ted to the Virgin Mother (?). Besides, the inhabitants
seemed to have forgotten the patronage of St. Martin, he who protects
the vine-grower's _metier_--and this in spite of the fact that the
valley of Orense is and was famous above all Galician regions for the
cultivation of vines. Even Froissart, the French historian, could not
speak of the town without mentioning its wine. He passed a season in the
valley, accompanying, I believe, the Duke of Lancaster and his English
soldiers. The wine was so good and strong, wrote the historian, that the
soldiers clamoured for it; after they had drunk a little they toppled
over like ninepins.

The Arabs defeated and thrown out of the peninsula, the vikings' last
business trip to Galicia over, and the Portuguese arms driven to the
valley of Braga beyond the Mino, Orense settled down to a peaceful life,
the monotony of which was broken now and again--as it usually was in
this part of the country--by squabbles between noblemen, prelates, and
the _bons bourgeois_. If no prince of the Church was killed here, as
happened in Lugo, one at least died mysteriously in the hands of his
enemies. Not that it seemed to have mattered much, for said bishop
appears to have been a peculiar sort of spiritual shepherd, full of
vice, and devoid of virtue, some of whose doings have been
caricatured--according to the popular belief--in the cornices and
friezes of the convent of San Francisco.

Otherwise, peace reigned in the land, and Orense passed a quiet
existence, a circumstance that did not in the slightest add to its
importance, either as an art, commercial, or industrial centre. To-day,
full of strangers in summer, who visit the sulphurous baths as did the
Romans, and empty in winter, it exists without living, as does so many a
Spanish town.

Nevertheless, with Vigo and Corunna, it is one of the cities with a
future still before it. At least, its situation is bound to call
attention as soon as ever the country is opened up to progress and
commerce.

The cathedral of Orense, like those of Tuy, Santiago, and Lugo, was
erected in a _castro_. These _castros_ were circular dips in the ground,
surrounded by a low wall, which served the druids as their place of
worship. The erection of Christian churches in these sacred spots proves
beyond a doubt that the new religion became amalgamated with the old,
and even laid its foundations on the latter's most hallowed _castros_.

Perhaps the question present