Part 7 (2/2)

The modern bedroom has a Coronation of the Virgin, the work of Vicente Lopez, a copy of a Murillo, and another of Raphael's Holy Family.

Let us saunter now in the sunny gardens of the Alcazar. We can reach them through the Apeadero, and by the steps leading from the tank at the entrance. The reservoir is full of carp, some of them of corpulent proportions. A few small fish may be seen basking near the surface of the water, but the bigger and warier carp do not often show themselves.

Roses cl.u.s.ter about the steps, and twine on all the railings. We come to a tree-grown court, with a gallery running on one side, and an arched entrance to the Baths of Maria de Padilla. This garden is called El Jardin del Crucero. The underground bath is cool, and it is a rest to the eyes to escape for a few minutes from the dazzling sunlight of the gardens. Here the lovely Maria, faithful mistress of the ferocious Pedro, was wont to bathe in warm weather.

To show their homage to the monarch's consort, the chivalrous courtiers came hither when the fair bather had taken her bath, and drank of the water in which she had washed her white limbs. It is said that these devoted servitors used sometimes to carry away some of the water in vessels 'to drink it with enjoyment.'

Pedro el Cruel, of all the Christian sovereigns who lived in the Alcazar, was the most attached to the palace. He lavished money upon the building of the apartments which we have just inspected, and employed the cleverest _Mudejar_ designers and craftsmen. In the Hall of Justice he heard charges against criminal offenders; in the gorgeous salons he received ill.u.s.trious guests, discoursed with his officers, and played at draughts with his courtiers. His image arises before the imagination as we stray under the lemon and orange trees of his quaint and charming pleasure-grounds. Coming to the throne in his sixteenth year, Don Pedro decided upon making Seville his capital.

We have read in the historical sections of our account of the city how he earned the t.i.tle of 'El Cruel.' But the story of his treachery towards his half-brothers has not been related.

Don Fadrique, Master of the Order of Santiago, and half-brother of Pedro el Cruel, having confessed allegiance to the King, came one day to Seville, after a campaign with rebels in Murcia. The Master of Santiago went to the Alcazar with the intention of paying a visit to his half-brother, the King. Pedro was playing at backgammon in his private apartment of the palace when Don Fadrique came to him.

The monarch received his general with genial courtesies, and bade him stay in the Alcazar. Leaving Pedro for a while, the Master went to the rooms of Maria de Padilla. He found her agitated and pale, but the sadness of her beautiful countenance did not cause him to suspect what lay upon her mind. Maria knew that Pedro longed to rid himself of all possible claimants to the throne. His eldest half-brother Enrique was in France, plotting against the Castilian throne. Pedro still dreaded a rising under Fadrique. He apparently doubted his professed fealty, and he had planned his murder. It is said that the Master of Santiago received hints of the fate that awaited him. But he returned to the quarters of the King, who was in company with several members of his court.

Pedro had shut himself in an inner room, which had a wicket to it. From the wicket he shouted to his soldiers: 'Kill the Master of Santiago!'

The bowmen obeyed. Fadrique drew his sword and made a stand, but he was soon overpowered, and struck down by blows on the head. The Master's servants were next seized and slaughtered. One of the train ran to the room of Maria de Padilla, pursued by his a.s.sailants, and threw himself behind Dona Beatrice, one of Maria's daughters. Pedro was among the pursuers. He tore the man from the arms of Beatrice, stabbed him, and gave him into the hands of his a.s.sa.s.sins. Returning to the room where Don Fadrique was expiring, Pedro saw that his half-brother was still breathing. Drawing his dagger, the King gave it to an attendant, and commanded him to kill the Master outright.

During the siege of Seville by Fernando el Santo, the fortified palace was the chief point of attack. The ma.s.sive walls of the Alcazar long resisted the a.s.sault of the besiegers. But the beleaguered Moors were at length compelled to offer surrender to the knights of the Cross. On the day of St. Clement the gates were thrown open, and San Fernando rode into the courtyard. In the King's hand was a sword; on his saddle the ivory image of the Holy Virgin. By his side rode Don Garcia de Varga and his brother Don Diego, the Conde Lorenzo, Pelago, and other brave cavaliers. The Khalif of the Alcazar escaped by the gate near the Hospital del Sangre. Henceforward, the palace was to be the residence of the kings of Castile.

In 1379 Juan I. lived in the Alcazar. The King ascended the throne without opposition. Trouble arose soon with Portugal, and Juan marched at the head of thirty-four thousand soldiers into the enemy's territory.

