has not been strong enough to conceal. Being taken prisoner in one of the castles just mentioned, Fortunyo followed the conqueror to Cordoba, where he lived twenty years. Zurita says, that at the end of that long captivity he received his liberty, and a large fortune, in presents, from Mahomet. Both the length of Fortunyo's residence at Cordoba, and the noble manner of his release, however, claim the honour of the transaction for Mahomet's successor, in the power, though not in the title of Ommiade Caliph, his brother Abdoulrahman, the Magnificent.* Fortunyo's name has been saved from oblivion chiefly by the extraordinary longevity which crowned the eventful prosperity of his life. He lived one hundred and twenty-six years.

The election, or rather recognition of Sancho Abarca seems to have been made after an interregnum, probably occasioned by the invasion of the Moors of Cordoba. The historical accounts, however, only lead to this inference. Abarca was in his fifteenth year when the nobleman, the guide and protector of his childhood, presented him, in the dress of a peasant, to the meeting of the noblemen, who were convened at Jaca, for the purpose of filling the vacant throne. The proof of his royal birth being evident, the rustic youth received the homage of the peers, and was installed in the throne of his fathers. In the glorious achievements of his reign, there is abundant confirmation that a noble and generous nature never fails to improve by an early acquaintance with the trials and evils of human life.

*The reader, we trust, will thank us for transcribing the beautiful passage where Mr. Southey sketches the history of the third Abdoulrahman. (Introduction to the Chronicle of the Cid, p. xxviii.) "His history is like a tale of Eastern splendour with an Eastern moral at the end. To gratify the vanity of a favourite slave, he built a town and called it after her name, Zehra, which signifies the ornament of the world. There were in its palace one thousand and fourteen columns of African and Spanish marble; nineteen from Italian quarries, and one hundred and forty beautiful enough to be presents from the Greek emperor. The marble walls of the hall of the Caliph were inlaid with gold. Birds and beasts of gold, studded with jewels, spouted water into a marble bason in its centre: the bason was the work of the best Greek sculptors; and above it hung the great pearl which had been sent to Abdoulrahman by the Emperor Leon. The extent of the building may be imagined by that of his seraglio, which contained six thousand and three hundred persons. This was his favourite abode. After the chase, to which twelve hundred horsemen always accompanied him, he used to rest in a pavilion in the gardens. The pillars were of pure white marble; the floor of gold, and steel, and jewellery; and in the midst there was a fountain of quicksilver. Yet Abdoulrahman left a writing which contained this testimony against the vanity of the world. From the moment when I began to reign, I have recorded those days in which I enjoyed real and undisturbed pleasure; they amount to fourteen. Mortal man, consider what this world is, and what dependence is to be placed upon its enjoyments! Nothing seems wanting to my happiness; riches, honours, to say every thing, sovereign power. I am feared and esteemed by my contemporary princes: they envy my good fortune; they are jealous of my glory; they solicit my friendship. Fifty years have I reigned, and in so long a course of time, can count but fourteen days, which have not been poisoned by some vexation."

".... Cum equite, qui eum clam nutriverat, veluti pastoris filius, vilissimis tectus indumentis et peronatus adducitur." Rodericus, ibid. The perones, or rawleather shoes being called Abarcas, in Spanish, some imagine that the young prince derived his appellation from that part of his dress. Others pretend that it was owing to his having enabled his army to cross the Pyrenees after a great fall of snow, by means of such shoes. But these forget that the raw-leather shoes are used by the Spanish peasantry in all the mountainous districts of the North, and that they are probably the first covering for the feet likely to have been invented in all countries.

In Abarca's son, Garci Sanchez, we find a curious instance of that jarring and discordance between the mind and her organs of sensation that mixed disease of body and soul, which, probably from its frequency in latter times, has forced a name from language, distorting the word nervous into an expression of weakness.* Garci Sanchez, though a man of tried courage, never prepared for battle without visibly trembling from head to foot. He is known in Spanish history by the unchivalrous addition of the Trembler.

