. Darkness has
assumed his empire within these walls long before the stirring labyrinth
without has had warning of his approach. No colours nor gildings (the
latter being rather injudiciously distributed) are visible--nothing but
a superb range of beautifully painted windows; and the columns only
trace their dim outline a little less black against the deep gloom of
the rest of the building. At this hour, could it last, it would be
impossible to tire of wandering through this forest of magnificent
stems, of which the branches are only seen to spring, and immediately
lose themselves beneath the glories of the coloured transparencies
rendered doubly brilliant by their contrast with the gloom of all below
them. The principal merit, in fact, of this edifice, consists in its
windows. That of the purity of its general style deserves also to be
allowed; but with some reserve in the appreciation of the accessory
points of the design. It depended, for instance, on the judgment of the
architect, to diminish or to increase the number of columns which
separate the different naves, and by their unnecessary abundance he has
impaired the grandeur of the general effect.

The interior dimensions are as follows:--Length, including a moderately
sized chapel at the eastern extremity, three hundred and fifty English
feet; width, throughout, one hundred and seventy-four feet; height of
the principal nave and transept, about one hundred and twenty feet. The
width is divided into five naves; those at the outside rising to about
two-thirds of the height of the two next adjoining; and these to about
half that of the centre nave. An entire side of a chapel opening out of
the southernmost nave, is ornamented in the Arab style--having been
executed by a Moorish artist at the same period as the rest; and not (as
might be conjectured) having belonged to the mosque, which occupied the
same site previously to the erection of the present cathedral. This
small chapel would be a beautiful specimen of the Arab ornament in
stucco, but for several coats of whitewash it has received. An arched
recess occupies the centre, and is called the Tomb of the Alguazil. A
handsome doorway in the same style is seen in the anteroom of the
Chapter-saloon.

[Illustration: APSE OF THE CATHEDRAL, TOLEDO.]

Facing the entrance to the centre or extreme eastern chapel, that of San
Ildefonzo, the back of the high altar, or, as it is vulgarly called, the
Trascoro, is--not adorn