HEROIC SPAIN A SPANISH HIDALGO, BY EL GRECO HEROIC SPAIN BY E. BOYLE O'REILLY " NEW YORK DUFFIELD AND COMPANY 1910 COPYRIGHT, 1910 BY DUFFIELD AND COMPANY THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A. o CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION : PRACTICAL HINTS 1 ESPANA LA HEROIC A: VERSES . . * 12 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY : LOYOLA 13 BURGOS AND THE CID 33 VALLADOLID 55 OviEDO IN THE AsTURIAS 79 THE SLEEPING CITIES OF LEON 104 GALICIA SALAMANCA SEGOVIA 159 SAINT TERESA AND A VILA 183 EVENING IN AVILA: VERSES 212 MADRID AND THE ESCORIAL 213 TOLEDO 229 CORDOVA AND GRANADA 258 VIGNETTES OF SEVILLE 274 A CHURCH FEAST IN SEVILLE 293 HOLY WEEK IN SEVILLE 302 CADIZ . . 316 A FEW MODERN NOVELS . 326 vi Contents PAGE ESTREMADURA ARAGON MINOR CITIES OF CATALONIA 385 BARCELONA 395 GERONA AND FAREWELL TO SPAIN 420 ILLUSTRATIONS Page A Spanish Hidalgo, by El Greco .... Frontispiece Burgos Cathedral from the Castle Hill 36 The Faade of San Gregorio, Valladolid .... 58 The Cathedral of Leon . . . . 108 View of Salamanca from the Roman Bridge . . . 142 Faade of the University Library, Salamanca . . 154 The Alcazar of Segovia 182 House of the Duque de la Roca, Avila 196 Isabella of Portugal, by Titian 223 Prado Gallery, Madrid Tomb of Bishop San Segundo, by Berruguete, Avila 256 Los Seises, Cathedral of Seville 299 St. Francis of Assisi 327 A wood-carving by Carmona, Museum of Leon A Roadside Scene in Spain 354 The Cathedral of Siguenza 374 Cloisters of San Pablo del Campo, Barcelona . . . 403 A Street Stairway, Gerona 420 HEROIC SPAIN "Let nothing disturb thee, Nothing affright thee, Ml things are passing, God never changeth. Patient endurance Attaineth to all things, Who God possesseth In nothing is wanting. Alone God sufficeth" MAXIMS OF SAINT TERESA "All national criticism in bulk is misleading and foolish, and I look on the belief of Spaniards that Spain ought to be great and strong as the most promising agency of her future regeneration/' JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL At Minister to Spain, in a letter Oct. 20, 1877 OF THE UNIVERSITY INTRODUCTION PRACTICAL HINTS TRAVEL in Spain to-day is attended with little hardship and no danger whatever. Even if one barely knows a word of the language, it is not foolhardy to explore the distant provinces. Com- mit a few simple sentences to the memory and have courage in using them, for Spanish is pro- nounced just as it is spelled, with a few excep- tions soon observed. The merest beginner is understood. When a trip into Spain is planned it would be well to send for information about the kilometric ticket to the Chemins de Per Espagnols, 20 Rue Chauchat, Paris. They will mail you, gratis, a pamphlet with a map of the country, where is marked the number of kilometers between the cities; from this it is easy to calculate how large a ticket to buy. The more kilometers taken at one time, the cheaper it is. Thus a ticket of 2,000 k. costs 165 pesetas; one of 5,000 k. costs 385 p., and so on. We got a 10,000 kilometric ticket for two people, first class, good for ten months, paying for it 682 pesetas. If the ticket is bought outside of Spain you pay for it in 2 Heroic Spain francs, whereas if bought in Spain, you pay in pesetas, which are about fifteen per cent less than francs. Provide yourself with your photo- graph, and at the first Spanish town Irun, if you come from Paris, and Port-Bou if from Marseilles as there is always a pause of some hours on the frontier for the customs, it is a simple matter to buy your carnet kilome- trique in the station. It is only on one or two short local lines that these tickets are not ac- cepted. Unfortunately the new rail from Gi- braltar up to Bobadilla, by way of which many tourists enter Spain, is one of these disoblig- ing minor lines. In fact many who start their trip from the south have found difficulty in procuring a kilometric ticket till they reached Seville or Granada; this confuses the traveler, and makes him decide the ticket is too compli- cated for practical use. If he comes to visit merely the southern province of Andalusia, which is what most people see of Spain, with a run up to Madrid for the pictures, then, unless several are traveling as one family, there is little gained by the carnet, since a few hundred unused miles are sometimes wasted. But for the complete tour of Spain the kilometric ticket is the most satisfactory arrangement. Besides the reduction it makes in the fare, it saves the confusion of changing money in the stations. You go to the Introduction 3 ticket office before boarding a train, have the coupons to be used torn off, and are given a com- plementary ticket to hand to the conductor on the train. It is well to buy the official railway guide as it saves asking questions, for Spanish trains, though they crawl at a snail's pace, start at the hour announced, and arrive on the minute set down in the time-table. Thirty kilos, about sixty-six pounds, are al- lowed free in the luggage van, but for an exten- sive tour it is better to send trunks ahead by some agency, and travel with only the valises taken with you in the carriage. These the mozo, or porter, carries directly from the train to the hotel omni- bus, which another good custom of the country is always in waiting, no matter at what hour the arrival. First class travel in Spain is about the same as second class elsewhere ; second class is like third class in France, except on the express route from Paris to Madrid, and in Catalonia, where