ishopric--Troublous times--Brave
people--Striking cathedral--Splendid outlines--Desecration--The new
cathedral--Senseless tyranny--One of the most interesting of
towns--Crowded market-place--Picturesque arcades and ancient
gateways--Wine-pressers--Good offer refused--Another
revelation--Wonderful streets--Amongst the immortals--Our Boot-cleaner
in Ordinary again--Thereby hangs a tale--His story--Blind wife--Modest
request--Nerissa--Charming room--Little queen in the
arm-chair--Faultless picture--Renouncements but no regrets--"All a new
world"--Time to pass out of life--Back to the quiet streets--H. C.
contemplative--Proposes emigration to Salt Lake City--Lerida glorified
by its idyll 296

CHAPTER XXI.

THE END OF AN IDYLL.

Days of chivalry not over--In the evening light--Night porter
grateful--Dragon in full force--Combative and revengeful--Equal to the
occasion--Gall turns to sweetness when H. C. appears--Last night in
Lerida--Bane of our host's life--Mysterious disappearance--Monastery of
Sigena--Devout ladies--Returning at night--Place empty and
deserted--Birds flown with keys--Quite a commotion--"The senor is
pleased to joke"--Was murder committed?--Mysteries explained--Probably
down the well--Drag for skeletons--Host's horror--"We drink the
water"--A tragedy--Out in the quiet night--Discords--Lerida cafe--Create
a sensation--Polite captain--Offer declined--Regrets--Final
crash--Paradise or Lerida--Deserted market-place--Trees whisper their
secrets--El Sereno at the witching hour--Hard upon the angels--Not a bed
of roses--Alphonse--End of a long life--Until the dawn--Acolyte and
priest--"We must all come to it, senor"--El Sereno disappears for the
last time--Daybreak--In presence of death--Alone, but
resigned--Surpassing loveliness--Sacred atmosphere 313

CHAPTER XXII.

A SAD HISTORY.

Broad plains of Aragon--Wonderful tones--Approaching Zaragoza--Celestial
vision--Distance lends enchantment--Commonplace people--The ancient
modernised--Disillusion followed by delight--Almost a small Paris--Cafes
and their merits--Not socially attractive--Friendly equality--Mixture of
classes--Inheritance of the past--Interesting streets--Arcades and
gables--Lively scenes--People in costume--Picture of Old Spain--Ancient
palaces--One especially romantic--The world well lost--Fair Lucia--Where
love might reign for ever--Paradise not for this world--Doom