The principal ornament of the
town is the cathedral, the tower of which is exceedingly lofty, and
is perhaps one of the purest specimens of Gothic architecture at
present in existence. The interior of the cathedral is neat and
appropriate, but simple and unadorned. I observed but one picture,
the Conversion of Saint Paul. One of the chapels is a cemetery, in
which rest the bones of eleven Gothic kings; to whose souls be
peace.
I bore a letter of recommendation from Coruna to a merchant of
Oviedo. This person received me very courteously, and generally
devoted some portion of every day to showing me the remarkable
things of Oviedo.
One morning he thus addressed me: "You have doubtless heard of
Feijoo, the celebrated philosophic monk of the order of Saint
Benedict, whose writings have so much tended to remove the popular
fallacies and superstitions so long cherished in Spain; he is
buried in one of our convents, where he passed a considerable
portion of his life. Come with me and I will show you his
portrait. Carlos Tercero, our great king, sent his own painter
from Madrid to execute it. It is now in the possession of a friend
of mine, Don Ramon Valdez, an advocate."
Thereupon he led me to the house of Don Ramon Valdez, who very
politely exhibited the portrait of Feijoo. It was circular in
shape, about a foot in diameter, and was surrounded by a little
brass frame, something like the rim of a barber's basin. The
countenance was large and massive but fine, the eyebrows knit, the
eyes sharp and penetrating, nose aquiline. On the head was a
silken skull-cap; the collar of the coat or vest was just
perceptible. The painting was decidedly good, and struck me as
being one of the very best specimens of modern Spanish art which I
had hitherto seen.
A day or two after this I said to Benedict Mol, "to-morrow I start
from hence for Santander. It is therefore high time that you
decide upon some course, whether to return to Madrid or to make the
best of your way to France, and from thence proceed to your own
country."
"Lieber herr," said Benedict, "I will follow you to Santander by
short journeys, for I am unable to make long ones amongst these
hills; and when I am there, peradventure I may find some means of
passing into France. It is a great comfort, in my horrible
journeys, to think that I am travelling over the ground which
yourself have trodden, and to hope that I am proceeding to rejoin
you once more. This hope kept me alive in the bellotas, and
without it I should never have reached Oviedo. I will quit Spain
as soon as possible, and betake me to Lucerne, though it is a hard
thing to leave the schatz behind me in the land of the Gallegans."
Thereupon I presented him with a few dollars.
"A strange man is this Benedict," said Antonio to me next morning,
as, accompanied by a guide, we sallied forth from Oviedo; "a
strange man, mon maitre, is this same Benedict. A strange life has
he led, and a strange death he will die, - it is written on his
countenance. That he will leave Spain I do not believe, or if he
leave it, it will be only to return, for he is bewitched about this
treasure. Last night he sent for a sorciere, whom he consulted in
my presence; and she told him that he was doomed to possess it, but
that first of all he must cross water. She cautioned him likewise
against an enemy, which he supposes must be the canon of Saint
James. I have often heard people speak of the avidity of the Swiss
for money, and here is a proof of it. I would not undergo what
Benedict has suffered in these last journeys of his, to possess all
the treasures in Spain."
CHAPTER XXXIV
Departure from Oviedo - Villa Viciosa - The Young Man of the Inn -
Antonio's Tale - The General and his Family - Woful Tidings - To-
morrow we Die - San Vincente - Santander - An Harangue - Flinter the
Irishman.
So we left Oviedo and directed our course towards Santander. The
man who accompanied us as guide, and from whom I hired the pony on
which I rode, had been recommended to me by my friend the merchant
of Oviedo. He proved, however, a lazy indolent fellow; he was
generally loitering two or three hundred yards in our rear, and
instead of enlivening the way with song and tale, like our late
guide, Martin of Rivadeo, he scarcely ever opened his lips, save to
tell us not to go so fast, or that I should burst his pony if I
spurred him so. He was thievish withal, and though he had engaged
to make the journey seco, that is, to defray the charges of himself
and beast, he contrived throughout to keep both at our expense.
When journeying in Spain, it is invariably the cheapest plan to
agree to maintain the guide and his horse or mule, for by so doing
the hire is diminished at least one third, and the bills upon the
road are seldom increased: whereas, in the other case, he pockets
the difference, and yet goes shot free, and at the expense of the
traveller, through the connivance of the innkeepers, who have a
kind of fellow feeling with the guides.
Late in the afternoon we reached Villa Viciosa, a small dirty town,
at the distance of eight leagues from Oviedo: it stands beside a
creek which communicates with the Bay of Biscay. It is sometimes
called La Capital de las Avellanas, or the capital of the Filberts,
from the immense quantity of this fruit which is grown in the
neighbourhood; and the greatest part of which is exported to
England.
