nals in chains." And he proceeded to prepare the order.

Not having recovered the compliment of being taken for a conspirator;
nor admiring the civilisation of the governor of a province, who
supposed that all the thirty-four millions of French, must be
_intrigants_, I received his civilities in silence, took the order, and
my departure. The most curious part of the affair was, that I had no
passport at the time, having lost it on the road. Had my suspicious
interrogator ascertained this before making the discovery that I was
English, I should inevitably have been treated to more of San Pablo than
I desired, or than would have been required for drawing it in detail.

The adjoining building is smaller, and with less pretension to
magnificence is filled with details far more elaborate and curious. The
Gothic architecture, like the Greek, assumed as a base and principle of
decoration the imitation of the supposed primitive abodes of rudest
invention. The Greek version of the idea is characterised by all the
grace and finished elegance peculiar to its inventors; while the same
principle in the hands of the framers of Gothic architecture, gave birth
to a style less pure and less refined; but bolder, more true to its
origin, and capable of more varied application. In both cases may be
traced the imitation of the trunks of trees; but it is only in the
Gothic style that the branches are added, and that instances are found
of the representation of the knots and the bark. In this architecture,
the caverns of the interior of mountains are evidently intended by the
deep, multiplied, and diminishing arches, which form the entrances of
cathedrals; and the rugged exterior of the rocky mass, which might
enclose such a primaeval abode, is imaged in the uneven and pinnacled
walls.

[Illustration: FACADE OF SAN GREGORIO, VALLADOLID.]

The facade of the college of San Gregorio, adjoining San Pablo,
furnishes an example of the Gothic decoration brought back to its
starting point. The tree is here in its state of nature; and contributes
its trunk, branches, leaves, and its handfuls of twigs bound together. A
grove is represented, composed of strippling stems, the branches of some
of which, united and bound together, curve over, and form a broad arch,
which encloses the door-way. At each side is a row of hairy savages,
each holding in one hand a club resting on the ground, and in the other
an armorial shield. The intervals of the sculpture