z it is insufferably false; nor, in fact, is
it easy to conjecture to what sort of merit this picture owes its
celebrity. It possesses neither that of conception, nor that of
composition, nor of expression: least of all that of colouring. All that
can be said in its favour is, that the row of heads extending from one
end of the canvass to the other, across the centre, are correct
portraits of personages of note, who figured in the history of the
epoch. The worst part of all is, the Heaven of the upper plan of the
picture, into which the soul of the Count has the bad taste to apply for
admission. This was, in fact, one of the works which gave occasion to
the saying of a critic of a contemporary school, who declared that the
Glorias (heavenly visions) of the Greco looked like Infernos, and his
Infernos like Glorias.

In the Transito there is an Adoration, a charming picture, apparently by
Rembrandt. There are here and there good pictures among the other
churches, but none very remarkable. In general, the most attractive
objects are the old picture-frames, and other gilded ornaments and wood
carvings. All these, in the taste of the commencement of the last
century and earlier, which is at present so much in request, are in such
profusion, as would draw tears of admiration from the eyes of a Parisian
upholsterer, and showers of bank notes from the purses of furniture
collectors.

You will not, I am sure, by this time, object to our quitting Toledo,
and making a short excursion in its environs. I shall therefore request
you to accompany me to the ruins of a Moorish palace, on the banks of
the Tagus, a mile distant from the town, called the Palacio de Galiana.
The Princess Galiana was the daughter of Galafre, one of the earlier
Arab Kings of Toledo. The widely extended fame of her beauty, is said to
have fired the imagination of Charles, son of Pepin, King of France, who
resolved to throw himself at her feet as a suitor, and forthwith
repaired to Toledo. However glowing the terms in which report had
represented her charms, he found them surpassed by the reality; but a
prince of a neighbouring state had forestalled him in his suit. This
obstacle did not, however, deter him from persisting in his resolution.
He forthwith challenged his rival to mortal combat; and, clearing his
road to the hand of the princess with the point of his lance, married
her, and carried her back with him to Paris.

The attachment of her father to th