The Story of Seville

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PREFACE

IN the story of Seville I have endeavoured to interest the reader in the associations of the buildings and the thoroughfares of the city.

I do not claim to have written a full history of Seville, though I have sketched the salient events in its annals in the opening chapters of this book. The history of Seville is the history of Spain, and if I have omitted many matters of historical importance from my pages, it is because I wished to focus attention upon the city itself. I trust that I have succeeded in awaking here and there an echo of the past, and in bringing before the imagination the figures of Moorish potentate or sage, and of Spanish ruler, artist, priest and soldier.

Those who are acquainted with the history of Spain will appreciate the difficulty that besets the historian in the matter of chronological accuracy, and even in a narration of many of the main events. The chronicles of the Roman, Gothic and Moorish epochs are hardly accepted as reliable. Patriotic bias and religious enthusiasm are elements that frequently mislead in the making of history, though the Spaniard is not alone in the commission of error in this respect.

Seville abounds with human interest. The city may at the first glance slightly disappoint the visitor, but he cannot wander far without a growing sense of its fascination. Most of the noteworthy buildings are hidden amidst narrow alleys, for the designers of the city have shown great economy in utilising space. It is therefore difficult to gain large general views of Seville, unless one ascends the Giralda, while the obtrusion of modern dwelling-houses and stores often mars the view of fine public edifices. But the modernity of Seville seldom strikes one as wholly out of place and in sharp contrast to the ancient monuments. The plan is Morisco, and the impression conveyed is partly Moorish and partly mediæval. In a word, Seville brings us at every step closely in touch with antiquity.

For the chapters on the Artists of Seville I am indebted to C. Gasquoine Hartley (Mrs. Walter M. Gallichan), who has devoted much study to the art of Spain. The drawings by Miss Elizabeth Hartley were prepared while I was gathering material for the book in Seville, and the illustrations will be found to refer to the text. I have also to thank my brother, Mr. F. H. Gallichan, for his plan of the city.

The frontispiece photograph of Goya's picture of SS. Justa and Rufina was reproduced in the Art Journal as an illustration to an article on "Goya" by C. Gasquoine Hartley. My thanks are due to Messrs. Virtue & Company for permission to reproduce the picture in this book.

WALTER M. GALLICHAN.

THE CRIMBLES,
YOULGREAVE, BAKEWELL,
August 20, 1903.

The Story of Seville

CHAPTER I
Romans, Goths and Moors

SEVILLE the sunny, the gem of Andalusia, is a city in the midst of a vast garden. Within its ancient walls, the vine, the orange tree, the olive, and the rose flourish in all open spaces, while every patio, or court, has its trellises whereon flowers blossom throughout the year. Spreading palms overshadow the public squares and walks, and the banks of the brown Guadalquivir are densely clothed with an Oriental verdure.

The surrounding country of the Province of Sevilla, La Tierra de Maria Santisima, is flat, and in the neighbourhood of the city sparsely wooded. On the low hills of Italica and San Juan de Aznalfarache, the Hisn-al-Faradj of the Moors, olive groves cover many thousands of acres. The plain is a parterre of wide grain fields, and meadows of rife grass, divided by straight white roads, with their trains of picturesque mule teams and waggons, and their rows of tall, straight trees. Here and there the cold grey cactus serves as a fence, but there is no other kind of hedgerow.

Far away, across the yellow wheatfields, and beyond the vine-clad slopes of the middle distance, rise the huge shoulders and purple peaks of wild sierras.

The Guadalquivir, rolling and eddying in a wide bed, takes its tint from the light soil and sand, and is always turbid, as though in spate. Below Seville, on the left bank of the river, stretch the great salt marshes, or Marismas, haunted by the stork, the heron, and innumerable wildfowl. Here, among the arms of the tidal water, the cotton plant is cultivated. Winter floods are a source of danger to Seville, especially when a south-west wind is blowing and the tide ascending the river. Then the Guadalquivir overflows its banks and deluges the town and the flat land, drowning live stock and destroying buildings. In 1595 and 1626 occurred two of the worst floods, or avenidas, on record. The flood of 1626 washed away the foundations of about three thousand houses.

It is probable that the southern kingdom of Andalusia derived its name from the Vandals, who overran the country after the Roman occupation. The region was then known as Vandalitia, or Vandalusia. Lower Andalusia has been said to be the Tarshish of the Bible. The Phœnicians called the land Tartessus, or Tartessii. Nowadays Andalusia includes the provinces of Sevilla, Huelva, Cadiz, Córdova, Jaén, Granada and Almeria, and has a population of over three millions. Seville is the capital, the seat of an archbishop, and a university town. The traveller from Northern Europe will feel the spirit of Spain upon him as he approaches Seville from Cadiz or Córdova through a semi-tropical country under a burning blue sky. He will note everywhere the influence of the Arab in the architecture of modern public buildings, churches and dwelling-houses, in the tortuous, narrow streets, in the features, language, music and garb of the people, and in many of the customs of the district. The character of the landscape is strange, the atmosphere vivid, and the distant objects show sharply against the horizon. For leagues he will traverse groves of olive, or vineyards, and pass across wastes purple with the flower of the lavender or scarlet with poppies.

Seville of to-day is white, clean and bright. Gautier noted that the shadows of the houses in the narrow thoroughfares are blue, in contrast to the white of the dazzling buildings at noon. During the siesta of the hot months, the streets are deserted daily for about four hours, shutters screen the rooms from the blinding sunshine, and awnings are drawn across the roofs of the patios. In the evening the town awakens, and the plazas and alleys are thronged and gay until two in the morning. Everyone endeavours to lead an al fresco life, and to conserve physical energy in this city of eternal sunshine. Unlike Toledo and Avila, where the houses are sombre and the doors heavy and barred, as though the towns were inhospitable, Seville opens wide the gates of its beautiful courts so that the passer-by may peep within.

'Seville is a fine town,' wrote Lord Byron, in a letter, during his stay in Spain in 1809. We may regret that he had so little to say about the fascinating capital. George Borrow, who lived for a time in the Plazuela de la Pila Seca, near the Cathedral, speaks in rapturous phrases of the view of Seville and the Guadalquivir. 'Cold, cold must the heart be which can remain insensible to the beauties of this magic scene, to do justice to which the pencil of Claude himself were barely equal. Often have I shed tears of rapture whilst I beheld it, and listened to the thrush and the nightingale piping their melodious songs in the woods, and inhaled the breeze laden with the perfume of the thousand orange gardens of Seville.'

The city is rich in antiquities, in historic buildings associated with illustrious names, in works of art and in sumptuous palaces. A great company of the spirits of famous kings, warriors, explorers, authors, painters and priests spring up in the imagination as one stands in the aisles of the splendid Cathedral, or dreams amid the roses and the tinkling fountains of the secluded gardens of the Alcázar. Here, to this prized and fertile territory of southernmost Spain, came Publius Cornelius Scipio and Cato. Trajan, Hadrian and Theodosius were born at the municipium of Italica, a few miles from modern Seville. El Begi, 'the most accomplished scholar of Spain,' spent the greater part of his life in the city.

San Isidoro and San Leandro lived here. Moorish monarchs and Christian sovereigns ruled from the palace, and in their turn attacked and defended the fair city. The figures crowd before the mind's eye—Ferdinand III., who redeemed the town from the Moriscoes, Alfonso (El Sabio) the Learned, Pedro I. the Cruel, and Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic. We see the fair, blue-eyed Genoese youth, Christoforo Colombo, or Columbus, the maker of the modern prosperity of Seville, who, after achieving fame, was alternately petted and punished by his sovereigns. We picture the triumphant return of Hernando Pizarro to the city, with half a million pesos of gold, and a great treasure of silver.

Lope de Rueda, 'the real father of the Spanish theatre,' a gold-worker of Seville; Fernando de Herrera, the poet; the mighty Cervantes, who spent three years of his life in the Andalusian capital; Velazquez, Zurbaran, Roelas, Murillo and minor artists of note were either born in the city or closely associated with it.

For the present we must take a look back into the dim and remote period when the Phœnicians came to wrest the soil of Southern Spain from the race of mingled Celtic and Iberian blood. It is at this uncertain date that the history of Seville may be said to begin.

We learn from the historians of Phœnicia that the shrewd, practical and industrious people of that marvellous ancient civilisation were great colonisers. 'The south of Spain,' writes Professor George Rawlinson, 'was rich in metallic treasures, and yielded gold, silver, copper, iron, lead and tin.' In their quest for valuable metal, certain Phœnician explorers discovered the Peninsula of Iberia, and in the mineral-yielding region watered by the Guadalquivir they founded the colony of Tartessii. Doubt exists whether Tartessii was the name given to the plains of the Guadalquivir or to a town. Strabo, Mela and Pliny state that the Phœnicians built a town and called it Tartessus. Was this town the foundation of Seville? No one will attempt to give an authoritative answer, though it has been stated that the town was not Cadiz, the Gades of the Phœnicians. Two cities of considerable importance appear to have been the marts of the Phœnician Sephela, or plain, and it is not wholly improbable that Seville was one of them.

In the choice of new territory for the development of mining and agriculture, the enterprising colonists displayed much intelligence. They settled upon a soil that will bring forth richly without artificial stimulation.

The hill ranges produced vines and olive trees, yielding fine wine and ample oil. Tunny and other fish were plentiful in the sea, and the rivers afforded large eels.

This is all that can be known of the Phœnician colony in Southern Spain. We are beginning to tread upon firmer historic ground when Hamilcar Barca landed at Cadiz in 237 B.C., after a series of victories in Africa, and subdued Andalusia. Hasdrubal, son-in-law of the conqueror, was the founder of Cartagena, or New Carthage, the centre of Carthaginian rule in Spain, and the wealthiest city of the Peninsula.

But during the second Punic War the Romans invaded Iberia, and gained all the eastern coast from New Carthage to the Pyrenees. Plutarch says that Publius Cornelius Scipio came to Spain with eleven thousand soldiers, seized Cartagena, reduced Cadiz, and founded the city of Italica, near Seville. Hispalis was the Roman name given to the city on the Guadalquivir until Cæsar changed the name to Julia Romula. The city then became the capital of Roman Spain, a centre of industry, and a fortress. A splendid aqueduct, which has partly endured to this day, was constructed to bring a plentiful supply of water from the hills. The aqueduct was extended by the Almohades in 1172, and forms one of the interesting monuments of the Roman and Arab colonisers. Around the city were reared high walls, with watch towers, and many strong gates. It is said that the walls of Seville were five miles in length, and it has been stated that they were once ten miles long. Within the gates were palaces, temples to the honour of the Sun, Hercules, Bacchus and Venus, and other fine edifices.

Under Augustus, Spain was part of the Roman Empire. In Seville the rule of the conquerors was beneficent, and the original inhabitants were fairly governed, while the city was extended and new crafts introduced. Under the Romans, Christianity came to the Peninsula, and Seville was made the seat of a bishop. The remaining portions of the great aqueduct, the wall, the two high granite columns in the Alameda de Hercules, with the statues of Julius Cæsar and Hercules upon them, the shafts of the columns discovered in the Calle Abades, and the beautiful fragments of capitals and statues in the Museo Arqælógico are the chief vestiges of Seville in the days of the Romans. At Urbs Italica, 'the camp of the Italians,' there still exists a grass-grown, mouldered amphitheatre, the only remnant of a mighty town.

Built on the slopes once dotted with the tents of the aboriginal hamlet of Sancios, Italica lies about five miles to the west of Seville, amid olive gardens and wheatfields. The circus is a ruin; but the passages can be followed below the tiers of seats, and one may peer into the dens once tenanted by the lions and other fierce beasts. Bees hum amongst the wild thyme, lizards creep on the worn stones, and a tethered ass grazes in the arena. The glory of Rome has departed; the plaudits from those deserted and grassy seats have not been heard for centuries; and blood has ceased to redden the floor, where fragrant herbs now spring and butterflies sun themselves on fallen masonry. Here is all that is left of Italica, the home of Trajan and Hadrian, and the asylum for Scipio's aged warriors. For a period the decaying town was known as Old Seville, and tons of its masonry were removed to build Seville the New.

Rome fell, and the Silingi Vandals swarmed into the country, captured Hispalis, and made it the seat of their empire. This period in the history of Seville is dark, and beset with difficulty for the annalist. About the year 520 a great horde of Goths spread over Andalusia. They seized the Vandal capital, but afterwards established a new capital of their own at Toledo.

Amalaric was the first of the Gothic monarchs who sat on the throne in Seville. He reigned probably from about the year 522. Theudis ruled in Seville (531 to 548), and we read that he was murdered there after an attempt to expel the Byzantine troops of Justinian from Africa. Theudisel, or Theudigisel, was general to Theudis, whom he succeeded as ruler at Seville. Theudisel shared the fate of his predecessor on the throne. After a reign of eighteen months, he was killed by the sword-thrusts of a dozen nobles of his retinue, while taking supper in his palace. This 'monster of licentiousness' was wont to kill all women who repelled his addresses, and his assassination was a work of vengeance on the part of outraged fathers and husbands among his courtiers.

Schlegel says the Goths were ready converts to Christianity, but 'in the Arian form.' At a later period of their supremacy in Spain there came a wider adherence to orthodox Catholicism, and the civil power was largely in the hands of the bishops and clergy. The most influential bishop of this day was Saint Isidore (San Isidoro) who held office in Seville. His brothers, Leander and Fulgentius, were also prelates, and his sister, Florentina, was made a saint. Saint Leander was the elder brother of Isidore, and through him the youth received his education after the death of his parents. The pupil was earnest and diligent in his studies, and as he grew to manhood he zealously assisted his brother, who then held the See of Seville, in converting the Goths from the heresy of Arius.

Dissensions between the orthodox and the Arians caused great strife and family bitterness among the ruling class. During the reign of King Leovigild rebellions broke out in Castile and León. The leader of the rebels was Leovigild's own son, Ermenigild, who had married Ingunda, daughter of Brunichilda and of Sigebert. Ingunda professed the orthodox faith, while Gosvinda, the second wife of Leovigild, was of the Arian sect. A rivalry arose between the two dames. According to Gregory of Tours, Gosvinda determined that Ingunda should be compelled to embrace the heterodox creed. One day when the two disputants were together, engaged in hot controversy, the fanatical Gosvinda gripped Ingunda by the hair of her head, threw her to the ground, trod upon her, and bade an Arian priest baptize the prostrate woman.

This incident not unnaturally brought about a quarrel between Leovigild and his son. Ermenigild was then ruling in Seville, while Leovigild maintained his court at Toledo. The trouble grew when Leander, the uncle of Ermenigild, persuaded the young man to forsake Arianism. His father was deeply angered, and vowed that the Gothic crown should never come to an apostate. The Archbishop of Tours states that the father was the first to take up arms after the rupture, but other historians suppose that the turbulent Ermenigild began the hostilities.

This domestic difference led to serious warfare. Ermenigild was besieged in Seville by his father's forces, after begging aid from Mir, King of the Suevi, in Galicia. Mir started with an army to assist the rebellious prince, but on the way he was defeated by Leovigild, and forced to aid the monarch. For a year Ermenigild resisted the siege of Seville. The people were on the point of starvation when he resolved upon capitulation. Nothing remained but flight, and the prince made his escape from the city and reached Córdova. There he was captured, divested of his regal garments and authority, and banished to Valencia. Very soon the strife was renewed. Ermenigild, panting for a reprisal, solicited aid from the Greeks and rebels of the east coast, and invaded Estremadura. His father went to meet him with a force of his bravest men. The attack was made by Leovigild, who drove his son's army from Merida into Valencia, and took the young man a prisoner.

The King was stern, but he could not act ungenerously towards his foe and son. He offered Ermenigild pardon and favour on condition that he would reject his heretical faith. The rebel refused the terms; he would rather remain in his dungeon than practise hypocrisy. Again the father besought the son, through an Arian priest, to renounce his false doctrine, and again Ermenigild was resolute. In a passion, he cursed the cleric, crying: 'As the minister of the devil, thou canst only guide to hell! Begone, wretch, to the punishments which are prepared for thee!' This was more than Leovigild could bear. He immediately sentenced his son to death. The legend of Ermenigild's last days relates that on the night of his execution a light from Paradise shone in his cell, and that angels watched over the grave, singing hymns in his praise. Ermenigild was sainted, and one of his bones is at Zaragoza.

