Ferdinand VII., The Turbulent And Restless Prince Of Asturias, Reaped The Immediate Profit Of His Father's Abdication; But The Two

Worthless creatures soon called in Napoleon to decide the squabble, which he did in his leonine way by taking the

Crown away from both of them and handing it over for safe-keeping to his lieutenant brother Joseph. Honor among thieves! - a silly proverb, as one readily sees if he falls into their hands, or reads the history of kings.

If Toledo had been built, by some caprice of enlightened power, especially for a show city, it could not be finer in effect. In detail, it is one vast museum. In ensemble, it stands majestic on its hills, with its long lines of palaces and convents terraced around the rocky slope, and on the height the soaring steeples of a swarm of churches piercing the blue, and the huge cube of the Alcazar crowning the topmost crest, and domineering the scene. The magnificent zigzag road which leads up the steep hillside from the bridge of Alcantara gives an indefinable impression, as of the lordly ramp of some fortress of impossible extent.

This road is new, and in perfect condition. But do not imagine you can judge the city by the approaches. When your carriage has mounted the hill and passed the evening promenade of the To-ledans, the quaint triangular Place, - I had nearly called it Square, - "waking laughter in indolent reviewers," the Zocodover, you are lost in the dae-dalian windings of the true streets of Toledo, where you can touch the walls on either side, and where two carriages could no more pass each other than two locomotives could salute and go by on the same track.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 165 of 254
Words from 44071 to 44359 of 67759