Southern Spain

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her veins-her vitality intoxicates. If you come from Cordova or Granada, you feel as though you were returning to the world. Here is life, here is gaiety; yet your driver the next instant takes you into a narrow, winding street, no broader than an alley, where absolute silence reigns. The windows are shuttered, no one seems to stir in the patios. There reigns a Sabbath-like calm. A minute later you are in a broad plaza, where electric cars boom and whirr, where all is animation and bustle. Such contrasts are very sharp in this city, where the streets exist simply for folk to dwell in, the squares and paseos for them to gather in and do their business. There are notable exceptions, it is true. There is no want of life in the Sierpes, the narrow street which is the Strand and Charing Cross of Seville. Here you return again and again, feeling it is the focus of the city's life. Little better than a lane is the Sierpes, where no wheeled traffic can pass. It is amazingly dark in the summer, when awnings are drawn right across it from roof to roof, and penetrating into it from the sunny plaza, it is a little time before you can accustom your eyes to the shadow. Here are the best shops, the banks, and those elegant and ostentatious casinos, wher

rupted the pure and simple-minded natives. The city became known to the little world of civilization, and was spoken of by Grecian geographers as "Ispola" and "Hispalis." The terrible Hamilcar reduced the greater part of Spain to the Punic yoke. He and his successor Hasdrubal filled Andalusia with their massive ungainly fortresses. Salambo, the Semitic Venus, was worshipped

indful of his warworn veterans. For them the journey back to Italy was too long and wearisome; they were content to die in the land they had conquered. Outside Hispalis a place of rest and refreshment was found for them in the village of Sancios. Scipio laid there the

n the calendar of the Republic (August 9, B.C. 45). His fleet, they say, lay in the river between the Torre del Oro and the Palace of San Telmo. The townsfolk were devoted to him, and he renamed th

wn. All Andalusia was in course of time thoroughly Romanized. Seneca, Lucan, the ?lii, a

g the Byzantine ambassador Censorius, in this city, and of being defeated and slain by the Visigoths in 456. Now comes an interregnum of seventy-five years. The Suevi were expelled from Seville, but their conquerors did not occupy the town. It must have been governed by its Catholic bishops, who are spoken of as miracles of wisdom and sanctity. Under Theudis the Gothic king, Seville again rose to the rank of a capital-or at any rate shared the dignity with Toledo. Here Theudis was assassinated, and his son and successor Theudisel also, a few months later. The latter sovereign is described as a detestably wicked person. He was of course an Aryan, and gave a shocking example of his ha

the city, to the Catholic faith. The prince thought he could give no better proof of his zeal for his new creed than by revolting against his father. A bloody war resulted. Ermengild was worsted and was shut up in Seville, while his father oc

the true faith, even at the cost of his kinsfolk's blood; but unfortunately for the Visigothic prince, his interests so coincided with his principles that wor

brother Isidore, a much better man than he, and renowned as a doctor of the Church and writer on things generally. But by the end of the sevent

, it is said, a stout resistance, and then retired to Beja, on the other side of the Guadiana. During the absence of the Moorish commander they recovered the city, only to be dispossessed

death appeared. Exilona was left a second time a widow, and to the aged Musa was shown, months later, the lifeless head of his valiant son. Under Abd-el-Aziz's immediate successors the seat of government of the latest province of the Moslem Empire was transferred from Seville to Cordova. From all parts of the East, but especially from Syria, men came flocking to Andalusia. Quarrels arose as to the partition of the conquered land between the Berbers, who had composed the hordes of Tarik and Musa, and the new Saracen

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hundred cavaliers, and he ventured to wear the tiraz, the official insignia of the amirs. He was a liberal patron of the arts and letters. "In all the West," exclaimed a delighted bard, "I found no noble man but Ibrahim, and he was nobility itself! When you have once lived within his shadow, to live elsewhere is misery." Such flattery did not delude Ibrahim into too great a confidence in his own power. He readily submitted to the great khalifa, Abd-ur-Rahman III., b

pitched battles, and penetrating into Seville sacked the rich city from end to end. Luckily they remained but a day and a night, and after sustaining several desperate attacks from the inhabitants of the country, with varying results, they retired overland to Lisbon, where they re-embarked. They came again fifteen years later, and this time sail

usurpation the appearance of legality. He espoused the cause of an impostor who personated the deposed khalifa, Hisham, and pretended to govern the city in his name. His power once firmly establ