second class is comfortable. A hasty sketch of our tour may help later travelers. We entered from the north, by Biar- ritz, a far better way of seeing the country in its natural sequence than the usual landing at Gi- braltar. One feels that the north of Spain, in the truest degree national, untouched by the Moor, has never had justice done it. If a transatlantic liner touched at one of the northern ports, such 4 Heroic Spain as Vigo, Santander, Bilbao, it would open up an untrodden Switzerland with fertile valleys and noble hills. No pleasanter summer tour, on bicycle or afoot, could be made than through the Basque provinces, Asturias, the national cradle of Spain, or in beautiful Galicia with its trout rivers. In summer the climate is cool and pleas- ant, and the most isolated valleys are so safe that any two women could travel alone with security. Our first stop was at Loyola in the Basque country; then a week in Burgos; a short stay at Valladolid and Palencia; over the Asturian Mountains to Oviedo; back to Leon City, and from there across other hills to Galicia, seeing Lugo, Coruna, and Santiago in that province; from Coruna to Santiago by diligence, as no rail yet connects the two cities. We returned to Leon province from Galicia, skirting the Mino River which divides Spain and Portugal; stopped a night at Astorga, some days in Salamanca, and made a short pause in Zamora. Time must not be a consideration in touring these unfrequented cities of middle Spain, for their local trains are few and far between. Only twice a week is there direct communication be- tween Salamanca and Medina del Campo, the junction station on the express route. But if you accept once for all the slowness of the trains, the occasional odd hour of arrival or starting, the Introduction 5 inconvenience of a distantly-set station, you cease to fret and scold as do most hurried travelers. We ended by finding the long railway journeys rather restful than otherwise. Usually we had the Reservado para Senoras carriage to ourselves, except on the express line from Paris to Madrid, and we soon learned how to make ourselves com- fortable for a whole day's journey, seizing the chance of taking exercise during the long pauses in the stations, and enjoying the human-hearted scenes there witnessed; for a Spaniard greets and bids farewell with the same unconsciousness, the same absence of mauvaise honte as when he prays or makes love. Also I found the topography of the country of endless interest during the long train trips; to climb up to the great truncated mountain which is central Spain, to see how the still higher ranges of mountains crossed it, how the famous rivers flowed, the setting of the historic cities, I never tired of looking out on it all. Somehow I have got tucked away a distinct picture of Spain's physical geography, no doubt due to the leisurely railway journeys, which are not so slow that the proportion of the whole is lost, as foot or horse travel would be, nor yet so fast as to jumble the picture, as with the express trips in some countries. Spain is not beautiful like Italy, nor of the 6 Heroic Spain orderly finished type of England or France; she has few of Germany's grand forests. There is no denying she is a gaunt, denuded, tragic land; the desolation of the vast high steppes of Castile is terrible. Only the fringing coasts along the Atlantic and the Mediterranean are fertile. Nevertheless, unbeautiful as is the landscape, it possesses an unaccountable magnificence that grips the mind ; we never took a night trip unless forced to it, so strangely interesting were the hours spent in looking from the car window. After Salamanca we went to Segovia, then across the Guadarramas to the Escorial, and slightly back north by the same mountains to Avila. Segovia and Avila are true old medi- aeval cities of the inmost heart of the race, Espana la heroica incarnate. Again passing through the hills, whose cold blue atmosphere Velasquez has made immortally real, we went to Madrid. From there, south, we struck the beaten tourist track with pestering guides and higher prices in the hotels. Up to this we had driven, on arrival in a town, to the first or second hotel mentioned in Baedeker, and the average charge had been seven pesetas a day, all included. The provincial hotels gave a surprisingly good table; excellent soups, fresh fish, the meats fair, and all presented in a savory way; the fact that many men of the town use the hotel as a restaurant has Introduction 7 much to do with the generous menu. The rooms were cold and bare, but clean, for not one night of distress did we spend during the eight months' tour. Of course certain modern comforts were completely lacking, but we were grateful enough for clean beds and wholesome food. The taking of money for hospitality is thought degrading by this chivalrous people, so the traveler should not judge them by the innkeeper class with whom he comes in contact. I found courtesy as a rule and honesty even in the inns ; having valises that could not lock, I yet lost nothing. From Toledo on, we began to go, not to the best hotel men- tioned in the guide book, for that now had an average charge of twenty-five francs a day, but we chose some minor inn, such as the Fonda da Lino, in Toledo, once the first hostelry in the city before the " Palace " variety was started for the American tourist. We had spent October and November in see- ing the northern provinces whose piercing cold made us only too glad to settle for the four winter months in Andalusia; a day at