Part 34

Ensconced in the bedina, or front compartment of a huge lumbering diligence, at two o’clock in the morning, I left Murcia, behind eight mules, a postillion, and two drivers, with the prospect of a hard ride, over a very uninteresting country, of sixty Spanish leagues--which are unlike any other for length--the “Camino Real,” or royal road, being neglected, and in consequence of the winter rains, in horrible order. The wheel mules are attached to the pole, and guided without bits; the others draw by long straggling ropes; the coachman sits in the box with his long whip, and his assistant, who jumps down from time to time and pelts the animals with sticks, stones, and mud. The postillion rides a horse beside the first led mule; he is required where the roads are the worst, and he keeps the track. The mules all have their titles, and seem to understand the incessant cries, from the India-rubber lungs of the driver, of Carpintero, Zapetero, Carbonero, and the whole catalogue of names. The long ears of the animal named, are pricked up, and his best efforts are made under the cut of the lash, or the whizzing of a stone past his head.

We pushed through a dreary and uninteresting country some twenty leagues, with occasional fertile valleys and indifferent villages, to the Sheffield of Spain, the town of Albacete, where we passed the night. It is noted in Spain for the manufacture of arms. Population ten thousand. We were soon surrounded by venders of poniards, stilettos, and small punalicos, or knives, which the women are said to conceal in their garters. The Spaniard is very expert in the use of the knife, and with it concealed under his capa, or cloak, is a dangerous enemy. The inns are generally great, barn-like stone buildings, with open patios, or courts, for the entrance of animals and vehicles. The rooms are generally dirty, with no furniture except cot-beds; and after an oily garlicky supper, the fleas, and kicking and thrashing of the mules all night, one is prepared for a comfortable nap in the diligence over a rough road. The bread is generally excellent throughout Spain, and chocolate can always be procured.

We made long, tiresome distances, over barren treeless plains, with no water for irrigation, and no signs of birds or animal life, when we would suddenly strike a fertile valley, tolerably cultivated by the scratching process of rude ploughs, but without hedges or landmarks, to denote proprietorship.

At break of day, and late sunset, the peasants may be seen mounted on donkeys, or carrying their implements of husbandry, after the hard toils of the day, returning to their mud or stone hovels, comfortless and cheerless, not unlike the country people in the interior of Sicily, who congregate in villages in like manner, and for a motive similar to the one which actuates them here--safety from the hordes of bandits which the wars of the Peninsula have produced. The guardias civiles, whom we met from time to time, have made sad havoc with the Ladrons, shooting several, and taking many prisoners, so we came through in safety.

Some of the villages of La Mancha through which we passed, were very poor, with many beggars; others appeared comfortable, and the people gay and cheerful, notwithstanding the heavy exactions and badly administered government. The country, however, was full of historical interest, as at the left, not far distant, lay Argamasilla del Alba, in the prison of which Cervantes wrote Don Quixote. Near the villages many flat, square, open threshing floors, were found, for bruising the grain with the feet of mules and oxen, after the custom of oriental countries. I was forcibly reminded of the exploits of Don Quixote as we approached the village El Toboso, the reputed residence of the crack-brained knight of the windmills; for here the mills were numerous, and used for grinding the grain of the country. They look not unlike giants in the distance, and hence it was perhaps that the Don assured Sancho that they might get elbow-deep in adventures. It was a festival day with the peasants, and the dulcineas, with their half Swiss, half German appearance, in blue and green petticoats, with handkerchiefs tied under their chins during the Cachucha, the national dance, and castanets in their hands, and their Cabeleros, in low crowned, high rimmed, velvet-bound hats, with fancy colored, round clothes, jackets and leggings, had a happy effect.

On the morning of the third day we breakfasted at Ocana, memorable for a battle in 1808, in which Marshal Soult, with twenty-five thousand men, put to flight sixty thousand Spaniards, through good generalship; the French killed five thousand and took twenty-six thousand prisoners, with the loss of only one thousand six hundred men, a stroke of luck reminding one of the famous Texian fight at San Jacinto. The town was pillaged and almost destroyed--the people left poor and miserable. The diligences and other vehicles concentrate here from the south and east, and give it some importance.

From Ocana we passed through a hilly, dreary, and treeless country, until suddenly, as if by enchantment, burst upon the view the fertile valley and banks of the Tayos, upon which is situated Aranjuez, the early summer residence of the royal family, the spires and cupolas of the palace and outbuildings, looming up like signals for the benighted traveller in the desert waste. Here is found the only railroad, which enters the capital, a distance of nine leagues. As I design visiting the palaces and the gardens when the trees are in full bloom, I shall defer my remarks until that time.

