on,
it must be owned, bears the appearance of having been transmitted by
some contemporary annalist, whose impartiality may have perhaps been
biassed by some of the numerous incitements which operate upon
courtiers.

Don Pedro Fernandez de Frias, Cardinal of Spain, Bishop of Osma and
Cuenca, was, it is affirmed, of low parentage, of base and licentious
habits of life, and of a covetous and niggardly disposition. These
defects, however, by no means diminished the high favour he enjoyed at
the successive courts of Henry the Third and Juan the Second. The Bishop
of Segovia, Don Juan de Tordesillas, happened by an unlucky coincidence
to visit Burgos during his residence there. The characters of the two
prelates were not of a nature to harmonise in the smallest degree, and,
being thrown necessarily much in each other's way, they gave loose
occasionally to expressions more than bordering on the irreverent. It
was on one of these occasions, that, the eloquence of the Cardinal
Bishop here interred being at default, a lacquey of his followers came
to his assistance, and being provided with a _palo_, or staff, inflicted
on the rival dignitary certain arguments _ad humeros_--in fact, gave the
Bishop of Segovia a severe drubbing. The Cardinal was on this occasion
compelled to retire to Italy.

Turning our backs to the centre piece of sculpture last described, we
enter the Capilla del Condestable through a superb bronze railing. In
these railings the Cathedral of Burgos rivals that of Seville,
compensating by number for the superior size and height of those
contained in the latter church. That of the chapel we are now entering
entirely fills the entrance arch, a height of about forty feet; the
helmet of a mounted knight in full armour, intended to represent St.
Andrew, which crowns its summit, nearly touching the keystone of the
arch. This chapel must be noticed in detail. Occupying at the extremity
of the church a position answering to that of Henry the Seventh's
Chapel at Westminster Abbey, it forms a tower of itself, which on the
outside harmonises with peculiar felicity with the three others, and
contributes to the apparent grandeur and real beauty of the exterior
view. The interior is magnificent, although its plan and style, being
entirely different from those of Henry the Seventh's Chapel, prevent the
comparison from going further. Its form is octagonal, measuring about
fifty feet in diameter, by rather more than a hundred