palace of Aranjuez, ii. 11;
+    of the Escurial, 260.
+
+  Historical Progressionist party, 96.
+
+  Holy Cross, relics of the, 272.
+
+  "Honor of Spain," 290.
+
+  Hornachuelos, castle of, ii. 99.
+
+  Hospitality, Catalan, 148.
+
+  Hospital of Santa Cruz, Toledo, ii. 44.
+
+  Hotel porters at Barcelona, 20;
+    women as, 99.
+
+  Huerva river, at Saragossa, 77.
+
+  Hugo Victor's Mirabeau, ii. 107;
+    at the Alhambra, ii. 216.
+
+
+  I.
+
+  "Il Trovatore," quotation from, ii. 153.
+
+  Inquisition, palaces of; at Barcelona, 26;
+    at Valladolid, 146.
+
+  International Socialist party, 96.
+
+  Isabella the Catholic opposed to bull-fights, 234;
+    oratory in the Alcazar of Seville, ii. 124;
+    relics of, ii. 233;
+    sword of, 176;
+    tomb of, ii. 234.
+
+  Isabella II. at Madrid, 197;
+    at Valencia, ii. 262;
+    dressing-chamber at Aranjuez, ii. 12;
+    encourages bull-fighting, 235;
+    favored by the Moderate party, 96.
+
+  Isabella, Empress, statue of, 262.
+
+  Italian, the language of opera, 171.
+
+  Italians, prejudice against, 34, 138.
+
+  Italica, ruins of, ii. 101.
+
+
+  Italy and Spain, compared, ii. 220.
+
+  Itimad, a dream of, ii. 125.
+
+
+  J.
+
+  Jerez, circus at, 235.
+
+  Joanes, Juan de, criticism on, 192;
+    paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.
+
+  Joanna the Mad, tomb of, ii. 234.
+
+  John, Don, of Austria, 25.
+
+  John I. of Castile and the States-General, 98.
+
+  John II. of Austria, heart of, 63;
+    sword of, 176.
+
+  John II., admiration of de Mena's "Labyrinth," ii. 92;
+    tomb of, ii. 29.
+
+  John Frederick, duke of Saxony, armor of, 176.
+
+  Jordaens, Jacob, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Juegos floreales, ii. 172.
+
+  Julian, Count, revenge of, ii. 46.
+
+  Juni, Juan de, sculptures by, at Valladolid, 146.
+
+
+  K.
+
+  Knives, ii. 135.
+
+
+  L.
+
+  La Costa, Gen., killed at Saragossa, 59.
+
+  La Cruz, Ramon de, dramatist, 170.
+
+  Lagartijo the matador, 214, 240, 241; ii. 94.
+
+  La Harpe, Jean François, on the Apollo Belvidere, ii. 272.
+
+  Lainus Calvo, judge of Castile, 103.
+
+  La Mancha, ii. 56, ii. 260.
+
+  Language, Italian, in opera, 171;
+    Spanish, allied to the Italian, 159;
+    pronunciation of, 159.
+    See also Dialect.
+
+  Lauria, Roger de, 50.
+
+  Leon, Louis de, 54;
+    born in Granada, ii. 243.
+
+  Leonardo, Lupercio, sonnet to, 73.
+
+  Leopardi Giacomo, Count, 283;
+  ii. 9;
+    in Seville cathedral, ii. 111;
+    on Spanish pride, 284.
+
+  Lepanto, relics of battle of, 25, 174, 176.
+
+  Lerida, 48.
+
+  Light-fingered gentry, 98.
+
+  Literature, discouragements of, 282;
+    dramatic, 283;
+    national pride in, 287;
+    present state of, 280;
+    contests of genius at Cordova, ii. 94.
+
+  Logroño, Amadeus at, 85;
+    Moorish ruins at, 91.
+
+  Loneliness of travel, ii. 47, ii. 67, ii. 105.
+
+  Lope de Vega's criticism of Gongorist poets, ii. 93;
+    houses at Madrid, 156;
+    popularity, ii. 9.
+
+  Lorraine. See Claude Lorraine.
+
+  Louis I., tomb of, 266.
+
+  Love, travelling for, 13.
+
+  Loyola, Ignatius, at Montserrat, 46.
+
+  Luna, Don Alvaro de, tomb of, ii. 29.
+
+  Lunatic asylum, Toledo, ii. 51.
+
+
+  M.
+
+  Madrazo, Federico de, paintings by, at Madrid, 183.
+
+  Madrid, academy of San Fernando, 193;
+    amusements, 168;
+    armory, 174;
+    arrival at, 154;
+    Buen Retiro garden, 174;
+    bull-fights, 206;
+    cafés, 173;
+    church of Our Lady of Atocha, 166;
+    Fomento art-gallery, 193;
+    guest-houses, 157;
+    language, 157;
+    markets, 174;
+    museum of artillery, 180;
+    museum of fine arts, 181;
+    naval museum, 177;
+    opera, 168;
+    Prado, 166;
+    Puerta del Sol, 155;
+    Recoletos promenade, 167;
+    royal palace, 154;
+    serenos, 172;
+    streets, 156, 163;
+    suburbs, 173.
+
+  Maksura of mosque of Cordova, ii. 69.
+
+  Malaga, ii. 170;
+    literary academy, ii. 171;
+    poetical contests, ii. 172;
+    popular characteristics, ii. 173;
+    streets, ii. 170;
+    wine of, ii. 172.
+
+  Manners of the Spaniards, 290.
+
+
+  Manzoni, Alessandro, 189.
+
+  Margall, Pi y, political leader, 96;
+    oratory of, 276.
+
+  Maria, granddaughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, tomb of, ii. 234.
+
+  Maria Louisa of Savoy, tomb of, 266.
+
+  Marini, Giambattista, influence on Italian poetry, ii. 92.
+
+  Markets: Granada, ii. 241;
+    Madrid, 174;
+    Valencia, ii. 269;
+    Valladolid, 132.
+
+  Marseilles, 11.
+
+  Martina the torera, 238.
+
+  Martinez de la Rosa, Francisco, 282, ii. 243;
+    exiled in London, 65;
+    quotation from, ii. 185.
+
+  Martos, political leader, 96;
+    oratory of, 226.
+
+  Mascagni, Donato, paintings by, at Valladolid, 143.
+
+  Masked balls, 86.
+
+  May, second of, funeral memorial ceremonies, 243;
+    monument to, 247.
+
+  Medina Az-Zahra, ii. 88.
+
+  Medina-Coeli, family, owners of the Casa de Pilato, ii. 136.
+
+  Mena, Juan de, "Labyrinth," ii. 92;
+    popularity of, 287;
+    street of, ii. 92.
+
+  Menendez, paintings by, at Madrid, 193.
+
+  Mengs, Anton Rafael, paintings by, at Madrid, 183.
+
+  Menjibar, ii. 259.
+
+  Merced, marquis de, 207.
+
+  Merriones, Gen., victories over Carlists, 288.
+
+  Michelangelo, Buonarroti, Cespedes's tribute to, ii. 90;
+    paintings by, at Burgos, 109;
+    at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Mihrab of mosque of Cordova, ii. 72.
+
+  Military Museum of London possesses Gonzalez di Cordova's fiscal
+    accounts, ii. 237.
+
+  Militia system, 202.
+
+  Mirabeau, Victor Hugo's description of, ii. 107.
+
+  Miranda, 94.
+
+  Moderate party, 96, 97.
+
+  Monastery of Montserrat, 46.
+
+
+  Monegro, Battista, statue by, 262.
+
+  Montegna, paintings by, at Seville, ii. 109.
+
+  Montpensier gardens, Seville, ii. 117, ii. 127;
+    palace, ii. 104.
+
+  Montpensier, duke of, at Madrid, 197;
+    party, 96, 97.
+
+  Montserrat, description of, 45;
+    excursion to, 46;
+    monastery of, 46.
+
+  Monzon, 50;
+    castle, 51.
+
+  Moorish art, ii. 207;
+    ruins, ii. 240.
+
+  Morales, Ambrosio, born in Cordova, ii. 90.
+
+  Moret, political leader, 96.
+
+  Moreto, Don Augustin, dramatist, 169.
+
+  Mosque of Cordova, ii. 68;
+    of the Alhambra, ii. 216.
+
+  Mozarabe chapel, Toledo, ii. 29.
+
+  Mulato, paintings by, at Seville, ii. 109, ii. 132.
+
+  Murat, Joachim, 50.
+
+  Murillo, Bartolomé Esteban, a painter of saints and virgins, 191;
+    death of, ii. 163;
+    estimate of his genius, 192;
+    last painting, ii. 163;
+    mementoes of, ii. 103;
+    painting by, at Granada, ii. 235;
+    at Madrid, 182, 183;
+    at Seville, ii. 109, ii. 129;
+    statue at Madrid, 156, 292.
+
+
+  N.
+
+  Naples, king of, demands an accounting from Gonzalez di Cordova, ii. 235.
+
+  Navagero, Andrea, influences poetry of Boscan, 37.
+
+  Navajas, ii. 136.
+
+  Navarrete, battle of, 91.
+
+  Navarrete, Juan Fernandez (El Mudo), paintings by, at Madrid, 193;
+    at the Escurial, 263.
+
+  News from Spain, 10.
+
+  Newspapers hostile to Amadeus, 93, 200.
+
+  Nun, the flirting, 53.
+
+  Nunes, Duke Ferdinand, at the bull-fight, 209.
+
+  Night journey to Aranjuez, ii. 9;
+    to Barcelona, 13;
+    to Burgos, 97;
+    to Cadiz, ii. 149;
+    to Cordova, ii. 55;
+    to Granada, ii. 181.
+
+
+
+  O.
+
+  O'Campo, Florian d', at Toledo, ii. 90.
+
+  O'Donnell, Gen. Leopold, Spanish estimate of, 288.
+
+  Olesa de Montserrat, 47.
+
+  Olivares, Duke de, portrait of, by Velasquez, 183, 188;
+    sword of, 176.
+
+  Opera at Madrid, 168.
+
+  Oranges, Court of, Cordova, ii. 69;
+    Court of Seville, ii. 15;
+    Hall of, Alhambra, ii. 207.
+
+  Our Lady of Atocha, church of, at Madrid, 166;
+    of the Pillar, Saragossa, 60.
+
+
+  P.
+
+  Pacheco, Francisco, paintings by, at Madrid, 193;
+    at Seville, ii. 132.
+
+  Padilla, Lopez de, assists in the murder of Don Fadrique, ii. 123.
+
+  Padilla, Maria de, apartments of, in the Alcazar of
+    Seville, ii. 124, 145;
+    mementoes of, ii. 102.
+
+  Painting, museums: Escurial, 268;
+    Fomento, Madrid, 193;
+    Madrid, 181;
+    Seville, ii. 129;
+    Toledo, ii. 37;
+    Valencia, ii. 260;
+    Valladolid, 143.
+
+  Palaces: Audiencia, Valencia, ii. 266;
+    Burgos, 102;
+    Charles V., Granada, ii. 192;
+    Consistorial, Barcelona, 26;
+    Deputation, Barcelona, 26;
+    Galiana, 43;
+    Inquisition, Barcelona, 26;
+    Inquisition, Valladolid, 146;
+    Royal, Aranjuez, ii. 11;
+    Royal, Escurial, 261;
+    Royal, Madrid, 154;
+    Royal, Valladolid, 133.
+
+  Palafox, José, at Saragossa, 77.
+
+  Palma, ii. 99.
+
+  Pancorbo, 98;
+    castle destroyed, 98.
+
+  Paolo Veronese, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.
+
+  Papal question, the, 12, 34, 138.
+
+  Papa Moscas, legend of, 113.
+
+  Pareja, Juan de, paintings by, at Cordova, ii. 58;
+    at Madrid, 193.
+
+  Party spirit, 96, 289, ii. 60.
+
+  Patio, described, ii. 65;
+    at Seville,
+  ii. 163;
+    de la Reja, Alhambra, ii. 212;
+    de los Arrayanes, Alhambra, ii. 194.
+
+  Patriotism vs. common sense, ii. 222.
+
+  Peasantry: Andalusian, ii. 100;
+    Catalan, 18;
+    Cordovan, ii. 58;
+    of Madrid, 165;
+    Saragossan, 56.
+
+  Pedro Abad, ii. 62.
+
+  Pedro the Cruel, apartments of, in the Alcazar of Seville, ii. 124;
+    defeats Henry of Transtamare, 91;
+    mementoes of, ii. 103;
+    murders Don Fadrique, ii. 122;
+    restores the Alcazar of Seville, ii. 120;
+    treasure-house, ii. 103.
+
+  Perpignan dialect, 12.
+
+  Pescara, Marquis de, armor of, 176.
+
+  Philibert, Emmanuel, armor of, 175, 176.
+
+  Philip I., tomb of, ii. 231.
+
+  Philip II., armor of, 175, 176;
+    birthplace at Valladolid, 134;
+    books in the library of the Escurial, 268;
+    builds palace of Aranjuez, ii. 11, ii. 13;
+    builds the Escurial, 260;
+    cell of, 261;
+    his personality pervades the Escurial, 271;
+    statue of, 262;
+    sword of, 176;
+    tomb of, 265, 266.
+
+  Philip III. encourages bull-fights, 234;
+    tomb of, 265, 266.
+
+  Philip IV., a royal bull-fighter, 235;
+    statue of, 156;
+    tomb of, 265, 266.
+
+  Philip V. encourages bull-fights, 235;
+    his garden of St. Ildefonso, 124.
+
+  Philip of Bourgoyne, carvings by, at Burgos, 111;
+    at Toledo, ii. 25.
+
+  Piedmontese waiters in hotel at Barcelona, 20.
+
+  Pilate's house, Seville, ii. 136.
+
+  Pillar, church of Our Lady of the, Saragossa, 60.
+
+  Pius V. presents holy relics to Ribera, ii. 137.
+
+  Pizarro, Francisco, as a bull-fighter, 234;
+    portrait of, 178;
+    sword of, 176.
+
+
+  Plazas: Alameda, Granada, ii. 188, ii. 241;
+    Campo Grande, Valladolid, 131;
+    Constitution, Saragossa, 74;
+    Cortez, Madrid, 156;
+    Mayor, Burgos, 123;
+    Mayor, Madrid, 156;
+    Mayor, Valladolid, 131;
+    Orient, Madrid, 156;
+    Puerto del Sol, Madrid, 155;
+    San Pablo, Valladolid, 133.
+
+  Poetical contests, ii. 171;
+    rivalry, 38.
+
+  Politeness, Spanish, 52.
+
+  Political leaders, 96.
+
+  Politics, absorbing interest in, 15, 32, 95, 147;
+    partisanship in, 289; ii. 267.
+
+  Pompey defeated by Sertorius at Calahorra, 91.
+
+  Poussin, Nicolas, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Prado, Madrid, 166.
+
+  Praga, Emile, on Nature, ii. 259.
+
+  Prati, Giovanni, quotation from, ii. 269.
+
+  Pride, national, characteristic of the Spanish, 284.
+
+  Priests, friendly, 46, 54.
+
+  Prim, Gen. Juan, assassination of, at Madrid, 156, 166;
+    high estimation of, 288.
+
+  Puchero, the national dish, 161.
+
+  Puerto del Sol, at Madrid, 155, 163;
+    at Toledo, ii. 18.
+
+  Puerto Real, ii. 162.
+
+  Puerto de Santa Maria, ii. 162;
+    circus at, 238.
+
+  Pyrenees, the, 48, 92;
+    crossing the, 13.
+
+
+  Q.
+
+  Quintana, Manuel José, poet of the Revolution, 282, 291.
+
+  Quevedo, Francisco Gomez, on Valladolid, 129.
+
+
+  R.
+
+  Radical party, 96.
+
+  Railway travel, 52; ii. 55; ii. 175.
+
+  Raphael, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.
+
+  Rasura, Nunnius, judge of Castile, 103.
+
+  Recoletos promenade at Madrid, 167.
+
+
+  Rembrandt von, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Republican opinions, 15, 16, 32, 80;
+    of the soldiers, 205;
+    party, 96, 97.
+
+  Restaurants, Cordova, ii. 81.
+
+  Revenge, a farcical, 71.
+
+  Ribera, Enriquez de, builds the Casa de Pilato, ii. 136.
+
+  Ribera, José, criticism of his genius, 186;
+    a lover of the horrible, 188;
+    paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183;
+    at the Escurial, 264.
+
+  Ribera, Pedro Afan de, viceroy of Naples, ii. 137.
+
+  Ribero, political leader, 96.
+
+  Ricanati, quotation from, ii. 14.
+
+  Rinconado, ii. 101.
+
+  Rios, Amador de los, critic, 281.
+
+  Rivas, Duke de, 282.
+
+  Rizzi, Francisco, paintings by, at Madrid, 193.
+
+  Roa, Ferdinand de, kills Don Fadrique, ii. 123.
+
+  Roderic and the enchanted tower, ii. 45;
+    and Florinda, ii. 46.
+
+  Roelas, Juan de las, paintings by, at Seville, ii. 109.
+
+  Rojas, Francisco de, 169;
+    native of Toledo, ii. 49
+
+  Rodriguez as an orator, 276, 291;
+    political leader, 96.
+
+  Roman aqueduct at Alcanadre, 91;
+    at Segovia, 124;
+    ruins at Barcelona, 26.
+
+  Ros de Olano invents the soldier cap, 24.
+
+  Rosas, Rios y, political leader, 96;
+    oratory of, 276.
+
+  Resell, Gen., at Saragossa, 84.
+
+  Rubens, Peter Paul, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183;
+    at Valladolid, 144.
+
+  Ruins of Alcanadre, 91;
+    Egon ad Agoncilla, 91;
+    Logroño, 91.
+
+  Ruiz Garcia, political leader, 96.
+
+
+  S.
+
+  Saavedra, Señor, 291, 292.
+
+  Sagasta, Praxedes Mateo, political leader, 79, 96, 97;
+    a modern Cardenio, ii. 60.
+
+  St. Agnes, church of, Burgos, 121.
+
+
+  St. Andrea de Palomar, 19.
+
+  St. Anthony of Padua, Murillo's, ii. 129.
+
+  St. Eugenia, tomb of, ii. 29.
+
+  St. Eulalia, tomb of, 28.
+
+  St. Ferdinand, chapel of, Seville, ii. 109.
+
+  St. George Chapel, Barcelona, 26.
+
+  St. Ildefonso, garden of Philip V., 124.
+
+  St. Isadore, memorial ceremony at church of, 244.
+
+  St. James, the first bishop of Toledo, ii. 23;
+    and the Virgin Mary, 61.
+
+  St. Lawrence, Philip II.'s vow to, 260;
+    relic of, 272.
+
+  St. Leucadia, tomb of, ii. 29.
+
+  St. Theresa, birthplace of, 124;
+    inkhorn of, 272;
+    mementoes of, ii. 103.
+
+  Salamanca, a suburb of Madrid, 167, 208.
+
+  Salvator Rosa, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Salvini, Tommaso, as Samson, ii. 107.
+
+  San Fernando, Madrid, academy of, 193.
+
+  San Geronimo, church of, ii. 235.
+
+  San Ginés, church of, ii. 44.
+
+  San Gregorio, college of, 135.
+
+  San José, church of, Madrid, 204.
+
+  San Juan de los Reyes, church of, ii. 36.
+
+  San Pablo, convent of, 134.
+
+  San Quentin, Philip II.'s vow at battle of, 260;
+    relics of, 174.
+
+  San Salvador, Saragossa, 65.
+
+  San Servando, castle of, ii. 41.
+
+  Santa Cruz, hospital of, ii. 50.
+
+  Santa Cruz de Mudela, ii. 58.
+
+  Santa Cruz, Marquis of, armor of, 176.
+
+  Santa Domingo, convent of, ii. 235.
+
+  Santa Maria, gate of, Burgos, 104.
+
+  Santa Maria la Blanca, synagogue of, ii. 38.
+
+  Santi Ponce, ii. 118.
+
+  Saragossa, 56;
+    alcayde's bold
+  speech, 82;
+    Amadeus enters, 82;
+    arrival at, 55;
+    Bourse, 74;
+    carnival maskers, 65, 68;
+    cathedral of Our Lady of the Pillar, 60;
+    cathedral of San Salvador, 65;
+    church of Santiago, 74;
+    costume of peasantry, 56;
+    masked balls, 87;
+    new tower, 75;
+    siege of, 59, 77;
+    streets, 58;
+    suburbs, 91.
+
+  Sarto, Andrea del, paintings by, at Burgos, 109;
+    at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Schoen, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  School-boys, 46.
+
+  Shrack, Frederick, description of the Djihad, ii. 75.
+
+  Sea, beauty of the, ii. 157.
+
+  Sebastian of Portugal, a royal bull-fighter, 234.
+
+  Segovia, 124.
+
+  Segovia and Ardizone, Gonzalo, ii. 130, 132, 145;
+    sad fate of, ii. 146.
+
+  Seneca, born in Cordova, ii. 90.
+
+  Seo, Saragossa, 65.
+
+  Serenos, 172.
+
+  Serrano, Gen. Francesco, political leader, 96, 97;
+    reputation of, 288.
+
+  Sertorius defeats Pompey at Calahorra, 91.
+
+  Seville, Alcazar, ii. 120;
+    at night, ii. 106;
+    Barber of, ii. 132, 14;
+    cathedral, ii. 108;
+    Columbian library, ii. 118;
+    gaiety of, ii. 143;
+    gardens, ii. 125;
+    Giralda, ii. 101, ii. 116;
+    house of Pilate, ii. 136;
+    literary and artistic fame, ii. 139;
+    museum of painting, ii. 129;
+    Oriental character, ii. 102;
+    patios, ii. 133;
+    poetical character of, ii. 142;
+    streets, ii. 120;
+    Torre del Oro, ii. 103, 117;
+    tropical heat, ii. 120;
+    women of, ii. 126.
+
+  Sierra de Segura, ii. 61.
+
+  Sierra Morena, ii. 59, ii. 62, ii. 118, ii. 260.
+
+  Sierra Nevada, ii. 214, ii. 226.
+
+  Siestas necessary, ii. 79.
+
+  Socialist party, 96.
+
+  Soldiers, 23;
+    political feeling shown by, 204;
+    reviewed by Amadeus, 202.
+
+
+  Soria, 124.
+
+  Stagno in opera at Madrid, 168.
+
+  Streets of Barcelona, 22, 27;
+    Burgos, 101;
+    Cadiz, ii. 160;
+    Cordova, ii. 64;
+    Granada, ii. 187;
+    Madrid, 166;
+    Malaga, ii. 170;
+    Saragossa, 58;
+    Seville, ii. 102;
+    Toledo, ii. 17;
+    Valencia, ii. 265.
+
+  Studying for a degree, ii. 238.
+
+
+  T.
+
+  Tagus, the, at Aranjuez, ii. 12;
+    at Toledo, ii. 17.
+
+  Tamayo, dramatist, 169, 281, 291.
+
+  Tangiers, ii. 168.
+
+  Tarifa, Cape, ii. 167.
+
+  Tasso, Torquato, influence on Italian poetry, ii. 93.
+
+  Tato, the one-legged torero, ii. 262.
+
+  Teniers, David, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.
+
+  Theatres at Barcelona, 40;
+    at Madrid, 168;
+    and literature, 169, 282.
+
+  Tiepolo, Giovanni Battista, paintings by, at Madrid, 183.
+
+  Tintoretto, Giacomo, paintings by, at Madrid, 182;
+    at the Escurial, 264.
+
+  Tirso de Molina, dramatist, 169.
+
+  Titian, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.
+
+  Tobacco manufactories at Burgos, 118;
+    at Madrid, 173;
+    at Seville, ii. 127;
+    cigarettes vs. pipes, 132.
+
+  Toledo, Alcazar, ii. 39;
+    arrival at, ii. 17;
+    at night, ii. 47;
+    bridge of Alcantara, ii. 18;
+    cathedral, ii. 23;
+    church of San Juan de los Reyes, ii. 36;
+    church of San Ginés, ii. 44;
+    church of Nuestra Señora di Transito, ii. 50;
+    dead city, a, ii. 48;
+    historical, ii. 22;
+    hospital of Santa Cruz, ii. 50;
+    legends of, ii. 43;
+    lunatic asylum, ii. 51;
+    manufactory of arms, ii. 50;
+    popular characteristics, ii. 48;
+    Puerto del Sol, ii. 18;
+    Santa Maria la Blanca, ii. 38;
+    view from cathedral, ii. 34;
+    silent and gloomy, ii, 21;
+    streets, ii. 19.
+
+
+  Tolosa, Las Navas de, battlefield, ii. 60.
+
+  Topete, Juan, ii. 60.
+
+  Toreros, 213;
+    dangers of, 229;
+    dress of, 240;
+    highly respectable, 239;
+    lucrative business, 241.
+
+  Torrigiano, Pietro, sculptures by, at Granada, ii. 229.
+
+  Torquemada, Tomas de, founds the convent of Santa Domingo, ii. 235;
+    origin of, 235.
+
+  Torre del Oro, Seville, ii. 103.
+
+  Tower, new, Saragossa, 75;
+    Golden, Seville, ii. 103.
+
+  Trafalgar, relics of, 179.
+
+  Trajan's ashes brought to Seville, ii. 138.
+
+  Travelling for love, 13;
+    amenities of, 48, 52;
+    miseries of, ii. 177;
+    opera troupes, ii. 153;
+    philosophy of, ii. 224;
+    soldiers, ii.
+
+  Triana, ii. 118.
+
+  Tudela, battle of, 91;
+    canal, 51, 92.
+
+
+  U.
+
+  Undertaker's shop, 117.
+
+  Unionist party, 96, 97.
+
+  University students at Granada, ii. 238;
+    at Valladolid, 148.
+
+
+  V.
+
+  Val de Peñas, ii. 58;
+    wine of, 162; ii. 58.
+
+  Valencia, ii. 265;
+    Amadeus at, ii. 262;
+    art-gallery, ii. 267;
+    bull-ring, 235; ii. 262;
+    Casa de Ayuntamiento, ii. 266;
+    cathedral, ii. 266;
+    dress of peasantry, ii. 270;
+    historic houses, ii. 262;
+    Lonja, ii. 266;
+    market, ii. 269;
+    palace of the Audiencia, ii. 266;
+    popular characteristics, ii. 271;
+    streets, ii. 266;
+    women, ii. 271.
+
+  Valdes Leal, Juan de, paintings by, at Seville, ii. 109, 132.
+
+  Valera, Señor, 291.
+
+  Valladolid, 129;
+    cathedral, 136;
+    convent of San Pablo, 134;
+    college of San Gregorio, 135;
+    decay of, 131;
+    dialect of, 132;
+    hospitality, 148;
+    house of Cervantes, 137;
+    house of Zorilla, 141;
+    Inquisition, 146;
+    markets, 132;
+    picture-gallery, 143;
+    Plaza Major, 132;
+    polite beggary, 135;
+    royal palace, 133.
+
+  Van Dyke, Antonio, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.
+
+  Vega, Granada, ii. 260.
+
+  Vega, de Armijo, Marquis de, 207.
+
+  Vega, Garcilasso de la, armor of, 176;
+    native of Toledo, ii. 49.
+
+  Velasquez, Don Diego, masterpieces, 188;
+    mementoes of, ii. 103;
+    paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.
+
+  Ventas de Alcolea, ii. 62.
+
+  Ventura de la Vega, dramatist, 169.
+
+  Veragua, duke of, 207.
+
+  Victoria, at Madrid, 195;
+    charity of, 196;
+    learning of, 199;
+    universal respect for, 81, 200.
+
+  Vilches, ii. 61.
+
+  Villadomat, paintings by, at Barcelona, 26.
+
+  Villaseca, dowager of, 307.
+
+  Vinci, Leonardo da, paintings by, at Burgos, 109.
+
+  Virgin Mary appears to St. James at Toledo, ii. 27;
+    miraculous image of, 61;
+    robes of, ii. 31.
+
+
+  W.
+
+  Walk of the Spanish women, 136.
+
+  War of Independence influences Spanish national character, 35, 285;
+    relics of, 174.
+
+  Water abundant in the Alhambra, ii. 226.
+
+
+  Wife, a fugitive, 69.
+
+  Wine of Malaga, ii. 172;
+    Val de Peñas, 162; ii. 58;
+    Xeres, ii. 155.
+
+  Women of Barcelona, 41;
+    Cadiz, ii. 164;
+    Cordova, ii. 79;
+    Madrid, 165;
+    Saragossa, 57;
+    Seville, ii. 126;
+    Valencia, ii. 271;
+    Valladolid, 136;
+    toreros, 238;
+    walk of Spanish, 136.
+
+
+  X.
+
+  Xenil river, ii. 213.
+
+  Xeres, wine of, ii. 155.
+
+  Ximenes, wife of the Cid, remains of, 103.
+
+
+  Z.
+
+  Zafra, Don Fernando de, legend of, ii. 228.
+
+  Zahira, ii. 89.
+
+  Zainete, 170.
+
+  Zarzuela, the, 168, 170; ii. 154, ii. 156
+
+  Zorrilla, Ruiz, political leader, 86, 69, 97;
+    consents to accept office, ii. 268.
+
+  Zorrilla, José, 281;
+    birthplace at Valladolid, 141;
+    influence on Spanish literature, 141;
+    on people of Toledo, ii. 48;
+    popularity of, 142.
+
+  Zouave officers, 11.
+
+  Zuera, 54.
+
+  Zurbaran, Francisco de, paintings by, at Cadiz, ii. 163;
+    at Madrid, 193;
+    at the Escurial, 264;
+    at Seville, ii. 109, ii. 132.
+
+
+[Illustration: Map of SPAIN & PORTUGAL]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Spain, v. 2 (of 2), by Edmondo de Amicis
+
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Spain, v. 2 (of 2), by Edmondo de Amicis
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
+the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
+to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
+
+
+
+Title: Spain, v. 2 (of 2)
+
+Author: Edmondo de Amicis
+
+Translator: Stanley Rhoads Varnall
+
+Release Date: December 20, 2015 [EBook #50727]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPAIN, V. 2 (OF 2) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Josep Cols Canals, Les Galloway and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="transnote">
+<h3>Transcriber's Notes</h3>
+
+<p>Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected and
+inconsistencies of hyphenation have been removed. Other variations in spelling,
+accents and punctuation remain as in the original.</p>
+
+<p>The following corrections have been made to the Index.<br />
+Rembrandt von changed to Rembrandt van Rijn<br />
+Pousin, Nicola changed to Poussin, Nicolas<br />
+
+Zorilla, Ruiz changed to Zorrilla, Ruiz</p>
+
+<p>Repetition of chapter titles on consecutive pages has been removed.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="half-title">SPAIN</p>
+
+<div class="figcenterb" ><a id="Alcazar_Seville"></a>
+<img src="images/illus-a004s.jpg" alt="" />
+<div class="caption"><i>Alcazar, Seville</i></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<div class="box1">
+<div class="box2">
+<p class="center"><i><b>EDITION ARTISTIQUE</b></i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="box2"><div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/title1.jpg"  alt="The World’s Famous Places and Peoples" />
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="box2">
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr valign="middle">
+<td>
+
+<img src="images/title2.jpg"
+style="border:2px solid rgb(243,0,2);padding:.1em;"
+width="97"
+height="374"
+alt="Flower"
+/>
+</td>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 4em;">&nbsp;</span></td>
+<td>
+
+<h1>SPAIN</h1>
+
+<p class="center"><small>BY</small><br />
+EDMONDO DE AMICIS</p>
+
+<p class="center small spaced"><i>Translated<br />
+by Stanley Rhoads Yarnall, M.A.</i></p>
+
+<p class="center"><b><i>In Two Volumes<br />
+Volume II</i>.</b></p></td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<div class="box2"><p class="center">
+MERRILL AND BAKER<br />
+New York &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; London</p>
+</div>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="pn">
+<p class="space-above"><small>THIS EDITION ARTISTIQUE OF THE WORLD'S
+FAMOUS PLACES AND PEOPLES IS LIMITED
+TO ONE THOUSAND NUMBERED AND REGISTERED
+COPIES, OF WHICH THIS COPY IS
+NO</small>. _______</p></div>
+
+
+<p class="center space-above xs">Copyright, Henry T. Coates &amp; Co., 1895</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td></td><td align="right"><span class="xs">PAGE</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#ARANJUEZ">Aranjuez</a></span></td><td> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </td><td align="right">7</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#TOLEDO">Toledo</a></span></td><td></td><td align="right">15</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CORDOVA">Cordova</a></span></td><td></td><td align="right">53</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#SEVILLE">Seville</a></span></td><td></td><td align="right">97</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CADIZ">Cadiz</a></span></td><td></td><td align="right">147</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#MALAGA">Malaga</a></span></td><td></td><td align="right">165</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#GRANADA">Granada</a></span></td><td></td><td align="right">175</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#VALENCIA">Valencia</a></span></td><td></td><td align="right">257</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+</div><div class="chapter">
+<h2><a name="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+<p class="center">VOLUME II</p>
+
+
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right"><span class="xs">PAGE</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Alcazar_Seville">Alcazar, Seville</a></span></td><td align="right"><i>Frontispiece</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Gate_of_the_Sun">Gate of the Sun, Toledo</a></span></td><td align="right">18</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Alcazar_and_Bridge_of_San_Martin">Alcazar and Bridge of San Martin, Toledo</a></span></td><td align="right">40</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Court_of_Oranges">Court of Oranges, Mosque of Cordova</a></span></td><td align="right">68</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Moorish_Arches">Moorish Arches, Alcazar, Seville</a></span></td><td align="right">124</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Cadiz_p">Cadiz</a></span></td><td align="right">158</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Malaga_p">Malaga</a></span></td><td align="right">170</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Court_of_Myrtles">Court of Myrtles, Alhambra</a></span></td><td align="right">194</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Court_of_Lions">Fountain in the Court of Lions, Alhambra</a></span></td><td align="right">200</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Queens_Boudoir">Queen's Boudoir, Alhambra</a></span></td><td align="right">212</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Court_of_the_Generalife">Court of Generalife, Granada</a></span></td><td align="right">226</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#The_Alhambra">The Alhambra and the Valley of the Darro</a></span></td><td align="right">250</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+</div><div class="chapter">
+<h2><a name="ARANJUEZ" id="ARANJUEZ"></a>ARANJUEZ.</h2>
+
+
+<p>As on arriving at Madrid by way of the north, so
+on leaving it by way of the south, one must pass
+through a desolate country that resembles the poorest
+provinces of Arragon and Old Castile. There
+are vast plains, parched and yellow, which look as
+though they would echo like a hollow passageway if
+one were to strike them, or crumble like the crust
+of a crisp tart. And through the plains are scattered
+a few wretched villages of the same color as
+the soil, which seem as though they would take fire
+like a pile of dry leaves if one were to touch a torch
+to the corner of one of the huts. After an hour of
+travel my shoulders sought the cushions of the carriage,
+my elbow sought for a support, my head
+sought my hand, and I fell into a deep sleep like a
+member of Leopardi's "Assembly of Listeners." A
+few minutes after I had closed my eyes I was rudely
+awakened by a desperate cry from the women and
+children, and leaped to my feet, demanding of my
+neighbors what had occurred.</p>
+
+<p>But before I had ended my question a general
+burst of laughter reassured me. A company of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">10</span>
+huntsmen, scattered over the plain, on noticing the
+approach of the train, had planned to give the travellers
+a little scare. At that time there was a rumor
+that a band of Carlists had appeared in the vicinity
+of Aranjuez. The huntsmen, pretending to be the
+vanguard of the band, had given a loud shout while
+the train was passing, as if to call the great body
+of their comrades to their assistance, and as they
+shouted they went through the motions of firing at
+the railway-carriages; hence arose the fright and
+the cries of my fellow-travellers. And then the
+huntsmen suddenly threw the butts of their guns
+into the air to show that it was all a joke.</p>
+
+<p>When the alarm, in which I too shared for a
+moment, had subsided, I fell once more into my
+academic doze, but was again awakened in a few
+moments in a manner much more pleasant than on
+the first occasion.</p>
+
+<p>I looked around: the vast barren plain had been
+transformed as by magic into a great garden full of
+the most charming groves, traversed in all directions
+by wide avenues, dotted with country-houses and
+cottages festooned with verdure; here and there the
+sparkling of fountains, shady grottoes, flowering
+meadows, vineyards, and bridle-paths&mdash;a verdure, a
+freshness, a vernal odor, an atmosphere of happiness
+and peace, that enchanted the soul. We had arrived
+at Aranjuez. I left the train, walked up a
+beautiful avenue shaded by two rows of noble trees,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">11</span>
+and after a few steps found myself in front of the
+royal palace.</p>
+
+<p>The minister Castelar had written in his memorandum
+a few days before that the fall of the ancient
+Spanish monarchy was predoomed on that day when
+a mob of the populace, with curses on their lips and
+hatred in their hearts, had invaded the palace of
+Aranjuez to disturb the majestic repose of their sovereigns.
+I had reached that square where on the 17th
+of March, 1808, occurred those events which were
+the prologue of the national war, and, as it were,
+the first word of the death-sentence of the ancient
+monarchy. My eyes quickly sought the windows of
+the apartments of the Prince of Peace; I imagined
+him, as he fled from room to room, pale and distracted,
+searching for a hiding-place as the echo of
+the cry followed him up the stairs; I saw poor
+Charles IV., as with trembling hands he placed the
+crown of Spain on the head of the prince of the
+Asturias; all the scenes of that terrible drama were
+enacted in fancy before my eyes, and the profound
+silence of the place and the sight of that palace,
+closed and desolate, sent a chill to my heart.</p>
+
+<p>The palace has the appearance of a castle: it is
+built of brick, with trimmings of light stone, and
+covered with a tile roof. Every one knows that it
+was built for Philip II. by the celebrated architect
+Herrera, and that it was adorned by all the later
+kings, who made it their summer residence. I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">12</span>
+enter: the interior is magnificent; there is the stupendous
+reception-hall of the ambassadors, the beautiful
+Chinese cabinet belonging to Charles V., the
+marvellous dressing-chamber of Isabella II., and a
+profusion of the most precious ornaments. But all
+the riches of the palace are as nothing to the beauty
+of the gardens. The expectation is not disappointed.</p>
+
+<p>The gardens of Aranjuez (Aranjuez is the name
+of a little town which lies a short distance from the
+palace) seem to have been laid out for a race of
+Titan kings, to whom the royal parks and gardens
+of our country would have seemed like the flower-beds
+on their terraces or the plots before their
+stables. Endless avenues, bordered by trees of
+measureless height with arched branches interlacing
+as if bent toward each other by contrary winds, extend
+in every direction like a forest whose boundaries
+one cannot see, and through this forest the
+Tagus, a wide, swift stream, flows in a majestic
+curve, forming here and there cascades and lakes:
+an abundant and luxuriant vegetation springs up
+amid a labyrinth of bypaths, crossways, and sylvan
+glades; and in every part gleam statues, vases,
+columns, and fountains rising to a great height and
+falling in spray, festoons, and drops of water, placed
+in the midst of all manner of flowers from Europe
+and America; and, mingling with the majestic roar
+of the cascades of the Tagus, a flood of song from
+innumerable nightingales, which make the mys<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">13</span>terious
+gloom of the lonely paths ring with their
+mellow notes. In the depths of the gardens rises
+a small marble palace of modest proportions which
+contains all the wonders of the most magnificent
+royal abode; and here one may still breathe, so to
+speak, the air of the inmost life of the kings of
+Spain. Here are the small secret chambers whose
+ceilings one may touch with the hand, the billiard-room
+of Charles IV., his cue, the cushions embroidered
+by the hands of his queens, the musical
+clocks which enlivened the playtime of his children,
+the narrow staircases, the little windows about which
+cluster a hundred traditions of princely caprices,
+and, finally, the richest retiring-room in Europe,
+created at a whim of Charles V., containing in itself
+alone sufficient riches to adorn a palace, without
+depriving it of the noble primacy which it proudly
+holds among all other cabinets designed for the same
+use. Beyond this palace and all around the groves
+extend vineyards and olive-groves and orchards of
+fruit-bearing trees and smiling meadows. It is a
+veritable oasis in the midst of the desert&mdash;an oasis
+which Philip II. chose to create on a day when he
+was in good humor, as if to enliven with one cheerful
+image the black melancholy of the Escurial. On
+returning from the little marble palace toward the
+great royal palace through those endless avenues, in
+the shade of those noble trees, in that profound
+forest silence, I thought of the splendid trains of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">14</span>
+ladies and cavaliers who once wandered about in the
+footsteps of the gay young monarchs or the capricious
+and dissolute queens to the sound of amorous music
+and songs which told of the grandeur and glory of
+unconquered Spain; and I sadly repeated with the
+poet, Ricanati,</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">... "All is peace and silence,</div>
+  <div class="verse indent4">And their names are no longer heard."</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>But as I looked at those marble seats, half hidden
+in the shrubbery, and fixed my eyes on the shadow
+of certain distant paths, and thought of those queens,
+those lovers, and those mad pranks, I could not
+refrain from a sigh, which was not one of pity, and
+a secret sense of bitterness stung me to the heart;
+and I said, like poor Adan in the poem <i>Diablo
+Mundo</i>, "How are these grand ladies made? How
+do they live? What do they do? Do they talk,
+make love, and enjoy like us?" And I left for
+Toledo, imagining the love of a queen like a young
+adventurer of the Arabian Nights.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">15</span></p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a><br /><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p>
+</div><div class="chapter">
+<h2><a name="TOLEDO" id="TOLEDO"></a>TOLEDO.</h2>
+
+
+<p>When one approaches an unknown city one ought
+to have near by some one who has already seen it
+and is able to indicate the opportune moment to put
+one's head out of the window and get the first view.
+I had the good fortune to be informed in time.
+Some one said to me, "There is Toledo!" and I
+sprang to the window with an exclamation of
+wonder.</p>
+
+<p>Toledo rises on a sheer rocky height, at whose
+foot the Tagus describes a grand curve. From the
+plain one sees only the rocks and the walls of the
+fortress, and beyond the wall the tips of the belfries
+and the towers. The houses are hidden from view;
+the city seems to be closed and inaccessible, and
+presents the appearance of an abandoned stronghold
+rather than of a city. From the walls to the river-banks
+there is not a single house nor tree; all is
+bare, parched, craggy, precipitous; not a soul is in
+sight; you would say that to make the ascent it
+would be necessary to climb, and it seems that at
+the first appearance of a man on the face of those
+rocks a shower of arrows would fall upon him from
+the top of the wall.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">18</span></p>
+
+<p>You leave the train, get into a carriage, and
+arrive at the entrance of a bridge. It is the famous
+bridge Alcantara, which spans the Tagus, surmounted
+by a beautiful Moorish gate in the form of
+a tower, which gives it a bold, severe appearance.
+Crossing the bridge, you turn into a wide roadway
+which winds up in large serpentine curves until it
+reaches the top of the mountain. Here it really
+seems that you are under a fortified city of the
+Middle Ages, and you imagine yourself in the guise
+of a Moor or a Goth or a soldier of Alfonso VI.
+From every part precipitous rocks hang over your
+head, crumbling walls, towers, and the ruins of
+ancient bastions, and higher up the last wall which
+encircles the city, black, crowned with enormous
+battlements, opened here and there by great
+breaches, behind which the imprisoned houses rear
+their heads; and as you climb higher and higher the
+city seems to draw back and hide itself. Halfway
+up the ascent you come to the <i>Puerto del Sol</i>, a
+jewel of Moorish architecture, consisting of two
+embattled towers which are joined over a very graceful
+double-arched colonnade, under which runs the
+ancient street; and from that point, if you look
+back, you may see at a glance the Tagus, the valley,
+and the hills. You go on and find other walls and
+other ruins, and finally the first houses of the city.</p>
+
+<p>What a city! At the first moment I caught my
+breath. The carriage had turned down a little
+street, so narrow that the hubs of the wheels almost
+touched the walls of the houses.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<div class="caption"><i><a id="Gate_of_the_Sun"></a>Gate of the Sun, Toledo</i></div>
+
+<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b018c.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">19</span></p>
+
+<p>"Why do you turn in here?" I asked the driver.</p>
+
+<p>He laughed and answered, "Because there is no
+wider street."</p>
+
+<p>"Is all Toledo like this?" I asked again.</p>
+
+<p>"It is all like this," he replied</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible!" I exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"You will see," he added.</p>
+
+<p>To tell the truth, I did not believe him. I entered
+a hotel, dropped my valise in a room, and ran headlong
+down the stairs to take a look at this very
+strange city. One of the hotel-porters stopped me
+at the door and asked with a smile,</p>
+
+<p>"Where are you going, <i>caballero</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"To see Toledo," I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Alone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"But have you ever been here before?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you cannot go alone."</p>
+
+<p>"And why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because you will get lost."</p>
+
+<p>"Where?"</p>
+
+<p>"As soon as you go out."</p>
+
+<p>"For what reason?"</p>
+
+<p>"The reason is this," he answered, pointing to a
+wall on which hung a map of Toledo. I approached
+and saw a network of white lines on a black back<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">20</span>ground
+that seemed like one of those flourishes
+which school-boys make on their slates to waste the
+chalk and vex their teacher.</p>
+
+<p>"No matter," said I; "I am going alone, and if
+I get lost, let them come and find me."</p>
+
+<p>"You will not go a hundred steps," observed the
+porter.</p>
+
+<p>I went out and turned down the first street I saw,
+so narrow that on extending my arms I touched both
+walls. After fifty paces I turned into another street,
+narrower than the first, and from this passed into a
+third, and so on.</p>
+
+<p>I seemed to be wandering not through the streets
+of the city, but through the corridors of a building,
+and I went forward, expecting momentarily to come
+out into an open place. It is impossible, I thought,
+that the whole city is built in this manner; no one
+could live in it. But as I proceeded the streets
+seemed to grow narrower and shorter; every
+moment I was obliged to turn; after a curving
+street came a zigzag one, and after this another in
+the form of a hook, which led me back into the
+first, and so I wandered on for a little while, always
+in the midst of the same houses. Now and then I
+came out at a crossway where several alleys ran off
+in opposite directions, one of which would lose itself
+in the dark shadow of a portico, another would end
+blindly in a few paces against the wall of a house,
+a third in a short distance would descend, as it were,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">21</span>
+into the bowels of the earth, while a fourth would
+clamber up a steep hill; some were hardly wide
+enough to give a man passage; others were confined
+between two walls without doors or windows; and
+all were flanked by buildings of great height, between
+whose roofs one could see a narrow streak
+of sky.</p>
+
+<p>One passed windows defended by heavy iron bars,
+great doors studded with enormous nails, and dark
+courtyards. I walked for some time without meeting
+anybody, until I came out into one of the principal
+streets, lined with shops and full of peasants,
+women, and children, but little larger than an ordinary
+corridor. Everything is in proportion to the
+streets: the doors are like windows, the shops like
+niches, and by glancing into them one sees all the
+secrets of the house&mdash;the table already spread, the
+babies in the cradle, the mother combing her hair,
+and the father changing his shirt; everything is on
+the street, and it does not seem like a city, but like
+a house containing a single great family.</p>
+
+<p>I turned into a less-frequented street, where I
+heard only the buzzing of a fly; my footsteps
+echoed to the fourth story of the houses and brought
+some old women to the windows. A horse passes;
+it seems like a squadron; everybody hurries to
+see what is going on. The least sound re-echoes in
+every direction; a book falls in a second story,
+an old man coughs in a courtyard, a woman blows<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">22</span>
+her nose in some unknown place; one hears
+everything.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes every sound will suddenly cease; you
+are alone, you see no sign of life: you seem to be
+surrounded by the houses of witches, crossways
+made for conspirators, blind alleys for traitors, narrow
+doorways suitable for any crime, windows for the
+whispers of guilty lovers, gloomy doorways suggestive
+of blood-stained steps. But yet in all this labyrinth
+of streets there are no two alike; each one
+has its individuality: here rises an arch, there a
+column, yonder a piece of statuary. Toledo is a
+storehouse of art-treasures. Every little while the
+walls crumble, and there are revealed in every part
+records of all the centuries&mdash;bas-reliefs, arabesques,
+Moorish windows, and statuettes. The palaces have
+doorways defended by plates of engraved metal, historical
+knockers, nails with carved heads, 'scutcheons
+and emblems; and they form a fine contrast to the
+modern houses painted with festoons, medallions,
+cupids, urns, and fantastic animals.</p>
+
+<p>But these embellishments detract in no way from
+the severe and gloomy aspect of Toledo. Wherever
+you look you see something to remind you of the
+city fortified by the Arabs; however little your imagination
+may exert itself, it will succeed in rearranging
+from the relics scattered here and there the
+whole fabric of that darkened image, and then the
+illusion is complete: you see again the glorious<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">23</span>
+Toledo of the Middle Ages, and forget the solitude
+and silence of its streets. But it is a fleeting illusion,
+and you soon relapse into sad meditation and
+see only the skeleton of the ancient city, the necropolis
+of three empires, the great sepulchre of the
+glory of three races. Toledo reminds you of the
+dreams which come to young men after reading the
+romantic legends of the Middle Ages. You have
+seen many a time in your dreams dark cities encircled
+by deep moats, frowning walls, and inaccessible
+rocks; and you have crossed those draw-bridges
+and entered those tortuous, grass-grown
+streets, and have breathed that damp, sepulchral,
+prison air. Well, then, you have dreamed of
+Toledo.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing to see, after making a general survey
+of the city, is the cathedral, which is justly considered
+one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the
+world. The history of this cathedral, according to
+popular tradition, dates from the times of the apostle
+Saint James, first bishop of Toledo, who selected the
+place where it should be erected; but the construction
+of the edifice as it appears to-day was begun in
+1227, during the reign of San Fernando, and was
+ended after twenty-five years of almost continuous
+labor. The exterior of this immense church is
+neither rich nor beautiful, as is that of the cathedral
+of Burgos. A little square extends in front of the
+façade, and is the only place from which one can get<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">24</span>
+a view of any considerable part of the building. It
+is entirely surrounded by a narrow street, from
+which, however much you may twist your neck, you
+can see only the high outer walls which enclose the
+church like a fortress. The façade has three great
+doorways, the first of which is named <i>Pardon</i>, the
+second <i>Inferno</i>, and the third <i>Justice</i>. Over it rises
+a substantial tower which terminates in a beautiful
+octagonal cupola. Although in walking around the
+building one may have remarked its great size, on
+first entering one is struck by a profound sense of
+wonder, which quickly gives place to another keen
+sense of pleasure, the result of the freshness, the
+repose, the soft shadow, and the mysterious light
+which steals through the stained glass of innumerable
+windows and breaks in a thousand rays of blue,
+golden, and rosy light which glides here and there
+along the arches and columns like the bands of a
+rainbow. The church is formed of five great naves
+divided by eighty-eight enormous pilasters, each of
+which is composed of sixteen turned columns as
+close together as a bunch of spears. A sixth nave
+cuts the other five at right angles, extending from
+the great altar to the choir, and the vaulted roof of
+this principal nave rises majestically above the
+others, which seem to be bowing to it as if in
+homage. The many-colored light and the clear
+tone of the stone give the church an air of quiet
+cheerfulness which tempers the melancholy appear<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">25</span>ance
+of the Gothic architecture without depriving it
+of its austere and serious character. To pass from
+the streets of the city to the naves of this cathedral
+seems like coming out of a dungeon into an open
+square: one looks around, draws a deep breath, and
+begins to live again.</p>
+
+<p>The high altar, if one wished to examine it minutely,
+would require as much time as the interior
+of a church: it is itself a church&mdash;a miracle of little
+columns, statuettes, traceries, and ornaments of endless
+variety, creeping along the iron frames, rising
+above the architraves, winding about the niches,
+supporting one another, climbing and disappearing,
+presenting on every side a thousand outlines, groups,
+combinations, effects in gilding and color, every sort
+of grace that art can devise&mdash;giving to the whole an
+effect of magnificence, dignity, and beauty. Opposite
+the high altar rises the choir, divided into three
+orders of stalls, marvellously carved by Philip of
+Bourgogne and Berruguete, with bas-reliefs representing
+historical events, allegories, and sacred legends&mdash;one
+of the most famous monuments of
+art.</p>
+
+<p>In the centre, in the form of a throne, stands the
+seat of the archbishop surrounded by a circle of
+enormous jasper columns, with colossal statues of
+alabaster resting on the architraves; on either side
+rise enormous bronze pulpits provided with two
+great missals, and two gigantic organs, one in front<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">26</span>
+of the other, from which it seems that at any moment
+a flood of melody may burst forth and make the
+vault tremble.</p>
+
+<p>The pleasure of one's admiration in these great
+cathedrals is almost always disturbed by importunate
+guides, who wish at any cost to amuse you after
+their fashion. And it was my misfortune to become
+convinced that the Spanish guides are the most persistent
+of their kind. When one of them has gotten
+it into his head that you are to spend the day with
+him, it is all over. You may shrug your shoulders,
+refuse to notice him, let him talk himself hoarse
+without so much as turning to look at him, wander
+about on your own account as though you had not
+seen him: it is all the same thing. In a moment of
+enthusiasm before some painting or statue a word
+escapes you, a gesture, a smile: it is enough. You
+are caught, you are his, you are the prey of this
+implacable human cuttle-fish, who, like the cuttle-fish
+of Victor Hugo, does not leave his victim until
+he has cut off his head. While I stood contemplating
+the statuary of the choir I saw one of these
+cuttle-fish out of the corner of my eye&mdash;a miserable
+old rake, who approached me with slow steps sidewise,
+like a cutthroat with the air of one who was
+saying, "Now I have got you!" I continued to look
+at the statues; the old man came up to my side, and
+he too began to look; then he suddenly asked me,
+"Do you wish my company?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">27</span></p>
+
+<p>"No," I replied, "I don't need you."</p>
+
+<p>And he continued, without any embarrassment,</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know who Elpidius was?"</p>
+
+<p>The question was so remarkable that I could not
+keep from asking in my turn,</p>
+
+<p>"Who was he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Elpidius," he replied, "was the second bishop
+of Toledo."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what of him?</p>
+
+<p>"'What of him?' It was the bishop Elpidius
+who conceived the idea of consecrating the church
+to the Virgin, and that is the reason why the Virgin
+came to visit the church."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! how do you know that?"</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know it? You see it."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean to say that it has been seen?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean to say that it is still to be seen: have
+the goodness to come with me."</p>
+
+<p>So saying, he started off, and I followed him,
+very curious to learn what this visible form of the
+descent of the Virgin might be. We stopped in
+front of a sort of chapel close to one of the great
+pilasters of the central nave. The guide pointed
+out a white stone set in the wall covered by
+an iron net, and with this inscription running
+around it:</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"Quando la reina del cielo</div>
+  <div class="verse">Puso los pies en el suelo,</div>
+  <div class="verse">En esta piedra los puso."</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">28</span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"When the Queen of heaven</div>
+  <div class="verse">Descended to the earth,</div>
+  <div class="verse">Her feet rested on this stone."</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>"Then the Holy Virgin has actually placed her
+feet on this stone?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"On this very stone," he replied; and, thrusting
+a finger between the strands of the iron net, he
+touched the stone, kissed his finger, made the sign
+of the cross, and turned toward me as if to say,
+"Now it is your turn."</p>
+
+<p>"My turn?" I replied. "Oh, really, my friend,
+I cannot do it."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I do not feel myself worthy to touch
+that sacred stone."</p>
+
+<p>The guide understood, and, looking hard at me
+with a serious aspect, he asked, "You do not
+believe?"</p>
+
+<p>I looked at a pilaster. Then the old man made
+a sign for me to follow, and started toward a corner
+of the church, murmuring with an air of sadness,
+"<i>Cadanno es dueño de su alma</i>" (Every man is
+master of his soul).</p>
+
+<p>A young priest who was standing near, and who
+had divined the cause of his words, cast a piercing
+glance at me, and went off in an opposite direction,
+muttering I know not what.</p>
+
+<p>The chapels correspond in style with that of the
+church: almost all of them contain some fine monu<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">29</span>ments.
