SH KING PAYING HOMAGE TO THE KING OF CASTILE.
RECEPTION OF COLUMBUS BY FERDINAND AND ISABELLA.
GONSALVO DE CORDOVA FINDING THE CORPSE OF THE DUKE OF NEMOURS.
FRANCIS I. REFUSING THE DEMANDS OF THE EMPEROR.
LIBERATION OF THE CAPTIVES FROM THE DUNGEON OF ORAN.
CHARLES V. APPROACHING YUSTE.
THE ROYAL PALACE. MADRID.
THE ALHAMBRA, OVERLOOKING GRANADA.
STREET IN OLD QUARTER OF PANAMA.
THE CITY OF SARAGOSSA.
THE ANNIHILATION OF THE SPANISH FLEET IN THE HARBOR OF MANILA.

THE GOOD KING WAMBA.

Long had the Goths been lords of Spain. Chief after chief had they chosen,
king after king had they served; and, though it was young in time, Gothic
Spain was growing old in years. It reached its golden age in the time of
"Good King Wamba," a king of fancy as much as of fact, under whom Spain
became a land of Arcady, everybody was happy, all things prospered, and
the tide of evil events for a space ceased to flow.

In those days, when a king died and left no son, the Goths elected a new
one, seeking their best and worthiest, and holding the election in the
place where the old king had passed away. It was in the little village of
Gerticos, some eight miles from the city of Valladolid, that King
Recesuinto had sought health and found death. Hither came the
electors,--the great nobles, the bishops, and the generals,--and here they
debated who should be king, finally settling on a venerable Goth named
Wamba, the one man of note in all the kingdom who throughout his life had
declined to accept rank and station.

The story goes that their choice was aided by miracle. In those days
miracles were "as plentiful as blackberries," but many of these seem to
have been what we may speak of as "miracles made to order," designed by
shrewd individuals to gain some personal or other advantage. St. Leo is
said to have told the electors to seek a husbandman named Wamba, whose
lands lay somewhere in the west, asserting that he did this under
direction of the heavenly powers. However that be, scouts were sent
through the land in search of Wamba, whom they found at length in his
fields, driving his plough through the soil and asking for no higher lot.
He was like Cincinnatus, the famous Roman, who was called from the plough
to the sceptre.

"Leave your plough in the furrow," they said to him; "nobler work awaits
you. You have been elected king of Spain."

"There is no nobler work," answered Wamba. "Seek elsewhere your monarch. I
prefer to