You have never heard of Alcala? Well, it is a little village nestling
between the Spanish hills, a league from great Madrid. There is a ring
of stone houses, each with its white-walled patio and grated windows;
each with its balcony, whence now and then a laughing face looks down
upon the traveller. There is an ancient inn by the roadside, a time-worn
church, and above, on the hill-top, against the still blue sky, the
castle, dusky with age, but still keeping a feudal dignity, though half
its yellow walls have crumbled away.
This is the Alcala into which I jogged one winter evening in search of
rest and entertainment after a long day's journey on mule-back.
The inn was in a doze when my footsteps broke the silence of its stone
court-yard; but presently a woman came through an inner door to answer
my summons, and I was speedily cast under the quiet spell of the place
by finding myself behind a screen of leaves, with a straw-covered
bottle at my elbow and a cold fowl within comfortable reach.
The bower where I sat was unlighted save by the waning sun, and I could
see but little of its long vista, without neglecting a very imperious
appetite. The lattice was covered, I thought, with vine-leaves, and I
felt sure, too, that some orange boughs, reaching across the patio wall,
mingled with the foliage above my head. But all I was certain of was the
relish of the fowl and the delicious refreshment of the cool wine.
Having finished these, I lay back in my chair, luxuriating in the sense
of healthy fatigue, and going over again, in fancy, the rolling roads of
my journey.
I believe I, also, fell into the prevailing slumber of the place, lulled
by the soft atmosphere and gentle wine, and might have slept there till
morning had a furious sneeze not awakened me with a start. I looked
confusedly about in the dusk, but could see nothing save, at last, the
tip of a lighted cigarette in the remote depths of the bower. I called
out,--
"Who's there?" and was answered, courteously, by a deep, gruff voice in
Spanish,--
"It is I, señor, Jose Rosado."
"Are you a guest of 'La Fonda'?" said I, for I had learned that this was
the name of the inn, and was a little doubtful whether I had fallen
into the hands of friend or foe.
"Ha! ha! ha!" with a long explosion of guttural sounds, was my only
answer. Then, after a brightening of the cigarette-fire, to denote that
the smoker was puffing it into life, he said,--
"I, señor, am the host."
At this I drew my chair closer, and found, in the thin reflection of the
cigarette, a round, bronzed face beaming with smiles and picturing easy
good health.
It was winter in Spain, but the scent of flowers was abroad, and the
soft, far-off stars twinkled through the moving leaves. What wonder,
then, that we fell into talk,--I, the inquiring traveller, he, the
arch-gossip of Alcala,--and talked till the moon rose high into the
night?
"And who lives in the castle on the hill?" I asked, after hearing the
private history of half the town.
"Ah," said mine host, as if preparing to swallow a savory morsel,
"there's a bit of gossip; there's a story, indeed!" He puffed away for a
minute in mute satisfaction, and then began.
"That is a noble family, the Aranjuez. None can remember in Alcala when
there was not a noble Aranjuez living in its castle, and they have led
our people bravely in all the wars of Spain. I remember as a boy----"
But, having become acquainted with mine host's loquacity, I broke in
with a question more to the point,--
"Who, Señor Jose, lives in the castle now?"
He would have answered without a suspicion of my ruse, had not a bell
just then rung solemnly forth, awakening the still night, and arousing
Jose Rosado from his comfortable bench, promptly to his feet.
"Come," he said; "that is for the Christmas Mass. I will tell you as we
go."
The little inn was lively enough as we emerged from the bower and
crossed the court-yard towards the road. The woman who had prepared my
supper came forth arrayed in a capulet of white and scarlet, and two
younger girls who accompanied her wore veils and long, black robes which
fell about their forms like Oriental garments. Two or three men,
attendants and hostlers of the place, were also about to start, trigged
out in queer little capes and high-crowned hats. All this fine apparel,
mine host informed me, was peculiar to Christmas, and I soon found the
highway full of peasants in similar garb.
As we got off, Jose Rosado resumed his story, which was brief enough to
beguile us just to the church-door.
