“In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-house decree.”
But why say more of Granada? After all, descriptions are all but useless. _Vidi tantum!_ Having seen the Alhambra, one seems to have seen everything.
PIGS, VULGAR AND ARISTOCRATIC.--THE GIPSY CAPTAIN BEWITCHES US.--WE GO DOWN TO THE POTTER’S HOUSE.--A FAMILY DANCE.--AN AWFUL DISCOVERY.--A BOOKSELLER OF TARSHISH.
I heard two horrid stories at Granada, which I would not repeat except that I feel some of their truth. We were walking in the town one day, and observing an unusual air of stir and excitement, asked a stander-by what it meant.
The person in question told us that a certain Señor, Don So-and-so, had just died, and that as he was a great enemy to the Liberal party, and a great tyrant, there was rejoicing among the people. We were interested in the matter, and talked of it afterwards to an old _Granadino_, whose acquaintance we had made during our stay, and he more than confirmed the report.
“He was a bad man,” he said, “but of the _sangre azul_ (blue blood), a thorough aristocrat, and very powerful. I could tell you stories of what he did that you would not believe. Oh! the people who have blue blood in their veins can do anything in Spain, I assure you. It is a _cosa de España_. Now just listen to a thing this Señor Don L---- did not more than nine years ago. A poor honest man known to me, was taken up accused of committing a theft. He belonged to the Liberal party, and was hated by the blue blood. Well, this man, who is just dead, had him brought into the Plaza de Toos, and tied him up to one of the posts by the hands. ‘Did you or did you not commit this theft?’ he asked. ‘Señor, I know nothing of it. I am as innocent as a child,’” Then this Señor Don ---- ordered his man to hammer on to the prisoner’s hands with an iron hammer.
“‘Did you or did you not commit this theft?’ he was asked again by the great gentleman of the blue blood. ‘Señor, I have said I am innocent.’ Again the hammer fell on the poor man’s hands, and again and again, till the bones were broken, and he still denying the deed. At last, finding him so obstinate, they let him go back to prison, where he was kept for weeks. When he came out I saw with my own eyes the ruin they had made of his poor hands.”