rtible to any useful purpose.

With the impressions received from meeting with such a state of things,
the traveller naturally feels a difficulty in realising the fact that
the extent and splendour of this Convent actually represented what was
once a vital principle of first importance to Spain. To her, until
Mariolatry set in with full intensity, the name of Sant' Iago was a
tower of strength. Not only did the possession of his shrine to which
pilgrims flocked, even from beyond the seas in thousands, bring wealth
to the Church; but the elevation of the Saint into an actual soldier of
the Faith, a leader to material as well as to spiritual victory,
supplied for Spain that fervour under arms which, when passing under the
form of devotion to "the Prophet" had, as both Church and State in Spain
wisely recognised, wrought such marvels in the consolidation of the
power of her natural enemies, the Moors. By the creation of the
religious orders of cavaliers, or rather of the military orders of
priests, Spain at once nourished the spirit of chivalry and the
Christian Faith, the union of which ultimately won for her the
reconquest of all that Mahommedan Chivalry and Mahommedan Faith had
conquered from her.[9] The very length and pertinacity of the struggle
only served to quicken the devotion of the people to their "Gran
Capitan," Sant' Iago, and to induce them to enrich to the utmost the
order which bore his name.

Hence the magnificent scale of buildings, such as the Convent of San
Marcos, the stately cloisters of which once sheltered those whose energy
in council and skill in the field maintained that life and action for
the warlike, and protection and repose for the peaceable, which were
essential to the consolidation and upholding of the monarchy of Spain,
and its supposed indispensable and inseparable adjunct the "Catholic
Faith."

[Illustration: PLATE 11

LEON CASA DE LOS GUSMANES

MDW 1869]

PLATE XI.

_LEON._

EXTERIOR OF THE CASA DE LOS GUSMANES.

IN an ancient house which stood upon the site on which now stands the
Palace which forms the subject of our sketch, there was born, in the
year 1266, a "Cavalier," who, when arrived at manhood, followed the
fortunes of Sancho the Brave. After many struggles, the King having
taken Tarifa in Andalucia from the Moors in 1292, looked round amongst
his followers for one willing to hold what he had won. All refused,
owing to the danger of the position, until Alo