CATHEDRALS AND CASTLES IN SPAIN.
I wuz not sorry to be on the train agin on our way to Irun, which wuz
the first town of Spain we entered, and here we wuz ushered into the
Custom House.
Our baggage wuz all took into the station and spread out on long
counters and examined.
Politer creeters I don’t want to see than them Spaniards wuz. And the
language they spoke amongst themselves wuz as soft as silk and as
kinder soothin’ and sweet. And they didn’t hurt our baggage a speck,
though Josiah’s anxiety as they opened his satchel wuz extreme.
He sez to me, “Like as not they’ll spile that dressin’-gown.”
“How could they spile it?” I whispered back.
“Why,” sez he, “them tossels could be hurt easy. I shall have to comb
’em out agin as quick as we stop.”
He had a awful coarse comb with him, and he did spend hours a-combin’
out them red tossels that he ort to spend on his own head, or on his
Bible.
So, as I say, he jest hovered over that satchel and heaved 2 or 3 deep
sithes of relief as the Custom House officer released it from his hand.
And, oh! how lovin’ly he folded the rep folds, and laid the tossels
down caressin’ly.
My baggage was soon and hurridly gone through--in the words of a old
adage concernin’ a horse, changed to suit the occasion--“A short
satchel is soon hurried.”
The Spaniards are a lazy set--I guess they would have examined our
things closter, if they wuzn’t so slow and slack.
[Illustration: I see one of the officials take up my sheep’s-head
nightcap.]
[Illustration: A smile of admiration swep’ over his dark visage.]
I see one of the officials take up one of my sheep’s-head nightcaps
that lay on top--so’s to not muss the agin’--he took it up, and a smile
of admiration swep’ over his dark visage. I believe, if he hadn’t
been so lazy, he would have asked me for the pattern on’t. More’n as
likely as not, so lackin’ is Spain in some of the first elements of the
ingregiencies of civilization, I shouldn’t wonder a mite if them two
wuz the only sheep’s-head nightcaps in Spain.
But this last fact (his laziness) conquered his gropin’s after sunthin’
new and better than he and his companion had known in the way of
nightcaps. He laid it down with another smile of admiration, and closed
up my satchel.
Wall, after we got on the cars agin, bag and baggage, and I thought,
my soul, owin’ to the utter shiftlessness and slowness, that we never
should git fairly to goin’.
After Josiah wuz set at rest agin concernin’ his dressin’-gown, and I
settled down about my nightcap, little did I think that we should have
to go through the hull performance agin in a few hours.
But we did--the hull seen was enacted agin, my pardner’s anxiety
and all. Only these new officials hadn’t the sense to appreciate my
nightcaps--they turned ’em over as if they wuz common apparel.
Martin and Alice took everything of the sort with composure and good
nater; they wuz ust to it, I spoze, travellin’ round all the time. And
Al Faizi looked on the faces of the men with that searchin’, enquirin’
gaze of hisen, and didn’t say nothin’. Adrian wuz tired, I could see,
and when we got into the carriage to take us to our hotel, he kinder
laid down in my lap and went to sleep.
Good, pretty little creeter!
San Sebastian is situated on sech a beautiful little bay that they
have named it the Concha, or shell, as we would call it. It is a noted
waterin’-place, and Queen Isabella ust to come here summers and water
herself, and bathe, and act. If I’d been here I should have gin her a
talkin’ to; I dare presoom to say I could have got her to turn right
round in her tracts and got her to behavin’; I presoom, in all the
crowds around her, there wuzn’t one well-wisher to walk up and tell her
what wuz what. No; praise to her face and back-bitein’ to her back.
I’d ort to been there! She had a hard time all her life, and I’m real
sorry for her, and she would have read it in my mean, and took my
advice as it wuz meant to be took.
Wall, we stayed here two days, and I wuz glad, indeed, of the rest. I
wuz willin’ to spend my time with St. Sebastian, while the rest spent
their time a-meanderin’.
Martin and Josiah and the rest made lots of excursions to all the
castles and cathedrals in the vicinity, but I felt middlin’ satisfied
to see the most on ’em from the outside. The ruffs of ’em, viewed from
my bedroom winder, seemed to satisfy my mind as I looked out on ’em
dreamily, as I applied arnaky to my knee jints. I wuz real lame, but
recooperated a good deal while here.
I did take one or two drives, when I wuz charmed with the strange and
picteresque scenery. In some places to see the mountains a-standin’ up
all round us in the fur blue distance, and the queer little hamlets
nestled down in the deep green valleys.
We went to Pasages, less than a hour’s drive, to see the very place
where Lafayette sot sail to help us git our freedom.
