pe, I should not have been more taken by
surprise, than by this Arab expression assailing the ear, in the heart
of Spain, ten miles from the town itself, in which the name had probably
not been uttered for three or four centuries.

The builder of the castle of Almonacid must have placed more confidence
in the difficulties of approach, than in the solidity of his structure.
The walls are partly of stone, and partly of _tapia_, or earth. There
only remain, the exterior wall, enclosing an area of about sixty to
seventy yards in diameter, and of a pentagonal form; and, in the centre,
the keep, a quadrangular tower, somewhat higher than the rest of the
buildings. There are no traces of living apartments. At each of the five
angles of the outer wall, is a small tower, and others in the centres of
some of the fronts; those looking to the west are circular, the rest
square. The nearer view of this ruin causes disappointment, as it
appears to have been a slovenly and hasty construction: but, at a
distance, its effect is highly picturesque.

The castle of Montalban is situated to the south-west of Toledo, at a
distance of six Spanish leagues. It resembles, in size and importance,
some of the largest English castles; and justifies thus far the
tradition preserved here, of its having for a short period, served for a
royal prison--Juan the Second being said to have been confined there by
his exasperated favourite, Don Alvaro de Luna. This story is not,
however, confirmed by historians, several of whom I have vainly
consulted, for the purpose of discovering it. Ferreras mentions the
castle, or rather the town, which lies at a distance of two leagues
(eight miles) from it, as having belonged to the queen of Juan the
Second; who, he states, was deprived of it, against her will, in favour
of Don Alvaro, and another place given her in exchange. On the
confiscation of the favourite's possessions, previous to his
decapitation, it reverted to the crown; and there is no further notice
taken of it in the history, until the Emperor Charles the Fifth, confers
on its then proprietor the title of Count. This personage was Don Alonzo
Tellez Giron, third in descent from Juan Pacheco, Duke of Escalona, who
had erected Montalban into a separate fief, in favour of one of his sons
and his descendants, on the singular condition of the family name
undergoing a change, on each successive descent. The alternate lords
were to bear the names respectively of