Spain in 1808. Joseph Bonaparte was declared king, but the
opposition of Spain was most heroic, and in 1814 the French were
expelled. They made great havoc in Toledo, where among other
desecrations they burned the Alcazar (now restored) and the convent
church of San Juan de los Reyes.]

[Footnote 2: Toledo. See p. 50, note 2.]

Despues de ocupado el suntuoso alcazar[1] de Carlos V, [Footnote:2]
echose mano de la casa de Consejos;[3] y cuando esta no pudo contener
mas gente, comenzaron a invadir el asilo de las comunidades
religiosas, acabando a la postre por transformar en cuadras hasta las
iglesias consagradas al culto. En esta conformidad se encontraban las
cosas en la poblacion donde tuvo lugar el suceso que voy a referir,
cuando, una noche, ya a hora hastante avanzada, envueltos en sus
obscures capotes de guerra y ensordeciendo las estrechas y solitarias
calles que conducen desde la Puerta del Sol[4] a Zocodover,[5] con el
choque de sus armas y el ruidoso golpear de los cascos de sus corceles
que sacaban chispas de los pedernales, entraron en la ciudad hasta
unos cien dragones de aquellos altos, arrogantes y fornidos, de que
todavia nos hablan con admiracion nuestras abuelas.

[Footnote 1: alcazar. See p. 61, note 3.]

[Footnote 2: Carlos V. Charles V, the son of Philip of Burgundy by
Joanna (daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella), and grandson of the
emperor Maximilian 1, was bom at Ghent, Flanders, February 24,1500,
and died in the monastery of Yuste, Estremadura, Spain, September
21, 1558. He became king of Spain (as Charles 1) in 1516, and
emperor in 1520. In 1556 he abdicated the government of the former
in favor of his son Philip II, and of the latter in favor of his
brother Ferdinand I.]

[Footnote 3: la casa de Consejos. The _Casa de_ Consejos ('City
Hall'), _Casa Consistorial_, or _Ayuntamiento_, by which various
names it is known, is a building erected in the fifteenth century
and remodeled in the seventeenth. It has a handsome Greco-Roman
facade in striking' contrast with the Gothic architecture of the
cathedral, which stands upon the same plaza (see p. 73, note 2).]

[Footnote 4: la Puerta del Sol. A charming old Moorish gateway with
horseshoe arches between two towers, built about 1100, and recently
restored. It is one of the most impressive and beautiful of Toledo's
monuments.]

[Footnote 5: Zocodover. See p. 64, note 1.]

Mandaba la fuerza un of