I had so many emotions here, as I viewed this spot, that I breathed
hard, and had to restrain myself to keep a composure on the outside.
On the way back we met lots of their heavey, rough carts, drawed by an
ox and a cow lashed together by ropes wound round their horns, and then
hitched to the cart.
[Illustration: Heavey, rough carts, drawed by an ox and a cow lashed
together by ropes wound round their horns.]
As Josiah see this, he sez, “There, Samantha, you can see the practical
workin’s of wimmen’s rights.” Sez he, “I say a cow has done all she ort
to when she’s gin a good pail of milk; she ortn’t to plough and reap
too.”
That speech kinder dumbfoundered me for a spell. It wuz the smartest
thing my pardner had sed for over a year and a half. But, after
considerin’ on’t for a spell, I sez--
“Josiah, that hain’t so deep a speech as you’d think it wuz from
considerin’ it from jest on the outside. The cases are different,” sez
I. “The cow helps draw the cart, both equal; but the cow don’t have to
pay taxes and the ox can’t make laws that hang her and rob her, etc.”
But still, in my own mind, I did admire my pardner’s observation, and
admired him considerable for thinkin’ on’t. It showed high gallantry,
too, and devotion to females; I felt quite proud on him for pretty nigh
half a day.
On one excursion that Martin wanted to make I wuz more’n willin’ to
accompany and go with him--that wuz to Azpeitia, a little village 25
miles from San Sebastian; but its bein’ a mountain road, it took us
about all day to go and come.
But Martin didn’t begrech the time. “For,” sez he, “I want to see the
spot where the man was born who has exerted the greatest power of any
man on earth--Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the order of Jesuits.”
Sez he--
“I shall be asked if I went there, and I want to be able to say yes.”
How different I felt on the subject, and how different Al Faizi felt!
I see in that heathen’s rapt eyes as we talked about it on the way the
same emotions I felt--a deep admiration for the grand, heroic character
of Loyola, a deep horrow of the power he sot to goin’, not knowin’ how
fur it wuz a-goin’ to move, nor how much blood it wuz a-goin’ to wade
through.
I’d hearn his history rehearsed a number of times by Thomas Jefferson,
and I knew all about it. He wuz a favorite at court, with beauty and
wit and good sense, a brave warrior, brought down to death’s door by
the enemy’s sword. When he wuz thirty years old, as you can see by the
inscription over his front door, “He gave himself to God.”
In that same hour he wuz converted, there hain’t a doubt of that;
nobody ever had more faith than he had. Why, he see for himself the
water and the wine changed right before his eyes into the blood and
body of our Lord.
Some say it wuz a vision caused by his religious ecstasy. But _he
saw it_, and forevermore he doubted not--he _knew_ what he believed,
and with all the ardor of his immortal faith, with all the brave
generalship learnt by his warlike trainin’, he led on his countless
troops aginst the Wrong as he see it.
Nobody can doubt the sincerity and single-mindedness of Loyola; he
give proof of it in his life of self-denial and fastin’ and prayer. He
changed his clothes with a beggar, eat the most loathsome food, and to
mortify his pride begged from door to door. Why, he who wuz ust to the
soft couches of a court dwelt a hull year in a cave in plain sight of
a convent built to the Virgin Mary. He lay here on the ground a hull
year, three hundred and sixty-five nights, so that he could show that
he wuz indeed a worm of the dust in sight of his Maker.
Havin’ prepared himself thus, he went to the shrine of the Virgin Mary
and spent a hull night in prayer before the altar, then laid his sword
upon it to show that he laid aside all dreams of earthly honor. And
here he took his vows--to give his heart’s deepest love, and his hull
life’s devotion.
These vows he kep’ to the last minute of his life. In a church built to
his honor are those words that ruled him:
“To the Greater Glory of God.”
There can be no doubt of his sincerity and no doubt of the fatal power
he wielded and wields yet. For that strong, inexecrable hand holds
empires in its grasp, blood drippin’ through the firm, cast-iron
fingers. A well-meanin’ grasp in the first place, nobody doubts, and as
time has passed, a-snatchin’ many savages from their barbarous lives
and savage beliefs into better ways of livin’, and bringin’ ’em into
the shelter of the Cross.
Good and evil, evil and good. Loyola is not the only Leader who has
waded through seas of blood, and all to “The Greater Glory of God.” And
what will be the end?
Onlimited power is a dangerous weepon to handle. Believin’ as he did
firmly, onalterably, that his way wuz the only right way, he proceeded
to make people walk in it. He went to work jest as the Puritans did
when they hung witches and whipped Baptists. Only as his power reached
by powerful organizations into all the countries of the earth, so the
streams of bloodshed flowed down all the mountains of the earth, and
reddened all the valleys.