Cordova, a fort- night in Granada, a trip to Cadiz, and the bulk of the time in Seville, the best city in Spain for a prolonged stay, though Barcelona also can offer good winter quarters. In April we went north into Estremadura to see the Roman re- mains, then returned to Madrid for another sight 8 Heroic Spain of its unrivaled gallery, and also because all routes focus from the capital like the spokes of a wheel. We continued east to Guadalajara and Sigiienza, stopped some days at Saragossa, then descended by Poblet to the warm fertile coast again, to tropical Tarragona and that industrial anomaly in an hidalgo land, Barcelona. After spending some weeks there, in the beginning of June we left Spain by the Port-Bou frontier, stopping at Gerona on the way out. Thus we had seen some twenty-five Spanish cities some twenty-five glorious cathedrals! in a leisurely journey of eight months. Any spot along the southern fringe is suitable for the win- ter, any spot along the northern coast for the sum- mer, but in high cold middle- Spain travel for pleasure must be limited to early autumn or late spring : we froze to death in Burgos and Sal- amanca during October, and again shivered and chattered with the April cold of Guadalajara and Sigiienza. As to guide books, Baedeker is as good as any, though the Baedeker for Spain is not equal to that firm's guides for the rest of Europe. Mur- ray's " Handbook " is more entertaining, but is rather to be kept as amusing literature than used as a guide book, much of it being the personal opinions and prejudices of Richard Ford, and bristling all over with slurs at Spain's religion. Introduction 9 . It does not seem reasonable for English-speaking travelers to see this original country through the eyes- 'of a clever but crochety Englishman who wandered over it on horseback eighty years ago : we should not like a European to judge America by Dickens' notebook dating back to the forties. There are two bits of advice I would give to those who would thoroughly enjoy traveling in the Peninsula. Pick up as soon as possible some- thing of the tongue or you miss shadings that give depth and strength to the impression. If one knows Latin or French or Italian, it is easy to read Spanish. And I would beg every un- hurried traveler to carry in his pocket the " Ro- mancero del Cid," Spain's epic, and "Don Quixote," her great novel, the truest-hearted book ever written. I defy a man to while away a winter in Spain with el ingemoso hidalgo his daily com- panion, or sit reading the " Cid " above the Taj us gorge at Toledo, and not learn to love this virile, ascetic, realistic, exalted, and passionate land, where a peasant is instinctively a gentleman, where a grandee is in practice a democrat, where certain small meanesses, such as snobbishness, close-fisted love of money, are unknown. The second advice is to bring to Spain some smattering of architectural knowledge, or half the charm of lingering in her old cities is lost, also is lessened one's chance to catch unaware the soul io Heroic Spain of this mystic, profoundly religious race. Here I should end, as I head these lines of introduc- tion with the words : Practical hints. And yet, just as it is well nigh impossible in Spain to dis- sociate the churches themselves from the reli- gious scenes daily witnessed under their Roman- esque or Gothic arches, so I cannot help begging the traveler, along with his smattering of archi- tecture to bring a little liberality toward a faith different perhaps from his own, a little openness of mind. To one who goes to Spain in the holier- than-thou attitude, she is dumb and repellent, she who can be so eloquent ! In each of her cities is a cathedral built when faith was gloriously generous and untamable, and in them one feels, unless blinded by prej- udices of early environment or birth, that here in- deed man is bowed in the humble self-abasement of worship, here is not only aesthetic beauty but a burning soul; the incense, the lights, the in- herited lavish wealth speak with the spirituality of symbols, of ritual, that utterance of the soul older than hymns or voiced prayer. This record of the journey through Spain will be called too partial, and yet I started without the slightest intention of liking or praising her. A month before going to Spain, on reading in the Bodleian Library certain accounts of St. Teresa, about whom I had but vague ideas, I Introduction 1 1 exclaimed in distress, "What a morbid mind!" I went far from sympathetic, but bit by bit my prejudices dropped away. With the cant and smug self-conceit of northern superiority, I ex- pected among other jars a shock to my religious belief. And after eight months I left Spain with the conviction that magnificently faulty though she is with her bull-fights, a venal govern- ment, and city loafers, she can give us lessons in mystic spirituality, in an unpretentious charity, in heroic endurance, in a very practical not the- oretic democracy. 