"You ask me, señor, who lives in the castle now? The Donna Isabella is
alone there, now, the only survivor of the noble race, except--except
señor," (he laid a peculiar emphasis on the word,) "except a wilful son,
whom she has disowned and driven from her house. He is a handsome lad,
and married, here in Alcala, the beauty of the town, in spite of his
mother's wounded pride. It was a love-match of stolen wooing and secret
wedding,--but, ha! ha! _we_ saw it all, knew it all, before even they
did themselves. Many an evening have I met them on these roads, billing
and cooing like the doves on La Fonda's eaves. They were made by nature
for each other, though, and even the rage of the proud Donna Isabella
could never part them."
"And do they still live in the town?" I asked.
"Oh, yes," said Jose; "over there in the white house where the olive
trees are, at the bottom of the long hill."
I looked in the direction whither he pointed, but I could see little in
the dim moonlight save a white wall amid dense shadows.
"And is Donna Isabella a very old lady?" I asked, because very old
ladies are often charged with peculiar severity to very young ones.
"No, no, no," said Jose Rosado, with a quick turn of the head to each
no. "She's a widow lady of middle age; very proud and very handsome. You
shall see her presently, for she has consented to take part in the
Christmas play at the church."
As I had come a long journey to see this same Christmas play, my
expectation was doubly aroused as we approached the old edifice, whose
open belfry and rows of cloisters stood before us at the top of the hill
we were ascending.
As we entered, the bells stopped ringing, for it was precisely midnight,
and the priest at the altar began to say the Christmas Masses. When he
had reached the Gospel, he was interrupted by the appearance of a
matron, dressed all in white, who stood at the end of the nave. She was
clad like the Madonna, and was accompanied by Joseph, who wore the garb
of a mountaineer, with a hatchet in his hand. An officious little
officer with a halberd opened the way through the crowd before these
personages, and they came solemnly up the aisle towards the chancel,
which had been arrayed to represent Bethlehem, the Madonna reciting, as
she moved forward, a plaintive song about her homelessness. Joseph
replied cheeringly, and led her under a roof of leaves in the sanctuary,
formed in the manner of a stable, in which we could see the manger
against the wall. Here she took rest from her journey, while a little
crib, wherein lay the Bambino--or waxen image of the Babe--all adorned
with ribbons and laces, was brought from the sacristy and placed in the
straw at her feet.
As the Madonna passed us, Jose Rosado nudged me, and whispered audibly
enough to make the crowd about us turn and stare,--
"Hist! here's the Donna Isabella, señor! She looks like a saint
to-night!"
I watched her closely as she went by me, and marked, under the meek
expression assumed by the Virgin, a more characteristic one of severe
resolution. She was, however, a queenly woman, in the ripest stage of
maturity, but she bore herself, in the part she had taken, with a
matronly grace something too conscious for the lowly Mary.
As she seated herself on the heap of straw, a little boy in a surplice,
representing an angel, with wings of crimped lawn at his shoulders, was
raised in a chair, by a cord and pulley, to the very top of the
sanctuary arch, where he sang a carol to the shepherds,--
"Shepherds, hasten all
With flying feet from your retreat;
On rustic pipes now play
Your sweetest, sweetest lay;
for"--so ran the song--"Mary and the King of Heaven are in yonder cave."
At this, an orchestra, concealed behind the high altar, set up a tooting
from bagpipes, and flute, and violin, which served as a prelude to the
appearance of the shepherds, who were concealed in the gallery.
Up they got, with long cloaks and crooked staffs, murmuring their
surprise and incredulity at what the angel had said; some pretending to
grumble at being awakened from sleep, others anxious to prove the truth
of the strange tidings.
Then the angel sang a more appealing ditty still, whereat they were all
about ready to advance, when one of their number, of a sceptical turn,
urged them to avoid such fanciful matters and give heed to their sheep,
who would otherwise become the prey of the wolf.
Hereupon, an old shepherd appeared, who gave three loud knocks with his
crook, and denounced those who should disobey the heavenly messenger.
The practical man was thus silenced, and they expressed their
willingness to go to the manger,--and at the same moment an angel
appeared to guide them thither.
They descended from the gallery to the outer porch of the church and
knocked loudly at the door, saying, as if to the innkeeper at
Bethlehem:
"Pray, good master of the inn,
Open the door and let us in."