The Portuguese had a small force of only ten thousand men, including a few Englishmen. Near the village of Aljubarrota the armies met. There was a great battle, in which the Portuguese troops fought valiantly, and drove back the invaders.

Don Juan was ill and weak during the engagement. He was carried on a litter by his knights, and in the retreat, the King was put on a mule, and hurried from the scene of action to the Tagus. Here the monarch embarked in a small boat for Lisbon, whence he returned to Seville to mourn his defeat in the seclusion of the Alcazar.

Isabel and Fernando often sought the tranquil paths of this garden. The Catholic Queen and her Consort lived here in great state, in the palmy days of Seville, dispensing justice, listening to the counsels of Torquemada and the officers of the Holy Inquisition, and consulting with Columbus regarding the expansion of their realm and the development of trade with the New World. Many were the hours pa.s.sed by the blue-eyed, fair-haired Queen in the private chapel.

The pious Philip II. came here, though he preferred his mountain palace of the Escorial. He ordered the portraits of the Kings of Spain to be painted in the Hall of the Amba.s.sadors. As we have read, Philip incurred the resentment of the Sevillian merchants by his confiscation of their ingots. But the prelates and clergy of the city honoured the sovereign, who always supported the Church and favoured the priests. In his reign the Primate of Spain was almost as wealthy as the Pope. The Archbishop of Seville received an income of eighty thousand ducats a year.

Philip spent his time at the Alcazar in his usual daily labours, writing like a clerk in his private room until the small hours of the morning.

Every morning he attended Ma.s.s. The King lived simply, for he feared the gout. But in spite of this form of frugality, Philip spent his revenue freely in maintaining a large household. In his retinue there were fifteen hundred persons, including forty pages, all of n.o.ble family.

In the Queen's train there were twenty-six ladies-in-waiting, and four physicians were in constant attendance on Her Majesty. We may picture Philip moodily roaming in the gardens, dressed in black velvet, with a plumed cap. From his neck was suspended the fine jewel of the Golden Fleece. He wore sober clothes, and changed his suits once every month for new ones. His wear, like the cast of his mind, was sombre. A dread of society possessed the King, and in his later days he became more taciturn and morose.

'I am absolute King,' was the boast of the despotic Philip. His ambition was to attain power, to extend his kingdom beyond the seas, and to crush out heresy. Yet Tennyson's love-dazzled Mary is made to ask, as she gazes upon the face of the Spanish King, in a miniature painting:

'Is this the face of one who plays the tyrant?

Peruse it; is it not goodly, ay, and gentle?'

These gardens evoke reflections upon the ever-changing fate of Spain. We gaze at relics of the Moors, and remember the eight hundred years of that sanguinary history of the expulsion of the infidels. Yet everywhere there are traces of that mighty civilisation built up by Morisco knowledge and industry. The _Mudejar_ has touched the palace and the gardens with his magic wand. Fernando, Pedro, Philip, Carlos--all the Catholic sovereigns--preserved the Moorish style of decoration, and borrowed from the art of the hated race.

Pa.s.sing under a handsome gateway, represented in one of our ill.u.s.trations, we come to a fountain surrounded by a tiled pavement, and overshadowed by trees. Before us is the Pavilion of Carlos Quinto, with a fine ceiling and _azulejos_. This summer-house was built by Juan Hernandez in 1543. Turn to the left, and inspect the archway in the wall, and the curious mural paintings. We may then retrace our steps to the pavilion, and pa.s.s another tank and a grotto till we reach the maze and a tangled garden beyond it. This is the Garden of the Labyrinth.

Further, we may not ramble.

In 1626 a theatre stood in the large _patio_ near the Puerta del Leon, by which gate we must leave the Alcazar. The playhouse was of oval form, with three balconies, and one part of the theatre was reserved for ladies. The travelling actors who visited Seville preferred this theatre to any other in the city, as is shown by the archives of the palace. In the year 1691 the theatre was entirely destroyed by a great fire, and not a stone of the old building remains.

The singular mingling of Christian and Moorish architecture and adornment in the modern Alcazar is characteristic of Seville. We find the same mixture of styles in the Casa Pilatos and in other mansions of the city. Even the railway station at the termination of the Cordova line affords an example of the perpetuation of Morisco design and decoration. It is this Moorish influence that lends a strange interest to Seville. Some writers have declared that these mixed styles of architecture are anomalous. There is certainly an air of the grotesque in the combination of _Mudejar_ windows, cusped arches, columns, and _azulejos_, and Renaissance and Gothic features. But despite the element of incongruity, the effect is often pleasing, while the mingling of the styles is especially interesting from the historical point of view.

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