It was in this time of religious stress and civil discord that Saint Isidore of Seville began his labours. For about thirty-six years he ruled as governor of the church in the city. His hand was open towards the poor, and he preached with fervid eloquence. It is to the industry of Isidore that Spain owes respect, for his writings are the only basis for a history of the chief events during the Gothic epoch. He wrote the Historia de Regibus Gothorum, Wandalorum et Suevorum, and one of the celebrated books of study of mediævalism, The Etymologies or Origins of Things.

San Isidore's philosophy was Platonic and Aristotelian. In theology he followed the teaching of St. Gregory the Great. He was a puritan in his attitude towards the play.

'What connection,' he writes, 'can a Christian have with the folly of the circus games, with the indecency of the theatre, with the cruelty of the amphitheatre, with the wickedness of the arena, or with the lasciviousness of the plays? They who enjoy such spectacles deny God, and, as backsliders in the faith, hunger after that which they renounced at their baptism, enslaving themselves to the devil with his pomps and vanities.'

The gift of oratory possessed by Saint Isidore was predicted in his infancy by the issue of a swarm of bees from his mouth. His body was laid to rest, in 636, in Seville.

When King Fernando decided to collect all the bones of martyrs and saints that he could find in the cathedrals and burial grounds, he raised an army and came to Seville, which was then under the Moors. Ibn Obeid, the chief of the Moriscoes, favoured Fernando's scheme, and allowed the King to enter the city to search for the remains of Justus. These bones could not be found; but while the seekers were at their task the spirit of Saint Isidore appeared to them, and said that the remains of Justus could not be discovered, as it was ordained that they should rest at Seville. Saint Isidore then offered his own remains for removal, and his embalmed corpse was taken to the Church of John the Baptist, in León, in 1063.

Until the time of Recared I. the Goths in Spain remained Arians. When they forsook their early faith, they adopted a ritual which differed from that of the Catholics. It was not until the reign of Alfonso VI. that the Roman service was used throughout the land. The civil law of the Goths was founded on the Forum Judicum of the Romans. This lengthy code became later the Fuero Juzgo, and was eventually adapted to the community by Alfonso X. in 1258, and known as the Siete Partidas, or Seven Sections. Under the Gothic code slavery was permitted, and great power was vested in the hands of the nobility.

'The old Roman civilisation,' writes Mr. H. E. Watts, in his Spain, 'which the Celtiberians had been so quick to adopt, sat awkwardly on these newer barbarians. It was a heritage to which they had not succeeded of nature, and a burden too great for them to support? The Romans had made one nation of Spain. The Visigoths were not much more than an encampment.' When the Berbers, new converts to Mohammedanism, began to cast envious eyes upon lovely Andalusia, the Goths were demoralised through easy living in a southern clime. Spain had become a nation of lords and serfs, and the slaves, the mass of the people, had no heart to fight for the land that had been wrested from them.

When Tarik, lieutenant of Musa, came with a force of seven thousand Berbers to battle for the Prophet and to conquer Spain, the Gothic King, Roderic, hastily collected an army of defence and advanced towards Xeres. Theodomir, Governor of Andalusia, had learned that the invaders were marching from Algeciras, where they landed on the 30th of April 711. The Berbers had many horsemen, well-equipped and valiant, while Roderic possessed only a small number of mounted men.

It was not until 19th July that the decisive and memorable battle was fought. The Gothic King met his foes on the banks of the Guadalete (Wad-el-leded) 'the river of delight.' It is said that the combat lasted for seven days. The Goths, though enervated, had not wholly lost their prowess, and they strove desperately with the fierce host of Tarik. So bravely fought the defenders that the Moors grew disheartened; but their leader, sword in hand, and calling upon Allah, told his troops that they had no vessels with which to escape from the country. The Berbers must win or perish. Spurring his steed, Tarik dashed into the Gothic ranks, cleaving a way as he rode, and inspiring his followers to a supreme effort. Roderic also rallied his soldiers to a last stand. His army numbered more than that of the Berber general, but the men were ill-trained, and no match for the desperate enemies who had battled in many campaigns.

Some Spanish historians assert that the sons of Witiza, the King dethroned by Roderic and sentenced to death, aided by other traitors, deserted their companies and joined the Berbers. It has also been recorded that Count Julian, whose daughter was dishonoured by Roderic, had allied himself with the foe in Africa. These stories have not, however, been accepted by later chroniclers.

The battle was to the Moors. Roderic was either killed on the field by Tarik himself, or taken prisoner and released to spend the rest of his days in a monastery. One account states that Tarik slew his opponent, and sent the head to Musa, who had it conveyed to the Court at Damascus. The beaten Goths retreated rapidly before the advancing army. Some followed Theodomir into Murcia, others went to the Asturian mountains. The band of the Andalusian Governor was pursued by the enemy and routed; and Theodomir was compelled to surrender and to confess fealty to the Khalif. Upon this condition the Governor was allowed to possess Murcia and parts of Valencia and Granada, his territory being known as Tadmir.

Seville was soon in a state of siege. Envious of the good fortune of his lieutenant, Musa came to Andalusia with eighteen thousand Arabs of valour. He was assisted in command by his sons Abdelola and Meruan. His eldest son, Abdelasis, remained in authority in Africa. The Sevillians made a valiant defence of their beautiful city; but after several weeks of siege Musa led his army through the gates. From that hour, until its capture by Fernando III., the Andalusian capital was in the hands of the Moors. Carmona and neighbouring towns were also seized by Musa.

After the subjection of Seville, the Arab general started upon a campaign. It appears that Musa had not left an efficient force within the city walls, for the inhabitants rose and attempted to expel their victors. Hearing of the trouble, Musa sent his son Abdelasis into Spain to quell the revolt in Seville. Abdelasis used suasion first; but the natives were in arms and ardent to regain the city. They prepared for a second siege. With much slaughter, the son of Musa put down the rebellion of the newly-conquered citizens, and proceeded through the south of Spain, winning battles everywhere. Musa was so gratified by his son's successes that he appointed him ruler of the annexed territory.

Abdelasis had a reputation for humane conduct towards the vanquished people. He fell in love with Egilona, widow of the unfortunate Roderic, and made her first a member of his harem and afterwards his wife. That he respected her is shown by the fact that her counsel was always sought in affairs of government.

The Berber King of Seville was to learn that the throne is not the most peaceful resting-place after war's alarms. Scandal was set abroad that Abdelasis was scheming to become sole ruler of the Berber dominion, and this report reached the ears of Suleyman, brother and heir of the Khalif. There is no doubt that Suleyman resented the favour shown to Musa and his sons, while he feared that Abdelasis might one day contest with him for sovereignty. Seized by this fear, the heir to the crown gave secret orders for the killing of the three sons of the great commander, Musa.

One day, while Abdelasis was taking part in the devotions within the Mosque of Seville, hired murderers crept up to him and stabbed him to death. The two brothers of Abdelasis shared the like fate. The head of the King was sent to the Khalif at Damascus, who caused it to be shown to Musa. Then the brave general, gazing in anger upon his sovereign, cried aloud: 'Cursed be he who has destroyed a better man than himself!' The distracted Musa fell sick through grief, and soon died.

There is another account of the death of Musa. His jealousy of Tarik, who conducted the first successful campaign in the Peninsula, led the general to treat his inferior officer with indignity. The friends of Tarik at Damascus, in the Court of the Khalif, breathed vengeance upon Musa, and prevailed upon the monarch to punish his commander-in-chief. A party of arrest seized Musa in his camp, and brought him before the Khalif, who commanded that he should be degraded and publicly beaten. The disgrace broke Musa's heart and caused his death.

Abdelasis was succeeded by Ayub, who acted as Viceroy of the Khalif. The new ruler preferred Córdova to Seville, and thither he removed with his retinue. For a long period the city was one of lesser importance; but it gained greatness and independence under Abul Kâsein Mohammed in 1021. In the time of Abbad and Al-Motamid II. the population of the town rose to four hundred thousand, and the grandeur of the place rivalled, if it did not exceed, that of Córdova. In 1078 proud Córdova was subject to Seville, and the ancient metropolis of the Moors in Spain was falling into decay, while 'the pearl of Andalusia' was shining in its chief splendour.

Abderahman I., Emir of Córdova, in 777, made a bold stroke by proclaiming himself Khalif and sole ruler of Spain. It is not necessary to recount the victories of Abderahman. He came in triumph to Seville and was bade welcome. 'His appearance, his station, his majestic mien, his open countenance,' writes Dunham, 'won the multitude even more perhaps than the prospect of the blessings which he was believed to have in store for them.' Abderahman's rule in Seville laid the foundation of the city's prosperity. He narrowed the channel of the Guadalquivir, and made the river navigable; he built residences, and laid out gardens, and transplanted the palm tree into Spain. We read that the Moorish King was honourable, bold and generous, and possessed of a fine sense of justice. He encouraged letters, and was a benefactor of educational institutions. The King was also a poet, and loved the society of intellectual men.

Although the peaceful arts flourished in Seville at this period, the city was frequently the scene of battle. Conspiracies, factions and revolts constantly disturbed Spain, and during the reign of Abderahman several rival chiefs made assault upon Seville. One of these was Yusuf, who raised troops, took the fort of Almodovar, and moved towards Lorca. There he was met by Abdelmelic, general of Abderahman, who overcame the rebel force, killed the leader, and sent his head, after the Oriental manner, to the King. The trophy was displayed at Córdova. But the rebellion was not quelled by Abdelmelic's victory. Yusuf's three sons gathered an army and made attacks upon Toledo, Sidonia, and Seville. Another insurrection broke out at Toledo, under one of Yusuf's relatives, Hixem ben Adri el Fehri.

Upon the advice of Abderahman's first minister, the King proposed an amnesty, to last for three days. Hixem accepted the terms, and gained pardon. But he abused the King's clemency at a later date, and came with a body of troops to the gates of Seville. There was hard fighting, but the Governor, Abdelmelic, preserved the city and drove away the foe. Strife was again caused by the Wali of Mequinez, one Abdelgafar, who came bent upon the capture of Seville. The Wali was encountered by Cassim, young son of Abdelmelic. Fear seized the youthful officer, and he fled with his soldiers. He was met by his father, who drew his dagger and killed the young man, saying: 'Die, coward! thou art not my son, nor dost thou belong to the noble race of Meruan!' The Governor then pursued the enemy, but they escaped him, and came near again to Seville. Abdelmelic hurried to the Guadalquivir, and in a night fight he was overcome and received a wound. The troops of the Wali poured into the city. But in spite of his injury the Governor entered Seville, and after a furious combat expelled the host of Abdelgafar. The Wali was afterwards caught and killed on the bank of the Xenil. In reward for his bravery, the King made Abdelmelic Governor of Eastern Spain.

It is stated that, in 843, a fleet of ships, manned by Norman pirates, sailed up the Guadalquivir. The pirates made a sudden raid upon Seville. The inhabitants were taken by surprise, the town was robbed, and the thieves made good their escape to the river.

Seville in the days of Moorish might was one of the fairest cities on earth. Beautiful palaces were built upon the sites of the Roman halls, gardens were shady with palms, and odorous with the blossom of orange trees, and there were hundreds of public baths. The streets were paved and lighted. In winter the houses were warmed, and in summer cooled by scented air brought by pipes from beds of flowers.

Poetry, music and the arts were cultivated; the philosopher and the artist were held in respect. There were halls of learning and great libraries, which were visited by scholars from all parts of Europe.

The Alcázar, the Mosque, the lordly Giralda Tower and other remains testify to the ancient splendour of Seville. It was the Moor who applied the method of science to the cultivation of the plains, who bred the cattle, introduced the orange tree, and planted the palm in the city. Granada and Seville were centres of silk-growing. Here were manufactured the damascened swords and other weapons, and beautiful metal work of divers kinds, which was in demand all over Spain for centuries. Moorish civilisation was unsurpassed for its handicrafts and architectural decorations. Long after the Christian reclamation of Seville, the Mudéjar, or Moor, living under the new rule, was employed by the State to construct bridges and to build castles, to design houses, and to decorate them with the wonderful glazed tiles and imperishable colours.

Among the learned Moors of Seville the most eminent was Abu Omar Ahmed Ben Abdallah, known as El Begi. Abu Omar's father had spared no cost in providing for his son's education. He employed as tutors the greatest scholars of the time, and sent the lad to Africa, Syria, Egypt and Khorassan in order to confer with sage men and doctors of repute. At the age of eighteen years Abu Omar was wonderfully cultured, and as he grew to middle age there was no man who could surpass him in knowledge of arts and sciences. 'Even in his earliest youth, the Cadi of that city, Aben Faweris,' says Condé, 'very frequently consulted him in affairs of the highest importance.' El Begi, the Sage, was born in Seville and lived there during most of his life.

Many philosophers must have mused in this cultured age amid the orange trees of the court of the magnificent mosque. From the summit of the Giralda, astronomers surveyed the spangled sky, making observations for the construction of astronomical tables. Chemists questioned nature in the laboratories by means of careful experiments, and mathematicians taught in the schools. There were seventy public libraries in Andalusia; the library of the State contained six hundred thousand volumes, and the catalogue included forty-four tomes. Scholars also possessed large private libraries. There was no censorship, no meddling with the works of genius. Men of science were encouraged to investigate every problem of human existence. Abu Abdallah wrote an encyclopædia of the sciences. The theory of the evolution of species was part of the Arab education. Moorish thought was destined to influence Spain for ages. The discovery of the New World was due to the Mohammedan teaching of the sphericity of the earth, and it was the work of Averroes that set Christopher Columbus thinking upon his voyage of exploration.

The Moors in Seville were not only a cultured and devout community. They were commercial and manufacturing, weavers of cotton, silk and wool, makers of leather and paper, and growers of grain. In their hours of recreation they played chess, sang and danced. Their dances have survived to this day in the south of Spain, and may be witnessed in the cafés of Seville and Malaga.

CHAPTER II
The City Regained

'All the intellect of the country which was not employed in the service of the church was devoted to the profession of arms.'

Buckle, History of Civilisation.

IN 1023 Abu el Kásim Mohammed, then Cadi of Seville, raised a revolt against the Berber rulers of Andalusia. The rising was successful, and the town once more became a capital. Under the Abbadid dynasty, and the rule of Motadid and Motamid, Seville was secure and peaceful. Stirring days came with the rise of the Almoravides in the eleventh century. In Morocco, Yussuf, son of Tashfin, had been inspired to wage battle in the name of a reformed religion. The Almoravides, or Mourabitins, i.e., 'those who are consecrated to the service of God,' were a fanatical sect led by an intrepid warrior. They had made havoc in Northern Africa, deposing sovereigns and seizing territory. Now they were to make history in Spain.

Under Alfonso III. the Spaniards of the northern and central parts of the Peninsula had prospered in their arduous task of stemming the advance of the Moors northwards. Spain had won back Asturias, Galicia, and part of Navarre, and in time León and Castile were restored to Christian rule. But under Almanzor, a most redoubtable commander, León fell, and the whole population of its capital was slaughtered. The death of Almanzor, in 1002, brought about vast changes for the Moorish kingdom in the south of Spain. There was no great leader to control the fortunes of Islam. The territorial governors were in constant dispute, and often at war one with the other. It was a golden opportunity for the soldiers of the Cross.

In 1054 Fernando I., a sagacious ruler of León and Castile, made a crusade against the Moors of Portugal, and brought the King of Toledo to his knees. He besieged Valencia and brought his troops into Andalusia. Under Alfonso VI., Toledo was recovered, amid the rejoicings of the Christian host, who anticipated a speedy delivery from the Morisco domination. The coming of Yussuf and his fierce Almoravides dashed the hopes of Alfonso's army. Finding themselves encompassed with growing dangers, the Moors of Spain begged the assistance of the powerful Almoravides. A conference of the Moorish rulers was held at Seville, and a message sent to Yussuf. The Almoravide King was astute. At first he displayed but little sympathy for his brethren in Spain. But the offer of Algeciras induced him to promise aid, and he came with a strong army of Moors and Berbers. Alfonso was informed that a profession of belief in the creed of Mahomet would spare him from certain death. The Christian sovereign replied by allying himself with Sancho of Navarre, and bringing a force to meet Yussuf. Between Badajoz and Merida the armies met in a terrible conflict. Alfonso was forced to retreat, and for the present Yussuf offered no further demonstration of his military skill.

Next year the King of Morocco returned to Spain with his army, and exhorted the Moors of Andalusia to unite with him in a war of extinction. The petty sovereigns showed but little enthusiasm for a campaign. Probably they distrusted Yussuf's motives. Such suspicion was not without a basis, for when the Almoravides came for the third time, the monarch plainly stated that he purposed to annex all the remaining Mohammedan region. With a hundred thousand men, Yussuf took Seville and Granada. Alfonso came to the assistance of the Sevillians with a force of twenty thousand; but the Almoravides seized the city, and held it until the days of the Almohades in 1147.