+In the chapel of Santiago, behind the high
+altar, are two magnificent tombs of alabaster which
+contain the remains of the constable Alvaro de Luna
+and his wife; in the chapel of San Ildefonso, the
+tomb of the cardinal Gil Carrillo de Albornoz; in
+the chapel of the "New Kings," the tombs of Henry
+II., John II., and Henry III.; in the chapel of the
+sacristy, a stupendous group of statues and busts
+of marble, silver, ivory, and gold, and a collection of
+crosses and relics of inestimable value, the remains
+of Saint Leucadia and Saint Eugenia preserved in
+two silver caskets exquisitely chased.</p>
+
+<p>The Chapel Mozarabe, which is under the tower
+of the church, and was erected to perpetuate the
+tradition of the primitive Christian rite, is probably
+the most worthy of attention. One of its walls is
+entirely covered with a fresco, in the Gothic style,
+representing a conflict between the Moors and the
+Toledans&mdash;marvellously preserved, even to the most
+delicate lines. It is a painting worth a volume of
+history. In it one sees the Toledo of those times
+with all its walls and its houses; the habiliments
+of the two armies; the arms, faces, everything portrayed
+with an admirable finish and an unspeakable
+harmony of color which answers perfectly to the
+vague and fantastic idea which one may have formed
+of those centuries and those races. Two other frescoes
+on either side of the first represent the fleet
+which bore the Arabs into Spain, and they offer a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">30</span>
+thousand minute details of the mediæval marine and
+the very air of those times, if one may so speak,
+which makes one think of and see a thousand things
+not represented in the painting, as one hears distant
+music on looking at a landscape.</p>
+
+<p>After the chapels one goes to see the sacristy,
+where are gathered enough riches to restore the
+finances of Spain to a sound basis. There is, among
+others, a vast room on the ceiling of which one sees
+a fresco by Luca Giordano, which represents a vision
+of paradise, with a myriad of angels, saints, and
+allegorical figures floating in the air or standing out
+like statues from the cornices of the walls in a thousand
+bold attitudes, with so much action and foreshortening
+that one is bewildered. The guide,
+pointing out this miracle of imagination and genius,
+which in the estimation of all artists, to use a very
+curious Spanish expression, is a work of <i>merito atroz</i>
+(of atrocious merit),&mdash;the guide bids you to look attentively
+at the ray of light which falls upon the
+walls from the centre of the vaulted ceiling. You
+look at it and then make a circuit of the room, and
+wherever you find yourself that ray of light is falling
+directly upon your head.</p>
+
+<p>From this hall you pass into a room which is also
+beautifully painted in fresco by the nephew of
+Berruguete, and from it into a third, where a sacristan
+lays the treasures of the cathedral before
+your eyes&mdash;the enormous silver candlesticks; the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">31</span>
+pyxes flashing with rubies; the golden stands for the
+elevation of the Host, studded with diamonds; the
+damask vestments, embroidered in gold; the robes
+of the Virgin, covered with arabesques, garlands of
+flowers, and stars of pearl, which at every motion
+of the cloth flash forth in a thousand rays and colors
+and quite dazzle one's eyes. A hour is scarcely sufficient
+to see hurriedly all that display of treasures,
+which would certainly satisfy the ambition of ten
+queens and enrich the altars of ten cathedrals; and
+when, after he has shown you everything, the sacristan
+looks in your eyes for an expression of surprise,
+he finds only astonishment and stupefaction,
+which give evidence of an imagination wandering
+in far distant regions&mdash;in the realms of the Arabian
+legends where the kindly genii gather all the riches
+dreamed of by the glowing fancy of enamored
+sultans.</p>
+
+<p>It was the eve of <i>Corpus Domini</i>, and in the sacristy
+they were preparing the robes for the processional.
+Nothing can be more unpleasant or more at
+variance with the quiet and noble sadness of the
+church than the theatrical hurry-scurry which one
+sees on such occasions. It is like being behind the
+scenes on the evening of a dress rehearsal. From one
+room of the sacristy to another half-dressed boys
+were coming and going with a great clatter, carrying
+armfuls of surplices, stoles, and capes; here a sour-tempered
+sacristan was opening and banging the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">32</span>
+doors of a wardrobe; there a priest, all red in the
+face, was calling angrily to a chorister who did not
+hear him; yonder other priests were running through
+the room with their robes partly on their backs and
+partly trailing behind them; some laughing, some
+screaming, and some shouting from one room to
+another at the top of their voices; everywhere one
+heard a swish of skirts, a breathless panting, and an
+indescribable stamping and tramping.</p>
+
+<p>I went to see the cloister, but, as the door was
+open through which one reaches it from the church,
+I saw it before entering. From the middle of the
+church one gets a glimpse of a part of the cloister-garden,
+a group of fine leafy trees, a little grove, a
+mass of luxuriant plants which seem to close the
+doorway and look as though they are framed beneath
+a graceful arch and between the two slender columns
+of the portico which extends all around. It is a
+beautiful sight, which makes one think of Oriental
+gardens encircled by the columns of a mosque. The
+cloister, which is very large, is surrounded by a colonnade,
+graceful, though severe in form; the walls
+covered with great frescoes. The guide advised me
+to rest here a little while before ascending to the
+campanile. I leaned against a low wall in the shade
+of a tree, and remained there until I felt able to
+make another expedition, as the expression is.
+Meanwhile, my commander extolled in bombastic
+language the glories of Toledo, carrying his impu<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">33</span>dence
+so far, in his patriotism, as to call it "a great
+commercial city" which could buy and sell Barcelona
+and Valencia, and a city strong enough, if need be,
+to withstand ten German armies and a thousand batteries
+of Krupp guns. After each of his exaggerations
+I kept spurring him on, and the good man enjoyed
+himself to the full. What pleasure there is in
+knowing how to make others talk! Finally, when
+the proud Toledan was so swollen with glory that
+the cloister could no longer hold him, he said to me,
+"We may go now," and led the way toward the
+door of the campanile.</p>
+
+<p>When we were halfway up we stopped to take
+breath. The guide knocked at a little door, and out
+came a swaggering little sacristan, who opened
+another door, and made me enter a corridor where I
+saw a collection of gigantic puppets in very strange
+attire. Four of them, the guide told me, represented
+Europe, Asia, America, and Africa, and two others
+Faith and Religion; and they were so made that a
+man could hide in them and raise them from the
+ground.</p>
+
+<p>"They take them out on the occasions of the
+royal fêtes," the sacristan added, "and carry them
+around through the city;" and, to show me how it
+was done, he crept in under the robes of Asia.
+Then he led me to a corner where there was an
+enormous monster which when touched, I know not
+where, stretched out a very long neck and a horrible<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">34</span>
+head and made a dreadful noise. But he could not
+tell me what this ugly creature signified, and so
+invited me instead to admire the marvellous imagination
+of the Spaniards, which creates so "many new
+things" to sell in all the known world. I admired,
+paid, and continued the ascent with my Toledan
+cuttle-fish. From the top of the tower one enjoys
+a splendid view&mdash;the city, the hills, the river, a vast
+horizon, and, below, the great mass of the cathedral,
+which seems like a mountain of granite. But there
+is another elevation, a short distance away, from
+which one sees everything to a better advantage,
+and consequently I remained in the campanile only
+a few moments, especially as at that hour the sun
+was shining very strongly, confusing all the colors
+of the city and country in a flood of light.</p>
+
+<p>From the cathedral my guide led me to see the
+famous church of <i>San Juan de los Reyes</i>, situated on
+the banks of the Tagus. My mind is still confused
+when I think of the windings and turnings which we
+were obliged to make in order to reach it. It was
+mid-day, the streets were deserted; gradually, as
+we went farther from the centre of the city, the
+solitude became more depressing; not a door or
+window was open, not the slightest sound was heard.
+For a moment I suspected that the guide was in
+league with some assassin to entice me into an
+out-of-the-way place and rob me; he had a suspicious
+face, and then he kept glancing here and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">35</span>
+there with a suspicious air, like one meditating a
+crime.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it much farther?" I would ask from time to
+time, and he would always answer: "It is right
+here," and yet we never reached it.</p>
+
+<p>At a certain point my uneasiness changed into
+fear: in a narrow, tortuous street a door opened;
+two bearded men came out, made a sign to the
+cuttle-fish, and fell in behind us. I thought it was
+all over with me. There was only one way of
+escape&mdash;to strike the guide, knock him down, jump
+over his body, and run. But which way? And on
+the other side there came into my mind the high
+praises which Thiers bestows on the "Spanish legs"
+in his <i>History of the War of Independence</i>; and I
+thought that flight would only prove an opportunity
+to plant a dagger in my back instead of my stomach,
+Alas! to die without seeing Andalusia! To die after
+taking so many notes, after giving so many tips&mdash;to
+die with pockets full of letters of introduction, with
+a purse fat with doubloons&mdash;to die with a passport
+covered with seals&mdash;to die by treachery! As God
+willed, the two bearded men disappeared at the first
+corner and I was saved. Then, overwhelmed by
+compunction for suspecting that the poor old man
+could be capable of a crime, I came over to his left
+side, offered him a cigar, said that Toledo was worth
+two Romes, and showed him a thousand courtesies.
+Finally we arrived at <i>San Juan de los Reyes</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">36</span></p>
+
+<p>It is a church which seems like a royal palace:
+the highest part is covered by a balcony surrounded
+with a honeycombed and sculptured breastwork,
+upon which rises a series of statues of kings, and
+in the middle stands a graceful hexagonal cupola
+which completes the beautiful harmony of the edifice.
+From the walls hang long iron chains which
+were suspended there by the Christian prisoners
+released at the conquest of Granada, and which,
+together with the dark color of the stone, give the
+church a severe and picturesque appearance. We
+entered, passed through two or three large, bare
+rooms, unpaved, cluttered with piles of dirt and
+heaps of rubbish, climbed a staircase, and came out
+upon a high gallery inside the church, which is one
+of the most beautiful and noblest of the monuments
+of Gothic architecture. It has a single great nave
+divided into four vaults, whose arches intersect
+under rich rosettes. The pilasters are covered with
+festoons and arabesques; the walls ornamented with
+a profusion of bas-reliefs, with enormous shields
+bearing the arms of Castile and Arragon, eagles,
+dragons, heraldic animals, trailing vines, and emblematic
+inscriptions; the gallery running all around the
+room is perforated and carved with great elegance;
+the choir is supported by a bold arch; the color of
+the stone is light gray, and everything is admirably
+finished and preserved, as if the church had been<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">37</span>
+built but a few years ago, instead of at the end of
+the fifteenth century.</p>
+
+<p>From the church we descended to the cloister,
+which is, in truth, a miracle of architecture and
+sculpture. Graceful slender columns which could
+be broken in two by the stroke of a hammer, looking
+like the trunks of saplings, support capitals
+richly adorned like curving boughs; arches ornamented
+with flowers, birds, and grotesque animals in
+every sort of carving. The walls are covered with
+inscriptions in Gothic characters in a framework of
+leaves and very delicate arabesques. Wherever one
+looks one finds grace mingled with riches in enchanting
+harmony: it would not be possible to accumulate
+in an equal space and with more exquisite art a
+larger number of the most delicate and beautiful
+objects. It is a luxuriant garden of sculpture, a
+grand saloon embroidered, quilted, and brocaded in
+marble, a great monument, majestic as a temple,
+magnificent as a palace, delicate as a toy, and graceful
+as a flower.</p>
+
+<p>After the cloisters one goes to see a picture-gallery
+which contains only some paintings of little value,
+and then to the convent with its long corridors, its
+narrow stairs, and empty cells, almost on the point
+of falling into ruins, and in some parts already in
+ruins; throughout bare and squalid like a building
+gutted by fire.</p>
+
+<p>A little way from <i>San Juan de los Reyes</i> there is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">38</span>
+another monument well worthy of attention, a curious
+record of the Judaic period&mdash;the synagogue
+now known by the name of Santa Maria la Blanca.
+One enters an untidy garden and knocks at the door
+of a wretched-looking house. The door opens.
+There is a delightful sense of surprise, a vision of
+the Orient, a sudden revelation of another religion
+and another world. There are five narrow alleys
+divided by four long rows of little octagonal pilasters,
+which support as many Moorish arches with
+stucco capitals of various forms; the ceiling is of
+cedar-wood divided into squares, and here and there
+on the walls are arabesques and Arabic inscriptions.
+The light falls from above, and everything is white.
+The synagogue was converted into a mosque by the
+Arabs, and the mosque into a church by the Christians,
+so that, properly, it is none of the three,
+although it still preserves the character of the
+mosque, and the eye surveys it with delight, and
+the imagination follows from arch to arch the fleeting
+images of a sensuous paradise.</p>
+
+<p>When I had seen Santa Maria la Blanca, I had
+not the strength to see anything else, and, refusing
+all the tempting propositions of the guide, I told him
+to lead me back to the hotel. After a long walk
+through a labyrinth of narrow, deserted streets we
+arrived there; I put a <i>peseta</i> and a half in the hand
+of my innocent assassin, who found the fee too<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">39</span>
+small, and asked (how I laughed at the word!) for a
+little <i>gratificacion</i>.</p>
+
+<p>I went into the dining-room to eat a chop or <i>chuleta</i>
+(which is pronounced <i>cuileta</i>), as the Spanish call it&mdash;a
+name at which they would turn up their noses in
+some of the provinces of Italy.</p>
+
+<p>Toward evening I went to see the Alcazar. The
+name raises expectations of a Moorish palace, but
+there is nothing Moorish about it except the name.
+The building which one admires to-day was built
+in the reign of Charles V. on the ruins of a castle
+which was in existence as early as the eighth century,
+although the notices of it in contemporary chronicles
+are vague. This edifice rises upon a height overlooking
+the city, so that one sees its walls and towers
+from every point above the level of the streets, and
+the foreigner finds it a sure landmark amid the confusion
+and labyrinths of the city. I climbed the
+height by a broad winding street, like that one
+which runs from the plain up to the city, and found
+myself in front of the Alcazar. It is an immense
+square palace, at whose corners rise four great
+towers that give it the formidable appearance of a
+fortress. A vast square extends in front of the
+façade, and all around it runs a chain of embattled
+bulwarks of Oriental design. The entire building is
+of a decided chalky color, relieved by a thousand
+varied shades of that powerful painter of monuments,
+the burning sun of the South, and it appears<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">40</span>
+even lighter against the very clear sky upon which
+the majestic form of the building is outlined.</p>
+
+<p>The façade is carved in arabesques in a manner at
+once dignified and elegant. The interior of the
+palace corresponds with the exterior: it is a vast
+court surrounded by two orders of graceful arches,
+one above the other, supported by slender columns,
+with a monumental marble staircase starting at the
+centre of the side opposite the door, and a little
+way above the pavement divides into two parts that
+lead to the interior of the palace, the one on the
+right, the other on the left. To enjoy the beauty of
+the courtyard it is necessary to stand on the landing
+where the staircase separates: from that point one
+comprehends at a glance the complete harmony of
+the edifice, which inspires a sense of cheerfulness
+and pleasure, like fine music performed by hidden
+musicians.</p>
+
+<p>Excepting the courtyard, the other parts of the
+building&mdash;the stairways, the rooms, the corridors&mdash;everything
+is in ruins or falling to ruins. They
+were at work turning the palace into a military
+school, whitewashing the walls, breaking down the
+partitions to make great dormitories, numbering the
+doors, and converting the palace into a barracks.
+Nevertheless, they left intact the great subterranean
+chambers which were used for stables at the time of
+Charles V., and which are still able to hold several
+thousand horses. The guide made me approach a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">41</span>
+window from which I looked down into an abyss that
+gave me an idea of their vastness. Then we climbed
+a series of unsteady steps into one of the four towers;
+the guide opened with pincers and a hammer a window
+that had been nailed fast, and with the air of
+one who was announcing a miracle said to me,
+"Look, sir!"</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<div class="caption"><i><a id="Alcazar_and_Bridge_of_San_Martin"></a>Alcazar and Bridge of San Martin, Toledo</i></div>
+<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b040cs.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+</div>
+
+<p>It was a wonderful panorama. One had a bird's-eye
+view of the city of Toledo, street by street and
+house by house, as if one were looking at a map
+spread upon a table: here the cathedral, rising above
+the city like a measureless castle, and making all
+the buildings around it seem as small as toy houses;
+there the balcony of <i>San Juan de las Reyes</i>, crowned
+with statues; yonder the embattled towers of the
+New Gate, the circus, the Tagus running at the foot
+of the city between its rocky banks; and beyond
+the river, opposite the bridge of Alcantara, on a
+precipitous crag, the ruins of the ancient castle of
+San Servando; still farther off a verdant plain, and
+then rocks, hills, and mountains as far as the eye can
+see; and over all a very clear sky and the setting
+sun, which gilded the summits of the old buildings
+and flashed on the river like a great silver scarf.</p>
+
+<p>While I was contemplating this magic spectacle
+the guide, who had read the <i>History of Toledo</i> and
+wished me to know the fact, was telling all sorts of
+stories with that manner, half poetical and half
+facetious, which is distinctive of the Spaniards of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">42</span>
+the South. Above all, he wished to explain the history
+of the work of fortification, and although, where
+he said that he saw clear and unmistakable remains
+which he pointed out to me, I saw nothing at all, I
+succeeded, nevertheless, in learning something about
+it.</p>
+
+<p>He told me that Toledo had been thrice surrounded
+by a wall, and that the traces of all three walls were
+still clear. "Look!" he said; "follow the line
+which my finger indicates: that is the Roman wall,
+the innermost one, and its ruins are still visible.
+Now look a little farther on: that other one beyond
+it is the Gothic wall. Now let your glance describe
+a curve which embraces the first two: that is the
+Moorish wall, the most recent. But the Moors also
+built an inner wall on the ruins of the Roman wall:
+this you can easily see. Then observe the direction
+of the streets, which converge toward the highest
+point of the city; follow the line of the roofs&mdash;here,
+so; you will see that all the streets go up zigzag,
+and they were built purposely in this manner, so that
+the city could be defended even after the walls had
+been destroyed; and the houses were built so close
+one against another in order that it would be possible
+to jump from roof to roof, you see; and then the
+Arabs have left it in their writings. This is the
+reason that the Spanish gentlemen from Madrid
+make me laugh when they come here and say,
+'Pooh! what streets!' You see, they do not know<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">43</span>
+a particle of history: if they knew the least bit, if
+they read a little instead of spending their days on
+the Prado and in the Recoleto, they would understand
+that there is a reason for the narrow streets
+of Toledo, and that Toledo is not a city for ignoramuses."</p>
+
+<p>I began to laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you not believe?" continued the custodian:
+"it is a sacred fact. Not a week ago, to cite a
+case, here comes a dandy from Madrid with his wife.
+Well, even as they were climbing the stairs they
+began to run down the city, the narrow streets, and
+the dark houses. When they came to this window
+and saw those two old towers down yonder on the
+plain on the left bank of the Tagus, they asked me
+what they were, and I answered, '<i>Los palacios de
+Galiana</i>.' 'Oh! what beautiful palaces!' they exclaimed,
+and began to laugh and looked in another
+direction. Why? Because they did not know their
+history. Now, I imagine that you do not know any
+better; but you are a stranger, and that makes a
+difference. Know, then, that the great emperor
+Charlemagne came to Toledo when he was a very
+young man. King Galafro was reigning then, and
+dwelt in that palace. King Galafro had a daughter
+Galiana, as beautiful as an angel; and, as Charlemagne
+was a guest of the king and saw the princess
+every day, he fell in love with her with all his heart,
+and so did the princess with him. But there was a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">44</span>
+rival between them, and this rival was the king of
+Guadalajara, a Moorish giant of herculean strength
+and the courage of a lion. This king, to see the
+princess without being seen, had a subterranean
+passage made all the way from the city of Guadalajara
+to the very foundation of the palace. But
+what good did it do? The princess could not even
+bear to see him, and as often as he came, so often
+did he return crestfallen; but not for this did the
+enamored king stop paying his court. And so much
+did he come hanging around that Charlemagne, who
+was not a man to be imposed upon, as you can
+imagine, lost his patience, and to end the matter
+challenged him. They fought: it was a terrible
+struggle, but the Moor, for all he was a giant, got
+the worst of it. When he was dead Charlemagne
+cut off his head and laid it at the feet of his love,
+who approved the delicacy of his offering, became a
+Christian, gave her hand to the prince, and went
+away with him to France, where she was proclaimed
+empress."</p>
+
+<p>"And the head of the Moor?"</p>
+
+<p>"You may laugh, but these are sacred facts.
+Do you see that old building down there at the
+highest point of the city? It is the church of San
+Ginés. And do you know what is inside of it?
+Nothing less than the door of an underground
+passage which extends three leagues beyond Toledo.
+You do not believe it? Listen! At the place<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">45</span>
+where the church of San Ginés now stands there
+once was an enchanted palace before the Moors
+invaded Spain. No king had ever had the courage
+to enter it, and those who might possibly have been
+so bold did not do it because, according to the tradition,
+the first man who crossed that threshold
+would be the ruin of Spain. Finally King Roderic,
+before setting out for the battle of Guadalete, hoping
+to find in it some treasures which would furnish
+him means to resist the invasion of the Moors, had
+the doors broken open and entered, preceded by his
+warriors, who lighted the way. After a great deal
+of trouble to keep their torches lighted for the
+furious wind which came through the underground
+passages, they reached a mysterious room where
+they saw a chest which bore the inscription, 'He
+who opens me will see miracles.' The king commanded
+that it be opened: with incredible difficulty
+they succeeded in opening it, but, instead of gold or
+diamonds, they found only a roll of linen, on which
+were painted some armed Moors, with this inscription
+underneath: '<i>Spain will soon be destroyed by
+these</i>.' That very night a violent tempest arose,
+the enchanted palace fell, and a short time afterward
+the Moors entered Spain. You don't seem to
+believe it?"</p>
+
+<p>"What stuff you are talking! How can I
+believe it?"</p>
+
+<p>"But this history is connected with another.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">46</span>
+You know, without doubt, that Count Julian, the
+commandant of the fortress of Ceuta, betrayed
+Spain and allowed the Moors to pass when he might
+have barred the way. But you do not know why
+Count Julian turned traitor. He had a daughter at
+Toledo, and this daughter went every day with a
+number of her young friends to bathe in the Tagus.
+As misfortune willed it, the place where they went
+to bathe, which was called <i>Los Baños de la Cava</i>,
+was near a tower in which King Roderic was accustomed
+to pass the mid-day hours. One day Count
+Julian's daughter, who was called Florinda, tired of
+sporting in the water, sat down on the river-bank
+and said to her companions, 'Companions, let us
+see who is the most beautiful.'&mdash;'Let us see!' they
+cried, and as soon done as said. They seated themselves
+around Florinda, and each one revealed her
+beauty. But Florinda surpassed them all, and,
+unfortunately, just at the moment when she said to
+the others, 'Look!' King Roderic put his head out
+of the window and saw them. Young and dissolute,
+you may imagine he took fire like a match, paid his
+court to the beautiful Florinda, ruined and abandoned
+her; and from this followed the fury of the revenge
+of Count Julian, the treason, and the invasion."</p>
+
+<p>At this point it seemed that I had listened long
+enough: I gave the custodian two <i>reales</i>, which he
+took and put in his pocket with a dignified air, and,
+giving a last look at Toledo, I descended.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">47</span></p>
+
+<p>It was the hour for promenading. The principal
+street, hardly wide enough for a carriage to pass
+through, was full of people; there may have been a
+few hundred persons, but they seemed like a great
+crowd; it was dusk, the shops were closing, and a
+few stray lights began to flicker here and there. I
+went to get my dinner, but came out quickly, so as
+not to lose sight of the promenade. It was night:
+there was no other illumination save the moonlight,
+and one could not see the faces of the people; I
+seemed to be in the midst of a procession of spectres,
+and was overwhelmed with sadness. "To think that
+I am alone!" I said&mdash;"that in all this city there is
+not a soul who knows me; that if I fall dead at this
+moment, there would not be a dog to say, 'Poor
+man! he was a good fellow!'" I saw joyous young
+men pass, fathers of families with their children,
+husbands or those who had the air of husbands
+with beautiful creatures on their arms; every one
+had a companion; they laughed and talked, and
+passed without so much as looking at me. How
+wretched I was! How happy I should have been if
+a boy, a beggar, or a policeman had come up and
+said, "It seems to me that I recognize you, sir"!&mdash;"It
+is impossible, I am a foreigner, I have never
+been in Toledo before; but it makes no matter;
+don't go away; stay here, and we will talk a while,
+for I am lonely."</p>
+
+<p>In a happy moment I remembered that at Madrid<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">48</span>
+I had received a letter of introduction to a Toledan
+gentleman. I hurried to the hotel, took out my letter,
+and was at once shown to his house. The gentleman
+was at home and received me courteously.
+It was such a pleasure to hear my own name again
+that I could have thrown my arms around his neck.
+He was Antonio Gamero, the author of a highly esteemed
+<i>History of Toledo</i>. We spent the evening
+together. I asked him a hundred things; he told
+me a thousand, and read me some splendid passages
+from his book, which made me better acquainted with
+Toledo than I should otherwise have been in a
+month's residence there.</p>
+
+<p>The city is poor, and worse than poor: it is dead;
+the rich have abandoned it for Madrid; the men of
+genius have followed the rich; it has no commerce;
+the manufacture of cutlery, the only industry which
+flourishes, provides a livelihood for some hundreds
+of families, but not for the city; popular education
+is neglected; the people are lazy and miserable.</p>
+
+<p>But they have not lost their ancient character of
+nobility. Like all the peoples of great declining cities,
+they are proud and chivalrous; they abhor baseness,
+deal justice with their own hands, when they can, to
+assassins and thieves and murderers; and, although
+the poet Zorilla, in one of his ballads, has bluntly
+called them a silly people, they are not so; they are
+alert and bold. They combine the seriousness of the
+Spaniards of the North with the vivacity of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">49</span>
+Spaniards of the South; they hold the middle ground
+between the Castilian and the Andalusian; they
+speak the language with refinement, with a greater
+variety of inflexion than the people of Madrid, and
+with greater precision than the people of Cordova
+and Seville; they love poetry and music; they are
+proud to number among their great men the gentle
+Garcilaso de la Vega, the reformer of Spanish poetry,
+and the illustrious Francisco de Rojas, the author of
+the <i>Garcia del Castañar</i>; and they take pride in
+welcoming within their walls artists and students
+from all the countries in the world who come to
+study the history of three nations and the monuments
+of three civilizations. But, whatever its
+people may be, Toledo is dead; the city of Wamba,
+of Alfonso the Brave, and of Padilla is nothing but
+a tomb. Since Philip II. took from it the crown of
+the capital, it has been steadily declining, and is still
+declining, and it is consuming itself little by little,
+solitary on the summit of its gloomy mountain, like
+a skeleton abandoned on a rock in the midst of the
+waves of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>I returned to the hotel shortly before midnight.
+Although the moon was shining brightly&mdash;for on
+moonlight nights they do not illuminate the streets,
+although the light of that silvery orb does not penetrate
+those narrow ways&mdash;I was obliged to grope my
+way along like a thief. With my head full, as it
+was, of fantastic ballads which describe the streets<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">50</span>
+of Toledo traversed at night by cavaliers muffled in
+their cloaks, singing under the windows of their
+ladies, fighting and killing one another, climbing
+into palaces and stealing the maidens away, I
+imagined I should hear the tinkle of guitars, the
+clashing of swords, and the cries of the dying.
+Nothing of the kind: the streets were deserted and
+silent and the windows dark, and one heard faintly
+from time to time at the corners and crossways the
+light step of some one passing or a fugitive whisper,
+the source of which one could in no way discover.
+I reached the hotel without harming any fair Toledan,
+which might have caused me some annoyance,
+and also without having any holes made in my
+stomach, which was undoubtedly a consolation.</p>
+
+<p>The morning of the next day I visited the beautiful
+building of the hospital of San Cruz, the church
+of <i>Nuestra Señora del Transito</i>, an ancient synagogue,
+the ruins of an amphitheatre and of an arena
+where naval battles were fought in Roman times,
+and the famous manufactory of arms, where I bought
+a beautiful dagger with a silver handle and a blade
+covered with arabesques, which at this moment lies
+on my table, and when I shut my eyes and take it
+in my hand I seem to be still there, in the courtyard
+of the factory, a mile out of Toledo, under the mid-day
+sun, surrounded by a group of soldiers, and enveloped
+in a cloud of smoke from their cigarettes.
+I remember that as I was walking back to Toledo,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">51</span>
+as I was crossing a bit of country solitary as a desert
+and silent as the Catacombs, a terrible voice cried
+out, "Away with the foreigner!"</p>
+
+<p>The voice came from the city. I stopped&mdash;I was
+the foreigner, that cry was directed at me, and my
+blood curdled; the solitude and silence of the place
+increased my fear. I started forward and the voice
+cried again, "Away with the foreigner!"</p>
+
+<p>"Is it a dream?" I exclaimed, stopping again, "or
+am I awake? Who is shouting? Where is he?
+Why does he do it?"</p>
+
+<p>I started on again, and the voice came the third
+time, "Away with the foreigner!"</p>
+
+<p>I stopped the third time, and when, all disturbed,
+I cast my eyes around, I saw a boy sitting on the
+ground, who looked at me with a laugh and said,
+"He is a crazy man, who thinks he is living in the
+time of the War of Independence. Look, sir! that
+is the insane asylum." And he pointed out the
+place on a hill among the outermost houses of
+Toledo. I drew a long breath which would have
+blown out a torch.</p>
+
+<p>In the evening I left Toledo, regretting that I had
+not time to see once and again all that was ancient
+and wonderful in it: this regret was tempered, however,
+by my ardent desire for Andalusia, which had
+not allowed me a moment's peace. But how long I
+saw Toledo before my eyes! How long I remembered
+and dreamed of those headlong rocks, those enor<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">52</span>mous
+walls, those dark streets, that fantastic appearance
+of a mediæval city! Even to-day I review
+the picture with a sort of sombre pleasure and grave
+melancholy, and with this picture before me my
+mind wanders back in a thousand strange thoughts
+among distant times and marvellous events.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">53</span></p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a><br /><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p>
+
+</div><div class="chapter">
+<h2><a name="CORDOVA" id="CORDOVA"></a>CORDOVA.</h2>
+
+
+<p>On arriving at Castillejo I was obliged to wait
+until midnight for the Andalusia train. I dined on
+hard-boiled eggs and oranges, with a little sprinkling
+of Val de Peñas, murmured a poem of Espronceda,
+chatted a little with a custom-house officer who between
+parentheses made me a confession of his political
+faith&mdash;Amadeus, liberty, an increase of wages
+to the custom-house officers, etc; finally I heard
+the long-desired whistle, entered a railway-carriage
+crowded full of women, children, civil guards, boxes,
+cushions, and wraps, and away with a speed unusual
+for the Spanish railways. It was a beautiful night;
+my travelling-companions talked of bulls and Carlists;
+a beautiful girl, whom more than one devoured
+with his eyes, pretended to sleep that she might still
+further heighten their curiosity; some were rolling
+cigarettes, some peeling oranges, others humming
+songs from the <i>Zarzuela</i>. Nevertheless, I fell
+asleep in a few minutes. I believe I had already
+dreamed of the mosque of Cordova and the Alcazar
+of Seville, when I was aroused by a hoarse cry,
+"Daggers!"</p>
+
+<p>"Daggers? Heavens! for whom?" Before I dis<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">56</span>covered
+who had shouted there flashed before my
+eyes a long sharp blade, and the unknown voice
+asked again,</p>
+
+<p>"Do you like it?"</p>
+
+<p>One must admit that there are pleasanter ways to
+be awakened. I looked in the faces of my travelling-companions
+with an expression of consternation,
+which made them all burst into a shout of laughter.
+Then they explained that at every railway-station
+there are vendors of knives and daggers who offer
+tourists their wares, just as the boys offer newspapers
+and refreshments in our country. Assured that my
+life was safe, I bought my scarecrow&mdash;five francs;
+a splendid dagger for a villain in a tragedy, with an
+ornamented handle, inscriptions on the blade, and a
+sheath of embroidered velvet; and I put it in my
+pocket, thinking that I might find it useful in Italy
+to settle difficulties with my publishers.</p>
+
+<p>The vendor must have had fifty of those knives
+in a great red sash tied around his waist. Other
+travellers bought them, the civil guards complimented
+one of my neighbors on the good selection
+he had made; the boys cried, "Buy me one too!"
+The mammas answered, "We will buy you a bigger
+one some other time." "O happy Spain!" I exclaimed,
+and thought with horror of our barbarous
+laws, which forbid the innocent amusement of a little
+cold steel.</p>
+
+<p>We crossed La Mancha, the celebrated La Mancha,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">57</span>
+the immortal theatre of the adventures of Don
+Quixote. It is such a place as I imagined&mdash;wide,
+bare plains, long tracts of sandy soil, here and there
+a windmill, a few wretched villages, lonely lanes,
+and forsaken huts. On seeing these places I felt
+that vague sense of melancholy which steals over
+me as I read the book of Cervantes, and repeated to
+myself what I always say on reading it: "This man
+cannot make one laugh without also making one's
+tears flow as the laughter dies away."</p>
+
+<p>Don Quixote is a sad and sombre figure: his madness
+is a lament; his life is the history of the dreams,
+illusions, awakenings, and aberrations of each of us;
+the struggle of reason with imagination, of truth
+with falsehood, of the ideal with the real. We all
+have something of Don Quixote in our nature; we
+all mistake windmills for giants; we are all now and
+then spurred on by the impulse of enthusiasm, only
+to be driven back by the laugh of scorn; we are
+each a mixture of the sublime and the ridiculous;
+we all feel bitterly and profoundly the eternal conflict
+between the grandeur of our aspirations and the
+impotence of our powers. O beautiful dreams of
+childhood and youth! Generous impulses to consecrate
+our life to the defence of virtue and justice,
+fond imaginations of dangers faced, of adventurous
+struggles, of magnanimous deeds, and sublime loves,
+fallen one by one, like the petals of a flower, in the
+narrow and uneventful paths of life! To what new<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">58</span>
+life have they arisen in our soul, and what vague
+thoughts and profound inspirations have we derived
+from thee, O generous and hapless cavalier of the
+sad figure!</p>
+
+<p>We arrived at Argamasilla de Alba, where Don
+Quixote was born and died, and where poor Cervantes,
+the tax-gatherer of the great priory of San Juan,
+was arrested by angry debtors and imprisoned in a
+house which is said to be still in existence, and
+where he probably conceived the plan of his
+romance. We passed near the village of Val de
+Peñas, which gives its name to one of the most
+exquisite wines of Spain&mdash;dark, tingling, exhilarating,
+the only one, forsooth, which permits the
+foreigner from the North to indulge in copious
+libations at his meals; and finally we arrived at
+Santa Cruz de Mudela, a village famous for its
+manufactories of <i>navajas</i> (knives and razors), near
+which the way begins to slope gently upward toward
+the mountain.</p>
+
+<p>The sun had risen, the women and children had
+left the carriage, and a number of peasants, officers,
+and <i>toreros</i> had entered on their way to Seville.
+One saw in that small space a variety of costume
+which would not be seen even in an Italian market-place&mdash;the
+pointed caps of the peasants of the
+Sierra Morena, the red trousers of the soldiers, the
+great sombreros of the <i>picadores</i>, the shawls of the
+gypsies, the mantles of the Catalans, Toledo blades<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">59</span>
+hanging from the walls, capes, belts, and finery of
+all the colors of a harlequin.</p>
+
+<p>The train entered the rocks of the Sierra Morena,
+which separate the valley of the Guadiana from that
+of the Guadalquivir, famous for the songs of poets
+and the deeds of brigands. The railway runs at
+times between two walls of rock sheer from the very
+peaks, so high that to see the top one must put one's
+head all the way out of the window and turn one's
+face up, as if to look at the roof of the carriage.
+Sometimes the rocks are farther away and rise one
+above the other, the first like enormous broken
+stones, the last straight and sharp like bold towers
+rising upon measureless bastions; between them a
+mass of boulders cut into teeth, steps, crests, and
+humps, some almost hanging in the air, others separated
+by deep caverns and frightful precipices, presenting
+a confusion of curious forms, of fantastic suggestions
+of houses, gigantic figures and ruins, and
+offering at every step a thousand outlines and surprising
+appearances; and, together with this infinite
+variety of form, an infinite variety of color, shadow,
+dancing and changing light. For long distances, to
+the right, to the left, and overhead, one sees nothing
+but stone, without a house, a path, or a patch of
+ground where a man could set his foot, and, as one
+advances, rocks, ravines, and precipices: everything
+grows larger, deeper, and higher until one
+reaches the summit of the Sierra, where the solemn<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">60</span>
+majesty of the spectacle provokes a cry of wonder.</p>
+
+<p>The train stopped a few minutes, and all the travellers
+put their heads out of the window.</p>
+
+<p>"Here," said one in a loud voice,&mdash;"here Cardenio
+jumped from rock to rock to do penance for
+his sins" (Cardenio, one of the most remarkable characters
+in <i>Don Quixote</i>, who jumped about among
+the rocks of the Sierra in his shirt to do penance for
+his sins). "I wish," continued the traveller, "that
+Sagasta might have to do the same."</p>
+
+<p>They all laughed, and began to find, each one on
+his own account, some political enemy upon whom
+in imagination he might inflict this punishment:
+one proposed Serrano, another Topete, and a third
+another, and so on, until in a few minutes, if their
+desires had been realized, one might have seen the
+entire Sierra filled with ministers, generals, and
+deputies in their shirts skipping from crag to crag
+like the famous rock of Alessandro Manzoni.</p>
+
+<p>The train started, the rocks disappeared, and the
+delightful valley of the Guadalquivir, the garden of
+Spain, the Eden of the Arabs, the paradise of
+painters and of poets, blessed Andalusia, revealed
+herself to my eyes. I can still feel the thrill of
+childish joy with which I hurried to the window,
+saying to myself, "Let me enjoy it."</p>
+
+<p>For a long distance the country does not offer any
+new appearance to the ardent curiosity of the travel<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">61</span>ler.
+At Vilches there is a vast plain, and beyond it
+the level country of Tolosa, where Alfonso VIII.,
+king of Castile, won the celebrated victory of <i>de las
+Navas</i> over the Mussulman army. The sky was as
+clear as air&mdash;in the distance rose the mountains of
+the Sierra de Segura. Suddenly I made one of
+those quick motions which seemed to correspond to
+an unuttered cry of astonishment: the first aloes
+with their broad heavy leaves, the unexpected harbingers
+of the tropical vegetation, rise beside the
+road. Beyond them the fields sprinkled with flowers
+begin to appear. The first fields sprinkled, those
+which follow almost covered, then vast tracts of
+country wholly clothed, with wild poppies, daisies,
+iris, mushrooms, cowslips, and buttercups, so that
+the country appears like a succession of vast carpets
+of purple and gold and snowy white, and far away,
+among the trees, innumerable streaks of blue, white,
+and yellow until the eye is lost; and hard by, on the
+edge of the ditches, the mounds, and the banks, even
+to the very track, flowers in beds, groups, and clusters,
+one above the other, fashioned like great
+bouquets, trembling on their stems, which one can
+almost touch with the hand. Then waving fields of
+grain with great heavy bearded heads, bordered by
+long gardens of roses; then orange-orchards and
+vast olive-groves; hillocks varied by a hundred
+shades of green, surmounted by ancient Moorish
+towers, dotted with many-colored cottages, with here<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">62</span>
+and there white, graceful bridges, which span rivulets
+hidden by the trees. On the horizon rise the
+snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada, and below this
+white line other blue undulating lines of the nearer
+mountains. The country grows ever more various
+and blooming: Arjonilla, embowered in an orange-grove
+whose limits are lost in the distance; Pedro
+Abad, in the midst of a plain covered with vineyards
+and orchards; Ventas de Alcolea, on the hills
+of the Sierra Morena, crowned with villas and gardens.
+We are drawing near to Cordova: the train
+flies; one sees little stations half hidden among trees
+and flowers; the wind blows the rose-leaves into the
+cars, great butterflies sail past the windows, a delicious
+perfume fills the air, the travellers are singing,
+we pass through an enchanted garden, the aloes,
+oranges, palms, and villas become more frequent;
+one hears a cry: "Here is Cordova!"</p>
+
+<p>How many beautiful images and how many memories
+are recalled by that name!</p>
+
+<p>Cordova, the ancient pearl of the Occident, as the
+Moorish poets called her, the city of cities, Cordova
+of the thirty burgs and the three thousand mosques,
+which contained within her walls the greatest temple
+of Islam! Her fame spread through the Orient and
+obscured the glory of ancient Damascus,&mdash;from the
+remotest regions of Asia the faithful journeyed
+toward the banks of the Guadalquivir to prostrate
+themselves in the marvellous mihrab of her mosque,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">63</span>
+in the blaze of a thousand brazen lamps cast from
+the bells of the Spanish cathedrals. From every
+part of the Mohammedan world artists, scholars, and
+poets crowded to her flourishing schools, her vast
+libraries, and the magnificent courts of her caliphs.
+Hither flowed wealth and beauty, drawn by the
+fame of her splendor.</p>
+
+<p>And from here they separated, eager for knowledge,
+along the coasts of Africa, among the schools of Tunis,
+Cairo, Bagdad, and Cufa, as far as India and
+China, in search of books, inspiration, and memories;
+and the poems sung on the slopes of the Sierra
+Morena flew from harp to harp even to the valleys
+of the Caucasus, to make the hearts of pilgrims burn
+within them. The beautiful, the mighty, the wise
+Cordova, crowned with three thousand villages,
+proudly reared her white minarets among her orange-groves
+and spread through the divine valley a
+voluptuous air of gladness and glory.</p>
+
+<p>I descend from the train, cross a garden, and look
+around: I am alone; the travellers who came with
+me have disappeared in different directions; I still
+hear the rumble of the receding carriages; then all is
+silent.</p>
+
+<p>It is mid-day: the sky is very clear, the air burning.
+I see two white cottages; it is the opening of
+a street; I enter and go forward. The street is narrow,
+the houses small as the little villas built on the
+hillocks of artificial gardens; nearly all of them are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">64</span>
+one story in height, with windows a little way from
+the ground, roofs so low that one can almost touch
+them with a cane, and very white walls. The street
+makes a turn; I look down it; no one is in sight; I
+do not hear a step nor a voice. "It must be an
+abandoned street," I say, and turn in another direction:
+white cottages, closed windows, solitude, and
+silence. "Where am I?" I ask myself.</p>
+
+<p>I walk on: the street is so narrow and crooked
+that a carriage could not pass through it; to the
+right and left one sees other deserted streets, other
+white houses, and other closed windows; my step
+echoes as in a corridor; the white of the walls is so
+bright that the reflection almost blinds me, and I am
+obliged to walk with my eyes closed; I seem to be
+passing through snow. I reach a little square:
+everything is closed, there is no one about. Then a
+feeling of vague melancholy begins to steal into my
+heart, such as I have never felt before, a mingling
+of enjoyment and sorrow like that which children
+experience when after a long run they find themselves
+in a beautiful country-place and enjoy it, but
+with a tremor of fear at being so far away from
+home. Above the many roofs rise the palms of the
+inner gardens. O fantastic legends of odalisques
+and caliphs!</p>
+
+<p>On from street to street and square to square; I
+meet a few persons, but they all pass and disappear
+like phantoms. The streets are all alike, the houses<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">65</span>
+have only two or four windows; and there is not a
+stain, not a scratch, not a crack in the walls, which
+are as smooth and white as a sheet of paper. Now
+and then I hear a whisper behind a venetian blind,
+and almost at the same moment see a dark head with
+a flower in the hair peep out and disappear. I approach
+a door.</p>
+
+<p>A <i>patio</i>! How shall I describe a <i>patio</i>? It is not
+a courtyard, it is not a garden, it is not a room; it is
+the three in one. Between the <i>patio</i> and the street
+there is a vestibule. On the four sides of the <i>patio</i>
+rise graceful columns which support a sort of balcony
+enclosed in glass at the height of the second
+story; over the balcony extends a canvas which
+shades the court. The vestibule is flagged with
+marble, the doorway supported by columns surmounted
+by bas-reliefs and closed by a delicate iron
+lattice of very beautiful design. At the back of the
+<i>patio</i>, opposite the doorway, stands a statue, in the
+centre a fountain, and all around chairs, work-tables,
+paintings, and vases of flowers. I run to another
+door. Another <i>patio</i>, its walls covered with ivy,
+and a line of niches containing statuettes and urns.
+I hurry to a third door. A <i>patio</i> with its walls
+adorned with mosaic, a palm in the centre, and all
+around a mass of flowers. A fourth door. Behind
+the <i>patio</i> another vestibule, and then a second <i>patio</i>,
+in which one sees other statues, columns, and fountains.
+And all these rooms and gardens are clean<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">66</span>
+and tidy, so that you could pass your hands over the
+walls and along the floor without leaving a mark;
+and they are fresh and fragrant, lighted with a dim
+light which heightens their beauty and mystery.</p>
+
+<p>Still forward, from street to street, at random.