alm with a swarm of fellow-poets. Walking one day with his courtiers, on these very banks of the Guadalquivir, the Amir Mut'adid-billah observed the water lying glassy beneath the waving light. He improvised a line comparing the surface

rass, magnifi

er froze

name was Romikiwa and that she was the slave of Romiya. The prince then asked if she were married. The maiden replied that she was not. "It is w

s Castilian kings, Fernando el Magno and Alfonso VI. Conscious of the weakness of his little State, the Amir of Ishbiliyah neglected no means of humouring his powerful neighbour. Fernando sent an armed mission to his court to demand the body of the holy martyr, Justa. But though Mote'mid eagerly extended all the assistance in his power, no trace of the relics could be obtained. The mission would have been obliged to return empty-handed had not St. Isidore (the brother of St. Leander) appeared in a dream to one of the Christian envoys and command

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le with exactions and tributes that they might buy the friendship of the tyrant Alfonso with costly presents. So things went on among the quarrelsome Mussulman chiefs, until, the conquerors and the conquered alike prostrated and the kings and captains having lost their pristine worth, the warriors became cowards, the people vegetated in misery and dejection, the whole of society became corrupt, and the lifeless, soulless body of Islam was only a decaying carcase. The Moslems who did not

ibute, one of them, a Jew, conducted himself so haughtily that the exasperated Moslems stabbed him to death, letting the Christians escape without serious injury. This outrage meant war. Mote'mid cast about him for an ally. No help was to be found in Spain, and with inward misgivings, no doubt, the Abbadite amir called on the Almoravides of Africa to uphold the cause of Islam. Warned of the danger of this course, Mote'm

Yet the knell of Ishbiliyah had not yet sounded. The authority of the Almohade khalifas was nominally recognized in the city sixteen years longer. In 1228 the last of the race of Abd-ul-Mumin to rule in Spain was expelled by the famous Ben Hud, who was himself slain by his rival Al Ahmar, the founder of the Nasrite dynasty of Granada, ten years later. In their despair the people of Seville turned once more to the African Almohades. But no new army of Ghazis crossed the strait to do battle

in the suburb of Triana. Meanwhile all the outlying posts had been taken by the Castilians, and the Moors were driven to take refuge within the walls. Only when threatened with famine did the garrison ask for terms. They offered to capitulate if they were allowed to destroy their principal mosque to save it from profanation. The Infante Alfonso replied that if a single brick was displaced, the whole population would be put to the sword. The terms finally accorded the besieged were, for that age, not ungenerous. A limited num

officers, not forgetting even his Moorish auxiliaries. Among his first cares was the purification of the mosque and its conversion into

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o at the beginning, are apt to look on the Moorish occupation as a mere episode or interlude in the history of the country. It is difficul

hich is more Oriental than that of Granada, a later seat of Mohammedan empire. But this is in great part due to the men who lived under the Christian kings, who had caught the spirit of the Moors and perpetuated t

ither side to support it. The tower on the Triana side has long since disappeared, but the "Torre del Oro" remains as it was built in 1220-except, indeed, for the small turret or superstructure added in the eighteenth century. It is said, too, that it was once adorned with beautiful glazed tiles, from which (though t

ed an excessive fondness for ornamentation which mars much of their work, and were too much addicted to the use of painted stucco and gilding. To them we owe the stalactite roofing, afterwards developed with such success at the Alhambra. "It is certain," says Don Pedro de Madrazo, "that the innovations characteristic of Mussulman architecture in Spain during the eleventh and twelfth centuries cannot be explained as a natural modification o

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an remains and statuary were used in making the foundations. The wall at the base is nine feet in thickness, which increases with the height. The lower part is of stone, the upper part of brick. For the first fifteen metres the four faces of the tower are plain; at that height begins a series of vertical windows, mostly of two ligh

hich was so large, we are told, that the city gate had to be widened that it might be brought hither. The iron bar supporting the balls weighed about ten hundredweights, and the whole was cast

, cast in bronze, was placed on the apex to symbolize the triumph of Christianity over the creed of Islam. It is a clever piece of workmanship, for though it weighs twent

f the ascent is named: "El Cuerpo de Campa?as," after its fine peal of bells, one of which weighs eighteen tons; "El Cuerpo del Reloj," after the clock first set up in 1400-the earliest tower-clock in Spain. Then the

it is hard to believe that in Moorish times it was renowned for its beauty and fertility and compared by Arabic writers to the Garden of Eden. Looking down we scan the white city, a labyrinth of lanes and alleys, only here and there a plaza opening like a lake among the closely-set roofs.