Upon a small eminence, approaching Madrid, is seen a monument denoting its geographical position, in the centre of Spain. Madrid is, comparatively speaking, a modern city; for Spain having risen under Charles V., who, gouty and phlegmatic, found the cool bracing air from the mountains adapted to his complaint, he deserted the ancient capitals of Valladolid, Sevilla, Granada, and Toledo, and fixed his residence upon several hills upon the banks of a small river, almost dry in summer, at an elevation of two thousand four hundred feet above the level of the sea. It was declared the capital by Philip II., in 1560. The country about is flat, and without trees; it produces but little, the climate being changeable; but being the residence of the royal family, and seat of the government, with its three hundred thousand population, from all parts of the empire, as well as strangers, it became the grand focus of attraction and extravagance, exhausting the revenue and the resources of Spain, both foreign and provincial. Every article of use is brought from abroad, or from the provinces, over the caminos reales, or royal roads, which branch off, but meet north and south. Notwithstanding the aridity of the soil, the lavish expenditures of former governments have, by means of irrigation, produced magnificent shaded drives and promenades in the suburbs; among the number figures the Prado, the resort of all fashionable Madrid in the evening. It is ten thousand feet in length, and two hundred feet wide, with fountains and statuary. The salon, or part most frequented, is about one thousand five hundred feet long, and is occupied by promenaders of both sexes, in full dress, while thousands of ladies in mantillas, seated in chairs, are being passed in review by Cabeleros smoking their cigaritos. The side carriage road is occupied by a long procession of brilliant equipages and liveried attendants. It is necessary to sprinkle the grounds, as the fine grey dust is prejudicial to dress, and destructive to the eyes and lungs.

The Spaniards think there is only one Corte, one Madrid in the world, and it is not surprising, for the resources of the country concentrate here. The palace is beautifully situated, and one of the finest in Europe. The Royal Museum contains the famous national paintings of Murillo and Velasquez, as well as some of the best gems of Raphael, Titian, and Michael Angelo; and the immense galleries of all the different schools of European art, demand several days’ close examination. The chief public amusements are the theatres and bull-fights; in the former, you see the national dances in all their perfection; in the latter, which are attended by all classes, to the extent of some thirty thousand persons, eight or ten bulls, and seven or ten horses pay the forfeit of their lives. One of their famous matadors, or swordsmen, died recently, and was interred with great pomp and ceremony, his coffin being exposed, covered with a black pall, for twenty-four hours before the high altar, surrounded by tall burning wax candles. The stately, silver-mounted hearse, with waving black plumes, was drawn by four horses, in black drapery, followed by a large number of bearers with torches, and one hundred and ten vehicles, several of which were of the nobility; then followed a multitude of the middling classes, while the balconies were filled with ladies.

Near the Palace, on the opposite side of a beautiful circular promenade, surrounded by trees and the statues of the former kings of Spain, is situated the opera-house, a fine edifice, erected by Ferdinand VII. for his convenience. The night piece to the close for the season is Fra Diavolo. We had a full house, the queen, as well as the ex-queen Christina and daughters, being present.

Things are in a bad state in Spain; the treasury is bankrupt; the abuses of the general government are great; constitutional privileges are only in name; the taxes and imposts upon the farmers are heavy; the people in the interior are poor; the liberty of the press is abridged; and all this in a country possessing every variety of soil and climate, and rich in its productions, both agricultural and metallic.

The all but universal want of honor and good faith of the royal family and upper classes of society is notorious. The queen mother, one of the wealthiest capitalists of Europe, is grasping and avaricious; undertaking enterprises with great benefit to herself, but disastrous to the tax-payer. The people detest her, but are currying and subdued when she presents herself.

I was in the Cortes when Bravo Murillo was defending himself from the charges alleged against him for his acts in granting railway privileges while minister. The House of Deputies is magnificently fitted up; but the members, in handsome attire, with white kid and colored gloves, and gold-headed canes, differ from our working members, surrounded with their budgets and documents, and up to their eyes in paper, ink, and public journals. The opposition were exposing the acts of the government in influencing the public elections, thereby securing their own instruments of power. This could not be endured, and a royal order closed the Cortes. The excitement soon passed over; for what can the reformer do when the whole force of the army is ready to put down any attempt, and when that arm of strength is the only official department sure of pay, even when other branches of the public service are neglected? My opinion is that the day is not far distant when a change must take place in the affairs of this ill-governed country.

LXXXVII.

THE ESCORIAL, _May 1, 1853_.

On this busy, bustling day at home, I find myself wandering quietly and solitary through the untenanted gorgeous palace of the Escorial, with its minute combinations of convent, royal cemetery, and residence of the former kings of Spain. My guide is nearly seventy years of age, and has been blind for the last fifty-six years; yet he is active, mounts the cupola through the numerous passages, and describes the particular localities and points of view. This immense edifice measures seven hundred and forty-four feet by five hundred and eighty feet, and the entire square covers more than three thousand feet. In the centre is the chapel, surmounted by a dome. There are, so says the guide, sixty-three fountains, twelve cloisters, eighty staircases, sixteen court yards, and three thousand feet of fresco work, commenced in 1553, and finished in 1584.

