rself at once in darkness, and the air is heavy with incense; but, as
your eyes become accustomed to the gloom, you see the black forms of
penitents kneeling by pillars, looking towards an altar, and by the
light of the painted windows a reredos, with the gaunt saints of an
early painter, and aureoles shining dimly.

But the gem of the Cathedral of Xiormonez is the Chapel of the Duke de
Losas, containing, as it does, the alabaster monument of Don Sebastian
Emanuel de Mantona, Duque de Losas, and of the very illustrious Senora
Dona Sodina de Berruguete, his wife. Like everything else in Spain, the
chapel is kept locked up, and the guide-book tells you to apply to the
porter at the palace of the present duke. I sent a little boy to fetch
that worthy, who presently came back, announcing that the porter and his
wife had gone into the country for the day, but that the duke was coming
in person.

And immediately I saw walking towards me a little, dark man, wrapped up
in a big _capa_, with the red and blue velvet of the lining flung
gaudily over his shoulder. He bowed courteously as he approached, and I
perceived that on the crown his hair was somewhat more than thin. I
hesitated a little, rather awkwardly, for the guide-book said that the
porter exacted a fee of one peseta for opening the chapel--one could
scarcely offer sevenpence-halfpenny to a duke. But he quickly put an end
to all doubt, for, as he unlocked the door, he turned to me and said,--

'The fee is one franc.'

As I gave it him he put it in his pocket and gravely handed me a little
printed receipt. _Baedeker_ had obligingly informed me that the Duchy of
Losas was shorn of its splendour, but I had not understood that the
present representative added to his income by exhibiting the bones of
his ancestors at a franc a head....

We entered, and the duke pointed out the groining of the roof and the
tracery of the windows.

'This chapel contains some of the finest Gothic in Spain,' he said.

When he considered that I had sufficiently admired the architecture, he
turned to the pictures, and, with the fluency of a professional guide,
gave me their subjects and the names of the artists.

'Now we come to the tombs of Don Sebastian, the first Duke of Losas,
and his spouse, Dona Sodina--not, however, the first duchess.'

The monument stood in the middle of the chapel, covered with a great
pall of red velvet, so that no economical tourist should see it through
the b