+Gradually, as I walk on, my curiosity increases and
+I hasten my steps. It seems impossible that the
+whole city can be like this: I am afraid of coming
+upon a house or finding a street which will remind
+me of other cities and rouse me from my pleasant
+dream.</p>
+
+<p>But, no: the dream is unbroken. Everything is
+small, graceful, mysterious. Every hundred paces a
+deserted little square, in which I stop breathless;
+now and then a crossway, and not a living soul;
+and everything always white&mdash;closed windows and
+silence. At every door there is a new spectacle:
+arches, columns, flowers, fountains, palms; a marvellous
+variety of design, color, light, perfume, here
+of roses, there of oranges, yonder of violets; and
+with the perfume a breath of fresh air, and borne on
+the air the subdued sound of women's voices, the
+rustling of leaves, and the singing of birds&mdash;a sweet
+and various harmony, which, without disturbing the
+silence of the street, soothes the ear like the echo of
+distant music. Ah! it is not a dream! Madrid,
+Italy, Europe, surely they are far, far away. Here
+one lives another life, here one breathes the air of
+another world; I am in the Orient.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">67</span></p>
+
+<p>I remember that at a certain point I stopped in
+the middle of the street and suddenly discovered, I
+know not how, that I was sad and restless, and that
+in my heart there was a void which neither admiration
+nor enjoyment could fill. I felt an irrepressible
+necessity of entering those houses and those gardens,
+of tearing asunder, so to speak, the mysterious veil
+which concealed the life of the unknown people
+within; of sharing in that life; of grasping some
+hand and gazing into two pitying eyes, and saying,
+"I am a stranger, I am alone; I too want to be
+happy; let me linger among your flowers, let me
+enjoy all the secrets of your paradise, teach me who
+you are and how you live; smile on me and calm me,
+for my head is burning!"</p>
+
+<p>And this sadness grew upon me until I said to
+myself, "I cannot stay in this city; I am suffering
+here; I will leave it!"</p>
+
+<p>And I believe I should have left if at a happy
+moment I had not remembered that I carried in my
+pocket a letter of introduction to two young men of
+Cordova, brothers of a friend of mine in Florence.
+I dismissed the idea of leaving, and started at once
+to find them.</p>
+
+<p>How they laughed when I told them of the impression
+Cordova had made upon me! They proposed
+that we go at once to see the cathedral; so
+we turned down a narrow white street and were
+off.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">68</span></p>
+
+<p>The mosque of Cordova, which was converted
+into a cathedral after the overthrow of the Moors,
+but which must always remain a mosque, was built
+on the ruins of the original cathedral, a little way
+back from the bank of the Guadalquivir. Abdurrahman
+commenced its construction in the year 785
+or 786 <span class="smcap">A. D.</span> "Let us rear a mosque," said he,
+"which shall surpass that of Bagdad, of Damascus,
+and of Jerusalem&mdash;a mosque which shall be the
+greatest temple of Islam, one which shall become
+the Mecca of the West." They undertook the work
+with great ardor. Christian slaves carried the stone
+for its foundations from their ruined churches; Abdurrahman
+himself worked an hour every day; in
+a few years the mosque was built, the caliphs who
+succeeded Abdurrahman embellished it, and after a
+century of almost continuous labor it was finished.</p>
+
+<p>"Here we are!" said one of my friends, stopping
+suddenly in front of a vast edifice.</p>
+
+<p>I thought it was a fortress, but it was the wall
+which surrounds the mosque&mdash;an old embattled wall
+in which there were at one time twenty great bronze
+doors ornamented with the most beautiful arabesques,
+and arched windows supported by graceful columns,
+now covered by a triple coat of plaster. A turn
+around this wall is a nice little walk to take after
+dinner: one may judge, therefore, of the vast size
+of the building.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<div class="caption"><i><a id="Court_of_Oranges"></a>Court of Oranges, Mosque of Cordova</i></div>
+<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b068c.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">69</span></p>
+
+<p>The principal door of the enclosure is north of
+the point where rises the minaret of Abdurrahman,
+from whose summit floated the Mohammedan standard.
+We entered: I expected to see at once the
+interior of the mosque, but found myself in a garden
+full of orange trees, cypresses, and palms, surrounded
+on three sides by a very beautiful portico and closed
+on the fourth side by the façade of the mosque.
+In the midst of this garden there was, in the time
+of the Moors, the fountain for their ablutions, and
+in the shade of these trees the faithful refreshed
+themselves before entering the sanctuary.</p>
+
+<p>I stood for some moments looking around and
+breathing in the fresh odorous air with the liveliest
+sense of pleasure, and my heart leaped at the
+thought of the famous mosque standing there before
+me, and I felt myself impelled toward the door by
+a boundless curiosity, and at the same time restrained
+by I know not what feeling of childish hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us enter," said my companions. "One
+moment more," I replied: "let me thoroughly enjoy
+the delight of anticipation." Finally I moved forward
+and entered, without so much as looking at
+the marvellous doorway which my companions
+pointed out.</p>
+
+<p>What I did or said on entering I do not know, but
+some strange exclamation must surely have escaped
+me or I must have made an odd gesture, for some
+persons who were just then coming toward me began
+to laugh and turned again to look around, as if to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">70</span>
+discover the reason of the profound emotion which
+I had manifested.</p>
+
+<p>Imagine a forest and suppose yourself in the
+thickest part, where you see only the trunks of
+trees. So in the mosque wherever you turn your
+gaze is lost among the columns. It is a forest of
+marble whose boundaries one cannot discover. One
+follows with the eye, one by one, those lengthening
+rows of columns crossed at every step by innumerable
+other rows, and perceives a dimly-lighted background
+in which one seems to see the gleaming of
+still other columns. There are nineteen naves which
+extend in the direction in which you enter, crossed
+by thirty-three other naves, and supported, in all,
+by more than nine hundred columns of porphyry,
+jasper, onyx, and marble of every color. Each
+column is surmounted by a pilaster, and between one
+column and the next bends an arch, and a second
+arch above the first extends from pilaster to pilaster,
+both of them in the form of a horseshoe; and so,
+imagining the columns to be the trunks of so many
+trees and the arches to represent the branches, the
+resemblance of the mosque to a forest is complete.</p>
+
+<p>The central nave, much larger than the others,
+leads to the Maksura, the most sacred part of the
+temple, where they worshipped the Koran. Here
+from the vaulted windows steals a faint ray of light
+which glides along a row of columns; there a dark
+place, and yonder another ray pierces the gloom of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">71</span>
+another nave. It is impossible to express the feeling
+of mystical wonder which fills one's mind at this
+spectacle. It is like the sudden revelation of a religion,
+a nature, and a life unknown, leading the
+fancy captive among the delights of that paradise
+of love and pleasure where the blessed, sitting in the
+shade of leafy plane trees and of thornless roses,
+drink from crystal beakers wine gleaming like
+pearls, mixed by immortal children, and repose in
+the embrace of lovely virgins with great dark eyes!
+All the images of that external pleasure, eager,
+warm, and glowing, which the Koran promises to
+the faithful, crowd upon the mind at the first sight
+of the mosque, and give one a delicious moment of
+intoxication which leaves in the heart an indescribable
+feeling of gentle melancholy. A brief tumult
+in the mind and a rapid thrill which goes tingling
+through the veins,&mdash;such is one's first sensation on
+entering the cathedral of Cordova.</p>
+
+<p>We began to wander from passage to passage, examining
+everything minutely. What a variety in
+that edifice which at first sight appears so uniform!
+The proportions of the columns, the design of the
+capitals, the form of the arches change, one may
+say, at every step. The greater part of the columns
+are old and were taken by the Moors from Northern
+Spain, Gaul, and Roman Africa, and one is said to
+have belonged to a temple of Janus, upon whose
+ruins stood the church which the Arabians destroyed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">72</span>
+to build the mosque. On several of the capitals one
+may still see the traces of the crosses carved upon
+them, which the Arabians broke off with their
+hammers. In some of the columns iron rings are
+fastened to which it is said the Arabians bound the
+Christians, and among the others there is one
+pointed out to which the popular tradition narrates
+a Christian was bound for many years, and in that
+time, by continually scratching with his nails, he
+succeeded in engraving a cross on the stone, which
+the guides show with profound veneration.</p>
+
+<p>We entered the Maksura, which is the most perfect
+and marvellous work of Moorish art of the twelfth
+century. At the entrance there are three continuous
+chapels, with vaulted roofs formed by indented
+arches, and walls covered with magnificent mosaics
+which represent wreaths and flowers and passages
+from the Koran. At the back of the middle chapel
+is the principal <i>mihrab</i>, the holy place, where dwelt
+the Spirit of God. It is a niche with an octagonal
+base enclosed above by a colossal marble shell. In
+the <i>mihrab</i> was kept the Koran written by the hands
+of the caliph Othman, covered with gold, adorned
+with pearls, suspended above a seat of aloe-wood;
+and here came thousands of the faithful to
+make the circuit of it seven times on their knees.
+On approaching the wall I felt the pavement slipping
+from under me: the marble had been worn
+hollow!</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">73</span></p>
+
+<p>On leaving the niche I stood a long time contemplating
+the vault and the walls of the principal
+chapel, the only part of the mosque which has been
+preserved almost intact. It is a dazzling flash of
+crystals of a thousand colors, an interweaving of
+arabesques which confuse the mind, a mingling of
+bas-reliefs, gilding, ornaments, and minute details of
+design and coloring of a delicacy, grace, and perfection
+which would prove the despair of the most patient
+artist. It is impossible to retain in one's mind
+any part of that prodigious work: you might return
+a hundred times to look at it, but in reality it would
+only remain before your eyes as a tantalizing blur
+of blue, red, green, golden, and luminous shades of
+colors, or a very intricate piece of embroidery continually
+and rapidly changing in color and design.
+Only from the ardent and tireless imagination of the
+Moors could such a miracle of art have issued.</p>
+
+<p>We began to wander through the mosque again,
+observing here and there on the walls the arabesques
+of the ancient doorways which are now and then
+discovered under the detestable plaster of the Christians.
+My companions looked at me, laughed, and
+whispered something to each other. "Have you
+not seen it yet?" one of them asked me.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>They looked at me again and smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"You think you have seen all the mosque, do
+you?" continued my companion.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">74</span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed," I replied, looking around.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said the first, "you have not seen it all,
+and what remains to be seen is nothing less than a
+church."</p>
+
+<p>"A church?" I exclaimed stupefied, "but where
+is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Look!" answered my other companion, pointing;
+"it is in the very centre of the mosque."</p>
+
+<p>"By the powers!" And I had not seen it!</p>
+
+<p>From this one may judge of the vastness of the
+mosque.</p>
+
+<p>We went to see the church. It is beautiful and
+very rich, with a magnificent high altar and a choir
+worthy to stand beside those in the cathedrals of
+Burgos and Toledo, but, like everything out of
+place, it moves one to anger rather than admiration.
+Without this church the appearance of the mosque
+would be much improved. Charles V., who himself
+gave the chapter permission to build it, repented
+when he saw the Mohammedan temple for the first
+time. Besides the church there is a sort of Moorish
+chapel in a good state of preservation, rich in mosaics
+not less varied and splendid than those of the
+Maksura, and where it is said the ministers of the
+faith used to assemble to discuss the book of the
+Prophet.</p>
+
+<p>Such is the mosque to-day. But what must it
+have been in the time of the Arabs! It was not entirely
+enclosed by a wall, but open, so that one could<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">75</span>
+see the garden from every side, and from the garden
+one could look to the very end of the long naves,
+and the fragrance of orange-blossoms and flowers
+was wafted even to the vaulted roofs of the Maksura.
+The columns, which now number less than a thousand,
+were then fourteen hundred in number; the
+ceiling was of cedar-wood and larch, carved and enamelled
+with exquisite workmanship; the walls were
+lined with marble; the light of eight hundred lamps
+filled with fragrant oil made the crystals in the mosaic-work
+flash like pearls, and produced on the pavement,
+the arches, and the walls a marvellous play of
+color and reflection. "A sea of splendors," sang a
+poet, filled the mysterious enclosure, and the warm
+air was laden with perfume and harmony, and the
+thoughts of the faithful wandered and were lost in
+the labyrinth of columns gleaming like lances in the
+sun.</p>
+
+<p>Frederick Schrack, the author of a good work on
+the <i>Poetry and Art of the Moors in Spain and Sicily</i>,
+gives a description of the mosque on a day of solemn
+festival, which forms a very lively image of the Mohammedan
+religion and completes the picture of the
+monument.</p>
+
+<p>On both sides of the almimbar, or pulpit, wave
+two banners, to signify that Islam has triumphed
+over Judaism and Christianity and that the Koran
+has conquered both the Old and the New Testament.
+The <i>almnedani</i> ascend to the gallery of the high<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">76</span>
+minaret and intone the salam, or salutation, to the
+Prophet. Then the aisles of the mosque are filled
+with believers, who with white vestments and in
+festal attire come together to worship. In a few
+moments, throughout the length and breadth of the
+edifice, one sees only kneeling people. The caliph
+enters by the secret way which leads from the Alcazar
+to the temple, and seats himself in his elevated
+station. A reader of the Koran reads a <i>sura</i> from
+the low desk of the pulpit.</p>
+
+<p>The voice of the muezzin sounds again, calling
+men to mid-day prayer. All the faithful rise and
+murmur their prayers, bowing as they do so. An
+attendant of the mosque opens the doors of the pulpit
+and seizes a sword, and, holding it, he turns
+toward Mecca, admonishing the people to worship
+Mohammed, while the <i>mubaliges</i> are chanting his
+praises from the gallery. Then the preacher mounts
+the pulpit, taking from the hand of the servant the
+sword, which calls to mind and symbolizes the subjection
+of Spain to the power of Islam. It is the
+day when the <i>Djihad</i>, or the holy war, must be proclaimed,
+the call for all able-bodied men to go to
+war and descend into the battlefield against the
+Christians. The multitude listens with silent devotion
+to the sermon, woven from texts of the Koran,
+which begins in this wise:</p>
+
+<p>"Praise be to Allah, who has increased the glory
+of Islam, thanks to the sword of the champion of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">77</span>
+faith, who in his holy book has promised succor and
+victory to the believer.</p>
+
+<p>"Allah scatters his benefits over the world.</p>
+
+<p>"If he did not put it in the hearts of men to take
+up arms against their fellows, the world would be lost.</p>
+
+<p>"Allah has ordained to fight against the people
+until they know that there is but one God.</p>
+
+<p>"The torch of war will not be extinguished until
+the end of the world.</p>
+
+<p>"The blessing of God will fall upon the mane of
+the war-horse to the day of judgment.</p>
+
+<p>"Armed from head to foot or but lightly clad, it
+matters not&mdash;up and away!</p>
+
+<p>"O believers! what shall be done to you if, when
+called to the battle, you remain with face turned to
+the earth?</p>
+
+<p>"Do you prefer the life of this world to the life
+to come?</p>
+
+<p>"Believe me, the gates of paradise stand in the
+shadow of the sword.</p>
+
+<p>"He who dies in battle for the cause of God shall
+wash away with his blood all the defilement of his
+sins.</p>
+
+<p>"His body shall not be wasted like the other
+bodies of the dead, for on the day of judgment his
+wounds shall yield a fragrance like musk.</p>
+
+<p>"When the warriors present themselves at the
+gates of paradise, a voice within shall ask, 'What
+have you done in your life?'</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">78</span></p>
+
+<p>"And they shall answer, 'We have brandished
+the sword in the struggle for the cause of God.'</p>
+
+<p>"Then the eternal doors will swing open, and the
+warriors will enter forty years before the rest.</p>
+
+<p>"Up, then, ye faithful; leave your women, your
+children, your kindred, and your goods, and go out
+to the holy war!</p>
+
+<p>"And thou, God, Lord of this present world
+and of that which is to come, fight for the armies
+of those who recognize thy unity! Cast down the
+unbelievers, the idolaters, and the enemies of thy
+holy faith! Overwhelm their standards, and give
+them, with whatever they possess, as a prey to the
+Mussulman!"</p>
+
+<p>The preacher as he ends his discourse turns toward
+the congregation and exclaims, "Ask of God!" and
+begins to pray in silence.</p>
+
+<p>All the faithful, with heads bowed to the ground,
+follow his example. The <i>mubaliges</i> chant, "Amen!
+Amen, O Lord of all being!" Burning like the heat
+which precedes the oncoming tempest, the enthusiasm
+of the multitude, restrained at first in awful silence,
+now breaks out into deep murmurs, which rise like
+the waves and swell through all parts of the temple,
+until finally the naves, the chapels, and the vaulted
+roofs resound to the echo of a thousand voices
+united in a single cry: "There is no God but
+Allah!"</p>
+
+<p>The mosque of Cordova is even to-day, by uni<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">79</span>versal
+consent, the most beautiful temple of Islam
+and one of the most marvellous monuments in the
+world.</p>
+
+<p>When we left the mosque it was already long past
+the hour of the siesta, which everybody takes in the
+cities of Southern Spain, and which is a necessity
+by reason of the insupportable heat of the noon
+hours. The streets began to fill with people.
+"Alas!" said I to my companions, "how badly the
+silk hat looks in the streets of Cordova! How have
+you the heart to introduce the fashion-plates in this
+beautiful Oriental picture? Why do you not adopt
+the dress of the Moors?" Coxcombs pass, workmen,
+and girls: I looked at them all with great
+curiosity, hoping to find one of those fantastic
+figures which Doré has represented as examples
+of the Andalusian type, with that dark-brown complexion,
+those thick lips, and large eyes, but I saw
+none. Walking toward the centre of the city, I
+saw the first Andalusian women&mdash;ladies, girls and
+women of the middle classes&mdash;almost all small, graceful,
+and well-formed, some of them beautiful, many
+attractive in appearance, but the greater part neither
+one thing nor the other, as is the case in all countries.
+In their dress, with the exception of the so-called
+mantilla, they do not differ at all from the
+French women nor from those of our country&mdash;great
+masses of false hair in plaits, knots, and long
+curls, short petticoats, long plaited over-skirts, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">80</span>
+boots with heels as sharp as daggers. The ancient
+Andalusian costume has disappeared from the city.</p>
+
+<p>I thought that in the evening the streets would be
+crowded, but I saw only a few people, and only in
+the streets of the principal quarters; the others
+remain as empty as at the hour of the siesta. And
+one must pass through those deserted streets at night
+to enjoy Cordova. One sees the light streaming
+from the <i>patios</i>; one sees in the dark corners fond
+lovers in close colloquy, the girls usually at the windows,
+with a hand resting lightly on the iron grating,
+and the young men close to the wall in poetic attitudes,
+with watchful eyes, but not so watchful, however,
+as to make them take their lips from those
+hands before they discover that some one is passing;
+and one hears the sound of guitars, the murmur
+of fountains, sighs, the laughter of children, and
+mysterious rustlings.</p>
+
+<p>The following morning, still stirred by the Oriental
+dreams of the night, I again began my wandering
+through the city. To describe all that is remarkable
+there one would require a volume: it is a
+very museum of Roman and Arabian antiquities,
+and one finds a profusion of martial columns and
+inscriptions in honor of the emperors; the remains
+of statues and bas-reliefs; six ancient gates; a great
+bridge over the Guadalquivir dating from the time
+of Octavius Augustus and restored by the Arabians;
+ruins of towers and walls; houses which belonged<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">81</span>
+to the caliphs, and which still contain the columns
+and the subterranean arches of the bathing apartments;
+and everywhere there are doors, vestibules,
+and stairways that would delight a legion of archæologists.</p>
+
+<p>Toward noon, as I was passing through a lonely
+little street, I saw a sign on the wall of a house
+beside a Roman inscription, <i>Casa de huespedes.
+Almuerzos y comidas</i>, and as I read I felt the gnawing,
+as Giusti says, of such a desperate hunger that
+I determined to give it a quietus in this little shop
+upon which I had stumbled. I passed through a
+little vestibule, and found myself in a <i>patio</i>. It was
+a poor little <i>patio</i>, without marble floor and without
+fountains, but white as snow and fresh as a garden.
+As I saw neither tables nor chairs, I feared I had
+mistaken the door and started to go out. A little
+old woman bustled out from I know not where and
+stopped me.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you anything to eat?" I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir," she answered.</p>
+
+<p>"What have you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Eggs, sausages, chops, peaches, oranges, and
+wine of Malaga."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good: you may bring everything you
+have."</p>
+
+<p>She commenced by bringing me a table and a
+chair, and I sat down and waited. Suddenly I heard
+a door open behind me and turned.... Angels of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">82</span>
+heaven! what a sight I saw!&mdash;the most beautiful of
+all the most beautiful Andalusians, not only of those
+whom I saw at Cordova, but of all those whom I
+afterward saw at Seville, Cadiz, and Granada: if I
+may be allowed to use the word, a superb girl, who
+would make one flee or commit some deviltry; one
+of those faces which make you cry, "O poor me!"
+like Giuseppe Baretti when he was travelling in
+Spain. For some moments she stood motionless
+with her eyes fixed on mine as if to say, "Admire
+me;" then she turned toward the kitchen and cried,
+"<i>Tia, despachate!</i>" ("Hurry up, aunty!") This
+gave me an opportunity of thanking her with a
+stammering tongue, and gave her a pretence for approaching
+me and replying, "It is nothing," with a
+voice so gentle that I was obliged to offer her a
+chair, whereupon she sat down. She was a girl
+about twenty years old, tall, straight as a palm, and
+dark, with two great eyes full of sweetness, lustrous
+and humid as though she had just been in tears:
+she wore a mass of wavy jet-black hair with a rose
+among her locks. She seemed like one of the Arabian
+virgins of the tribe of the Usras for whom men
+died of love.</p>
+
+<p>She herself opened the conversation:</p>
+
+<p>"You are a foreigner, I should think, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"French?"</p>
+
+<p>"Italian."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">83</span></p>
+
+<p>"Italian? A fellow-countryman of the king?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know him, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"By sight!"</p>
+
+<p>"They say he is a handsome young fellow."</p>
+
+<p>I did not answer, and she began to laugh, and
+asked me, "What are you looking at, sir?" and,
+still laughing, she hid her foot, which on taking her
+seat she thrust well forward that I might see it.
+Ah! there is not a woman in that country who does
+not know that the feet of the Andalusians are famous
+throughout the world.</p>
+
+<p>I seized the opportunity of turning the conversation
+upon the fame of the Andalusian women, and
+expressed my admiration in the most fervent words
+of my vocabulary. She allowed me to talk on, looking
+with great attention at the crack in the table,
+then raising her face, she asked me, "And in Italy,
+how are the women there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there are beautiful women in Italy too."</p>
+
+<p>"But ... they are cold?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, not at all," I hastened to respond; "but,
+you know, ... in every country the women have
+an <i>I-know-not-what</i> which distinguishes them from
+the women of all other countries; and among them all
+the <i>I-know-not-what</i> of the Andalusians is probably
+the most dangerous for a poor traveller whose hairs
+have not turned gray. There is a word to express
+what I mean: if I could remember it, I would say<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">84</span>
+it to you; I would say, "<i>Señorita</i>, you are the
+most ..."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Salada</i>," exclaimed the girl, covering her face
+with her hands.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Salada!</i> ... the most <i>salada</i> Andalusian in
+Cordova."</p>
+
+<p><i>Salada</i> is the word commonly used in Andalusia
+to describe a woman beautiful, charming, affectionate,
+languid, ardent, what you will&mdash;a woman with
+two lips which say, "Drink me," and two eyes
+which make one close one's teeth.</p>
+
+<p>The aunt brought me the eggs, chops, sausage,
+and oranges, and the girl continued the conversation:
+"Sir, you are an Italian: have you seen the
+Pope?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I am sorry to say."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it possible? An Italian who has not seen the
+Pope! And tell me, sir: why do the Italians make
+him suffer so much?"</p>
+
+<p>"Suffer in what way?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. They say that they have shut him up in
+his house and thrown stones at the windows."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no! Don't believe it! There is not a particle
+of truth in it," etc., etc.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you seen Venice, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Venice? oh yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it true that it is a city which floats on the
+sea?"</p>
+
+<p>And here she made a thousand requests that I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">85</span>
+would describe Venice, and that I would tell her
+what the people were like in that strange city, and
+what they do all the day long, and how they dress.
+And while I was talking besides the pains I took
+to express myself with a little grace, and to eat
+meanwhile the badly-cooked eggs and stale sausage&mdash;I
+was obliged to see her draw nearer and nearer
+to me, that she might hear me better perhaps, without
+being conscious of the act. She came so close
+that I could smell the fragrance of the rose in her
+hair and feel her warm breath; I was obliged, I may
+say, to make three efforts at once&mdash;one with my
+head, another with my stomach, and a third with
+both&mdash;especially when, now and then, she would say,
+"How beautiful!"&mdash;a compliment which applied to
+the Grand Canal, but which had upon me the effect
+a bag full of napoleons might have upon a beggar if
+swung under his nose by an insolent banker.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, señorita!" I said at last, beginning to lose
+patience, "what matters it, after all, whether cities
+are beautiful or not? Those who are born in them
+think nothing of it, and the traveller still less. I
+arrived at Cordova yesterday: it is a beautiful city,
+without doubt. Well&mdash;will you believe it?&mdash;I have
+already forgotten all that I have seen; I no longer
+wish to see anything; I do not even know what city
+I am in. Palaces, mosques, they make me laugh.
+When you have a consuming fire in your heart, do
+you go to the mosque to quench it?&mdash;Excuse me,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">86</span>
+will you move back a little?&mdash;When you feel such a
+madness that you could grind up a plate with your
+teeth, do you go to look at palaces? Believe me,
+the traveller's life is a sad one. It is a penance of
+the hardest sort. It is torture. It is...." A
+prudent blow with her fan closed my mouth, which
+was going too far both in words and action. I attacked
+the chop.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor fellow!" murmured the Andalusian with a
+laugh after she had given a glance around. "Are
+all the Italians as ardent as you?"</p>
+
+<p>"How should I know? Are all the Andalusians
+as beautiful as you?"</p>
+
+<p>The girl laid her hand on the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Take that hand away," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I want to eat in peace."</p>
+
+<p>"Eat with one hand."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!"</p>
+
+<p>I seemed to be pressing the little hand of a girl
+of six; my knife fell to the ground; a dark veil
+settled upon the chop.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly my hand was empty: I opened my
+eyes, saw the girl all disturbed, and looked behind
+me. Gracious Heavens! There was a handsome
+young fellow, with a stylish little jacket, tight
+breeches, and a velvet cap. Oh terrors! a <i>torero</i>!
+I gave a start as if I had felt two <i>banderillas de
+fuego</i> planted in my neck.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">87</span></p>
+
+<p>"I see it at a glance," said I to myself, like the
+man at the comedy; and one could not fail to understand.
+The girl, slightly embarrassed, made the introduction:
+"An Italian passing through Cordova,"
+and she hastened to add, "who wants to know when
+the train leaves for Seville."</p>
+
+<p>The <i>torero</i>, who had frowned at first sight of me,
+was reassured, told me the hour of departure, sat
+down, and entered into a friendly conversation. I
+asked for the news of the last bull-fight at Cordova:
+he was a <i>banderillero</i>, and he gave me a minute
+description of the day's sport. The girl in the
+mean time was gathering flowers from the vases in
+the <i>patio</i>. I finished my meal, offered a glass of
+Malaga to the <i>torero</i>, drank to the fortunate planting
+of all his <i>banderillas</i>, paid my bill (three <i>pesetas</i>,
+which included the beautiful eyes, you understand),
+and then, putting on a bold front, so as to dispel the
+least shadow of suspicion from the mind of my
+formidable rival, I said to the girl, "<i>Señorita!</i> one
+can refuse nothing to those who are taking leave.
+To you I am like a dying man; you will never see
+me again; you will never hear my name spoken:
+then let me take some memento; give me that bunch
+of flowers."</p>
+
+<p>"Take it," said the girl; "I picked it for you."</p>
+
+<p>She glanced at the <i>torero</i>, who gave a nod of
+approval.</p>
+
+<p>"I thank you with all my heart," I replied as I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">88</span>
+turned to leave. They both accompanied me to the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you bull-fights in Italy?" asked the young
+man.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh heavens! no, not yet!"</p>
+
+<p>"Too bad! Try to make them popular in Italy
+also, and I will come to <i>banderillar</i> at Rome."</p>
+
+<p>"I will do all in my power.&mdash;<i>Señorita</i>, have the
+goodness to tell me your name, so that I may bid
+you good-bye."</p>
+
+<p>"Consuelo."</p>
+
+<p>"God be with you, Consuelo!"</p>
+
+<p>"God be with you, <i>Señor Italiano</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>And I went out into the lonely little street.</p>
+
+<p>There are no remarkable Arabian monuments to
+be seen in the neighborhood of Cordova, although at
+one time the whole valley was covered with magnificent
+buildings. Three miles to the south of the
+city, on the side of the mountain, rose the Medina
+Az-Zahra, the city of flowers, one of the most
+marvellous architectural works of the caliph Abdurrahman,
+begun by the caliph himself in honor
+of his favorite Az-Zahra. The foundations were
+laid in the year 936, and ten thousand workmen
+labored on the edifice for twenty-five years. The
+Arabian poets celebrated Medina Az-Zahra as the
+most splendid of royal palaces and the most delightfullyl
+garden in the world. It was not an edifice, but
+a vast chain of palaces, gardens, courts, colonnades,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">89</span>
+and towers. There were rare plants from Syria&mdash;the
+fantastic playing of lofty fountains, streams of
+water flowing in the shade of palm trees, and great
+basins overflowing with quicksilver, which reflected
+the rays of the sun like lakes of fire; doors of
+ebony and ivory studded with gems; thousands of
+columns of the most precious marbles; great airy
+balconies; and between the innumerable multitudes
+of statues twelve images of animals of massy gold,
+gleaming with pearls, sprinkling sweetened water
+from their mouths and noses. In this vast palace
+swarmed thousands of servants, slaves, and women,
+and hither from every part of the world came poets
+and musicians. And yet this same Abdurrahman
+III., who lived among all these delights, who reigned
+for fifty years, who was powerful, glorious, and fortunate
+in every circumstance and enterprise, wrote
+before his death that during his long reign he had
+been happy only fourteen days, and his fabulous city
+of flowers seventy-four years after the laying of its
+first stone was invaded, sacked, and burned by a
+barbarian horde, and to-day there remain only a few
+stones which hardly recall its name.</p>
+
+<p>Of another splendid city, called Zahira, which rose
+to the east of Cordova, built by the powerful Almansur,
+governor of the kingdom, not even the ruins
+remain: a handful of rebels laid it in ashes a little
+while after the death of its founder.</p>
+
+<p>
+"All returns to the great ancient mother."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">90</span></p>
+
+<p>Instead of taking a drive around Cordova, I
+simply wandered here and there, weaving fancies
+from the names of the streets, which to me is one
+of the greatest pleasures in which a traveller may
+indulge in a foreign city. Cordova, <i>alma ingeniorum
+parens</i>, could write at every street-corner the name
+of an artist or an illustrious author born within her
+walls; to give her due honor, she has remembered
+them all with maternal gratitude. You find the
+little square of Seneca and the house where he may
+have been born; the street of Ambrosio Morales, the
+historian of Charles V., who continued the <i>Chronicle
+General of Spain</i> commenced by Florian d'Ocampo;
+the street of Pablo de Cespedes, painter, architect,
+sculptor, antiquary, and the author of a didactic
+poem, "The Art of Painting," unfortunately not
+finished, though adorned with splendid passages.
+He was an ardent enthusiast of Michelangelo, whose
+works he had admired in Italy, and in his poem he
+addressed a hymn of praise to him which is one of
+the most beautiful passages in Spanish poetry, and,
+in spite of myself, the last verses have slipped from
+my pen, which every Italian, even if he does not
+know the sister language, can appreciate and understand.
+He believes, he tells the reader, that one
+cannot find the perfection of painting anywhere
+except</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"Que en aquela escelente obra espantosa</div>
+  <div class="verse">Mayor de cuantas se han jamas pintado,</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">91</span>
+  <div class="verse">Que hizo el Buonarrota de su mano</div>
+  <div class="verse">Divina, en el etrusco Vaticano!</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"Cual nuevo Prometeo en alto vuelo</div>
+  <div class="verse">Alzándose, estendiò los alas tanto,</div>
+  <div class="verse">Que puesto encima el estrellado cielo</div>
+  <div class="verse">Una parte alcanzò del fuego santo;</div>
+  <div class="verse">Con que tornando enriquecido al suelo</div>
+  <div class="verse">Con nueva maravilla y nuevo espanto,</div>
+  <div class="verse">Diò vida con eternos resplandores</div>
+  <div class="verse">À marmoles, à bronces, à colores.</div>
+  <div class="verse">¡O mas que mortal hombre! ¿Angel divino</div>
+  <div class="verse">O cual te nomaré? No humano cierto</div>
+  <div class="verse">Es tu ser, que del cerco empireo vino</div>
+  <div class="verse">Al estilo y pincel vida y concierto:</div>
+  <div class="verse">Tu monstraste à los hombres el camino</div>
+  <div class="verse">Por mil edades escondido, incierto</div>
+  <div class="verse">De la reina virtud; a ti se debe</div>
+  <div class="verse">Honra que en cierto dia el sol renueve."</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>"In that excellent marvellous work, greater than
+all that has ever been painted, which Buonarroti
+made with his divine hand in the Etruscan Vatican!</p>
+
+<p>"Look how the new Prometheus, rising in lofty
+flight, extends his wings so wide that above the
+starry sky he has obtained a part of the celestial
+fire; with it, returning, he enriched the earth with
+new marvels and new surprises, giving life, with
+eternal splendors, to marble, bronze, and colors.
+More than mortal man! angel divine! or what shall
+I call thee? Surely thou art not human, who from
+the empyrean circle came, bringing life and harmony
+to chisel and brush! Thou hast shown men the road<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">92</span>
+hidden for a thousand ages, uncertain of the sovereign
+virtue; to thee belongs honor which one day the sun
+will bestow."</p>
+
+<p>Murmuring these lines, I came out into the street
+of Juan de Mena, the Ennius of Spain, as his compatriots
+call him, the author of a phantasmagorial
+poem called "The Labyrinth," an imitation of <i>The
+Divina Commedia</i> very famous in its day, and in
+truth not without some pages of inspired and noble
+poetry, but, on the whole, cold and overloaded with
+pedantic mysticism. John II., king of Castile, went
+mad over this "Labyrinth," kept it beside the missal
+in his cabinet, and carried it with him to the hunt;
+but witness the caprice of a king! The poem had
+only three hundred stanzas, and to John II. this
+number seemed too small, and do you know the
+reason? It was this: the year contains three
+hundred and sixty-five days, and it seemed to him
+that there ought to be as many stanzas in the poem
+as there are days in the year, and so he besought
+the poet to compose sixty-five other stanzas, and the
+poet complied with his request&mdash;most cheerfully, the
+flatterer!&mdash;to gain an occasion for flattering still
+more, although he had already flattered his sovereign
+to the extent of asking him to correct the poem.</p>
+
+<p>From the street of Juan de Mena I passed into the
+street of Gongora, the Marini of Spain, and no less
+a genius than he, but perhaps one who corrupted
+the literature of his country even more than Marini<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">93</span>
+corrupted that of Italy, for he spoiled, abused, and
+corrupted the language in a thousand ways: for this
+reason Lope de Vega wittily makes a poet of the
+Gongorist school ask one of his hearers, "Do you
+understand me?"&mdash;"Yes," he replies; and the poet
+retorts, "You lie! for I do not even understand
+myself." But Lope himself is not entirely free from
+Gongorism, for he has the courage to write that
+Tasso was only the rising of Marini's sun; nor is
+Calderon entirely free of it, nor some other great
+men. But enough of poetry: I must not digress.</p>
+
+<p>After the siesta I hunted up my two companions,
+who took me through the suburbs of the city, and
+here, for the first time, I saw men and women of the
+true Andalusian type as I had imagined them, with
+eyes, coloring, and attitudes like the Arabians, and
+here too, for the first time, I heard the real speech
+of the Andalusian people, softer and more musical
+than in the Castiles, and also gayer and more imaginative,
+and accompanied by livelier gestures. I
+asked my companions whether that report about
+Andalusia is true, affirming that with their early
+physical development vice is more common, manners
+more voluptuous, and passion less restrained. "Too
+true," they replied, giving explanations, descriptions,
+and citing cases which I forbear to repeat. On returning
+to the city they took me to a splendid casino,
+with gardens and magnificent rooms, in one of which,
+the largest and richest, adorned with paintings of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">94</span>
+all the illustrious men of Cordova, rises a sort of
+stage where the poets stand to read their works on
+evenings appointed for public contests of genius;
+and the victors receive a laurel crown from the
+hands of the most beautiful and cultured girls in the
+city, who, crowned with roses, look on from a semi-circle
+of seats. That evening I had the pleasure of
+meeting several young Cordovese ardently attached,
+as they say in Spain, to the cultivation of the Muses&mdash;frank,
+courteous, and vivacious, with a medley of
+verses in their heads, and a smattering of Italian
+literature; and so imagine how from dusk to midnight,
+through those mysterious streets, which from
+the first evening had made my head whirl, there was
+a constant, noisy interchange of sonnets, hymns, and
+ballads in the two languages, from Petrarch to Prati,
+from Cervantes to Zorilla; and a delightful conversation
+closed and sealed by many cordial hand-clasps
+and eager promises to write, to send books, to come
+to Italy, to visit Spain again, etc. etc.&mdash;merely
+words, as is always the case, but words not less dear
+on that account.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning I left for Seville. At the station
+I saw Frascuelo, Lagartijo, Cuco, and the whole
+band of <i>toreros</i> from Madrid, who saluted me with
+a benevolent look of protection. I hurried into a
+dusty carriage, and as the train moved off and my
+eyes rested on Cordova for the last time, I bade the
+city adieu in the lines of the Arabian poet&mdash;a little<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">95</span>
+too tropical, if you will, for the taste of a European,
+but, after all, admirable for the occasion:</p>
+
+<p>"Adieu, Cordova! Would that my life were as
+long as Noah's, that I might live for ever within thy
+walls! Would that I had the treasures of Pharaoh,
+to spend them upon wine and the beautiful women
+of Cordova with the gentle eyes which invite
+kisses!"</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a><br /><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a><br /><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p>
+
+</div><div class="chapter">
+<h2><a name="SEVILLE" id="SEVILLE"></a>SEVILLE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The journey from Cordova to Seville does not
+awaken a sense of astonishment, as does that from
+Toledo to Cordova, but it is even more beautiful:
+there are continuous orange-orchards, boundless
+olive-groves, hills clothed with vineyards, and
+meadows carpeted with flowers. A few miles from
+Cordova one sees the ruined towers of the frowning
+castle of Almodovar standing on a very high rock-platform,
+which overlooks a vast extent of the surrounding
+country; at Hornachuelos another old
+castle on the summit of a hill, in the midst of a
+lonely, melancholy landscape; and then, beyond,
+the white city of Palma, hidden in a dense orange-grove,
+which is surrounded in its turn by a circle
+of truck-farms and flower-gardens. As the train
+runs on one is carried through the midst of golden
+fields of grain, bordered by long hedges of Indian
+fig trees and rows of dwarf palms, and dotted with
+groves of pine and frequent orchards of fruit-bearing
+trees; and at short intervals there are hills and
+castles, roaring streams, the slender village belfries<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">100</span>
+hidden among the trees, and the purple peaks of
+distant mountains.</p>
+
+<p>Most beautiful of all are the little country-houses
+scattered along the road. I do not remember to
+have seen a single one of them that was not as
+white as snow. The house was white, the neighboring
+well-curb was white, the little wall around
+the kitchen-garden was white, as were also the two
+posts of the garden-gate: everything seemed as if
+it had been whitewashed the day before. Some of
+these houses have one or two mullioned windows of
+Moorish design; others have arabesques over the
+door; and still others roofs covered with variegated
+tiles like Arabian houses. Here and there through
+the fields one sees the red-and-white capes of the
+peasants, velvet hats against the green grass, and
+sashes of all colors. The peasants whom one sees
+in the furrows and those who run to see the train
+pass are dressed in the costumes of forty years ago
+as they are represented in paintings: they wear
+velvet hats with very broad brims which roll
+slightly back, with little crowns like a sugar-loaf;
+short jackets, open waistcoats, breeches gathered in
+at the knee like those of the priests, gaiters which
+almost meet the breeches, and sashes around the
+waist. This style of dress, picturesque but inconvenient,
+is exceedingly becoming to the slender
+figures of these men, who prefer discomfort, if it be
+attended by beauty, to comfort without it, and who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">101</span>
+spend half an hour every morning adorning themselves,
+besides the time required to get into a pair
+of tight breeches which will display a shapely thigh
+and a well-turned leg. They have nothing in common
+with our Northern peasant of the hard face and
+dull eye. Their great black eyes meet your own
+with a smile, as if they would say, "Don't you
+remember me?" They cast daring glances at the
+ladies who put their heads out of the windows, run
+to fetch a match before you have so much as asked
+for it, sometimes answer your questions in rhyme,
+and are even capable of laughing to show their
+white teeth.</p>
+
+<p>At Rinconado the campanile of the cathedral of
+Seville comes into view in a line with the railroad,
+and to the right, beyond the Guadalquivir, one sees
+the beautiful low hills, covered with olive-groves, at
+the foot of which lie the ruins of Italica. The train
+rolled on, and I said to myself, under my breath,
+speaking faster and faster as the houses became
+thicker, with that suspense, full of longing and
+delight, which one feels on approaching the doorway
+of one's love, "Seville! this is Seville! The
+queen of Andalusia is at hand, the Athens of Spain,
+the mother of Murillo, the city of poets and lovers,
+the storied Seville, whose name I have pronounced
+from a child with a sentiment of loving sympathy!
+What should I have given a few years since to have
+seen it? No, it is not a dream! Those are really<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">102</span>
+the houses of Seville; those peasants yonder are
+Sevillians; that campanile which I see is the
+Giralda! I am at Seville! How strange! It
+makes me laugh! What is my mother doing at
+this moment? Would that she were here! Would
+that this friend and that were here! It is a sin to
+be alone! See the white houses, the gardens, the
+streets.... We are in the city.... It is time to
+get out.... Ah! how beautiful is life!"</p>
+
+<p>I went to a hotel, threw down my valise in the
+<i>patio</i>, and began to stroll about the city. It seemed
+like seeing Cordova over again, on a large scale,
+embellished and enriched; the streets are wider, the
+houses higher, the <i>patios</i> more spacious, but the general
+appearance of the city is the same: there is the
+same spotless white, the same intricate network of
+streets, everywhere the fragrance of orange-blossoms,
+that subtile air of mystery, that Oriental atmosphere,
+filling one's heart with a delicious sense
+of amorous melancholy, and calling to mind a thousand
+fancies, desires, and visions of a distant world,
+a new life, an unknown people, and an earthly paradise
+of love, pleasure, and content. In those streets
+one reads the history of the city: every balcony,
+every fragment of sculpture, every lonely crossway,
+recalls some nocturnal adventure of a king, the inspiration
+of a poet, the romance of a beauty, an
+amour, a duel, an abduction, a story, or a festival.
+Here a memento of Maria de Padilla, there one of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">103</span>
+Don Pedro; yonder of Cervantes, Columbus, Saint
+Theresa, Velasquez, or Murillo. A column tells of
+the Roman dominion; a tower, the splendor of
+Charles V.'s monarchy; and an alcazar, the magnificence
+of the Arabian court. Beside the modest
+white cottages rise sumptuous marble palaces; the
+little tortuous streets open into vast squares full of
+orange trees; from silent, deserted corners one
+enters with a short turn a street filled with a noisy
+crowd: and wherever one passes one sees on the
+opposite side the graceful lattices of the <i>patios</i>,
+flowers, statues, fountains, flights of stairs, walls
+covered with arabesques, small Moorish windows,
+and slender columns of costly marble; and at every
+window and in every garden little women clothed in
+white, half hidden, like timid nymphs, among the
+leaves of grapevines and rosebushes.</p>
+
+<p>Passing from street to street, I came at length to
+the bank of the Guadalquivir, close to the avenues
+of the Christina promenade, which is to Seville what
+the Lung d'arno is to Florence. Here one enjoys a
+charming spectacle.</p>
+
+<p>I first approached the famous Torre del Oro.
+This famous tower was called the Golden, either
+because it received the gold which the Spanish ships
+brought from America or because King Don Pedro
+hid his treasures there. It is an octagonal structure
+of three stories, growing smaller as they ascend,
+crowned with battlements and washed by the river.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">104</span>
+The story runs that this tower was built in Roman
+times, and that for a long period the king's most
+beautiful favorite dwelt there after it had been
+joined to the Alcazar by an edifice which was torn
+away to make room for the Christina promenade.</p>
+
+<p>This promenade extends from the ducal palace of
+Montpensier to the Torre del Oro. It is entirely
+shaded with Oriental plane trees, oaks, cypresses,
+willows, poplars, and other trees of northern latitudes,
+which the Andalusians admire, as we admire
+the palms and aloes of the plains of Piedmont and
+Lombardy. A great bridge spans the river and
+leads to the suburb of Triana, from which one sees
+the first houses on the opposite bank. A long line
+of ships, coasting vessels, and barges extends along
+the river, and from the Torre del Oro to the ducal
+palace there is a coming and going of rowboats.
+The sun was setting. A crowd of ladies filled the
+avenues, groups of workmen were crossing the
+bridge, the workmen on the ships labored more
+busily, a band of music was playing among the
+trees, the river was rose-colored, the air was fragrant
+with the perfume of flowers, the sky seemed
+all on fire.</p>
+
+<p>I returned to the city and enjoyed the marvellous
+spectacle of Seville by night. All the <i>patios</i> were
+illuminated&mdash;those of the humble houses with a half
+light, which gave them an air of mysterious beauty,
+those of the palaces, full of little flames which were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">105</span>
+reflected in the mirrors and flashed like jets of quicksilver
+in the spray of the fountains, and shone with
+a thousand colors on the marbles of the vestibules,
+the mosaics of the walls, the glass of the doors, and
+the crystal of the candlesticks. Inside one saw a
+crowd of ladies, everywhere one heard the sound of
+laughter, low voices, and music; one seemed to be
+passing through so many ball-rooms; from every
+door flowed a stream of light, fragrance, and harmony;
+the streets were crowded; among the trees
+of the squares, in the avenues, at the end of the
+narrow streets, and on the balconies,&mdash;everywhere
+were seen white skirts fluttering, vanishing, and reappearing
+in the darkness, and little heads ornamented
+with flowers peeped coquettishly from the
+windows; groups of young men broke through the
+crowd with merry shouts; people called to each
+other and talked from window to street, and everywhere
+were rapid motion, shouting, laughter, and
+festal gaiety. Seville was simply an immense garden
+in which revelled a people intoxicated with
+youth and love.</p>
+
+<p>Such moments are very sad ones for a stranger.
+I remember that I could have struck my head
+against the wall. I wandered here and there almost
+abashed, with hanging head and sad heart, as if all
+that crowd was amusing itself for the sole purpose
+of insulting my loneliness and melancholy. It was
+too late to present my letters of introduction, too<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">106</span>
+early to go to bed: I was the slave of that crowd
+and that gaiety, and was obliged to endure it for
+many hours. I found a solace in resolving not to
+look at the faces of the women, but I could not
+always keep my resolve, and when my eyes inadvertently
+met two black pupils the wound, because
+so unexpected, was more grievous than if I had encountered
+the danger more boldly. Yes, I was
+in the midst of those wonderfully famous women
+of Seville! I saw them pass on the arms of their
+husbands and lovers; I touched their dresses,
+breathed their perfume, heard the sound of their
+soft speech, and the blood leaped to my head like a
+flame of fire. Fortunately, I remembered to have
+heard from a Sevillian at Madrid that the Italian
+consul was in the habit of spending the evening at
+the shop of his son, a merchant; I sought out the
+shop, entered, and found the consul, and as I handed
+him a letter from a friend I said, with a dramatic air
+which made him laugh, "Dear sir, protect me; Seville
+has terrified me."</p>
+
+<p>At midnight the appearance of the city was unchanged:
+the crowd and light had not disappeared;
+I returned to the hotel and locked my door with the
+intention of going to bed. Worse and worse! The
+windows of my room opened on a square where
+crowds of people were swarming around an orchestra
+that played without interruption, when the music
+finally ended the guitars commenced, together with the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">107</span>
+cries of the water-carriers and snatches of song and
+laughter; the whole night through there was noise
+enough to wake the dead. I had a dream at once
+delightful and tantalizing, but rather more tantalizing
+than delightful. I seemed to be tied to the bed by a
+very long tress of dark hair twisted into a thousand
+knots, and felt on my lips a mouth of burning coals
+which sucked my breath, and around my neck two
+vigorous little hands which were crushing my
+head against the handle of a guitar.</p>
+
+<p>The following morning I went at once to see the
+cathedral.</p>
+
+<p>To adequately describe this measureless edifice
+one should have at hand a collection of the most
+superlative adjectives and all the most extravagant
+similes which have come from the pens of the grand
+writers of every country whenever they have described
+something of prodigious height, enormous
+size, appalling depth, and incredible grandeur.
+When I talk to my friends about it, I too, like the
+Mirabeau of Victor Hugo, involuntarily make <i>un
+colossal mouvement d'epaules</i>, puff out my throat,
+and gradually raise my voice, like Tommaso Salvini
+in the tragedy of <i>Samson</i> when, in tones which make
+the parquet tremble, he says that he feels his strength
+returning to his limbs. To talk of the cathedral of
+Seville tires one like playing a great wind instrument
+or carrying on a conversation across a roaring
+torrent.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">108</span></p>
+
+<p>The cathedral of Seville stands alone in the centre
+of a vast square, and consequently one can measure
+its vastness at a single glance. At the first moment
+I thought of the famous motto which the chapter of
+the primitive church adopted on the eighth of July,
+1401, when they decreed the erection of the new
+cathedral: "Let us build a monument which will
+make posterity declare that we were mad." Those
+reverend canons did not fail in their intention. But
+one must enter to be sure of this.</p>
+
+<p>The exterior of the cathedral is grand and magnificent,
+but not to be compared with the interior.
+The façade is lacking: a high wall surrounds the
+entire building like a fortress. However much one
+walks around and looks at it, one cannot succeed in
+fixing in one's mind a single outline which, like the
+preface of a book, will give a clear conception of the
+design of the work; one admires and occasionally
+breaks out in the exclamation, "It is stupendous!"
+but it does not please, and one hurries into the
+church, hoping to feel a sentiment of deeper admiration.</p>
+
+<p>On first entering one is amazed, and feels as if
+one were lost in an abyss, and for some moments the
+eye can only describe immense curves through that
+vast space, as if to assure you that the sight is real
+and that fancy is not deceiving you. Then you approach
+one of the pilasters, measure it, and look at
+the others in the distance: they are as massive as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">109</span>
+towers, and yet they look so slender that one trembles
+to think the edifice is resting on them. You
+run from one to another with a rapid glance, follow
+their lines from pavement to vaulted arch, and seem
+to be able to count the moments which it would take
+for the eye to climb them. There are five naves,
+each of which would form a great church, and in the
+central nave one could build another high cathedral
+with its cupola and belfry. Altogether they form
+sixty light, noble vaults which seem to be slowly
+expanding and rising as one looks at them. Everything
+in this cathedral is enormous. The great
+chapel in the middle of the principal nave, so high
+that it almost touches the roof, seems like a chapel
+built for giant priests, to whose knees the common
+altars would scarcely reach; the Easter candle
+seems like the mast of a ship, the bronze candlestick
+which supports it, like the pilaster of a church;
+the organs are like houses; the choir is a museum
+of sculpture and carving which alone deserves a
+day's study. The chapels are worthy of the church:
+in them are scattered the masterpieces of sixty-seven
+sculptors and thirty-eight painters. Montegna,
+Zurbaran, Murillo, Valdes, Herrera, Boldan, Roelas,
+and Campana have left a thousand immortal traces
+of their handiwork. The chapel of Saint Ferdinand,
+which contains the tombs of this king, his
+wife Beatrice, Alfonso the Wise, the celebrated
+minister Florida Blanca, and other illustrious per<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">110</span>sonages,
+is one of the richest and most beautiful.
