work:
one imagines that a similar threat from the Lord Mayor of London might
have a salutary effect upon the restorers of Westminster Abbey or the
decorators of St. Paul's. How very much more entertaining must have been
the world when absolutism was the fashion and the preposterous method of
universal suffrage had never been considered! But the Chapter, as those
in power always are, was bent upon restoring, and induced Charles V. to
give the necessary authority. The king, however, had not understood what
they wished to do, and when later he visited Cordova and saw what had
happened, he turned to the dignitaries who were pointing out the
improvements and said: 'You have built what you or others might have
built anywhere, but you have destroyed something that was unique in the
world.' The words show a fine scorn; but as a warning to later
generations it would have been more to the purpose to cut off a dozen
priestly heads.

Yet oddly enough the Christian additions are not so utterly discordant
as one would expect! Hernan Ruiz did the work well, even though it was
work he might conveniently have been drawn and quartered for doing.
Typically Spanish in its fine proportion, in its exuberance of fantastic
decoration, his church is a masterpiece of plateresque architecture. Nor
are the priests entirely out of harmony with the building wherein they
worship. For an hour they had sung Vespers, and the deep voices of the
canons, chaunting monotonously, rang weird and long among the columns;
but they finished, and left the choir one by one, walking silently
across the church to the sacristy. The black cassock and the scarlet
hood made a fine contrast, while the short cambric surplice added to the
costume a most delicate grace. One of them paused to speak with two
ladies in _mantillas_, and the three made a picturesque group,
suggesting all manner of old Spanish romance.

VII

[Sidenote: The Court of Oranges]

I went into the cathedral from the side and issuing by another door,
found myself in the Court of Oranges. The setting sun touched it with
warm light and overhead the sky was wonderfully blue. In Moorish times
the mosque was separated from the court by no dividing-wall, so that the
arrangement of pillars within was continued by the even lines of
orange-trees; these are of great age and size, laden with fruit, and in
their copious foliage stand with a trim self-assurance that is quite
imposing.

In the centre, ro