honour of the "Blessed Virgin." A Spanish cavalierGarcilasso de la Vega-was permitted to vindicate her cause, according to the laws of the duel then prevalent. So says the tradition of the time. It further declares that Garcilasso, overthrown, and about to receive the Moor's dagger aimed at his throat, quickly shortened his sword and plunged it into the heart of his foe. Whether this defeat, or a desire to capture the royal personages, impelled the Moors, cannot now be determined, but it is historically certain that they attacked the Spanish escort with their whole force, and that one of the fiercest battles of this Hispano-Moorish war was fought on this occasion, of what was intended by the Spanish Court to be merely a pleasure excursion. The escape of Ferdinand and Isabella was deemed by them miraculous: and it was in obedience to the ecclesiastical inculcations of the times, that the church and convent-bearing the royal shield and initials, ribbon and arrows-were then erected, in token of their gratitude to the "Holy Virgin," whose protection, during the combat raging round them, they on bended knees implored.

With these, and like incidents, every spot of the Vega has been familiar. Human blood stained everywhere its golden and purple harvests; and a war of fanaticism, as was that of Spanish extermination of the Moors, sowed broadcast its seeds of sin and suffering, over as lovely a garden as ever was planted with blessings by Divine Beneficence. But the lapse of ages has served somewhat to recreate its perished charms; and the pilgrim to the Alhambra will be well repaid, by ascending day by day the Tower of the Vela, and

beholding, in early Spring, the glad burst of vegetation ; when bud and blossom, grass, herb, and every green thing, clothe the wide Vega and the hills around in a garment woven by the hand of enchantment in the loom of nature. If this visit be made toward sunset, he will enjoy also a richness of sky-colouring, charm of changeful light, grace of horizon-lines, and beauty of blush as the descending sun throws its last roseate ray on the snow-crown of the Sierra Nevada, rarely seen in such perfection elsewhere. Take the Vega and its mountain setting as a whole, with their combinations of loveliness of earth and sky; fields, forests, and vineyards; picturesque towers, and fairy palaces; silvery streams, shadowy slopes, and empurpled depths; mysterious unfoldings of aerial sublimity, and clouds clothed in gorgeous robes, then vanishing away leaving naught but an opaline canopy slowly melting into twilight azure; than which, there is nothing more beautiful in the wide world.

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CHAPTER XVII.

WAY OF THE DEAD. GENERALIFE PALACE.

PORTRAIT OF BOABDIL. GARDENS OF THE GENERALIFE. SILLA DEL MORO. CASA DEL CARBON. ALCAICERIA. INCULCATION OF FANATICISM. PROMISCUOUS SIGHTSEEING. CARTUJA CONVENT. CATHEDRAL. TOMB OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA. RETABLO OF THE ROYAL CHAPEL-ITS SIGNIFICANCE. TOMB OF PULGAR. SAN AUGUSTIAS. IDOLATRY. CHURCH OF SAN GERONIMO. GONSALVO DE CORDOVA. GIPSIES THEIR CAVERN HOMES HABITS-DANCES. WORKMAN.

EMPEROR OF BRAZIL A

ONE has no disposition to close the oriental volume of art-studies, to take up that of the less poetic westespecially if the latter be of inharmonious composition. Hence he is not likely, at Granada, to turn to churches, convents, chancillerias, palaces, and plazas, however pompous their pretentions, until he has exhausted every vestige of Arab architecture. These monuments of the past, although shorn of fairy proportions and decorations, by bigotry, barbaric taste, or as culpable neglect, have a charm about them even in ruin; and awaken deepest interest in the destinies of a people, whose coming, advanced civilization, career of conquest, and final fall in Spain, seem matters of romance.

The central avenue of the Alhambra park terminates

at the entrance gate of the Generalife gardens. Before passing through this, a precipitous road to the left will be seen following the dividing ravine of the Generalife and Alhambra hills. This is known as the "Way of the Dead; up which are borne the bodies of those too poor for priestly procession and prayers. This wretched mortality scorning the purifying process of fire, or that being forbidden by priestcraft to prevent the Devil being cheated out of his burnings hereafter, is thrown into a pit to rot and be revelled on in common with all such; as may be seen by those curious in such matters, at the Campo Santo a short distance to the right. The coffin hired for the hour to dignify the transit, is returned to the undertaker to fulfil a like purpose of post-mortem vanity for others.

The Generalife is now the property of Count Palavicini, owner of the famed villa of that name, near Genoa. He is the lineal descendant of the Moorish Prince Cid Hiaya, whose indignation at the unnatural conduct of Boabdil led to his aid of the Spaniards to overthrow that usurper's power; and finally resulted in his conversion to Christianity. He became the founder of the Grimaldi Gentili family of whom came the Marquises of Compotejar-Count Palavicini being the present possessor of that title.

A card of admission, obtained from the mayor-domo of the city residence, passes the visitor through the gate; when a short walk through a pretty avenue brings him to the palace portal. Thence the custodian conducts him through an embowered garden and Moorish arcades, to a suite of rooms commanding charming views of surrounding scenery, and decorated in ara

besque conformably with the rules of that style of art. But everywhere, in halls, arcades, and corridors, are seen Spanish plaster and white-wash, nearly obliterating the embroidery of wall, arch, and capital-that apparent petrifaction of interlacing vegetation and geometric figures, defying the scrutiny of the eye to disentangle. The Genoese owner of the Generalife would have done well to visit, once, at least, this inheritance from his Moorish ancestor, to realize its elegancies, and forbid their concealment under a coat of mortar. In two of the rooms are found a genealogical tree of the Grimaldi family; and quite a number of indifferent and doubtful portraits. One of the latter, Washington Irving refers to as a portrait of el rey Chico-Boabdil. The custodian of the Generalife, and the mayor-domo of the townpalace, say that there is no portrait of Boabdil in the collection at the Generalife. That which Mr. Irving probably mistook for it, is one of Abenhut-which now bears the following inscription, perhaps to prevent a similar mistake being made in future. "Abenhut rey de Granada y Cordova, y de lo demas de Andalucia, del linage de los Reyes de Zaragoza, de Aragon, y de los Godos, fué Rey preeminente en justicia, bondàd, y liberalidad." Abenhut King of Granada and Cordova, and of the rest of Andalucia, of the lineage of the kings of Zaragoza, of Aragon, and of the Goths, was a king pre-eminent in justice, goodness and liberality. But there is at this time, in the palace of the Archbishop of Granada, a painting represented to be a portrait of Boabdil when quite a young man. The figure is full length, in Moorish turban and robe. By whom painted, or when, the prelate's chaplain did not say. The story