of Lyrics is worth this recognition if they
have rendered all the fire and spirit of its theme, beauty of language,
charm of rhythm and rhyme. Above all, my dedication to Lady Maria, a
masterpiece of English composition and delicate flattery. I begin to
think there must be some other cause for this demonstration. And if it
is not a poetical reception, I should call it a disgraceful riot."

He paused for breath. We were now going up-hill, and even the horses
found it a tug-of-war. "The people would have had some trouble in
dragging you up here," we remarked, as the animals toiled slowly
onwards.

"Enthusiasm will carry you through anything," said H. C. "If I assisted
at a demonstration I would help to drag a coach up the Matterhorn, and
succeed or perish in the attempt. But these people evidently have some
other object in view--organising a raid on the train, proclaiming a
republic, or something equally barbarous. What a very dark night!"

We looked out. The stars had disappeared. The sky was overcast and
threatening. Our horses struggled on and soon entered the town. Crossing
the bridge over the river we noticed everywhere an unusual crowd of
people, flaring lamps and torches, a sea of upturned faces thrown into
lights and shadows that looked weird and demon-like, an undercurrent of
voices, a perpetual movement.

What could it all mean? We expected to find Gerona, in spite of its
20,000 inhabitants, almost a dead city, full of traces of the past,
oblivious of the present; a city of outlines, echoes and visions of the
Middle Ages. We looked down the tree-lined boulevard and felt the very
word a desecration of the buried centuries. The broad thoroughfare ran
beside the river, and the trees followed each other in quick succession.
Without and within their shadows a long double row of booths held sway,
whose flaming torches turned night into day, paradise into pandemonium.

A great fair possessed the town, thronged with sightseers of all ages
and every stage of emotion. We lamented our fate in visiting Gerona at
such a time, but in the end it interfered very little either with our
comfort or impressions. It had its own quarters and kept to them.

The omnibus passed into narrower thoroughfares, without any trace of
fair, sign or sound of excitement or flaming torches. All was
delightfully dead as the most advanced antiquarian could desire when we
drew up at the _Fondu de los Italianos_.

Most of the hotels in the smal