thing less than artistic dreams.

We soon came to one of these ascending streets with its endless flight.
Far up, it was crowned by a church with a solitary square tower and a
Renaissance west front. Houses on either side had wonderful ironwork
windows; we cannot help reverting to this special feature; and many a
gothic casement was rich in the remains of refined tracery and
ornamented balconies; whilst from the deep overhanging eaves quaint
waterspouts here and there craned their long necks like gargoyles of
some ancient cathedral. Reaching the church and turning to the right
down a narrow passage between high dead walls we found ourselves in an
excited scene: no less than the building given up to the rites of
conscription. The spot and its surroundings was one of the most
picturesque in Gerona. A long, broad flight of steps led up to an
ancient church now desecrated and turned into barracks. Groups of young
soldiers were clustered together and sentinels paced to and fro. To the
left, facing the long flight, low ancient houses wonderful in tone and
construction were decorated with wrought ironwork windows, some of them
almost Moorish in design, the upper floors terminating in round open
arcades and tiled roofs with projecting eaves; one of those old-world
bits only to be seen in these mediaeval towns of Spain.

We climbed the steps and braved the sentinel, feeling there must or
ought to be hidden cloisters attached to this old church of which
nothing remained but the west front. But we were not to pass
unchallenged. An inner sentry came up and asked our business. Hearing
that we wished to see the cloisters, he beckoned to a further sentry who
evidently belonged to the colonel or commandant of the regiment.
Permission was soon brought, and pointing out the way, we were left to
our own devices.

Instinct had not failed us. In a few moments we were standing in the
midst of large lovely old cloisters with Gothic arcades resting on
slender coupled marble columns. Above these rose a gallery of round
arcades supported by single pillars with carved capitals, the arches,
wider and more open than the pointed arches beneath them, presenting a
fine contrast. A deep archway reached by some half-dozen steps led
through the palace to the east end of the cathedral and the town walls
beyond. In the square in front of palace and cathedral was an ancient
and beautiful well. Above these again a slanting tiled roof fitly
crowned the sce