GATE OF THE SERRANOS, VALENCIA TOWER OF SANTA CATALINA, VALENCIA GATE OF MARCHÁN, FORTRESS OF TANGIERS TETUAN, FROM THE SOUTH TETUAN, VIEW FROM THE CITY WALLS, LOOKING TOWARDS THE LOWER RANGE OF THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS GREAT SQUARE AT TETUAN, FROM THE JEWS' TOWN STREET IN TETUAN RABATT AND SALÈ THE TOURIST IN SPAIN. CHAPTER I. TOLEDO TO MADRID. Last Look at Toledo-Old and New Times-National FoibleNumantia Tarick and his Gold Table-Arab ProsperityCatholic Archbishops-Anecdotes-Young Hostesses - Soldier's Return-Talavera-Duke of Wellington-Noble Sentiment Incidents by the Way-Fashion and Antiquity—Antiquarian Anecdotes Reach Madrid-Popular Excitement— Strange Contrast-Unexpected Rencounter-Love and Friendship-Antiquarian Hospitality—Visit to the Hospitals—Mental Beauty of the Madrid Ladies. OUR brief sojourn in the ancient capital of Castilian royalty and sanctity was no way dull or tedious; it required not, as some travellers have found it, the patience of all its saints (no small number) to avoid incurring the extreme penalty of ennui. Its aspect, like its society, was grave and sombre enough; but marks of more active, if not prouder and sterner days, lay every where around us, and imagination, with history, supplied what was wanting in modern bustle and prosperity. Besides, the tocsin of stirring events was pealing at no vast distance in our ears, rousing the B 2 HEREDITARY FAME. most inert from the political trance of ages, and holding all on the alert, as much at least as Castilians of unblemished blood can well be supposed without indecorum to appear.* "Wars and rumours of wars," enough to startle this once quiet seat of ecclesiastic power and splendour from out its propriety, kept all ranks,—lay and cleric, national guard and garrison, governor and governed, wide awake; which is saying a good deal for their sense of honour, caution, or whatever we may please to call it, during the summer fervours of a Peninsular sun. And we should remember that Toledo no longer now held 250,000 citizens, as in the good old times, to beat off any sudden incursion; nor immense armies headed by Gothic monarchs, and next by fiery turbaned chiefs, (let alone Don Carlos,) able to cope with the invaders of kingdoms. As things were, therefore, the bold Toledanos had a serious duty to perform, if they did any thing like justice to their old hereditary honours; for they still claim by tradition no less a king than King Adam to begin with, while the sun, like that of their fame, is roundly asserted by the most patriotic to have started, at creation, exactly from the meridian of their renowned citadel. Then they were no less clear upon another point; namely, that they had won a palm "Nothing," says the Reverend Mr. Whittington," can surpass the gloomy dulness of Toledo; in other towns the chanting of the convents is drowned by the noise and bustle of the streets, but here it struck me greatly; the desolate silence is only broken by the deep voices of the friars, who are singing masses continually, and in every part." But this is fast hurrying to the "tomb of all the Capulets." A MODEST CITIZEN. 3 above all Greek or Roman fame, as the single history of Numantia, (once comprised within their territory,) and that siege of ruins and triumph by death, bore ample testimony; and consequently the Romans were no match for the sharp blades of Toledo. Another amusing instance: a true-born citizen being asked why he did not shout at the accession of the Bourbon Philip to the throne, merely replied, "Because he is only a Frenchman; and I am a Castilian of pure blood." But this was not all: the ancestral valour of the Toledans is not so easily satisfied; and at a more distant period it is shown that they must have triumphed over King Solomon himself, a fact attested by the discovery of the famous gold table, on which doubtless was placed the shew-bread; a treasure discovered by the famous Tarick, foremost among the Arab invaders. However harmless and amusing this besetting national vanity, so ingeniously satirized in the Knight of La Mancha, it is not the foible of a sensible and strong-minded people; though, in a more philosophical view, we are told it marks a nice sense of honour and regard for reputation, opposed to every thing low or ignoble. Let future moralists decide! A more interesting study offered itself in the few surrounding monuments of Roman strength and magnificence. Too few, indeed; for the first Gothic kings appear to have been eager to deface all evidences of the dominion of their nobler predecessors; amphitheatres, columns, arches successively fell before the destroyer, and imperial medals enriched the sands of |