+The body of King Ferdinand, who rescued Seville
+from the dominion of the Arabs, clothed in his coat-of-mail
+with crown and royal robe, rests in a crystal
+casket covered with a pall; on one side lies the
+sword which he wore on the day of his entrance into
+Seville; on the other, the staff, an emblem of authority.
+In this same chapel is preserved a little
+ivory Virgin which the sainted king carried with
+him to war, and other relics of great value. In the
+other chapels there are great marble altars, Gothic
+tombs, statues of stone, wood, and silver enclosed
+in large glass cases, with the breast and hands
+covered with diamonds and rubies; there are also
+magnificent paintings, but, unfortunately, the dim
+light which falls from the high windows does not
+make them clear enough to be enjoyed in all their
+beauty.</p>
+
+<p>From the examination of the chapels, paintings,
+and sculptures one returns unwearied to admire the
+cathedral in its grand and, if one may say, its formidable
+aspect. After climbing to those dizzy
+heights one's glance and thoughts, as if exhausted
+by the effort, fall back to the earth to gather new
+strength for another ascent. And the images which
+multiply in one's head correspond to the vastness of
+the basilica&mdash;measureless angels, heads of enormous
+cherubim, great wings like the sails of a ship, and
+the fluttering of immense white robes. The impres<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">111</span>sion
+produced by this cathedral is wholly religious,
+but it is not depressing: it is that sentiment which
+bears the thought into interminable spaces and the
+awful silences where the thoughts of Leopardi lost
+themselves; it is a sentiment full of yearning and
+holy boldness, that delightful shudder which one
+feels on the brink of a precipice, the turbulence and
+confusion of great thoughts, the divine fear of the
+infinite.</p>
+
+<p>As the cathedral is the most various of Spain
+(since the Gothic, Germanic, Græco-Roman, Moorish,
+and, as it is vulgarly called, the plateresque
+styles of architecture, have each left their individual
+impress upon it), it is also the richest and has the
+greatest privileges. In the times of greater clerical
+power they burned in it every year twenty thousand
+pounds of wax; in it every day were celebrated
+five hundred masses on eighty altars; the wine consumed
+in the sacrifice amounted to the incredible
+quantity of eighteen thousand seven hundred and
+fifty litres. The canons had trains of male attendants
+like monarchs, came to church in splendid
+carriages drawn by superb horses, and while they
+were celebrating mass had priests to fan them with
+enormous fans adorned with feathers and pearls&mdash;a
+direct concession from the Pope of which some avail
+themselves even in this day. One need not speak
+of the festivals of Holy Week, which are still<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">112</span>
+famous the world over, and to which people gather
+from all parts of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>But the most curious privilege of the cathedral
+of Seville is the so-called dance <i>de los seises</i>, which
+takes place every evening at dusk for eight consecutive
+days after the festival of <i>Corpus Domini</i>.
+I was in Seville during those days, and went to see
+it, and it seems to me worth describing. From
+what had been told me I expected to see a scandalous
+piece of buffoonery, and entered the church
+with my mind prepared for a feeling of indignation
+at the desecration of the sanctuary. The church
+was dark; only the great chapel was lighted; a
+crowd of kneeling women filled the space between
+the chapel and the choir. Some priests were sitting
+to the right and left of the altar; in front of the
+altar-steps was spread a great carpet; two lines of
+boys from eight to thirteen years of age, dressed
+like Spanish cavaliers of the Middle Ages, with
+plumed hats and white stockings, were drawn up,
+one before the other, facing the altar. At a signal
+from a priest a soft strain from violins broke the
+profound silence of the church, and the two rows of
+boys advanced with the step of a contra-dance, and
+began to divide, intermingle, separate, and come together
+again with a thousand graceful movements, and
+then all together they broke into a harmonious musical
+chant, which echoed through the gloom of the
+vast cathedral like the singing of an angelic choir;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">113</span>
+and a moment later they began to accompany the
+dance and the chant with tamborines. No religious
+ceremony has ever moved me like this. It is impossible
+to express the effect produced by those young
+voices under those immense domes, those little
+creatures at the foot of the towering altars, that
+dance, solemn and almost humble, the ancient
+costume, the kneeling crowd, and the surrounding
+gloom. I left the church with my soul calmed as if
+I had been praying.</p>
+
+<p>A very curious anecdote is related in connection
+with this ceremony. Two centuries ago an archbishop
+of Seville, who regarded the dance and tamborines
+as unworthy instruments of praising God,
+wished to prohibit the ceremony. Everything was
+thrown into confusion: the people protested; the
+canons made themselves heard; the archbishop was
+obliged to appeal to the Pope. The Pope, whose
+curiosity was aroused, wished to see this silly dance
+with his own eyes, that he might decide intelligently
+in the matter. The boys in their cavalier dress
+were taken to Rome, received at the Vatican, and
+made to dance and sing before His Holiness. His
+Holiness laughed, did not disapprove, and, wishing
+to give one knock on the hoop and another on the
+barrel, and so to satisfy the canons without offending
+the archbishop, decreed that the boys should
+continue to dance so long as the clothes which they
+then wore lasted; after that time the ceremony was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">114</span>
+to be abolished. The archbishop laughed in his
+beard, if he had one; the canons laughed too, as if
+they had already found the way to outwit both the
+Pope and the archbishop. And, in fact, they renew
+some part of the boys' dress every year, so that the
+whole garment can never be said to have worn out,
+and the archbishop, as a scrupulous man, who observed
+the commands of the Pope to the letter, could
+not oppose the repetition of the ceremony. So they
+continued to dance, and they dance and will dance
+so long as it pleases the canons and the Lord.</p>
+
+<p>As I was leaving the church a sacristan made me
+a sign, led me behind the choir, and pointed out a
+tablet in the pavement, upon which I read an inscription
+which stirred my heart. Under that stone
+lay the bones of Ferdinand Columbus, the son of
+Christopher, who was born at Cordova, and died at
+Seville on the twelfth of July, 1536, in the fiftieth
+year of his age. Under the inscription run some
+Latin verses with the following significance:</p>
+
+<p>"Of what avail is it that I have bathed the entire
+universe with my sweat, that I have three times passed
+through the New World discovered by my father, that
+I have adorned the banks of the gentle Beti, and preferred
+my simple taste to riches, that I might again
+draw around thee the divinities of the Castalian spring,
+and offer thee the treasures already gathered by Ptolemy,&mdash;if
+thou, passing this stone in silence, returnest
+no salute to my father and givest no thought to me?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">115</span></p>
+
+<p>The sacristan, who knew more about the inscription
+than I did, explained it to me. Ferdinand Columbus
+was in his early youth a page of Isabella the
+Catholic and of the prince Don Juan; he travelled
+to the Indies with his father and his brother the admiral
+Don Diego, followed the emperor Charles V.
+in his wars, made other voyages to Asia, Africa, and
+America, and everywhere collected with infinite care
+and at great expense the most precious books, from
+which he composed a library which passed after his
+death into the hands of the chapter of the cathedral,
+and remains intact under the famous name of the
+Columbian Library. Before his death he wrote these
+same Latin verses which are inscribed on the tablet
+of his tomb, and expressed a desire to be buried in
+the cathedral. In the last moments of his life he
+had a vessel full of ashes brought to him and
+sprinkled his face with them, pronouncing as he did
+so the words of Holy Writ, <i>Memento homo quia pulvis
+es</i>, chanted the <i>Te Deum</i>, smiled, and expired
+with the serenity of a saint. I was at once seized
+with a desire to visit the library and left the church.</p>
+
+<p>A guide stopped me on the threshold to ask me if
+I had seen the <i>Patio de los Naranjos</i>&mdash;the Court of
+Oranges&mdash;and, as I had not done so, he conducted
+me thither. The Court of Oranges lies to the north
+of the cathedral, surrounded by a great embattled
+wall. In the centre rises a fountain encircled by an
+orange-grove, and on one side along the wall is a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">116</span>
+marble pulpit, from which, according to the tradition,
+Vincenzo Ferrer is said to have preached. In
+the area of this court, which is very large, rose the
+ancient mosque, which is thought to have been built
+toward the end of the twelfth century. There is
+not the least trace of it now. In the shade of the
+orange trees around the margins of the basin the
+good Sevillians come to take the air in the burning
+noons of summer, and only the delightful verdure
+and the perfumed air remain as memorials of the
+voluptuous paradise of Mohammed, while now and
+then a beautiful girl with great dark eyes darts between
+the distant trees.</p>
+
+<p>The famous Giralda of the cathedral of Seville is
+an ancient Moorish tower, built, it is affirmed, in the
+year one thousand after the design of the architect
+Geber, the inventor of algebra. The upper part has
+been changed since Spain was reconquered, and has
+been rebuilt like a Christian bell-tower, but it will
+always retain its Moorish appearance, and, after all,
+is prouder of the banished standards of the vanquished
+than of the cross recently planted upon it by
+the victors. It is a monument which produces a
+strange sensation: it makes one smile; it is measureless
+and imposing as an Egyptian pyramid, and
+at the same time light and graceful as a summer-house.
+It is a square brick tower of a mellow rose-color,
+unadorned to a certain height, and from that
+point up ornamented with mullioned Moorish win<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">117</span>dows,
+which appear here and there like the windows
+of a house provided with balconies, and give it a
+very beautiful appearance. From the platform, which
+was formerly covered by a variegated roof surmounted
+by an iron pole which supported four enormous golden
+balls, now rises the Christian bell-tower in three
+stories, the first of which is taken up by the bells,
+the second is encircled by a balcony, and the third
+consists of a sort of cupola upon which, like a
+weather-vane, turns a colossal gilded statue which
+represents Faith, with a palm in one hand and a
+banner in the other. This statue is visible a long
+distance from Seville, and flashes when the sun
+strikes it like an enormous ruby in the crown of a
+gigantic king, who sweeps with his glance the entire
+valley of Andalusia.</p>
+
+<p>I climbed all the way to the top, and was there
+amply rewarded for the fatigue of the ascent. Seville,
+all white like a city of marble, encircled by a
+diadem of gardens, groves, and avenues, surrounded
+by a landscape dotted with villas, lay open to the
+view in all the wealth of its Oriental beauty. The
+Guadalquivir, freighted with ships, divides and embraces
+it in a majestic curve. Here the Torre del
+Oro casts its graceful shadow on the azure waters
+of the river; there the Alcazar rears its frowning
+towers; yonder the gardens of Montpensier raise
+above the roofs of the building an enormous mass of
+verdure: one's glance penetrates the bull-ring, the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">118</span>
+public gardens, the <i>patios</i> of the homes, the cloisters
+of the churches, and all the streets which converge
+toward the cathedral; in the distance appear the
+villages of Santi Ponce, Algaba, and others which
+whiten the slopes of the hills; to the right of the
+Guadalquivir the great suburb of Triana; on one
+side along the horizon the broken peaks of the Sierra
+Morena; and in the opposite direction other mountains
+enlivened by infinite azure tints; and over all
+this marvellous panorama the clearest, most transparent,
+and entrancing sky which has ever smiled
+upon the face of man.</p>
+
+<p>I descended from the Giralda and went to see the
+Columbian Library, located in an old building beside
+the Court of Oranges. After I had seen a collection
+of missals, Bibles, and ancient manuscripts, one of
+which is attributed to Alfonso the Wise, entitled
+"The Book of the Treasure," written with the most
+scrupulous care in the ancient Spanish language, I
+saw&mdash;let me repeat it, I saw&mdash;I, with my own
+moist eyes, as I pressed my hand on my beating
+heart&mdash;I saw a book, a treatise on cosmography and
+astronomy in Latin, with the margins covered with
+notes written in the hand of Christopher Columbus!
+He had studied that book while he revolved his
+great design in his mind, had pored over its pages
+in the night-watches, had touched it perhaps with
+his divine forehead in those exhausting vigils when
+sometimes he bent over the parchments with utter<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">119</span>
+weariness and bathed them with his sweat. It is a
+tremendous thought! But there is something better.
+I saw a writing in the hand of Columbus in which
+are collected all the prophecies of the ancient
+writers, sacred and profane, in regard to the discovery
+of the New World, written, it is said, to induce
+the sovereigns of Spain to provide the means
+to carry out his enterprise. There is, among others,
+a passage from the <i>Medea</i> of Seneca, which runs:
+<i>Venient annis saecula seris, quibus oceanus vincula
+rerum laxet et ingens pateat tellus</i>. And in the
+volume of Seneca, which may also be found in the
+Columbian Library, alongside of this passage there
+is a note by Ferdinand Columbus, which says:
+"This prophecy was fulfilled by my father, the
+admiral Christopher Columbus, in the year 1492."
+My eyes filled with tears; I wished I were alone,
+that I might have kissed those books, have tired
+myself out turning and re-turning their leaves between
+my hands, have detached a tiny fragment,
+and carried it with me as a sacred thing. Christopher
+Columbus! I have seen his characters! I
+have touched the leaves which he has touched! I
+have felt him very near me! On leaving the library,
+I know not why&mdash;I could have leaped into the
+midst of the flames to rescue a child, I could have
+stripped myself to clothe a beggar, I could joyfully
+have made any sacrifice&mdash;I was so rich!</p>
+
+<p>After the library the Alcazar, but before reaching<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">120</span>
+it, although it is in the same square as the cathedral,
+I felt for the first time what the Andalusian sun is
+like. Seville is the hottest city of Spain, it was the
+hottest hour of the day, and I found myself in the
+hottest part of the city; there was a flood of light;
+not a door, not a window, was open, not a soul astir;
+if I had been told that Seville was uninhabited, I
+should have believed it. I crossed the square
+slowly with half-shut eyes and wrinkled face, with
+the sweat coursing in great drops down my cheeks
+and breast, while my hands seemed to have been
+dipped in a bucket of water. On nearing the
+Alcazar I saw a sort of booth belonging to a water-carrier,
+and dashed under it headlong, like a man
+fleeing from a shower of stones. I took a little
+breathing-spell, and went on toward the Alcazar.</p>
+
+<p>The Alcazar, the ancient palace of the Moorish
+kings, is one of the best-preserved monuments in
+Spain. From the outside it looks like a fortress:
+it is entirely surrounded by high walls, embattled
+towers, and old houses, which form two spacious
+courtyards in front of the façade. The façade is
+bare and severe, like the rest of the exterior; the
+gate is adorned with gilded and painted arabesques,
+between which one sees a Gothic inscription which
+refers to the time when the Alcazar was restored by
+order of King Don Pedro. The Alcazar, in fact,
+although a Moorish palace, is the work of Christian
+rather than of Moorish kings. It is not known<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">121</span>
+exactly in what year it was built: it was reconstructed
+by King Abdelasio toward the end of the
+twelfth century, conquered by King Ferdinand toward
+the middle of the thirteenth century; altered
+a second time, in the following century, by King Don
+Pedro; and then occupied for longer or shorter
+periods by nearly all the kings of Castile; and
+finally selected by Charles V. as the place for the
+celebration of his marriage with the infanta of
+Portugal. The Alcazar has witnessed the loves
+and crimes of three generations of kings; every
+stone awakens a memory and guards a secret.</p>
+
+<p>You enter, cross two or three rooms in which
+there remains little of the Moorish excepting the
+vaulted ceiling and the mosaics around the walls,
+and come out into a court where you stand speechless
+with wonder. A portico of very delicate arches
+extends along the four sides, supported by slender
+marble columns, joined two by two, and arches and
+walls and windows and doors are covered with carvings,
+mosaics, and arabesques most intricate and exquisite,
+here perforated like lace, there closely
+woven and elaborate like embroidered tapestry,
+yonder clinging and projecting like masses and
+garlands of flowers; and, except the mosaics, which
+are of a thousand colors, everything is white, clean,
+and smooth as ivory. On the four sides are four
+great doors, through which you enter the royal
+apartments. Here wonder becomes enchantment:<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">122</span>
+whatever is richest, most various, and most splendid,
+whatever the most ardent fancy sees in its most
+ardent dreams, is to be found in these rooms. From
+pavement to the vaulted ceiling, around the doors,
+along the window-frames, in the most hidden corners,
+wherever one's glance falls, one sees such a luxuriance
+of ornaments in gold and precious stones, such
+a close network of arabesques and inscriptions, such
+a marvellous profusion of designs and colors, that
+one has scarcely taken twenty steps before one is
+amazed and confused, and the wearied eye wanders
+here and there searching for a hand's breadth of
+bare wall where it may flee and rest. In one of
+these rooms the guide pointed out a red spot which
+covered a good part of the marble pavement, and
+said in a solemn voice, "These are the blood-stains
+of Don Fadrique, grand master of the order of
+Santiago, who was killed on this very spot, in the
+year 1358, by order of his brother, King Don
+Pedro."</p>
+
+<p>I remember that when I heard these words I
+looked in the face of the custodian, as if to say,
+"Come, let us be going," and that good man answered
+in a dry tone,</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Caballero</i>, if I had told you to believe this thing
+on my word, you would have had every reason to
+doubt; but when you can see the thing with your
+very eyes, I may be wrong, but&mdash;it seems to
+me...."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">123</span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I hastened to say&mdash;"yes, it is blood: I
+believe it, I see it; let's say no more about it."</p>
+
+<p>But if one can be playful over the blood-spots,
+one cannot be so over the story of the crime; the
+sight of the place revives in the mind all the most
+horrible details. Through the great gilded halls one
+seems to hear the echo of Don Fadrique's footsteps,
+followed by those of the bowmen armed with
+bludgeons; the palace is immersed in gloom; one
+hears no other sound save that of the executioners
+and their victim; Don Fadrique tries to enter the
+courtyard; Lopez de Padilla catches him; Fadrique
+throws him off and is in the court; he grasps his
+sword; curses on it! the cross of the hilt is held fast
+in the mantle of the order of Santiago; the bowmen
+gain upon him; he has not time to unsheath the
+sword; he flees here and there, groping his way;
+Fernandez de Roa overtakes him and fells him with
+a blow of his club; the others run up and set upon
+him, and Fadrique dies in a pool of blood....</p>
+
+<p>But this sad recollection is lost among the thousand
+images of the sensuous Moorish kings. Those
+graceful little windows, where it seems as if you
+ought to see every other moment the languid face
+of an odalisque; those secret doors, at which you
+pause in spite of yourself, as if you heard the rustle
+of garments; those sleeping chambers of the sultans,
+shrouded in mysterious gloom, where you seem to
+hear only the confused amorous lament of all the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">124</span>
+maidens who there lost the flower of their virgin
+purity; that prodigal variety of color and line, which
+like a tumultuous and ever-changing harmony arouses
+the senses to such fantastic flights that you doubt
+whether you are waking or sleeping; that delicate
+and lovely architecture, all of slender columns, that
+seem like the arms of women; capricious arches,
+little rooms, arched ceilings crowded with ornaments
+hanging in the form of stalactites, icicles, and clusters
+of grapes, of as many colors as a flower-garden;&mdash;all
+this stirs your desire to sit down in the middle
+of one of those rooms and to press to your heart a
+lovely brown Andalusian head which will make you
+forget the world and time, and, with one long kiss
+that drinks away your life, give you eternal sleep.</p>
+
+<p>On the ground floor the most beautiful room is the
+Hall of the Ambassadors, formed by four great
+arches which support a gallery with forty-four
+smaller arches, and above a beautiful cupola carved,
+painted, gilded, and chased with inimitable grace
+and fabulous splendor.</p>
+
+<p>On the upper floor, where were the winter apartments,
+there remain only an oratory of Ferdinand
+and Isabella the Catholic, and a little room in which
+the king Don Pedro is said to have slept. From it
+one descends by a narrow mysterious staircase to the
+rooms where dwelt the famous Maria de Padilla, the
+favorite of Don Pedro, whom popular tradition accuses
+of instigating the king to kill his brother.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<div class="caption"><i><a id="Moorish_Arches"></a>Moorish Arches, Alcazar, Seville</i></div>
+<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b124c.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">125</span></p>
+
+<p>The gardens of the Alcazar are neither very large
+nor particularly beautiful, but the memories which
+they recall are of greater value than extent or
+beauty. In the shade of those orange trees and
+cypresses, to the murmur of those fountains, when
+the great white moon was shining in that limpid Andalusian
+sky, and the many groups of courtiers and
+slaves rested there, how many long sighs of ardent
+sultanas! how many lowly words from proud kings!
+what passionate loves and embraces! "Itimad, my
+love!" I murmured, thinking of the famous mistress
+of King Al-Motamid as I wandered from path to
+path as if following her phantom,&mdash;"Itimad," I repeated,
+"do not leave me alone in this silent paradise!
+Dost thou remember how thou camest to me?
+Thy wealth of hair fell over my shoulder, and dearer
+than the sword to the warrior wert thou to me! How
+beautiful thou art! Thy neck is soft and white as
+the swan's, and like berries are thy red, red lips!
+How marvellous is the perfection of thy beauty!
+How dear thou art, Itimad, my love! Thy kisses
+are like wine, and thy eyes, like wine, steal away
+my reason!"</p>
+
+<p>While I was thus making my declarations of love
+with phrases and images stolen from the Arabian
+poets, at the very moment when I turned into a
+bypath all bordered with flowers, suddenly I felt a
+stream of water first on one leg and then on the
+other. I jumped aside, and received a spray in my<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">126</span>
+face; I turned to the right, and felt another stream
+against my neck; to the left, another jet between
+my shoulders. I began to run: there was water
+under me and around me in every direction, in jets,
+streams, and spray; in a moment I was as wet as if
+I had been dipped in the bath-tub. Just as I opened
+my mouth to call for help it all subsided, and I heard
+a ringing laugh at the end of the garden. I turned
+and saw a young fellow leaning against a low wall
+looking at me as if he were saying, "How did you
+like it?" When I came out he showed me the
+spring he had touched to play this little joke, and
+comforted me with the assurance that the sun of Seville
+would not leave me long in that dripping condition,
+into which I had passed so rudely, alas!
+from the lovely arms of my sultana.</p>
+
+<p>That evening, in spite of the voluptuous images
+which the Alcazar had called to my mind, I was sufficiently
+calm to contemplate the beauty of the
+women of Seville without fleeing to the arms of the
+consul for safety. I do not believe that the women
+of any other country are so bewitching as the fair
+Andalusians, not only because they tempt one into
+all sorts of mischief, but because they seem to have
+been made to be seized and carried away, so small,
+graceful, plump, elastic, and soft are they. Their
+little feet could both be put easily into one's coat-pocket,
+and with an arm one could lift them by the
+waist like babies, and by the mere pressure of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">127</span>
+finger could bend them like willow wands. To their
+natural beauty they add the art of walking and looking
+in a way to turn one's head. They fly along,
+glide, and walk with a wave-like motion, and in a
+single moment, as they pass, they show a little foot,
+make you admire an arm or a slender waist, reveal
+two rows of the whitest teeth, and dart at you a long
+veiled glance that melts and dies in your own; and
+on they go with an air of triumph, certain of having
+turned your blood topsy-turvy.</p>
+
+<p>To form an idea of the beauty of the women of
+the people and the picturesqueness of their dress
+you must go by day to visit the tobacco-manufactory,
+which is one of the largest establishments of
+the kind in Europe and employs not less than five
+thousand hands. The building faces the vast gardens
+of the duke of Montpensier: almost all of the
+women work in three immense rooms, each divided
+into three parts by as many rows of pillars. The
+first view is astounding: there, all at once, eight
+hundred girls present themselves before one's eyes
+in groups of five or six, sitting around work-tables
+as close as possible, the farthest indistinct and the
+last scarcely visible; all of them young and a few
+children&mdash;eight hundred jet-black heads and eight
+hundred brown faces from every province of
+Andalusia, from Jaen to Cadiz, from Granada to
+Seville!</p>
+
+<p>One hears a buzzing as of a square full of people.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">128</span>
+The walls, from one door to the other, in all three
+of the rooms are lined with skirts, shawls, kerchiefs,
+and scarfs; and&mdash;a very curious thing&mdash;that entire
+mass of garments, which would fill to overflowing a
+hundred old-clothes shops, presents two predominant
+colors, in two continuous lines one above the other,
+like the stripes of a very long flag&mdash;the black of the
+shawls above, and the red mixed with white, purple,
+and yellow&mdash;so that one seems to see an immense
+costumer's shop or an immense ball-room where the
+ballet-dancers, in order to be free, have hung on the
+walls every part of their dress which it is not absolutely
+necessary to wear. The girls put on these
+dresses when they go out, and wear old clothes to
+work in; but white and red predominate in those
+dresses also. The heat is insupportable, consequently
+they lighten their clothing as much as possible,
+and among those five thousand one will
+scarcely find fifty whose arms and shoulders the
+visitor may not contemplate at his pleasure, without
+counting the extraordinary cases which present
+themselves suddenly as one passes from room to
+room, behind the doors and columns, and around the
+distant corners. There are some very beautiful
+faces, and even those who are not beautiful have
+something about them which attracts one's glance
+and lingers in the memory&mdash;the complexion, the
+eyes, the brow, or the smile. Many of them,
+especially so-called <i>Gitane</i>, are as dark as dark<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">129</span>
+mulattos and have protruding lips; others have eyes
+so large that a faithful picture of them would be
+considered a monstrous exaggeration; the greater
+part are small and well-formed, and all have a rose
+or carnation or some sort of wild flower in their
+hair. They are paid in proportion to the work they
+do, and the most skilful and industrious earn as
+much as three francs per day; the lazy ones&mdash;<i>las
+holgazanas</i>&mdash;sleep with their arms crossed on the
+table and their heads resting on their arms; mothers
+are working, and swinging a leg to which is bound
+a cord that rocks the cradle. From the cigar-room
+one passes to the cigarette-room, and from it to the
+box-factory, and from the box-factory to the packing-room,
+and in them all one sees the red skirts,
+black hair, and fine eyes. In each of those rooms
+how many stories of love, jealousy, despair, and
+misery! On leaving the factory one seems for some
+time to see black eyes in every direction regarding
+him with a thousand varying expressions of curiosity,
+indifference, sympathy, cheerfulness, sadness, and
+drowsiness.</p>
+
+<p>The same day I went to see the Museum of
+Painting. The Seville gallery does not contain very
+many paintings, but those few are worth a great
+museum. There are the masterpieces of Murillo,
+and among them his immortal <i>Saint Anthony of
+Padua</i>, which is said to be the most divinely inspired
+of his works, and one of the greatest achieve<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">130</span>ments
+of human genius. I visited the gallery
+in the company of Señor Gonzalo Segovia and
+Ardizone, one of the most illustrious young men
+of Seville, and I wish he were here beside my table
+at this moment to testify in a foot-note that when
+my eyes first lit upon the picture I seized his arm
+and uttered a cry.</p>
+
+<p>Only once in my life have I felt such a profound
+stirring of my soul as that which I felt on seeing
+this picture. It was one beautiful summer night:
+the sky was bright with stars, and the vast plain lay
+extended before me from the high place where I
+stood in deep silence. One of the noblest creatures
+I have ever met in my life was at my side. A few
+hours before we had been reading some pages from
+one of Humboldt's works: we looked at the sky
+and talked of the motion of the earth, the millions
+of worlds, and the infinite with those suppressed
+tones as of distant voices which one unconsciously
+uses in speaking of such things in the silent night.
+Finally we were still, and each, with eyes fixed on
+the heavens, gave himself up to fancies. I know
+not by what train of thought I was led; I know not
+what mysterious chain of emotions was formed in
+my heart; I know not what I saw or felt or dreamed.
+I only know that suddenly a veil before my mind
+seemed to be rent asunder; I felt within me a perfect
+assurance of that which hitherto I had longed
+for rather than believed; my heart expanded with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">131</span>
+a feeling of supreme joy, angelic peace, and limitless
+hope; a flood of scalding tears suddenly filled my
+eyes, and, grasping the hand of my friend, which
+sought my own, I cried from the depths of my soul,
+"It is true! It is true!" and began to cry like a
+child.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Saint Anthony of Padua</i> brought back the
+emotions of that evening. The saint is kneeling in
+the middle of his cell; the child Jesus in a nebulous
+halo of white vaporous light, drawn by the power
+of his prayer, is descending into his arms. Saint
+Anthony, rapt in ecstasy, throws himself forward
+with all his power of body and soul, his head thrown
+back, radiant with an expression of supreme joy.
+So great was the shock which this picture gave me
+that when I had looked at it a few moments I was
+as exhausted as if I had visited a vast gallery, and a
+trembling seized me and continued so long as I
+remained in that room.</p>
+
+<p>Afterward I saw the other great paintings of
+Murillo&mdash;a <i>Conception</i>, a <i>Saint Francis embracing
+Christ</i>, another version of <i>Saint Anthony</i>, and others
+to the number of twenty or more, among them the
+famous and enchanting <i>Virgin of the Napkin</i>, painted
+by Murillo upon a real napkin in the Capuchin convent
+of Seville to gratify a desire of a lay brother
+who was serving him: it is one of his most delicate
+creations, in which is revealed all the magic of his
+inimitable coloring&mdash;but none of these paintings,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">132</span>
+although they are objects of wonder to all the artists
+of the world, drew my heart or thoughts from that
+divine <i>Saint Anthony</i>.</p>
+
+<p>There are also in this gallery paintings by the two
+Herreras, Pacheco, Alonzo Cano, Pablo de Cespedes,
+Valdes, Mulato, a servant of Murillo who ably imitated
+his style, and finally the large famous painting
+of the <i>Apotheosis of Saint Thomas of Aquinas</i>, by
+Francesco Zurbaran, one of the most eminent artists
+of the seventeenth century, called the Spanish Caravaggio,
+and possibly his superior in truth and
+moral sentiment,&mdash;a powerful naturalist, a strong
+colorist, and an inimitable painter of austere friars,
+macerated saints, brooding hermits, and terrible
+priests, and an unsurpassed poet of penitence, solitude,
+and meditation.</p>
+
+<p>After seeing the picture-gallery Señor Gonzalo
+Segovia led me through a succession of narrow
+streets to the street <i>Francos</i>, one of the principal
+ways of the city, and stopped me in front of a little
+draper's shop, saying with a laugh, "Look! Doesn't
+this shop make you think of something?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing at all," I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Look at the number."</p>
+
+<p>"It is number fifteen: what of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! plague on it!" exclaimed my amiable guide,</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"'Number fifteen,</div>
+  <div class="verse">On the left-hand side'!"</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>"The shop of the <i>Barber of Seville</i>!" I cried.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">133</span></p>
+
+<p>"Precisely!" he responded&mdash;"the shop of the
+Barber of Seville; but be on your guard when you
+speak of it in Italy; do not take your oath, for traditions
+are often misleading, and I would not assume
+the responsibility of confirming a fact of such importance."</p>
+
+<p>At that moment the merchant came to the door of
+the shop, and, divining why we were there, laughed
+and said, "<i>No esta</i>" ("Figaro is not here"), and
+with a gracious bow he retired.</p>
+
+<p>Then I besought Señor Gonzalo to show me a
+<i>patio</i>, one of those enchanting <i>patios</i> which as I
+looked at them from the street made me imagine so
+many delightful things. "I want to see at least
+one," I said to him&mdash;"to penetrate once into the
+midst of those mysteries, to touch the walls, to
+assure myself that it is a real thing and not a
+vision."</p>
+
+<p>My desire was at once fulfilled: we entered
+the <i>patio</i> of one of his friends. Señor Gonzalo told
+the servant the object of our visit, and we were
+left alone. The house was only two stories in
+height. The <i>patio</i> was no larger than an ordinary
+room, but all marble and flowers, and a little fountain
+in the middle, and paintings and statues around,
+and from roof to roof an awning which sheltered it
+from the sun. In a corner was a work-table, and
+here and there one saw low chairs and little benches
+whereon a few moments previously had doubtless<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">134</span>
+rested the feet of some fair Andalusian, who at that
+moment was watching us from between the slats of a
+blind. I examined everything minutely, as I would
+have done in a house abandoned by the fairies: I sat
+down, closed my eyes, imagined I was the master,
+then arose, wet my hand with the spray of the
+fountain, touched a slender column, went to the
+door, picked a flower, raised my eyes to the windows,
+laughed, sighed, and said, "How happy must
+those be who live here!" At that moment I heard
+a low laugh, and saw two great black eyes flash
+behind a blind and instantly disappear. "Truly," I
+said, "I did not believe that it was possible to still
+live so poetically upon this earth. And to think
+that you enjoy these houses all your life! and that
+you have the inclination to rack your brains about
+politics!"</p>
+
+<p>Señor Gonzalo showed me the secrets of the
+house. "All this furniture," said he, "these paintings,
+and these vases of flowers disappear on the approach
+of autumn and are taken to the second story,
+which is the living apartment from autumn to
+spring. When summer comes beds, wardrobes,
+tables, chairs&mdash;everything is brought down to the
+rooms on the ground floor, and here the family sleep
+and eat, receive their friends, and do their work,
+among the flowers and marbles to the murmur of
+the fountain. And at night they have the doors
+open, and from the sleeping-rooms one can see the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">135</span>
+<i>patio</i> flooded with moonlight and smell the fragrance
+of roses."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, stop!" I exclaimed, "stop, Señor Gonzalo!
+Have pity on strangers!" And, laughing heartily,
+we both went out on our way to see the famous <i>Casa
+de Pilato</i>.</p>
+
+<p>As we were passing along a lonely little street I
+looked in a window of a hardware-shop and saw an
+assortment of knives so long, broad, and unusual
+that I felt a desire to buy one. I entered: twenty
+were displayed before my eyes, and I had the salesman
+to open them one by one. As each knife was
+opened I took a step backward. I do not believe it
+is possible to imagine an instrument more barbarous
+and terrifying in appearance than one of them.
+The handles are of wood, copper, and horn, curved
+and carved in open patterns, so that one may see
+through their little pieces of isinglass. The knives
+open with a sound like a rattle, and out comes a
+large blade as broad as the palm of your hand, as
+long as both palms together, and as sharp as a
+dagger, in the form of a fish, ornamented with red
+inlaying, which suggests streaks of clotted blood,
+and adorned with fierce and threatening inscriptions.
+On the blade of one there will be written in Spanish,
+<i>Do not open me without reason, nor shut me without
+honor</i>; on another, <i>Where I strike, all is over</i>; on
+a third, <i>When this snake bites, there is nothing left
+for the doctor to do</i>; and other gallantries of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">136</span>
+same sort. The proper name of these knives is <i>navaja</i>&mdash;a
+word which also has the meaning of razor&mdash;and
+the <i>navaja</i> is the popular duelling weapon. Now
+it has fallen into disuse, but was at one time held in
+great honor; there were masters who taught its use,
+each of whom had his secret blow, and duels were
+fought in accordance with the rules of chivalry. I
+bought the most terrible <i>navaja</i> in the shop, and we
+entered the street again.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Casa de Pilato</i>, held by the Medina-Coeli
+family, is, after the Alcazar, the most beautiful monument
+of Moorish architecture in Seville. The name,
+<i>Casa de Pilato</i>, comes from the fact that its founder,
+Don Enriquez de Ribera, the first marquis of Tarifa,
+had it built, as the story goes, in imitation of the
+house of the Roman prætor, which he had seen in
+Jerusalem, where he went on a pilgrimage. The
+edifice has a modest exterior, but the interior is marvellous.
+One first enters a court not less beautiful
+than the enchanting court of the Alcazar, encircled
+by two orders of arches, supported by graceful
+marble columns, forming two very light galleries, one
+above the other, and so delicate that it seems as if
+the first puff of wind would cast them into ruins.
+In the centre is a lovely fountain resting on four
+marble dolphins and crowned by a bust of Janus.
+Around the lower part of the walls run brilliant
+mosaics, and above these every sort of fantastic
+arabesque, here and there framing beautiful niches<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">137</span>
+containing busts of the Roman emperors. At the
+four corners of the court the ceilings, the walls, and
+the doors are carved, embroidered, and covered
+with flowers and historic tapestries with the delicacy
+of a miniature. In an old chapel, partly Moorish
+and partly Gothic in style, and most delicate in form,
+there is preserved a little column, scarcely more than
+three feet in height, the gift of Pius V. to a descendant
+of the founder of the palace, at one time viceroy
+of Naples: to that column, says the tradition, was
+bound Jesus of Nazareth to be scourged. This fact,
+even if it were true, would prove that Pius V. did
+not believe it in the slightest degree. For he would
+not lightly have committed the unpardonable mistake
+of depriving himself of a valuable relic to make a
+present to the first comer. The entire palace is full
+of sacred memories. On the first floor the custodian
+points out a window which corresponds to that by
+which Peter sat when he denied his Lord, and the
+little window from which the maid-servant recognized
+him. From the street one sees another window
+with a little stone balcony, which represents the
+exact position of the window where Jesus, wearing
+the crown of thorns, was shown to the people.</p>
+
+<p>The garden is full of fragments of ancient statuary
+brought from Italy by that same Don Pedro Afan de
+Ribera, viceroy of Naples. Among the other fables
+that are told about this mysterious garden is one to
+the effect that Don Pedro Afan de Ribera placed in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">138</span>
+it an urn brought from Italy containing the ashes
+of the emperor Trajan, and a curious person carelessly
+struck the urn and overturned it; the emperor's
+ashes were thus scattered over the grass, and
+no one has ever succeeded in collecting them. So this
+august monarch, born at Italica, by a very strange
+fate has returned to the vicinity of his natal city,
+not in the very best condition in which to meditate
+upon its ruins, to tell the truth, but he was near it,
+at any rate.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of all that I have described, I may say
+that I did not see Seville, but just commenced to see
+it. Nevertheless, I shall stop here, because everything
+must have an end. I pass by the promenaders,
+the squares, the gates, the libraries, the public buildings,
+the mansions of the grandees, the gardens and
+the churches; but allow me to say that, after several
+days' wandering through Seville from sunrise to sunset,
+I was obliged to leave the city under the weight
+of a self-accusing conscience. I did not know which
+way to turn. I had reached such a condition of
+weariness that the announcement of a new object to
+be seen filled me with foreboding rather than pleasure.
+The good Señor Gonzalo kept up my courage,
+comforted me, and shortened the journeys with his
+delightful company, but, nevertheless, I have only a
+very confused remembrance of all that I saw during
+those last days.</p>
+
+<p>Seville, although it no longer merits the glorious<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">139</span>
+title of the Spanish Athens, as in the times of
+Charles V. and Philip II., when it was mother and
+patron of a large and chosen band of poets and
+artists, the seat of culture and of the arts in the vast
+empire of its monarchs, is even yet that one among
+the cities of Spain, with the exception of Madrid, in
+which the artistic life is most vigorously maintained,
+as is evidenced by the number of its men of genius,
+the liberality of its patrons, and the popular love of
+the fine arts. It contains a flourishing academy of
+literature, a society for the protection of the arts, a
+well-known university, and a colony of scholars and
+sculptors who enjoy an honorable distinction throughout
+Spain. But the highest literary fame in Seville
+belongs to a woman&mdash;Catharine Bohl, the author of
+the novels which bear the name of Fernan Caballero,
+widely read in Spain and America, translated into
+almost all the languages of Europe, and known also
+in Italy (where some of them were published not
+long since) by every one who at all occupies himself
+with foreign literature. They are admirable pictures
+of Andalusian manners, full of truth, passion, and
+grace, and, above all, possessing a vigor of faith and
+a religious enthusiasm so fearless and a Christian
+charity so broad that they would startle and confuse
+the most skeptical man in the world. Catharine
+Bohl is a woman who would undergo martyrdom
+with the firmness and serenity of a Saint Ignatius.
+The consciousness of her power is revealed in every<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">140</span>
+page: she does not hesitate to defend her religion,
+and confronts, assails, threatens, and overthrows its
+enemies; and not only the enemies of religion, but
+every man and everything that, to use a common
+expression, conforms to the spirit of the age, for
+she never forgives the least sin which has been committed
+from the times of the Inquisition to our own
+day, and she is more inexorable than the Pope's syllabus.
+And herein perhaps lies her greatest defect
+as a writer&mdash;that her religious convictions and her
+invectives are entirely too frequent and grow tiresome,
+and disgust and prejudice the reader rather
+than convince him of her own beliefs. But there is
+not a shadow of bitterness in her heart, and as her
+books, so is her life, noble, upright, and charitable.
+In Seville she is revered as a saint. Born in that
+city, she married early in life, and is now a widow
+for the third time. Her last husband, who was
+Spanish ambassador at London, committed suicide,
+and from that day she has never laid aside her
+mourning. At the time of my visit she was almost
+seventy; she had been very beautiful, and her noble,
+placid face still preserved the impress of beauty.
+Her father, who was a man of considerable genius
+and great culture, taught her several languages in
+early life: she knows Latin thoroughly and speaks
+Italian, German, and French with admirable facility.
+At this time, however, she is not writing at all,
+although the editors and publishers of Europe and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">141</span>
+America are offering her large sums for her works.
+But she does not live a life of inactivity. From
+morning to night she reads all sorts of books, and
+while she reads she is either knitting or embroidering,
+for she very firmly believes that her literary
+studies ought not to take one minute from her feminine
+employments. She has no children, and lives
+in a lonely house, the best part of which has been
+given to a poor family; she spends a great part of
+her income in charity. A curious trait of her character
+is her great love of animals: she has her
+house full of birds, cats, and dogs, and her sensibilities
+are so delicate that she has never consented
+to enter a carriage, for fear of seeing the horse beaten
+on her account. All suffering affects her as if she
+herself were bearing it: the sight of a blind man or
+of a sick person or of a cripple of any sort distresses
+her for an entire day; she cannot close her eyes to
+sleep unless she has wiped away a tear; she would
+joyfully forego all her honors to save any unknown
+person a heartache. Before the Revolution her life
+was not so isolated: the Montpensier family received
+her with great honor, and the most illustrious families
+of Seville vied with each other in entertaining
+her at their homes: now she lives only among her
+books and a few friends.</p>
+
+<p>In Moorish times Cordova took the lead in literature
+and Seville in music. "When a scholar dies
+at Seville," said Averroes, "and they wish to sell<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">142</span>
+his books, they send them to Cordova; but if a
+musician dies at Cordova, they send his instruments
+to Seville to be sold." Now Cordova has lost her
+literary primacy, and Seville holds first place both
+in literature and music. Truly the times are past
+in which a poet by singing of the beauty of a maiden
+draws around her a crowd of lovers from all parts
+of the realm, and when one prince envies another
+simply because a poet has sung in his praise a verse
+more beautiful than any which the other had inspired,
+and a caliph rewards the author of a noble
+hymn by a gift of a hundred camels, a troop of
+slaves, and a vase of gold&mdash;when a happy strophe
+improvised at an opportune time releases a slave
+from his chains or saves the life of one condemned
+to death, and when the musicians are followed
+through the streets of Seville by a train of monarchs,
+and the favor of poets is more sought than that of
+kings, and the lyre is more terrible than the sword.
+But the people of Seville are always the most poetic
+people of Spain. The <i>bon mot</i>, the word of love,
+the expression of joy and enthusiasm, fly from their
+lips with a fascinating spontaneity and grace. The
+common people of Seville improvise, and talk as
+though they are singing, gesticulate as if they are
+declaiming, laugh and play like children. One
+never grows old at Seville. It is a city where life
+melts away in a continuous smile, with no other
+thought than the enjoyment of the beautiful sky,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">143</span>
+the lovely little houses, and the delightful little
+gardens. It is the most peaceful city in Spain,
+and the only one which since the Revolution has
+not been agitated by those sad political commotions
+which have stirred the others: politics do not penetrate
+the surface; the Sevillians are content to make
+love; all else they take in jest. <i>Todo lo toman de
+broma</i>, say the other Spaniards of the Sevillians;
+and in truth with that fragrant air, with those little
+streets like those of an Oriental city, with those
+fiery little women, why should they trouble themselves?
+At Madrid they speak ill of them; they
+say they are vain, false, fickle, and silly. It is
+jealousy: they envy them their happy indolence,
+the sympathy which they inspire in strangers, their
+girls, their poets, their painters, their orators, their
+Giralda, their Alcazar, their Guadalquivir, their
+life, and their history. So say the Sevillians, striking
+their breasts with one hand and puffing into the
+air a cloud of smoke from the inseparable <i>cigaritto</i>;
+and their lovely little women revenge themselves
+upon their envious sisters and all the other women
+in the world, speaking with spiteful pity of long feet,
+large waists, and dull eyes, that in Andalusia would
+not receive the honor of a glance or the homage of
+a sigh. A charming and amiable people, in truth;
+but, alas! one must look at the reverse side of the
+medal: superstition reigns and schools are lacking,
+as is the case throughout all Southern Spain; this<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">144</span>
+is partly their own fault and partly not; but the
+negative is probably the smaller part.</p>
+
+<p>The day of my departure arrived unexpectedly.
+It is strange: I remember scarcely any particulars
+of my life at Seville; it is remarkable if I can tell
+where I dined, what I talked about with the consul,
+how I spent the evenings, and why I chose any
+given day to take my departure. I was not myself;
+I lived, if I may use the expression, out of myself;
+all the while I remained in the city I was a little
+dazed. Apart from the art-gallery and the <i>patio</i>
+my friend Segovia must have found that I knew very
+little; and now, I know not why, I think of those
+days as of a dream. Of no other city are my recollections
+so vague as of Seville. Even to-day, while
+I am certain of having been at Saragossa, Madrid,
+and Toledo, sometimes when I think of Seville a
+doubt steals upon me. It seems to me like a city
+much farther away than the most distant boundaries
+of Spain, and that to journey there again I must
+travel months and months, cross unknown continents
+and wide seas, among people totally different from
+our own. I think of the streets of Seville, of certain
+little squares and certain houses, as I would think
+of the spots on the moon. Sometimes the image of
+that city passes before my eyes like a white figure,
+and disappears almost before I can grasp it with my
+mind&mdash;sometimes in a breath of air, at certain hours
+of the day, at a garden-gate; in humming a song<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">145</span>
+which I heard a boy sing on the steps of the Giralda.
+I cannot explain this secret to myself; I think of
+Seville as of a city which I have still to see, and
+I enjoy looking at the prints and thumbing the
+books which I bought there, for they are tangible
+things that convince me of my visit. A month ago
+I received a letter from Segovia which said, "Come
+back to us." It gave me untold pleasure, but at the
+same time I laughed as if he had written, "Make a
+voyage to Pekin." It is for this very reason that
+Seville is dearer to me than all the other cities of
+Spain; I love it as I might love a beautiful unknown
+woman who, crossing a mysterious wood, might
+look my way and throw me a flower. How often in
+the theatre or at the café, when a friend shakes me
+and asks, "What are you thinking about?" I am
+obliged to leave the little room of Maria de Padilla
+to return to him, or a boat that is gliding along in
+the shade of the Christina plane trees, or Figaro's
+shop, or the vestibule of a <i>patio</i> full of flowers,
+fountains, and lights.</p>
+
+<p>I embarked on a boat of the Segovia Company,
+near the Torre del Oro, at an hour when Seville is
+wrapped in deep sleep and a burning sun covers it
+with a flood of light. I remember that a few
+moments before the boat started a young man came
+on board in search of me, and gave me a letter from
+Gonzalo Segovia, containing a sonnet which I still
+cherish as one of my most precious mementos of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">146</span>
+Seville. On the boat there was a company of Spanish
+singers, an English family, some laboring-men,
+and babies. The captain, being a good Andalusian,
+had a cheery word for everybody. I soon began a
+conversation with him. My friend Gonzalo was a
+son of the proprietor of the line, and we talked of
+the Segovia family, of Seville, the sea, and a thousand
+pleasant things. Ah! the poor man was far
+from thinking that a few days later the unlucky ship
+would founder in the midst of the sea and bring him
+to such a terrible end! It was the <i>Guadaira</i>, that
+was lost a short distance from Marseilles by the
+bursting of the boiler on the sixteenth day of June,
+1872.</p>
+
+<p>At three o'clock the boat started for Cadiz.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">147</span></p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a><br /><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p>
+</div><div class="chapter">
+<h2><a name="CADIZ" id="CADIZ"></a>CADIZ.</h2>
+
+
+<p>That was the most delightful evening of all my
+journey.</p>
+
+<p>A little while after the ship had commenced to
+move there sprang up one of those gentle breezes
+which played with one as an infant plays with one's
+cravat or a lock of one's hair, and from stem to
+stern there was a sound of the voices of women and
+children, like that which one hears among a group
+of friends at the first crack of the whip announcing
+their departure for a merry outing. All the passengers
+gathered at the stern in the shade of a gayly-colored
+awning like a Chinese pavilion: some were
+sitting on coils of rope, others were stretched at full
+length on the benches, others were leaning against
+the rail&mdash;every one looked back in the direction of
+the Torre del Oro to enjoy the famous and enchanting
+spectacle of Seville as it faded away in the distance.
+Some of the women had not yet dried the
+tears of parting, and some of the children were still
+a little frightened by the sound of the engine. And
+some ladies were still quarrelling with the porters
+for abusing their baggage; but in a few moments
+all was serene again, and the passengers began to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">150</span>
+peel oranges, light cigars, pass little flasks of liquor,
+converse with their unknown neighbors, sing and
+laugh, and in a quarter of an hour we were all
+friends.</p>
+
+<p>The boat glided along as smoothly as a gondola
+over the still, limpid waters, which reflected the
+white dresses of the ladies like a mirror, and the
+breeze brought the delightful fragrance from the
+orange-groves of the villas scattered along the shore.
+Seville was hidden behind her circle of gardens, and
+we saw only an immense mass of trees of vivid
+green, and above them the black pile of the cathedral
+and the rose-colored Giralda surmounted by
+its statue flaming like a tongue of fire. As the
+distance widened the cathedral appeared grander and
+more majestic, as if it were following the vessel and
+gaining upon her: now, although still following, it
+seemed to retire a great way from the shore; now it
+would seem to be spanning the river; one moment
+it would appear suddenly to return to its place; a
+moment later it looked so close that we suspected
+the boat had turned back. The Guadalquivir
+wound along in short curves, and as the boat turned
+this way and that Seville appeared and disappeared,
+now peeping out in one place as if it had stolen
+beyond its boundaries, now raising its head suddenly
+behind a wood, gleaming like a snowclad mountain,
+now revealing some white streaks here and there
+amid the verdure, and suddenly disappearing from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">151</span>
+view and performing all sorts of fantastic wiles, like
+a coquettish woman. Finally it disappeared and we
+saw it no more: the cathedral alone remained. Then
+every one turned to look at the shore. We seemed
+to be sailing on the lake of a garden. Here was a
+hillside clothed with cypresses, here a hilltop all
+covered with flowers, yonder a village extending
+along the shore, and under the garden trellises
+and along the terraces of the villas sat ladies looking
+at us with spy-glasses; and here and there
+were peasants' families in brightly-colored dresses,
+sail-boats; and naked boys who plunged into the
+water and turned sommersaults, frisked about,
+shouted, and waved their hands toward the ladies
+on the boat, who covered their faces with their fans.
