Excerpt from Red-Letter Days Abroad

Alcantara, revealed to us in the illustration, spanning the glittering Tagus in a single arch. Near this point formerly lived that lovely girl whose charms were destined to overthrow the Gothic empire in Spain. The last of the Gothic kings who sat upon the throne of Toledo was Roderick, the shameless traitor to his friend, the base betrayer of the innocent maiden intrusted to his care. But, solicited by the father of the injured girl, on came the Moors in their career of conquest; to meet whom Roderick went forth in a chariot of ivory, and dressed in gold and purple, but was destined, despite all this mag nificence, to encounter ignominious defeat and death on the banks of Guadalquivir, where the fate of the Goths in Spain was sealed, and their power smitten to the earth by the resistless Moors.

If you are not tired of Toledo tales, let me tell you another. J ust beyond this bridge is a little church called Christ of the Valley. Within it is a crucifix, decorated, as usual in Spain, with real hair. This has a most singular history. The figure of Christ, which is of life size, has only one hand nailed to the cross; the other is stretched out toward the spectator. A poor peasant girl once made her lover swear that he would marry her if she accepted his caresses. The lover broke his oath and deserted her; whereupon the unhappy girl came to this church and called upon the crucified one to come to her rescue, and prove to the world her promise of marriage. He is said to have done so; for before the breathless spectators the hand of Christ detached itself from the cross, and on the silent air were heard the solemn words, I um the witness! An artist would consider this story a fine theme for a poem or a painting.

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