The chapel has three naves three hundred and twenty feet long, two hundred and thirty feet wide, and three hundred and twenty feet to the top of the cupola. It is built of granite, in fine proportion, and superb for its simplicity, with richly decorated altars of jasper, and various marble and bronze gilt statues of great size. The painting, statuary, frescoes, and other ornaments are in proportion, to give you a faint idea of this immense work. Philip II., half monk, half king, died here in 1598, boasting that from the foot of a mountain he governed half the world with a scrap of paper. The lavish expenditure of millions upon millions could only have been supplied from newly discovered America.

From Madrid the distance is eight leagues by diligence, most of the way over a barren, desert country, where the immense glowing piles are discovered, at the base of the mountain, with its small village which is resorted to in summer by the citizens of Madrid, to escape the heat, glare, and dust of the city. The royal family never visit here, as it is the resting-place of their deceased relatives. The lawns, gardens, and promenades are pretty, as is also a miniature country house, ornamented with marble arabesques, rich paintings, and all the paraphernalia of a palace. Philip II. accumulated some seven thousand relics, which are preserved in five hundred and fifteen shrines. The French carried off much of the bullion of gold, but the exhibition is still sufficient to satisfy the most fastidious. The Pantheon, or burial-place, is a vaulted chamber under the high altar, approached by green and yellow colored jasper staircases, by torchlight; it is an octagon-formed chamber, thirty-six feet wide, and equally high, where in niches repose the kings and mothers of kings, the sexes being on opposite sides. The hosts of monks who were formerly here under the patronage of the king, no longer exist; and the services to the departed dead, and the few living who repair here, are performed by a limited number of priests.

Since I last wrote you from Madrid, I have visited the antiquated city of Toledo, and the summer residence of the royalty at Aranjuez. From Madrid to Toledo is twelve leagues, over a dull, dusty road, with straggling villages; among the number Illescas, which merits its reputation of having served up a stewed cat to Gil Blas, instead of a hare; but on approaching the venerable and imposing old city, the country improves, and is tolerably cultivated. It is built upon an almost impregnable rock of seven hills, and is two thousand four hundred feet above the level of the sea; the river Tayos rolls through the gorge which separates it from the opposite eminence; it has only one approach by the land side, which is protected by mammoth towers and castellated walls. The diligence enters on the outside road, which is of modern construction, and can only pass through the old gates and the narrow and circuitous lanes by means of cutting places for the form of the hubs to pass. It was a relief to escape from the heat, and glare, and dust of Madrid, and find oneself in the elevated, fresh, and invigorating atmosphere of this old city, with its shaded terraces and huts, protected from the sun’s rays by tall, substantial, Moorish-like houses, with clean courts, not unlike those of Seville; and although it was gloomy and tomb-like, its dilapidated population having dwindled down from two hundred thousand to fifteen thousand, it was an agreeable change from the noisy, bustling capital. My eyes having suffered from the dust, which in Madrid, at this season of the year, amounts to an epidemic, I wore blue goggles. I went quite opportunely, however, to see the town in convention, as the following day the ex-queen Christina and daughters came to see the Cardinal, her confessor. It being her first visit to this old city, it was quite a festival day; the priests were in full regalia, and the troops under arms; high mass was performed in the old cathedral; this, and the firing of cannon from the towering platform of the Alcazar, the banners, curtains, and counterpanes suspended from the balconies of the curious antique Plaza, gave the old city an animated appearance. Christina, in her gracious, smiling, and captivating manner, responded to the salutations of the people, who at heart despise her for her intriguing and audacious disposition. She was remarkably well, and appears nearly as young as when I saw her in Rome during her exile.

In the heart of the city towers one of the finest cathedrals in Spain; it is two hundred and four feet wide, and its central nave is one hundred and sixty feet high. It is a perfect museum of art, architecture, sculpture, and painting, which cannot well be described on paper. The illuminated stained glass windows, when seen at sunset, resembled rubies and emeralds. The view from the tower is very extensive. The chiming of the many ponderous bells, coming upon you while in the tower, is deafening. There are various churches and galleries, of antique and Moorish architecture, which occupy one’s time to advantage. Toledo, famous for its arms, has still its government manufactory, which employs about two hundred men; it is situated about one and a half miles from the city, on the banks of the river, and is well worth a visit. Although the machinery is dull and heavy, the work turned out is very superior. The finest armory I have seen was in Madrid, which has a vast collection, and contains a variety of ancient as well as modern blades. The collection of horse and warrior armor is of the choicest and most exquisite composition. The blades are of fine temper and polish, and so elastic that they can be coiled like the mainspring of a watch, and packed up. The collection of new arms in the form of all the antiques, Arab and Turkish, in use, is very interesting. The introduction of fire-arms was destructive to the interests of Toledo.

