.
Do you not preach that the poor should live and the rich should work;
that everyone should possess what he earns, and that we should all
help one another? Well, this is just what I thought when we wandered
over the country with our guns and our scarf. And as far as religion
is concerned, which formerly nearly drove us mad, I feel perfectly
indifferent. I am convinced on hearing you that it is a sort of fable
invented by clever people in order that we, the poor and unfortunate,
should submit to the miseries of this world hoping for heaven; it
is not badly imagined, for in the end those who die and do not find
heaven will not return to complain."

One day Gabriel wished to go up where the bells were hung. It was now
well on in spring; it was warm, and the intense blue of the sky seemed
to attract him.

"I have not seen the 'big bell' since I was a child," he said. "Let us
go up; I should like to see Toledo for the last time."

And accompanied by his admirers, indeed, almost carried by them, he
went slowly up the narrow spiral staircase. Arrived at the top, the
soft wind was murmuring through the great iron railings, the cages of
the bells. From the centre of the vault hung the famous "Gorda," an
immense bronze bell, with all one side split by a large crack; the
clapper, which was the author of the mischief, lay below it, engraved
and as thick as a column, and a smaller one now occupied the cavity.
The roofs of the Cathedral, dark and ugly, lay at their feet, and in
front on a hill rose the Alcazar, higher and larger than the church,
as though keeping up the spirit of the emperor who built it, Caesar
of Catholicism, champion of the faith, but who nevertheless strove to
keep the Church at his feet.

The city spread out around the Cathedral, the houses disappearing in
the crowd of towers, cupolas and absides. It was impossible to look on
any side without meeting with chapels, churches, convents and ancient
hospitals. Religion had absorbed the industrious Toledo of old, and
still guarded the dead city beneath its hood of stone. From some of
the belfries a red flag was floating, bearing a white chalice; this
meant that some newly-ordained priest was singing his first mass.

"I have never been up here," said Don Martin, sitting by Gabriel's
side on one of the rafters, "without seeing some of these flags;
ecclesiastical recruiting never ceases, there are always visionaries
to fill its ranks. Those who really have faith a