+Some miles from Seville we met three steamboats,
+one after the other. The first came upon us so suddenly
+at a turn of the river that, having had no
+experience in that sort of navigation, I was afraid,
+for a moment, that we should not have time to avoid
+a collision; the two boats almost grazed each other
+in passing, and the passengers of each saluted each
+other and threw across oranges and cigars, and
+charged each other with messages to be borne to
+Cadiz or Seville.</p>
+
+<p>My fellow-voyagers were almost all Andalusians,
+and so, after an hour of conversation, I knew them
+from first to last as well as if we had all been friends
+from infancy. Every one instantly told every one<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">152</span>
+else, whether he wanted to know it or not, who he
+was, his age, occupation, and where he was going,
+and one even went so far as to tell how many sweethearts
+he had and how many pesetas were in his
+purse. I was taken for a singer; and this is not
+strange if one considers that in Spain the people
+think three-fourths of the Italians are trained to
+sing, dance, or declaim. One gentleman, noticing
+that I had an Italian book in my hand, asked me,
+point-blank, "Where did you leave the company?"</p>
+
+<p>"What company?" I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Weren't you singing with Fricci at the Zarzuela?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry, but I have never appeared on the
+stage."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I must say, then, that you and the second
+tenor look as much alike as two drops of water."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't say so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pray excuse me."</p>
+
+<p>"It's of no consequence."</p>
+
+<p>"But you are an Italian?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you sing?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry, but I do not sing."</p>
+
+<p>"How strange! To judge by your throat and
+breast, I should have said that you must have a
+splendid tenor voice."</p>
+
+<p>I put my hand to my chest and neck, and replied,
+"It may be so; I will try&mdash;one never knows. I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">153</span>
+have two of the necessary qualifications: I am an
+Italian and have the throat of a tenor; the voice
+ought to follow."</p>
+
+<p>At this point the prima donna of the company,
+who had overheard the dialogue, entered the conversation,
+and after her the entire company:</p>
+
+<p>"Is the gentleman an Italian?"</p>
+
+<p>"At your service, madam."</p>
+
+<p>"I ask the question because I wish him to do me
+a favor. What is the meaning of those short verses
+from <i>Il Trovatore</i> which run&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse indent4">"Non può nemmeno un Dio</div>
+  <div class="verse indent4">Donna rapirti a me."</div>
+  <div class="verse">(Not even a god can steal my lady from me.)</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>"Is the lady married?"</p>
+
+<p>They all began to laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied the prima donna; "but why do
+you ask me that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because ... 'not even a god can steal you
+from me' is what your husband ought to say, if he
+has two good eyes in his head, every morning when
+he rises and every night when he goes to bed."</p>
+
+<p>The others laughed, but to the prima donna this
+imaginary presumption on the part of her husband
+in affirming that he was secure even against a god
+seemed too extravagant, possibly because she knew
+that she had not always been sufficiently wary in her
+regard for men; and so she scarcely deigned by so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">154</span>
+much as a smile to show that she had understood
+my compliment. She at once asked the meaning of
+another verse, and after her the baritone, and after
+the baritone the tenor, and after the tenor the second
+lady, and so on, until for a little while I did nothing
+but translate poor Italian verses into worse Spanish
+prose, to the great satisfaction of some of them, who
+for the first time were able to repeat intelligently a
+little of what they had so often sung with an air of
+perfect knowledge. When every one had learned as
+much as he wished to know, the conversation came
+to a close, and I stood talking a little while with the
+baritone, who hummed me an air from the <i>Zarzuela</i>;
+then I attached myself to one of the chorus, who
+told me that the tenor was making love to the
+prima donna; then I went off with the tenor, who
+told me about the baritone's wife; then I talked
+with the prima donna, who said disagreeable things
+about the whole company; but they were all good
+friends, and when they met, as they walked about
+the boat and gathered under the awning, the men
+pulled each other's beards and the women kissed
+each other, and one and all exchanged glances and
+smiles which revealed secret understandings. Some
+ran through the gamut here, some hummed yonder,
+others practised trills in a corner, and others again
+tried a guttural <i>do</i> that ended in a wheezing sound
+in the throat; and meanwhile they all talked at once
+about a thousand trifles.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">155</span></p>
+
+<p>Finally, the bell sounded and we rushed headlong
+to the table, like so many officials invited to a spread
+at the unveiling of a monument. At this dinner,
+amid the cries and songs of all those people, I drank
+for the first time an unmixed glass of that terrible
+wine of Xeres whose wonders are sung in the four
+corners of the earth. I had scarcely swallowed it
+before I seemed to feel a spark run through all my
+veins, and my head burned as if it was full of sulphur.
+All the others drank, and all were filled with
+unrestrained mirth and became irresistibly loquacious;
+the prima donna began to talk in Italian, the
+tenor in French, the baritone in Portuguese, the
+others in dialect, and I in every tongue; and there
+were toasts and snatches of song, shouts, arch
+glances, clasping of hands above table and the
+kicking of feet below, and declarations of good fellowship
+exchanged on all sides, like the personalities
+in Parliament when the opposing factions join battle.
+After dinner we all went on deck, flushed and in
+great spirits, breathless and enveloped in a cloud of
+smoke from our cigarettes, and then, in the light of
+the moon, whose silvery rays gleamed on the wide
+river and covered the hillsides and the groves with
+limpid light, we began again a noisy conversation,
+and after the conversation there was singing, not
+only the trifling airs of <i>Zarzuela</i>, but passages from
+operas, with solos, duets, trios, and choruses, with
+appropriate gestures and stage strides, diversified<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">156</span>
+with declamations from the poets, stories, and anecdotes,
+hearty laughter, and tumultuous applause;
+finally, tired and breathless, we were all silent, and
+some fell asleep with upturned faces, others went to
+lie down under cover, and the prima donna seated
+herself in a corner to look at the moon. The tenor
+was snoring. I profited by the occasion to go and
+have an aria from the <i>Zarzuela</i>&mdash;<i>El Sargento Federico</i>&mdash;sung
+to me in a low voice. The courteous
+Andalusian did not wait to be pressed: she sang,
+but suddenly she was silent and hid her face. I
+looked at her: she was weeping. I asked her the
+cause of her distress, and she answered, sadly, "I
+am thinking of a perjury." Then she broke into
+a laugh and began to sing again. She had a melodious,
+flexible voice, and sang with a feeling of
+gentle sadness. The sky was all studded with stars,
+and the boat glided so smoothly through the water
+that it scarcely seemed to be moving; and I thought
+of the gardens of Seville, of the near African shore,
+and of the dear one waiting for me in Italy, and my
+eyes too were wet, and when the lady stopped singing,
+I said, "Sing on, for&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">'Mortal tongue cannot express</div>
+  <div class="verse">That which I felt within my breast....'"</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>At dawn the boat was just entering the ocean;
+the river was very wide. The right bank, scarcely
+visible in the distance, stretched along like a tongue<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">157</span>
+of land, beyond which shone the waters of the sea.
+A moment later the sun rose above the horizon, and
+the vessel left the river. Then there unfolded before
+my eyes a sight that could not be described if
+it were possible to join poetry, painting, and music
+in one supreme art&mdash;a spectacle whose magnificence
+and enchantment I believe not even Dante could
+describe with his grandest images, nor Titian with
+his most brilliant colors, nor Rossini with his most
+perfect harmonies, nor even all three of them together.
+The sky was a miracle of sapphire light
+unflecked by a cloud, and the sea was so beautiful
+that it seemed like an immense carpet of shimmering
+silk; the sun was shining on the crests of the little
+ripples caused by a light breeze, and it seemed as
+if they were tipped with amethyst. The sea was
+full of reflections and luminous bands of light, and
+in the distance were streaks of silver, with here and
+there great white sails, like the trailing wings of
+gigantic fallen angels. I have never seen such
+brilliancy of color, such splendor of light, such
+freshness, such transparency, such limpid water and
+sky. It seemed like a daybreak of creation, which
+the fancy of poets had pictured so pure and effulgent
+that our dawns are only pale reflections in comparison.
+It was more than Nature's awakening and
+the recurring stir of life: it was a hallelujah, a
+triumph, a new birth of creation, growing into the
+infinite by a second inspiration of God.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">158</span></p>
+
+<p>I went below deck to get my spyglass, and when
+I returned Cadiz was in sight.</p>
+
+<p>The first impression which it made upon me was
+a feeling of doubt whether it was a city or not. I
+first laughed, then turned toward my fellow-traveller
+with the air of one seeking to be assured that he is
+not deceived. Cadiz is like an island of chalk. It
+is a great white spot in the midst of the sea, without
+a cloud, without a black line, without a shadow&mdash;a
+white spot as clear and pure as a hilltop covered
+with untrodden snow, standing out against a sky of
+beryl and turquoise in the midst of a vast flooded
+plain. A long, narrow neck of land unites it to the
+continent; on all other sides it is surrounded by the
+sea, like a boat just ready to sail bound to the shore
+only by a cable. As we approached, the forms of
+the campaniles, the outlines of the houses, and the
+openings of the streets became clear, and everything
+seemed whiter, and, however much I looked through
+my spyglass, I could not have discovered the
+smallest spot in that whiteness, either on a building
+near the harbor or in the farthest suburbs. We
+entered the port, where there were but a few ships
+and those a great way apart. I stepped into a boat
+without even taking my valise with me, for I was
+obliged to leave for Malaga that same evening, and
+so eager was I to see the city that when the boat
+came to the bank, I jumped too soon and fell to the
+ground like a corpse, although, alas! I still felt the
+pains of a living body.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<div class="caption"><i><a id="Cadiz_p"></a>Cadiz</i></div>
+<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b158ct.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">159</span></p>
+
+<p>Cadiz is the whitest city in the world; and it is
+of no use to contradict me by saying that I have
+not seen every other city, for my common sense
+tells me that a city whiter than this, which is superlatively
+and perfectly white, cannot exist. Cordova
+and Seville cannot be compared with Cadiz:
+they are as white as a sheet, but Cadiz is as white
+as milk. To give an idea of it, one could not do
+better than to write the word "white" a thousand
+times with a white pencil on blue paper, and make
+a note on the margin: "Impressions of Cadiz."
+Cadiz is one of the most extravagant and graceful
+of human caprices: not only the outer walls of the
+houses are white, but the stairs are white, the courts
+are white, the shop-walls are white, the stones are
+white, the pilasters are white, the most secret and
+darkest corners of the poorest houses and the loneliest
+streets are white; everything is white from
+roof to cellar wherever the tip of a brush can enter,
+even to the holes, cracks, and birds' nests. In every
+house there is a pile of chalk and lime, and every
+time the eagle eye of the inmates spies the least
+spot the brush is seized and the spot covered.
+Servants are not taken into families unless they
+know how to whitewash. A pencil-scratch on a
+wall is a scandalous thing, an outrage upon the
+public peace, an act of vandalism: you might walk<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">160</span>
+through the entire city, look behind all the doors,
+and poke your nose into the very holes, and you
+would find white, only and always and eternally.</p>
+
+<p>But, for all this, Cadiz does not in the least resemble
+the other Andalusian cities. Its streets are
+long and straight, and the houses are high, and lack
+the <i>patios</i> of Cordova and Seville. But, although
+the appearance is different, the city does not appear
+less interesting and pleasant to the eye of the
+stranger. The streets are straight, but narrow, and,
+moreover, they are very long, and many of them
+cross the entire city, and so one can see at the end,
+as through the crack in a door, a slender strip of
+sky, which makes it seem as if the city was built on
+the summit of a mountain cut on all sides in regular
+channels: moreover, the houses have a great many
+windows, and, as at Burgos, every window is provided
+with a sort of glass balcony which rises in
+tiers from story to story, so that in many streets the
+houses are completely covered with glass, and one
+sees scarcely any traces of the walls. It seems like
+walking through a passage in an immense museum.
+Here and there, between one house and the next,
+rise the graceful fronds of a palm; in every square
+there is a luxuriant mass of verdure, and at all the
+windows bunches of grass and bouquets of flowers.</p>
+
+<p>Really, I had been far from imagining that Cadiz
+could be so gay and smiling&mdash;that terrible, ill-fated
+Cadiz, burned by the English in the sixteenth cen<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">161</span>tury,
+bombarded at the end of the eighteenth, devastated
+by the pestilence, hostess of the fleets of Trafalgar,
+the seat of the revolutionary council during
+the War of Independence, the theatre of the horrible
+butchery of the Revolution of 1820, the target
+of the French bombs in 1823, the standard-bearer
+of the Revolution which hurled the Bourbons from
+the throne,&mdash;Cadiz always restless and turbulent and
+first of all to raise the battle-cry. But of such
+calamities and such struggles there remain only
+some cannon-balls half buried in the walls, for over
+all the traces of destruction has passed the inexorable
+brush, covering every dishonor with a white veil.
+And as it is with the latest wars, so too there remains
+not a trace of the Phœnicians who founded
+the city, nor of the Carthaginians and Romans who
+enlarged and beautified it, unless one wishes to consider
+as a trace the tradition which says, "Here rose
+a temple to Hercules," "There rose a temple to
+Saturn." But time has done a worse thing than to
+deprive Cadiz of her ancient monuments: it has
+stolen away her commerce and her riches since
+Spain lost her possessions in America, and now Cadiz
+lies there inert on her solitary rock, waiting in
+vain for the thousand ships which once came with
+flags and festoons to offer her the tribute of the
+New World.</p>
+
+<p>I had a letter of introduction to the Italian consul,
+and after receiving it he courteously took me to the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">162</span>
+top of a tower from which I was able to get a bird's-eye
+view of the city. It was a novel sight and a
+very lively surprise: seen from above, Cadiz is
+white, entirely and perfectly white, just as it appears
+from the sea; there is not a roof in all the
+city; every house is covered on top by a terrace
+surrounded by a low whitewashed wall; on almost
+every terrace rises a little white tower, which is surmounted,
+in its turn, by another smaller terrace or
+by a little cupola or sort of sentry-box: everything
+is white; all these little cupolas, these pinnacles,
+and these towers, which give the city a very odd
+and uneven appearance, gleam and stand out white
+against the vivid blue of the sea. One's view extends
+over the entire length of the isthmus which
+connects Cadiz to the main land, embraces a far-off
+strip of distant coast whitened by the cities of
+Puerto Real and Puerto Santa Maria, dotted with villages,
+churches, and villas, and includes also the port
+and the clear and a very beautiful sky which vies
+with the sea in transparency and light. I could not
+look enough at that strange city. On closing my
+eyes it appeared as if covered by an immense sheet.
+Every house seemed to have been built for an astronomical
+observatory. The entire population, in
+case the sea should inundate the city, as in ancient
+times, might gather on the terraces and remain there
+in perfect ease, saving the fright.</p>
+
+<p>I was told that a few years ago, on the occasion<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">163</span>
+of some eclipse of the sun, this very spectacle was
+witnessed: the seventy thousand inhabitants of Cadiz
+all ascended to the terraces to watch the phenomenon.
+The city changed its perfect whiteness for
+a thousand colors; every terrace was thick with heads;
+one saw at a single glance, quarter after quarter, and
+finally the entire population: a low murmur rose to
+heaven like the roar of the sea, and a great movement
+of arms, fans, and spy-glasses, pointing upward,
+made it seem as if the people were awaiting the
+descent of some angel from the solar sphere. At a
+certain moment there was a profound silence: when
+the phenomenon was over the entire population gave
+a shout, which sounded like a clap of thunder, and
+a few moments later the city was white again.</p>
+
+<p>I descended from the tower and went to see the
+cathedral, a vast marble edifice of the sixteenth century,
+not to be compared to the cathedrals of Burgos
+and Toledo, but nevertheless dignified and bold in
+architecture and enriched by every sort of treasure,
+like all the other Spanish churches. I went to see
+the convent where Murillo was painting a picture
+over a high altar when he fell from the scaffold and
+received the wound which caused his death. I
+passed through the picture-gallery, which contains
+some fine paintings of Zurbaran; entered the bull-ring,
+built entirely of wood, which was created in a
+few days to provide a spectacle for Queen Isabella.
+Toward evening I took a turn in the delightful<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">164</span>
+promenade along the sea-shore, in the midst of
+orange trees and palms, where the most beautiful
+and elegant ladies of the city were pointed out to
+me, one by one. Whatever may be the judgment
+of the Spaniards, to me the feminine type of Cadiz
+did not seem at all inferior to the celebrated type
+of Seville. The women are a little taller, a little
+heavier, and are somewhat darker. Some observer
+has ventured to say that they closely resemble the
+Grecian type, but I do not know in what respect.
+I saw no difference from the Andalusian type except
+in stature, and that was enough to make me heave
+sighs which might have propelled a ship, and constrained
+me to return as soon as possible to the vessel
+as a place of refuge and peace.</p>
+
+<p>When I arrived on board it was night; the sky
+was all twinkling with stars, and the breeze bore
+faintly to my ears the music of a band playing on
+the promenade of Cadiz. The singers were asleep;
+I was alone, and the sight of the city lights and the
+recollection of the lovely faces filled me with melancholy.
+I did not know what to do with myself, so I
+went down to the cabin, took out my note-book, and
+commenced the description of Cadiz. But I only
+succeeded in writing ten times the words, "White,
+blue, snow, brightness, colors," after which I made a
+little sketch of a woman and then closed my eyes
+and dreamed of Italy.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">165</span></p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a><br /><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p>
+</div><div class="chapter">
+<h2><a name="MALAGA" id="MALAGA"></a>MALAGA.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The next day, at sunset, the vessel was passing
+through the Straits of Gibraltar.</p>
+
+<p>Now, as I look at that point on the map, it seems
+so near home that when I am in the humor and my
+domestic finances permit I ought not to hesitate a
+moment to pack my valise and run down to Genoa
+on my way to enjoy a second time the most beautiful
+sight of two continents. But then it seemed to
+be so far away that when I had written a letter to
+my mother on the rail of the ship, intending to give
+it to one of the passengers for Gibraltar to post, as I
+was writing the address I laughed at my confidence,
+as if it were impossible for a letter to travel all the
+way to Turin. "From here!" I thought&mdash;"from
+the Pillars of Hercules!" and I pronounced the Pillars
+of Hercules as if I had said the Cape of Good
+Hope or Japan.</p>
+
+<p>"... I am on the ship Guadaira: behind me is
+the ocean, and in front the Mediterranean, on the
+left Europe and on the right Africa. On this side
+I see the cape of Tarifa, and on that the mountains
+of the African coast, which look indistinct like a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">168</span>
+gray cloud; I see Ceuta, and a little beyond it
+Tangiers like a white spot, and in a direct line with
+the ship rises the Rock of Gibraltar. The sea is as
+placid as a lake, and the sky is red and gold; all is
+serene, beautiful, and magnificent, and I feel in my
+mind an inexpressible and delightful stirring of
+great thoughts, which, if I could put them into
+words, would become a joyful prayer beginning and
+ending with thy name...."</p>
+
+<p>The vessel stopped in the Gulf of Algeciras: the
+entire company of singers got into a large boat
+from Gibraltar, and went off, waving fans and handkerchiefs
+as a parting salute. It was growing dark
+when the boat started again. Then I was able to
+measure the enormous mass of the Rock of Gibraltar
+at every turn. At first I thought we should leave
+it behind in a few moments, but the moments became
+hours. Gradually, as we approached, it towered
+above us, and presented a new appearance every instant&mdash;now
+the silhouette of some measureless monster,
+now the image of an immense staircase, now
+the outline of a fantastic castle, now a shapeless
+mass like a monstrous aërolite fallen from a world
+shivered in a battle of the spheres. Then, on nearer
+view, behind a high rock like an Egyptian pyramid,
+there came into sight a great projection as large as
+a mountain, with fissures and broken boulders and
+vast curves which lost themselves in the plain. It
+was night; the rock stood outlined against the moon<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">169</span>lit
+sky as clear and sharp as a sheet of black paper
+on a pane of glass. One saw the lighted windows
+of the English barracks, the sentry-boxes on the
+summit of the dizzy crags, and a dim outline of
+trees which seemed little larger than a tuft of grass
+among the nearest rocks. For a long time the boat
+seemed motionless or else the rock was receding, so
+close and threatening did it always appear; then,
+little by little, it began to diminish, but our eyes
+were weary of gazing before the rock grew weary
+of threatening us with its fantastic transformations.
+At midnight I gave a final salute to that formidable,
+lifeless sentinel of Europe, and went to wrap myself
+up in my little corner.</p>
+
+<p>At break of day I awoke a few miles from the
+port of Malaga.</p>
+
+<p>The city of Malaga, seen from the port, presents
+a pleasing appearance not wholly without grandeur.
+On the right is a high rocky mountain, upon the top
+of which and down one side, even to the plain, are
+the enormous blackened ruins of the castle of Gibralfaro,
+and on the lower slopes stands the cathedral
+towering majestically above all the surrounding
+buildings, lifting toward heaven, as an inspired poet
+might say, two beautiful towers and a very high
+belfry. Between the castle and the church and on
+the face and sides of the mountain there is a mass&mdash;a
+<i>canaille</i>, as Victor Hugo would say&mdash;of smoky
+little houses, placed confusedly one above the other,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">170</span>
+as if they had been thrown down from above like
+stones. To the left of the cathedral, along the shore,
+is a row of houses, gray, violet, or pale yellow in
+color, with white window-and door-frames, that
+suggest the villages along the Ligurian Riviera.
+Beyond rises a circle of green and reddish hills enclosing
+the city like the walls of an amphitheatre,
+and to the right and left along the sea-shore extend
+other mountains, hills, and rocks as far as the eye
+can see. The port was almost deserted, the shore
+silent, and the sky very blue.</p>
+
+<p>Before landing I took my leave of the captain,
+who was going on to Marseilles, said good-bye to
+the boatswain and passengers, telling them all that I
+should arrive at Valencia a day ahead of the boat,
+and I should certainly join them again and go on to
+Barcelona and Marseilles, and the captain replied,
+"We shall look for you," and the steward promised
+that my place should be saved for me. How often
+since then have I remembered the last words of those
+poor people!</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<div class="caption"><i><a id="Malaga_p"></a>Malaga</i></div>
+<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b170cs.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+</div>
+
+<p>I stopped at Malaga with the intention of leaving
+that same evening for Granada. The city itself
+offers nothing worthy of note, excepting the new
+part, which occupies a tract of land formerly
+covered by the sea. This is built up in the modern
+style, with wide, straight streets and large, bare
+houses. The rest of the city is a labyrinth of narrow,
+winding streets and a mass of houses without<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">171</span>
+color, without <i>patios</i>, and without grace. There are
+some spacious squares with gardens and fountains;
+columns and arches of Moorish buildings, no modern
+monuments; a great deal of dirt, and not a great
+many people. The environs are very beautiful, and
+the climate is milder than that of Seville.</p>
+
+<p>I had a friend at Malaga, and after finding him
+we passed the day together. He told me a curious
+fact: At Malaga there is a literary academy of more
+than eight hundred members, where they celebrate
+the birthdays of all the great writers, and hold twice
+a week a public lecture on some subject connected
+with literature or science. That same evening they
+were to celebrate a solemn function. Some months
+earlier the academy had offered a prize of three
+golden flowers, enamelled in different colors, to the
+three poets who should compose the best ode on
+"Progress," the best ballad on the "Recovery of
+Malaga," and the best satire on one of the most prevalent
+vices of modern society. The invitation had
+been extended to all the poets of Spain; poems had
+poured in in abundance; a board of judges had secretly
+considered them; and that very evening the choice
+was to be announced. The ceremony was to be
+conducted with great pomp. The bishop, the governor,
+the admiral, the most conspicuous personages
+of the city, with dress-coats, orders, and shoulder-scarfs,
+and a great number of ladies in evening dress,
+were to be present. The three most beautiful Muses<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">172</span>
+of the city were to present themselves on a sort of
+stage adorned with garlands and flags, each of whom
+was to open the roll containing the prize poem and
+to proclaim three times the name of its author: if
+the author were present, he was to be invited to read
+his verses and receive his flower; if he were not
+present, his verses were to be read for him.
+Throughout the whole city they talked of nothing
+but the academy, guessed the names of the victors,
+predicted the wonders of the three poems, and extolled
+the decorations of the hall. This festival of
+poetry, called the <i>juegos floreales</i>, had not been celebrated
+for ten years. Others may judge whether
+such contests and displays benefit or injure poets
+and poetry. As for me, whatever may be the
+dubious and fleeting literary glory which is bestowed
+by the sentence of the jury and the homage of a
+bishop and a governor, I believe that to receive
+the gift of a golden flower from the hand of a most
+beautiful woman under the eyes of five hundred fair
+Andalusians, to the sound of soft music and amid
+the perfume of jessamine and roses, that would be
+a delight even truer and more lively than any which
+comes from real and enduring glory. No? Ah! we
+are sincere.</p>
+
+<p>One of my first thoughts was to taste a little of
+the genuine Malaga wine, for no other reason than
+to repay myself for the many headaches and stomachaches
+caused by the miserable concoctions sold in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">173</span>
+many Italian cities under the false recommendation
+of its name. But either I did not know how to ask
+or they did not wish to understand: the fact remains
+that the wine they gave me at the hotel burned my
+throat and made my head spin. I was not able to
+walk straight even to the cathedral, or from the
+cathedral to the castle of Gibralfaro, or to the other
+places, nor could I form an idea of the beauties of
+Malaga without seeing them double and unsteadily,
+as some spiteful person might suppose.</p>
+
+<p>On our walk my friend talked to me about the
+famous Republican people of Malaga, who are every
+moment doing something on their own account.
+They are a very fiery people, but fickle and yet
+tractable, like all people who feel much and think
+little; and they act upon the impulse of passion
+rather than the strength of conviction. The least
+trifle calls together an immense crowd and stirs up a
+tumult that turns the city topsy-turvy; but on most
+occasions a resolute act of a man in authority, an
+exhibition of courage, or a burst of eloquence is
+sufficient to quiet the tumult and disperse the crowd.
+The nature of the people is good on the whole, but
+superstition and passion have perverted them. And,
+above all, superstition is perhaps more firmly entrenched
+in Malaga than in any other city of Andalusia,
+by reason of the greater popular ignorance.
+Altogether, Malaga was the least Andalusian of the
+cities I had seen: even the very language has been<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">174</span>
+corrupted, and they speak worse Spanish than at
+Cadiz, where, forsooth! they speak badly enough.</p>
+
+<p>I was still at Malaga, but my imagination was far
+away among the streets of Granada and in the gardens
+of the Alhambra and the Generalife. Shortly
+after the noon hour I took my leave from the only
+city in Spain, to tell the truth, that I left without a
+sigh of regret. When the train started, instead of
+turning for a last look, as I had done in all of its
+sister towns, I murmured the verses sung by Giovanni
+Prati at Granada when the duke d'Aosta was leaving
+for Spain:</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"Non più Granata è sola</div>
+  <div class="verse indent2">Sulle sur mute pietre;</div>
+  <div class="verse">L'inno in Alhambra vola</div>
+  <div class="verse indent2">Sulle Moresche cetre."</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>(<i>No more does Granada stand alone on her silent
+stones: the hymn flies to the Alhambra on Moorish
+lyres.</i>)</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>And now, as I write them again, it seems to me
+that the music of the band of the National Guard of
+Turin inspires peace and gladness more even surely
+than Moorish lyres, and that the pavement of the
+porticoes of the Po, although it be ever so silent, is
+better laid and smoother than the stones of Granada.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">175</span></p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a><br /><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p>
+</div><div class="chapter">
+<h2><a name="GRANADA" id="GRANADA"></a>GRANADA.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The journey from Malaga to Granada was the
+most adventurous and unfortunate that I made in
+Spain.</p>
+
+<p>In order that my compassionate readers may pity
+me as much as I desire, they must know (I am
+ashamed to occupy people with these little details)
+that at Malaga I had eaten only the lightest sort of
+an Andalusian repast, of which at the moment of
+departure I retained a very vague recollection.
+But I started, feeling sure that I could alight at
+some railway-station where there would be one of
+those rooms or public choking-places where one
+enters at a gallop, eats until one is out of breath,
+pays as one scampers out to rush into a crowded
+carriage, suffocated and robbed, to curse the schedule,
+travel, and the minister of public works who
+deceives the country. I departed, and for the first
+hours it was delightful. The country was all gently
+sloping hills and green fields, dotted with villages
+crowned with palms and cypresses, and in the carriage,
+between two old men who rode with their eyes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">178</span>
+shut, there was a little Andalusian who kept looking
+around with a roguish smile which seemed to say,
+"Go on; your lovelorn glances do not offend me."
+But the train crept along as slowly as a worn-out
+diligence, and we stopped only a few moments at
+the stations. By sunset my stomach began to cry
+for help, and, to render the pangs of hunger even
+more severe, I was obliged to make a good part of
+the journey on foot. The train stopped at an unsafe
+bridge, and all the passengers got out and filed
+around, two by two, to meet the train on the other
+side of the river. We were surrounded by the
+rocks of the Sierra Nevada, in a wild, desert place,
+which made it seem as if we were a company of
+hostages led by a band of brigands. When we had
+clambered into the carriage the train crawled along
+no faster than before, and my stomach began to
+complain more desperately than at first. After a
+long time we arrived at a station all crowded with
+trains, where a large part of the travellers hurried
+out before I could reach the step.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are you going?" asked a railroad official,
+who had seen me alight.</p>
+
+<p>"To dine," I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"But aren't you going to Granada?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you won't have time; the train starts
+immediately."</p>
+
+<p>"But the others have gone."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">179</span></p>
+
+<p>"You will see them come back on the run in a
+minute."</p>
+
+<p>The freight-trains in front prevented me from
+seeing the station; I thought it was a great way
+off, and so stayed where I was. Two minutes
+passed, five, eight; the tourists did not return and
+the train did not start. I jumped out, ran to the
+station, saw a café, and entered a large room.
+Great heavens! Fifty starving people were standing
+around a refreshment-table with their noses in
+their plates, elbows in the air, and their eyes on the
+clock, devouring and shouting; another fifty were
+crowding around a counter seizing and pocketing
+bread, fruit, and candies, while the proprietor and
+the waiters, panting like horses and streaming with
+sweat, ran about, tucked up their sleeves, howled,
+tumbled over the seats and upset the customers,
+and scattered here and there streams of soup and
+drops of sauce; and one poor woman, who must
+have been the mistress of the café, imprisoned in a
+little niche behind the besieged counter, ran her
+hands through her hair in desperation. At this
+sight my arms hung down helplessly. But suddenly
+I roused myself and made an onslaught. Driven
+back by a feminine elbow in my chest, I rushed in
+again; repulsed by a jab in the stomach, I gathered
+all my strength to make a third attack. At this
+point the bell rang. There was a burst of imprecations
+and then a falling of seats, a scattering of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">180</span>
+plates, a hurry-scurry, and a perfect pandemonium.
+One man, choking in the fury of his last mouthfuls,
+became livid and his eyes seemed bursting from
+his head as though he were being hanged; another
+in stretching out his hand to seize an orange, struck
+by some one rushing past, plunged it into a bowl
+of cream; another was running through the room in
+search of his valise with a great smear of sauce on
+his cheeks; another, who had tried to drink his
+wine at one gulp, had strangled and coughed as if
+he would tear open his stomach; the officials at the
+door cried, "Hurry!" and the travellers called back
+from the room, "Ahogate!" (choked), and the
+waiters ran after those who had not paid, and those
+who wanted to pay could not find the waiters; and
+the ladies swooned, and the children cried, and
+everything was upside down.</p>
+
+<p>By good fortune I was able to get into my carriage
+before the train started.</p>
+
+<p>But there a new punishment awaited me. The
+two old men and the little Andalusian, who must
+have been the daughter of the one and niece of the
+other, had been successful in securing a little booty
+in the midst of that accursed crowd at the counter,
+and they were eating right and left. I began to
+watch them with sorrowful eyes like a dog beside
+his master's table, counting the mouthfuls and the
+number of times they chewed. The little Andalusian
+noticed it, and, pointing to something which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">181</span>
+looked like a croquet, made a gracious bow as if to
+ask if I would take it.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, thank you," I replied with the smile of
+a dying man; "I have eaten."</p>
+
+<p>My angel, I continued to myself, if you only knew
+that at this moment I would prefer those two croquets
+to the bitter apples&mdash;as Sir Niccolo Machiavelli
+would generously say&mdash;even those bitter apples
+from the famous garden of the Hesperides!</p>
+
+<p>"Try a drop of liquor at least," said the old
+uncle.</p>
+
+<p>I do not know what childish pique against myself
+or against those good people took possession of me,
+but it was a feeling which other men experience on
+similar occasions; however, I replied this time too,
+"No, thank you; it would be bad for me."</p>
+
+<p>The good old man looked me over from head to
+foot as if to say that I did not appear like a man to
+be the worse for a drop of liquor, and the Andalusian
+smiled, and I blushed for shame.</p>
+
+<p>Night settled down, and the train went on at the
+pace of Sancho Panza's steed for I knew not how
+many hours. That night I felt for the first time in
+my life the pangs of hunger, which I thought I had
+felt already on the famous day of the twenty-fourth
+of June, 1866. To relieve these torments I obstinately
+thought of all the dishes which filled me with
+repugnance&mdash;raw tomatoes, snails in soup, roasted
+crabs, and snails in salad. Alas! a voice of derision<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">182</span>
+told me, deep down in my vitals, that if I had any
+of them I should eat them and lick my fingers.
+Then I began to make imaginary messes of different
+dishes, as cream and fish, with a dash of wine, with
+a coat of pepper, and a layer of juniper preserves,
+to see if I could thus hold my stomach in check.
+Oh misery! my cowardly stomach did not repel
+even those. Then I made a final effort and imagined
+that I was at table in a Parisian hotel at the time of
+the siege, and that I gently lifted a mouse by the
+tail out of some pungent sauce, and the mouse, unexpectedly
+regaining life, bit my thumb and transfixed
+me with two wicked little eyes, and I, with
+raised fork, hesitated whether to let it go or to spit
+it without pity. But, thank Heaven! before I had
+settled this horrible question, to perform such an act
+as has never been recorded in the history of any
+siege, the train stopped and a ray of hope revived
+my drooping spirits.</p>
+
+<p>We had reached some nameless village, and while
+I was putting my head out of the window a voice
+cried, "All out for Granada!" I rushed headlong
+from the carriage and found myself face to face with
+a huge bearded fellow, who took my valise, telling
+me that he was going to put it in the diligence, for
+from that village to I know not how many miles
+from <i>imperial Granada</i> there is no railway.</p>
+
+<p>"One moment!" I cried to the unknown man in
+a supplicating voice: "how long before you start?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">183</span></p>
+
+<p>"Two minutes," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there an inn here?"</p>
+
+<p>"There it is." I flew to the inn, bolted a hard-boiled
+egg, and rushed back to the diligence, crying,
+"How much time now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Two minutes more," answered the same voice.</p>
+
+<p>I flew back to the hotel, seized another egg, and
+ran again to the diligence with the question, "Are
+you off?"</p>
+
+<p>"In a minute."</p>
+
+<p>Back again to the inn, and a third egg, and then
+to the diligence: "Are we going?"</p>
+
+<p>"In half a minute."</p>
+
+<p>This time I heaved a mighty sigh, ran to the inn,
+swallowed a fourth egg and a glass of wine, and
+rushed toward the diligence. But before I had
+taken ten steps my breath gave out, and I stopped
+with the egg halfway down my throat. At this
+point the whip cracked.&mdash;"Wait!" I cried in a
+hoarse voice, waving my hands like a drowning
+man.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Que hay?</i>" (What's the matter?) demanded the
+driver.</p>
+
+<p>I could not reply.</p>
+
+<p>"He has an egg stuck in his throat," some
+stranger answered for me.</p>
+
+<p>All the travellers burst into a laugh, the egg went
+down; I laughed too, overtook the diligence, which
+had already started, and, regaining my breath, gave<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">184</span>
+my companions an account of my troubles, and they
+were much interested, and pitied me even more than
+I had dared to hope after that cruel laugh at my
+suffocation.</p>
+
+<p>But my troubles were not ended. One of those
+irresistible attacks of sleepiness which used to come
+upon me treacherously in the long night-marches
+among the soldiers seized me all at once, and tormented
+me as far as the railway-station without my
+being able to get a moment of sleep. I believe that
+a cannon-ball suspended by a cord from the roof of
+the diligence would have given less annoyance to
+my unfortunate companions than my poor nodding
+head gave as it bobbed on all sides as if it was attached
+to my neck by a single tendon. On one side
+of me sat a nun, on the other a boy, and opposite a
+peasant-woman, and throughout the entire journey I
+did nothing but strike my head against these three
+victims with the monotonous motion of a bell-clapper.
+The nun, poor creature! endured the strokes
+in silence, perhaps in expiation for her sins of
+thought; but the boy and peasant-woman muttered
+from time to time, "He is a barbarian!"&mdash;"This
+must stop!"&mdash;"His head is like lead!" Finally, a
+witticism from one of the passengers released all four
+of us from this suffering. The peasant-woman was
+lamenting a little louder than usual, and a voice from
+the end of the diligence exclaimed, "Be consoled; if
+your head is not yet broken, you may be sure it will<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">185</span>
+not be, for it must certainly be proof against the
+hammer." They all laughed; I awakened, excused
+myself, and the three victims were so happy to
+find themselves released from that cruel thumping
+that, instead of taking revenge with bitter words,
+they said, "Poor fellow! you have slept badly.
+How you must have hurt your head!"</p>
+
+<p>We finally arrived at the railway, and behold
+what a perverse fate! Although I was alone in the
+railway-carriage, where I might have slept like a
+nabob, I could not close my eyes. A pang went
+through my heart at the thought of having made
+the journey by night when I could not see anything
+nor enjoy the distant view of Granada. And I
+remembered the lovely verses of Martinez de la
+Rosa:</p>
+
+<p>"O my dear fatherland! At last I see thee
+again! I see thy fair soil, thy joyful teeming fields,
+thy glorious sun, thy serene sky!</p>
+
+<p>"Yes! I see the fabled Granada stretching along
+the plain from hill to hill, her towers rising among
+her gardens of eternal green, the crystal streams
+kissing her walls, the noble mountains enclosing her
+valleys, and the Sierra Nevada crowning the distant
+horizon.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thy memory haunted me wherever I went,
+Granada! It destroyed my pleasures, my peace,
+and my glory, and oppressed my heart and soul!
+By the icy banks of the Seine and the Thames<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">186</span>
+I remembered with a sigh the happy waters of
+the Darro and the Genil, and many times, as I carolled
+a gay ballad, my bitter grief overcame me,
+and weeping, not to be repressed, choked my
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>"In vain the delightful Arno displayed her
+flower-strewn banks, sweet seats of love and peace!
+'The plain watered by the gentle Genil,' said I, 'is
+more flowery, the life of the lovely Granada is more
+dear.' And I murmured these words as one disconsolate,
+and, remembering the house of my fathers,
+I raised my sad eyes to heaven.</p>
+
+<p>"What is thy magic, what thy unspeakable spell,
+O fatherland! O sweet name! that thou art so dear?
+The swarthy African, far from his native desert,
+looks with sad disdain on fields of green; the rude
+Laplander, stolen from his mother-earth, sighs for
+perpetual night and snow; and I&mdash;I, to whom a
+kindly fate granted birth and nurture in thy bosom
+blest by so many gifts of God&mdash;though far from thee,
+could I forget thee, Granada?"</p>
+
+<p>When I reached Granada it was quite dark, and
+I could not see so much as the outlines of a house.
+A diligence drawn by two horses,</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"... anzi due cavallette</div>
+  <div class="verse indent4">Di quella de Mosé lá dell' Egitto,"</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>landed me at a hotel, where I was kept waiting an
+hour while my bed was being made, and finally, just<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">187</span>
+before three o'clock in the morning, I was at last
+able to lay my head on the pillow. But my troubles
+were not over: just as I was falling into a doze I
+heard an indistinct murmur in the next room, and
+then a masculine voice which said distinctly, "Oh,
+what a little foot!" You who have bowels of compassion,
+pity me. The pillow was torn a little; I
+pulled out two tufts of wool, stuffed them in my
+ears; and, rehearsing in thought the misfortunes
+of my journey, I slept the sleep of the just.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning I went out betimes and walked
+about through the streets of Granada until it was a
+decent hour to go and drag from his home a young
+gentleman of Granada whom I had met at Madrid
+at the house of Fernandez Guerra, Gongora by
+name, the son of a distinguished archeologist and a
+descendant of the famous Cordovan poet Luigi Gongora,
+of whom I spoke in passing. That part of
+the city which I saw in those few hours did not fulfil
+my expectation. I had expected to find narrow
+mysterious streets and white cottages like those of
+Cordova and Seville, but I found instead spacious
+squares and some handsome straight streets, and
+others tortuous and narrow enough, it is true, but
+flanked by high houses, for the most part painted in
+false bas-reliefs with cupids and garlands and flourishes
+and draperies, and hangings of a thousand
+colors, without the Oriental appearance of the other
+Andalusian cities.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">188</span></p>
+
+<p>The lowest part of Granada is almost all laid out
+with the regularity of a modern city. As I passed
+along those streets I was filled with contempt, and
+should certainly have carried a gloomy face to
+Señor Gongora if by chance as I walked at random
+I had not come out into the famous <i>Alameda</i>, which
+enjoys the reputation of being the most beautiful
+promenade in the world, and it repaid me a thousand
+times for the detestable regularity of the
+streets which lead to it.</p>
+
+<p>Imagine a long avenue of unusual width, along
+which fifty carriages might pass abreast, flanked by
+other smaller avenues, along which run rows of
+measureless trees, which at a noble height form an
+immense green arch, so dense that not a sunbeam
+can penetrate it, and at the two ends of the central
+avenue two monumental fountains throwing up the
+water in two great streams which fall again in the
+finest vaporous spray, and between the many
+avenues crystal streams, and in the middle a garden
+all roses and myrtle and jessamine and delicate
+fountains; and on one side the river Genil,
+which flows between banks covered with laurel-groves,
+and in the distance the snowclad mountains,
+upon whose sides distant palms raise their fantastic
+fronds; and everywhere a brilliant green, dense
+and luxuriant, through which one sees here and
+there an enchanting strip of azure sky.</p>
+
+<p>As I turned off of the Alameda I met a great<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">189</span>
+number of peasants going out of the city, two by
+two and in groups, with their wives and children,
+singing and jesting. Their dress did not seem to
+me different from that of the peasants in the neighborhood
+of Cordova and Seville. They wore velvet
+hats, some with very broad brims, others with high
+brims curved back; a little jacket made with bands
+of many-colored cloth; a scarf of red or blue;
+closely-fitting trousers buttoned along the hip;
+and a pair of leathern gaiters open at the side,
+so as to show the leg. The women were dressed
+like those in the other provinces, and even in their
+faces there was no noticeable difference.</p>
+
+<p>I reached my friend's house and found him buried
+in his archæological studies, sitting in front of a heap
+of old medals and historic stones. He received me
+with delight, with a charming Andalusian courtesy,
+and, after exchanging the first greetings, we both
+pronounced with one voice that magic word that in
+every part of the world stirs a tumult of great recollections
+in every heart and arouses a sense of secret
+longing; that gives a final spur toward Spain to one
+who has the desire to travel thither and has not yet
+finally resolved to start; that name at which hearts
+of poets and painters beat faster and the eyes of
+women flash&mdash;"The Alhambra!"</p>
+
+<p>We rushed out of the house.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">190</span></p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>The Alhambra is situated upon a high hill which
+overlooks the city, and from a distance presents the
+appearance of a fortress, like almost all Oriental
+palaces. But when, with Gongora, I climbed the
+street of <i>Los Gomeles</i> on our way toward the famous
+edifice, I had not yet seen the least trace of a distant
+wall, and I did not know in what part of the city we
+should find it. The street of <i>Los Gomeles</i> slopes upward
+and describes a slight curve, so that for a good
+way one sees only houses ahead, and supposes the
+Alhambra to be far away. Gongora did not speak,
+but I read in his face that in his heart he was greatly
+enjoying the thought of the surprise and delight that
+I should experience. He looked at the ground with
+a smile, answering all my questions with a sign
+which seemed to say, "Wait a minute!" and now
+and then raised his eyes almost furtively to measure
+the remaining distance. And I so enjoyed his pleasure
+that I could have thrown my arms around his
+neck in gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>We arrived before a great gate that closed the
+street. "Here we are!" said Gongora. I entered.</p>
+
+<p>I found myself in a great grove of enormously
+high trees, leaning one toward another, on this side
+and on that, along a great avenue which climbs the
+hill and is lost in the shade: so close are the trees
+that a man could scarcely pass among them, and
+wherever one looks one sees only their trunks,
+which close the way like a continuous wall. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">191</span>
+branches meet above the avenues; not a sunbeam
+penetrates the wood; the shade is very dense;
+on every side glide murmuring streams, and the
+birds sing, and one feels a vernal freshness in the
+air.</p>
+
+<p>"We are now in the Alhambra," said Gongora:
+"turn around, and you will see the towers and the
+embattled barrier-wall."</p>
+
+<p>"But where is the palace?" I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"That is a mystery," he answered; "let us go
+forward at random."</p>
+
+<p>We climbed an avenue running along beside the
+great central avenue that winds up toward the summit.
+The trees form overhead a green pavilion
+through which not a particle of sky is visible, and
+the grass, the shrubbery, and the flowers make on
+either side a lovely border, bright and fragrant,
+sloping slightly toward each other, as if they are
+trying to unite, mutually attracted by the beauty of
+their colors and the fragrance of their perfume.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us rest a moment," I said: "I want to take
+a great breath of this air; it seems to contain some
+secret germs that if infused into the blood must
+prolong one's life; it is air redolent of youth and
+health."</p>
+
+<p>"Behold the door!" exclaimed Gongora.</p>
+
+<p>I turned as if I had been struck in the back, and
+saw a few steps ahead a great square tower, of a
+deep-red color, crowned with battlements, with an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">192</span>
+arched door, above which one sees a key and a
+hand cut in the stone.</p>
+
+<p>I questioned my guide, and he told me that this
+was the principal entrance of the Alhambra, and that
+it was called the Gate of Justice, because the Moorish
+kings used to pronounce sentence beneath that arch.
+The key signifies that this door is the key to the
+fortress, and the hand symbolizes the five cardinal
+virtues of Islam&mdash;Prayer, Fasting, Beneficence, Holy
+War, and the Pilgrimage to Mecca. The Arabian
+inscription attests that the edifice was erected four
+centuries ago by the Sultan Abul Hagag Yusuf, and
+another inscription, which one sees everywhere on
+the columns, says, "There is no God but Allah, and
+Mohammed is his Prophet! and there is no power,
+no strength, apart from Allah!"</p>
+
+<p>We passed under the arch and continued the
+ascent along an enclosed street until we found ourselves
+at the top of the hill, in the middle of an
+esplanade surrounded by a parapet and dotted with
+shrubs and flowers. I turned at once toward the
+valley to enjoy the view, but Gongora seized me
+by the arm and made me look in the opposite direction.
+I was standing in front of the great palace of
+the Renaissance, partly in ruins and flanked by some
+wretched little houses.</p>
+
+<p>"Is this a joke?" I demanded. "Have you
+brought me here to see a Moorish castle, for me to
+find the way closed by a modern palace? Whose<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">193</span>
+abominable idea was it to run up this building in the
+gardens of the caliphs?"</p>
+
+<p>"Charles V.'s."</p>
+
+<p>"He was a vandal. I have not yet forgiven him
+for the Gothic church he planted in the middle of
+the mosque of Cordova, and now these barracks
+fill me with utter loathing of his crown and his
+glory. But, in the name of Heaven, where is the
+Alhambra?"</p>
+
+<p>"There it is."</p>
+
+<p>"Where?"</p>
+
+<p>"Among those huts."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, fudge!"</p>
+
+<p>"I pledge you my word of honor."</p>
+
+<p>I folded my arms and looked at him, and he
+laughed."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then," I exclaimed, "this great name of
+the Alhambra is only another of those usual false
+exaggerations of the poets. I, Europe, and the world
+have been shamefully deceived. Was it worth while
+to dream of the Alhambra for three hundred and
+sixty-five nights in succession, and then to come to
+see a group of ruins with some broken columns and
+smoky inscriptions?"</p>
+
+<p>"How I enjoy this!" answered Gongora with a
+peal of laughter. "Cheer up now; come and be
+persuaded that the world has not been deceived:
+let us enter this rubbish-pile."</p>
+
+<p>We entered by a little door, crossed a corridor,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">194</span>
+and found ourselves in a court. With a sudden cry
+I seized Gongora's hand, and he asked with a tone
+of triumph,</p>
+
+<p>"Are you persuaded?"</p>
+
+<p>I did not answer, I did not see him: I was already
+far away; the Alhambra had already begun to exercise
+upon me that mysterious and powerful fascination
+which no one can avoid nor any one express.</p>
+
+<p>We were in the <i>Patio de los Arrayanes</i>, the Court
+of the Myrtles, which is the largest in the edifice,
+and presents at once the appearance of a room, a
+courtyard, and a garden. A great rectangular basin
+full of water, surrounded by a myrtle hedge, extends
+from one side of the <i>patio</i> to the other, and like a
+mirror reflects the arches, arabesques, and the mural
+inscriptions.</p>
+
+<p>To the right of the entrance there extend two
+orders of Moorish arches, one above the other, supported
+by slender columns, and on the opposite side
+of the court rises a tower with a door through which
+one sees the inner rooms in semi-darkness and the
+mullioned windows, and through the windows the
+blue sky and the summits of the distant mountains.