1 2 Heroic Spain ESPANA LA HEROICA Deep learned are the poor in many ways, Their hearts are mellowed by sweet human pain, And she has learned the lesson of the waifs, This sadly-ravaged, stern, soul-moving Spain! Rugged and wild, wind-swept, and bleak, and drear, She has a ruined splendor all her own, It seizes even while you ask in fear The reason man should choose this waste for home. Her cities rise, ascetic, lofty, proud, Forever haunted by high souls that dare, And from her wondrous churches rings aloud A heaven-storming radiance of prayer; With psalm, with dance, with ecstasy's white thrill, Her mystics dared to lose themselves in God, Theirs was unflinching faith, fierce, varonil, A force as true to nature as the sod. Reward must come: perhaps from her to-day May spring the needed saint, to think, to feel, To grope triumphantly, to point the way To altars where both Faith and Science kneel. Upon her ashy mountain height she stands, Eager to step into the forward strife, Her eyes are wide with hope, outstretched her hands To meet the promise of new coursing life : Steadfast her cities to the desert face, Snow mountains loom across the silent plain : Take courage, O exalted tragic race ! Courage! Christ's always faithful grand old Spain! Castile, 1908. IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY: LOYOLA " The only happy people in the world are the good man, the sage, and the saint; but the saint is happier than either of the others, so much is man by his nature formed for sanctity." JOUBEET. " Whoever has been in the land of the Basques wishes to return to it ; it is a blessed land." VICTOE HUGO. THE Basque is still one of the sturdy untouched peoples of the earth; they make still the unmixed aborigines of Spain. Their difficult dialect re- mains a perplexity to the etymologist, some be- lieve it to be of Tartar origin. They themselves claim to be the oldest race in Europe and that their language came to Spain before the confusion of tongues at Babel. They derive their name from a Basque phrase meaning ' We are enough," that fittingly describes their character of self-sufficiency; the mere fact of being born in the province confers nobility. Life for centuries in the isolated valleys that never were conquered by Moor or foreign invader has bred in the Basque a passionate independence. He would never join with the neighboring kingdoms of Navarre and 14 Heroic Spain Leon until his special privileges were ratified; and though these privileges were the important ones of exemption from taxes and military service, he succeeded in keeping them intact until his sympathies with the Pretenders in the Carlist wars lost him his ancient rights. To-day the Basques must pay taxes and serve in the army like the rest of Spain, but their soldiers are usually employed in the customs, or as aids to the local police. Their red cap, like the French beret, and brilliant red trousers are a familiar sight among the valleys. Of the three Basque provinces with their 600,000 people, the smallest, Guipuzcoa, is a good epitome of national characteristics. The sin- uous valleys now serve as the passageway for the rushing mountain river, now spread out into a plain where the villages are set. Each town has its shady alameda, its plaza, and a court for play- ing pelota, a kind of tennis, the game of the prov- ince. There are frequent casas solares? or family manor houses; one of these I remember wedged in with its neighbors, in Azcoitia, unnoticed by the guide book, only by chance we looked up and found it looming above the narrow pavement; blackened with age and scarred as if crashed with blows of warring times, it was a speaking record of old Basque life. In any other country but 1 From the Latin word solum, ground, In the Basque Country: Loyola 15 Spain, the carelessly rich and unrecorded, such a fortress-house would be a lion in the district, - from this very unexpectedness Spanish travel is of unflagging charm. The strong primitive Guipiizcoans cling to their patriarchal customs. The men and boys sit before their doors making the cord soles used in peasants' shoes ; the women in groups of twenty or more, wash clothes in the public trough or down by the river. The indus- try of all is unflagging. The roads are among the best built in Spain, along them go creaking carts, each wheel made of a solid block of wood bound in iron and emitting a prolonged agonizing squeak. The cream-colored oxen that drag them have their yokes covered with sheepskin, another century-old custom. The carts sometimes carry pigskins filled with wine, three legs in the air, and the unique casks are mended with a kind of pitch that lends a disagreeable flavor to the wine, but these Highlanders will not yield an old usage. No sooner did we cross the Puente Inter- national that connects France with its neighbors over the Bidassoa River scene of historic meet- ings than we found ourselves in the wooded Basque provinces of the northern Pyrenees. The country was fertile, the small farms culti- vated with activity; on the hills were heavily- laden chestnut trees, in the valleys, orchards : we 1 6 Heroic Spain often passed trainloads of red apples carried un- packed in the open cars like coal. Not far from the frontier the train skirted what appeared to be an inland lake surrounded by hills, when sud- denly I noticed an ocean steamer and some fish- ing smacks lying at anchor, and looking closer I saw that a narrow passage led through the hills to the ocean breaking outside, another of Spain's unheralded effects. This was the beau- tiful inland Bay of Pasajes, the port from which young Lafayette sailed for America. At San Sebastian, the most fashionable sum- mer resort in Spain, and still gay with Madrid people, for the season holds till October, we saw the first bull-ring, a circular building of red and yellow brick in the Moorish style. To find a plaza de toros here in the north was disconcert- ing. Spain's national game has withstood the will of kings, Papal bulls, the dislike of a large proportion of the Spanish people who peti- tioned the Cortes in 1878 for its abolishment, and the