The Blind Guide 



"I have had the honour of receiving many distinguished 

 guests, vi^ho have come from distant countries to visit the 

 Escorial. The celebrated Doomas v/as here, and spoke ?nuy 

 am'istosamente with me in this very kitchen. There was a 

 large party with him. They insisted on cooking several 

 dishes for themselves. They drank a considerable quantity 

 of wine and were very lively. Afterwards they must needs 

 get up a ball, and Doomas danced with my eldest daughter." 



Next morning at breakfast, a sound of shuffling steps, 

 accompanied by frequent tappings of a staff along the 

 passage, heralded the appearance of Cornelio, the celebrated 

 blind guide of the Escorial. He seems to be about sixty, 

 and has a mild, fat, vacant, uplifted, listening face. He 

 seemed to consider it a matter of course that we should 

 employ him, and so we did. 



The tappings of his staff on the flag-stones soon awoke 

 the echoes of a vast cloistered court, and a functionary 

 appeared who conducted us by a back entrance up into the 

 palace department of the edifice. Here the first thing which 

 struck us was a quantity of the most brilliant-coloured 

 tapestry we had ever seen. Indeed, most of the rooms are 

 covered with it, — scenes from the chase, the battle-field, and 

 bull-ring. One suite of apartments was illustrated with the 

 adventures of Telemachus, as our usher informed us. After 

 hearing a great deal about this worthy Ithacan, we thought 

 on the strength of our costume we might ask for an histo- 

 rical commentary ; so I said — 



*' Pues quien era este Telemaco ? parece que fuese 

 caballero muy principal en su tiempo ; es regular que era 

 Espaiiol." (After all, who was this Telemachus ? it seems 

 he was a very considerable person in his day ; probably he 

 was a Spaniard.) 



" Que ! hombre, era Frances." (" My dear sir," — in a 