From Toledo I proceeded along the river bank six leagues to Aranjuez, through a rich agricultural and beautiful country, the property of the queen; it was sparsely populated, and little productive, from its unnatural tenure. The shady avenues for nearly a league approaching the royal abode are agreeable. The court resides here until the middle of June, when fevers sometimes prevail from the miasma of the river, then the town is quite deserted, and royalty departs to La Granza for the summer and autumn, until it returns to Madrid. Nature was in her prettiest attire, the vast and extensive gardens were filled with shade-trees of all countries. In the long walks, studded with thickly covered foliage, among the flowering fruit-trees, the fountains abundantly supplied with water, the statues and groups of Neptunes, Tritons, Dolphins, and hosts of allegorical figures, among the singing of birds, and the murmuring of the cataracts of water, one is transported as if by enchantment into a fairy land. The workmen were all busy in getting the grounds in order for the arrival of the queen.

I returned to the capital. The usual display of military took place at the departure of the queen, whose absence gave me an opportunity of seeing the royal stables, carriage houses, and harness rooms, which are among the richest in Europe for equipage. Some of the antique carriages were superbly decorated with gold and silver. The stable contained two hundred horses, one hundred and fifty mules, and one hundred and fifty equipages, which can be turned out on state occasions with appropriate harness and trappings. The employees in and about the palace are about eight hundred in number, so a very good idea may be formed of the expenses of a monarchical government, and an easy solution of the enormous imposts and taxation. Spain, with a population reduced from twenty-four millions to thirteen millions, pays the queen two and a half million of dollars per annum, while the glorious Republic of double the population, considers twenty-five thousand pretty good pay for a President. How often, while standing at the gates of the walled cities, noticing the wrangling between the officials and the hardy peasantry of the country, who are obliged to submit to the impost upon every article of production, have I reflected upon our free and untrammelled farmers at home, enjoying liberty of action, opinion, and religion, and free from passports and spies. How much we have to be thankful for, and how much we undervalue the privileges we possess.

I shall proceed across the mountain to La Granja, the last royal seat I have to visit, and shall continue to the ancient cities of Leyena and Valladolid.

LXXXVIII.

VALLADOLID, SPAIN, _May 9, 1853_.

Leaving the Escorial I proceeded on horseback, with my guide, across the Guadarama chain of mountains, which divides old and new Castile, a distance of some nine leagues to San Ildefonso, the residence of the Court in the months of July, August, and September, about eighteen leagues from Madrid. We had had rain at the Escorial, which proved to be snow on the mountains. The road was constructed in 1749, by Ferdinand; at its extreme height is a marble lion, five thousand feet above the level of the sea. The view from the summit, with the valleys and villages spread out like a map, was very beautiful, while the tall forest pines with their white mantles among the jagged rocks, and the cascades from the melting snow, were truly Alpine, and reminded me of the Simplon. Here, also, Napoleon crossed on Christmas-eve, in 1808, with great loss from the extreme cold, leading his army in person, and in his impatience leaping from his horse, and walking on the snow, encouraging his troops. During the winter the road is frequently impassable; but notwithstanding that my horse was plunging through snow banks in the narrow passes up to his middle, I felt little inconvenience from the cold under the rays of the mid-day sun, and the highest pinnacles once past, descending rapidly into the valley, a two hours’ ride carried me to the village of La Granja.

In 1722, Philip V., while hunting, discovered this Granja, or farm house, of the Segovian monks, and being of a retiring disposition, bought the site, and commenced building a palace, and laying out the grounds, levelling rocks, forming lakes and fountains, which surpass many in Europe, for there is no want of water here. The gardens are planted in avenues and adorned with marble statues. There are twenty-six great fountains; among the number are the baths of Diana, with twenty female figures. The fountain of Fame throws water one hundred and twenty feet high. The mountain rises abruptly here eight thousand feet high; the snow on the craggy, rocky sides and forests, the fresh vegetation of spring in the valley, and the mountain cataracts, produced one of those magnificent sights which are so difficult to describe, and so hard to forget. The season was still backward, as the fruits of spring ripen in autumn: everything was artificial; rocks were levelled and hollowed to admit pipes and roots of trees, and earth brought from the plains. The expenses were so enormous, that this infatuated king died owing forty-five millions of reals. The palace is pleasantly situated, and looks over the royal grounds; the royal apartments are light, airy, and well finished, but not strikingly magnificent. The saloons have some fine paintings and statuary, but many of these works of art have been removed to Madrid. Here, in January, 1724, Philip V., who was a bigot and hypochondriac, abdicated his crown and resumed it the same year, after the death of his son, being urged to become a king again by his wife, who was tired of private life.