Sancho, the Great, succeeded his father Garcia, in 1034. To the crowns of Aragon, Navarre, and Sobrarbe, he united the earldom of Castille, in right of his wife, and made the river Pisuerga the boundary between his territory and the kingdom of Leon. By a first wife, Sancho had a son, called Ramiro.‡ Elvira, the daughter of Sancho, Earl of Castille, whose lords did not assume the title of kings till the next generation, gave him three sons, Garcia, Gonzalo, and Fernando, whose wicked and infamous conduct towards their own mother is one of the well attested instances of the impunity with which the most sacred laws were broken in the dark ages, to which some admirers of the romantic would give the preference, compared with modern refine

ment.

At the instigation of Garcia, the two younger brothers entered into a conspiracy to accuse their mother of faithlessness to the royal bed. If the mention of such a monstrous and unnatural plot stagger the belief of a modern reader, he will feel disposed to look upon the whole as a fable, when he learns the motive assigned by the early Spanish historians. They say that King Sancho, being obliged to leave his favourite horse when he was to set off upon an expedition against the Moors, committed it to the care of his Queen, with an express injunction that no one should ride him in his absence. Urged, however, by the entreaties of her eldest son Garcia, Elvira would have consented to his using the horse, but for the remonstrances of a faithful knight, whose name, though omitted by most of the original writers, is reported to have been Sesé. Incensed by disappointment, and deeply hurt at being thwarted by a subject, Garcia vowed revenge against the Queen and her adviser. An accusation of adultery was the most obvious means of involving both in the same ruin. His brothers, either intimidated by his fierce courage, or swayed by his habitual ascendency, agreed to back him in the combat by which he was to establish the charge.

Such is the uniform account which is found in the earliest records of the country. As no possible motive can be imagined for a fiction of this nature, we should, before we reject a mass of historical evidence, consider the customs and opinions of the times, as well as the manner in which history was written by the old chroniclers.

There is nothing improbable in the importance given to the king's charger at the Court of Navarre, nor in the fierce dudgeon of a semibarbarian youth of royal birth, at being denied an indulgence on which * Dr. Johnson, probably in a fit of nervous peevishness, has marked the modern sense of the word as medical cant.

".... Garsias.... regnavit, qui dictus est Tremulosus, eo quod quando rumores periculi audiebat, vel debebat in prælio experiri, a principio totus tremulabat, sed postea constantissimus persistebat.-Rodericus, De Reb. Hisp. lib. v. c. xxvi. It is very probable that this Ramiro was a bastard. Mariana thinks so; though the accurate Zurita says he was legitimate.

he had set his heart-and that at the suggestion of his mother's trusty adviser, who, it may well be supposed, had frequent occasion to exert his influence against the insolent rashness of the three princes. Had every minute circumstance been mentioned, the fact would have appeared in aftertimes, without any character of improbability. But the rude and artless writers of those ages had not even a suspicion that a display of motives, and circumstances, which were obvious and familiar to every man in their days and country, would be required at a future period. Such cautionary descriptions, indeed, never occur in history, till the customs, which alone can elucidate an otherwise doubtful and suspicious narrative, are becoming obsolete, and strike the writers themselves as something curious and worth mentioning. Don Rodrigo, Archbishop of Toledo, whom we have more than once quoted, thought it necessary, about the middle of the 13th century, upon relating the story of Elvira and her sons, to observe that, in those times, the value set upon an excellent horse, and the necessity of having it always at hand, to be in readiness against a sudden incursion of the Moors, induced the kings and noblemen to build the stables close by their ladies' chambers.* Few, indeed, will require being reminded that Andromache is represented by Homer as in the habit of feeding her husband's horses.

Having thus endeavoured to remove the critical doubts of the reader, we will now give him the conclusion of our story.

