omplish the task without disturbing any of the monarchs' coffins. The
walls all round, both internally and externally, are completely covered
with sculpture. Many of the figures are faithful portraits; many of the
groups tell an interesting story. On the Gospel side there are two
carvings, one over the other, the upper representing Don Alfonso VIII,
and the lower, the shepherd who guided the monarch and his army to the
renowned plains of Las Navas de Tolosa, where the battle was fought
which proved so glorious to Christian arms. One likewise sees the statue
of the Moor, Alfaqui Abu Walid, who threw himself in the path of King
Alfonso and prevailed upon him to forgive Queen Constance and Bishop
Bernard for the expulsion of the Moors from their mosque, contrary to
the king's solemn oath.

All around us lie the early rulers of the House of Castile, Alfonso VII,
Sancho the Deserted, and Sancho the Brave, the Prince Don Pedro de
Aguilar, son of Alfonso XI, and the great Cardinal Mendoza. Below in the
vault lie, by the sides of their consorts, Henry II, John I, and Henry
III.

At the end of the chapel, acting as a background to the altar, you find
a composition constantly met in and characteristic of Spanish
cathedrals. The huge "retablo" is nothing but a meaningless, gaudy and
sensational series of carved and decorated niches. It is carved in
larchwood and merely reveals a love of the cheap and tawdry display of
the decadent florid period of Gothic.

Back of the retablo and the high altar, you are startled by the most
horrible and vulgar composition of the church. Nothing but the mind of
an idiot could have conceived the "transparente."[15] It has neither
order nor reason. The whole mass runs riot. Angels and saints float up
and down its surface amid doughy clouds. The angel Raphael
counterbalances the weight of his kicking feet by a large goldfish which
he is frantically clutching. It is a piece of uncontrolled, imbecile
decoration, perpetrated to the everlasting shame of Narciso Tome in the
first half of the eighteenth century.

Nothing except the choir and Capilla Mayor disturb the simplicity of
the aisles and the great body of the church. All other monuments or
compositions are found in the numerous rooms and chapels leading from
the outer aisles or situated between the lower arches of the outside
walls. There are many of them, some important, others trivial. The
Mozarabic chapel, in the southwest corner of the cathe