Ascent of the Giralda 



figure of our guide ahead, with the moving, downcast flare 

 of his lantern on the stony slope, — these richly-framed, 

 momentary pictures of the enchanted, moonlight-sprinkled 

 city, as from glimpse to glimpse it sank beneath our feet, 

 and exposed a widening rim of hazy horizon ; — all these 

 things together struck us with that delicate impression of 

 the mysterious and romantic which is so difficult to put on 

 paper, or even to describe afterwards with spoken words. 

 We were content to explain ourselves to each other by 

 agreeing that it seemed like one of the Arabian nights. 



Well, there is an end to all things, even to square cork- 

 screws, and at last we emerged where the muezzin used to 

 cry, " La ela ilia Allah " (There is no God but the God), 

 and where now the most powerfully unmusical jangle of 

 bells in the world ring at random hours without any 

 ascertainable rule or intention whatever. Looking down 

 over the dizzy parapet on one side, we could see here and 

 there little cloaked mannikins crawling over the straitened 

 pavement ; on the other, also far beneath, expanded the 

 broad stone roofs of the body of the cathedral, whose 

 massive flying buttresses, touched by the moonbeams, 

 seemed the hoary ribs of some old mammoth skeleton. 



Around, irregularly grouped clusters of quaint, fantastic 

 housetops and towers and gables strung like charms on 

 tangled street-lines, extended a chequered labyrinth. Along 

 the dark line of the Guadalquivir lay the white range of 

 Triana. On this side of the river, but still distant, the 

 bull-ring looked about the shape and size of a quoit. On 

 the left, near the foot of the tower, stood the rich 

 Arabesque alcazar of the Moorish kings of Seville. Beyond, 

 spread a vaster edifice, square, covering five or six acres, 

 and seeming a palace too. What do you think it was ? 

 The tobacco-manufactory. Isabel II. is the sole tobacconist 



109 