The day for the trial of the queen being come, the lists for the combat were opened before the castle of Naxera, where she was kept a prisoner. It was feared by those who knew the courage, power, and revengeful spirit of Prince Garcia, that the accused would hardly find a champion among the nobility of her kingdom. But the herald had scarcely proclaimed the trial by battle, when a knight, armed at all points, rode boldly towards the high scaffold on which the king and the judges were seated, and flung his gauntlet almost in the accuser's face. It was Ramiro, his half-brother, who swore he would either wash the stain fixed upon the queen, in the blood of her recreant sons, or seal with his own the high opinion he had of her virtue.

The Master of the Field had already examined the armour and weapons of the combatants, and placed them so as to avoid either of them being dazzled by the sun, in the encounter, when a holy man, who inhabited a solitary cell in the fastnesses of the neighbouring mountains, broke through the surrounding multitude, and rushing fearlessly between the levelled lances, loudly called upon the king to stop the combat. The authority of austere sanctity was never disowned among the warlike Spaniards. At the monarch's command, the Master of the Field, who had backed his horse towards the barrier, darted, at one leap, between the combatants; their lances were raised, and all hung breathless on the emaciated lips of the Hermit. "Lady,” cried he to the queen, who, veiled from head to foot in a black scarf, sat on a low

* “ Tanta erat tunc temporis infestatio Arabum, quod Milites, Comites, et etiam Reges, in domibus, ubi uxorum thalami ornabantur, equis stationem parabant, ut quacumque hora clamor invadentium insonaret, ad equos et arma possent sine dilatione aliqua festinare."-Lib. v. c. xxvi.

Maestre de Campo.

This was called Partir el Sol, dividing the sun, and was never omitted among the Spaniards.

stool below the platform, "Lady, look up to Heaven, and fear not that He who sits far higher than that throne from which thou dreadest the blind award of man, hath left thee to perish in thine innocence. And thou, credulous king, canst thou thus cast thy best jewel to be trampled upon, because the foul breath of calumny dared for a moment to dim its lustre! The wrath of Heaven fall.... but God forgive me, for thus forgetting the meekness of him whose minister I am. Look not, O king, for satisfaction to your doubts, from human blood. By that which was shed on the cross I swear, thy queen is innocent. The villany of her accusers was but last night avowed to me by one of them, under the sacred seal of sacramental confession. I cannot-Heaven itself cannot save them from the shame which is due to their felony. But no other punishment may be inflicted upon them. The word of a priest has been pledged to the repentant sinner, when kneeling at my feet in voluntary confession of his crime. I cannot reveal the name of him who now saves his mother's life and honour; and it would be unjust that he suffered with the obdurate and impenitent. Beware, therefore, O king, of a fresh error, worse and more impious than thy first. Beware of sealing up the lips of sinners by thy severity, and stopping their only access to the seat of mercy. Pardon thy sons, O king. I charge thee, pardon them as thou wilt have forgiveness."—" I will pardon them, holy man," said the king, half-choked with contending feelings," but can you, you my injured wife, pardon either them or me?"-"I have already done it: I forgave them before I left my prison, when I implored forgiveness and protection for myself," answered Elvira, raising the corner of her black veil, and looking with a peaceful and composed countenance on her husband. A shout of enraptured admiration rang round the lists. The sound of popular acclamation seemed to breathe an air of dignity over the mild and serene features of the queen. She flung the scarf, at once, upon her shoulders, and turning first to the people, then slightly inclining her majestic figure towards the king, "Sir," she said, "my forgiveness would be as full and unconditional as that which I desire from Heaven, if I alone were concerned. My.. sons.. yes, they shall still hear that name... My sons have been appointed heirs to your vast dominions, each to wear an independent crown. Let this your will remain unaltered. Yet I owe a sacred duty to my subjects of Castille. The proud inheritance which Providence has placed in my hands must not have reason to accuse me of having neglected its honour. One alone of my sons has evinced a true sense of his guilt. Who it is must for ever remain sealed up in the bosom of the holy priest who heard his confession. But certain it is that the disclosure, which has saved me from dishonour, could not come from the author of the conspiracy. No: my Castillian subjects shall never do homage to Garcia. Would that I had the power to reward, with that crown, my noble, my generous champion! But I will not involve these kingdoms in a destructive quarrel merely to gratify my private feelings. All I demand is that the portions of the inheritance be differently allotted. Since one of the three must have Castille, let it be given to my son Fernando. A mother, next to God, can see into the hearts of her children. I well remember when last he hung upon my neck-I still feel his last kiss, and it tells me he could not have joined his mother's enemies but in the hope to save her." At these words, VOL. VII. No. 37.-1824.