Alfonso then sought the alliance of France to assist his nation in expelling the African invaders. But the power of the Almoravides grew. Córdova was their seat of government, and Seville was one of their most important cities. The Moriscoes in Spain were no longer an independent race, but under the sway of Morocco. Motamid II. doubtless rued the hour when he sought aid from Yussuf. Fair Seville had passed out of his hands.

At this time there arose the famous Cid, the revered warrior and type of Spanish chivalry. Many are the legends and ballads extolling the bravery of this champion of Christendom. Some of the stories of his deeds are so improbable that certain historians of Spain have regarded the hero as a character of fable; but Professor Dozy has investigated the old chronicles, both Spanish and Moorish, and reached the conclusion that there was a Cid, a mighty soldier and a devout Catholic, named Rodrigo Diez de Bivar. There is no doubt that the Cid loved the field of battle from his youth, and that he was ever ready to fight, sometimes for the Christians, and sometimes for Moorish chieftains at war with one another. In the end he became a valorous freebooter, with a following of the sons of noble families. The Cid came at least on one occasion to Seville as an emissary of King Alfonso to Motamid, to collect sums due from the Arab ruler. Motamid was then at strife with Abdallah, King of Granada, who was assisted by certain Christian caballeros, including Garci Ordoñez, formerly standard-bearer to Fernando. The Cid endeavoured to restrain the King of Granada from making war upon Motamid's city, but Abdallah was not to be influenced for peace. He went forth and was met by the combined armies of the Cid and Motamid of Seville, and defeated with much loss. Ordoñez and the Christian cavaliers were taken prisoners. The Cid took his tribute, and certain costly gifts for Alfonso from Motamid, and departed. Soon after this episode in Andalusia, Alfonso heard that Rodrigo, the Cid, had retained some of the presents sent by the King of Seville. This report was set going by Garci Ordoñez in revenge for his defeat at the hands of the Cid and Motamid, and the tale was credited by King Alfonso. There was already prejudice against the Cid in the royal mind, and Alfonso was still further displeased when his general went to attack Abdallah without permission. When he heard that, to crown all, the Cid had exhibited dishonesty, Alfonso was wroth, and banished Rodrigo from the kingdom. But the Cid gained immense power and homage as an independent sovereign, and when Alfonso was in sore need of a general to fight for him against the Almoravides, he approached the gallant Rodrigo with assurances of friendliness, and solicited his aid. Perhaps the missive of Alfonso went astray; at anyrate, the Cid did not at once respond to the King's call for help. This apparent apathy incensed Alfonso. Again he sought to punish the Cid, confiscating his estates and imprisoning his wife and children. And again the invincible Rodrigo proclaimed himself a king on his own account. He died in 1099, and at his death his territory was taken by Yussuf, the Almoravide. The Cid's bridle, worn by his steed, Babieca, hangs in the Capilla de la Granada, in the south-east corner of the Court of the Oranges at Seville.

The Almoravides appear to have been an exceedingly energetic and turbulent race. They were, indeed, too fond of warfare, for they were constantly fighting amongst themselves when they were not at war with the Christians. Under their dominion every ruler of a city who could raise troops called himself sovereign, and made attack upon the governor of the nearest wealthy centre. The Almoravide rule was not so just and prudent as that of the Moors who preceded them, and the people groaned under its despotism. Conquest by the Almohades came as a redemption from the tyranny of the Almoravides.

In Northern Africa, the land of prophets and of new sects, Mohammed, son of Abdalla, proclaimed himself the Mehdi, and gained the adherence of a great horde of devotees. These Unitarians were even more fervent in piety than the Almoravides. The Mehdi's general, Abdelmumen, soon became the victor of Moorish Spain. Seville was secured by the invaders in 1147, and remained under the Almohade rule till 1248. The Almohades built the great mosque, with its high minaret, part of the structure being formed of stonework of the Roman period; the Alcázar, a huge palace, which extended as far as the bank of the Guadalquivir to the Golden Tower, and many other magnificent edifices. The palace of the Moorish sovereigns at Seville was erected in the form of a triangle, with the chief gate at the Torre de la Plata (Silver Tower), which stood in the Calle de Ataranzas until 1821, when it was taken down.

Trade revived in the city after its capture by the Almohades; the weavers, the metal-workers, and the builders and the decorators of houses found constant employment under the new ruler, Abu Yakub Yussuf. The Christian Spaniards saw a revival of the Mohammedan fortunes, and lamented the influx of this vigorous infidel host. Earnest prayers were addressed to the knights of the Cross in all the nations of Europe beseeching succour for the faithful in Spain. Pope Innocent III. declared a crusade, and called upon foreign Christian rulers to aid the Spaniards, with the result that a number of French and English crusaders travelled to Spain. A memorable battle was fought in the Sierra Morena, the range dividing Castile from Andalusia, and the Almohade army was almost destroyed. After this repulse the Moors never made a military demonstration of any importance in Castile, but remained in Andalusia and the southern districts. Seville and Córdova each had a different governor; the Almohade unity was ruptured, and the empire was crumbling.

We have now reached the last days of the Morisco rule in Seville. The deliverer, Fernando III., the adored Saint Fernando, came to the throne at an auspicious hour, and upon his accession made ready for war upon the Mohammedans. In 1235 Córdova was taken by Fernando, and Jaén and other towns fell into his hands. Assisted by Aben Alhamar, King of Granada, who had been compelled to yield allegiance to the victorious Fernando, the Christian monarch marched upon Seville. The inhabitants prepared for a stubborn defence. A Moorish fleet guarded the mouth of the Guadalquivir, while the troops of the Almohades awaited attack within the city. Fernando sent war vessels from the Biscayan coast to San Lucar to attack the Moorish fleet. The navy was in the command of Admiral Raymond Boniface (Ramon Bonifaz), and in an engagement the Moorish ships were driven from their position. Bonifaz lived in Seville after the capture of the town. On the front of a house in Placentines, now the shop of a dealer in antiquities, there is this inscription in Spanish and French: 'Esta casa fué cedida por el Santo Rey D. Fernando III. à su almirante D. Ramon Bonifaz cuando conquesto à Sevilla libertando del dominio Sarraceno.'

The infidels next made a stand on land, but failed to overcome the army of Fernando. For fifteen months Seville was besieged. Provisions were brought into the town from the surrounding district of Axarafa, thirty miles long, on the right bank of the Guadalquivir. This highly-cultivated region is said to have contained a hundred fertile farms. Seville was connected with the suburb of Triana (the town of Trajan) by a bridge of boats and a chain bridge. The boat-bridge was broken by Fernando during the siege by launching heavy vessels upon it. But still the defenders held out behind their high, broad walls, driving back the charges of the Christians against the sturdy gates, and raining missiles from the towers. At length, when Triana and Alfarache were in the hold of Fernando's force, and all food supplies cut off, the defenders were forced to yield. On 23rd November Fernando made a triumphal entry. The vanquished ruler, Abdul Hassan, who had proved a most courageous defender, was offered territory and money if he would continue to live in Seville, or in a city of the kingdom of Castile, as a dependent officer of the King. The Moor proudly rejected these terms; he preferred to leave the scene of his defeat, and with thousands of his people he departed for Africa. It is stated that three or four hundred thousand Moors had quitted Seville before its capture. If this is true, only a few Almohades remained in the place. Those who elected to stay were bade to render the same tribute to Fernando as they had been in the habit of paying to their princes. Such as desired to return to their country were offered the means of travelling and protection.

The triumphant King, escorted by his troops, the loyal inhabitants and the clergy, proceeded to the mosque. Christian bishops purified the temple, and dedicated it to the service of God and the Virgin, and a high and imposing Mass was celebrated. Amid festivities and ceremonies, Fernando took possession of Seville and all its rich treasure. He occupied the Alcázar, then in its pristine splendour, and divided the houses and land around the city among his knights.

The Christian King was brave, and his treatment of the conquered shows that he had a strain of mercy in his nature. He was, however, an intensely bigoted pietist, for at Palencia he set fire with his own hands to the faggots to burn heretics. His austerities were excessive, and fasting is said to have weakened his body. Fernando died from dropsy at Seville, four years after his conquest of the town. On his deathbed he called his son Alfonso, bade him farewell, and exhorted him to follow justice and clemency. Then, amid deep sorrow in the city, the King took the Mass, and passed away. In 1671 Fernando III. was canonised by Pope Clement X.

The keys of Seville, which were given up by the Governor at the surrender of the city, may be seen in the cathedral. One key is of silver, and bears the inscription: 'May Allah grant that Islam may rule for ever in this city.' The other key is made of iron-gilt, and is of Mudéjar workmanship. It is lettered: 'The King of Kings will open; the King of the Earth will enter.' San Fernando's shrine is on view in the cathedral on May 30, August 22 and November 23, when honour is paid to the body of the sainted monarch by the soldiers of the Seville garrison, who march past with the colours lowered.

In the collection of paintings in the house of Señor Don Joaquin Fernandez Pereyra, 86, Calle Betis, Triana, there is a picture attributed to Velazquez, and said to have been painted by him at the age of twenty-eight, representing the Sultan of Seville handing the keys of the city to San Fernando.[A] It is said that Velazquez painted himself as model of the King. If the work is not that of the master, it is by an artist of parts. The colour is good, and the horse well drawn and painted.

Fernando III. was succeeded by his son Alfonzo X., El Sabio, 'the Learned.' He occupied the Palace of the Alcázar, and devoted his leisure to the study of geometry, ancient laws, history and poetry. The King wrote verse to the Virgin in the Galician dialect, which resembles the Portuguese tongue, and was, for his age, a versatile and accomplished scholar. His ambition was great, and though he was called 'the Learned,' he was prone to serious error in the conduct of the affairs of government. He attempted to take Gascony, which was then in the possession of Henry III. of England, and governed by Simon de Montfort. The King's military enterprises were costly, and as they failed, the people resented the increase of taxes, and especially the measure of direct taxation. When Alfonso presented Algarve to the King of Portugal, with his natural daughter, Beatrice de Guzman, the nobles rebelled under the King's brother, Felipe, and were aided by the King of Granada. Alfonso invited the malcontent party to a conference of arbitration at Burgos. The knights were appeased; but the King was forced to yield his ground, and to make many concessions. Upon the death of Alfonso's eldest son, Fernando, a dispute arose concerning the heir to the crown. Fernando left two sons, born to him by Blanche, sister of Philip IV. of France. The second son of Alfonso, Sancho, was announced as rightful successor, but this proclamation was a cause of offence to Philip IV., who claimed that the eldest child of his sister was the lawful heir to the throne of Castile. The King of France demanded that Alfonso should restore the dowry to Blanche, and allow her and the children to come to France. Alfonso refused the request. War was then declared by Philip of France; and further anxiety was caused by the disloyalty of Sancho, who took the lead of the discontented party, and laid siege to Toledo, Córdova, and other towns. The King was at his wit's end. He begged aid from Morocco, from the infidels, while, at the same time, he desired the Pope to excommunicate Sancho. Eventually the quarrel between King and Prince was patched up. Alfonso appears to have cherished affection for his unruly son, for upon hearing, soon after the reconciliation, that Sancho was seriously ill, the King died of grief.

So closed the troubled career of Alfonso el Sabio. He was a type of the bookish student, a great reader, but without a knowledge of human nature, and devoid of aptitude for governing a nation. In his fondness for book-learning, and his incapacity for ruling, Alfonso may be compared to James I. of England. It is claimed to the credit of the learned monarch that he encouraged the arts and education in the royal city of Seville, and founded the university. He loved the retirement of his study in the beautiful Alcázar rather than the council seat; but, at the same time, he had a craving for power and wished to extend his realm. Alfonso the Learned presented a reliquary to the chapter of the cathedral, which may be seen among the treasures. His body rests in the Capilla Real (Royal Chapel), where it was interred in 1284.

There is but little of interest to record in the annals of Seville until the time of Pedro I. Under Alfonso XI., a great council was held in the city to discuss plans for defending Andalusia from the Emperor of Morocco, who had landed in Spain with a powerful army. The King of Portugal attended the conference and promised his support, and in a battle fought near Tarifa the invading force was driven back. During the reign of Alfonso XI., the Earl of Derby and the Earl of Salisbury came to Spain, to fight for Christianity, and to offer amity to the martial King.

With the death of Alfonso XI., we come to the days of his son, Pedro I., the most renowned of all the Christian sovereigns who made court at the capital of Andalusia. The reign of Pedro el Cruel abounds with so much 'incident' from the story-teller's point of view, that many tales, ballads and plays of Spain are concerned with the exploits of this remarkable King. In some of the narratives he is portrayed as a veritable monster of cruelty and perfidy; in others he is represented as a severe, but just, monarch, with sympathy for the lower classes. Pedro was sixteen when he came to the throne. Fearing an attempt on the part of Enrique (son of Alfonso XI. by his mistress, Leonora de Guzman) to seize the crown, Pedro contrived to lure Leonora to Seville, and to imprison her in the Alcázar. From this dungeon the wretched woman was sent to other prisons, until she was done to death. There was no limit to Pedro's ferocity when his malignity was aroused. His deeds suggest an insane lust for bloodshed, and a delight in the infliction of suffering. He killed with his own hand, or by the aid of bravoes, all relatives, rivals and dangerous persons who came within his power. His first wife was Blanche of Bourbon, niece of King John of France; but he deserted her in two days, to return to his mistress, the lovely Maria de Padilla. When Pedro's fancy fell upon the handsome Juana de Castro, he declared that his union with Blanche was invalid, and induced the Bishops of Salamanca and Avila to perform a marriage service. Soon after the wedding Pedro left his bride, and insolently avowed that he had only experienced a passing passion for her.

One day Abu Said, King of Granada, wrote to Pedro of Seville, begging an audience of him that he might seek his help in resisting an enemy, Mahommed-ibn-Yussuff. To this request Pedro acceded. Abu Said, escorted by three hundred of his court, and a number of menials, journeyed to Seville, and was received most graciously by the King, who gave orders that the visitor and his retinue should be well cared for in the Alcázar. The Red King, Abu Said, possessed a splendid treasure of jewels. Among the precious stones was the famous ruby which now decorates the royal crown of England. It is possible that the Moorish King intended to present certain of his gems to Pedro, for we read that he brought his treasure with him to Seville. But his host, hearing how fine a store of jewels lay within his reach, commanded a number of hired murderers to purloin the treasures by force. The guest and his nobles were surprised in their apartments; they were stripped of their valuables and money, while the Red King was deprived of the very clothes that he wore. Dressed in common raiment, and seated upon a donkey, the unfortunate Abu was taken, amid the derision of the rabble, to a field without Seville, and there executed with thirty-six of his courtiers. Pedro's excuse for his treachery and cruelty was that the King of Granada had betrayed him in his war with Aragon, a charge that could not be founded.

Among the beauties of Seville of that date was the Señora Urraca Osorio. When Pedro saw her, he vowed to bring her within his power. At first he paid her compliments and endeavoured to win her favour by flattery and gifts. Urraca was a proud woman. In all likelihood she recoiled from this brutal flatterer and deceiver of women, and not even his kingly rank could induce her to pay the least heed to his addresses. No one dared to foil Pedro; the señora doubtless surmised the revenge that the King would plan against her. Yet she bravely refused to lend her ear to his proposal, preferring death to the forfeiture of her self-respect. Then Pedro threatened a terrible punishment. Urraca still refused. Faggots were piled in the market square of the town, and the persecuted lady was led forth and burned to death in public.

The people of Seville seem to have been hypnotised by their cruel sovereign. For these horrible deeds they even offered pleas of extenuation, and, according to some Spanish historians, Pedro was one of the most popular of the kings that lived in the city after its restoration to the Christians. A certain Bohemian strain in the King's character no doubt appealed to a mass of his subjects. He was credited with sympathy for the labouring class and a desire to protect the people against the tyranny of the nobles. Where his own personal interests were not concerned, Pedro the Cruel sometimes evinced that sense of equity that led Felipe II. to describe him as 'the Just.' But in private matters Pedro displayed no trait of justice and no hint of magnanimity.