And he, shet up to home a-fastin’ and a-prayin’ and a-seein’ visions of
his Lord, and heads a-bein’ cut off and flames a-cracklin’ round the
martyrs that he caused to be put to death in the name of his religion.
And St. Francis Xavier, the best and sweetest soul that ever lived,
he too become a general in this great army. By its swift, silent,
mysterious power Kings wuz put to death, a Pope wuz poisoned, and some
say that the Massacree of St. Bartholomew wuz caused by it. By its
power Queen Isabella, the sweet, tender-hearted soul who sold her own
earrin’s and things to help Columbus discover us--jest think of her,
for what she wuz made to think wuz for “The Greater Glory of God,” she
give her consent to have the dretful Inquisition established in Spain,
causin’ half a million of Christians to be tortured and put to death.
Curous, hain’t it, what actin’ and behavin’ mortals will take on
themselves to do in the name of Religion!
And she, so sweet, so peaceable, so holy--rejoicin’ not in Iniquity,
but rejoicin’ in the Truth; forgivin’ her enemies, blessin’ ’em that
persecute her, lovin’ all men and wimmen, blessin’ the world.
Queer, hain’t it!
Wall, from San Sebastian we went to Bruges and put up at a hotel built
in honor of a Emperor. But I wuz dissapinted; a hotel in honor of a
tramp ort to have more conveniences and smell sweeter. But I got a
chance to set down and rest, anyway, which wuz indeed a panaky to my
legs and to me.
I’d been quite rousted up about comin’ to Bruges, for here Cid wuz
born, as I told Josiah.
“Syd who?” sez he.
“Why, the Cid,” sez I, “who led the armies aginst the Moors and freed
Spain.”
“Wall,” sez Josiah, “I should think if he done all that it would look
better for you not to nickname him and call him Syd. You never wuz
intimate with Sydney,” sez he.
Sez I, “That hain’t his name; it is C-i-d, Cid. Hain’t you hearn Thomas
J. read about him--all the great things he did, and how after he wuz
dead he rode into Bruges clad in armor? And when a Jew approached his
dead body to offer it some insult his mailed hand come up and knocked
him down.”
Sez Josiah, “I don’t approve of Syds doin’ that anyway--I should go
aginst it; it would be apt to make queer funerals if sech things wuz
encouraged.”
“Wall,” sez I, “I don’t say it is so, but I’ve hearn tell it wuz.”
Anyway, we found in the town-hall his bones wuz nothin’ but dust.
Josiah kinder sheered away from the box where they wuz kep’, but
nothin’ took place and ensued.
The cathedral is a sight--a sight. I felt a good deal as I stood under
its walls as a ant would feel if she wuz sot down under Bunker Hill
Monument. And inside the buildin’ my emotions wuz still more various
and lofty. The interior is exquisite, grand beyend any idee almost,
and the proportions are so perfect, the harmony of it affects one a
good deal as the most melogious music would, and the colorin’ is jest
as perfect as the architecture. Take it all in all, it is a sight--a
sight. Even Josiah wuz affected by it; his local pride wuz lowered
imperceptibly, and sez he--
“I’ve cracked up the Jonesville meetin’-house everywhere I’ve been, and
it is a comogious structure, but this goes ahead on’t, and I will own
up that it duz.”
Martin sed, “I’m glad I’ve been here; a good many of my friends have
spoken of it to me. I shall be glad to say that I have studied this
much-talked-of cathedral at length.”
We wuz there about half a hour.
Al Faizi showed in his ardent face, lifted in reverence and admirin’
or, jest how he felt about it. The lights from the stained-glass winder
gleamed on’t, and made it look almost inspired. He nor I didn’t seem
to want to talk much about it. I never do when I see Niagara. No, I’m
willin’ to let that do the talkin’ to my rapt soul.
It wuz so here. When I stood in these cathedrals, the grandeur and
might of their silent oratory preached to me so loud that I wuz almost
overwhelmed and by the side of myself, and carried some distance by the
power of the sperit that carried out these grand results.
But anon, when I got outside, other emotions got into my sperit; they
come in onbid, and I had to use ’em well.
I thought how on great days the congregation who meet here would
worship God all day and wave banners and anon fire cannons in honor of
some saint or other, and then end up with a bull-fight.
Jest as if Josiah and Deacon Bobbett should pass the Holy Communion,
bread and wine, and then withdraw into the horse-shed, and have a dog
or rooster fight.
It took off a number of my soarin’ emotions to think on’t, probble as
many as 80 or 85. I had had over a hundred right along--I know I had.