2

one of the knights, lifting both his hands and pressing them against his close helmet, was observed to lose his balance in the saddle and drop helpless on the horse's neck. A look of inexpressible tenderness was directed by the queen to the spot; but beckoning with her hand to hush the disturbance which the prince's attendants had occasioned to prevent his falling to the ground," My last and most sacred duty," she continued, "the acknowledgment of my gratitude, remains to be performed. Thou, Ramiro, shalt henceforward be my adopted son. The states of Aragon, which, upon my marriage, the king settled upon me, shall be thy own inheritance. It is not in my power to do more. Heaven, I trust, will crown thee with such blessings, as man cannot ensure even with the gift of a throne. Strong, however, as is the impulse of my gratitude, and ardent as my prayers are for thy prosperity, I still more fervently implore mercy upon the unrepentant. But prayer is sooner heard when asking blessings, than when it attempts to stand between a hardened offender and the uplifted arm of divine vengeance.'

Fernando inherited the states of Castille, raising them to the rank of a kingdom, from that of an independent earldom. By his marriage with Sancha, the only child of Bermudo, King of Leon, he ascended the throne of that kingdom. His eldest brother Garcia, the author of the conspiracy, who reigned in Navarre, engaged in war against him; but, being slain at the battle of Atapuerca, (A. D. 1054) Fernando, for the first time, joined the three kingdoms of Castille, Leon, and Navarre, and was called Emperor of Spain. Gonzalo, who had been made King of Sobrarbe and Ribagorza, fell by the hand of an assassin. His estates accrued to the noble Ramiro, the queen's champion, who joined them in perpetuity to his kingdom of Aragon.

ANNUS MIRABILIS! OR, A PARTHIAN GLANCE AT 1823. JANUARY.-Dr. Doyle, a Roman Catholic bishop, in his pastoral charge, recommends Orangemen to be civil Orangemen, and Papists not to be bigoted: nothing new under the sun: Sir Joseph Jekyll, in the reign of Queen Ann, bequeathed his fortune to government to pay off the National Debt; and a half-witted waterman, in the reign of George the Third, moored his boat to the centre-arch of London Bridge and tried to catch the tide in his bob-wig. The Duke of Sussex swallows an embrocation at Bognor that was meant for a fomentation : Royal Dukes at public dinners have swallowed stranger things and no danger apprehended. Salt-tax diminished by thirteen shillings a bushel, but still no improvement in modern comedy: new pieces generally offensive after the third night. A Chancery-suit in the good old times recorded to have lasted 120 years, Old Parr being clerk in court and Henry Jenkins solicitor. Cobbett puts up church-livings and three per cents. for sale by auction at a Norfolk meeting: Mr. Coke bids against him, but articles knocked down to the former. Clara Fisher at Drury-lane Theatre pronounced to be only nine years of age: hint taken from her patronesses the Aonian maids, who have been only nine ever since the days of Apollo. She is advertised in "Old and Young" much curiosity excited as to which part she means to perform. Simpson and Co. successful by mere dint of dialogue: actors much amazed, not knowing what to do for an uppergallery in the event of the sky falling. Golden axe laid to the root of