Now and then Pedro would muffle himself in his capa, don his sword, and wander from the palace after dark to the low quarters of Seville. He liked to study the life of the Mudéjares, the Jews, and the artisans, and to rub shoulders with his subjects when they were scarcely likely to recognise him. One night the King was roaming in the alleys of the city, keeping an eye upon all who passed by, and probably hoping that he might find an unlucky watchman off his guard and neglecting his duty. Suddenly a passing hidalgo pushed against the King. Pedro abused the stranger; there was an altercation, and swords were whipped out of their sheaths. In the dim light of the thoroughfare the combatants clashed blades, and engaged in a duel to the death. Presently the King's opponent received a thrust in a vital part of the body, and falling to the pavement, he lay bleeding to death. A few weeks before this night's encounter Pedro had forbidden street-fighting, on penalty of capital punishment for the unwary custodians of order in the city.

With a grim smile, the King sheathed his weapon and went home to the Alcázar, musing upon the consternation of the authorities when the corpse of the caballero was discovered. Next morning he sent for the Alcalde, or Mayor of the city. 'Sir,' said Pedro, 'you fully understand that I hold you accountable for any breach of the peace that occurs in the streets of Seville?' The Mayor humbly responded that he knew the fresh regulation which his majesty had been pleased to enforce. At that moment a page brought word to the King that the dead body of a hidalgo had been found, early that morning, in the plaza near where the Casa Pilatos now stands. 'What means this?' demanded Pedro, turning to the affrighted Alcalde. 'If the murderer of this gentleman is not found in two days, understand that you will be hanged.' The Mayor's face was white as he bowed himself from the royal chamber. With a sinking heart he prepared himself for his fate. There was scarcely any hope of tracking the assassin in forty-eight hours.

The wretched Mayor sat down in his room to meditate upon the best means of tracing the criminal. Meanwhile the story of the murder was abroad, and people were talking of the affair. The gossip reached the ears of an old woman, who went at once to the Alcalde, telling him that she had seen a fight from her bedroom window late during the previous night. The combatants appeared to be gentlemen, but to make sure, she lit a candle and leaned out of the window. One man had his back towards her, and she could not see his face. But of the identity of his opponent she was quite certain: it was his majesty the King, and no other. When she saw, beyond a doubt, that it was the King who plunged his blade into the hidalgo's breast, she felt terrified, blew out the candle, and withdrew her head from the window.

'Thank God!' cried the Mayor, seizing the old woman's hand. Then he hurried to the Alcázar, sought a hearing from the sovereign, and said that he had found the murderer of the hidalgo. The King smiled. 'Indeed, your majesty,' said the Alcalde, 'I can let you look him in the face when he hangs on the gallows.' 'Good!' replied Pedro, still smiling incredulously.

Hastening to the quarter of the Moorish artisans, the Mayor ordered them to make a cunning effigy of the King, and to bring it to him without delay. A few days after, the Alcalde requested his majesty to attend the hanging of the criminal in the Plaza de San Francisco. Greatly curious, Pedro came to the place of execution. And there, upon the gibbet, he saw a dummy of himself dangling from the rope. Struck with the humour and ingenuity of the Mayor's device, the King said: 'Justice has been done. I am satisfied.' The street where Pedro fought with the hidalgo is called the Calle della Cabeza del Rey Don Pedro, and the alley where the old woman lived is known as the Calle del Candilejo, or 'street of the candlestick.'

In visiting the Alcázar we shall have more to recall of the career of Pedro the Cruel. The palace is haunted with memories of the King and of Maria de Padilla. Pedro was fond of Seville and preferred the Alcázar to any other residence. He made many alterations in the palace, built the rooms around the Patio de la Monteria, and brought material for their construction from the remains of Moorish edifices in Seville, Córdova, and other places.

When Pedro caused his unfortunate wife, Blanche, to die in prison, from the dagger, or by poison, his subjects were at length aroused to indignation. The insensate ruler was bringing the nation to the verge of ruin by his misdeeds. France resented the dastardly murder of Blanche of Bourbon, and the King vowed revenge on Pedro. Enrique, brother of Pedro, was fighting for the crown, and had been proclaimed Sovereign at Toledo; while the Sevillians, who had long endured their King's severities and condoned his cruelties, were up in arms and threatening the royal palace. Pedro fled from Seville, and came eventually into Aquitaine, to the court of the English Black Prince at Bordeaux. The chivalrous Black Prince espoused the cause of Pedro against Enrique, pitying the fugitive King who had been forced to leave his country. In return for his support, Pedro offered his English ally a large sum of gold, and the great ruby stolen from Abu Said in the Alcázar of Seville.

The campaign was decided in favour of the King of Spain, but its hardships cost the Black Prince his life. Pedro was again acknowledged King. His downfall was, however, fast approaching. Enrique conquered his brother, soon after the departure of the English army, and came to see him at Montiel in La Mancha. It is said that Pedro was treacherously drawn into a trap. In any case, he fell by the dagger of his brother Enrique; and so ended violently the life of one who had lived in violence and bloodshed.

As our story is more concerned with the city of Seville than with the fortunes of the rulers of Spain, we may resume the narration at the time of Isabella and Fernando. No incidents of signal importance occurred in Seville between the death of Pedro I. and the accession of the famous Catholic Queen. With the reign of Isabella, the city became the theatre of events that influenced the whole of the nation, and indeed the whole of Christendom.

It was at this time that the arts and letters of Spain began to revive. In Seville the year 1477 is the date of the first setting up of a printing press, by one Theodoricus el Aleman (the German). Konrad Haebler, in his work on The Early Printers of Spain and Portugal, says that for fifteen years the only printers in the city were German immigrants. One of the early important books printed in Seville was Diego de Valera's Cronica de España. In 1490 a firm of printers, under the title of Four German Companions, opened business, and in three years published nine volumes, while two years later there was a rival press owned by another German.

It was in 1493 that the city saw the return of the great Columbus from his first voyage. For a long time the blue-eyed, dreamy Genoese, Christoforo Colombo, had mused upon the scientific works of the cultivated Moors, and speculated upon the existence of other lands far away across the restless ocean. Sceptics laughed at the dreamer; the clergy frowned at his impudent theories; but a few bold adventurers were inspired by his enthusiasm.

The story of his setting forth has been often told. Let us welcome the sunburnt explorer upon his return to Seville on Palm Sunday 1493. The wondering people are all anxious to catch sight of Cristobal Colon, the Italian, who claims to have discovered a New World. He passes down the streets, a tall, brawny man, bronzed, with red hair, which became white at the age of thirty. To those who question him he replies with dignity and courtesy, becoming eloquent as he describes the marvels of the vast country beyond the sea. The whole city is talking of the great news; the foreign sailor is the hero of the hour. And now those who doubted Colon's sanity are singing his praises in all the public meeting-places of Seville. An office for the administration of this new country is instituted in the city. From the Queen and her Consort to the seller of water in the streets, everyone utters the name of the explorer with admiration. The ecclesiastics, who declared that it was impious to assert that the earth is a globe, are vexed that they have been found wrong in their arrogant statements. They continue to quote from the Pentateuch, and the writings of St. Chrysostom, St. Jerome and St. Augustine to show that pious authority was on their side.

Queen Isabel had encouraged the Genoese sailor in his project, and the wealthy Pinzon family, of Palos, had assisted him with means, some of them also accompanying the explorer on his first voyage. Columbus was made an admiral, and promised further support in his expeditions. In May 1493 he started again, having with him fifteen hundred men and a fleet of fifty vessels. The crews of these ships were made up of adventurers, gold-seekers, idlers and a sprinkling of scoundrels selected by the Government. In the company there were priests, and it was through the machinations of one of them, Father Boil, that Christopher Columbus incurred the displeasure of Isabel and Fernando. By every ship that was bound for Spain from the New World, Boil sent complaints of Columbus. Unfortunately, Isabel lent her ear to these slanders, and sent Francisco Bobadilla to dismiss Cristobal Colon, and to take his place. Bobadilla took possession of Columbus's charts and papers, put him into chains, and sent him, like a felon, in the hold of a ship to Spain.

It is pitiful to read of the degradation of this honest and brave man, whose energies built up the prosperity of Spain, and made Seville one of the busiest cities of Europe. He laid his case before the Queen and Fernando, and vowed that he had in no sense neglected his duty towards the country of his adoption. We know that he was 'forgiven,' but the insult offered to him preyed upon the sensitive mind of the explorer. Yet he again resolved to visit the land that he had discovered; and in 1503 he left Spain with four worn-out ships. A year later Columbus returned for the last time. The people of San Lucar, at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, welcomed back a captain in shattered health, and a crew wearied by hardship and exposure.

Columbus now longed to settle quietly in Seville, and to end his days there. He found that his popularity was waning, and that his rents had not been collected properly during his absence. With the death of Isabel he lost royal patronage. His last voyage had cost him much; but the people of Seville believed him to be immensely rich, whereas his income was now meagre. 'Little have I profited,' writes Columbus, in a letter, 'by twenty years of service, with such toils and perils; since, at present, I do not own a roof in Spain. If I desire to eat or sleep I have no resort but an inn; and for the most times have not wherewithal to pay my bill.'

In his last days we picture Christopher Columbus bending over the manuscripts, which may be seen in the Biblioteca Columbina, the library at Seville founded by the natural son of Columbus. One of the manuscripts treats upon biblical prophecy. It was written to appease the Inquisitors, who, to the last, suspected the discoverer of heresy. Writing of this Apologia, Washington Irving says that the title and some early pages of the book are by Fernando Columbus; 'the main body of the work is by a strange hand, probably by Friar Gaspar Gorricio, or some other brother of his convent.' There are signs in the hand-writing that Columbus was old and in poor health when he wrote the work. The characters are, however, distinct. There are passages from the Christian Fathers and the Bible, construed by the author into predictions of the discovery of the New World.

The gallant voyager was now prematurely aged, though he had led an abstemious life. Disappointment at the neglect of the world no doubt preyed upon his spirits in these last days of his career, for it is said that he possessed 'a too lively sensibility.' Upon the whole, Columbus was ill-used by Spain, though his memory is revered. It is the old, sad story of worth and genius. In 1506 Cristobal Colon died in a poor lodging at Valladolid. He left a son, born to him by his mistress, Beatrix Enriquez. In his will Columbus left money to Beatrix.

Great honour was paid to the body of the famous explorer. Columbus was buried in the parish church of Santa Maria de la Antigua. Some years later the Sevillians desired that the remains should be removed to their city, and they were then carried to the Carthusian monastery of Las Cuevas, to the Chapel of St. Ann, or of Santo Christo. The house of Las Cuevas was a fine one, celebrated for its pictures and treasures, and surrounded with orange and lemon groves. But the bones of Columbus were not to remain in Seville. They were taken, in 1536, to Hispaniola, and laid in the principal chapel of the Cathedral of San Domingo. Finally the remains were removed to Havanna.

While paying due respect to Christopher Columbus, we must not forget the great services rendered to the country generally, and to Seville, by Fernando de Magallanes, or Magellan, who embarked at that port in August 1519 with five vessels. Passing the Canary Islands and Cape Verde, the Portuguese explorer reached Brazil, and went south to Patagonia, 'the land of giants,' arriving eventually at the dangerous straits which bear his name. Magellan never returned to Spain. Only two of his ships reached the Moluccas, and of the five that started but one came back to Seville on the homeward journey.

These were the days when Seville was a bustling port of embarkation, and a great storehouse for treasure from America and the Indies. A fever of emigration seized the adventurous spirits of Andalusia; and Andrea Navigiero, a Venetian ambassador, who journeyed through Spain in 1525, says that the population of Seville was so reduced that 'the city was left almost to the women.'

The discoveries and conquests of Pizarro, who came to Seville after his first voyage, added to the enthusiasm for emigration. But Pizarro found it a hard matter to raise money for the expenses of a second expedition. He contrived, however, to man three ships, and was about to start, when the Council of the Indies sought to inquire into the state of the vessels. Fearing that he might be hindered from his scheme, the explorer set sail at San Lucar, in great haste, and made for the Canary Islands.

It was in January 1534 that Hernando, brother of Francisco Pizarro, was directed to return to Seville with a great hoard of treasure. The Custom House was filled with ingots, vases and ornaments of gold, and the inhabitants were much interested in the splendid spoil. Hernando Pizarro came later under a charge of cruelty to the subject race of South America. In his Spanish Pioneers, Mr Lummis tells us that 'Hernando was for many years imprisoned at Medina del Campo, and that he died at the age of a hundred. His brother, Francisco, who was born at Truxillo, in Estremadura, was a swineherd in his boyhood. Fired with the spirit of romance and adventure, the lad deserted his herd of pigs and ran away to Seville, where he found scope for his restless energy, and was able to influence seafaring men to accompany him on a cruise of discovery.

Seville was now at the height of its commercial prosperity. There was a constant come and go of trading vessels; the silk trade was greatly developed, and leather was made for the markets of Spain. Isabel took much interest in the improvement of the commerce of the city. When she ascended the throne, Seville was notorious for its gangs of thieves and criminals of all kinds, while the surrounding country was insecure through the numbers of bandits who waylaid and robbed traders and farmers on the roads. The Queen determined to stamp out crime by rigorous measures. She held a court in the salon of the Alcázar, and, in the Castilian custom, presided over the hearing of criminal charges. Once a week, Isabel sat in her chair of state, on a daïs covered with gold cloth. For two months she conducted a crusade against robbery in the city, recovering a great amount of stolen property, and condemning many offenders to severe penalties. Her severity struck alarm among the vagabond and thieving population, and probably terrified a number of the people who had reason to fear justice. Four thousand subjects left the town. The respectable burghers grew concerned, dreading that this depopulation would injure the city and deprive it of workmen. A deputation of citizens waited upon Isabel and begged her to relax her austerity. The Queen was therefore prevailed upon to offer an amnesty for all offenders except those convicted of heresy.

Isabel's fortunes as a ruler were largely determined by her charms. The Sevillians could not fail to worship the tall, fair young Queen, with the frank and beautiful countenance and blue eyes. Her very unconventionality delighted her court and the army; and when she rode at the head of her troops, in a suit of mail, with a sword by her side, every caballero was ready to follow the fair commander through blood and fire. Isabel's sword, a pretty little weapon, is to be seen in the Real Armeria at Madrid.

The Queen was one of those magnetic personages to whom all things are permissible. Even in modern times it is considered unseemly for a Spanish woman to engage in field sports, or any kind of athletic exercise; but the Spaniards of Isabel's day not only forgave, but revered, the Queen who sat on the judicial bench, donned masculine attire, carried weapons, and took a man's part in the government of her state. Had it not been for the terrible taint of bigotry, which led Isabel to sanction deeds of persecution and cruelty, her character would have presented an example approaching the excellence with which enthusiastic historians have credited it.

Four years after the accession of Isabel there began the reign of the Inquisition in Seville. When Alfonso de Hoyeda, Prior of the city, and Felipe de Barberis, Inquisitor of Sicily, persuaded Fernando that a crusade against heresy would replenish his exchequer by means of confiscation, the King was induced to listen to their proposal. At first Isabel recoiled from this scheme of torture and plunder. But her woman's mind and heart were not secure against the insidious influence of the priests, who used their utmost powers of suasion to convince her that Heaven approved of the destruction of heretics. Finally the Queen gave way; and the 17th of September 1480 saw the setting up of the tribunal of the Holy Office in the Dominican Convent of St. Paul at Seville.

M'Crie, in The History of the Reformation in Spain, states that 'in the course of the first year in which it was erected, the Inquisition of Seville, which then extended over Castile, committed two thousand persons alive to the flames, burnt as many in effigy, and condemned seventeen thousand to different penances.' We must note, however, that according to Prescott these figures refer to several years and not to the opening years of the institution of the Holy Office in Seville. By the end of October 1481 it is recorded that three hundred persons had been burned to death in Seville. In about thirty-six years, four thousand victims went to the stake in the city, while many times that number were condemned to slavery, to perpetual imprisonment, to short terms, and to other punishments.

'The modern Inquisition,' writes M'Crie, 'stretched its iron arms over a whole nation, upon which it lay like a monstrous incubus, paralysing its exertions, crushing its energies, and extinguishing every other feeling but a sense of weakness and terror.' Many of the Sevillians fled from the city and sought the protection of the Duke of Medina Sidonia, the Marquis of Cadiz, and the Count of Arcos.

At this period a frightful pestilence swept over Seville, reducing the population by thirty thousand, and causing great suffering. The clergy resorted to prayer; charms and relics of the saints were displayed in the churches; but little or nothing was done in the way of preventing a spread of the plague by sanitation, or of alleviating the malady by medical science. It is a saddening picture—the people dying of the disease, thousands languishing in dungeons, and a multitude filled with fear lest they should succumb to the epidemic, or fall into the hands of the Inquisitors. Puigblanch, author of The Inquisition Unmasked, states that the number of the banished and the 'reconciled' in Andalusia from 1480 to 1520 was a hundred thousand. He asserts that forty-five thousand persons were done to death in the Archbishopric of Seville during this period.