+The walls are ornamented to a certain height from
+the pavement with brilliant mosaics, and above the
+mosaics with arabesques of very intricate design
+that seem to tremble and change at every step, and
+here and there among the arabesques and along the
+arches they stretch and creep and intertwine, like
+garlands, Moorish inscriptions containing greetings,
+proverbs, and legends.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<div class="caption"><i><a id="Court_of_Myrtles"></a>Court of Myrtles, Alhambra</i></div>
+<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b194cs.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">195</span></p>
+
+<p>Beside the door of entrance is written in Cufic characters:
+Eternal Happiness!&mdash;Blessing!&mdash;Prosperity!&mdash;Felicity!&mdash;Praised
+be God for the blessing
+of Islam!</p>
+
+<p>In another place it is written: I seek my refuge
+in the Lord of the Morning.</p>
+
+<p>In another place: O God! to thee belong eternal
+thanksgiving and undying praise.</p>
+
+<p>Elsewhere there are verses from the Koran and
+entire poems in praise of the caliphs.</p>
+
+<p>We stood some minutes in silent admiration; not
+the buzz of a fly was heard; now and then Gongora
+started toward the tower, but I clutched him by the
+arm and felt that he was trembling with impatience.</p>
+
+<p>"But we must make haste," said he, finally,
+"or else we shall not get back to Granada before
+evening."</p>
+
+<p>"What do I know of Granada?" I answered;
+"what do I know of morning or evening or of
+myself? I am in the Orient!"</p>
+
+<p>"But this is only the antechamber of the Alhambra,
+my dear Arabian," said Gongora, urging me
+forward. "Come, come with me where it will
+really seem like being in the Orient."</p>
+
+<p>And he led me, reluctant though I was, to the
+very threshold of the tower-door. There I turned
+to look once more at the Court of Myrtles and gave<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">196</span>
+a cry of surprise. Between two slender columns
+of the arched gallery which faces the tower, on the
+opposite side of the courtyard, stood a girl, a beautiful
+dark Andalusian face, with a white mantle
+wound around her head and falling over her shoulder:
+she stood leaning upon the railing in a languid
+attitude, with her eyes fixed upon us. I cannot
+tell the fantastic effect produced by that figure
+at that moment&mdash;the grace imparted by the arch
+which curved above the girl's head and the two
+columns which formed a frame around her, and the
+beautiful harmony which she gave to the whole
+court, as if she were an ornament necessary to its
+architecture conceived in the mind of the architect
+at the moment he imagined the whole design. She
+seemed like a sultana awaiting her lord, thinking
+of another sky and another love. She continued
+looking at us, and my heart began to beat faster.
+I questioned my friend with my eyes, as if to be
+assured that I was not deceived. Suddenly the
+sultana laughed, dropped her white mantle, and
+disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>"She is a servant," said Gongora.</p>
+
+<p>Still I remained in the mist.</p>
+
+<p>She was, in fact, a servant of the custodian of
+the Alhambra who was in the habit of practising
+that joke upon strangers.</p>
+
+<p>We entered the tower called the Tower of Comares,
+or, vulgarly, the Tower of the Ambassadors.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">197</span>
+The interior forms two halls, the first of which is
+called the Hall of the Barca, and takes its name
+either from the fact that it is shaped like a boat or
+because it was called by the Moors the Hall of
+<i>Baraka</i>, or Blessing, a word which might have been
+contracted by the people into <i>barca</i> (a boat.) This
+hall hardly seems the work of human hands: it is
+all a vast network of tracery in the form of garlands,
+rosettes, boughs of trees, and leaves, covering
+the vaulted ceiling, the arches, and the walls in
+every part and in every way&mdash;closely twining,
+checkered, climbing higher and higher, and yet
+marvellously distinct and combined in such a manner
+that the parts are presented to the eye altogether
+at a single glance, affording a spectacle of
+dazzling magnificence and enchanting grace. I
+approached one of the walls, fixed my eyes upon
+the extreme point of an arabesque, and tried to
+follow its windings and turnings: it was impossible;
+my eye was lost, my mind confused, and all the
+arabesques from pavement to ceiling seemed to be
+moving and blending, as if to conceal the thread of
+their inextricable network. You may make an
+effort not to look around, to centre your whole
+attention upon a single spot of the wall, to scan
+it closely and follow the thread with your finger:
+it is futile; in a moment the tracery is a tangled
+skein, a veil steals between you and the wall, and
+your arm falls. The wall seems woven like a web,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">198</span>
+wrought like brocade, netted like lace, and veined
+like a leaf; one cannot look at it closely nor fix its
+design in one's mind: it would be like trying to
+count the ants in an anthill: one must be content
+to look at the walls with a wandering glance, then
+to rest and look again later, and then to think of
+something else and talk. After I had looked around
+a little with the air of a man overcome with vertigo
+rather than admiration, I turned toward Gongora,
+so that he might read in my face what I would have
+spoken.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us enter the other pile of ruins," he answered
+with a smile as he drew me into the great
+Hall of the Ambassadors, which fills all the interior
+of the tower, for, really, the Hall of the <i>Barca</i>
+belongs to a little building which does not form a
+part of the tower, although it is joined to it. The
+tower is square in form, spacious, and lighted with
+nine great arched windows in the form of doors,
+which present almost the appearance of so many
+alcoves, so great is the thickness of the wall; each
+one is divided down the middle toward the outside
+by a little marble column that supports two beautiful
+arches surmounted in their turn by two little
+arched windows. The walls are covered with
+mosaics and arabesques indescribably delicate and
+multiform, and with innumerable inscriptions extending
+like wide embroidered ribbons over the arches
+of the windows, up the massive cornices, along the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">199</span>
+friezes, and around the niches where once stood
+vases full of flowers and perfumed water. The
+ceiling, which rises to a great height, is inlaid with
+cedar-wood, white, gold, and azure, joined together
+in circles, stars, and crowns, and forming many
+little arches, cells, and vaulted windows, through
+which falls a wavering light, and from the cornice
+which joins the ceiling to the walls hang tablets
+of stucco-work cut in facets chiselled and moulded
+like stalactites and bunches of flowers. The throne
+stood at the central window on the side opposite the
+door of entrance. From the windows on that side
+one enjoys a stupendous view of the valley of the
+Darro, deep and silent, as if it too felt the fascination
+of the Alhambra's grandeur; from the windows
+on the other two sides one sees the boundary-wall
+and the towers of the fortress; and through the
+entrance the light arches of the Court of the Myrtles
+in the distance and the water of the basin, which
+reflects the blue of the sky.</p>
+
+<p>"Well!" Gongora demanded; "was it worth
+dreaming of the Alhambra for three hundred and
+sixty-five nights?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is a strange thought passing through
+my brain at this moment," I replied. "That court
+as it looks from here, that hall, those windows, those
+colors, everything that surrounds me, seems familiar;
+it seems to correspond with a picture which I have
+carried in my head I know not how long and I know<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">200</span>
+not in what manner, confused with a thousand other
+things, perhaps born of a dream&mdash;how should I
+know? When I was sixteen years old I was a
+lover, and the young girl and I alone in a garden
+in the shade of a summer-house, as we gazed in
+each other's eyes, uttered unconsciously a cry of
+joy that stirred our blood as if it had come from
+the mouth of a third person who had discovered our
+secret. Well, since that time I have often longed
+to be a king and to have a palace; but in giving
+form to that desire my imagination did not rest
+merely in the grand gilded palaces of our country;
+it flew to distant lands, and there on the summit of
+a lofty mountain reared a castle of its own in which
+everything was small and graceful and illumined by
+a mysterious light; and there were long suites of
+rooms adorned with a thousand fanciful and delicate
+ornaments, with windows through which we two
+alone might look, and little columns behind which
+my little one might almost hide her face playfully
+as she listened to my step approaching from hall to
+hall, or heard my voice mingled with the murmur
+of the fountains in the garden. All unconsciously,
+in building that castle in fantasy, I was building
+the Alhambra; in those moments I imagined something
+like these halls, these windows, and this court
+that we see before us&mdash;so similar, indeed, that the
+more I look around the better I remember and seem
+to recognize the place just as I have seen it a thou<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">201</span>sand
+times. All lovers dream a little of the Alhambra,
+and if they were able to reproduce all their
+dreams in line and color, they would make pictures
+that would amaze us by their likeness to all one sees
+here. This architecture does not express power,
+glory, and grandeur; it expresses love and passion&mdash;love
+with its mysteries, its caprices, its fervor,
+its bursts of God-given gratitude; passion with its
+melancholy and its silences. There is, then, a close
+connection, a harmony, between the beauty of this
+Alhambra and the souls of those who have loved at
+sixteen, when longings are but dreams and visions.
+And hence arises the indescribable fascination exercised
+by this beauty, and hence the Alhambra, although
+deserted and ruined as it is, is still the most
+enchanting castle in the world, and to the end of
+time visitors will leave it with a tear. For in parting
+with the Alhambra we bid a last adieu to the
+most beautiful dreams of youth revived among these
+walls for the last time. We bid adieu to faces unspeakably
+dear that have broken the oblivion of
+many years to stand beside us a last time by the
+little columns of these windows. We bid adieu to
+all the fancies of youth. We bid adieu to that love
+which will never live again."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<div class="caption"><i>Fountain in the <a id="Court_of_Lions"></a>Court of Lions, Alhambra</i></div>
+<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b200cs.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+</div>
+
+<p>"It is true," answered my friend, "but what will
+you say when you have seen the Court of the Lions?
+Come, let us hurry."</p>
+
+<p>We left the tower with hasty steps, crossed the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">202</span>
+Court of Myrtles, and came to a little door opposite
+the door of entrance.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop!" cried Gongora.</p>
+
+<p>I stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"Do me a favor?"</p>
+
+<p>"A hundred."</p>
+
+<p>"Only one: shut your eyes and don't open them
+until I tell you."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, they are shut."</p>
+
+<p>"See that you keep them so; I sha'n't like it if
+you open them."</p>
+
+<p>"Never fear."</p>
+
+<p>Gongora took me by the hand and led me forward:
+I trembled like a leaf.</p>
+
+<p>We took about fifteen steps and stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"Look!" said Gongora in an agitated voice.</p>
+
+<p>I looked, and I swear by the head of my reader I
+felt two tears trickling down my cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>We were in the Court of the Lions.</p>
+
+<p>If at that moment I had been obliged to go out as
+I had come in, I could not have told what I had seen.
+A forest of columns, a vision of arches and tracery,
+an indefinable elegance, an unimaginable delicacy,
+prodigious wealth; an irrepressible sense of airiness,
+transparency, and wavy motion like a great
+pavilion of lace; an appearance as of an edifice
+which must dissolve at a breath; a variety of lights
+and mysterious shadows; a confusion, a capricious
+disorder, of little things; the grandeur of a castle,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">203</span>
+the gayety of a summer-house; an harmonious grace,
+an extravagance, a delight; the fancy of an enamored
+girl, the dream of an angel; a madness, a
+nameless something,&mdash;such is the first effect of the
+Court of the Lions.</p>
+
+<p>The court is not larger than a great ball-room; it
+is rectangular in form, with walls no higher than a
+two-storied Andalusian cottage. A light portico
+runs all around, supported by very slender white
+marble columns grouped in symmetrical disorder, two
+by two and three by three, almost without pedestals, so
+that they are like the trunks of trees standing on the
+ground: they have varied capitals, high and graceful,
+in the form of little pilasters, above which bend
+little arches of very graceful form, which do not
+seem to rest upon the columns, but rather to be
+suspended over them like curtains upholding the
+columns themselves and resembling ribbons and
+twining garlands. From the middle of the two
+shortest sides advance two groups of columns forming
+two little square temples of nine arches in the
+form of stalactites, fringes, pendants, and tassels that
+seem as though they ought to swing and become
+tangled with the slightest breeze. Large Arabian
+inscriptions run along the four walls, over the arches,
+around the capitals, and along the walls of the little
+temple. In the middle of the court rises a great
+marble basin supported by twelve lions and surrounded
+by a paved channel, from which flow four<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">204</span>
+other smaller channels that make a cross between
+the four sides of the court, cross the portico, enter
+the adjoining rooms, and join the other water-courses
+which surround the entire edifice. Behind the two
+two little temples and in the middle of the other two
+sides there appear halls and suites of rooms with
+great open doors, through which one can see the
+dark background broken by the white columns,
+gleaming as if they stood at the mouth of a grotto.
+At every step the forest of columns seems to move
+and rearrange itself in a new way; behind a
+column that is apparently single spring up two,
+three, a row of columns; some fade away, others
+unite, and still others separate: on looking back
+from the end of one of the halls everything appears
+different; the arches on the opposite side seem very
+far away; the columns appear out of place; the little
+temples have changed their form; one sees new
+arches rising beyond the walls, and new columns
+gleaming here in the sunlight, there in the shadow,
+yonder scarcely visible by the dim light which sifts
+through the tracery of the stucco, and the farthest
+lost in the darkness. There is a constant variety of
+scene, distance, deceptive effects, mysteries, and
+playful tricks of the eye, produced by the architecture,
+the sun, and one's heightened imagination.</p>
+
+<p>"What must this <i>patio</i> have been," said Gongora,
+"when the inner walls of the portico were resplendent
+with mosaics, the capitals of the columns flashed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">205</span>
+with gold, the ceilings and vaults were painted in
+a thousand colors, the doors hung with silken curtains,
+the niches full of flowers, and under the little
+temples and through the halls ran streams of perfumed
+water, and from the nostrils of the lions
+spurted twelve jets which fell into the basin, and
+the air was heavy with the most delicious perfumes
+of Arabia!"</p>
+
+<p>We remained in the court over an hour, and the
+time passed like a flash; and I too did what all have
+done in that place&mdash;Spaniards and foreigners alike,
+men and women, poets and those who are not poets.
+I ran my hand along the walls, touched all the little
+columns, clasped them one by one with my two hands
+like the waist of a child, hid among them, counted
+them, looked at them from a hundred directions,
+crossed the court in a hundred ways; tried if it were
+true that by speaking a word in a deep voice in the
+mouth of one of the lions you could hear it distinctly
+from the mouths of all the others; searched
+along the marbles for the blood-spots of the romantic
+legends, and wearied my eyes and brain in following
+the arabesques. There were a number of ladies
+present. In the Court of the Lions ladies show every
+sort of childish delight: they look out between two
+twin columns, hide in the dark corners, sit on the
+floor, and stand for hours motionless, resting their
+heads upon their hands, dreaming. These ladies did
+likewise. There was one dressed in white who, as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">206</span>
+she passed behind the distant columns, when she
+thought no one saw her assumed a certain majestic
+air, like a melancholy sultana, and then laughed
+with one of her friends: it was enchanting.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us go," said my friend.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us go," I replied, and could not move a step.
+I was experiencing not only a delightful sense of
+surprise, but I was trembling with pleasure, and was
+filled with a longing to touch, to probe, and in some
+way to see behind those walls and those columns, as
+if they were made of some secret material and ought
+to disclose in their inmost part the first cause of the
+fascination which the place exerts. In all my life I
+have never thought or said, or shall ever say, so
+many fond words, so many foolish expressions, so
+many pretty, happy, senseless things, as I thought
+and said at that hour.</p>
+
+<p>"But one must come here at sunrise," said Gongora,
+"one must come at sunset, or at night when
+the moon is full, to see the miracles of color, light,
+and shade. It is enough to make one lose one's
+head."</p>
+
+<p>We went to see the halls. On the eastern side is
+the Hall of Justice, which is reached by passing
+under three great arches, each of which corresponds
+with a door opening into the court. It is a long, narrow
+hall, with intricate arabesques and precious mosaics,
+and its vaulted ceiling all points and hollows
+and clusters of stucco that hang down from the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">207</span>
+arches and run along the walls, clustered together
+here and there, drooping, growing one out of the
+other, crowding and overtopping each other, so that
+they seem to dispute the space like the bubbles in boiling
+water, and still presenting in many parts traces of
+old colors that must have given the ceiling the appearance
+of a pavilion covered with flowers and hanging
+fruit. The hall has three little alcoves, in each of
+which one may see a Moorish painting, to which
+time and the extreme rarity of works remaining
+from the brush of Moorish artists have given a very
+high value. The paintings are on leather, and the
+leather is fastened to the wall. In the central alcove
+there are painted on a golden ground ten men, supposed
+to be ten kings of Granada, clothed in white,
+with cowls on their heads and scimitars in their
+hands, sitting on embroidered cushions. The paintings
+in the other two alcoves represent castles,
+ladies and cavaliers, hunting scenes, and love episodes
+whose significance it is difficult to understand.
+But the faces of the ten kings are marvellously true
+to the picture one has formed of their race: there is
+the dark olive complexion, the sensuous lips, the
+black eyes, with an intense mysterious glance that
+seems always to be shining in the dark corners of
+the halls of the Alhambra.</p>
+
+<p>On the north side of the court there is another
+hall, called the hall <i>De las dos Hermanas</i> (of the two
+sisters), so called from two great marble slabs which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">208</span>
+form the pavement. It is the most beautiful hall in
+the Alhambra&mdash;a little square arched room, with one
+of those ceilings in the form of a cupola which the
+Spaniards call half oranges, supported by slender
+columns and arches arranged in a circle, all adorned,
+like a grotto full of stalactites, with an infinite number
+of points and hollows, colored and gilded, and
+so light to the view that it seems as if they are
+suspended in the air, and would tremble at a touch
+like a curtain or separate like a cloud or disappear
+like a cluster of soap-bubbles. The walls, like those
+of all the other halls, are bedecked with stucco and
+carved with arabesques incredibly intricate and delicate,
+forming one of the most marvellous works of
+human patience and imagination. The more one
+looks, the more numberless become the lines which
+blend and cross, and from one figure springs another,
+and from that a third, and all three produce a fourth
+that has escaped the eye, and this divides suddenly
+into ten other figures that have passed unnoticed,
+and then they mingle again and are again transformed;
+and one never ceases to discover new combinations,
+for when the first reappear they are
+already forgotten, and produce the same effect as at
+the beginning. One would lose sight and reason in
+trying to comprehend that labyrinth: it would require
+an hour to study the outlines of a window, the
+ornaments of a pilaster, and the arabesques of a
+frieze; an hour would not be sufficient to fix upon<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">209</span>
+the mind the design of one of the stupendous cedar
+doors. On either side of the hall there are two
+little alcoves, and in the centre a little basin with a
+pipe for a fountain that empties into the channel that
+crosses the portico and flows to the Fountain of the
+Lions.</p>
+
+<p>Directly opposite the entrance there is another
+door, through which one passes into another long,
+narrow room called the Hall of the Oranges. And
+from this hall, through a third door, one enters a
+little chamber called the Cabinet of Lindaraja, very
+richly ornamented, at the end of which there is a
+graceful window with two arches overlooking a
+garden.</p>
+
+<p>To enjoy all the beauty of this magical architecture
+one must leave the Hall of the Two Sisters,
+cross the Court of the Lions, and enter a room called
+the Hall of the Abencerrages, which lies on the
+southern side, opposite the Hall of the Two Sisters, to
+which it is very similar in form and ornamentation.
+From the end of this hall one looks across the
+Court of the Lions through the Hall of the Two
+Sisters into the Hall of the Oranges and even into
+the Cabinet of Lindaraja and the garden beyond,
+where a mass of verdure appears under the arches
+of that jewel of a window. The two sides of this
+window, so diminutive and full of light when seen in
+the distance from the end of that suite of darkened
+rooms, look like two great open eyes, that look at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">210</span>
+you and make you imagine that beyond them must
+lie the unfathomable mysteries of paradise.</p>
+
+<p>After seeing the Hall of the Abencerrages we
+went to see the baths, which are situated between
+the Hall of the Two Sisters and the Court of the
+Myrtles. We descended a flight of stairs, passed a
+long narrow corridor, and came out into a splendid
+hall called the hall <i>De las Divans</i>, where the favorites
+of the king came to rest on their Persian rugs
+to the sound of the lyre after they had bathed in
+the adjoining rooms. This hall was reconstructed
+on the plans of the ancient ruins, and adorned with
+arabesques, gilded and painted, by Spanish artists
+after the ancient patterns; consequently one may
+consider it a room of the Moorish period remaining
+intact in every part. In the middle is a fountain,
+and in the opposite walls are two alcoves where the
+women reposed on divans, and overhead the galleries
+where the musicians played. The walls are
+laced, dotted, checkered, and mottled with a thousand
+brilliant hues, presenting the appearance of a
+tapestry of Chinese stuff shot with golden threads,
+with an endless interweaving of figures that must
+have maddened the most patient mosaic-worker on
+earth.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, a painter was at work in the hall.
+He was a German who had worked for three months
+in copying the walls. Gongora knew him, and
+asked, "It is wearisome work, is it not?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">211</span></p>
+
+<p>And he answered with a smile, "I don't find it
+so," and bent again over his picture.</p>
+
+<p>I looked at him as if he had been a creature from
+another world.</p>
+
+<p>We entered the little bathing-chambers, vaulted
+and lighted from above by some star-and flower-shaped
+apertures in the wall. The bathing-tubs
+are very large, single blocks of marble enclosed between
+two walls. The corridors which lead from
+one room to the other are low and narrow, so that
+a man can scarcely pass through them; they are
+delightfully cool. As I stood looking into one of
+these little rooms I was suddenly impressed with
+a sad thought.</p>
+
+<p>"What makes you sad?" asked my friend.</p>
+
+<p>"I was thinking," I replied, "of how we live,
+summer and winter, in houses like barracks, in
+rooms on the third floor, which are either dark or
+else flooded with a torrent of light, without marble,
+without water, without flowers, without columns; I
+was thinking that we must live so all our lives and
+die between those walls without once experiencing
+the delights of these charmed palaces; I was thinking
+that even in this wretched earthly life one may
+enjoy vastly, and that I shall not share this enjoyment
+at all; I was thinking that I might have been
+born four centuries ago a king of Granada, and that
+I was born instead a poor man."</p>
+
+<p>My friend laughed, and, taking my arm between<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">212</span>
+his thumb and finger, as if to give me a pinch, he
+said, "Don't think of that. Think of how much
+beauty, grace, and mystery these tubs must have
+seen; of the little feet that have played in their
+perfumed waters; of the long hair which has fallen
+over their rims; of the great languid eyes that have
+looked at the sky through the openings in the
+vaulted ceiling, while beneath the arches of the
+Court of the Lions sounded the hastening step of
+an impatient caliph, and the hundred fountains of
+the castle sighed with a quickening murmur, 'Come!
+come! come!' and in a perfumed hall a trembling
+slave reverently closed the windows with the rose-colored
+curtains."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! leave my soul in peace!" I replied, shrugging
+my shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>We crossed the garden of the Cabinet of Lindaraja
+and a mysterious court called the <i>Patio de la
+Reja</i>, and by a long gallery that commands a view
+of the country reached the top of one of the
+farthest towers of the Alhambra, called the <i>Mirador
+de la Reina</i> (the Queen's toilet), shaded by a little
+pavilion and open all round, hanging over an abyss
+like an eagle's nest. The view one enjoys from
+this point&mdash;one may say it without fear of contradiction&mdash;has
+not its equal on the face of the
+earth.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<div class="caption"><i><a id="Queens_Boudoir"></a>Queen's Boudoir, Alhambra</i></div>
+<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b212cs.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">213</span></p>
+
+<p>Imagine an immense plain, green as a meadow,
+covered with young grass, crossed in all directions
+by endless rows of cypresses, pines, oaks, and
+poplars, dotted with dense orange-groves that in the
+distance look no larger than shrubs, and with great
+orchards and gardens so crowded with fruit trees
+that they look like green hillocks; and the river
+Xenil winding through this immense plain, gleaming
+among the groves and gardens like a great silver
+ribbon; and all around wooded hills, and beyond
+the hills lofty rocks of fantastic form, which complete
+the picture of a barrier-wall with gigantic
+towers separating that earthly paradise from the
+world; and there, just beneath one's eyes, the city
+of Granada, partly extending to the plain and partly
+on the slope of the hill, all interspersed with groups
+of trees, shapeless masses of verdure which rise and
+wave above the roofs of the houses like enormous
+plumes, until it seems as if they were striving to expand
+and unite and cover the entire city; and still
+nearer the deep valley of the Darro more than
+covered&mdash;yes, filled to overflowing and almost
+heaped full&mdash;with its prodigious growth of vegetation,
+rising like a mountain, and above it there rises
+yet again a grove of gigantic poplars tossing their
+topmost boughs so close under the windows of the
+tower that one can almost touch them; and to the
+right beyond the Darro, on a high hill towering
+toward heaven, bold and rounded like a cupola, the
+palace of the Generalife, encircled by its aërial
+gardens and almost hidden in a grove of laurels,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">214</span>
+poplars, and pomegranates; and in the opposite
+direction a marvellous spectacle, a thing incredible,
+a vision of a dream&mdash;the Sierra Nevada, after the
+Alps, the highest mountain-range in Europe crowned
+with snow, white even to a few miles from the gates
+of Granada, white even to the hills on whose sides
+spread the pomegranates and palms, and where a
+vegetation almost tropical expands in all its splendid
+pomp.</p>
+
+<p>Imagine now over this vast paradise, containing
+all the smiling graces of the Orient and all the severe
+beauties of the North, wedding Europe to
+Africa, and bringing to the nuptials all the choicest
+marvels of nature, and exhaling to heaven all the
+perfumes of the earth blended in one breath,&mdash;imagine
+above this happy valley the sky and sun of
+Andalusia, rolling on to its setting and tinting the
+peaks with a divine rose-color, and painting the
+mountain-sides of the Sierra with all the colors of
+the rainbow, and clothing them with all the reflections
+of the most limpid azure pearls, its rays breaking
+in a thousand mists of gold, purple, and gray
+upon the rocks encircling the plain, and, as it sinks
+in a flame of fire, casting like a last good-night a
+luminous crown about the gloomy towers of the Alhambra
+and the flower-crowned pinnacles of the
+Generalife, and tell me if this world can give anything
+more solemn, more glorious, more intoxicating
+than this love-feast of the earth and sky, before<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">215</span>
+which for nine centuries Granada has trembled with
+delight and throbbed with pride?</p>
+
+<p>The roof of the <i>Mirador de la Reina</i> is supported
+by little Moorish columns, between which extend
+flattened arches which give the pavilion an extremely
+fanciful and graceful appearance. The
+walls are frescoed, and one may see along the friezes
+the initials of Isabella and Philip interwoven with
+cupids and flowers. Close by the door there still remains
+a stone of the ancient pavement, all perforated,
+upon which it is said the sultanas sat to be enveloped
+in the clouds of perfumed vapor which arose from
+below.</p>
+
+<p>Everything in this place tells of love and happiness.
+There one breathes an air as pure as that on a
+mountain-peak, there one perceives a mingled fragrance
+of myrtles and roses, and no other sound
+reaches the ear save the murmur of the Darro as it
+dashes among the rocks of its stony bed, and the
+singing of a thousand birds hidden in the dense
+foliage of the valley; it is truly a nest of loves, a
+hanging alcove where to go and dream of an aërial
+balcony to which one might climb and thank God
+for being happy.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Gongora," I exclaimed after contemplating
+for some moments that enchanting spectacle, "I
+would give years of my life to be able to summon
+here, with a stroke of a magic wand, all the dear
+ones who are looking for me in Italy."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">216</span></p>
+
+<p>Gongora pointed out a large space on the wall, all
+black with dates and names of visitors to the Alhambra,
+written with crayon and charcoal and cut
+with knives.</p>
+
+<p>"What is this written here?" he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>I approached and uttered a cry: "Chateaubriand!"</p>
+
+<p>"And here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Byron!"</p>
+
+<p>"And here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Victor Hugo!"</p>
+
+<p>After descending from the <i>Mirador de la Reina</i> I
+thought I had seen the Alhambra, and was so imprudent
+as to tell my friend so. If he had had a stick
+in his hand, I verily believe he would have struck
+me; but, as he had not, he contented himself by
+regarding me with the air of one demanding whether
+or not I had lost my senses.</p>
+
+<p>We returned to the Court of the Myrtles and
+visited the rooms situated on the other side of the
+Tower of Comares, the greater part in ruins, the rest
+altered, some absolutely bare, without either pavement
+or roof, but all worth seeing, both in remembrance
+of what they had been and for the sake of
+understanding the plan of the edifice. The ancient
+mosque was converted into a chapel by Charles V., and
+a great Moorish hall was changed into an oratory;
+here and there one still sees the fragments of arabesques
+and carved ceilings of cedar-wood; the gal<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">217</span>leries,
+the courts, and the vestibules remind one of a
+palace dismantled by fire.</p>
+
+<p>After seeing that part of the Alhambra I really
+thought there was nothing else left to see, and a
+second time was imprudent enough to say so to Gongora:
+this time he could no longer contain himself,
+and, leading me into a vestibule of the Court of Myrtles
+and pointing to a map of the building hanging on
+the wall, he said, "Look, and you will see that all the
+rooms of the courts and the towers that we have so
+far visited do not occupy one-twentieth part of the
+space embraced within the walls of the Alhambra;
+you will see that we have not yet visited the remains
+of the three other mosques, the ruins of the House of
+Cadi, the water-tower, the tower of the Infantas, the
+tower of the Prisoner, the tower of Candil, the tower
+of the Picos, the tower of the Daggers, the tower of
+the <i>Siete Suelos</i>, the tower of the Captain, the tower
+of the Witch, the tower of the Heads, the tower of
+Arms, the tower of the Hidalgos, the tower of the
+Cocks, the tower of the Cube, the tower of Homage,
+the tower of Vela, the Powder Tower, the remains
+of the House of Mondejar, the military quarters,
+the iron gate, the inner walls, the cisterns, the
+promenades; for I would have you know that the
+Alhambra is not a palace: it is a city, and one
+could spend his life in studying its arabesques,
+reading its inscriptions, and every day discovering
+a new view of the hills and mountains, and going<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">218</span>
+into ecstasies regularly once every twenty-four
+hours."</p>
+
+<p>And I thought I had seen the Alhambra!</p>
+
+<p>On that day I did not wish to learn anything
+more, and the dear knows how my head ached when
+I returned to the hotel. The day after, at the peep
+of dawn, I was back at the Alhambra, and again in
+the evening, and I continued to go there every day
+so long as I remained at Granada, with Gongora,
+with other friends, with guides, or alone; and the Alhambra
+always seemed vaster and more beautiful
+as I wandered through the courts and halls, and
+passed hour after hour sitting among the columns or
+gazing out of the windows with an ever-heightening
+pleasure, every time discovering new beauties, and
+ever abandoning myself to those vague and delightful
+fancies among which my mind had strayed on the
+first day. I cannot tell through which entrances my
+friends led me into the Alhambra, but I remember
+that every day on going there I saw walls and towers
+and deserted streets that I had not seen before, and
+the Alhambra seemed to me to have changed its site,
+to have been transformed, and surrounded as if by
+enchantment with new buildings that changed its
+original appearance. Who could describe the beauty
+of those sunset views; those fantastic groves flooded
+with moonlight; the immense plain and the snow-covered
+mountains on clear, serene nights; the imposing
+outlines of those enormous walls, superb<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">219</span>
+towers, and those measureless trees under a starry
+sky; the prolonged rustling of those vast masses of
+verdure overflowing the valleys and climbing the
+hillsides? It was a spectacle before which my companions
+remained speechless, although they were
+born in Granada and accustomed from infancy to
+look upon these scenes. So we would walk along in
+silence, each buried in his own thoughts, with hearts
+oppressed by mild melancholy, and sometimes our
+eyes were wet with tears, and we raised our faces to
+heaven with a burst of gratitude and love.</p>
+
+<p>On the day of my arrival at Granada, when I
+entered the hotel at midnight, instead of finding
+silence and quiet, I found the <i>patio</i> illuminated like
+a ball-room, people sipping sherbet at the tables,
+coming and going along the galleries, laughing and
+talking, and I was obliged to wait an hour before
+going to sleep. But I passed that hour very pleasantly.
+While I stood looking at a map of Spain on
+the wall a great burly fellow, with a face as red as a
+beet and a great stomach extending nearly to his
+knees, approached me and, touching his cap, asked
+if I was an Italian. I replied that I was, and he
+continued with a smile, "And so am I; I am the
+proprietor of the hotel."</p>
+
+<p>"I am delighted to hear it, the more so because
+I see you are making money."</p>
+
+<p>"Great Heavens!" he replied in a tone which he
+wished to seem melancholy. "Yes, ... I cannot<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">220</span>
+complain; but, ... believe me, my dear sir, however
+well things may go, when one is far from his
+native land one always feels a void here;" and he
+put his hand upon his enormous chest.</p>
+
+<p>I looked at his stomach.</p>
+
+<p>"A great void," repeated mine host; "one never
+forgets one's country.... From what province are
+you, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"From Liguria. And you?"</p>
+
+<p>"From Piedmont. Liguria! Piedmont! Lombardy!
+They are countries!"</p>
+
+<p>"They are fine countries, there is no doubt of
+that, but, after all, you cannot complain of Spain.
+You are living in one of the most beautiful cities in
+the world, and are proprietor of one of the finest
+hotels in the city; you have a crowd of guests all
+the year round, and then I see you enjoy enviable
+health."</p>
+
+<p>"But the void?"</p>
+
+<p>I looked again at his stomach.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I see, sir; but you are deceived, you know,
+if you judge me by appearances. You cannot imagine
+what a pleasure it is when an Italian comes here.
+What you will? Weakness it may be.... I know
+not, ... but I should like to see him every day at
+table, and I believe that if my wife did not laugh at
+me I should send him a dozen dishes on my own
+account, as a foretaste."</p>
+
+<p>"At what hour do you dine to-morrow?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">221</span></p>
+
+<p>"At five. But, after all, ... one eats little
+here, ... hot country, ... everybody lives lightly, ...
+whatever their nationality may be.... That
+is the rule.... But you have not seen the other
+Italian who is here?"</p>
+
+<p>So saying, he turned around, and a man came
+forward from a corner of the court where he had
+been watching us. The proprietor, after a few
+words, left us alone. The stranger was a man of
+about forty, miserably dressed, who spoke through
+closed teeth, and kept continually clenching his
+hands with a convulsive motion as if he was making
+an effort to keep from using his fists. He told me
+he was a chorus-singer from Lombardy, and that he
+had arrived the day before at Granada with other
+artists booked to sing at the opera for the summer
+season.</p>
+
+<p>"A beastly country!" he exclaimed without any
+preamble, looking around as if he wished to make
+a speech.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you do not remain in Spain voluntarily?"
+I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"In Spain? I? Excuse me: it is just as if you
+had asked me whether I was staying voluntarily in a
+galley."</p>
+
+<p>"But why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why? But can't you see what sort of people the
+Spaniards are&mdash;ignorant, superstitious, proud, bloodthirsty,
+impostors, thieves, charlatans, villains?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">222</span></p>
+
+<p>And he stood a moment motionless in a questioning
+attitude, with the veins of his neck so swollen that
+they seemed ready to burst.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me," I replied; "your judgment does
+not seem favorable enough to admit of my agreeing
+with you. When it comes to ignorance, excuse me,
+it will not do for us Italians, for us who still have
+cities where the schoolmasters are stoned and the
+professors are stabbed if they give a zero to their
+scholars,&mdash;it will not do for us, I say, to pick flaws
+in others. As for superstition, alas for us again!
+since we may still see in that city of Italy in which
+popular instruction is most widely diffused an unspeakable
+uproar over a miraculous image of the
+Madonna found by a poor ignorant woman in the
+middle of a street! As for crime, I frankly declare
+that if I were obliged to draw a comparison between
+the two countries before an audience of Spaniards,
+with the statistics now in hand, without first proving
+my data and conclusions, I should be very much
+alarmed.... I do not wish to say by this that
+we are not, on the whole, sailing in smoother water
+than is Spain. I wish to say that an Italian in
+judging the Spanish, if he would be just, must be
+indulgent."</p>
+
+<p>"Excuse me: I don't think so. A country without
+political direction! a country a prey to anarchy!
+a country&mdash;Come, now, cite me one great Spaniard
+of the present day."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">223</span></p>
+
+<p>"I cannot, ... there are so few great men anywhere."</p>
+
+<p>"Cite me a Galileo."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there are no Galileos."</p>
+
+<p>"Cite me a Ratazzi."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, they have none."</p>
+
+<p>"Cite me ... But, really, they have nothing.
+And then, does the country seem beautiful to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! excuse me; that point I will not yield:
+Andalusia, to cite a single province, is a paradise;
+Seville, Cadiz, and Granada are splendid cities."</p>
+
+<p>"How? Do you like the houses of Seville and
+Cadiz, with walls that whiten a poor devil from head
+to foot whenever he happens to touch them? Do
+you like those streets along which one can hardly
+pass after a good dinner? And do you find the Andalusian
+women beautiful with their devilish eyes?
+Come, now, you are too indulgent. They are not a
+<i>serious</i> people. They have summoned Don Amadeus,
+and now they don't want him. They are not worthy
+of being governed by a <i>civilized man</i>." (These were
+his actual words.)</p>
+
+<p>"Then you don't find any good in Spain?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not the least."</p>
+
+<p>"But why do you stay?"</p>
+
+<p>"I stay ... because I make my living here."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that is something."</p>
+
+<p>"But what a living! It is a dog's life! Everybody
+knows what Spanish cooking is."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">224</span></p>
+
+<p>"Excuse me: instead of living like a dog in
+Spain, why not go and live like a man in Italy?"</p>
+
+<p>Here the poor artist seemed somewhat disconcerted,
+and I, to relieve his annoyance, offered him a
+cigar, which he took and lighted without a word.
+And he was not the only Italian in Spain who had
+spoken to me in those terms of the country and its
+inhabitants, denying even the clearness of the sky
+and the grace of the Andalusian women. I do not
+know what enjoyment there can be in travelling
+after this fashion, with the heart closed to every
+kindly sentiment, and continually on the lookout to
+censure and despise, as if everything good and
+beautiful which one finds in a foreign country has
+been stolen from our own, and as if we are of no
+account unless we run down everybody else. The
+people who travel in such a mental attitude make
+me pity rather than condemn them, because they
+voluntarily deprive themselves of many pleasures
+and comforts. So it appears to me, at least, to
+judge others by myself, for wherever I go the first
+sentiment which the sights and the people inspire
+in me is a feeling of sympathy; a desire not to find
+anything which I shall be obliged to censure; an inclination
+to imagine every beautiful thing more beautiful;
+to conceal the unpleasant things, to excuse the
+defects, to be able to say candidly to myself and
+others that I am content with everything and everybody.
+And to arrive at this end I do not have to make<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">225</span>
+any effort: everything presents itself almost spontaneously
+in its most pleasing aspect, and my imagination
+benignly paints the other aspects a delicate
+rose-color. I know well that one cannot study a
+country in this way, nor write sage essays, nor
+acquire fame as a profound thinker; but I know
+that one travels with a peaceful mind, and that such
+travels are of unspeakable benefit.</p>
+
+<p>The next day I went to see the Generalife, which
+was a sort of villa of the Moorish kings, and whose
+name is linked to that of the Alhambra as is that
+of the Alhambra to Granada; but now only a few
+arches and arabesques remain of the ancient Generalife.
+It is a small palace, simple and white, with
+few windows, and an arched gallery surrounded with
+a terrace, and half hidden in the midst of a grove
+of laurel and myrtles, standing on the summit of a
+mountain covered with flowers, rising upon the right
+bank of the Darro opposite the hill of the Alhambra.
+In front of the façade of the palace extends a little
+garden, and other gardens rise one above another
+almost in the form of a vast staircase to the very
+top of the mountain, where there extends a very
+high terrace that encloses the Generalife. The
+avenues of the gardens and the wide staircases that
+lead from one to another of the flower-beds are
+flanked by high espaliers surmounted by arches and
+divided by arbors of myrtle, curved and intertwined
+with graceful designs, and at every landing-place<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">226</span>
+rise white summer-houses shaded by trellises and
+picturesque groups of orange trees and cypresses.
+Water is still as abundant as in Moorish times,
+and gives the place a grace, freshness, and luxuriance
+impossible to describe. From every part
+one hears the murmur of rivulets and fountains;
+one turns down an avenue and finds a jet of water;
+one approaches a window and sees a stream
+reaching almost to the window-sill; one enters
+a group of trees and the spray of a little waterfall
+strikes one's face; one turns and sees water
+leaping, running, and trickling through the grass
+and shrubbery.</p>
+
+<p>From the height of the terrace one commands
+a view of all those gardens as they slope downward
+in platforms and terraces; one peers down into
+the abyss of vegetation which separates the two
+mountains; one overlooks the whole enclosure of
+the Alhambra, with the cupolas of its little temples,
+its distant towers, and the paths winding among its
+ruins; the view extends over the city of Granada
+with its plain and its hills, and runs with a single
+glance along all the summits of the Sierra Nevada,
+that appear so near that one imagines they are not
+an hour's walk distant. And while you contemplate
+that spectacle your ear is soothed by the murmur
+of a hundred fountains and the faint sound of the
+bells of the city, which comes in waves scarcely
+audible, bearing with it the mysterious fragrance of
+this earthly paradise which makes you tremble and
+grow pale with delight.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<div class="caption"><i><a id="Court_of_the_Generalife"></a>Court of the Generalife, Granada</i></div>
+<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b226cs.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">227</span></p>
+
+<p>Beyond the Generalife, on the summit of a
+higher mountain, now bleak and bare, there rose
+in Moorish times other royal palaces, with gardens
+connected with each other by great avenues
+lined with myrtle hedges. Now all these marvels
+of architecture encircled by groves, fountains,
+and flowers, those fabulous castles in the air, those
+magnificent and fragrant nests of love and delight,
+have disappeared, and scarcely a heap of rubbish or
+a short stretch of wall remains to tell their story to
+the passer-by. But these ruins, that elsewhere
+would arouse a feeling of melancholy, do not have
+such an influence in the presence of that glorious
+nature whose enchantment not even the most marvellous
+works of man have ever been able to equal.</p>
+
+<p>On re-entering the city I stopped at one end of the
+<i>Carrera del Darro</i>, in front of a house richly adorned
+with bas-reliefs representing heraldic shields, armor,
+cherubs, and lions, with a little balcony, over one
+corner of which, partly on one wall and partly on
+another, I read the following mysterious inscription
+stamped in great letters:</p>
+
+<p class="center">"<span class="smcap">Esperando la del Cielo</span>,"</p>
+
+<p>which, literally translated, signifies "<i>Awaiting her
+in Heaven</i>." Curious to learn the hidden meaning of
+those words, I made a note of them, so that I might<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">228</span>
+ask the learned father of my friend about them. He
+gave me two interpretations, the one almost certainly
+correct, but not at all romantic; the other romantic,
+but very doubtful. I give the last: The house
+belonged to Don Fernando de Zafra, the secretary of
+the Catholic kings. He had a very beautiful daughter.
+A young hidalgo, of a family hostile or inferior in
+rank to the house of Zafra, became enamored of the
+daughter, and, as his love was returned, he asked for
+her hand in marriage, but was refused. The refusal
+of her father stirred the love of the two young hearts
+to flame: the windows of the house were low; the
+lover one night succeeded in making the ascent and
+entered the maiden's room. Whether he upset a
+chair on entering, or coughed, or uttered a low cry
+of joy on seeing his beautiful love welcoming him
+with open arms, the tradition does not tell, and no
+one knows; but certain it is that Don Fernando de
+Zafra heard a noise, ran in, saw, and, blind with
+fury, rushed upon the ill-fated young man to put
+him to death. But he succeeded in making his escape,
+and Don Fernando in following him ran into
+one of his own pages, a partisan of the lovers, who
+had helped the hidalgo to enter the house: in his
+haste his master mistook him for the betrayer, and,
+without hearing his protests and prayers, he had him
+bound and hanged from the balcony. The tradition
+runs that while the poor victim kept crying, "Pity!
+pity!" the outraged father responded as he pointed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">229</span>
+toward the balcony, "Thou shalt stay there <i>esperando
+la del Cielo</i>!" (awaiting her in heaven)&mdash;a reply
+which he afterward had cut in the stone walls as
+a perpetual warning to evil-doers.</p>
+
+<p>I devoted the rest of the day to the churches and
+monasteries.</p>
+
+<p>The cathedral of Granada deserves to be described
+part by part in an even higher degree than the cathedral
+of Malaga, although it too is beautiful and
+magnificent; but I have already described enough
+churches. Its foundation was laid by the Catholic
+kings in 1529 upon the ruins of the principal mosque
+of the city, but it has never been finished. It has a
+great façade with three doorways, adorned with
+statues and bas-reliefs, and it consists of five naves,
+divided by twenty measureless pilasters, each composed
+of a bundle of slender columns. The chapels
+contain paintings by Boccanegra, sculptures by Torrigiano,
+and tombs and other precious ornaments.
+Admirable above all is the great chapel, supported
+by twenty Corinthian columns divided into two
+orders, upon the first of which rise colossal statues
+of the twelve apostles, and on the second an entablature
+covered with garlands and heads of cherubs.
+Overhead runs a circle of magnificent stained-glass
+windows, which represent the Passion, and from the
+frieze which crowns them leap ten bold arches forming
+the vault of the chapel. Within the arches that
+support the columns are six great paintings by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">230</span>
+Alonzo Cano, which are said to be his most beautiful
+and finished work.</p>
+
+<p>And since I have spoken of Alonzo Cano, a native
+of Granada, one of the strongest Spanish painters of
+the seventeenth century, although a disciple of the
+Sevillian school rather than the founder, as some
+assert, of a school of his own, but less original than
+his greatest contemporaries,&mdash;since I have spoken of
+him, I wish here to record some traits of his genius
+and anecdotes of his life little known outside of Spain,
+although exceedingly remarkable. Alonzo Cano was
+the most quarrelsome, the most irascible, and the
+most violent of the Spanish painters. He spent his
+life in contention. He was a priest. From 1652 to
+1658, for six consecutive years, without a day's intermission,
+he wrangled with the canons of the cathedral
+of Granada, of which he was steward, because
+he was not willing to become subdeacon in accordance
+with the stipulated agreement; before leaving
+Granada he broke into pieces with his own hands a
+statue of Saint Anthony of Padua which he had
+made to the order of an auditor of the chancery,
+because the man allowed himself to observe that the
+price demanded seemed a little dear. Chosen master
+of design to the royal prince, who, as it appears,
+was not born with a talent for painting, he so exasperated
+his pupil that the boy was obliged to have
+recourse to the king that he might be taken out of
+his hands. Remanded to Granada, to the neighbor<span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">231</span>hood
+of the chapter of the cathedral, as an especial
+favor, he bore such a deep rancor from his old litigations
+with his canons that throughout his life he
+would not do a stroke of work for them. But this
+is a small matter. He nursed a blind, bestial, inextinguishable
+hatred against the Hebrews, and was
+firmly convinced that in any way to touch a Hebrew
+or any object that a Hebrew had touched
+would bring him misfortune. Owing to this conviction
+he did some of the most extravagant feats in
+the world. If in walking along the street he ran
+against a Jew, he would strip off the infected garment
+and return home in his shirt-sleeves. If by
+chance he succeeded in discovering that in his absence
+a servant had admitted a Jew into the house,
+he discharged the servant, threw away the shoes
+with which he had touched the pavement profaned
+by the circumcised, and sometimes even had the
+pavement torn up and reset. And he found something
+to find fault with even as he was dying.
+When he was approaching the end of life the confessor
+handed him a clumsily-made crucifix that he
+might kiss it, but he pushed it away with his hand,
+saying, "Father, give me a naked cross, that I may
+worship Jesus Christ as He Himself is and as I behold
+Him in my mind." But, after all, his was a
+rare, charitable nature which abhorred every vulgar
+action, and loved with a deep and very pure love the
+art in which he remains immortal.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">232</span></p>
+
+<p>On returning to the church after I had made the
+round of all the chapels and was preparing to leave,
+I was impressed by a suspicion that there was something
+else still to be seen. I had not read the Guidebook
+and had been told nothing, but I heard an
+inner voice which said to me, "Seek!" and, in fact,
+I sought with my eyes in every direction, without
+knowing what I sought. A cicerone noticed me and
+sidled up to me, as all of his kind do, like an assassin,
+and asked me with an air of mystery, "<i>Quiere
+usted algo?</i>" (Do you wish something, sir?)</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to know," I replied, "if there is
+anything to see in this cathedral besides that which
+I have seen already?"</p>
+
+<p>"How!" exclaimed the cicerone; "you have not
+seen the royal chapel, have you, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"What is there in the royal chapel?"</p>
+
+<p>"What is there? Caramba! Nothing less than
+the tombs of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholics."</p>
+
+<p>I could have said so! I had in my mind a place
+ready for this idea, and the idea was lacking! The
+Catholic kings must certainly have been buried in
+Granada, where they fought the last great chivalrous
+war of the Middle Ages, and where they gave Christopher
+Columbus a commission to fit out ships which
+bore him to the New World. I ran rather than
+walked to the royal chapel, preceded by the limping
+cicerone; an old sacristan opened the door of the
+sacristy, and before he allowed me to enter and see<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">233</span>
+the tombs he led me to a sort of glass cupboard full
+of precious objects, and said to me, "You will remember
+that Isabella the Catholic, to furnish Christopher
+Columbus with the money that he needed to
+supply the ships for the voyage, not knowing where
+to turn because the coffers of the state were empty,
+put her jewels in pawn."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes: well?" I demanded impatiently; and, divining
+the answer, felt my heart beat faster the
+while.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," replied the sacristan, "that is the box in
+which the queen locked her jewels to send them to
+be pawned."</p>
+
+<p>And so saying he opened the cupboard and took
+out the box and handed it to me.</p>
+
+<p>Oh! brave men may say what they will; as for
+me, there are things that make me tremble and
+weep. I have touched the box that contained the
+treasure by which Columbus was enabled to discover
+America. Every time I repeat those words my
+blood is stirred, and I add, "I have touched it with
+these hands," and I look at my hands.</p>
+
+<p>That cupboard contains also the sword of King
+Ferdinand, the crown and sceptre of Isabella, a missal
+and some other ornaments of the king and queen.</p>
+
+<p>We entered the chapel. Between the altar and a
+great iron chancel that separates it from the remaining
+space stand two great mausoleums of marble
+adorned with statuettes and bas-reliefs of great<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">234</span>
+value. Upon one of them lie the statues of Ferdinand
+and Isabella in their royal robes, with crown,
+sword, and sceptre; on the other the statues of the
+other two princes of Spain, and around the statues
+lions, angels, and arms, and various ornaments, presenting
+a regal appearance, austere and magnificent.</p>
+
+<p>The sacristan lighted a flambeau, and, pointing
+out a sort of trap-door in the pavement between the
+two mausoleums, asked me to open it and descend
+into the subterranean chamber. With the cicerone's
+aid I opened the trap-door; the sacristan descended,
+and I followed him down a narrow little staircase
+until we reached a little room. There were five
+caskets of lead, bound with iron bands, each sealed
+with two initials under a crown. The sacristan
+lowered the torch, and, touching all five of them,
+one after another, with his hand, said in a slow,
+solemn voice,</p>
+
+<p>"Here rests the great queen Isabella the Catholic.</p>
+
+<p>"Here rests the great king Ferdinand V.</p>
+
+<p>"Here rests the king Philip I.</p>
+
+<p>"Here rests Queen Joanna the Mad.</p>
+
+<p>"Here rests Lady Maria, her daughter, who died
+at the age of nine years.</p>
+
+<p>"God keep them all in his holy peace!"</p>
+
+<p>And, placing the torch on the ground, he crossed
+his arms and closed his eyes, as if to give me time
+for meditation.</p>
+
+<p>One would become a hunchback at his desk if he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">235</span>
+were to describe all the religious monuments of
+Granada&mdash;the stupendous Cartuja; the Monte Sacro,
+containing the grottoes of the martyrs; the church
+of San Geronimo, where the great leader Gonzalez
+di Cordova is buried; the convent of Santo Domingo,
+founded by Torquemada the Inquisitor; the
+convent of the Angels, containing paintings by
+Cano and Murillo and many others; but I suppose
+that my readers may be even more weary than I am,
+and will consequently pardon me for passing by a
+mountain of description which probably would only
+give them a confused idea of the things described.</p>
+
+<p>But as I have mentioned the sepulchre of the
+great commander, Gonzalez di Cordova, I cannot
+forbear translating a curious document in reference
+to him which was shown me in the church of San
+Geronimo by a sacristan who was an admirer of the
+deeds of that hero. The document, in the form of
+an anecdote, is as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"Every step of the great captain Don Gonzalez
+di Cordova was an assault, and every assault a victory;
+his sepulchre in the convent of the Geronomites
+at Granada was adorned with two hundred
+banners which he had taken. His envious rivals,
+and the treasurers of the kingdom of Naples in particular,
+induced the king in 1506 to demand a statement
+from Gonzalez of the use he had made of the
+great sums received from Spain for the conduct of
+the war in Italy; and, in fact, the king was so small<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">236</span>
+as to consent, and even to be present on the occasion
+of the conference.</p>
+
+<p>"Gonzalez acceded to the demand with the
+haughtiest disdain, and proposed to give a severe
+lesson to the treasurers and the king upon the treatment
+and consideration to be accorded a conqueror
+of kingdoms.</p>
+
+<p>"He replied with great indifference and calmness
+that he would prepare his accounts for the following
+day, and would let it appear which was the debtor,
+himself or the exchequer, which demanded an account
+of one hundred and thirty thousand ducats
+delivered upon the first payment, eighty thousand
+crowns upon the second, three millions upon the
+third, eleven millions upon the fourth, thirteen millions
+upon the fifth, and so on as the solemn, nasal,
+foolish secretary who authorized so important an act
+continued to enumerate the sums.</p>
+
+<p>"The great Gonzalez kept his word, presented
+himself at the second audience, and, bringing out a
+voluminous book in which he had noted his justification,
+he began with the following words in a deep,
+sonorous voice:</p>
+
+<p>"'Two hundred thousand seven hundred and
+thirty-six ducats and nine reales to the fathers, the
+nuns, and the poor, to the end that they might pray
+God for the triumph of the Spanish arms.</p>
+
+<p>"'One hundred thousand ducats for powder and
+shot.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">237</span></p>
+
+<p>"'Ten thousand ducats for perfumed gloves to
+protect the soldiers from the stench of the corpses
+of the enemy left on the field of battle.</p>
+
+<p>"'One hundred and seventy thousand ducats for
+renewing bells worn out by continuous ringing for
+constant new victories over the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>"'Fifty thousand ducats for brandy for the soldiers
+on the day of battle.</p>
+
+<p>"'A million and a half ducats for the maintenance
+of the prisoners and wounded.</p>
+
+<p>"'A million for returning thanks and Te Deums
+to the Omnipotent.</p>
+
+<p>"'Three hundred millions in masses for the dead.</p>
+
+<p>"'Seven hundred thousand four hundred and
+ninety-four ducats for spies and ...</p>
+
+<p>"'One hundred millions for the patience which I
+showed yesterday on hearing that the king demanded
+an account from the man who has given him his
+kingdom.'</p>
+
+<p>"These are the celebrated accounts of the great
+captain, the originals of which are in the possession
+of Count d'Altimira.</p>
+
+<p>"One of the original accounts, with the autograph
+seal of the great captain, exists in the Military
+Museum of London, where it is guarded with great
+care."</p>
+
+<p>On reading this document I returned to the hotel,
+making invidious comparisons between Gonzalez di
+Cordova and the Spanish generals of our times,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">238</span>
+which, for grave state reasons, as they say in the
+tragedies, I dare not repeat.</p>
+
+<p>In the hotel I saw something new every day.