odium of foreign races. Until this debased cosa de Espana is done away with it will remain a stumbling block to even the most sympathetic of travelers. At Iriin, the frontier town behind us, we had taken our tickets for Zumarraga, two hours away. There we were to leave the railway and drive into the valleys to Loyola, where in an old castle In the Basque Country: Loyola 17 the hidalgo Vizcaino, Don Inigo de Loyola, was born. Our guide book gave but the slightest in- formation. It was raining drearily. With trep- idation and sinking hearts we looked out at Zumarraga as the train drew near. Would this, the first night in Spain, cold and wet, be spent in some miserable tavern in a town of a thousand inhabitants, and perhaps the next morning would a rickety diligence take us up the valley? We stepped from the train reluctantly ; at the last minute we were tempted to turn back. But a por- ter had seized our valises, and muttering some- thing incomprehensible about Loyola and an au- tomobile hurried us through the station. And there, beyond, stood the wonderful thing, sign manual of modern comfort a great red auto- mobile with a gallant chauffeur ! We sat down on our luggage and burst into a hearty laugh. It began to dawn on us that perhaps the tour of Spain was not going to be the series of hardships and privations we anticipated. For the sum of three pesetas each (fifty- four cents) we were whirled up the winding valley. The mountains rose precipitously from the road and its accompanying river, reminding me of the valley in the Pistoiese Apennines that leads down to the Bagni di Lucca. In the motor diligence with us were a few courteous Basques; an el- derly architect, with the finely-chiseled features 1 8 Heroic Spain of the country, pointed out a sight here and there, among others the birthplace and statue of Le- gazpi, conqueror of the Philippines. I think he took us for countrywomen of his young queen, and, trying to emulate his politeness, we were si- lent as to our nationality ; later we discovered that this was quite unnecessary, for there is not the slightest prejudice in Spain against the United States. We passed a building by the river and were told it was an electric power-house; al- most every part of the country is now lighted by electricity. * You are very up-to-date ! " we ex- claimed. He replied by a shrug of delighted self- depreciation, a proud smile of conscious superi- ority aping the humble, not out of place in a Basque whose mysterious language Adam spoke, so ancient and difficult a tongue that the devil who once tried to learn it, they say, had to give up in despair. Our opposite neighbors in the dil- igence, countrymen whose loss of teeth made them appear aged, sought also to show some courtesy. Each wayside shrine was named with glistening eyes, St. Anthony; the hermitage on the hill above, St. Augustine; here, St. John. One began to understand religion was no mere Sunday morning service with this people. After six miles the valley opened out and we came to Azcoitia, a town of some five thousand inhabitants where is manufactured the boina, the In the Basque Country: Loyola 19 typical cap of the province. The automobile went slowly through the narrow cobbled streets, under the high houses and the cliff-like church, then sped over two miles of a beautiful valley, with mountain rising behind mountain in the even- ing light, and at length we reached Loyola. Here one of the great discoverers of new strength, of untried powers in the human soul, one of the holiest men of Christendom, saw the light in 1491, the year before the discovery of America: in the life of St. Ignatius are several coincidental dates to give us pause. Surely it was to these peaceful Basque hills that his thoughts turned when, a knight in the worldly court that surrounded Ferdinand and his second wife Germaine de Foix, Ignatius in gazing at the stars would feel with sudden potency the petti- ness of man's grandeur, and during his religious life, when he craved at the sunset hour to be alone to meditate, he must have recalled this lovely valley of his birth. With emotion I saw in the distance the huge quadrangle of the convent that now surrounds the Santa Casa: the thought of what this spot has given to the world, of the thousands of chosen souls linked to-day by one will to work for good in every land, can well make Loyola a place to stir the heart. At a little past six we left the automobile which was to run farther up the valley, and a porter 2o Heroic Spain from the inn led us through the park the Jesuits have planted for the people. The Hospederia de Loyola was a large building with a porti- coed entrance at right angles to the convent, more like a monastery than a hotel, with polished staircase and corridors, neat bare rooms, and a long white refectory. The table was excellent, one course followed another at the one o'clock luncheon and the eight o'clock dinner. There was fresh fish from San Sebastian (to which daily another motor diligence ran), there were home- made preserves, and we had our first taste of the universal garbanzos 1 of Spain, a chickpea shaped like a ram's head. The waitress, the first of many Carmens and Dolores, was a wonderful old wo- man who grew so intent on teaching us her lan- guage that she would insistently repeat the name of each dish she passed. She managed to convey to us by pantomime, for our Spanish as yet was of the meagerest, that there were eight ladies from Madrid in the hotel, living upstairs in retirement as they were making a Retreat. They