Without the city, on the Prado de San Sebastian, is the burning ground. As we stand there, the imagination conjures a procession accompanying a victim to the awful torture of the stake. The doomed man is an aged and devout Morisco, who has saved money by his industry. He has been found guilty of infidelity, and he has refused to partake of the Christian sacrament. He is dressed in the sanbenito, a yellow garment, with pictures of devils kindling a fire and burning faggots, and on his head is a fantastic conical cap of pasteboard, called the coroza. First comes a troop of soldiers to clear a path for the procession through the jostling rabble. The soldiers are followed by several priests in canonical vestments, and the boys of the College of Doctrine, who chant the liturgy. Then comes the convicted heretic, with a familiar on either side, and two friars, followed by the judges, ministers of government, and hidalgoes on horseback. In another procession comes the Inquisitors, and their standard of red, with the names and insignia of Pope Sixtus IV. and King Fernando upon it. The members of the Holy Office are escorted by esquires, and in the rear is a great mob of towns-people. But enough: imagination is at this point repelled. We turn away from the scene, and enter the shady gardens that stretch along the Guadalquivir, to scent the flowers and to listen to the thrush and nightingale.

We cannot, however, close our perceptions to the fact that Seville played an important part in the Inquisition. In roaming the streets of the city, it is impossible to forget that this mighty instrument of fanaticism has left its impress on Spain. We remember that every son of Seville who dared to exercise his conscience in the matter of religious belief ran the risk of ending his life upon the Prado de San Sebastian. The terror of this institution must have blighted the lives of millions of Spaniards. And we are moved to the reflection that the good which Isabel performed with one hand was almost destroyed by the evil inflicted by the other.

The story of Rodrigo de Valer, one of the first to embrace the Lutheran faith in Seville, is of deep interest. In the fashionable resorts of the town and at the jousts no youth was more popular than Rodrigo. He had charming manners, sat a horse gracefully, and could break a lance with the most skilful knights of the ring. His wealth procured him every pleasure; he gratified a taste for dress and spent much money upon horses. Suddenly he was missed from the dance and the tournament. His friends could not account for this changed mode of life. A passion for study had taken possession of the young man; and day after day he sat pouring over the Vulgate, and improving his knowledge of Latin, so that he might understand the book. In a few months Valer was able to quote long passages of the Bible from memory. Then he left his study and went back to his gay companions as an apostle of a new form of faith. He approached the clergy and the monks, and by argument endeavoured to convince them of the errors of their creed and ritual, appealing to the Bible as the criterion of religious truth. The priests were little inclined to listen to Rodrigo. But when they avoided him, the youth sought them, engaging them in discussion in the streets and striving to set forth his new doctrine. At length the indignant clerics of Seville brought the heretic before the Holy Inquisition. So cogent were his arguments that some of the members who secretly shared his opinions used their influence to save him from punishment. Fortunately Valer was of good family. He was declared to be insane, and spared from an extreme penalty, but his estates were taken by the tribunal.

Rodrigo's relations now strove to dissuade him from renewing his endeavours to reform the Church. What could one helpless man achieve against the whole weight of authority? But Rodrigo was full of zeal. He began again to denounce the teaching of the clerics, inspired by the belief that others would soon follow him. For the second time he was arrested on a charge of heresy and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

In the Church of St. Salvador, where Rodrigo was taken on days of festival, the fervent youth would rise after the sermon and condemn the teaching of the pulpit. Only his rank saved him from the flames. He was eventually imprisoned in a monastery of San Lucar, where he died at the age of fifty. Valer's sanbenito was displayed for a long time in the metropolitan church of Seville. It was inscribed: 'Rodrigo de Valer, a citizen of Lebrixia and Seville, an apostate, and false apostle, who pretended to be sent of God.'

The teaching of Valer was not without fruit. He was the founder of a small, but fervent, sect of Lutheran Christians in Seville, whose doctrines gradually found acceptance among a number of the people. One of the reformed party was Juan Gil, known as Doctor Egidius, preacher in Seville Cathedral, who was joined by Vargas and the celebrated Constantine Ponce de la Fuente. M'Crie says that 'the small society in Seville grew insensibly, and became the parent stock, from which branches were taken and planted in the adjacent country.' Persecution was inevitable. Egidius was denounced and thrown into prison, while Vargas was murdered, and Ponce de la Fuente banished. After a long incarceration, Egidius returned to Seville; but he caught a fever, and died in a few days. De Montes says that the writings of Egidius, which were never printed, were worthy of praise. The Doctor wrote commentaries on Genesis and the Psalms, and while in prison he composed an essay on 'Bearing the Cross.'

Protestantism spread in Seville at this time. There was a church under the care of Doctor Christobal Losada, which met in the house of a lady of rank, Isabel de Baena, and was attended by the nobles Don Juan Ponce de León and Domingo de Guzman. In the Dominican Monastery of St. Paul, in the Nunnery of St. Elizabeth, and especially in the Convent of San Isidro del Campo, the new doctrines found disciples.

One of the victims of the Inquisition was Torrigiano, the Florentine sculptor, whose statue of St. Jerome is in the Museo Provincial at Seville. The monument of Henry VII. in Westminster Abbey is the work of this artist, who ended his days in the cells of the Inquisitors' prison in Seville, in 1552. There is no doubt that many of the hapless prisoners died of diseases contracted in the insanitary dungeons of Seville and Triana, for Olmedus, one of the sufferers, describes the dens as vile in 'nastiness and stench.' The ordinary gaols were crowded, and many persons were immured in the Castle of Triana, and in the convents of the city.

At Triana resided Gonzales-Munebrega, Archbishop of Tarragona, whose name was coupled with that of Torquemada as a ruthless persecutor. This officer of the Inquisition might be seen by the trembling populace walking in the castle gardens, accompanied by a guard of servants. Munebrega wore rich clothes of purple and silk, and maintained great pomp. He exhibited extreme cruelty, and scoffed at the sufferings and cries of the tortured.

Llorente and Bernaldez relate some sickening details of the savage modes of torment imposed upon the victims of the Inquisition in Seville. It is not necessary that the tales of horror should be retold here. The first auto-da-fé celebrated in the city was in 1559, when Don Juan Ponce de León and several other apostates were committed to the flames in one of the chief plazas. Ponce de León was described as 'an obstinate Lutheran heretic.' The heroic Doctor Juan Gonzalez, of Moorish ancestry, was burnt upon the same day for preaching Protestant doctrines. We see him leaving the Triana gaol on the morning of execution, 'cheerful and undaunted,' though he was accompanied by his two sisters, both of whom were condemned to the stake, and had left behind in the prison his mother and two brothers. The Doctor sang the 109th Psalm, and attempted to console his sisters, whereupon a gag was thrust into his mouth.

'When they were brought to the place of execution,' writes M'Crie, 'the friars urged the females, in repeating the creed, to insert the word Roman in the clause relating to the Catholic Church. Wishing to procure liberty to him to bear his dying testimony, they said they would do as their brother did. The gag being removed, Juan Gonzalez exhorted them to add nothing to the good confession which they had already made. Instantly the executioners were ordered to strangle them, and one of the friars, turning to the crowd, exclaimed that they had died in the Roman faith.' Doctor Christobal Losada, the pastor of the Protestant church in Seville, suffered death courageously upon the same day.

Isabel de Baena, who allowed meetings of the Protestants in her house, and Maria de Bohorques were among the women of high birth who were burned in Seville. The story of the last-named lady has been told in a romance by a Spanish writer, entitled Cornelia Bororquia. Maria de Bohorques came into the grip of the Holy Office before the age of twenty-one. She was a pupil of Egidius, and a diligent student of the Scriptures. When seized and tortured by the Inquisition, she refused to name those of her friends who shared her belief. Doña Maria was then sent to the stake.

Llorente recounts that two Englishmen were burned at one of the autos of Seville. Nicholas Burton, a merchant of London, who traded with Spain, arrived with his vessel at San Lucar while the persecution was raging in Seville. Somewhat imprudently, Burton spoke contemptuously of the Inquisition, though M'Crie states that the accusation of insolence was false. Burton was burnt alive, together with William Burke, a seaman of Southampton, and a Frenchman, named Fabianne. The Holy Office then seized Burton's cargo; but a part of it belonged to a London tradesman, who sent one John Frampton to Seville, with a power of attorney, to recover the goods. Frampton failed to make good his claim after four months of negotiation, and he returned to England to find greater powers. When he landed again in Spain, the agent was arrested, put in chains, and thrown into the dungeon of Triana. The charge against him was that he had a volume of Cato in his bag. He was questioned as to his creed, and ordered to repeat the Ave Maria. Subjected to the torture of the rack, the wretched man was forced to confess anything that his torturers desired. Frampton was imprisoned for two years, and then granted his freedom. His 'Narrative' is to be found in Strype's Annals.

The unfortunate Constantine Ponce de la Fuente, who was one of the most active members of the reformed church in Seville, was seized by the Inquisition, and confined in an underground cell for two years, when dysentery put an end to his sufferings. In 1781 the last martyr perished in the flames at Seville. 'I myself,' writes Blanco White, 'saw the pile on which the last victim was sacrificed to human infallibility. It was the unhappy woman whom the Inquisition of Seville committed to the flames, under the charge of heresy, about forty years ago. She perished on a spot where thousands had met the same fate.' A traveller in Spain, named Wiffen, says: 'In the year 1842, whilst travelling in that country, I found myself in the Alameda Vieja of Seville, in front of the house formerly occupied by the Inquisition, where several of the prisoners were confined who were burned at the auto-da-fé of 1560.'

Such is the story of the Inquisition in Seville. I have not willingly dwelt upon this dark page in the history of the fair city. But it has been necessary to refer to the chronicles of this reign of terror; for the institution of the Holy Office in Seville is a matter of historic importance, and no record of the town could be in any sense complete if the annals of the Inquisition were overlooked. And in changing to a happier theme it is necessary that I should point out the repugnance that masses of the people of Seville exhibited towards the introduction of this engine of persecution in the city. Llorente, the Spanish historian of the Inquisition, tells us that when Fernando and Isabel commanded the Governors of the provinces to supply inquisitors and assistants to the royal capital, the inhabitants regarded the arrival of the agents of the Holy Office with extreme dissatisfaction, and that difficulty was experienced in collecting together 'the number of persons whose presence was necessary to the legal opening of their assembly.'

Let us view the city of Isabella the Catholic in a brighter aspect. In the year 1490 an ambassador from Lisbon came to the Alcázar of Seville to confer with the Queen concerning a proposed marriage between young Alonso, heir to the Portuguese throne, and Isabel, the Infanta of Castile, and the dearly-loved namesake of the royal mother. It was with mingled sentiments of joy and sadness that Isabel consented to the union. The month of April was chosen for the ceremony of betrothal, and it was arranged that feasts and tournaments should succeed the official celebration. Great preparations were made for the festivities. The lists were constructed on the bank of the Guadalquivir; hangings of costly material draped the galleries erected for the spectators of the jousts, and the royal palace was prepared for the reception of noble guests, knights of prowess, and their dames and daughters. On the first day of the fêtes a splendid procession passed through the streets to the lists, where thousands of the nobility were seated, all anxious to witness a combat in the arena between King Fernando and one of his most accomplished knights. The charming Infanta delighted everyone as she came with her seventy ladies-in-waiting, in court dress, and her hundred gallant pages as bodyguard. It was a scene which the people long recalled. All the rank and loveliness of Castile and Andalusia were around the arena when the sports began; the mail and weapons of the combatants glistened in the dazzling sunlight of the green meadow; and loud were the plaudits when his majesty broke his first lance in a furious and exciting tilt with a renowned esquire and champion of the lists. Throughout the tournament, Fernando acquitted himself as a true knight of the order of chivalry, displaying much courage and a great knowledge of the art of the tourney. In the autumn Isabel bade adieu to her daughter. A great retinue came to the Alcázar, to accompany the Princess to Portugal, in charge of the Cardinal of Spain and the Grand Master of St. James.

By the Sevillians, Isabel appears to have been feared as well as worshipped. The aliens in the city, all except those who chose to embrace the Catholic faith, had, indeed, good reason to fear their Queen. Isabel's treatment of the Jews cannot be called humane, but she enjoined just conduct towards her Indian subjects. The Queen was humble in her obedience to the Chief Inquisitor, Torquemada, and ever ready to listen to the counsels of her spiritual guides. Towards heresy she showed no clemency, and her measures for dealing with bandits and other criminal offenders were excessively severe. But the romantic personality of Isabella the Catholic will always appeal to the imagination of the Andalusians.

CHAPTER III
Seville under the Catholic Kings

'In her own interior Spain had an arduous problem to solve—she had to overcome the old energetic resistance of a whole people—the tolerably numerous descendants of the former lords and conquerors of the country who still adhered to the Arabian manners and language, and even in part professed the doctrines of the Mohammedan.'—Schlegel, Philosophy of History.

SEVILLE in the sixteenth century was at the height of its prosperity. We have seen how the discoveries of Columbus, Magellan, and the brothers Pizarro enriched the city, brought vessels to the port with costly store, and opened a vast foreign trade. In every quarter of the town the hum of industry was heard. The Morisco artisans, who had become 'reconciled' to the Christian creed, laboured in stone and metal, and there were silk weavers, leather workers, potters, and gold and silver smiths. One hundred and thirty thousand persons worked at the looms, which were numbered at sixteen thousand.

Learning and the arts benefited by the increase of the city's wealth. The university, founded by Alfonso the Learned, was extended; the cathedral library was enlarged, and Seville became famous for its poets, historians, romance writers, and playwrights. Pacheco, painter and poet, had his circle of gifted artists and men of letters; and the doors of the Casa Pilatos, the beautiful mansion of the Dukes of Alcalá, were open to all the lovers of learning and the students of art. Sculptors and painters were constantly employed upon works of art for the royal palace, the cathedral, and the churches. The Mudéjar architects and builders were engaged by rich dons, who had prospered by the discovery of the New World, to design and erect sumptuous residences in the Morisco style. Charitable institutions, such as the Hospital de la Caridad, were founded and liberally endowed, and an asylum for foundling children was built in the Calle de la Cuna. The highly ornate Casa de Ayuntamiento, or City Hall, was designed by Diego de Riaño, and Hernan Ruiz built the upper part of the Giralda.

The Emperor Charles V., one of the wisest rulers of Spain, occasionally made his residence at the Alcázar during the palmy days of Seville, though he favoured Segovia and Valladolid. The marriage of the monarch with Isabella, daughter of Emanuel, King of Portugal, was celebrated in the Alcázar of Seville with much splendour, and the ceremony was followed by feasts and diversions. Isabella of Portugal was a gifted woman, and extremely beautiful, and the union proved very happy. Charles was at this time highly admired in the city; but at a later date even the loyal Sevillians showed their displeasure with the Emperor. Certain of the merchants of the town disregarded the royal command that all the bullion brought in by the India fleet should be stored in the warehouse of the Board of Trade, and kept there in case the Government required to raise funds quickly for war expenses. The owners of the gold naturally preferred their shipments to the Government bonds promising repayment. They therefore secretly removed the bullion to their own houses. This action angered Charles, as the same practice enraged Philip at a later date, and the Emperor ordered the culprits to be put in chains, sent to prison, and to be deprived of their possessions. The command was heeded at once; and the merchants, and the officials who had connived at the misdemeanour of removing the bullion, were conveyed under a strong guard to Simancas. One of the offenders was put on the rack and died under torture. The gold was, however, never recovered by the State.

The gorgeous Salón de Carlos V. was constructed in the royal palace during the reign of the Emperor, who also laid out the gardens on a new plan, and built the handsome pavilion in the grounds.

Philip II. had been on the throne for many years before he paid his first visit to the southern metropolis. The King loved his mountain palace, the Escorial, where he passed his days in writing records of his reign, sending dispatches, and shooting with the gun and crossbow. Prescott says: 'It was a matter of complaint in the Cortes that he thus withdrew himself from the eyes of his subjects.' Even in his visits to Madrid, Segovia and Seville, Philip avoided society, and shut himself up in his closet with a great heap of papers on his table. When he travelled, the King rode in a close carriage, and tried to avoid the gaze of his subjects. As he grew older he developed a still stronger aversion to being seen abroad.