in the year 1340. The doors with bronze plates, despite their Arabic inscriptions, also date from that time. The gate was restored in the sixteenth century and adorned with sculptures. The terra-cotta statues of St. Peter and St Paul on the outer side are the work of Miguel Florentin, one of the earliest of the apostles of Renaissance sculpture to settle in Spain. The relief over the arch, representing the expulsion of the money-changers from the Temple, is also by him, and commemorates the substitution of the Lonja or Bourse for this gate as a rendezvous for merchants. The belfry storey is modern. At the little shrine just inside, to the left on entering, may be seen a "Christ bearing the Cross," by

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as been visited. Not that the two great buildings of Seville exhibit any transition of style from the one to the other, but because, having begun the

ides the Alcazar proper. Immediately inside the wall are two squares called the Patio de las Banderas and Patio de la Monteria. At the far end of the former is the office of the governor of the palace, and to the right of this is an entrance whence a colonnaded passage called the Apeadero leads straig

eeming the Alcazar is as Moorish a monument as the Alhambra. In reality, few traces remain of the palace raised by the Moslem rulers of either dynasty, and the present building was mainly the work of the Castilian kings-especially of Pedro the Cruel. But though built

ir fabrics. Since Pedro the Cruel's day, so many sovereigns have restored, remodelled, and added to the building, that it is

oured the Jews, and was alleged by his enemies to be the changeling child of a Jewess. His treasurer and trusted adviser was an Israelite named Simuel Ben Levi. He served the king long and faithfully, till one day it was whispered that half the wealth that should fill the royal coffers had been diverted into his own. Ben Levi was seized without warning and placed on the

, whose heart, however, was bent on possessing the superb ruby in the regalia of his guest. Before many hours had passed, the Moors were seized in their apartments and stripped of their raiment and valuables. Abu Sa?d, ridiculously tricked out, was mounted on a donkey, and with thirty-six of his courtiers, hurried to a field outside the town, where they were bound to posts. A train of h

to ashes. Having conceived a passion for Do?a Maria Coronel, the king caused her husband to be executed in the Torre del Oro. The widow, far from yielding to his entreaties and threats, took the veil and destroyed her beauty by means of vitriol. Pedro at once transferred his attentions to her sister, Do?a Aldonza, and met with more success.

er-by to whom, of course, he was unknown, and whom he incontinently ran through the body. Thinking there had been no witness to his crime, he stalked back to his palace. Next day he summoned the Alcalde of Seville to his presence and asked for news of the town. The magistrate told him that the body of a man had been found, murdered by whom no one knew. The king would suffer no laxity on the part of his officers. If the assassin were not discovered the alcalde must pay the penalty of the crime with his

sense of humour is shown by yet another incident. A priest for murdering a shoemaker was condemned by the ecclesiastical tribune to be suspended from his sacerdotal functions for the

alace of which the sinister ki

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one of the halls-the Sala de Justicia-is still visible. It is entered from the Patio de la Monteria. Contreras assigns a date to this room even earlier than the advent of the Almohades. It is square, and measures nine metres across. The stucco ceiling is adorned with stars and wreaths, and bordered by a painted frieze. The decorations consist chiefly of inscriptions in Cufic characters. The right-angled apertures in the walls were closed either by screens of translucent stucco or by tapestries, "which must," says Gestoso y Perez, "have made the hall appear

obtrusive. Yet, despite the Moorish character of the decoration, the Arabic capitals and pilasters, and the square entrance "in the Persian style," the front is not that of an eastern palace; and it is without surprise that we read over the portal, in quaint Gothic characters, the legend: "The most high, the most noble, the most p

the central and principal court of the palace. How this patio came to be so named I have never been able to ascertain. There is an absurd story to the effect that here were collected the girls fabled to have been sent by way of

reserved, as it should be, seeing that it is a century younger; and if it vaguely strikes one as being fitter for the abode of a c

not begotten and has never begotten, and He has no equal." This inscription, opposed to the tenets of Christianity, was evidently designed by a Moslem artificer, who relied (and safely relied) on the ignorance of his employers. The frieze is decorated also, at intervals, by the escutcheons of Don Pedro and of Ferdinand and Isabella, and by the well-known devices of Charles V., the Pillars of Hercules with the motto "Plus Oultre." The inside of the arcade is ornamented with a high dado of glazed tile mosaic (azulejo), brilliantly coloured and with the highly-prized metallic glint. The combinations and variations of the designs are very ingenious a

