eads among the mountains, and soon came in sight of the
necromantic tower.

Of this renowned edifice marvels are related by the ancient Arabian and
Spanish chroniclers; 'and I doubt much,' adds the venerable Agpaida,
'whether many readers will not consider the whole as a cunningly devised
fable, sprung from an oriental imagination; but it is not for me to reject
a fact which is recorded by all those writers who are the fathers of our
national history: a fact, too, which is as well attested as most of the
remarkable events in the story of Don Roderick. None but light and
inconsiderate minds,' continues the good friar, 'do hastily reject the
marvellous. To the thinking mind the whole world is enveloped in mystery,
and every thing is full of type and portent. To such a mind the
necromantic tower of Toledo will appear as one of those wondrous monuments
of the olden time; one of those Egyptian and Chaldaic piles, storied with
hidden wisdom and mystic prophecy, which have been devised in past ages,
when man yet enjoyed an intercourse with high and spiritual natures, and
when human foresight partook of divination.'

This singular tower was round, and of great height and grandeur; erected
upon a lofty rock, and surrounded by crags and precipices. The foundation
was supported by four brazen lions, each taller than a cavalier on
horseback. The walls were built of small pieces of jasper, and various
colored marbles, not larger than a man's hand; so subtilely joined,
however, that but for their different hues they might be taken for one
entire stone. They were arranged with marvellous cunning, so as to
represent battles and warlike deeds of times and heroes long since passed
away; and the whole surface was so admirably polished that the stones were
as lustrous as glass, and reflected the rays of the sun with such
resplendent brightness as to dazzle all beholders.[7]

[7] From the minute account of the good friar, drawn from the
ancient chronicles, it would appear that the walls of the
tower were pictured in mosaic work.

King Roderick and his courtiers arrived wondering and amazed, at the foot
of the rock. Here there was a narrow arched way cut through the living
stone; the only entrance to the tower. It was closed by a massive iron
gate, covered with rusty locks of divers workmanship, and in the fashion
of different centuries, which had been affixed by the predecessors of Don
Roderick. On either side of the