t, carved or painted by a master's hand.

I stayed, therefore, finding such consolation as I could in the jewelled
gleam of rare old glass, the magnificence of bronze doors; tombs of kings
and heroes; and all the wonders of gold, silver, pearls, and diamonds
which, stored in the sacristy, do honour to the famous Black Virgin, the
cathedral's Queen.

Coming out again into the town was like stepping with a single stride back
from Europe into Africa; for nowhere can Moslem and Christian
civilizations be more closely tangled than in Toledo. Moorish streets were
like scimitar strokes cleft deep in the city; narrow chasms lined with
secretive houses, giving here and there a glimpse of some bright, flowery
_patio_, through half-open doors studded with iron bosses, and heavy
enough to resist a siege; yet above the tiled roofs soared Christian
spires in the translucent blue.

No one cared for us now that we were no longer gods in a car, except an
occasional beggar, to whom the Cherub would murmur, "God will aid you,
sister!" "Pardon me, brother!" and then, changing his mind, drop a penny
into a withered old hand, or a pink, childish palm.

"They'll leave the shopping to the last, because Lady Monica told us it
was to be done first," said Pilar sagely; so we wandered through the
shabby aisles of Rag Fair, Pilar hoping against hope to unearth a
treasure; because, did not a man once pick up, for a song, a Greco worth a
fortune, and did not one always find something at least amusing in the Rag
Fair of Madrid? Thence we went on to the Moorish mosque, which the
Visigoths began, and so to San Juan de los Reyes, which, Pilar said, I
must like better than anything else in Toledo, because she did. With an
air of possession she explained the votive chains of captive Christians
darkly festooning the outer walls, and I did not tell her I had heard the
story long ago. She shuddered as she pointed to the crucifix which used to
go with the procession of the _auto-da-fe_. "Only think how different
times are now!" said she. "When Philip the Second was going to be married
to his bride, not fourteen, a great show in honour of the marriage was a
burning of heretics, here in the Zoco--the market-place of Toledo! I
shouldn't have cared much to see a royal wedding then. I don't even like
to look at that crucifix, it gives me such thoughts. But see, aren't those
carved stone galleries where Ferdinand and Isabel used to hear mass, like
two great chase