an appears either flat or slightly
concave, and aeronauts declare that this apparent concavity becomes more
marked, the higher they ascend. It is only at those rare periods when the
air is so miraculously clear as to produce the effect of _no
air_--rendering impossible the slightest optical illusion--that our eyes
can see things as they really are. So pure was the atmosphere to-day,
that, at meridian, the moon, although a thin sickle, three days distant
from the sun, shone perfectly white and clear.

As I loitered in the Alameda, between thick hedges of ever-blooming
geraniums, clumps of heliotrope three feet high, and luxuriant masses of
ivy, around whose warm flowers the bees clustered and hummed, I could only
think of the voyage as a hideous dream. The fog and gloom had been in my
own eyes and in my own brain, and now the blessed sun, shining full in my
face, awoke me. I am a worshipper of the Sun. I took off my hat to him, as
I stood there, in a wilderness of white, crimson, and purple flowers, and
let him blaze away in my face for a quarter of an hour. And as I walked
home with my back to him, I often turned my face from side to side that I
might feel his touch on my cheek. How a man can live, who is sentenced to
a year's imprisonment, is more than I can understand.

But all this (you will say) gives you no picture of Gibraltar. The Rock is
so familiar to all the world, in prints and descriptions, that I find
nothing new to say of it, except that it is by no means so barren a rock
as the island of Malta, being clothed, in many places, with beautiful
groves and the greenest turf; besides, I have not yet seen the
rock-galleries, having taken passage for Cadiz this afternoon. When I
return--as I hope to do in twenty days, after visiting Seville and
Granada--I shall procure permission to view all the fortifications, and
likewise to ascend to the summit.

Chapter XXXIII.

Cadiz And Seville.

Voyage to Cadiz--Landing--The City--Its Streets--The Women of
Cadiz--Embarkation for Seville--Scenery of the Guadalquivir--Custom
House Examination--The Guide--The Streets of Seville--The Giralda--The
Cathedral of Seville--The Alcazar-Moorish Architecture--Pilate's
House--Morning View from the Giralda--Old Wine--Murillos--My Last
Evening in Seville.

"The walls of Cadiz front the shore,
And shimmer o'er the sea."

R. H. Stoddard.

"Beautiful Seville!
Of which I've dreamed