But Joseph became alarmed at the approach of such a number of rustics,
and inquired who they were. They held a songful colloquy with him; but
he continued to refuse them admittance, until an angel again intervened,
this time in the form of a tall acolyte from the sanctuary, accompanied
by two little angelic choristers. He reassured Joseph, and invited the
shepherds to enter and worship the Babe. They came up the aisle
flourishing their be-ribboned crooks and singing in praise of the Child,
but they were sorely vexed, when they saw the stable, that so humble a
place had been found for His shelter. Joseph explained, in several
couplets, that no other house would receive them, and the shepherds
replied in several others, mingling sympathy and good advice, intended
not for Joseph, but for the throng, who listened in religious awe.
After paying due homage to the child and Mary, the shepherds exchanged
some more verses with Joseph, and then retired to the other end of the
church, singing in chorus as they went.
All these ceremonies had so claimed my attention that I had given
scarcely any heed to the Virgin. She was seated humbly in the straw
beside the little crib, in which still nestled the Bambino, and, with
eyes cast down in maternal thoughtfulness, she was a lovely object there
beneath the roof of the leafy stable. She did not appear to notice the
actors in the drama; and now, when three young girls, in gayest holiday
attire, came forward with distaffs that streamed with bright ribbons,
and knelt before her, she reached forth a hand as if to bless them, but
kept her eyes turned meekly upon the ground.
As these three girls retired from the manger, another and larger band
appeared beneath the gallery opposite the shepherds, singing in sweet
voices a salutation to the three who had just left the chancel. These
made answer that they had come from the stable where the Saviour was
born; and so, in alternate questions and answers, they described all
that they had seen. The two groups, having advanced a step or two at
each stanza, now met, and went back to the manger together, singing the
same air the shepherds had previously sung.
When they arrived at the stable they made their offering, setting up a
tent the while, ornamented with plenteous ribbons and flowers, among
which blackbirds, thrushes, turtle-doves and partridges fluttered about
at the ends of cords to which they were fastened. They brought with
them, also, bunches of purple grapes and strings of yellow apples,
chaplets of dried prunes and heaps of walnuts and chestnuts. After
arranging these rustic offerings, the shepherdesses returned, singing in
chorus as they went:
"In Bethlehem, at midnight,
The Virgin mother bore her child.
This world contains no fairer sight
Than this fair Babe and Mary mild.
Well may we sing at sight like this,
_Gloria in Excelsis_."
I now had another unobstructed view of Donna Isabella, and Jose Rosado's
gossip, intensified by her romantic appearance as the Virgin, had given
me a deep interest in her every movement.
She reached down into the little crib to lift out the Bambino, and I
could plainly see a look of astonishment rise to her face as she started
back, both hands held wide apart, as if having encountered something
they were unprepared to touch. Then she turned hurriedly to Joseph and
whispered a word in his ear, whereupon he too bent with surprise over
the little crib. After gazing at it a moment, he reached down and lifted
out, not the waxen Bambino, but a sweet young baby that smiled and
reached its tiny arms from Joseph towards the white Virgin.
Donna Isabella was visibly affected at this, and took the tender infant
into her arms, caressing and soothing it, while it fondled her face and
white head-dress.
The audience had now become aware that, instead of the waxen image in
the crib, there had been found a living baby, and the impetuous and
susceptible minds of the Spanish peasants had jumped at the conclusion
that they had witnessed a new miracle. They crowded up to the manger,
telling their beads and murmuring prayers, while they pushed and jostled
each other madly for a glimpse of the holy infant.
One of the acolytes reached his arms forth to take it from Donna
Isabella and bring it to the chancel rail for the crowd to see, but she
held it more closely to her bosom, and refused to let it go from her. As
she stood there, a tall and stately figure, folded in the white gown of
the Virgin and wearing the close head-dress which concealed all save her
splendid face, she seemed the creation of some old painter, and the
curious crowd of peasants was hushed into admiration by her beauty and
her tenderness for the child. She, too, became a part of the strange
miracle. The infant Christ had been born anew among them, and lay there
in his very mother's arms, an object of mystery and worship. As the
silence of wonder ensued, Donna Isabella seemed to collect her startled
senses, and looked around her as if expecting the mother of the child to
come and claim it. A woman of her resolution was not to be hurried into
superstitious follies by some pretty trick or accident. But the little
one lay so softly in her arms and reached with such tiny, appealing
fingers at her throat, that she began to feel a motherly fondness for
it. And, moreover, had it not been sent her, who was alone now in the
great castle on the hill, as a mysterious gift of Providence? Ought she
not to feel it a sacred charge, coming as it did, from the very manger,
to her arms?
