above the spheres of the parapet and
the crosses of the cresting another larger cross dominates the whole
front.

Such is Dom Manoel's addition to the Templars' church, and outlandish
and strange as some of it is, the beautiful rich yellow of the stone
under the blue sky and the dark shadows thrown by the brilliant sun make
the whole a building of real beauty. Even the wild west window is helped
by the compactness of its outline and by the plainness of the wall in
which it is set, and only the great coral branches of the round
buttresses are actually unpleasing. The size too of the windows and the
great thickness of the wall give the Coro a strength and a solidity
which agree well with the old church, despite the richness of the one
and the severe plainness of the other. There is perhaps no building in
Portugal which so well tells of the great increase of wealth which began
under Dom Manoel, or which so well recalls the deeds of his heroic
captains--their long and terrible voyages, and their successful
conquests and discoveries. Well may the emblem of Hope,[119] the
armillary sphere, whereby they found their way across the ocean, be
carved all round the parapet, over the door, and beside the west window
with its wealth of knots and wreaths.

Whether or not Ayres or Joao de Castilho meant the branches of coral to
tell of the distant oceans, the trees of the forests of Brazil, and the
ropes of the small ships which underwent such dangers, is of little
consequence. To the present generation which knows that all these
discoveries were only possible because Prince Henry and his Order of
Christ had devoted their time and their wealth to the one object of
finding the way to the East, Thomar will always be a fitting memorial of
these great deeds, and of the great men, Bartholomeu Diaz, Vasco da
Gama, Affonso de Albuquerque, Pedro Cabral, and Tristao da Cunha, by
whom Prince Henry's great schemes were brought to a successful issue.

CHAPTER XII

THE ADDITIONS TO BATALHA

Little had been done to the monastery of Batalha since the death of Dom
Duarte left his great tomb-chapel unfinished. Dom Affonso v., bent on
wasting the lives of the bravest of his people and his country's wealth
in the vain pursuit of conquests in Morocco, could spare no money to
carry out what his father had begun, and so make it possible to move his
parents' bodies from their temporary resting-place before the high altar
to the chapel intended