s the audience closets of King Pedro; but they are much more likely to b

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ious styles with the Gothic and Renaissance. The ornamentation is rich and elaborate almost beyond the possibility of description. The magnificent "half-orange" ceiling of carved wood rests on a frieze decorated with the Tower and Lion. Then come Cufic inscriptions on a blue ground and ugly female heads of the sixteenth century. Then, below another band of decoration, is a row of fif

io and adjoining halls by entrances composed of three horseshoe ar

ttle Patio de las Mu?ecas (Court of the Dolls), purely Granadine in treatment. The rounded arches are separated by cylindrical pillars-I call them so for want of a better word-which rest on slender columns of different colours, reminding one of the early or Cordovan style. The capitals are rich, the pillars they uphold decorated with vertical lines of Cufic in

cia, had been graciously received by his brother the king, and presently went to pay his respects in another part of the palace to the royal favourite, Maria de Padilla. It is said that she warned him of his impending fate; perhaps by her manner, if not by words, she tried to arouse in him a sense of danger, but the soldier prince returned to the king's presence. With a shout, Pedro gave the fatal signal. "Kill the Master of Santiago,

of the plateresque style. The north side of the patio is occupied by the Cuarto de los Principes, not to be confounded with a similarly named apartment on the floor above. At either end of this room is an arch, adorned with stucco work, admitting to

of none is quite so stupid and misleading as this. The columns of the twin windows on either side of the door appear to date from the time of the Khalifate. The doors themselves are richly inlaid and painted with geometrical pa

stucco work is the finest in the palace. There is a legend to the effect that St. Ferdinand died in this room-on his knees, with a cord round his neck and a taper in his hand-but it is unlike

ry beauty, and shows that the Moors had not a monopoly of talent in this kind of decoration. The fine Visitation over the altar is signed by Francesco Nicoloso, the Italian. On the same floor is the reputed bed-chamber of Don Pedro. Over the door may be seen four death's-heads, and over another entrance the curious figure of a man who looks back over his shoulder at a grinning skull. These gruesome

geometrical forms, its exquisite epigraphy, and all its subtle details. But the average traveller stands between these two classes of observers. He looks for grandeur where he should expect only beauty, and his eye is wearied by the wealth of conventional ornamentation. What I think is conspicuously lacking in the Alcazar, and to almost the

. I noticed some flower beds shaped like curiously formed crosses, which the gardener told me were the crosses of the orders of Calatrava, Santiago, Alcantara, and Montesa. You are also shown the Baths of Maria de Padilla, which are approached through a glo

bjected. The exterior, it is true, is unimpressive, and the vastness of the pile is largely responsible for the powerful effect proclaimed by the interior. But when the

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k counsel together, and at a conclave held in the Court of the Elms, on the south side of the mosque, it was resolved to build a new church forthwith. Then uprose a zealous prebendary and cried: "Let us build a church so great that those who come after us will think us mad to have attempted it!" The proposal was adopted with acclamation; and the great-hearted priests bound themselves to contribute from thei

ntral America) met in Congress to frame a Constitution, a priest rose and proposed that before anything else was done, every slave in the country should be set free. And the

agarto. The latter is named after the wooden model of an alligator which hangs from the roof. Three or four centuries ago the mummified form of a real alligator hung there. It was one of the gifts of an Egyptian khalifa to the daughter of a Castilian king, whom he sought in marriage. The sau

for curiosities of all sorts. The cloister of the Lagarto contains also an elephant's tusk

lowed very soon by an infinite restfulness. There is no place in Seville where you more willingly linger. A holy calm pervades the whole building, and you wonder

noble columns, almost free of adornment, which uphold the spacious vaults recede in the far distance like trees in an overarching avenue. The effect, fine as it is, might have been much finer if the centre of the nave had not been blocked up by the choir. The "Trascoro," or screen, facing the west entrance, is richly adorned with red columns. Over the altar is a fourteenth-century picture of the Madonna, and a painting by Pacheco, the Inquisitor, representing St. Ferdinand receiving the keys of Seville. Over one of the beautiful little side altars of the choir is one of the rare examples of good Spanish sculpture-a Virgin, by Juan Marti