had come last Saturday; talk, talk, talk, and the animated little woman gesticulated to show. Then the Retreat began, did we know what "the Exercises" were? Off she walked with bowed head and downcast eyes. So it would be 1 "C'est un pois qui a 1'ambition d'etre un haricot et qui reussit trop bien." THEOPHILE GAUTIEB "Voyage en Espagne," In the Basque Country: Loyola 2 i all week. The next Monday we should see them, they would come to table with us, and it would be talk, talk, talk again. During the week we occasionally saw a lady in black, her head cov- ered with a veil, cross from the hotel to the Santa Casa where the meditations were held. In the convent the Jesuits were conducting another Retreat attended by fifty men from different Spanish cities: these lived in the seminary with the priests. At table with us were some Spanish people of a kind the tourist does not usually meet. One of them, a deeply religious man from Barcelona, on his first visit to the Santa Casa, following the example of St. Francis Borgia, knelt to kiss the floor of the room in which the patron of the Basques was born. Another, an elderly woman fond of lace and jewels, and probably longing for the gayeties of San Sebastian, was waiting in this quiet spot while her daughter made the Retreat. When the eight days were ended we met this daughter, a beautiful girl with the charm of manner and quickness of intelligence that we found as a rule among Spanish women. The afternoon the two Retreats closed was a pleasant sight. The valley was fragrant from the rain, on the mountains the chalets stood out strangely near in the clear air. Carriages and touring-cars rolled up, pretty wives to fetch their 22 Heroic Spain husbands, husbands to claim their wives. All were happy and natural, but one felt around one the atmosphere of the higher things of life, an ex- altation that only religion can give. Religion is ineradioably woven into the every-day life of this race: a Spaniard is half mystic by inheritance. The power to understand the spiritual is not the gift of a few but of all. It gives to the peasant woman, to the uncouth lad serving Mass, an in- telligence above themselves. 1 Before the late din- ner that last evening in Loyola, a tall Spanish woman with her four daughters automobiled over from San Sebastian; she came to join her hus- band who had been following the " Exercises." He now sat with us at table, a man of the grave dignity and fine presence we were later to meet frequently. That night when passing through the corridors we heard the sounds of prayer in their rooms, the wife and children making the responses to the man's deeper voice. The convent of Loyola is the center of civi- lization for the countryside. All day there is a ceaseless come and go to the church, or to the 1 "Las inteligencias mas humildas comprenden las ideas mas elevadas; y los que economizan la verdad y la publican solo cuando estan seguros de ser comprendidos viven en grandisimo error, por- que la verdad, aunque no sea comprendida, ejerce misteriosas influen- cias y conduce por caminos ocultos a las sublimidades mas puras, alas que brotan incomprensibles y espontaneas de las almas vulga- res." Angel Ganivet: " Idearium Espafiol." In the Basque Country: Loyola 23 Santa Casa for silent prayer. At one each day troops of children go to the door of the convent with baskets and tins, and food is given them to carry to the aged and decrepit of the town. An hour later some dozens of lads in blue smock and boina, playing their ceaseless pelota, flock into the building for a half hour of doctrina. Then at three the young novices come out gayly for their ramble over the mountains and as they pass be- fore the church each instantly removes his hat as walking they repeat together a prayer. Happy those whose formative years are passed in hardy discipline among these uncontaminated Basque hills! The peasants of the valley, when the bell sounds the hours, pause to remove their caps in salutation. Every morning they cross the fields from Azpeitia on the raised path beside the river, or they come from Azcoitia, two miles down the valley, to attend the morning services. No one who has not seen a Spanish priest's attitude of devotion can understand its appealing beauty. These Jesuits and their attendant young novices (there are about two hundred students in the sem- inary) approach the altar with solemn reverence, without a trace of self-consciousness, and slowly and beautifully say the Mass. c The Jesuit seems to love God from pure inclination, out of admiration, gratitude, tenderness, for the pleas- ure of loving Him," wrote that subtle critic, 24 Heroic Spain Joubert: "In their books of devotion you find joy because with them nature and religion go hand in hand." A Basque congregation is worthy of such ministers. All kneel without bench or chair, the men on folded handerchiefs, the women on the circular straw mats scattered over the pavement. We were fortunate enough to attend a late Benediction, not a customary service in Spain as we found later. The thrilled exaltation of the singing in which all joined, the aged as well as children, is impossible to describe. It was a triumphant full-hearted adoration trying to voice the inexpressible; the organ ran riot, strained to its utmost, to accompany the ecstatic singing. Every Sunday the peasants drive in from the mountains to attend the afternoon service, and after it they stand to chat for a placid hour on the wide steps of the church. Arm in arm the young girls stroll up and down in the park