+There were many university students who had come
+from Malaga and other Andalusian cities to take the
+examination for the doctor's degree at Granada,
+whether because they were a little easier there or
+for what other reason I do not know. We all ate
+at a round table. One morning at breakfast one of
+the students, a young man of about twenty, announced
+that at two o'clock he was to be examined
+in canon law, and that, not feeling very sure of himself,
+he had decided to take a glass of wine to refresh
+the springs of eloquence. He was accustomed to
+drink only wine weakened with water, and committed
+the imprudence of emptying at a single
+draught a glass of the vintage of Xerez. His face
+changed in an instant in so strange a manner that if
+I had not seen the transformation with my own eyes
+I should not have believed that he was the same
+person.</p>
+
+<p>"There! that is enough!" cried his friends.</p>
+
+<p>But the young man, who already felt that he had
+become suddenly strong, keen, and confident, cast a
+compassionate glance at his companions, and with
+a lordly gesture ordered the waiter to fetch him
+another glass.</p>
+
+<p>"You will be drunk," they said.</p>
+
+<p>His only response was to drain a second glass.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">239</span></p>
+
+<p>Then he became wonderfully talkative. There
+was a score of persons at table: in a few minutes he
+was conversing with them all, and he revealed a
+thousand secrets of his past life and his plans for
+the future. He said that he was from Cadiz, that he
+had eight thousand francs a year to spend, and that
+he wished to devote himself to a diplomatic career,
+because with that revenue, added to something
+which his uncle would leave him, he should be able
+to cut a good figure wherever he might be; that he
+had decided to take a wife at thirty, and to marry a
+woman as tall as himself, because it was his opinion
+that the wife should be of the same stature as her
+husband, to keep either from getting the upper hand
+of the other; that when he was a boy he was in
+love with the daughter of an American consul as
+beautiful as a flower and strong as a pine, but she
+had a red birth-mark behind one ear, which looked
+badly, although she knew how to cover it very well
+with her scarf, and he showed us with his napkin
+how she covered it; and that Don Amadeus was too
+ingenuous a man to succeed in governing Spain;
+that of the poets Zorilla and Espronceda, he had
+always preferred Espronceda; that it would be folly
+to cede Cuba to America; that the examination on
+canon law made him laugh; and that he wished to
+drink another four fingers of Xerez, the finest wine
+in Europe.</p>
+
+<p>He drank a third glass in spite of the good coun<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">240</span>sel
+and disapprobation of his friends, and after prattling
+a little longer amid the laughter of his audience,
+he suddenly became silent, looked fixedly at a
+lady sitting opposite to him, dropped his head, and
+fell asleep. I thought that he could not present himself
+for the examination that day, but was mistaken.
+A short hour later they awakened him; he went up
+stairs to wash his face, ran off to the university still
+drowsy, took his examination, and was promoted, to
+the greater glory of the wine of Xerez and Spanish
+diplomacy.</p>
+
+<p>I devoted the following days to visiting the monuments,
+or, to be more accurate, the ruins of the
+Moorish monuments which besides the Alhambra
+and the Generalife attest the ancient splendor of
+Granada. Insomuch as it was the last bulwark of
+Islam, Granada is the city which presents the most
+numerous relics of all the cities of Spain. On the
+hill called the hill of <i>Dinadamar</i> (the Fountain of
+Tears) one may still see the ruins of four towers
+rising at the four corners of a great cistern into
+which flowed the waters from the Sierra to supply
+the highest part of the city. There were baths, gardens,
+and villas of which not a trace remains: from
+that point one overlooked the city with its minarets,
+its terraces, and its mosques gleaming among the
+palms and cypresses. Near there one sees a Moorish
+gate called the gate of Elvira&mdash;a great arch
+crowned with battlements&mdash;and beyond it are the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">241</span>
+ruins of the palaces of the caliphs. Near the Alameda
+promenade stands a square tower in which
+there is a great hall ornamented with the usual Arabian
+inscriptions. Near the convent of San Domingo
+are the remains of gardens and palaces once
+joined to the Alhambra by a subterranean passage.
+Within the city is the Alcaiceria, a Moorish market
+almost perfectly preserved, formed of a few little
+streets as straight and narrow as corridors, lined
+with two rows of shops, one adjoining the other, and
+presenting the strange appearance of an Asiatic
+bazaar. In short, one cannot take a step in Granada
+without coming face to face with an arch, an
+arabesque, a column, or a pile of stones which suggests
+its fantastic, luxurious past.</p>
+
+<p>What turns and windings have I not made through
+those tortuous streets at the hottest hour of the day,
+under a sun that shrivelled my brain, without meeting
+a living soul! At Granada, as in the other
+cities of Andalusia, the people are alive only at
+night, and the night repays them for the imprisonment
+of the day; the public promenades are crowded
+and confused by the hurry and jostling of a multitude,
+one half of which seems to be seeking the
+other half upon urgent business. The crowd is
+densest in the Alameda, but, for all that, I spent my
+evenings on the Alameda with Gongora, who talked
+to me of Moorish monuments, and with a journalist
+who discoursed on politics, and also with another<span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">242</span>
+young man who talked of women, and frequently
+with all three of them together, to my infinite
+pleasure, because those cheery meetings, like those of
+school-boys, at odd times and places, refreshed my
+mind, to steal a beautiful simile, like a summer
+shower refreshes the grass as it falls faster and
+faster, dancing for joy.</p>
+
+<p>If I were obliged to say something about the
+people of Granada, I should be embarrassed, because
+I have not seen them. In the day-time I met no
+one in the streets, and at night I could not see them.
+The theatres were not open, and when I might have
+found some one in the city I was wandering through
+the halls or avenues of the Alhambra; and then I
+had so much to do to see everything in the short
+time which I had allowed myself that no unoccupied
+moments remained for those chance conversations,
+like the ones I had in the other cities, in the streets
+and the cafés, with whomever I happened to meet.</p>
+
+<p>But from what I learned from men who were in
+a position to give me trustworthy information, the
+people of Granada do not enjoy an enviable reputation
+in Spain. They are said to be ill-tempered,
+violent, vindictive, and bloodthirsty; and this arraignment
+is not disproved by the pages of the city
+newspapers. It is not publicly stated, but every one
+knows it for a fact, that popular instruction in Granada
+is at a lower ebb than even in Seville and the
+other smaller Spanish cities, and, as a rule, every<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">243</span>thing
+that cannot be produced by the sun and the
+soil, which produce so bountifully, goes to the bad,
+either through indolence or ignorance or shiftlessness.
+Granada is not connected by railway with
+any important city: she lives alone, surrounded by
+her gardens, enclosed by her mountains, happy with
+the fruits which Nature produces under her hand,
+gently lulling herself to sleep in the vanity of her
+beauty and the pride of her history&mdash;idle, drowsy,
+and fanciful, content to answer with a yawn to any
+one who reproves her for her condition: "I gave
+Spain the painter Alonzo Cano, the poet Louis de
+Leon, the historian Fernando de Castillo, the sacred
+orator Luis di Grenada, and the minister Martinez
+de la Rosas. I have paid my debt, leave me in
+peace;" and this is the reply made by almost all the
+southern cities of Spain, more beautiful, alas! than
+wise and industrious, and proud rather than civilized.
+Ah! one who has seen them can never have
+done exclaiming, "What a pity!"</p>
+
+<p>"Now that you have seen all the marvels of Moorish
+art and tropical vegetation there remains the suburb
+of the Albaicin to be seen before you can say
+that you know Granada. Prepare your mind for a
+new world, put your hand on your purse, and follow
+me."</p>
+
+<p>So said Gongora to me on the last evening of my
+sojourn in Granada. A Republican journalist was
+with us, Melchiorre Almago by name, the director<span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">244</span>
+of the <i>Idea</i>, a congenial, affable young man, who to
+accompany us sacrificed his dinner and a leading
+article that he had been cogitating since morning.</p>
+
+<p>We walked on until we came to the square of the
+<i>Audiencia</i>. There Gongora pointed out an alley
+winding up a hill, and said to me, "Here commences
+the Albaicin;" and Señor Melchiorre, touching
+a house with his cane, added, "Here commences
+the territory of the republic."</p>
+
+<p>We turned up the alley, passed from it into another,
+and from that into a third, always ascending,
+without my seeing anything extraordinary, although
+I looked curiously in every direction. Narrow streets,
+squalid houses, old women dozing on the doorsteps,
+mothers carefully inspecting their children's heads,
+gaping dogs, crowing cocks, ragged boys running
+and shouting, and the other things that one always
+sees in the suburbs; but in those streets nothing
+more. But gradually, as we ascended, the appearance
+of the houses and the people began to change;
+the roofs became lower, the windows fewer, the doors
+smaller, and the people more ragged. In the middle
+of every street ran a little stream in a walled gutter,
+in the Moorish style; here and there over the doors
+and around the windows one saw the remains of arabesques
+and fragments of columns, and in the corners
+of the squares fountains and well-curbs of the
+time of the Moorish dominion. At every hundred
+steps it seemed as if we had gone back fifty years<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">245</span>
+toward the age of the caliphs. My two companions
+touched me on the elbow from time to time, saying
+as they did so, "Look at that old woman!"&mdash;"Look
+at that little girl!"&mdash;"Look at that man!" and I
+looked, and asked, "Who are these people?" If I
+had unexpectedly found myself in that place, I
+should have believed on seeing those men and
+women that I was in an African village, so strange
+were the faces, the dress, the manner of moving,
+talking, and looking, at so short a distance from the
+centre of Granada&mdash;so different were they from the
+people that I had seen up to that time. At every
+turn I stopped to look in the face of my companions,
+and they answered, "That is nothing; we are now
+in the civilized part of the Albaicin; this is the
+Parisian quarter of the suburb; let us go on."</p>
+
+<p>We went on, and the streets seemed like the bed
+of a torrent&mdash;paths hollowed out among the rocks,
+all banks and gullies, broken and stony&mdash;some so
+steep that a mule could not climb them, others so
+narrow that a man could scarcely pass; some
+blocked by women and children sitting on the
+ground, others grass-grown and deserted; and all so
+squalid, wild, and uncouth that the most wretched of
+our villages cannot give one an idea of them, because
+this is a poverty that bears the impress of
+another race and another continent. We turned
+into a labyrinth of streets, passing from time to
+time under a great Moorish arch or through a high<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">246</span>
+square from which one commanded a view of the
+wide valleys, the snow-covered mountains, and a
+part of the lower city, until finally we arrived at a
+street rougher and narrower than any we had yet
+seen; and there we stopped to take breath.</p>
+
+<p>"Here commences the real Albaicin," said the
+young archeologist. "Look at that house!"</p>
+
+<p>I looked; it was a low, smoke-stained, ruinous
+house, with a door that seemed like the mouth of a
+cavern, before which one saw, under a mass of rags,
+a group, or rather a heap, of old women and little
+children, who upon our approach raised their eyes
+heavy with sleep, and with bony hands removed
+from the threshold some filth which impeded our
+passage.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us enter," said my friend.</p>
+
+<p>"Enter?" I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>If they had told me that beyond those walls there
+was a facsimile of the famous Court of Miracles
+which Victor Hugo has described, I should not have
+doubted their word. No door has ever said more
+emphatically than that, "Stand back!" I cannot
+find a better comparison than the gaping mouth of
+a gigantic witch breathing out pestilential vapors.
+But I took courage and entered.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, marvellous! It was the court of a Moorish
+house surrounded by graceful little columns surmounted
+by lovely arches, with those indescribable
+traceries of the Alhambra along the porticoes and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">247</span>
+around the mullioned windows, with the beams and
+ceiling carved and enamelled with little niches for
+vases of flowers and urns of perfume, with a pool
+in the middle, and all the traces and memorials of
+the delicate life of an opulent family. And in that
+house lived those wretched people!</p>
+
+<p>We went out and entered other houses, in all of
+which I found some fragments of Moorish architecture
+and sculpture. From time to time Gongora
+would say to me, "This was a harem. Those were
+the baths of the women; up yonder was the chamber
+of a favorite;" and I fixed my eyes upon every
+bit of the arabesqued wall and upon all the little
+columns of the windows, as if to ask them for a revelation
+of their secrets&mdash;only a name or a magic
+word with which I might reconstruct in an instant
+the ruined edifice and summon the beautiful Arabians
+who had dwelt there. But, alas! amid the
+columns and under the arches of the windows there
+were only rags and wrinkled faces.</p>
+
+<p>Among other houses, we entered one where we
+found a group of girls sewing under the shade of a
+tree in the courtyard, directed by an old woman.
+They were all working upon a great piece of cloth
+that seemed like a mat or a bed-spread, in black and
+gray stripes. I approached and asked one of the
+girls, "What is this?"</p>
+
+<p>They all looked up and with a concerted movement
+spread the cloth open, so that I could see their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">248</span>
+work plainly. Almost before I had seen it I cried,
+"I will buy it."</p>
+
+<p>They all began to laugh. It was the mantle of an
+Andalusian mountaineer, made to wear in the saddle,
+rectangular in form, with an opening in the middle
+to put one's head through, embroidered in bright-colored
+worsteds along the two shortest sides and
+around the opening. The design of the embroideries,
+which represented birds and fantastic flowers,
+green, blue, white, red, and yellow, all in a mass,
+was as crude as a pattern a child might make: the
+beauty of the work lay altogether in the harmony
+of the colors, which was truly marvellous. I cannot
+express the sensation produced by the sight of that
+mantle, except by saying that it laughed and filled
+one with its cheerfulness; and it seems to me impossible
+to imagine anything gayer, more festive, or
+more childishly and gracefully capricious. It was a
+thing to look upon in order to bring yourself out of
+a bad humor, or when you wish to write a pretty
+verse in a lady's album, or when you are expecting
+a person whom you wish to receive with your
+brightest smile.</p>
+
+<p>"When will you finish these embroideries?" I
+asked one of the girls.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Hoy mismo</i>" (to-day), they all replied in chorus.</p>
+
+<p>"And what is the mantle worth?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Cinco</i>" (five), stammered one.</p>
+
+<p>The old women pierced her with a glance which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">249</span>
+seemed to say, "Blockhead!" and answered hastily,
+"Six <i>duros</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Six <i>duros</i> are thirty francs; it did not seem much
+to me, and I put my hand in my pocket.</p>
+
+<p>Gongora cast a withering glance at me which
+seemed to say, "You simpleton!" and, drawing me
+back by the arm, said, "One moment: six <i>duros</i> is
+an exorbitant price."</p>
+
+<p>The old woman shot him another glance which
+seemed to say, "Brigand!" and replied, "I cannot
+take less."</p>
+
+<p>Gongora gave her another glance, which seemed
+to say, "Liar!" and said, "Come, now; you can
+take four <i>duros</i>; you would not ask more from the
+country-people."</p>
+
+<p>The old woman insisted, and for a while we continued
+to exchange with our eyes the titles of simpleton,
+swindler, marplot, liar, pinch-penny, spend-thrift,
+until the mantle was sold to me for five duros,
+and I paid and left my address, and we went out
+blessed and commended to God by the old woman
+and followed a good way by the black eyes of the
+embroiderers.</p>
+
+<p>We went on from street to street, among houses
+increasingly wretched and growing blacker and
+blacker, and more revolting rags and faces. But
+we never came to the end, and I asked my companions,
+"Will you have the goodness to tell me if Granada
+has any limits, and if so where they are?<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">250</span>
+May one ask where we are going and how we shall
+return home?" But they simply laughed and went
+forward.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there anything stranger than this to be seen?"
+I asked at a certain point.</p>
+
+<p>"Stranger?" they both replied. "This second
+part of the suburb which you have seen still belongs
+to civilization: if not the Parisian, it is at least the
+Madrid, quarter of the Albaicin, and there <i>is</i> something
+else; let us go on."</p>
+
+<p>We passed through a very small street containing
+some scantily-clothed women, who looked like people
+fallen from the moon; crossed a little square full of
+babies and pigs in friendly confusion; passed through
+two or three other alleys, now climbing, now descending,
+now in the midst of houses, now among piles of
+rubbish, now between trees and now among rocks,
+until we finally arrived at the solitary place on a
+hillside from which we saw in front the Generalife,
+to the right the Alhambra, and below a deep valley
+filled with a dense wood.</p>
+
+<p>It was growing dark; no one was in sight and not
+a voice was heard.</p>
+
+<p>"Is this the end of the suburb?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>My two companions laughed and said, "Look in
+that direction."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<div class="caption"> <i><a id="The_Alhambra"></a>The Alhambra and the Valley of
+the Darro</i></div>
+<div class="nobreak"><img src="images/illus-b250cs.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+</div>
+
+<p>I turned and saw along the street that was lost in
+a distant grove an interminable row of houses. Of
+houses? Rather of dens dug in the earth, with a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">251</span>
+bit of wall in front, with holes for windows and crevices
+for doors, and wild plants of every sort on top
+and along the sides&mdash;veritable caves of beasts, in
+which by the glow of faint lights, scarcely visible,
+swarmed the gypsies by hundreds; a people multiplying
+in the bowels of the mountain, poorer, blacker, and
+more savage than any seen before; another city,
+unknown to the greater part of Granada, inaccessible
+to the police, closed to the census-officers, ignorant
+of every law and of all government, living
+one knows not how, how numerous no one knows,
+foreign to the city, to Spain, and to modern civilization,
+with a language and statutes and manners of
+their own&mdash;superstitious, false, thieving, beggarly,
+and fierce.</p>
+
+<p>"Button up your coat and look out for your
+watch," said Gongora to me, "and let us go forward."</p>
+
+<p>We had not taken a hundred steps when a half-naked
+boy, black as the walls of his hovel, ran out,
+gave a cry, and, making a sign to the other boys
+who followed him, dashed toward us; behind the
+boys came the women; behind the women the men,
+and then old men, old women, and more children;
+and in less time than it takes to tell it we were surrounded
+by a crowd. My two friends, recognized as
+Granadines, succeeded in saving themselves; I was
+left in the lurch. I can still see those horrid faces,
+still hear those voices, and still feel the pressure of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">252</span>
+those hands: gesticulating, shouting, saying a thousand
+things which I did not understand; dragging at
+my coat, my waistcoat, and my sleeves, they pressed
+upon me like a pack of famished people, breathed in
+my face, and cut off my very breath. They were,
+for the most part, half naked and emaciated&mdash;their
+garments falling in tatters, with unkempt hair, horrible
+to see; I seemed to be like Don Roderick in
+the midst of a crowd of the infected in that famous
+dream of the August night.</p>
+
+<p>"What do these people want?" I asked myself.
+"Where have I been brought? How shall I get out
+of this?" I felt almost a sense of fear, and looked
+around uneasily. Little by little I began to understand.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a sore on my shoulder," said one; "I
+cannot work; give me a penny."</p>
+
+<p>"I have a broken leg," said another.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a palsied arm."</p>
+
+<p>"I have had a long sickness."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Un cuarto, Señorito!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Un real, caballero!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Una peseta para todos!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>This last request was received with a general cry
+of approval: "<i>Una peseta para todos!</i>" (a <i>peseta</i> for
+us all).</p>
+
+<p>With some little trepidation I drew out my purse;
+they all stood on tiptoe; the nearest poked their
+chins into it; those behind put their chins on the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">253</span>
+heads of those in front; the farthest stretched out
+their arms.</p>
+
+<p>"One moment," I cried. "Who has the most
+authority among you all?"</p>
+
+<p>They all replied with one voice, stretching out
+their arms toward the same person, "That one."</p>
+
+<p>It was a terrible old hag, all nose and chin, with a
+great tuft of white hair standing straight above her
+head like a bunch of feathers, and a mouth which
+seemed like a letter-box, with little clothing save a
+chemise&mdash;black, shrivelled, and mummified; she approached
+me bowing and smiling, and held out her
+hands to take mine.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want?" I demanded, taking a step
+backward.</p>
+
+<p>"Your fortune," they all cried.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell my fortune, then," I replied, holding out my
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>The old woman took my poor hand between her
+ten&mdash;I cannot say fingers, but shapeless bones&mdash;placed
+her sharp nose on it, raised her head, looked
+hard at me, pointed her finger toward me, and,
+swaying and pausing at every sentence as if she
+were reciting poetry, said to me in inspired accents,
+"Thou wert born upon a famous day.</p>
+
+<p>"Upon a famous day also shalt thou die.</p>
+
+<p>"Thou art the possessor of amazing riches."</p>
+
+<p>Here she muttered I know not what about sweethearts
+and marriage and felicity, from which I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">254</span>
+understood that she supposed I was married, and
+then she continued: "On the day of thy marriage
+there was great feasting in thy house; there were
+many to give and take.</p>
+
+<p>"And another woman wept.</p>
+
+<p>"And when thou seest her the wings of thy heart
+open."</p>
+
+<p>And so on in this strain, saying that I had sweethearts
+and friends and treasures and jewels in store
+for me every day of the year, in every country of
+the world. While the old woman was speaking
+they were all silent, as if they believed she had
+prophesied truly. She finally closed her prophecy
+with a formula of dismissal, and ended the formula
+by extending her arms and making a skip in a dancing
+attitude. I gave her the peseta, and the crowd
+broke into shouting, applause, and singing, making
+a thousand uncanny hops and gestures around me,
+saluting me with nudges and slaps of the hand on
+my back, as if I were an old friend, until finally, by
+dint of wriggling and striking now one and then
+another, I succeeded in opening a passage and rejoined
+my friends. But a new danger threatened
+us. The news of the arrival of a foreigner had
+spread, the tribes were in motion, the city of the
+gypsies was all in an uproar; from the neighboring
+houses and from the distant huts, from the top of the
+hill and the bottom of the valley, ran boys, women
+with babies about their necks, old men with canes,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">255</span>
+cripples, and professional imposters, septuagenarian
+prophetesses who wished to tell my fortune&mdash;an
+army of beggars coming upon us from every direction.
+It was night; there was no time for hesitation;
+we broke into a run toward the city like
+school-boys. Then a devilish cry broke out behind
+us, and the nimblest began to chase us. Thanks to
+Heaven! after a short race we found ourselves in
+safety&mdash;tired and breathless, and covered with dust,
+but safe.</p>
+
+<p>"It was necessary to escape at any cost," said
+Señor Melchiorre with a laugh; "otherwise we
+should have gone home without our shirts."</p>
+
+<p>"And take notice," added Gongora, "that we
+have seen only the door of Gypsy-town, the civilized
+part, not the Paris nor the Madrid, but at least
+the Granada, of the Albaicin. If we could only have
+gone on! if you could have seen the rest!"</p>
+
+<p>"But how many thousand are there of those
+people?" I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"No one knows."</p>
+
+<p>"How do they live?"</p>
+
+<p>"No one can imagine."</p>
+
+<p>"What authority do they recognize?"</p>
+
+<p>"One only&mdash;<i>los reyes</i> (the kings), the heads of families
+or of houses, those who have the most money
+and years. They never go out of their city; they
+know nothing, they live in the dark as to all that
+happens beyond the circle of their hovels. Dy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">256</span>nasties
+fall, governments change, armies clash, and
+it is a miracle if the news ever reaches their ears.
+Ask them if Isabella is still on the throne; they do
+not know. Ask them who Amadeus is; they have
+never heard his name. They are born and perish
+like flies, and they live as they lived centuries ago,
+multiplying without leaving their own boundaries,
+ignorant and unknown, seeing nothing all their
+lives beyond the valleys lying below their feet and
+the Alhambra towering above their heads."</p>
+
+<p>We passed again through all the streets that we
+had traversed, now dark and deserted, and endless
+as it seemed to me; and, climbing and descending,
+turning and twisting, and turning again, we finally
+arrived at the square of the Audiencia in the middle
+of the city of Granada&mdash;in the civilized world. At
+the sight of the brightly-lighted cafés and shops I
+experienced a feeling of pleasure, as if I had just
+returned to city-life after a year's sojourn in an
+uninhabited wilderness.</p>
+
+<p>On the evening of the next day I left for Valencia.
+I remember that a few moments before starting, as I
+was paying my hotel-bill, I observed to the proprietor
+that there was an overcharge for one candle,
+and playfully asked him, "Will you deduct it for
+me?" The proprietor seized his pen, and, deducting
+twenty centimes from the total charge, replied
+in a voice which he wished to appear emotional,
+"The devil! among Italians!"</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">257</span></p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a><br /><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p>
+</div><div class="chapter">
+<h2><a name="VALENCIA" id="VALENCIA"></a>VALENCIA.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The journey from Granada to Valencia, made all
+<i>de un tiron</i> (at one breath), as they say in Spain, is
+one of those recreations in which a rational man
+indulges only once in his life. From Granada to
+Menjibar, a village on the left bank of the Guadalquivir,
+between Jaen and Andujar, is a night's
+ride by diligence; from Menjibar to the Alcazar de
+San Juan is a half-day's journey by railway in an
+uncurtained carriage, through a plain as bare as the
+palm of one's hand, under a blazing sun; and from
+the Alcazar de San Juan to Valencia, taking account
+of an entire evening spent in the station of the Alcazar,
+makes another night and another morning
+before one reaches the longed-for city at noon,
+where Nature, as Emile Praga would say, is horrified
+at the dreadful idea that there are still four
+months of summer.</p>
+
+<p>But it must be said that the country through
+which one passes is so beautiful from beginning to
+the end that if one were capable of appreciation
+when one is dead with sleep and finds one's self
+turning into water by reason of the heat, one would<span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">260</span>
+go into ecstasies a thousand times. It is a journey
+of unexpected landscapes, sudden vistas, remarkable
+contrasts, theatrical effects of Nature, so to speak&mdash;marvellous
+and fantastic transformations, which leave
+in the mind an indescribable, vague illusion of having
+passed not through a part of Spain, but along an
+entire meridian of the earth across the most dissimilar
+countries. From the <i>vega</i> of Granada, which
+you cross in the moonlight, almost opening a way
+among the groves and gardens, in the midst of a
+luxuriant vegetation that seems to crowd around
+you like a tossing sea, ready to overflow and engulf
+you with its billows of verdure,&mdash;from this you
+emerge into the midst of ragged and precipitous
+mountains, where not a trace of human habitation
+is to be seen; you graze the edge of precipices, wind
+along the banks of mountain-torrents, run along at
+the bottom of the ravines, and seem to be lost in a
+rocky labyrinth. Then you come out a second time
+among the green hills and flowery fields of upper
+Andalusia, and then, all suddenly, the fields and hills
+disappear and you find yourself in the midst of the
+rocky mountains of the Sierra Morena, that hang
+over your head from every direction and close the
+horizon all around like the walls of an immense
+abyss. You leave the Sierra Morena, and the desert
+plains of La Mancha stretch before you; you leave
+La Mancha and advance through the flowery plain
+of Almansa, varied by every sort of cultivation,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">261</span>
+presenting the appearance of a vast carpet of checkered
+pattern colored in all the shades of green that
+can be found upon the pallet of a landscape-painter.
+And, finally, the plain of Almansa opens into a delightful
+oasis, a land blest of God, a true earthly
+paradise, the kingdom of Valencia, from whose
+boundaries, even to the city itself, you pass through
+gardens, vineyards, fragrant orange-groves, white
+villas encircled by terraces, cheerful, brightly-colored
+villages, clusters, avenues, and groves of palms,
+pomegranates, aloes, and sugar-canes, interminable
+hedges of Indian fig, long chains of low hills, and
+conical mounds cultivated as kitchen-gardens and
+flower-beds, laid out with minute care from top to
+bottom, and variegated like great bunches of grass
+and flowers; and everywhere a vigorous vegetation
+which hides every bare spot, covers every height,
+clothes every projection, climbs, falls, trails along,
+marches forward, overflows, intertwines, shuts off
+the view, impedes the road, dazzles with its verdure,
+wearies with its beauty, confounds with its caprices
+and its frolics, and produces an effect as of a sudden
+parting of the earth raised to fever heat by the fires
+of a secret volcano.</p>
+
+<p>The first building which meets the eye on entering
+Valencia is an immense bull-ring situated to the right
+of the railway. The building consists of four orders
+of superimposed arches rising on stout pilasters, all
+of brick, and in the distance resembling the Colos<span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">262</span>seum.
+It is the bull-ring where on the fourth of
+September, 1871, King Amadeus, in the presence of
+thousands of spectators, shook hands with Tato, the
+celebrated one-legged <i>torero</i>, who as director of the
+spectacle had asked permission to render his homage
+in the royal box. Valencia is full of mementos of
+the duke d'Aosta. The sacristan of the cathedral
+has in his possession a gold chronometer bearing the
+duke's initials in diamonds, with a chain of pearls,
+which was presented by him when he went to pray
+in the chapel of Our Lady of the Desolate. In the
+hospice of the same name the poor remember that
+one day they received their daily bread from his
+hand. In the mosaic workshop of one Nolla they
+preserve two bricks, upon one of which he cut his
+own name with his sword, and upon the other the
+name of the queen. In the Plaza di Tetuan the
+people point out the house of Count di Cervellon,
+where he was entertained; it is the same house in
+which Ferdinand VII. signed the decrees annulling
+the constitution in 1814, in which Queen Christina
+abdicated the throne in 1840, in which Queen Isabella
+spent some days in 1858. In short, there is
+not a corner of the city of which it cannot be said,
+Here he shook hands with a working-man, here he
+visited a factory, there he passed on foot far from
+his suite, surrounded by a crowd, trustful, serene,
+and smiling.</p>
+
+<p>It was in Valencia, since I am speaking of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">263</span>
+duke d'Aosta,&mdash;it was in the city of Valencia that
+a little girl of five years in reciting some verses
+touched upon that terrible subject of a <i>foreign king</i>
+with probably the noblest and most considerate
+words spoken in Spain for many years previous to
+that time&mdash;words which, if all Spain had remembered
+and pondered then, would perhaps have spared
+her many of those calamities which have befallen
+her, and others which still threaten; words which
+perhaps one day some Spaniard may repeat with a
+sigh, and which already at this time draw from
+events a marvellous light of truth and beauty. And,
+since these verses are graceful and simple, I transcribe
+them here. The poem is entitled "God and
+the King," and runs as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"Dios, en todo soberano,</div>
+  <div class="verse">Creó un dia á los mortales,</div>
+  <div class="verse">Y á todos nos hizo iguales</div>
+  <div class="verse">Con su poderosa mano.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"No reconoció Naciones</div>
+  <div class="verse">Ni colores ni matices?</div>
+  <div class="verse">Y en ver los hombres felices</div>
+  <div class="verse">Cifró sus aspiraciones.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"El Rey, che su imágen es,</div>
+  <div class="verse">Su bondad debe imitar</div>
+  <div class="verse">Y el pueblo no ha de indagar</div>
+  <div class="verse">Si es aleman ó francés.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"Porqué con ceño iracundo</div>
+  <div class="verse">Rechazarle siendo bueno?</div>
+  <div class="verse">Un Rey de bondades lleno</div>
+  <div class="verse">Tiene por su patria el mundo.</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">264</span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"Vino de nacion estraña</div>
+  <div class="verse">Cárlos Quinto emperador,</div>
+  <div class="verse">Y conquistó su valor</div>
+  <div class="verse">Mil laureles para España.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"Y es un recuerdo glorioso</div>
+  <div class="verse">Aunque en guerra cimentado,</div>
+  <div class="verse">El venturoso reinado</div>
+  <div class="verse">De Felipe el Animoso.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"Hoy el tercero sois vos</div>
+  <div class="verse">Nacido en estraño suelo</div>
+  <div class="verse">Que viene á ver nuestro cielo</div>
+  <div class="verse">Puro destello de Dios.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"Al rayo de nuestro sol</div>
+  <div class="verse">Sed bueno, justo y leal,</div>
+  <div class="verse">Que á un Rey bueno y liberal</div>
+  <div class="verse">Adora el pueblo español.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"Y á vuestra frente el trofeo</div>
+  <div class="verse">Ceñid de perpetua gloria,</div>
+  <div class="verse">Para que diga la historia</div>
+  <div class="verse">&mdash;Fué grande el Rey Amadeo."</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>"God, Ruler over all, created mortals one day,
+and made all equal with His mighty hand. He recognized
+neither nations nor colors nor divisions, and
+to behold men happy was His desire. The king,
+who is His image, ought to imitate His goodness,
+and the people have no need to ask whether he be
+German or French. Why, then, with angry frown
+repulse him if he be good? A king abounding
+in good deeds holds the world as his country.
+Charles V., the emperor, came from a foreign na<span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">265</span>tion,
+and by his valor won a thousand laurels for
+Spain. And the fortunate reign of Philip the Courageous
+is a glorious memory even though founded
+upon war.</p>
+
+<p>"To-day a third king rules you born on a foreign
+soil, who comes to look upon our sky, a clear spark
+of God. His love is true and just and loyal to the
+light of our sun, and this is a good and liberal king
+Spanish people adore. And around your brows
+you shall wear the trophy of perpetual glory upon
+which history shall write, 'Great was King Amadeus.'"</p>
+
+<p>Oh, poor little girl! how many wise things you
+have said! and how many foolish things others have
+done!</p>
+
+<p>The city of Valencia, if one enters it with one's
+mind full of the ballads in which the poets sang of
+its marvels, does not seem to correspond to the
+lovely image formed of it; neither, on the other
+hand, does it offer that sinister appearance for which
+one is prepared if one considers its just fame as a
+turbulent, warlike city, the fomenter of civil strife&mdash;a
+city prouder of the smell of its powder than of the
+fragrance of its orange-groves. It is a city built in
+the midst of a vast flowery plain on the right bank
+of the Guadalquivir, which separates it from the
+suburbs, a little way from the roadstead which serves
+as a port, and consists all of tortuous streets lined
+with high, ungainly, many-colored houses, and on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">266</span>
+this account less pleasing in appearance than the
+streets of the Andalusian cities, and entirely devoid
+of that evasive Oriental grace which so strangely
+stirs one's fancy. Along the left bank of the river
+extends a magnificent promenade formed of majestic
+avenues and beautiful gardens. These one reaches
+by going out of the city through the gate of the
+Cid, a structure flanked by two great embattled
+towers named after the hero because he passed
+through it in 1094 after he had expelled the Moors
+from Valencia. The cathedral, built upon the spot
+where stood a temple of Diana in Roman times, then
+a church of San Salvador in the time of the Goths,
+then a mosque in Moorish times, afterward converted
+into a church by the Cid, changed a second
+time into a mosque by the Moors in 1101, and
+for the third time into a church by King Don
+Jayme after the final overthrow of the invaders,
+is a vast structure, exceedingly rich in ornaments
+and treasures, but it cannot bear comparison with
+the greater number of the other Spanish cathedrals.
+There are a few palaces worth seeing, besides the
+palace of the Audiencia, a beautiful monument of
+the sixteenth century in which the Cortes of the
+kingdom of Valencia assembled; the <i>Casa de Ayuntamiento</i>,
+built between the fifteenth and sixteenth
+centuries, in which are preserved the sword of Don
+Jayme, the keys of the city, and the banner of the
+Moors; and, above all, <i>the Lonja</i>&mdash;the Bourse of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">267</span>
+merchants&mdash;notable for its celebrated hall consisting
+of three great naves divided by twenty-four spiral
+columns, above which curve the light arches of the
+vaulted roof in bold lines, the architecture imparting
+to the eye a pleasing impression of gayety and harmony.
+And, finally, there is the art-gallery, which
+is not one of the least in Spain.</p>
+
+<p>But, to tell the truth, in those few days that I remained
+at Valencia waiting for the boat I was more
+occupied by politics than by art. And I proved the
+truth of the words I heard an illustrious Italian say
+before I left Italy&mdash;one who knew Spain like his
+his own home: "The foreigner who lives even for a
+short time in Spain is drawn little by little, almost
+insensibly, to heat his blood and muddle his brain
+over politics, as if Spain were his own country or
+as if the fortunes of his country were depending
+upon those of Spain. The passions are so inflamed,
+the struggle is so furious, and in this struggle there
+is always so clearly at stake the future, the safety,
+and the life of the nation, that it is impossible for
+any one with the least tinge of the Latin blood in his
+imagination and his system to remain an indifferent
+spectator. You must needs grow excited, speak at
+party meetings, take the elections seriously, mingle
+with the crowd at the political demonstrations, break
+with your friends, form a clique of those who think
+as you think&mdash;make, in a word, a Spaniard of yourself,
+even to the whites of your eyes. And gradu<span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">268</span>ally,
+as you become Spanish, you forget Europe, as
+if it were at the antipodes, and end in seeing nothing
+beyond Spain, as if you were governing it, and as if
+all its interests were in your hands."</p>
+
+<p>Such is the case, and this was my experience. In
+those few days the Conservative ministry was shipwrecked
+and the Radicals had the wind behind
+them. Spain was all in a ferment; governors, generals,
+officials of all grades and of all administrations
+fell; a crowd of parvenus burst into the offices
+of the ministry with cries of joy: Zorilla was to inaugurate
+a new era of prosperity and peace; Don
+Amadeus had had an inspiration from heaven; liberty
+had conquered; Spain was saved. And I, as I
+listened to the band playing in front of the new governor's
+mansion under a clear starry sky in the
+midst of a joyous crowd,&mdash;I too had a ray of hope
+that the throne of Don Amadeus might finally extend
+its roots, and reproached myself for being too
+prone to predict evil. And that comedy which
+Zorilla played at his villa when he would by no
+means accept the presidency of the ministry, and
+sent back his friends and the members of the deputation,
+and finally, tired of continually saying no,
+fell into a swoon on saying yes, this, I say, gave
+me at the time a high opinion of the firmness of his
+character and led me to augur happily for the new
+government. And I said to myself that it was a sin
+to leave Spain just when the horizon was clearing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">269</span>
+and the royal palace of Madrid was tinted rose-color.
+And I had already considered the plan of returning
+to Madrid that I might have the satisfaction of sending
+some consoling news to Italy, and so be pardoned
+for the imprudence of sending unvarnished accounts
+of the situation up to that time. And I repeated
+the verses of Prati:</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">
+  <div class="verse">"Oh qual destin t'aspetta</div>
+  <div class="verse">Aquila giovenetta!"</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>(Oh what a destiny awaits thee, young eagle!)
+And, save a little bombast in the appellation, it
+seemed to me that they contained a prophecy, and
+I imagined meeting the poet in the Piazza Colonna
+at Rome and running toward him to offer my congratulations
+and press his hand....</p>
+
+<p>The most beautiful sight in Valencia is the market.
+The Valencian peasants are the most artistic
+and bizarre in their dress of all the peasants of
+Spain. To cut a good figure in a group of maskers
+at one of our masquerades they need only enter the
+theatre dressed as they would be on a festival or
+market-day in the streets of Valencia and along
+the country roads. On first seeing them dressed in
+this style, one laughs, and cannot in any way be
+brought to believe that they are Spanish peasants.
+They have an indescribable air of Greeks, Bedouins,
+buffoons, tightrope-walkers, women partly undressed
+on their way to bed, the silent characters of a play<span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">270</span>
+not quite ready to make their appearance, or facetious
+people who wish to make themselves generally
+ridiculous. They wear a full white shirt that takes
+the place of a jacket; a parti-colored velvet waistcoat
+open at the breast; a pair of zouave linen
+breeches which do not reach the knee, looking like
+drawers and standing out like the skirts of a ballet-dancer;
+a red or blue sash around the waist; a sort
+of embroidered white woollen stockings that leave
+the knee bare; a pair of corded sandals like those
+of the Catalan peasants; and on their heads, which
+are almost all shaved like those of the Chinese,
+they wear a handkerchief, red, sky-blue, yellow,
+or white, bound around like a cornucopia, and
+knotted at the temples or at the nape of the neck.
+They sometimes wear small velvet hats similar in
+shape to those worn in the other provinces of Spain.
+When they go into the city they nearly all carry
+around their shoulders or on their arms, now like a
+shawl, now like a mantle, or again like a little cape,
+a woollen <i>capa</i>, long and narrow, in brightly-colored
+stripes in which white and red predominate, adorned
+with fringe and rosettes. One may easily imagine
+the appearance presented by a square where there
+are gathered some hundreds of men dressed after
+this fashion: it is a Carnival scene, a festival, a tumult
+of colors, that makes one feel as gay as a band
+of music; a spectacle at once clownish, pretty, imposing,
+and ridiculous, to which the haughty faces<span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">271</span>
+and the majestic bearing which distinguish the Valencian
+peasants add an air of gravity which heightens
+the extraordinary beauty of the scene.</p>
+
+<p>If there is an insolent, lying proverb, it is that
+old Spanish one which says, "In Valencia flesh is
+grass, grass is water, men are women, and the
+women nothing." Leaving that part about the flesh
+and the grass, which is a pun, the men, especially
+those of the lower classes, are tall and robust, and
+have the bold appearance of the Catalans and Arragonese,
+with a livelier and more luminous expression
+of the eye; and the women, by the consent of all
+the Spaniards and of as many foreigners as have
+travelled in Spain, are the most classically beautiful
+in the country. The Valencians, who know that the
+eastern coast of the Peninsula was originally settled
+by Greeks and Carthaginians, say, "It is a clear
+case. The Grecian type of beauty has lingered
+here." I do not venture to say yes or no to this
+assertion, for to describe the beauty of the women
+of a city where one has passed only a few hours
+would seem to me like a license to be taken only by
+the compiler of a "Guide." But one can easily discover
+a decided difference between the Andalusian
+and Valencian types of beauty. The Valencian is
+taller, more robust, and fairer, with more regular
+features, gentler eyes, and a more matronly walk
+and carriage. She does not possess the bewitching
+air of the Andalusian, which makes it necessary to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_272">272</span>
+bite one's finger as if to subdue the sudden and
+alarming insurrection of one's capricious desires at
+sight of her; but the Valencian is a woman whom
+one regards with a feeling of calmer admiration, and
+while one looks one says, as La Harpe said of the
+Apollo Belvidere, "<i>Notre tete se releve, notre maintien
+s'ennoblit</i>," and instead of imagining a little Andalusian
+house to hide her from the eyes of the
+world, one longs for a marble palace to receive the
+ladies and cavaliers who will come to render her
+homage.</p>
+
+<p>If one is to believe the rest of the Spaniards, the
+Valencian people are fierce and cruel beyond all imagination.
+If one wishes to get rid of an enemy, he
+finds an obliging man who for a few crowns undertakes
+the business with as much indifference as he
+would accept a commission to carry a letter to the
+post. A Valencian peasant who finds that he has a
+gun in his hands as he passes an unknown man in a
+lonely street says to his companion, "See if I can
+aim straight?" and takes aim and fires. This actually
+occurred not many years ago: I was assured
+of its truth. In the cities and villages of Spain the
+boys and young men of the people are accustomed
+to play at being bulls, as they call it. One takes the
+place of the bull and does the butting; another,
+with a sharp stick under his arm like a lance, climbs
+on the back of a third, who represents the horse, and
+repulses the assaults of the first. Once a band of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">273</span>
+young Valencians thought they would introduce
+some innovations into this sport, and so make it
+seem a little more realistic and afford the spectators
+and the participants a little more amusement
+than the customary way of playing it; and the innovations
+were to substitute for the stick a long
+sharp-pointed knife, one of those formidable <i>navajas</i>
+that we saw at Seville, and to give the man who took
+the part of the bull two other shorter knives, which,
+fastened firmly on either side of his head, answered
+the purpose of horns. It seems incredible, but it is
+true. They played with the knives, shed a sea of
+blood, several were killed, some were mortally
+wounded, and others badly hurt, without the game
+becoming a fight, without the rules of the sport
+being transgressed, and without any one raising his
+voice to end the slaughter.</p>
+
+<p>I tell these things as they were told to me,
+although I am far from believing all that is said
+against the Valencians; but it is certain that at Valencia
+the public safety, if not a myth, as our papers
+poetically say in speaking of Romagna and Sicily, is
+certainly not the first of the good things which one
+enjoys after the blessing of life. I was persuaded
+of this fact the first evening of my stay in the city.
+I did not know the way to the port, but thought I
+was near it, and asked a shop-woman which way I
+should take. She uttered a cry of astonishment:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you wish to go to the port, <i>caballero</i>?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">274</span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Ave Maria purissima!</i> to the port at this hour?"</p>
+
+<p>And she turned toward a group of women who
+were standing by the door, and said to them in the
+Valencian dialect, "Women, do you answer for me:
+this gentleman is asking me the way to the port!"</p>
+
+<p>The women replied in one voice, "God save him!"</p>
+
+<p>"But from what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't risk yourself, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"What is your reason?"</p>
+
+<p>"A thousand reasons."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me one of them?"</p>
+
+<p>"You would be murdered."</p>
+
+<p>One reason was enough for me, as any one can imagine,
+and I did not go to the port.</p>
+
+<p>For the rest, at Valencia as elsewhere, in whatever
+intercourse I had with the people I met only with
+courtesy as a foreigner and as an Italian&mdash;a friendly
+welcome even among those who would not hear
+foreign kings discussed in general, and princes of
+the house of Savoy in particular, and such men were
+numerous, but they were courteous enough to say at
+once, "Let us not harp on that string." To a foreigner
+who, when asked whence he comes, replies, "I am
+a Frenchman," they respond with an agreeable smile,
+as if to say, "We recognize each other." To one
+who answers, "I am a German or an Englishman,"
+they make a slight inclination of the head, which
+implies, "I bow to you;" but when one replies, "I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">275</span>
+am an Italian," they eagerly extend the hand as if
+to say, "We are friends;" and they look at one with
+an air of curiosity, as you look for the first time at a
+person who is said to resemble you, and they smile
+pleasantly on hearing the Italian tongue, as you
+would smile on hearing some one, though in no
+mocking spirit, imitate your voice and accents. In
+no country in the world does an Italian feel nearer
+home than in Spain. The sky, the speech, the
+faces, and the dress remind him of his fatherland;
+the veneration with which the Spanish pronounce
+the names of our great poets and our great painters,
+that vague and pleasing sense of curiosity with
+which they speak of our famous cities, the enthusiasm
+with which they cultivate our music, the impulsiveness
+of their affections, the fire of their language,
+the rhythms of their poetry, the eyes of their women,
+the air and the sun,&mdash;oh! an Italian must be without
+a spark of love for his fatherland who does not feel
+an emotion of sympathy for this country, who does
+not feel inclined to excuse its errors, who does not
+sincerely deplore its misfortunes, who does not desire
+for it a happy future. O beautiful hills of Valencia,
+smiling banks of the Guadalquivir, charmed
+gardens of Granada, little white cottages of Seville,
+proud towers of Toledo, roaring streets of Madrid,
+and venerable walls of Saragossa! and you, kindly
+hosts and courteous companions of my travels&mdash;you
+who have spoken to me of Italy as of a second<span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">276</span>
+fatherland, who with your festal gayety have scattered
+my restless melancholy!&mdash;I shall always carry
+deep down in my heart a feeling of gratitude and
+love for you, and I shall cherish your images in my
+memory, as one of the dearest recollections of my
+youth, and shall always think of you as one of the
+loveliest dreams of my life.</p>
+
+<p>I repeated these words to myself at midnight as
+I looked over brightly-lighted Valencia, leaning
+against the rail of the good ship <i>Xenil</i>, which was
+on the point of sailing. Some young Spaniards had
+come on board with me. They were going to
+Marseilles to take ship from that port to the Antilles,
+where they expected to remain for some years. One
+of them stood alone weeping; suddenly he raised his
+head and looked toward the shore between two anchored
+vessels, and exclaimed in a tone of desolation,
+"Oh, my God! I hoped she would not come!"</p>
+
+<p>In a few moments a boat approached the ship; a
+little white figure, followed by a man enveloped in a
+cloak, hastily climbed the ladder, and with a deep
+sob threw herself into the arms of the young man,
+who had run to meet her.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment the boatswain called, "All off,
+gentlemen!"</p>
+
+<p>Then there followed a most distressing scene: the
+two young persons were torn apart, and the young
+lady was borne almost fainting to the boat, which
+pushed off a little and remained motionless.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">277</span></p>
+
+<p>The ship started.</p>
+
+<p>The young man dashed madly forward toward the
+rail, and, sobbing, cried in a voice that pierced one's
+heart, "Adieu, darling! adieu! adieu!"</p>
+
+<p>The little white figure stretched out her arms and
+perhaps responded, but her voice was not heard.
