57

CHAPTER XXV.

QUASIMODO.

Tarragona by night--Cathedral--Moonlight vision--Dream-fabric--Deserted
streets--Ghostly form approaches--Quilp or Quasimodo?--Redeeming
qualities--Pale spiritual face--Open sesame--Approaching the
apparition--Question and answer--Invitation accepted--Prisoners--The
Shadow--Under the cold moonlight--Enter cathedral--Vast interior--Gloom
and silence--Fantastic effects--Enigma solved--Strange proceeding--No
inspiration--Why Quasimodo turned night into day--Weird moonlight
scene--Soft sweet sounds--Schumann's Traeumerei--Spellbound--The
magician--Witching hour--Cathedral ghosts--An eternity of music--Varying
moods--Returning to earth--Quasimodo's rapture--Travelling
moonbeams--Night grows old--Sky full of music--Lost to sight--Dreams
haunted by Quasimodo--New day 372

CHAPTER XXVI.

IN THE DAYS OF THE ROMANS.

Charms of Tarragona--Roman traces--Cyclopean remains--Augustus closes
Temple of Janus--Great past--House of Pontius Pilate--View from
ramparts--Feluccas with white sails set--Life a paradise--City
walls--Cathedral outlines--Lively market-place--Remarkable
exterior--Dream-world--West doorways--Internal effect--In the
cloisters--Proud sacristan--Man of taste and learning--Delighted with
our enthusiasm--Great concession--Appealing to the soul--Senor
Ancora--Human or angelic?--In the cloister garden--Sacristan's domestic
troubles--Silent ecclesiastic--Sad history--Church of San
Pablo--Challenge invited--Future genius--Rare picture--Roman aqueduct--A
modern Caesar--Reminiscences--Rich country--Where the best wines are
made--Aqueduct--El puente del diablo--Giddy heights--Lonely valley--H.
C. sentimental--Rosalie and Fair Costello--Romantic
situation--Quarrelsome Reus--Masters of the world--Our driver turns
umpire--Battle averted--Men of Reus--Whatever is, is wrong--Driver's
philosophy--Dream of the centuries 389

CHAPTER XXVII.

LORETTA.

Our ubiquitous host--Curious mixture of nations--Francisco--His
enthusiasm carries the point--French lessons--English
prejudice--Landlord's lament--Days of fair Provence--Francisco
determines to be in time--Presidio--Tomb of the Scipios--Fishing for
sardines--Early visit to cathedral--Still earlier sacristan--Francisco's
delight--Freshness of early morning--Reus--Bark worse than bite--Where
headaches come from--An evil deed--Valley of the Francoli--Moorish
remains--Montblan