which it is divided contains a subject from the Bible or from the lives of the saints, carved, painted, or gilded with the rarest skill. Begun by the Fleming Dancart, in 1479, this won

rs. Beneath the altar lies the body of St. Ferdinand in crown and royal robes. He lies here in the heart of his fairest conquest, even as his descendants, Ferdinand and Isabella, sleep in the heart of Granada. You may see his sword, the handle of which was denuded of gems by Pedro the Cruel, lest they should excite the cupidity of others. That royal humorist also lies here, near his saintly ancestor and the one woman whom he ever loved, the gentle Maria de Padilla. Then there is to be seen the Vírgen de los Reyes, an image presented by St. Louis of France to St. Ferdinand of Castile. (Strang

ing upwards, where the light streams through the tall clerestory windows, you will be tempted to neglect the dark chapels in the aisles, and to revel for a while in these exquisite symphonies in coloured glass. Few of them are of Spanish workmanship. Master Christopher the German (Micer Cristobal Aleman) began the first-the first stained-glass window i

saint's shrine. For here are contained the remains of a man who added not a Moorish city but a continent to the realm of Leon and Castile. The ashes of Chris

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Behind them come Aragon and Navarre, sombre of countenance, wearing shirts of mail. On the bosom of each is displayed the national escutcheo

tilla

undo di

was brought here when the "ungrateful America" revolted from the Spanish yoke. But however much the Spain

very truly says, would have been considered a great man if he had been the son of a less great father. He rendered important services to literature, and left behind him a library of 15,000

r, de las Evangelistas, de las Doncellas, de San Francisco, de Santiago, de las Escales, and del Bautisterio. In the latter is one of Murillo's most famous works, "The Vision of St. Anthony of Padua." Of Cano's works there is a specimen, the "Virgin and Child," over the altar of Belen, adjacent to the Puerta de los Naranjos. Valdés Leal and Juan

the "Generacion" of Luis de Vargas-the much praised "leg" picture which has given its name to the chapel. The fresco of St. Christopher that faces it is remarkable only for its size. You find such pictures of the saint at the entrances to many Spanish churches, the old belief having been that those who gazed upon it would not die unpreparedly that day. A much more ancient and interesting mural painting in the

n the great Sacristy, where they are eclipsed by Kempener's beautiful "Descent from the Cross," before which Murillo himself used to stand for hours in rapt contemplation. The French cut this priceless work into five pieces, intending to remove it, and although their design was frustrated, the subsequent restoration was badly effected. The Sacristia

the shape of keys presented to St. Ferdinand on the surrender of the city. The key presented by the Jews is iron-gilt and bears the inscription in Hebrew: "The King of Kings will

d of the Patio de los Naranjos and entered from a door in the north aisle of the Cathedral, near the Capilla del Bautisterio. Built between 1618 and 1662 by Miguel Zumarraga and Fernando de Iglesias, the church is in the Baroque style, and roofed with a single and very daring arch. Th

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rokers of the city, to the great scandal of the devout. Archbishop de Rojas prevailed upon Philip II. to erect an Exchange or Casa de Contratacion, as Sir Thomas Gresham had just done in London. The building was begun in 1598, at precisely the moment when the commerce of Seville began to decline. It reflects the spirit of Philip II. and of his architect, Herrera-s

lic building more elaborately adorned or more badly placed. The interior is more satisfactory. The lower council chamber is a magnificent hall, worthy, as a Spanish writer remarks, of the Senate of a great republic. A noble staircase, with a fine ceiling, leads to the upper council chamber, which has some splendid artesonado work. Opposite-that is, on the east side of-this building is the Audiencia or Court-house, where I whiled away a hot afternoon by assisting at a Spanish trial. The case was of no particular interest, but the differences in the procedure and constitution of the court from our own were worth noting. There were three judges, who wore blac

no pretext for pardoning two particularly atrocious murderers, who were accordingly put to death by the garrote in this square. The people of Seville, not being accustomed lik

into the maze of white-walled dwellings in the north-eastern quarter of the city, a minaret only less beautiful than the Giralda seems to beckon us from afar. It appears and reappears, and we lose our way a dozen times before we stand at its foot. It is a beautiful tower in the purest Almohade or Mauritanian style, without any features borrowed from Christian architecture. The highest ed

s in white marble, flanked by the escutcheons of the inevitable and ubiquitous Ferdinand and Isabella. Having seen this, it is hardly worth our while to enter the church, which contains the tombs of the founders, Dom Joao de Henriquez, Constable of Portugal, and his wife Donha Isabel. In the same quarter of the city, though some distance away, is a monument of some interest-the church of Omni