In 1570, at the time of the preparations for the great war with the Turks, the recluse-King came to Seville. His entry was made the occasion of a splendid ceremonial and a demonstration of loyalty on the part of the inhabitants. Philip came from Córdova, and was met on the outskirts of the city by the officials and soldiery. Taking his oath to respect the privileges of the city, the Sovereign rode through the crowded streets in pomp, accompanied by knights and guards. A splendid canopy was held by the chief justices over the King's head as he proceeded to the Cathedral to take part in a solemn service. The monarch then took up quarters in the Alcázar, which he occupied for a fortnight. During his stay in Seville, Philip appeared at the fêtes which had been arranged for his entertainment. To show their homage to the King, the people of the city subscribed a hundred thousand ducats as a donation towards the cost of Philip's marriage with his fourth wife, Anne of Austria.

The heavy expenses of the war in the Netherlands and with Turkey led to a despotic method of obtaining pecuniary supplies. Philip needed money, and to secure it as quickly as possible, he ordered that the officials of the Casa de la Contratación at Seville should seize the cargoes of gold and silver that had just arrived in the port. This action aroused much indignation in the city, and the people grew incensed when the command was again given to confiscate the bullion consigned to merchants of Seville. When a number of treasure ships were on their homeward journey, the King sent Admiral Alvaro de Bazán to the Azores to intercept the vessels; and immediately upon the arrival of the fleet at San Lucar, the whole of the shipment was sent to Santander, and from that port to Flanders.

Under Philip II. the Church in Seville rose to great power, and increased in wealth. The Archbishop of the city received an income of eighty thousand ducats a year, and the minor clergy profited by the King's patronage of the Church. It is not surprising that many of the sons of families of rank and position crowded into the profession of priest, and that the number of persons in holy orders soon swelled enormously. Arts and handicrafts were not considered gentlemanlike pursuits; the industry of the city was relegated to Spaniards of low birth, to the Mudéjares, and to aliens. The caballero of Seville aspired to join the Church Militant, or to enter the army. When Philip III., the Good, came to the throne there were no less than fourteen thousand chaplains in the diocese, while a hundred clerics were on the staff of the Cathedral alone.

The oppression of the Moriscoes in the city became severer in the days of Philip II. Doubt was cast upon the genuineness of belief among the 'reconciled' Moors, and they were bidden to cease reading books in the Arabic language, to abandon their ceremonies, to change their mode of dress, and to speak in Spanish. The public baths, built by the cleanly Moriscoes, were destroyed in every city, and the Mudéjares were even forbidden to bathe in their own houses. These mandates exasperated the Moriscoes throughout Andalusia. They rebelled and fought desperately; but after frightful bloodshed and suffering, they were quelled and broken down, never to regain their ancient sway. The suppression of the heretics was complete by the time of Philip III. And at this time began the decline of Seville's prosperity.

When Philip V. reigned, the sixteen thousand looms of the city had been reduced to less than three hundred, and the population was thinned to 'a quarter of its former number of inhabitants.' In the fruitful district around Seville the vineyards and olive gardens were in a state of neglect, and fields once fertile became wastes. Trade declined rapidly with the extirpation of heresy. The industrial population was deprived of its most skilful and industrious members when the last band of Moriscoes quitted the city. In the seventeenth century Andalusia suffered fearful poverty. Whole villages were deserted, the land was going out of cultivation, and the tax-collectors were enjoined to seize the beds and such wretched furniture as the indigent peasants possessed in their cheerless houses.

When Philip II. died, loyal Seville honoured the departed King by a magnificent funeral service in the Cathedral. A monument, forty-four feet square, and forty-one feet in height, was designed by Oviedo, at a cost of fifteen thousand ducats. Montañes, the famous sculptor, whose work is to be seen in several of the Seville churches, produced some of the statuary to adorn the monument, and the young Pacheco, then unknown, assisted in the decoration. On November 25, 1598, the mourning multitude flocked to the dim Cathedral. While the people knelt upon the stones, and the solemn music floated through the long aisles, there was a disturbance among a part of the congregation. A man was charged with deriding the imposing monument, and creating a disorder in the holy edifice. He was a tax-gatherer and ex-soldier of the city, named Don Miguel de Servantes Saavedra. Some of the citizens took his side, for there was a feud between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of Seville, and the tax-gatherer had merely shown public spirit. The brawler, whom we know as Cervantes, was expelled from the Cathedral with his companions, and order was restored. But he had his revenge. He went to his room and composed a satirical poem upon the tomb of the King, which was soon published and read everywhere in the city. Here is one of the English translations of the poem:—

TO THE MONUMENT OF THE KING AT SEVILLE.

The discovery of the New World, with its opulence of treasure, and the expulsion of the Moriscoes, did not yield a permanent prosperity to Seville. Even before the death of Philip II., the few far-sighted and reflective men doubted whether a great influx of gold and silver, and the annihilation of freedom of thought, were likely to benefit Spain, either in the material or spiritual sense. The gold fever seized like a frenzy upon the avaricious, and the early colonisers turned their backs upon any country that lacked precious minerals. Nothing save gold and silver was considered valuable. As a consequence these minerals became redundant, and in the meantime the cultivation of the land at home and abroad, and the development of manufactures, were neglected. No one had the enterprise to prevent the silting up of the tidal waters of the Guadalquivir, and so Seville lost its importance as a busy port.

While nobles were fighting for gold, and harrying heretics, briars and weeds were spreading over the fields that the patient Moors had tilled and made marvellously fertile. The establishment of the alcavala tax upon farming produce and manufactured articles hastened the decline of agriculture and of crafts in Andalusia. Finally, under the Bourbons, Cadiz became the rival of Seville, and the Council of the Two Indies was removed to the southern port in 1720. In good or ill fortune Seville remained loyal, winning for itself the title of: Muy noble, muy leal, muy heroica é invicta, i.e., 'Very noble, very loyal, very brave and invincible.'

Some interesting pictures of Seville at the close of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries are to be found in the Letters from Spain, by D. Leucadio Doblado, written in 1824. Doblado is the pseudonym of Blanco White, son of the British Vice-Consul at Seville in those days. White was born in the city in 1775, brought up as a Spaniard, and sent to the University. His parents were very austere Catholics, but reading and study developed a sceptical tendency in young White's mind, and he subsequently came to England and was well-known in Unitarian circles.

In his Life, Blanco White describes the quaint ceremony of entrance into the University of Seville. 'Every day of the week preceding the admission, the candidate was obliged to walk an hour in the principal quadrangle of the college, attended by one of the servitors, and his own servant or page—a needy student who, for the sake of board, lodgings and the cast-off clothes of his master, was glad in that humble capacity to go through the course of studies necessary for the profession—Divinity, Law or Medicine—which he intended to follow.' The custom of the caravanas was a trying ordeal for the student. He was compelled to run the gauntlet of the gibes of a mob of spectators, as a trial of his patience. No physical violence was permitted, except when a candidate lost his temper. An irascible victim was speedily ducked in the basin of the fountain of the quadrangle. Ladies came to see the sport. When White passed through this ordeal, he was dressed in fantastic garments, and led by his tormentors by a rope.

In 1800, Blanco White saw the outbreak of yellow fever that ravaged the city. The plague began in Triana, and the infection was said to have been brought from Cadiz by seamen. As in previous instances of pestilence, there was no enforced isolation of the diseased, and no relief of the suffering poor. Prayers were offered for succour in the Cathedral and the churches, and a special service of the Rogativas, used in the times of severe affliction, was performed on nine days after sunset. One of the choicest relics of the Cathedral, a piece of the True Cross, or Lignum Crucis, was exhibited as a charm on the Giralda Tower. Many persons advised that a wooden crucifix, in one of the chapels of the suburbs, should be also employed. It had been of great service in the plague of 1649, staying the epidemic after half of the inhabitants had been destroyed. A day was fixed for the solemn ceremony of blessing the four winds of heaven with the True Cross from the Cathedral treasury. The great fane was crowded with supplicants. As the priest made the sign of the Cross, with the golden casket containing the Lignum Crucis, a frightful clap of thunder made the Cathedral tremble. In forty-eight hours the deaths increased tenfold. The heat, the polluted air of the Cathedral, the infection that spread among the worshippers, and the fatigue of the service caused a great spread of the fever in the city. Eighteen thousand persons perished from the pestilence.

During the Peninsular War, Soult's troops did considerable damage to parts of Seville. The church that contained the bones of Murillo was pillaged by the soldiers, and the tomb of the great painter was destroyed. On February 1, 1810, the city surrendered with all its stores and arsenal, and Joseph marched in. The French force had appeared before Seville in January 1810. 'In Seville all was anarchy,' writes Sir W. F. P. Napier, in his History of the War in the Peninsula; 'Palafox and Montijo's partisans were secretly ready to strike, the ancient Junta openly prepared to resume their former power.' It was a time of revolt in the city; mobs went through the streets, calling for the deposition of the Junta, and vowing violence against the members. Seville was besieged for the last time in 1843, at the time of Espartero's regency. An account of the siege is given in Revelations of Spain, by an English Resident, who writes: 'I saw full twenty houses in different parts of the city—this was about the entire number—which Van Halen's shells had entirely gutted. The balls did limited damage—a mere crack against the wall, for the most part a few stones dashed out, and there an end. But the bombs—that was indeed a different matter! Wherever they fell, unless they struck the streets, and were buried in the ground, they carried destruction. Lighting on the roof of a house, they invariably pierced through its four or five floors, and bursting below, laid the building in ruins.' Probably not more than twenty lives were lost through the bursting of the shells. Most of the men of the city were defending the walls, and the women took refuge in the churches. The Cathedral sheltered a large number of women and children, who slept and cooked there. The Junta of Seville occupied the Convent of San Paolo during the siege.

Edward VII. of England, when Prince of Wales, paid a visit to Seville, and spent several days in the city, in 1876.

We have now briefly surveyed the more interesting events in the history of the city and noted incidents in the lives of eminent Sevillians from the time of the Goths until the present century.

CHAPTER IV
The Remains of the Mosque

'I have never entered a mosque without a vivid emotion—shall I even say without a certain regret in not being a Mussulman?'—Ernest Renan, Islamism and Science.

IN the year 1171, Abu Yakub Yûsuf, the conquering Moor, began the building of a mighty mezquita, or mosque, in the captured city of Seville. The important work was given into the hands of a famed architect, one Gever, Hever, or Djâbir, the correct spelling of whose name has puzzled the historians. Gever is said to have been 'the inventor of Algebra.' Whether he really designed the Mosque is difficult to determine. Some Spanish writers have asserted that the first stage of the Giralda Tower was commenced in the year 1000 of the Christian era 'by the famous Moor, Herver.' From the discovery, at a great depth, of certain pieces of Roman masonry, it is supposed that an amphitheatre once occupied the ground now covered by the Cathedral, the Giralda, and the Court of the Oranges.

There is no doubt that the Mosque of the Almohade ruler was a vast and noble building, resembling in most of its characters that of Córdova. The minaret, now called the Giralda, is certainly one of the most ancient buildings in the city. It is recorded that the Moorish astronomers used the tower as an observatory. Probably the minaret served the double purpose of praying-tower and astronomical outlook. In building the tower the remains of ruined Roman and Gothic structures were used by the Moors, just as the Christians afterwards employed portions of the mosques and palaces for building their temples. The original minaret was about two hundred and thirty feet in height. At each corner of the minaret stood four huge brass balls, which were thrown down in the earthquake of 1395.

If we enter the precincts of the old Mosque by the Puerta del Perdón, in the Calle de Alemanes, we shall see the bronze-covered doors which may have formed one of the entrances to the building. The bronze has been spoilt by paint, but one can note the distinctly Moorish character of these great doors. This gate was reconstructed by Alfonso XI. after the victory of Salado. In its present state it dates from 1340. Bartolomé López added the plateresque ornamentations about 1522. The sculptures over the doorway are statues of St. Peter and St. Paul, an Annunciation and the Expulsion of the Money Changers from the Temple. Before the Lonja was built, the merchants of Seville used the court within as an exchange. Hence the relief of the Expulsion, a fine piece of carving by the Italian, Miguel, representing Christ chastising the money changers from the Temple. Miguel of Florence was one of the early Renaissance sculptors who came to Spain.

Under the archway of the Gate of Pardon is a modern shrine. At almost all hours of the day sin-stricken supplicants, chiefly women, may be seen kneeling on the stones before the altar.

Through the gateway we enter the quiet retreat of the Patio de los Naranjas, or the Court of the Oranges, which formed the courtyard of the ancient Morisco temple. The lofty Cathedral is before us; on the left towers the imposing Giralda, and to the right hand is the Sagrario, or parish church. There is a beautiful Moorish fountain in the centre of the court, with an octagonal basin. Every Morisco patio had its fountain, orange and lemon trees, and marble seats. In the walls of the Sacristry of the Sagrario, we shall find further traces of the Moorish decoration in the form of azulejos which belonged to the original Mosque.

The patio is smaller than that of the mezquita of Córdova, and with the exception of the few relics which I have described, there is not much suggestion of former grandeur.

But imagination calls forth the figure of a Mueddjin upon the minaret, chanting the Adyân, or call to prayer, as the sun tints the sky at its setting. The worshippers repair to the baths to purify themselves for devotion by washing their bodies. 'Regularly perform thy prayer at the declension of the sun,' says the Sura, 'at the first darkness of the night and the prayer of daybreak; for the prayer of daybreak is borne witness unto by the angels.' Five times during the day the pious Mohammedans spread their mats here, and prayed to Allah.

The Crescent has vanished from the Giralda. A figure of Christian faith stands there in its stead, and from the Cathedral issue the strains of the choristers and the swelling of the organ. For long centuries this spot in the heart of Seville has been dedicated to worship. Romans, Visigoths, Moors and Catholic Christians each in their day of power have bent the knee to their deities upon the ground which we are now treading. It is a strange, composite fane! The lower part of the Giralda is Moorish, the upper part Christian. In the middle of the Court of the Oranges we have the Moslem fountain; and in the wall is a stone pulpit from which many eminent Catholic divines have preached against heresy. The Giralda, incorporated with the Cathedral, dominates all, but it is the most Moorish feature of the great pile.

We must now inspect the minaret. Our way is through the Capilla de la Granada of the Cathedral. Here we may see one more monument of the Moors, a horseshoe arch, once a part of the Mosque. Within, suspended from the roof, is a huge elephant's tusk, a bridle, said to have belonged to the Cid's steed, and a stuffed crocodile, a present from the Sultan of Egypt, who sent it to Alfonso el Sabio, with a request for the King's daughter as wife.

The ascent of the Giralda is not laborious. We can walk up the inclined plane without losing breath; and at each window of the stages there are lovely peeps of the city and the vast plain of the Guadalquivir. From these windows there are fine outlooks upon the Cathedral, and the details of its wonderful buttresses can be well studied as we ascend stage by stage. The stages, or cuerpos, of the tower are all named.

We soon arrive at the Cuerpo de Campanas, where there is a peal of bells. Santa Maria is a ponderous bell which cost ten thousand ducats. It was set up in the year 1588 by the order of the Archbishop Don Gonzalo de Mena. This bell is vulgarly called 'the plump' by reason of its great bulk and weight. Its note is deep and resonant, and can be heard all over the city, and far away in the country, when the wind is favourable.

Another cuerpo is that of the Azucenas, or white lilies, so called on account of its architectural urns, with ironwork flower decorations. El Cuerpo del Reloj (the Clock Tower) contained the first tower-clock made in Spain. It was put in its place in the presence of King Enrique III. The present clock was the work of José Cordero, a monk, and it dates from 1765. It is said that portions of the old clock were used by Cordero.

Around the more modern part of the Giralda is an inscription in Latin: Turris Fortisima Nomen Domini. Each word of the motto occupies one of the faces of the tower. The Cuerpo de Estrellas, or Stage of the Stars, is so named in allusion to the decorations of its faces. Notice the ajimez windows as you ascend the tower. The fourth and last cuerpo is the Corambolas, or billiard balls, referring to the globes of stone in the decoration.

We emerge upon a gallery below the great statue of La Fé, thirteen feet in height, and made out of bronze by Bartolomé Morel, in 1568. This figure of a woman is a vane, which moves with every wind in spite of its size and weight. It is a wonderful piece of workmanship. The head of the Faith is crowned with a Roman helmet, and in the woman's right hand is the great standard of Rome in the time of the Emperor Constantine. In the left hand the figure holds a palm branch, a symbol of conquest. The true name of the statue is La Fé Triumfante; but in the common speech of Seville it is spoken of as Victoria, Giraldillo, Santa Juasma, and El Muñeco.

