n fluted pillars whose capitals very much
resemble those of the interior; an enchanted land and an architectural
revelation. The garden was full of orange trees and flowers not too
carefully tended, so that a certain wild beauty, all the contrast of the
green with the ancient stone and wonderful outlines, charmed the vision.
Plashing fountains caught the sunbeams and threw rainbow drops into the
air.

In a corner of the enclosure behind the iron railings some sacred geese
intruded upon the sanctity of the precincts. The piety of these ungainly
birds had to be taken for granted. They were aggressive, and hissed if
only one ventured to look at them. Nothing could be more strangely out
of place in a scene so beautiful and full of repose, and for which with
all their sacredness they evidently had no veneration. Life passed
lazily; they grew monstrously fat, and we wondered if at a certain age
they disappeared for the benefit of the Bishop's table: other geese
taking their place in the cloistered garden. No one could tell us
anything about them, but the people seemed to think them indispensable
to the welfare of the town.

Here we found the best view of the exterior. Through lovely and graceful
arches which framed in the picture, one caught the pointed windows of
the nave with their rich tracery, above which rose the decorated
belfries with pierced parapets.

But the immediate surroundings were also exceptionally interesting.
South of the cloister is the Bishop's palace, with a quadrangle
ornamented with some fine Romanesque arcading and moulding. North, is an
immense fifteenth-century barrack built for a palace, and given over to
the Secret Inquisition by the Catholic monarchs. The Casa Consistorial
and Casa de la Disputacion, though much altered, retain splendid traces
of fourteenth-century work. The quadrangles are striking, though one has
been much spoilt; and the _ajimez_ windows with their slender columns,
capitals and arches are full of grace.

Seeing an open doorway close to the cathedral, we had the curiosity to
enter, and found ourselves in a wonderful little cloister, half sacred,
half secular, its ancient walls grey and lichen-stained. In the centre
grew a tall palm-tree whose graceful fronds seemed to caress and curve
and blend with the Gothic outlines that charmed one back to the days of
the Middle Ages. A crumbling staircase, old and beautiful, led to the
upper gallery, where open windows with rare Gothic