+The boat was dropped behind and disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>One of the young men said to me in a whisper,
+"They are betrothed."</p>
+
+<p>It was a lovely night, but sad. Valencia was soon
+lost to view, and I thought I should never see Spain
+again, and wept.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="smcap">End of Vol. II.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a><br /><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></span></p>
+
+
+
+</div><div class="chapter">
+<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX.</h2>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="index">
+<li class="ifrst">A.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Abdelasio reconstructs the Alcazar of Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Abdurrahman I. builds the mosque of Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Abdurrahman I. builds Medina Az-Zahra, ii. <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">his happy days, ii. <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Abencerrages, Hall of the, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Abrantes, duke d', at the bull-fights, 209.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Absolutist party,096.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Academy, a dream of the, 280.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Academy of San Fernando, Madrid, 193.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Acquasola gardens, Genoa, 10.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alameda, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alarcon y Mendoza, Juan Ruiz de, dramatist, 169.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alarmed travellers, ii. <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Albaicin at Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">courtyard in, ii. <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">fortune-telling, ii. <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">government of, ii. <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">ignorance in, ii. <a href='#Page_256'>256</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Parisian quarter, ii. <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">squalor of, ii. <a href='#Page_251'>251</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Albornoz, Gil Carillo de, tomb of, Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alcaiceria, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alcala street, Madrid, 156, 168.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alcanadre, Roman aqueduct at, 91.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alcantara, bridge of, Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alcazar de San Juan, ii. <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alcayde of Saragossa's bold republicanism, 83.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Aleardi Gaetano, on the can-can, 171.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alfonso and the Cid, 121.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alfonso the Wise, MSS. of, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alfonso VIII. defeats the Moors at las Navas de Tolosa, ii. <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alfonso XII., favored by the Moderate party, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Algaba, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Algeciras, Gulf of, ii. <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alhambra, arabesques, ii. <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>, 208, ii. <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">baths, ii. <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cabinet of Linderaja, ii. <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Charles V.'s palace, ii. <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Court of Lions, ii. <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Court of Myrtles, ii. <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">fascination of, ii. <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Gate of Justice, ii. <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">grounds of ii. <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Hall of Abencerrages, ii. <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Hall of Barca, ii. <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Hall of Divans, ii. <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Hall of Justice, ii. <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Hall of Oranges, ii. <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Hall of the Ambassadors, ii. <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Hall of the Two Sisters, ii. <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Mirador de la Reina, ii. <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">mosque, ii. <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">paintings in, ii. <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Patio de la Reja, ii. <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">realization of a dream, ii. <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">situation of, ii. <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Tower of Commares, ii. <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Tower of the Ambassadors, ii. <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">vastness of the, ii. <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">view from, ii. <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ali Pacha, relics of, 176.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Almago, Melchiorre, republican journalist, ii. <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Almansa, plain of, ii. <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Almansur builds Zahira, ii. <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Almodovar, castle of, ii. <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Altimura, Count d', possesses the fiscal accounts of Gonzalez di Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">280</span>Alvarez, Gen., house of, at Gerona, 16.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Amadeus at Gerona, 16;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Logroño, 85;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Madrid, 166, 194;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Saragossa, 82;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at the bull-fights, 213;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">character of, 201;</li>
+<li class="isub1">courage of, 199;</li>
+<li class="isub1">court-life of, 194;</li>
+<li class="isub1">encourages bull-fights, 223, 235;</li>
+<li class="isub1">hostility of the newspapers to, 93, 200;</li>
+<li class="isub1">hostility of the soldiery to, 204;</li>
+<li class="isub1">prejudice against, 15, 33, 80.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ambassadors, Hall of the, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Tower of the, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Amusements, 168.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Andalusian characteristics, 36;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dialect, ii. <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">scenery, ii. <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, 100, ii. <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">women, ii. <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Angels, convent of, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ansurez, Pedro, tomb of, 137.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Aosta, duke d'. See Amadeus.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Aqueduct, Roman, at Segovia, 124.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Arabesques in the Alhambra, beauty of, ii. <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">intricacy of design, ii. <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Aranjuez, arrival at, ii. <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">gardens, ii. <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">historic associations, ii. <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">royal palace, ii. <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">suburbs of, ii. <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Argamasilla de Alba, birthplace of Don Quixote, ii. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Argensola, the brothers, 72;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sonnet by, 73.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Arjonilla, ii. <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Armory, royal, at Madrid, 174.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Arragon, decay of, 52;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dialect of, 54;</li>
+<li class="isub1">independence of, 49;</li>
+<li class="isub1">mountains of, 48.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Artillery museum at Madrid, 180.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Asturia, prince of, title instituted, 98.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Atocha, Church of Our Lady of, Madrid, 166, 204;</li>
+<li class="isub1">street of, Madrid, 174.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Avilo, 124.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">"Awaiting her in heaven," ii. <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ayala, d', dramatist, 169.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">B.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Banderillas, de fuego, 226.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Barber of Seville, house of the, ii. <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Barcelona, arrival at, 20;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cafés, 30;</li>
+<li class="isub1">carnival masqueraders, 22;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Catalonian peculiarities, 35;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cathedral, 24;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cemetery, 27;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cervantes on, 42;</li>
+<li class="isub1">circus, 235;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dialect, 21;</li>
+<li class="isub1">foreign hotel waiters, 20;</li>
+<li class="isub1">palaces, 26;</li>
+<li class="isub1">revolutionary proclivities, 35;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Roman ruins, 26;</li>
+<li class="isub1">streets, 22;</li>
+<li class="isub1">suburbs, 22;</li>
+<li class="isub1">theatre, 40;</li>
+<li class="isub1">women of, 41.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Baretti, Giuseppe, 206; ii. <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Barili, Anton Giulio, travelling companion, 10.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Batista, Juan, architect of the Escurial, 260.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Beatrice, Queen, tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Beggary, modest, 135.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Berruguete, Alonzo, carvings by, at Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Valladolid, 146.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Berseo, poet, 283.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Blanca, Florida, tomb of, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Boabdil's helmet, 176.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Boccanegra, paintings by, at Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Bohl, Catherine de Faber ("Fernan Caballero"), 281;</li>
+<li class="isub1">ascetic character of, ii. <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">charity of, ii. <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">genius of, ii. <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">history of, ii. <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Boldan, painting by, at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Bollo, a delicious cake, 31.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Boscan, Juan, poet, influence on Spanish literature, 37.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Bosch, Jacob van den, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Bourse, the, at Saragossa, 74;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Brazil, Dom Pedro, emperor of, arrives at Burgos, 123.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Breton de los Herreres, Manuel, dramatist, 169, 281.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Breughel, Jan, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Bridge of Alcantara, Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Briviesca, States-general, 98.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Brujola, mountain of, 98.</li>
+
+<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">281</span>Buen Retiro garden at Madrid, 166, 174.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Bull-fights at Madrid, 206;</li>
+<li class="isub1">accidents, 225;</li>
+<li class="isub1">anticipations of, 207;</li>
+<li class="isub1">arena, the, 203;</li>
+<li class="isub1">attendance, 208;</li>
+<li class="isub1">banderillas, de fuego, 226;</li>
+<li class="isub1">banderilleros, 214, 219, 220;</li>
+<li class="isub1">brutality of, 227, 229;</li>
+<li class="isub1">capeadors, 214, 217, 219, 220;</li>
+<li class="isub1">chulos or apprentices, 214, 216, 217;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dangers of, 229;</li>
+<li class="isub1">death of the bull, 222, 228;</li>
+<li class="isub1">disgusting spectacle, 218;</li>
+<li class="isub1">entrance of the cuadrilla, 214;</li>
+<li class="isub1">entrance of the bull, 215;</li>
+<li class="isub1">espadas, 221;</li>
+<li class="isub1">excitement of audience, 215, 224;</li>
+<li class="isub1">exits, the, 232;</li>
+<li class="isub1">fights in the audience, 230;</li>
+<li class="isub1">final impressions, 231;</li>
+<li class="isub1">getting into position, 215;</li>
+<li class="isub1">history of, 234;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Homeric struggle, 221;</li>
+<li class="isub1">national amusement, the, 235;</li>
+<li class="isub1">picadores, 214, 216, 218;</li>
+<li class="isub1">picturesque scene, 214;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sale of tickets, 207;</li>
+<li class="isub1">torturing the bulls into fighting, 226;</li>
+<li class="isub1">trophies of victory, 223;</li>
+<li class="isub1">with other wild animals, 239.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Bull-fighters, amateur, 237;</li>
+<li class="isub1">artistic gradations, 241;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dress, 240;</li>
+<li class="isub1">female toreros, 238;</li>
+<li class="isub1">lucrative business, 241.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Burgos, arrival at, 98;</li>
+<li class="isub1">birthplace of the Cid, 119;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cathedral, 104;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cid's coffer, 112;</li>
+<li class="isub1">gate of St. Maria, 104;</li>
+<li class="isub1">houses, 101;</li>
+<li class="isub1">municipal palace, 103;</li>
+<li class="isub1">"remains of the Cid," 103;</li>
+<li class="isub1">seats of the first judges, 103;</li>
+<li class="isub1">"The Christ," 111;</li>
+<li class="isub1">streets, 101;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tobacco-shops, 118;</li>
+<li class="isub1">undertaker's shop, 117;</li>
+<li class="isub1">women hotel servants, 99.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Byron, Lord, writing of, at the Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">C.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Caballero, Fernan. See Bohl, Catherine.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cadiz, arrival at, ii. <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">astronomical facilities, ii. <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">bird's-eye view, ii. <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cathedral, ii. <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">circus, 235;</li>
+<li class="isub1">commercial decay, ii. <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">historical remains, ii. <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">houses, ii. <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Murillo's last painting, ii. <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">revolutionary tendencies, ii. <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">streets, ii. <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">whiteness, ii. <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">women, ii. <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cafés: Barcelona, 30;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Madrid, 173;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Miranda, 95.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Calahorra, battle of, 91.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Calderon de la Barca, Pedro, poet, 169;</li>
+<li class="isub1">ii. <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Calderon, Francesco, the matador, 207;</li>
+<li class="isub1">patronizes cock-fights, 249, 250.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Campana, Pedro, paintings by, at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Can-can at Madrid, 171.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Candan, political leader, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cano, Alonzo, character of, ii. <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">hatred of Jews, ii. <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">history of, ii. <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">paintings by, at Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Madrid, 182, 193;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Canovas del Castillo, political leader, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Canovist party, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Carbajal, Bernardino, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 193.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cardenas, paintings by, at Valladolid, 143.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cardenio's penance, scene of, ii. <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Carducci, Vincenzo, paintings by, at Madrid, 182;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Valladolid, 143.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Carlists, 32, 33, 96, 194.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Carlos I., Don, tomb of, 266.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Carlos II., Don, tomb of, 266.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Carlos III., Don, tomb of, 266.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Carnival masqueraders at Barcelona, 22;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Saragossa, 65, 68.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cartuja convent, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Castaños, Gen. Francisco Xavier, defeated at Tudela, 91.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Castelar, Emilio, as an orator, 279;</li>
+<li class="isub1">as a political leader, 80, 96;</li>
+<li class="isub1">eloquence, 276;</li>
+<li class="isub1">friendship, 291;</li>
+<li class="isub1">on Arragon, 50;</li>
+<li class="isub1">personal popularity, 277;</li>
+<li class="isub1">ruler of the Assembly, 279.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Castilian dialect, 39, 55;</li>
+<li class="isub1">scenery, 124.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Castillego, ii. <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Castles: Almodovar, ii. <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Hornachuelos, ii. <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">>Monzon, 51;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">282</span></li>
+<li class="isub1">Pancorbo, 98;</li>
+<li class="isub1">San Servando, ii. <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Catalan characteristics, 35;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dialect, 15, 39;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dress, 18;</li>
+<li class="isub1">hospitality, 148;</li>
+<li class="isub1">school-boys, 46.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Catalonia, description of, 18, 48.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cathedrals: Barcelona, 24;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Burgos, 104;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cadiz, ii. <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Our Lady of the Pillar, Saragossa, 60;</li>
+<li class="isub1">San Salvador, Saragossa, 65;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Valladolid, 136.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cava, Los Baños de la, at Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cayetano, the matador, 214, 240.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cellini, Benvenuto, crucifix by, at the Escurial, 263.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cemetery, Barcelona, 27.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cervantes, Saavedra Miguel de, at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">house at Valladolid, 137;</li>
+<li class="isub1">imprisoned at Argamasilla de Alba, ii. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">naturalness of Don Quixote, ii. <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">on Barcelona, 42;</li>
+<li class="isub1">popularity of, 286;</li>
+<li class="isub1">statue at Madrid, 156;</li>
+<li class="isub1">story of, 139.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cervellon, Count di, entertains Amadeus at Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cervera, 48.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ceuta, ii. <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cespedes, Pablo de, born at Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">paintings by, at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">quotation from, ii. <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Charlemagne and the Moor, ii. <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Charles I. (afterward Emperor Charles V. of Germany), altar at the Escurial, 272;</li>
+<li class="isub1">anger at the destruction of mosque of Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">apartments at Aranjuez, ii. <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">a bull-fighter, 234;</li>
+<li class="isub1">converts mosque of the Alhambra into a chapel, ii. <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">married in Alcazar of Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">monumental gate at Burgos, 104;</li>
+<li class="isub1">on the Spanish language, 160;</li>
+<li class="isub1">palace in the Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">relics of, 175, 176, ii. <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">statue at the Escurial, 262;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb at the Escurial, 265, 267.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Charles II. encourages bull-fights, 234;</li>
+<li class="isub1">portrait at the Escurial, 264.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Charles III. forbids bull-fights, 235;</li>
+<li class="isub1">statue at Burgos, 102.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Charles IV.'s billiard-room in palace of Aranjuez, ii. <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">resigns the crown, ii. <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Chateaubriaud, François Auguste, Viscount de, writing in the Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Chocolate, Spanish, 31.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Chorizos, 14, 162.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Christina abdicates the throne at Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">promenade, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Chulos, 214.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Churches: Nuestra Señora, Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Our Lady of Atocha, Madrid, 166;</li>
+<li class="isub1">San Geronimo, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">San Juan de los Reyes, Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Santiago, Saragossa, 74;</li>
+<li class="isub1">St. Agnes, Burgos, 121.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cid Campeador, the, and King Alfonso, 121;</li>
+<li class="isub1">and the Jew, 120;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">birthplace, 120;</li>
+<li class="isub1">coffer, 112;</li>
+<li class="isub1">portrait of, 104;</li>
+<li class="isub1">remains, 103;</li>
+<li class="isub1">statue, 104;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sword, 176;</li>
+<li class="isub1">originator of bull-fights, 234.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cigars and cigarettes, 118;</li>
+<li class="isub1">vs. pipes, 132.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cimbrios party, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Claude, Lorraine, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Clot, 19.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cock-fighting at Madrid, 248;</li>
+<li class="isub1">arena, the, 249;</li>
+<li class="isub1">audience, 250;</li>
+<li class="isub1">disgusting spectacle, 256;</li>
+<li class="isub1">gambling on, 252, 254.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Coello, Claudio, paintings by, at Madrid, 193;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at the Escurial, 264.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Colantes as an orator, 276.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Collantes, Francisco, paintings by, at Madrid, 193.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">College of San Gregorio, Valladolid, 135;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Santa Cruz, Valladolid, 443.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Columbian library at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Columbus, Christopher, annotations in books in library of Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">armor of, 175;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">283</span></li>
+<li class="isub1">portrait of, 178;</li>
+<li class="isub1">mementoes of, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Columbus, Ferdinand, history of, ii. <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">library of, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">note on his father's annotations, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Concerts at Madrid, 173.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Conde, Henry II. de Bourbon, prince de, sword of, 176.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Conservative party, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Consuelo the beautiful, ii. <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Consul, seeking the protection of the, ii. <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Convents: Angels, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cartuja, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of the Escurial, 268;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Santo Domingo, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">San Pablo, Valladolid, 134.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cook, Capt. James, cane of, 180.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cookery, Spanish, 14, 160; ii. <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cordova, arrival at, ii. <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at night, ii. <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cathedral, ii. <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Consuelo the beautiful, ii. <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">departed glory, ii. <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">impressions of, ii. <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">mosque, ii. <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">patio, a, ii. <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">pearl of the Orient, ii. <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">preaching the Holy War, ii. <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">relics of the past, ii. <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">streets of, ii. <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cordova, General de, at Saragossa, 84.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Corregio, Antonio Allegri da, painting by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cortes, the, 274;</li>
+<li class="isub1">deputies, 274;</li>
+<li class="isub1">oratorical displays, 275.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cortez, Hernando, portrait of, 178;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sword of, 176.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cosa, Juan de la, map by, at Madrid, 178.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Costumes of peasantry: Andalusian, ii. <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Catalan, 18;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cordovan, ii. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Granadan, ii. <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Madrid, 165;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Saragossan, 56;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Valencian, ii. <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Country houses, ii. <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Courts: Lions, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Myrtles, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Oranges, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Court-life under Amadeus, 198.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Courtesy inherent in the Spanish people, 53, 290.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cuco the matador, 207; ii. <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Currency, Spanish, 118.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Custejon, 92.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Customs officials, 14, 95.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cybele, fountain of, at Madrid, 166.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">D.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">"Daggers," ii. <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Daguet, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">"Dance de los seises," ii. <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Darro, the, ii. <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Democratic party, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Democratic Progressionist party, 96, 97.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Deronda, Francisco Romero, the torero, 235.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Dialects: Andalusian, ii. <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Arragonese, 55;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Barcelonian, 20;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Castilian, 55;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Catalan, 15, 39;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Madrid, 158;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Perpignan, 12;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Valencian, ii. <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Valladolid, 132.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Dinadamar, hill of, ii. <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Discoveries, cabinet of, Naval Museum, Madrid, 177.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Djihad, or Holy War, ii. <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Domenichino, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Dominoes, popularity of game of, 31.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Don Quixote on Barcelona, 42;</li>
+<li class="isub1">popularity of, 286;</li>
+<li class="isub1">true to life, ii. <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Door-keys in Madrid, 171.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Drama, 169.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Drunkenness rare in Spain, 162.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Dumas, Alexandre, on Spanish cookery, 160.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Dürer, Albert, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">E.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ebro, commerce on the, 51;</li>
+<li class="isub1">description of, 92.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Economist party, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Education in Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Egon ad Agoncilla, ruins of, 91.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Elpidius, bishop of Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Elvira Gate, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Escurial, the, arrival at, 258;</li>
+<li class="isub1">altar of Santa Forma, 264;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cell of Philip II., 261;</li>
+<li class="isub1">church, 262;</li>
+<li class="isub1">convent, 268;</li>
+<li class="isub1">courtyard, 261;</li>
+<li class="isub1">gardens, 272;</li>
+<li class="isub1">gloominess, 273;</li>
+<li class="isub1">history of, 260;</li>
+<li class="isub1">holy relics, 272;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">284</span></li>
+<li class="isub1">horrible place, 267;</li>
+<li class="isub1">library, 268;</li>
+<li class="isub1">pantheon, 265;</li>
+<li class="isub1">picture-gallery, 268;</li>
+<li class="isub1">royal palace, 261;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sacristy, 264;</li>
+<li class="isub1">statues, 262;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tombs, 265;</li>
+<li class="isub1">view from, 153, 272;</li>
+<li class="isub1">village, 259.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Espadas, famous, 214;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dangerous life of, 230;</li>
+<li class="isub1">skill of, 221.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Espartero, Gen. Baldemero, addresses Amadeus, 85.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Esperondo la del Cielo, house of, ii. <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Esproncedo, Jose de, the Byron of Spain, 282;</li>
+<li class="isub1">popularity of, 287;</li>
+<li class="isub1">quotation from, 136.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Exaggeration, the national failing, 287.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">F.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Fadrique, Don, blood of, ii. <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">murdered by Don Pedro's orders, ii. <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Farcical revenge, a, 71.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Fatherly admonitions, 54.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Federalist party, 96, 97.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ferdinand III. (the Saint) captures Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">relics of, ii. <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb of, 109.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ferdinand V. (the Catholic), oratory in Alcazar of Seville, 124;</li>
+<li class="isub1">relics of, ii. <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ferdinand VII. annuls the constitution, ii. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">encourages bull-fighting, 235;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb of, 266.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ferrer, Vincenzo, in Seville cathedral, ii. <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Figueras, political leader, 80, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">First glimpses of Spain, 14.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Florinda, legend of, ii. <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Flor, Roger de, a typical Arragonese, 50.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Fomento picture-gallery, Madrid, 193.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Fortune-telling in the Albaicin, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Fountain of Cybele, Madrid, 166.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Fra Angelica, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Francis I., shield of, 176.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Frascuelo the matador, 207, 214, 221, 225, 240, 242; ii. <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">interview with, 242.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Fricci in opera at Madrid, 168; ii. <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Fronterizos party, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Fruit, Spanish, 162.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Fugitive wife, a, 69.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Funeral memorial ceremonies of the second of May, 243.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">G.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Galafro, legend of King, ii. <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Galiana, palaces of, ii. <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gallegos, Don Juan Nicasio, poet, 282.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gamero, Antonio, historian of Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Garbanzos, 161.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Garcilaso de la Vega, poet, 37;</li>
+<li class="isub1">armor of, 176.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gardens: Alcazar, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Aranjuez, ii. <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Buen Retiro, Madrid, 174;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Escurial, 271;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Montpensier, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Garrido, political leader, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gates: Elvira, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Justice, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Santa Maria, Burgos, 104.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gayangos, Pascual y, the Orientalist, 281.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Geber, architect of the Giralda at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Generalife, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">description of, ii. <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">view from, ii. <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Genoa, 10.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gerona, arrival at, 16;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Amadeus at, 16.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gibraltar, rock of, ii. <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Straits of, ii. <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Giordano Luci, paintings by, at Madrid, 182;</li>
+<li class="isub1">frescoes by, at the Escurial, 262, 264, 268;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Giralda of Seville, the, ii. <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">first sight of, ii. <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">view from, ii. <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gitane of Seville, the, ii. <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Godoy, Alvarez de Faria Rios Sanches y Zarsoa, Prince of Peace, ii. <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Golden Tower, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gongora y Argote, Luis, poet, 129;</li>
+<li class="isub1">birthplace at Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gongora, Señor, ii. <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>, <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_285">285</span>Gonzales, Ferdinand (first Count of Castile), monument to, 119;</li>
+<li class="isub1">portrait of, 104;</li>
+<li class="isub1">statue of, 104;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sword of, 176;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb of, 114.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gonzalez, Fernandez y, novelist, 282.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gonzalez di Cordova, anecdote of, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Goya, Francisco, criticism on, 185;</li>
+<li class="isub1">love of bull-fights, 184;</li>
+<li class="isub1">paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sanguinary genius, a, 184;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tapestries by, in the Escurial, 261.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Granada, Alameda, ii. <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Albaicin, ii. <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Alcaiceria, ii. <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">arrival at, ii. <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Audiencia square, ii. <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">birthplace of famous men, ii. <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cartuja, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cathedral, ii. <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">church of San Geronimo, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">convent of Santa Domingo, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">convent of The Angels, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">education, ii. <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Generalife, ii. <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">markets, ii. <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Monte Sacro, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">royal chapel, ii. <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">ruins, ii. <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">streets, ii. <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Vega, ii. <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Granada, Fray Louis de, ii. <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Granallers, 19.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gravina, Admiral Frederick de, relics of, 179.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Guadaira, ill-fated steamer, ii. <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Guadalquivir, the, ii. <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>; ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_150'>150</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Guadiana, valley of the, ii. <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Guerra, Fernandez, archæologist, 281, 291; ii. <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Guides, Spanish, persistency of, ii. <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Guido, Reni, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Guest-houses, 157.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gutierrez, Antonio Garcia, dramatist, 169.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">H.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Halls: Abencerrages, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Ambassadors, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Barca, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Divans, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Justice, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Oranges, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Two Sisters, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Hartzenbusch, Juan Eugenio, dramatist, 169, 281, 291.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Heat, intense, ii. <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Henry II. (de Transtamare), defeated by Pedro the Cruel, 91;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_29'>29</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Henry III. and Papa Moscas, 113;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Hernandez, sculptures by, at Valladolid, 146.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Herrera, Francisco, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 193;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at the Escurial, 263.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Herrera, Juan de, architect of palace of Aranjuez, ii. <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of the Escurial, 260.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Historical Progressionist party, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Holy Cross, relics of the, 272.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">"Honor of Spain," 290.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Hornachuelos, castle of, ii. <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Hospitality, Catalan, 148.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Hospital of Santa Cruz, Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Hotel porters at Barcelona, 20;</li>
+<li class="isub1">women as, 99.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Huerva river, at Saragossa, 77.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Hugo Victor's Mirabeau, ii. <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at the Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">I.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">"Il Trovatore," quotation from, ii. <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Inquisition, palaces of; at Barcelona, 26;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Valladolid, 146.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">International Socialist party, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Isabella the Catholic opposed to bull-fights, 234;</li>
+<li class="isub1">oratory in the Alcazar of Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">relics of, ii. <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sword of, 176;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Isabella II. at Madrid, 197;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dressing-chamber at Aranjuez, ii. <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">encourages bull-fighting, 235;</li>
+<li class="isub1">favored by the Moderate party, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Isabella, Empress, statue of, 262.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Italian, the language of opera, 171.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Italians, prejudice against, 34, 138.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Italica, ruins of, ii. <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_286">286</span></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Italy and Spain, compared, ii. <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Itimad, a dream of, ii. <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">J.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Jerez, circus at, 235.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Joanes, Juan de, criticism on, 192;</li>
+<li class="isub1">paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Joanna the Mad, tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">John, Don, of Austria, 25.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">John I. of Castile and the States-General, 98.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">John II. of Austria, heart of, 63;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sword of, 176.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">John II., admiration of de Mena's "Labyrinth," ii. <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">John Frederick, duke of Saxony, armor of, 176.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Jordaens, Jacob, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Juegos floreales, ii. <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Julian, Count, revenge of, ii. <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Juni, Juan de, sculptures by, at Valladolid, 146.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">K.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Knives, ii. <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">L.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">La Costa, Gen., killed at Saragossa, 59.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">La Cruz, Ramon de, dramatist, 170.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Lagartijo the matador, 214, 240, 241; ii. <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">La Harpe, Jean François, on the Apollo Belvidere, ii. <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Lainus Calvo, judge of Castile, 103.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">La Mancha, ii. <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Language, Italian, in opera, 171;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Spanish, allied to the Italian, 159;</li>
+<li class="isub1">pronunciation of, 159.</li>
+<li class="isub1">See also Dialect.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Lauria, Roger de, 50.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Leon, Louis de, 54;</li>
+<li class="isub1">born in Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Leonardo, Lupercio, sonnet to, 73.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Leopardi Giacomo, Count, 283;</li>
+<li class="indx">ii. <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">in Seville cathedral, ii. <a href='#Page_111'>111</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">on Spanish pride, 284.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Lepanto, relics of battle of, 25, 174, 176.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Lerida, 48.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Light-fingered gentry, 98.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Literature, discouragements of, 282;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dramatic, 283;</li>
+<li class="isub1">national pride in, 287;</li>
+<li class="isub1">present state of, 280;</li>
+<li class="isub1">contests of genius at Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Logroño, Amadeus at, 85;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Moorish ruins at, 91.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Loneliness of travel, ii. <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Lope de Vega's criticism of Gongorist poets, ii. <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">houses at Madrid, 156;</li>
+<li class="isub1">popularity, ii. <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Lorraine. See Claude Lorraine.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Louis I., tomb of, 266.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Love, travelling for, 13.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Loyola, Ignatius, at Montserrat, 46.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Luna, Don Alvaro de, tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Lunatic asylum, Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">M.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Madrazo, Federico de, paintings by, at Madrid, 183.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Madrid, academy of San Fernando, 193;</li>
+<li class="isub1">amusements, 168;</li>
+<li class="isub1">armory, 174;</li>
+<li class="isub1">arrival at, 154;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Buen Retiro garden, 174;</li>
+<li class="isub1">bull-fights, 206;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cafés, 173;</li>
+<li class="isub1">church of Our Lady of Atocha, 166;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Fomento art-gallery, 193;</li>
+<li class="isub1">guest-houses, 157;</li>
+<li class="isub1">language, 157;</li>
+<li class="isub1">markets, 174;</li>
+<li class="isub1">museum of artillery, 180;</li>
+<li class="isub1">museum of fine arts, 181;</li>
+<li class="isub1">naval museum, 177;</li>
+<li class="isub1">opera, 168;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Prado, 166;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Puerta del Sol, 155;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Recoletos promenade, 167;</li>
+<li class="isub1">royal palace, 154;</li>
+<li class="isub1">serenos, 172;</li>
+<li class="isub1">streets, 156, 163;</li>
+<li class="isub1">suburbs, 173.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Maksura of mosque of Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Malaga, ii. <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">literary academy, ii. <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">poetical contests, ii. <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">popular characteristics, ii. <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">streets, ii. <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">wine of, ii. <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Manners of the Spaniards, 290.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">287</span></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Manzoni, Alessandro, 189.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Margall, Pi y, political leader, 96;</li>
+<li class="isub1">oratory of, 276.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Maria, granddaughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Maria Louisa of Savoy, tomb of, 266.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Marini, Giambattista, influence on Italian poetry, ii. <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Markets: Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Madrid, 174;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Valladolid, 132.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Marseilles, 11.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Martina the torera, 238.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Martinez de la Rosa, Francisco, 282, ii. <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">exiled in London, 65;</li>
+<li class="isub1">quotation from, ii. <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Martos, political leader, 96;</li>
+<li class="isub1">oratory of, 226.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Mascagni, Donato, paintings by, at Valladolid, 143.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Masked balls, 86.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">May, second of, funeral memorial ceremonies, 243;</li>
+<li class="isub1">monument to, 247.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Medina Az-Zahra, ii. <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Medina-Coeli, family, owners of the Casa de Pilato, ii. <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Mena, Juan de, "Labyrinth," ii. <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">popularity of, 287;</li>
+<li class="isub1">street of, ii. <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Menendez, paintings by, at Madrid, 193.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Mengs, Anton Rafael, paintings by, at Madrid, 183.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Menjibar, ii. <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Merced, marquis de, 207.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Merriones, Gen., victories over Carlists, 288.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Michelangelo, Buonarroti, Cespedes's tribute to, ii. <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">paintings by, at Burgos, 109;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Mihrab of mosque of Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Military Museum of London possesses Gonzalez di Cordova's fiscal accounts, ii. <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Militia system, 202.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Mirabeau, Victor Hugo's description of, ii. <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Miranda, 94.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Moderate party, 96, 97.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Monastery of Montserrat, 46.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Monegro, Battista, statue by, 262.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Montegna, paintings by, at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Montpensier gardens, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">palace, ii. <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Montpensier, duke of, at Madrid, 197;</li>
+<li class="isub1">party, 96, 97.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Montserrat, description of, 45;</li>
+<li class="isub1">excursion to, 46;</li>
+<li class="isub1">monastery of, 46.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Monzon, 50;</li>
+<li class="isub1">castle, 51.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Moorish art, ii. <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">ruins, ii. <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Morales, Ambrosio, born in Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Moret, political leader, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Moreto, Don Augustin, dramatist, 169.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Mosque of Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of the Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Mozarabe chapel, Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Mulato, paintings by, at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Murat, Joachim, 50.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Murillo, Bartolomé Esteban, a painter of saints and virgins, 191;</li>
+<li class="isub1">death of, ii. <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">estimate of his genius, 192;</li>
+<li class="isub1">last painting, ii. <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">mementoes of, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">painting by, at Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Madrid, 182, 183;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">statue at Madrid, 156, 292.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">N.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Naples, king of, demands an accounting from Gonzalez di Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Navagero, Andrea, influences poetry of Boscan, 37.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Navajas, ii. <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Navarrete, battle of, 91.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Navarrete, Juan Fernandez (El Mudo), paintings by, at Madrid, 193;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at the Escurial, 263.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">News from Spain, 10.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Newspapers hostile to Amadeus, 93, 200.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Nun, the flirting, 53.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Nunes, Duke Ferdinand, at the bull-fight, 209.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Night journey to Aranjuez, ii. <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">to Barcelona, 13;</li>
+<li class="isub1">to Burgos, 97;</li>
+<li class="isub1">to Cadiz, ii. <a href='#Page_149'>149</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">to Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">to Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">288</span></li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">O.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">O'Campo, Florian d', at Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">O'Donnell, Gen. Leopold, Spanish estimate of, 288.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Olesa de Montserrat, 47.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Olivares, Duke de, portrait of, by Velasquez, 183, 188;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sword of, 176.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Opera at Madrid, 168.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Oranges, Court of, Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Court of Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Hall of, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Our Lady of Atocha, church of, at Madrid, 166;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of the Pillar, Saragossa, 60.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">P.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pacheco, Francisco, paintings by, at Madrid, 193;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Padilla, Lopez de, assists in the murder of Don Fadrique, ii. <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Padilla, Maria de, apartments of, in the Alcazar of Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>, 145;</li>
+<li class="isub1">mementoes of, ii. <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Painting, museums: Escurial, 268;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Fomento, Madrid, 193;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Madrid, 181;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Valladolid, 143.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Palaces: Audiencia, Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Burgos, 102;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Charles V., Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Consistorial, Barcelona, 26;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Deputation, Barcelona, 26;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Galiana, 43;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Inquisition, Barcelona, 26;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Inquisition, Valladolid, 146;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Royal, Aranjuez, ii. <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Royal, Escurial, 261;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Royal, Madrid, 154;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Royal, Valladolid, 133.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Palafox, José, at Saragossa, 77.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Palma, ii. <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pancorbo, 98;</li>
+<li class="isub1">castle destroyed, 98.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Paolo Veronese, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Papal question, the, 12, 34, 138.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Papa Moscas, legend of, 113.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pareja, Juan de, paintings by, at Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Madrid, 193.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Party spirit, 96, 289, ii. <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Patio, described, ii. <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Seville,</li>
+<li class="indx">ii. <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">de la Reja, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">de los Arrayanes, Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Patriotism vs. common sense, ii. <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Peasantry: Andalusian, ii. <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Catalan, 18;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cordovan, ii. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of Madrid, 165;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Saragossan, 56.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pedro Abad, ii. <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pedro the Cruel, apartments of, in the Alcazar of Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">defeats Henry of Transtamare, 91;</li>
+<li class="isub1">mementoes of, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">murders Don Fadrique, ii. <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">restores the Alcazar of Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">treasure-house, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Perpignan dialect, 12.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pescara, Marquis de, armor of, 176.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Philibert, Emmanuel, armor of, 175, 176.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Philip I., tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Philip II., armor of, 175, 176;</li>
+<li class="isub1">birthplace at Valladolid, 134;</li>
+<li class="isub1">books in the library of the Escurial, 268;</li>
+<li class="isub1">builds palace of Aranjuez, ii. <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">builds the Escurial, 260;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cell of, 261;</li>
+<li class="isub1">his personality pervades the Escurial, 271;</li>
+<li class="isub1">statue of, 262;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sword of, 176;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb of, 265, 266.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Philip III. encourages bull-fights, 234;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb of, 265, 266.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Philip IV., a royal bull-fighter, 235;</li>
+<li class="isub1">statue of, 156;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tomb of, 265, 266.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Philip V. encourages bull-fights, 235;</li>
+<li class="isub1">his garden of St. Ildefonso, 124.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Philip of Bourgoyne, carvings by, at Burgos, 111;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Piedmontese waiters in hotel at Barcelona, 20.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pilate's house, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pillar, church of Our Lady of the, Saragossa, 60.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pius V. presents holy relics to Ribera, ii. <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pizarro, Francisco, as a bull-fighter, 234;</li>
+<li class="isub1">portrait of, 178;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sword of, 176.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_289">289</span></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Plazas: Alameda, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Campo Grande, Valladolid, 131;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Constitution, Saragossa, 74;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cortez, Madrid, 156;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Mayor, Burgos, 123;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Mayor, Madrid, 156;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Mayor, Valladolid, 131;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Orient, Madrid, 156;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Puerto del Sol, Madrid, 155;</li>
+<li class="isub1">San Pablo, Valladolid, 133.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Poetical contests, ii. <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">rivalry, 38.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Politeness, Spanish, 52.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Political leaders, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Politics, absorbing interest in, 15, 32, 95, 147;</li>
+<li class="isub1">partisanship in, 289; ii. <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pompey defeated by Sertorius at Calahorra, 91.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Poussin, Nicolas, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Prado, Madrid, 166.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Praga, Emile, on Nature, ii. <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Prati, Giovanni, quotation from, ii. <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pride, national, characteristic of the Spanish, 284.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Priests, friendly, 46, 54.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Prim, Gen. Juan, assassination of, at Madrid, 156, 166;</li>
+<li class="isub1">high estimation of, 288.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Puchero, the national dish, 161.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Puerto del Sol, at Madrid, 155, 163;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Puerto Real, ii. <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Puerto de Santa Maria, ii. <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">circus at, 238.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pyrenees, the, 48, 92;</li>
+<li class="isub1">crossing the, 13.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">Q.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Quintana, Manuel José, poet of the Revolution, 282, 291.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Quevedo, Francisco Gomez, on Valladolid, 129.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">R.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Radical party, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Railway travel, 52; ii. <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>; ii. <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Raphael, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Rasura, Nunnius, judge of Castile, 103.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Recoletos promenade at Madrid, 167.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Rembrandt von, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Republican opinions, 15, 16, 32, 80;</li>
+<li class="isub1">of the soldiers, 205;</li>
+<li class="isub1">party, 96, 97.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Restaurants, Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Revenge, a farcical, 71.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ribera, Enriquez de, builds the Casa de Pilato, ii. <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ribera, José, criticism of his genius, 186;</li>
+<li class="isub1">a lover of the horrible, 188;</li>
+<li class="isub1">paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at the Escurial, 264.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ribera, Pedro Afan de, viceroy of Naples, ii. <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ribero, political leader, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ricanati, quotation from, ii. <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Rinconado, ii. <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Rios, Amador de los, critic, 281.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Rivas, Duke de, 282.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Rizzi, Francisco, paintings by, at Madrid, 193.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Roa, Ferdinand de, kills Don Fadrique, ii. <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Roderic and the enchanted tower, ii. <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">and Florinda, ii. <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Roelas, Juan de las, paintings by, at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Rojas, Francisco de, 169;</li>
+<li class="isub1">native of Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_49'>49</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Rodriguez as an orator, 276, 291;</li>
+<li class="isub1">political leader, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Roman aqueduct at Alcanadre, 91;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Segovia, 124;</li>
+<li class="isub1">ruins at Barcelona, 26.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ros de Olano invents the soldier cap, 24.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Rosas, Rios y, political leader, 96;</li>
+<li class="isub1">oratory of, 276.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Resell, Gen., at Saragossa, 84.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Rubens, Peter Paul, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Valladolid, 144.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ruins of Alcanadre, 91;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Egon ad Agoncilla, 91;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Logroño, 91.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ruiz Garcia, political leader, 96.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">S.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Saavedra, Señor, 291, 292.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Sagasta, Praxedes Mateo, political leader, 79, 96, 97;</li>
+<li class="isub1">a modern Cardenio, ii. <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">St. Agnes, church of, Burgos, 121.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_290">290</span></li>
+
+<li class="indx">St. Andrea de Palomar, 19.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">St. Anthony of Padua, Murillo's, ii. <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">St. Eugenia, tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">St. Eulalia, tomb of, 28.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">St. Ferdinand, chapel of, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">St. George Chapel, Barcelona, 26.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">St. Ildefonso, garden of Philip V., 124.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">St. Isadore, memorial ceremony at church of, 244.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">St. James, the first bishop of Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">and the Virgin Mary, 61.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">St. Lawrence, Philip II.'s vow to, 260;</li>
+<li class="isub1">relic of, 272.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">St. Leucadia, tomb of, ii. <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">St. Theresa, birthplace of, 124;</li>
+<li class="isub1">inkhorn of, 272;</li>
+<li class="isub1">mementoes of, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Salamanca, a suburb of Madrid, 167, 208.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Salvator Rosa, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Salvini, Tommaso, as Samson, ii. <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">San Fernando, Madrid, academy of, 193.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">San Geronimo, church of, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">San Ginés, church of, ii. <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">San Gregorio, college of, 135.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">San José, church of, Madrid, 204.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">San Juan de los Reyes, church of, ii. <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">San Pablo, convent of, 134.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">San Quentin, Philip II.'s vow at battle of, 260;</li>
+<li class="isub1">relics of, 174.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">San Salvador, Saragossa, 65.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">San Servando, castle of, ii. <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Santa Cruz, hospital of, ii. <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Santa Cruz de Mudela, ii. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Santa Cruz, Marquis of, armor of, 176.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Santa Domingo, convent of, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Santa Maria, gate of, Burgos, 104.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Santa Maria la Blanca, synagogue of, ii. <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Santi Ponce, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Saragossa, 56;</li>
+<li class="isub1">alcayde's bold</li>
+<li class="indx">speech, 82;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Amadeus enters, 82;</li>
+<li class="isub1">arrival at, 55;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Bourse, 74;</li>
+<li class="isub1">carnival maskers, 65, 68;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cathedral of Our Lady of the Pillar, 60;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cathedral of San Salvador, 65;</li>
+<li class="isub1">church of Santiago, 74;</li>
+<li class="isub1">costume of peasantry, 56;</li>
+<li class="isub1">masked balls, 87;</li>
+<li class="isub1">new tower, 75;</li>
+<li class="isub1">siege of, 59, 77;</li>
+<li class="isub1">streets, 58;</li>
+<li class="isub1">suburbs, 91.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Sarto, Andrea del, paintings by, at Burgos, 109;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Schoen, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">School-boys, 46.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Shrack, Frederick, description of the Djihad, ii. <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Sea, beauty of the, ii. <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Sebastian of Portugal, a royal bull-fighter, 234.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Segovia, 124.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Segovia and Ardizone, Gonzalo, ii. <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>, 132, 145;</li>
+<li class="isub1">sad fate of, ii. <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Seneca, born in Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Seo, Saragossa, 65.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Serenos, 172.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Serrano, Gen. Francesco, political leader, 96, 97;</li>
+<li class="isub1">reputation of, 288.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Sertorius defeats Pompey at Calahorra, 91.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Seville, Alcazar, ii. <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at night, ii. <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Barber of, ii. <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, 14;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cathedral, ii. <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Columbian library, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">gaiety of, ii. <a href='#Page_143'>143</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">gardens, ii. <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Giralda, ii. <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">house of Pilate, ii. <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">literary and artistic fame, ii. <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">museum of painting, ii. <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Oriental character, ii. <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">patios, ii. <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">poetical character of, ii. <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">streets, ii. <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Torre del Oro, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>, 117;</li>
+<li class="isub1">tropical heat, ii. <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">women of, ii. <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Sierra de Segura, ii. <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Sierra Morena, ii. <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Sierra Nevada, ii. <a href='#Page_214'>214</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Siestas necessary, ii. <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Socialist party, 96.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Soldiers, 23;</li>
+<li class="isub1">political feeling shown by, 204;</li>
+<li class="isub1">reviewed by Amadeus, 202.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">291</span></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Soria, 124.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Stagno in opera at Madrid, 168.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Streets of Barcelona, 22, 27;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Burgos, 101;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cadiz, ii. <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Madrid, 166;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Malaga, ii. <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Saragossa, 58;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_265'>265</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Studying for a degree, ii. <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">T.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Tagus, the, at Aranjuez, ii. <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Tamayo, dramatist, 169, 281, 291.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Tangiers, ii. <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Tarifa, Cape, ii. <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Tasso, Torquato, influence on Italian poetry, ii. <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Tato, the one-legged torero, ii. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Teniers, David, paintings by, at Madrid, 182.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Theatres at Barcelona, 40;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Madrid, 168;</li>
+<li class="isub1">and literature, 169, 282.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Tiepolo, Giovanni Battista, paintings by, at Madrid, 183.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Tintoretto, Giacomo, paintings by, at Madrid, 182;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at the Escurial, 264.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Tirso de Molina, dramatist, 169.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Titian, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Tobacco manufactories at Burgos, 118;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Madrid, 173;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cigarettes vs. pipes, 132.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Toledo, Alcazar, ii. <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">arrival at, ii. <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at night, ii. <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">bridge of Alcantara, ii. <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cathedral, ii. <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">church of San Juan de los Reyes, ii. <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">church of San Ginés, ii. <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">church of Nuestra Señora di Transito, ii. <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dead city, a, ii. <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">historical, ii. <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">hospital of Santa Cruz, ii. <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">legends of, ii. <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">lunatic asylum, ii. <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">manufactory of arms, ii. <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">popular characteristics, ii. <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Puerto del Sol, ii. <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Santa Maria la Blanca, ii. <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">view from cathedral, ii. <a href='#Page_34'>34</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">silent and gloomy, ii. <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">streets, ii. <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Tolosa, Las Navas de, battlefield, ii. <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Topete, Juan, ii. <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Toreros, 213;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dangers of, 229;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dress of, 240;</li>
+<li class="isub1">highly respectable, 239;</li>
+<li class="isub1">lucrative business, 241.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Torrigiano, Pietro, sculptures by, at Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Torquemada, Tomas de, founds the convent of Santa Domingo, ii. <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">origin of, 235.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Torre del Oro, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Tower, new, Saragossa, 75;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Golden, Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Trafalgar, relics of, 179.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Trajan's ashes brought to Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Travelling for love, 13;</li>
+<li class="isub1">amenities of, 48, 52;</li>
+<li class="isub1">miseries of, ii. <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">opera troupes, ii. <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">philosophy of, ii. <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">soldiers, ii.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Triana, ii. <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Tudela, battle of, 91;</li>
+<li class="isub1">canal, 51, 92.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">U.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Undertaker's shop, 117.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Unionist party, 96, 97.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">University students at Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Valladolid, 148.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">V.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Val de Peñas, ii. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">wine of, 162; ii. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_265'>265</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Amadeus at, ii. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">art-gallery, ii. <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">bull-ring, 235; ii. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Casa de Ayuntamiento, ii. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cathedral, ii. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">dress of peasantry, ii. <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">historic houses, ii. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Lonja, ii. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">market, ii. <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">palace of the Audiencia, ii. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">popular characteristics, ii. <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">streets, ii. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">women, ii. <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Valdes Leal, Juan de, paintings by, at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, 132.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Valera, Señor, 291.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Valladolid, 129;</li>
+<li class="isub1">cathedral, 136;</li>
+<li class="isub1">convent of San Pablo, 134;</li>
+<li class="isub1">college of San Gregorio, 135;</li>
+<li class="isub1">decay of, 131;</li>
+<li class="isub">dialect of, 132;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_292">292</span></li>
+<li class="isub1">hospitality, 148;</li>
+<li class="isub1">house of Cervantes, 137;</li>
+<li class="isub1">house of Zorilla, 141;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Inquisition, 146;</li>
+<li class="isub1">markets, 132;</li>
+<li class="isub1">picture-gallery, 143;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Plaza Major, 132;</li>
+<li class="isub1">polite beggary, 135;</li>
+<li class="isub1">royal palace, 133.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Van Dyke, Antonio, paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Vega, Granada, ii. <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Vega, de Armijo, Marquis de, 207.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Vega, Garcilasso de la, armor of, 176;</li>
+<li class="isub1">native of Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Velasquez, Don Diego, masterpieces, 188;</li>
+<li class="isub1">mementoes of, ii. <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">paintings by, at Madrid, 182, 183.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ventas de Alcolea, ii. <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ventura de la Vega, dramatist, 169.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Veragua, duke of, 207.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Victoria, at Madrid, 195;</li>
+<li class="isub1">charity of, 196;</li>
+<li class="isub1">learning of, 199;</li>
+<li class="isub1">universal respect for, 81, 200.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Vilches, ii. <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Villadomat, paintings by, at Barcelona, 26.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Villaseca, dowager of, 307.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Vinci, Leonardo da, paintings by, at Burgos, 109.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Virgin Mary appears to St. James at Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">miraculous image of, 61;</li>
+<li class="isub1">robes of, ii. <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">W.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Walk of the Spanish women, 136.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">War of Independence influences Spanish national character, 35, 285;</li>
+<li class="isub1">relics of, 174.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Water abundant in the Alhambra, ii. <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Wife, a fugitive, 69.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Wine of Malaga, ii. <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Val de Peñas, 162; ii. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Xeres, ii. <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Women of Barcelona, 41;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cadiz, ii. <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Cordova, ii. <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Madrid, 165;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Saragossa, 57;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Valencia, ii. <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">Valladolid, 136;</li>
+<li class="isub1">toreros, 238;</li>
+<li class="isub1">walk of Spanish, 136.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">X.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Xenil river, ii. <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Xeres, wine of, ii. <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ximenes, wife of the Cid, remains of, 103.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">Z.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Zafra, Don Fernando de, legend of, ii. <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Zahira, ii. <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Zainete, 170.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Zarzuela, the, 168, 170; ii. <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_156'>156</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">Zorrilla, Ruiz, political leader, 86, 69, 97;</li>
+<li class="isub1">consents to accept office, ii. <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Zorrilla, José, 281;</li>
+<li class="isub1">birthplace at Valladolid, 141;</li>
+<li class="isub1">influence on Spanish literature, 141;</li>
+<li class="isub1">on people of Toledo, ii. <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">popularity of, 142.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Zouave officers, 11.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Zuera, 54.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Zurbaran, Francisco de, paintings by, at Cadiz, ii. <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Madrid, 193;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at the Escurial, 264;</li>
+<li class="isub1">at Seville, ii. <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, ii. <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_293">293</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" >
+<a href="images/illus-b293.jpg">
+<img src="images/illus-b293s.jpg" alt="Map of SPAIN &amp;
+PORTUGAL" /></a>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Spain, v. 2 (of 2), by Edmondo de Amicis
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPAIN, V. 2 (OF 2) ***
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+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
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