be- fore the convent. I looked on at this scene of con- tentment that told of frugal, upright living, with the sad thought of France deprived of such wholesome beauty, of the peasants round the Grande-Chartreuse, poverty-stricken and deso- late since the industrial monastery was closed. Happily for the future of Spain, she has at hand a neighbor to give her the lesson in time. The convent of Loyola was built by the Aus- In the Basque Country: Loyola 25 trian wife of Philip IV to enclose and preserve the Santa Casa, and it was by her presented to the Jesuits. The church whose dome overtops the convent is in imitation of the Pantheon. Un- fortunately, as are most Jesuit churches in Europe, it was erected in a bad period, and over- loaded with ornament. The Company of Jesus was not founded until the golden age of archi- tecture was well past; Churriguera, archmaster of bad taste, was in vogue when they built. But at Loyola if the twisted pillars of decorated marble are hideous, the ample flowing staircase that leads to the church is a beautiful feature, reminiscent of Italian villas. The soul of the valley is naturally the Santa Casa itself, the casa solar of the saint's fore- fathers. The lower story is of rough-hewn stone, and once the whole building was the same, but a jealous king leveled the fortress-houses of the Basque nobles and the upper stories were rebuilt in ancient brick. Above the entrance door the arms of the family are carved, two wolves and a pot. The tradition is that the knights of Loyola were so generous to their retainers that even the wolves came to share their hospitality. In many of the rooms daily Masses are said; the four stories have been inlaid with mosaic, carved wood, and gold leaf, the gifts of devotees of the Basque patron. One room is pointed out as the saint's 26 Heroic Spain before his conversion, another as the one in which St. Francis Borgia said his first Mass, giving up a brilliant career, as viceroy, admiral, Duke of Gandia by inheritance, favorite of Charles V, to consecrate himself to the service of the altar. At this memorable Mass he gave communion to one of his sons, married to an inheritor of the Santa Casa, a niece of St. Ignatius. So many were the communicants another day that the Mass lasted from nine to three. Such rare in- stances of Christian perfection make the ancient house a chosen spot. The story of St. Ignatius' life is told through- out his casa solar. On the staircase is a window showing him as a courtier. He was skilled in knightly exercises, fond of the saddle and equally fond of rich attire: good-looking, high-spirited, truthful, and brave, he was a favorite with his soldiers. The scene of his wounding at the siege of Pamplona is given; he lies on the ground with his leg shattered. A long year of convalescence followed, and we see him reading the books that wrought his marvelous change of heart. He sought the monastery of Montserrat, above Bar- celona, to beg counsel of a learned man con- cerning the vocation he felt within him. His military training made him dream of forming a spiritual knighthood to battle for the salvation of souls: " Company of Jesus " is a military term. In the Basque Country: Loyola 27 At Montserrat he performed the vigil of the ar- mor, like a true knight watching till dawn before the altar; then exchanging his fine robes with a beggar he went forth, " el pobre ignoto peregrin." In a cave of Manresa he lived in seclusion and prayer, verifying on himself in agony of spirit the knowledge which was later to guide the troubled souls of others who sought light. " His experience in this solitude was ~an epitome of the psychology of the saints; and it smote him all the more intimately because he was utterly with- out foreknowledge of the spiritual life, and fought out his fight alone, like the first Fathers of the Desert." In the cave of Manresa was forged his Excalibur (to use again the vivid phrase of Francis Thompson, own brother to Crashaw in his flashes of celestial intuition) , there originated the " Spiritual Exercises," the work used to-day in the Retreats. " It has converted more souls to God," wrote St. Francis de Sales, " than it contains letters." Eighteen years were to pass before St. Igna- tius founded his Order. They were years filled with wanderings in Spain and Europe, a student at universities, a humble but joyous pilgrim to Jerusalem. One day while he was reading the eighteenth chapter of St. Luke the words, " And they understood none of these things " brought before him with sudden force the realization of 28 Heroic Spain his own untrained mind, the fact that he must be educated himself before he could help others. So at thirty this remarkable man began his scho- lastic studies in Barcelona, in Cardinal Ximenez's famous university of Alcala, in Salamanca. One day, in the streets of Alcala, as he was led to prison on a false accusation, the proud young grandee of Gandia passed him. This was the first sight Francis Borgia had of the man who later was to lead his life. Then followed some years of study in Paris. 