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r remains were brought hither on the suppression of the Cartuja, outside the town. The oldest tomb is that of the eldest Ribera, who died in 1423, aged 105. He thus lived through the reigns of Alfonso XI., Pe

lptured, most probably the symbol of fidelity, but some say, his favourite. Over the altar are three good pictures by Roelas, one of the ablest interpreters of the Andalusian spirit. Here, too, are a couple o

nded to-day, and from the outside would be taken for an inconsiderable college. It seems to have been much more flourishing a hundred years ago, when our country

room of the banished Moors was filled by settlers, not only from all parts of Spain, but from the rest of Europe. It was the same with all the towns resumed by the Spaniards. These foreign colonies had their own laws and customs, and yet they were entirely absorbed by the natives and left no trace or influence behind them. The Spaniards possessed, in those days at any rate

the distance from the Pr?torium at Jerusalem to the chapel in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre that marks the site of Calvary is greatly less than the distance between the two points mentioned here in Seville. But why the house was called after Pilate is not easy to determine. It was begun in 1500 and finished thirty-three years after by Don Per Afan de Ribera, first Duke of Alcalá, and sometime Viceroy of Naples. This great nobleman was the M?cenas of his generation. Not only did he enrich his house with priceless works of art and a fine library-since removed to Madrid-but he made it the rendezvous of all the art and talent of Andalusia. Hither came Gongora, the poet, to converse, it is said, wit

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general resemblance to the Alcazar. Pedro de Madrazo directs attention to the harmonious variety of the arches and windows, and compares it to the admired disorder of the forest and plantation. I imagine the architect had the Court of the Lions, at Granada, in his mind. Here dolphins uphold the upper basin of the fountain, and noble statues of the deities of Greece and Rome-the gift of Pope Pius V.-stand in the angles of the court. Hence you pass into the so-called

resting old house at No. 6, Abades. It is now a boarding-house, and you may live there in princely fashion for six francs a day. No one knows how old it is. It belonged at the beginning of the fifteenth century to a family of Genoese merchants called Pinelo. In 1407 the Infante Fadrique, uncle of Juan II., lodged there. What was the occasion of his visit to Seville I forget. Afterwards it became the property of the "abbés" or "abades" o

ins and one hundred columns of marble. A fine court, surrounded by a graceful arcade, remains. The staircase recalls that of the Casa de Pilatos. Our countryman Lord Holla

the Brave used to visit the "Star of Seville"; and the Casa Olea, in the Calle Guz

the ingredients of romance. In countries like Spain, where the canon law obtained, there could be, for instance, no runaway matches, no desperate flights in a post-chaise to a church (say) over the Portuguese border, with an irate father in pursuit. There could not have been, and cannot be at the present time, any walks with the beloved down the moonlit grove, any trysts by the stile or the ruined keep, any rendezvous among the rose-bushes. If a Spanish girl did any of these things, she would indeed, in French parlance, have thrown her cap over the mill. The affair would no longer have the complexion of a romance but of a sordid intrigue. This being so, I was delighted to hear that occasionally clandestine marriages are resorted to in Spain, and that fond lovers find a means of uniting in defiance of stern parents, even in Andalusia. The couple, accompanied by a few fri

n of which is largely due to the poets of the Romantic school, does not exist. Seville never was a glorified Cremorne; and persons of a Byron

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iress of the Mendoza family did not sober him, though an alliance with so solemn a thing as money generally brings the most hot-headed Latin youth to his senses. Like many other wicked persons, our gallant had a nice taste in art, and is said to have encouraged Murillo. Now comes the remarkable and the improving part of the story.

s that the Don, prowling about the streets one night, perceived a funeral procession approaching. Cu

works of art. Near the entrance are the two extraordinary pictures which proclaim the artist, Valdés Leal, to have been a master of realism. One of these exhibits a corpse at which, Murillo declared, you must look with your nostrils shut. The church contains six canvases by Murillo himself-"Moses Striking the Rock," "The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes," "The Charity of S

and on the north wall the admirable "St. Anthony de Padua." But one grows a little weary of Murillo in Seville. Zurbaran, the great painter of monks, is well represented by the wonderful "St. Hugh in the Refectory," and "Apotheosis of St. Thomas Aquinas." This last picture, I am told, was carried off by Soult, and recovered by Wellington at Waterloo. The older Herrera's "St. Hermenegild" is good, but by no means Andalusian. The native temper finds more truthful expression in the works of Roelas, Valdés Leal, Cespedes and Frutet, which may be studied to the best advantage here. Curio

ril 3, 1682, after his fall from the scaffolding at Cadiz. His studio is shown filled with sev

