r of drowning. It may easily be imagined that the papal messenger,
satisfied with his success, avoided the contact of terra firma, until he
found himself clear of Pedro's dominions.

Quitting the room--that of Maria Padilla (according to my conjecture) by
the door which leads to the terrace, you look down on a square portion
of ground, partitioned off from the rest by walls, against which
orange-trees are trained like our wall-fruit trees, only so thickly that
no part of the masonry is visible. All the walls in the garden are thus
masked by a depth of about eight inches of leaves evenly clipped. In the
fruit season the effect is admirable. The small square portions next to
the palace thus partitioned off are laid out in flower-beds, separated
by walks of mixed brick and porcelain, all of which communicate with
fountains in the centres. The fountains, simple and destitute of the
usual classical menagerie of marine zoology and gods and goddesses,
whose cooeperation is so indispensable in most European gardens to the
propulsion of each curling thread or gushing mass of the cold
element,--derive all their charm from the purity and taste displayed in
their design. One of the most beautiful of them consists merely of a
raised step, covered with _azulejos_, enclosing a space of an hexagonal
form, in the centre of which the water rises from a small block of
corresponding form and materials. The mosaic is continued outside the
step, but covers only a narrow space.

[Illustration: FOUNTAINS AT THE ALCAZAR.]

The terrace stretches away to the left as far as the extremity of the
buildings, the facade of which is hollowed out into a series of
semicircular alcoves; there being no doors nor windows, with the
exception of the door of the room through which we issued. The alcoves
are surrounded with seats, and form so many little apartments, untenable
during the summer, as they look to the south, but forming excellent
winter habitations. Arrived at the extremity of the palace front, the
promenade may be continued at the same elevation down another whole side
of the gardens, along a terrace of two stories, which follows the outer
enclosure. This terrace is very ornamental. From the ground up to a
third of its height, its front is clothed with the orange-tree, in the
same manner as the walls already described. Immediately above runs a
rustic story of large projecting stones, which serves as a basement for
the covered gallery, or lower o