guage, a sad mixture of the Castilian and Portuguese. Of old they were mighty hunters before the Lord; while their wives ploughed and gathered in the harvests, besides taking care of their families. But as some equivalent, we are told that when they presented them with children, their husbands very generously took to their beds and went to sleep in their stead, for the women were always up and doing,— a custom, gravely remarks a modern historian, as ridiculous as it is absurd. The modern people preserve little of the rude virtues of their sires, except retaining an extreme distaste for what is called general civilization. They had much rather be under any other general, for they make robust and hardy soldiers, and are the best porters and water-carriers in the kingdom.

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CHANGE OF SCENERY.

CHAPTER IV.

ARAGON TO VALENCIA.

Reach Saragossa-Glowing Prospect-Odd Fancy of the Moors -Lofty Character of the Aragonese-Historic SketchesConstitution ratified by a Pope-Early History-Remarkable Incident Trial by Battle-Anecdote-Derivation of Spanish Gentleman-Walks in the Avenue-Effects of War-War of the Succession-Visit the Suburbs-The Great Square-A Review Characteristics-Popular Manners-Ballad Singers -Fairs-Festivals-Our Lady of the Pillar-The new Tower, Cathedral, &c.

A NOBLER field than any we had yet traversed next opened to our view, the famed old Aragon, and bright, sunny Valencia, with its deep green valleys and purple skies, such as made the imaginative Moors think their Mahommed held his Court of Paradise immediately above their heads. From the southern and western plains we had before visited, we directed our course by Estremadura through Galicia, the Asturias, Leon, Navarre, once more to the banks of the Ebro, in the more immediate vicinity chosen by the artist for his studies of the antique or the picturesque. We must pass over, then, with as good a grace as we can, a variety of interesting objects and incidents supplied by our notes in a rather wide and diversified tour; and, restricted as we

HISTORIC ASSOCIATIONS.

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are for space, confine ourselves within the narrower compass embraced by the scenic views that follow.

Within the gate of the Ebro, and that city so celebrated in chronicles and ballads, we looked on the ancient Saragossa, its bold walls and towers, well worthy the capital of a kingdom, as distinguished for its laws and liberties as for its heroic bearing. If no longer what it was in the days of its early conquests, and its exploits against the Moors, Aragon yet retains a free spirit and proud recollections, which can hardly fail to give it a high name in the future annals of Spain. Towns and villages, indeed, have disappeared; wretched government and successive wars exhausted its resources and reduced its population to little more than half a million, that of Saragossa itself scarcely reaching sixty thousand; but the same vigour that wrested its popular privileges from the hands of its governors, withstood foreign invasion, and roused even its maidens to deeds of daring that almost surpass belief, not only survives, it asserts itself in the face of the savage hordes that devastate while they fly over its plains.

It is the opinion of some of its writers, that had Aragon been united with Navarre at an earlier period, it would have prevailed no less over the other states than over the Moors, and established with its laws much sounder principles of government than obtained among the Spaniards under their Castilian princes. Instead of adhering to the oppressive system of the Visigoths, the Aragonese had recourse to the statutes and customs of the Franks and Lombards, upon

I

which they founded a limited monarchy, wherein popular and baronial power predominated beyond what appears under the feudal system in any other part of Europe. Ratified by the pope, the new constitution soon roused a degree of enterprise among the Aragonese which extended to other states, and a like spirit of independence and respect for popular privileges produced equal advantages to the people of Catalonia, throughout the Biscays and Navarre; while continuing to influence other parts of Spain, it finally prepared the way for the establishment of the present constitution, so unhappily involved in that bitter contest which still lays waste her fairest provinces.

Though the royal dignity was hereditary, no sovereign could mount the throne of Aragon without swearing to maintain its privileges, and without the ratification of his title by the several states. Further to counterpoise the king's authority, they elected a chief magistrate, known by the name of the Justicia Mayor, responsible for his conduct only to the states. At the coronation of each king, this depository of the supreme law was seen elevated upon a grand tribunal, seated with his head uncovered. The new sovereign was then summoned, and upon his knees, uncovered, he took the oath which bound him to govern according to the laws. Not till then was the famous proclamation made in the name of the Aragonese, the tenour of which shows their frank, lofty spirit, and their jealous care of the independence they had won. From its honest truth and absence of all adulation, it resembles rather one of the homely amusing stories of the Prince

Don Manuel, than the proclamation of newly invested royalty:-"We, who are each of us as good as you are, have received you for our king and lord, on condition that you maintain our rights and liberties; if not,―not." With all this regard, however, for popular liberty, we must not forget that it was before the aristocracy, the rich men of the land, not really the commons, this impressive oath was taken; the clergy were represented by prelates, the large towns by deputies, all of whom were considered citizens, but mechanics, artisans, and tradesmen were excluded from that rank. A more general suffrage was wanted to balance with effect the power of the aristocracy, the clergy, and the king. The commons never acquired that ascendency, and the constitution was gradually lost. The popular magistrate offered the only barrier to the usurpations of the Cortes, or those of the king. The most powerful prelates, uniting in a body, possessing military and civil as well as ecclesiastical jurisdiction, went over to the sovereign; the people's deputies were corrupted, and the king, skilfully making use of both to check the power of the nobility, gradually acquired that predominance which, with the progress of events, merged at last into absolute government.

The early history of Aragon is mingled with fable and romance. To the counts succeeded the kings of Aragon, and from the days of Iñigo Arista, its first monarch in the ninth, to those of Sancho the Great in the eleventh century, its historical narrative is composed chiefly of wild traditions, strange and im