Exasperated strangers have been heard to declare that in southern Spain you hear of but two things-Toros y Moros. In another corner of the promenade, you will come upon a party of little girls going through the peculiar and stately dances, or rather measures, of their country, to the accompaniment of a low chant and a clapping of hands, in which the boys, looking on from a distance, will join. Boys and girls, unless they are quite babies, are seldom seen together. You pass on and find a group of citizens seated at the little tables round a kiosk, refreshin

idated or ancient it may be, so long as it goes on wheels. Side by side with the handsome equipages of the Sevillian aristocracy, you will see a wretched Rosinante painfully dragging what I took to be the original "one-hoss shay," or the carriage in which Lord Ferrers was driven to the scaffold. It is impossible to restrain a smile, but after all a conveyance is a real necessity in a climate like this, and if a man cannot afford a goo

at three depressed and underfed wretches, who, I thought, were to be immediately garrotted. Suddenly one sprang up and gave a very clever rendering of the arrival and departure of a train at a country station. He was vociferously applauded, and, thus encouraged, danced a sort of "cellar-flap" with great animation to the indispensable accompaniment of hand-clapping. In a popular assembly of Andalusian town and country folk, the modern observer ought, I

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and decoration of these pavilions, and those of the four principal clubs are fitted up in the most luxurious fashion. In the evening the jeunesse dorée of the city drive out to the fair in smart traps drawn by dashing little horses with jangling little bells, and visits are exchanged at the casetas, where as the evening becomes cooler, dancing takes place, to the sound of the piano, the guitar, and the castanet. The pretty se?oritas of Seville have no objection to going through the graceful measures of the South in full view of an uninvited audience who crowd round the opening of t

and the poorest, could take place with mutual enjoyment and

that the most sanguinary bull-fights complete the festivities is perhaps superfluous. The most skilful and renowned toreros are engaged on this

THE MARK

famous Dance of the Seises is reserved for the octaves of the Immaculate Conception and Corpus Christi. It has been described over and over again. There is nothing irreverent about the performance, which is in itself graceful and quaint; only carried out before the high altar it strikes one as rat

t is the Capuchin Convent, built upon the foundations of the palace of the Roman governor, Diogenianus, and afterwards associated with Murillo. A noble aqueduct built by the Romans, and known to-day as the Ca?os de Carmona, still brings water from Alcala de Guadaira to Seville. Everyone who visits Seville is expected to make an excursion to the ruins of Italica, a few miles on the other side of the Guadalquivir. There is remarkably little to see when you get there, and not much is known about the place. There were few, if any, private dwellings here, and it existed rather as the pla

dismantled it and carried off columns and blocks of masonry on which are founded the Giralda and other important buildings in the neighbourin

n mould who refused to save the life of his son at the cost of the fortress of Tarifa, which he held for his king. The hero's kneeling effigy dates, as the inscription beneath informs us, from the year 1609, the three hundredth anniversary of his death. The modern traveller, whose sympathies are usually more wi

The church is divided into two naves, each of which was a distinct church-one, I suspect, belonging to the monastery, the other to the parish; a not uncommon me

. The house has been converted by the Duc de Montpensier into a sort of museum. The Conquistado

m the railway bridge. It was founded in the first decade of the fifteenth century by Archbishop de Mena, and was the burial-place of the Riberas, till their re

aints of Seville, Saints Justa and Rufina, were potters in this quarter. In their time the Carthaginian goddess, Astarte or Salambo, was much venerated in the Roman city. The commemoration of the death of Adonis took place in the month of July, when the image of the goddess was borne in triumph through the streets, while the people following with cries and lamentations deplored the untimely end of her beloved. A strange survival, this, on

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some of the angels shows that the artist had not quite emancipated himself from Byzantine influence. And the thought occurred to me as I made my way back to the Delicias Gardens, where the people were driving out to take the air, and knots were collecting round musicians and mountebanks-when the whole city was yieldi