enterprise, owing to the absence of the principal part of the
disposable hostile force, and the unpopularity of King Rodrigo, that an
expedition was immediately ordered; which, although at first prudently
limited to a small troop under Tharig, led to the conquest, in a few
campaigns, of the whole Peninsula.

Mingled with the ruins of Roderick's palace are seen at present those of
the monastery of Saint Augustin, subsequently erected on the same site:
but on the side facing the river, the ancient wall and turrets, almost
confounded with the rock, on which they were built, have outlived the
more recent erections, or perhaps have not been interfered with by them.
Immediately beyond the portion of these walls, beneath which is seen the
Bano de la Cava, they turn, together with the brink of the precipice,
abruptly to the north, forming a right angle with the river bank: this
part faces the western _vega_ or valley, and looks down on the site of
the ancient palace gardens, which occupied the first low ground. They
extended as far as the chapel of Santa Leocadia. The ground is now
traversed by the road to the celebrated sword-blade manufactory,
situated on the bank of the river, half a mile lower down. With the
exception of the inmates of that establishment, the only human beings
who frequent the spot are the votaries on their way to the shrine of
Santa Leocadia, and the convicts of a neighbouring _Presidio_ in search
of water from the river.

LETTER IX.

CATHEDRAL OF TOLEDO.

Toledo.

Every successive aera of civilization, with the concomitant religion on
which it has been founded, and from which it has taken its peculiar
mould, has, after maintaining its ground with more or less lustre, and
throughout a greater or smaller duration, arrived at its inevitable
period of decline and overthrow.

In ceasing, however, to live, and to fill society far and wide with its
enlightening influence,--in exchanging its erect attitude for the
prostrate one consequent on its fall,--seldom has a creed, which has
long held possession of the most enlightened intellects of our race for
the time being, undergone an entire extinction, so as to disappear
altogether from the face of the earth, and leave no trace of its
existence. The influence of the soil, formation, and climate of the
region, in the bosom of which such civilization has had its birth, on
the dispositions and faculties of the race which has become its
depositary, has a