Don Alfonso Alvarez-Benavides, in his little book on La Giralda, published in Seville, tells us that the statue of the Faith has suffered several lightning strokes. One of these attacks severely scorched the upper section of the tower. In the afternoon of April 26, 1884, during a terrific thunder-storm, a shower of sparks fell upon the Giralda and caused much damage. Again, on the 18th of June 1885, lightning assailed the building. The work of restoration began in the year 1885, and was completed in 1888, under the direction of Fernandez Casanova.

It was in 1568 that Hernan Ruiz erected the highest cuerpo of the minaret by order of the Cathedral authorities. Ruiz was often employed by the Church, and his work may be seen in the restored mezquita of Córdova.

The Giralda is about three hundred feet in height. As the surrounding country is level, we can command a very wide expanse from the gallery below the statue of the Faith. Looking over the roofs and dome of the Cathedral, we see the Plaza de Toros, and the suburb of Triana, on the opposite bank of the Guadalquivir. Among the low hills beyond the Cartuja, to the right of Triana, is the ancient Roman amphitheatre of Italica, while in the extreme distance are blue mountains.

Beyond the Alcázar we note the Parque, the Delicias, the Prado de San Sebastian, and the red clay hills of Coria on the right bank of the broad river. Further away are the interminable marshes bordering the estuary, and beyond is San Lucar. Below us is the Archbishop's Palace and the gardens of the Alcázar. Seville is spread beneath us like a huge map. We look down on roof gardens, into patios, along the white, narrow calles, into the plazas, and across the housetops to the fertile land beyond the Roman walls.

It is a prospect that inspires the spectator. Fair, sunny, fruitful Andalusia stretches around for league upon league, under a burning blue sky. The air is clear; there is scarcely a trace of smoke from the myriad chimneys of the city. No town could be brighter and cleaner. We are above the brown hawks that nest in the niches of the Cathedral. They float on outspread wings over the buttresses. The passengers in the streets are like specks; the trees in the Court of the Oranges are but shrubs. It is one of the finest panoramas in Spain. One is reluctant to descend from this breezy platform, and to turn one's back upon the fine bird's-eye view of Seville and the surrounding landscape.

It is a misfortune that sun, wind and rain have almost expunged the frescoes that decorate the niches of the Giralda. They were the work of Luis de Vargas, who painted the altar-piece in the Chapel of the Nativity in the Cathedral. Vargas was a pupil of Perino del Vaga in Italy. One of the paintings on the Giralda represented the Saints of Seville, St. Justa and St. Rufina, who protect the tower from harm, and other subjects were scenes in the lives of saints and martyrs. Vargas also executed the fresco of Christ bearing the Cross, or the Calle de Amargura, on the outside of Patio de los Naranjas. The picture was restored by Vasco Pereyra, in 1594. We read of Luis de Vargas that he was extremely devout. He practised austerities and mortifications, and slept with a coffin by his bedside, to remind him of the insecurity of this earthly life. The ascetic artist was born in Seville, in 1502, and died there about the year 1568.

Like the monument of London, and many other high towers, the Giralda has often been used by suicides. A number of despairing persons have thrown themselves from its summit.

CHAPTER V
The Cathedral

'LET us build such a huge and splendid temple that succeeding generations of men will say that we were mad.' So said the pious originators of Seville Cathedral, in the year 1401. After one hundred years, the temple was still unfinished, and to this day masons are at work upon the dome.

When San Fernando captured the city of Seville from the Moors, and made it his capital, the Mosque, which stood on the site of the Cathedral, was consecrated to the service of the Christian faith. It was used for Catholic worship until its disrepair became a reproach. Then the Chapter decided to erect a worthier fane, one which would astonish posterity. The Cathedral should be huge and magnificent, rivalling in its area all the other cathedrals of Spain. Toledo Cathedral is 'rich'; Salamanca, 'strong'; León, 'beautiful.' The Cathedral of Seville is called the 'great.'

In point of size the edifice ranks third among the cathedrals of Europe. It is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, larger than Cologne and Milan. The superficial areas of the great cathedrals are as follows:—

In 1511, five years after the practical completion of the building, the dome gave way. It was re-erected by Juan Gil de Hontañon, an architect who subsequently designed the new Cathedral of Salamanca (1513). The original architects are supposed to have been of German nationality.[B] Earthquake shocks endangered a part of the structure at a later date, and Casanova, who restored the Giralda Tower, superintended the renovation, which was begun in 1882. Six years after Casanova's restoration, the dome again collapsed, and from that time until to-day the work of repair has proceeded.

Théophile Gautier, writing of this splendid pile, states:

'The most extravagant and most monstrously prodigious Hindoo pagodas are not to be mentioned in the same century as the Cathedral of Seville. It is a mountain scooped out, a valley turned topsy-turvy; Notre Dame at Paris might walk erect in the middle nave, which is of frightful height; pillars as large round as towers, and which appear so slender that they make you shudder, rise out of the ground or descend from the vaulted roof, like stalactites in a giant's grotto.'

In Caveda's description of the Cathedral, we read: 'The general effect is truly majestic. The open-work parapets which crown the roofs; the graceful lanterns of the eight winding stairs that ascend in the corners to the vaults and galleries; the flying buttresses that spring lightly from aisle to nave, as the jets of a cascade from cliff to cliff; the slender pinnacles that cap them, the proportions of the arms of the transept and of the buttresses supporting the side walls; the large pointed windows that open between them, one above another, just as the aisles and chapels to which they belong rise over each other; the pointed portals and entrances—all these combine in an almost miraculous manner, although these are lacking the wealth of detail, the airy grace, and the delicate elegance that characterise the cathedrals of León and Burgos.'

It was during the long and exhausting endeavours of the Castilian Kings to expel the Moors from Spain, that gold and treasure was paid into the coffers of the Chapter for the cost of erecting the marvellous Cathedral of Seville. Bishops, deans and clergy forfeited one half of their stipends to meet the heavy charges of architects, artists, stained glass designers, masons, carvers, and innumerable craftsmen and labourers. An army of artists and mechanics was employed upon the vast work. During the century of construction, the Catholic kings who resided in the Alcázar, showed great interest in the undertaking, while the noble families subscribed liberally towards the cost, and the poor gave of their slender store of pesetas.

The exterior of the Cathedral is a type of the finest Spanish Gothic architecture, though the incorporated Giralda Tower is distinctly Morisco, and much older in style. Within the consecrated precincts, we may see traces of the Mudéjar handicraftsmen amid early Gothic and Renaissance architectural details.

The Cathedral consecrated ground contains within its confines the Moorish Patio de los Naranjas, the high minaret, the Columbus Library, offices of the Chapter, and the Church of the Sagrario. There are nine doors to the Cathedral proper, and a gateway with doors, leading to the Patio de los Naranjas, or Court of the Oranges.

THE EXTERIOR OF THE CATHEDRAL.

From the Calle del Gran Capitan, on the west side of the Cathedral, one may gain a conception of the extent and the magnificence of the building. It is best to begin our inspection of the doors from this side. Here we shall find three entrances, or puertas. The chief door is in the centre. It is elaborately decorated, and is in fine preservation. Thirty-two figures stand in niches. Over the door is a beautiful relief of the Assumption by Ricardo Bellver.

Puerta del Bautismo, or San Juan, is embellished with sculptures by Pedro Millan, which deserve careful inspection. The third doorway is the Puerta del Nacimiento, or San Miguel. This is also adorned by the sculpture of Pedro Millan. The upper part of the Cathedral viewed from this side is not of much beauty. It is modern, dating from 1827.

At the south side of the Cathedral is the Puerta de San Cristóbal, or de la Lonja, added by Casanova in 1887. As we make the circuit of the edifice, we shall see the turrets and numerous pinnacles of the roof. The effect is impressive and bewildering. Centuries of labour are here represented in noble form and beauty of outline. The flying buttresses are especially graceful and the great dome is majestic in its proportions. Cean Bermudez compares the Cathedral with 'a high-pooped and beflagged ship, rising over the sea with harmonious grouping of sails, pennons and banners.'

In the east façade are the Puerta de los Campanillas and the Puerta de los Palos. These doors are magnificently decorated with sculptures by Lope Marin, executed in the year 1548. There are three entrances on the north side. That leading from the Court of the Oranges is named the Puerta del Lagarto, from the stuffed crocodile which hangs from the ceiling. The Puerta de los Naranjas is in the centre of the court. This door is kept closed except on days of festival. The third door is the unfinished one bearing the name of the Puerta del Sagrario.

As we survey this immense monument of the Christian faith, we are led to muse upon the power of the early Catholic Church in Spain. It was no half-hearted belief that urged men of all ranks of society to deny themselves in contributing to the huge outlay that went to the planning, erection and decoration of this mighty Cathedral.

The dictates of the Chapter ruled the councils of the State and the conferences of kings and courtiers. When the throne lost power, the bishop's chair gained in authority. In the reign of Philip III. the Cathedral of Seville had no less than one hundred clergy on its staff. Dunham, in his History of Spain, states that 'half a dozen could assuredly have been sufficient for the public offices of devotion.' But there was no question of restricting the number of ministers and confessors in these days of perfervid devotion. It was considered heretical to even speak of stinting the wealth that was freely poured into the coffers of the hierarchy. To this devotion and liberality we owe the great treasure-house of art beneath whose broad shadow we stand. The painters, sculptors and craftsmen were under the patronage of the Church; they could not have subsisted without such patronage. And in most cases they gave their services gladly, for their heart was in their labours, and devotion inspired them. Few desired any other kind of employment; the highest service was that of holy religion.

A great faith, such as the Romish, inspires its devotees to the building of resplendent temples. The Christians would not merely imitate the Moors in the beauty and richness of their churches. They pledged themselves to excel the magnificence of the mezquitas, and to show mankind that God is honoured most devoutly by those who spare neither wealth nor industry in the setting up of fanes dedicated to His worship. We cannot grasp the Spanish character until we realise that its keynote in the past was profound piety and deep loyalty towards the Church and the Crown. The cathedrals of Spain are testimony to this devotion to the Christian creed. They are solemn historic memorials of faith.

Worshippers in the Seville Cathedral are reverential; there is no apparent insincerity in their responses and genuflexions. In Italy and France there is a less manifest reverence during divine services. But the Spanish temperament has remained religious through all the stress of heretical days and the changing fortunes of its dynasties. It is not only the women who are devout, for many men are present at the celebrations in the cathedrals and churches. Very imposing are these Spanish services in the half-light of the capillas:

The organ music is often superb, and the choristers are highly trained. Besides the organ, reed and string instruments are used to accompany the singing during important festivals. The smoke of incense mounts in the lofty naves and aisles; the altars glow with candle-lights, and the sweet, rich voices of the boys hover under the vaulted roofs. Rich and poor alike sit or stand upon the flagged floors. The preachers are often very eloquent, and they preach in the purest form of the Castilian language.

The dim light of the interior of the Cathedral is a hindrance to the full enjoyment of the very numerous works of art that adorn the chapels. This gloom is characteristic of the Spanish cathedrals and churches. The best time in the day to inspect the pictures in Seville Cathedral is before eight in the morning. It is an early hour; but the light is then fairly good, and the chapels are usually quiet. I advise the visitor to spend several hours in the Cathedral, if he desires to study the inner architecture, carvings, pictures and statues. A mere ramble through the naves and a peep into one or two of the capillas will not suffice. It is well to select a portion of the interior for each day's inspection. Shun the loafers who offer their services as guides. They have no knowledge of the art treasures, and they possess a faculty of invention.

I trust that my description will assist the stranger in his tour of the Cathedral. The chief objects of art are indicated, or briefly described, in the remaining part of this chapter. The account is not to be taken as exhaustive. A thorough treatise on the architecture of the building alone would require more space than I have at my command, and it might prove somewhat tedious to the reader who is not acquainted with the technical terminology of architecture.

The Interior of the Cathedral.

Enter by the Puerta del Lagarto, in the Patio de los Naranjas. One's first impression when within the Cathedral is that of its magnitude and the 'frightful height,' which struck Théophile Gautier. The length, exclusive of the Capilla Real, is three hundred and eighty feet; the width is two hundred and fifty feet. The nave is one hundred and thirty-two feet in height, and over fifty feet in width.

There is great dignity in the lofty columns, and a sense of vastness possesses us as we gaze upwards. The floor is of fine marble. It was laid in the years 1787 to 1795.

The Capilla de los Evangelistas is the first chapel near to the puerta. It has a fine altar piece in nine parts, the work of Hernando de Sturmio, containing a picture of the ancient Giralda. The paintings are on panel, and the brown tints are characteristic of the early Sevillian School of Art.

By the Puerta de los Naranjas, the great door on this side of the Cathedral, there are two altars. One is the Altar de la Asunción, and the other is dedicated to La Virgen de Belén. The Assumption picture as executed by Carlo Maratta. The face of the Virgin is clear, but somewhat dark in tone, and the light is not favourable for viewing the picture. On the other side of the doorway the light is better. The altar is adorned by a painting of the Virgin, from the brush of the famous Alonso Cano. It is a rather conventional presentment of Holy Mother, but the features are not without beauty. On the whole, the painting is not equal in merit to most of the works of the last Andalusian master. The hands and feet of the figure are finished with the care characteristic of Cano's art.

Alonso Cano has been called the 'Michelangelo of Spain.' He studied in Seville under Pacheco and Juan de Castillo, and painted pictures for some of the religious houses. Cano was also a sculptor and architect. He was forced to leave the city after wounding an antagonist in a duel. In 1651 he was appointed a Canon of Granada, and during his residence in the old Moorish city, Cano painted works for the churches. The artist was of an irritable disposition; but he spent the latter part of his life in religious exercises, and gave freely to the poor. He died in poverty, in 1667, and received alms from the Church.

Writing of Alonso Cano, in his Spanish and French Painters, Mr Gerard W. Smith says: 'Although he was never in Italy, his fine feeling for form, and the natural charm and simplicity of his composition, suggest the study of the antique, while in painting, the richness and variety of his colouring could hardly be surpassed.'

The Capilla de San Francisco is next to the altar of Alonso Cano. Here we may try to see a painting of the Glorification of St. Francis by Herrera el Mozo, and one of the Virgin and San Ildefonso, by Juan Valdés Leal. Herrera's picture is not of value. He was a much less capable artist than his father, Francisco Herrera el Viejo (the elder), from whose roof the mozo ran away to Italy. Upon his return to Seville, the young man was so conceited and affected in his painting that he failed to produce any fine work. The Glorification of St. Francis and the picture by Leal can be scarcely seen in the sombre shadows of the chapel.

The Capilla de Santiago adjoins the last chapel. There are two paintings here; one by Juan de las Roelas of St. James (Santiago) and one of St. Lawrence (San Lorenzo) by Valdés Leal. Roelas was painting in Seville at the time of Herrera the Elder. He is said to have studied art in Venice. The finest work of this artist is to be seen in the Church of San Isidoro.[C] In the Capilla de Santiago there is a dilapidated tomb of Archbishop Gonzalo de Mena, who died in 1401.

The Capilla de Escalas contains two pictures of note by Luca Giordano, strong in character, drawing, and colour. Over the tomb of Bishop Baltasar del Rio, who died in 1540, is an altar relief of the Day of Pentecost by a Genoese artist.

The Capilla del Bautisterio has one of Murillo's finest works, representing St. Anthony of Padua's Vision of the Child Jesus. Part of this picture was cut out and stolen in 1874. It was traced to New York, and restored to the Cathedral a few months later. The picture was originally painted for the Capuchin Convent in 1656, and afterwards came into the possession of the Chapter. A Baptism of Christ, also the work of Murillo, is above this painting. In this chapel is the font of holy oil, which is consecrated in Holy Week. This pila, or monument, was made by Antonio Florentin in 1545-1546. It is used for the exposition of the Host, and is exhibited near the Puerta Mayor in Easter Week. Originally the pila was a tall construction of three storeys on columns, with a large cross. Between the columns were coloured figures of saints. Some of the effigies were modelled in clay, and others were carved from wood. They were beautifully designed. In 1624 the building was altered and spoiled by the addition of another storey of the composite order. 'Its effect in the midnight service is superb,' writes Sir Stirling Maxwell, 'when blazing with church plate and myriads of waxen tapers it seems a mountain of light, of which the silver crest is lost in the impenetrable gloom of the vaults above.'

On the west side of the Cathedral, which we have now reached, is the Altar de la Visitación, with pictures by Marmolejo and Jerónimo Hernandez. By the principal door is another altar, that of Nuestra Señora del Consuelo, with a painting by one of Murillo's pupils, Alonso Miguel de Tobar. Close to the Puerta del Nacimiento we shall find some fine works by Luis de Vargas, the celebrated fresco artist. There are three capillas on this side of the building, called the Capilla de los Jácomes, the Capilla de San Leandro, and the Capilla de San Isidoro. They may be passed by, as they contain no important works of art.