1530 found him in London at the time of the agitation of Henry VII I's di- vorce from Catherine of Aragon, again a coin- cidence in Ignatius' life that he should visit at this critical moment the land soon to desert a church for which he was destined to raise so powerful a defense. There was another notable Spaniard in England then, not a humble summer student begging his way like the Basque hidalgo, but a scholar of Corpus Christi College, distin- guished and lauded, to attend whose lectures the King and Queen used sometimes to spend a few days in Oxford. This was Juan Luis de Vives, born in the great year 1492, the precursor of Bacon and Descartes, a man of such vast erudi- tion and impartial judgment that he has been called with Erasmus and the French prodigy, Bude, the intellect of his century. Vives stood forth courageously as defender of his country- In the Basque Country: Loyola 29 woman when the divorce question arose; he was imprisoned for a short time, forfeited his posi- tion and pension, and finally left England altogether. Loyola now took his degree as Master of Arts in Paris, and gathering round him some young men of earnest life among them the future apostle and martyr in the East, St. Francis Xavier from Navarre the memorable band of seven students made the vows of poverty and chastity in the crypt of a church on Montmartre on the Feast of the Assumption, 1534. Thirty years later the remembrance of that hour made one of the seven, Rodriguez, feel his heart swell with ineffable consolation. Literally these ardent souls fulfilled the letter of the Gospel for the way of perfection : " If thou wilt be perfect go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor/' " If any man will come after me let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me." ' Ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake." Their founder with superhuman perspicacity prayed it might be so. The world's hate is their alembic of purification. Ignatius returned to Spain to arrange with Xavier's family he also was of the northern mountain race of Spain and with the kindred of three others of his followers. He crossed the Pyrenees by footpaths, and descending to his own 30 Heroic Spain valley of Loyola preached down by the river in Azpeitia. Later in Italy the band of Mont- martre met again, working in hospitals, preach- ing, and converting souls to God. It was in Venice, many years after his wounding at Pam- plona, that Ignatius Loyola was at length ordained priest, and in Rome, in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore said his first Mass. When the projects of the small band were sub- mitted to the Pope, he had the inspired wisdom to discern in humble beginnings a future great movement and exclaimed: " Digitus Dei est hie!" truly the finger of God. The new Order approved, Loyola was elected its general; like a military company, the first law was the unhesitating obedience of the soldier to his leader, the unbreakable power that lies in many working as one. The Compania spread over the world, reforming monasteries, giving help to the poor, persuading the rich to purer lives, recon- ciling husbands and wives. Within a few years Francis Borgia gave up his dukedom to join them, and his accession brought to the Order many Spaniards of high rank. The founder continued to live in Italy between Rome at the Gesu and Tivoli: he died in Rome in 1556. In the Santa Casa we followed this remark- able life in scene after scene. There is a touching picture of the grown man at school among lads In the Basque Country: Loyola 3 i half his age, of the crypt of Montmartre, and of the final scene in Rome. His face was said by St. Philip Neri to have shone with compelling personality. In speech he was grave and admir- able, a never-tiring student of the Bible; that, and the " Imitation of Christ " were the only books he much valued. " To see Father Igna- tius was like reading a chapter of the ' Imita- tion,' " they used to say of him. We lingered for some days in the beautiful Basque valley, following the winding paths among the mountains, loitering in the two little towns near by in the pleasant discovery of rare old windows and portals. Most of the houses had a picture of the Saviour on the entrance door. Each new-born child is brought to the parish church of Azpeitia where St. Ignatius was bap- tized, and each boy is called by his name, though only the eldest in a family has the privilege of using it. The saint's hymn is the national hymn of the Basques. It was a raw autumn morning when we left Loyola. The light was just filling the valleys as we passed the sweeping steps of the church up which the peasants were mounting to beg a bless- ing on their working hours. The influence of their loved patron is as vivid as if he had lived but yesterday, so truly can one human mind, touched by divine grace, with no thought of self, 32 Heroic Spain in sublime earnestness, rouse mankind to shake off its apathy, to aspire to the highest. If only another such knight might arise to-day to fight the modern battle of Christianity! BURGOS AND THE CID " The epochs in which faith prevails are the marked epochs of human history, full of heart-stirring memories and of substantial gains for all after times. The epochs in which unbelief prevails, even when for the moment they put on the semblance of glory and success, inevit- ably sink into insignificance in the eyes of posterity which will not waste its thoughts on things barren and unfruitful." GOETHE. PASSING through the fertile Basque valleys, the train mounts the Pyrenees by a series of skill- fully-engineered tunnels. This natural barrier between France and Spain, is far from being the straight rampart of school geographies. It is a wide expanse of ramifying hills and intricate valleys, a jumble of mountains that explains why Spain remained isolated from northern Europe until the days of the railway. When we reached the crest of this watershed between the Bay of Biscay and the Mediterra- nean, we had