Thus thinking, the Donna Isabella came slowly to the chancel rail, and,
holding forth the infant at arms' length, she said:
"Good people of Alcala, my part in the Christmas play is done. The good
Lord has sent me this little one to take care of; and here, before you
all, I accept the charge and promise to cherish and love it. If any of
you know its mother, say that the Donna Isabella has carried it to the
castle of Aranjuez, and tell her to follow it there, for where her child
is, there the mother should be also." This broke the spell. The silent
crowd fell into murmurs and gestures, and each one asked his neighbor
where the child belonged. There was no longer any doubt. It was merely a
human child; but the mystery of the manger surrounded it with a hallowed
interest, and everybody was eager to discover its parents and bear them
the good news of its adoption by the great lady.
Now, Jose Rosado was too old a hand, too jolly a host, to be long
deceived. He whispered me his views as we stood near the leafy stable,
and they were to the effect that the wayward son of the Aranjuez knew
more about the child in the manger than any one else thereabouts.
And Jose was right; for, before the bustle of inquiry had quite died
away, from out the sacristy door came a young girl wearing a veil and
dressed in the long black gown of the Christmas ceremonies. She walked
demurely through the crowd, which parted for her with inquiring looks,
and, going straight up to the chancel, dropped on her knees before the
Donna Isabella. She held down her head and made no motion; but all knew
instinctively that she was the mother of the child.
The noble Virgin stooped and raised her head with a loving compassion.
She put aside her veil and moved as if to kiss her, but one look at the
mother's face turned her kindness into rage. She cried, "What, you?" and
overwhelmed at the discovery sank down on the straw of the stable,
clasping the child with a firmer hold, as if to shield it from a foe.
It was a sore conflict for an unyielding will like that of the Donna
Isabella; but the part she had played in the sacred ceremonies and the
surrounding emblems of peace and good-will were softening influences.
More potent even than these was the persuasive contact of the little
hands which opened and shut in playful touches at her throat. I could
see from the varying expressions of her face that she questioned
herself. Should she yield? The pride of birth, the disobedience of a
youthful son to a mother of her indulgent nature, the stigma of a low
connection upon a noble family name--all these things pleaded urgently,
No. She looked up vindictively at the gaping congregation, which seemed
spellbound in wanton curiosity, wherewith was mingled not a little
religious dread. And then, again, she turned her eyes down upon the
innocent face beside her bosom, so guileless, to be the cause of such
varying passions in the throng about it. No, she could not give it up.
All the old maternal instincts were aroused in her, and the firmness of
her will was redoubled by the sentiment of love for her grandchild. Was
it not her son's child, then, as well as this woman's? Surely, she had a
right to keep it, and, glancing up with this last plea for possession
on her lips, she saw beside the kneeling wife a new figure, whose
presence made her pause and falter.
Only for an instant, however, for a kindlier light came into her clear
eyes, and reaching forth the one arm which was free she threw it around
her son's neck and kissed him fondly, while the little child which had
wrought the change,--a latter-day miracle of broken affections made
whole, of bitter wounds healed by the touch of innocence,--lay there
between them, striving, with its playful hands, to catch at its mother's
bowing head.
* * * * *
As Jose Rosado and I walked homeward through the pale-blue moonlight, we
did not say much. I was deeply moved by the touching scene I had beheld;
and he was exceedingly reflective.
At last, as we neared La Fonda's vine-run walls, he said:
"Señor, do you think the miracles are all over nowadays?"
"I know not, Señor Jose," I answered; "but there are certainly strange
potencies lurking in the depths of a mother's love."
_From a Cuirassier's Note-Book._
"He was a handsome fellow, the
son of a peasant; but he carried
his blue dolman very well, this
young soldier."
_De Maupassant._