should have raised it to a collegiate church.

Covadonga lies in the vicinity of Oviedo, in a ravine lost in the heart
of the Picos de Europa; it is at once the Morgarten and Sempach of
Spanish history, and though no art monuments, excepting the above named
monastic church and two Byzantine-Romanesque tombs, are to be seen,
there is hardly a visitor who, having come as far north as Oviedo, does
not pay a visit to the cradle of Spanish history.

Nor is the time lost. For the tourist who leaves the capital of
Asturias with the intention of going, as would a pilgrim, to Covadonga
(by stage and not by rail!) will be delightfully surprised by the weird
and savage wildness of the country through which he is driven.

Following the bed of a river, he enters a ravine; up and up climbs the
road bordered by steep declivities until at last it reaches a wall--a
_cul-de-sac_ the French would call it--rising perpendicularly ahead of
him. Half-way up, and on a platform, stands a solitary church; near by a
small cave, with an authentic (?) image of the Virgin of Battles and two
old sepulchres, is at first hidden from sight behind a protruding mass
of rock.

The guide or cicerone then explains to the tourist the origin of Spanish
history in the middle ages, buried in the legends, of which the
following is a short extract.

Pelayo, the son of Dona Luz and Duke Favila, who, as we have seen, was
killed by Witiza in Tuy, fled from Toledo to the north of Spain, living
among the savage inhabitants of Asturias.

A few years later, when Rodrigo, who was king at the time, and by some
strange coincidence Pelayo's cousin as well, lost the battle of
Guadalete and his life to boot, the Arabs conquered the whole peninsula
and placed in Gijon, a seaport town of Asturias, a garrison under the
command of one Munuza. The latter fell desperately in love with Pelayo's
sister Hermesinda, whom he had met in the village of Cangas. Wishing to
get the brother out of the way, he sent him on an errand to Cordoba,
expecting him to be assassinated on the road. But Pelayo escaped and
returned in time to save his sister; mad with wrath and swearing eternal
revenge, he retreated to the mountainous vales of Asturias, bearing
Hermesinda away with him. He was joined by many refugee Christians
dissatisfied with the Arab yoke, and aided by them, made many a bold
incursion into the plains below, and grew so daring that at length
Munuza mustered an army two hundred th