At the Puerta del Nacimiento we reach the south aisle, and come to

The Capilla de San Laureano, with a tomb of Archbishop Alonso de Exea, who died in 1417.

The Capilla de Santa Ana is the next chapel on the south side. Here there is an interesting old altar, with several pictures painted in the early part of the fifteenth century.

The Capilla de San José contains a notable work by Juan Valdés Leal, the Marriage of the Virgin, and a poor picture by Antolinez.

The Capilla de San Hermenegildo is noteworthy for the image of the saint by Montañez, and the tomb of Archbishop Juan de Cervantes by Lorenzo de Bretaña. The marble of the tomb is much worn.

The Capilla de la Antigua is a larger chapel, with fourteenth-century decorations of the altar. There is also a fine monument to Cardinal Mendoza, executed in 1509 by the Italian Miguel. The figures are very quaint. Adjoining this chapel is the Altar de la Gamba, with the Generacion by Luis de Vargas, a famous picture described in the art chapters of this book. The immense painting opposite is St. Christopher, by Mateo Perez de Alesio, painted in 1584.

For painting the San Cristobal Alesio received four thousand ducats. The saint is quaintly clad in hose, and the figure is gigantic. Sir Stirling Maxwell draws attention to the fine colouring of the parrot seen in the distance. Mateo de Alesio, who was an Italian by birth, died in the year 1600.

Passing through the Capilla de los Dolores, which is unimportant, we come to the splendid Sacristía de los Cálices, built by Riaño and Gainza in the years from 1530 to 1537. Diego de Riaño, sculptor and designer, was often employed by the Cathedral authorities. He delighted in lavish and fantastic embellishment, and introduced the Italian methods of ornamentation. Martin Gainza was of the same school. He was an architect and sculptor of great repute, and he assisted Riaño in much of his work.

The Crucifix is the work of Montañez. It was removed from the Cartuja Convent. Murillo's Angel de la Guarda, or Guardian Angel, is in this sacristy. This picture was presented to the Cathedral by the Capuchins in 1814. It is one of the best of Murillo's works. Borrow much admired the Guarda, and Sir Stirling Maxwell describes the diaphanous drapery of the child's dress in terms of praise. The angel holds a child by the hand, and points to heaven. Notice the rich colouring of purple and yellow in the vesture of the angel.

On the same wall are the Ecce Homo, the Virgin, and St. John, the work of Morales; St. Dorothy by Murillo; a painting of Fernando de Contreras by Luis de Vargas; Pietà and Death of the Virgin by a German artist, and a picture by Juan Nuñez of the fifteenth century.

Goya's fine painting of St. Justa and St. Rufina is here. Elsewhere in this book I have told the legend of these guardian saints of the Giralda. Goya's conception of them is unconventional, and unlike that of Murillo, who represents the two maidens with halos around their heads. We have the figures of two charming potter-girls in Goya's picture, two creatures of earth, lovely, but not ethereal. The Holy Trinity of 'El Greco' (the Greek) is one of the interesting examples of this great Toledan artist's work. Zurbaran is represented in the Sacristía by his painting of St. John.

The Sacristía Mayor is in the Renaissance style. It was built by the designers of the Sacristía de los Cálices about the year 1532. Campaña's admirable Descent from the Cross is here, but the picture has been indifferently restored. There is also a work of Murillo, SS. Leandro and Isidoro.

The Cathedral Treasury is in this sacristy. One of the principal objects of interest is the splendid custodia, used for carrying the Host. It is the work of Juan d'Arphe, a celebrated gold-worker, who was born in Avila in 1535. In 1564 he constructed the custodia of that city, and in 1580 began a work of a similar character for Seville Cathedral. Many designs were submitted for the inspection of the Chapter, but Juan d'Arphe's was chosen as one unequalled in Spain. The custodia is about twelve feet high, round in form, with four storeys, each one supported by twenty-four columns. Some of the columns are Ionic; the rest are Corinthian and composite in design. Between the columns are a number of statuettes, and the base and cornices are profusely adorned with bas-reliefs. In the first storey there was originally seated a figure of Faith, but it was changed in 1668 for one of the Virgin of the Conception, when the custodia was restored by Juan Segura. The second storey is the repository of the Host, and in the third and fourth storeys are figures of the Church Triumphant and the Holy Trinity. Crowning the edifice was a small dome and cross, which was replaced in 1668 by a statue of the Faith. The custodia is of beautiful and simple design.

The Tablas Alfonsinas, a reliquary, given to the Church in 1274 by Alfonso el Sabio, are in the Treasury. Crosses, plate and sacerdotal vestments are among the treasures. The canonical robes date from the fourteenth century. The keys of Seville, yielded to Fernando el Santo on the day of conquest, are also shown here.

The Capilla del Mariscal adjoins the Sacristía Mayor. In this chapel is the great altar-piece of Pedro Campaña, restored in 1880. The work is in ten parts, representing scenes in the life of Christ, and containing portraits of Marshal Pedro Caballero and his family.

The Sala Capitular was the work of Riaño and Gainza. It was begun in 1530 and finished in 1582. The plateresque decorations are very beautiful. Note the fine ceiling, the marble medallions, and the pavement. Murillo's Conception is here, and the Four Virtues of Pablo de Céspedes. There is a picture of San Fernando by Pacheco, the father-in-law and instructor of Velazquez. The ovals between the windows were the work of Murillo. This sala is close to the Puerta de los Campanillas, and beyond this entrance, on the east side of the Cathedral, is

The Capilla de la Concepción Grande, containing a monument to Cardinal Cienfuego, a modern work. The other small chapel on this side is that known as

The Capilla de San Pedro. Here are nine pictures by Zurbaran, well worthy of notice, and a tomb of Archbishop Diego Deza, restored in 1893.

The Capilla Real is between the two smaller chapels of the east end. In design this chapel is Renaissance. The decorations are luxuriant and there is a high dome. Gainza began to build the chapel in 1541, and his work was carried on by Hernan Ruiz, who planned the choir of Córdova Cathedral, and afterwards by Juan de Maeda.

On the chief altar is a figure of the Virgin of the Kings, dating from the thirteenth century. It was presented to San Fernando by St. Louis of France. The fair hair is real; the crown that adorned the head was stolen in 1873. On each side of the doorway are tombs. One is that of Alfonso el Sabio, and the other is the tomb of his mother.

The shrine of the adored San Fernando is in front of an altar. In the Panteón are the coffins of Pedro el Cruel, his mistress Maria de Padilla, the Princes Fadrique, Alonso and Pedro, and others. Over San Fernando's coffin is the ivory figure of the Virgin of Battles, which the King carried upon his saddle when he went to the wars. The monarch's pennant and sword are also displayed.

Murillo's Mater Dolorosa is in the sacristy of this capilla. There are portraits of St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier, by Pacheco.

In the later styles of the Capilla Real we may see examples of the Grotesque, or Estilo Monstruoso, with which the buildings of Seville abound. Diego de Riaño's work in the Ayuntamiento, or City Hall, is full of instances of this development of fanciful design and bizarre effect. Gainza, the collaborator of Riaño, is responsible for the articulations and curious, lavish adornment of the Royal Chapel of the Cathedral. The sacristy of the capilla was built and decorated by Gainza after plans by Riaño. We may now inspect the stained-glass windows, in which we shall find the influence of Italian artists. It must be noted that art in Spain has been profoundly influenced by Italy. Michelangelo is reverenced by Spanish artists. Many of the early Spanish painters went to Italy to study, and brought back with them new ideas and fresh methods of painting. 'Spanish artists,' writes Professor Carl Justi, 'did their best to Italianize themselves in the studios of Roman and Florentine masters.'

Cristobal Micer Aleman was the first to introduce the art of staining glass into Seville. Until 1504 stained glass windows had not been seen in the city, and Aleman was the designer of the first painted window of the Cathedral. Sir Stirling Maxwell states that in 1538 the Church paid Arnao of Flanders, Carlos of Bruges, and other artists the sum of ninety thousand ducats for staining the windows of Seville Cathedral. The work was not completed until twenty years later. The chief window pictures are the Ascension, Jesus and Mary Magdalen, the Awakening of Lazarus, and the Entry into Jerusalem. The Resurrection is the work of Carlos, and other pictures are by the two brothers Arnao.

The isolated Capilla Mayor has an altar-piece of wood, and a silver image of the Virgin by Alfaro. The painted scenes are from the Scriptures. Crowning the retablo are a crucifix and large statues of the Virgin and St. John. Dancart, the designer of the retablo, was of the Flemish school of decorative carvers. The work was begun about 1482 and finished in 1526.

Between the Coro (choir) and the Chief Chapel an enormous candelabrum is displayed during Semana Santa, or Holy Week. It is called the Tenebrario, and it was constructed by Bartolomé Morel, a sixteenth-century sculptor. The structure is twenty-six feet high, and it is ornamented with several small images. During the imposing celebrations of Semana Santa, the candelabrum is lit by thirteen candles. Twelve of these lights represent the apostles who deserted their Master; the thirteenth candle stands for the Virgin, and when the twelve have been extinguished, the thirteenth still burns as a symbol of Mary's fealty to the Saviour.

The Coro was much injured by the collapse of the dome. Two grand organs were destroyed at this time. One of the most interesting objects preserved in the choir is the facistol, or choristers' desk, of Bartolomé Morel, adorned with highly-finished carvings. The choir stalls were decorated by Nufro Sanchez, a sculptor of the fifteenth century, whose work suggests German influence. They are beautiful examples of carving.

The Coro is entered by either of the two doors of the front or Trascoro. There is a handsome marble façade; a painting of the Virgin by an unknown hand, and a picture said to be from the brush of Francisco Pacheco, the artist, author and inquisitor. The white marble frontage is adorned with bas-reliefs of the Genoese school, exhibiting fine feeling. Italian influence is manifest in the picture of the Holy Mother, which is highly decorative in style.

Close to the Coro, near the chief entrance on that side of the Cathedral, is the tomb of Fernando Colón, son of Cristobal Colón (Columbus). The slab is engraved with pictures of the discoverer's vessels. An inscription runs: 'Á Castilla y á León mundo nuebo dié Colon:' i.e., 'To Castile and León Columbus gave the New World.'

The student of architecture and painting will find ample examples of varied styles of art in this great repository of sculpture, frescoes and panel pictures. He will be able to trace the development of architectural design from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century, both in the exterior and interior of the immense Cathedral. The art of the Mudéjar, the Fleming, the Italian, the German and the Spaniard are here represented in masonry, decoration, stained glass, and upon canvas. Wandering designers and craftsmen of the Middle Ages looked upon Spain as a land of plenty. They came from Flanders, Italy and Genoa, and found favour with the wealthy Chapter of Seville. The artists employed to adorn the Cathedral range from Juan Sanchez de Castro, 'the morning star of Andalusia,' in 1454, to Francisco Goya, the last great painter of Spain.

Many of the so-called Spanish school of artists were aliens who settled in the country. Pedro Campaña was, for example, a native of Brussels. For twenty years he studied in Italy, and his Purification of the Virgin shows the Italian influence. Sturmio was probably a German named Sturm. Doménico Theotocópuli, called 'El Greco,' was a Greek. Mateo Perez de Alesio was an Italian, who lived in Seville, and died at Rome in 1600.

Luis de Vargas, the painter of the Nativity picture in the Cathedral, whose fresco work is to be seen elsewhere in the city, was a student of the Italian method. Vargas was a man of profound piety. He was born in Seville in 1502. After his death, scourges used for self-inflicted penance were found in his room, and by his bed was a coffin in which the ascetic painter used to lie in order to meditate seriously upon life.

The religious devotion of Luis de Vargas is exhibited in the spirit of his work. This reverential treatment of sacred subjects is characteristic of all the Sevillian painters. In their art they worshipped. Martinez Montañez, or Montañes, the sculptor, was a zealous Catholic. In his coloured statues we perceive a melancholy reflection of his sombre mind, a pathos expressing itself in realistic conceptions of a suffering Christ and a sorrowful St. Francis Xavier. These tinted statues appeal powerfully to the imagination of the Sevillian populace. Many of the images were made for the solemn processions of Semana Santa.

Among the artists employed in adorning the Cathedral there was not one more devoted to the Church than Pacheco. He was censor of art for the Inquisition, and in his writings we find precise counsels upon the fitting method of painting sacred pictures. To Pacheco the faith was of far greater moment than art. He was a close friend of Montañez, whose statues he sometimes coloured.

The Sagrario adjoins the Cathedral, and may be entered from the Court of the Oranges. The building serves as a parish church, and occupies the ground of the old Sagrario. It was begun in 1618 by Miguel Zumárraga, and completed in 1662 by Lorenzo Fernandez. The vaulted roof is remarkable. Pedro Roldan painted the retablo, which was formerly in the Francisan Convent. The convent stood in the Plaza de San Fernando, or Plaza Nueva, as it is sometimes called. Roldan was a contemporary and follower of Montañez. There is an important image of St. Clement by Pedro Duque Cornejo. The statue of the Virgin is the work of the devout Martinez Montañez.

Beneath the church is the vault of the Archbishops of Seville. The terra-cotta altar is exceedingly decorative. In the sacristy there are some splendid azulejos, which formed part of the old Morisco mosque.

CHAPTER VI
The Alcázar

THE richest monument of Almohade might in Seville is the beautiful Alcázar, or 'Castle,' which stands at but a stone's-throw from the remains of the great mosque. It is a palace of dreams, encompassed by lovely perfumed gardens. Its courts and salons are redolent of Moorish days, and haunted by the spirits of turbaned sheiks, philosophers, minstrels, and dark-eyed beauties of the harem. As we loiter under the orange trees of quiet gardens, we picture the palace as it was when peopled by the chiefs and retinues of swarthy skin in the time of Abdelasis, and contrast what remains of the primitive structure and Morisco decoration with the successive additions by Christian kings.

The nightingales still sing among the odorous orange bloom, and in the tangles of roses birds build their nests. Fountains tinkle beneath gently moving palms; the savour of Orientalism clings to the spot. Here wise men discussed in the cool of summer nights, when the moon stood high over the Giralda, and white beams fell through the spreading boughs of the lemon trees, and shivered upon the tiled pavements.

In this garden the musicians played, and the tawny dancers writhed and curved their lissome bodies, in dramatic Eastern dances. Ichabod! The moody potentate, bowed down with the cares of high office, no longer treads the dim corridor, or lingers in the shade of the palm trees, lost in cogitation. No sound of gaiety reverberates in the deserted courts; no voice of orator is heard in the Hall of Justice. The green lizards bask on the deserted benches of the gardens. Rose petals strew the paved paths. One's footsteps echo in the gorgeous patios, whose walls have witnessed many a scene of pomp, tragedy and pathos. The spell of the past holds one; and before the imagination troops a long procession of illustrious sovereigns, courtiers, counsellors and menials.

The historians of the Alcázar suppose that the original structure was erected in 1181 for Abu Yakub Yûsuf. Between the Puerta del León, in the Plaza del Triunfo, and the Sala de Justicia there are parts of the wall which are said to date back to the Roman times. It is generally asserted that the Moorish palace was reared on the ruins of a Roman prætorium, and that the original work was undertaken in the eleventh century. In its pristine form the Alcázar was of triangular design, and the buildings and gardens occupied a much greater space than they cover at the present day. The chief puerta was originally at the Torre de la Plata, formerly standing in the Calle de Ataranzas, but pulled down in recent years; while another point of the triangle was at the Torre del Oro, on the bank of the Guadalquivir. Within these precincts there were vast halls, council rooms, dormitories, baths and gardens. The remaining portions of the walls and the towers show that the ancient fortress was very strong; and one can understand the difficulty experienced by Fernando the Good during his long siege of the citadel.

In the Plaza de Santo Tomas is the Tower of Abdelasis, which was once part of the palace. It was from this tower that Fernando floated the Christian standard after the capture of the Alcázar. The chief entrance in our day is in the Plaza del Triunfo. It is called the Gate of the Lion (Puerta del León). We pass through, and come into the Patio de las Banderas (Court of the Banners), so called because a flag was hoisted here during the residence of the sovereign in the palace. The patio is surrounded by modern offices, and planted with orange trees. A roofed passage on the right side of the court leads to the wonderful Mudéjar halls and the salons of the Catholic kings. The passage is the Apeadero, or 'halting-place.' It was built by Philip V. The façade is in the Baroque style.