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A Fete In The AlhambraA Fete In The Alhambra
A Fete In The Alhambra
The saint`s day of my neighbor and rival potentate, the count, took
place during his sojourn in the Alhambra, on which occasion he gave a domestic
fete; assembling round him the members of his family and household, while the
stewards and old servants from his distant possessions came to pay him
reverence and partake of the good cheer, which was sure to be provided. It
presented a type, though doubtless a faint one, of the establishment of a
Spanish noble in the olden time.
The Spaniards were always grandiose in their notions of style. Huge
palaces; lumbering equipages, laden with footmen and lackeys; pompous
retinues, and useless dependents of all kinds; the dignity of a noble seemed
commensurate with the legions who loitered about his halls, fed at his
expense, and seemed ready to devour him alive. This, doubtless, originated
in the necessity of keeping up hosts of armed retainers during the wars with
the Moors, wars of inroads and surprises, when a noble was liable to be
suddenly assailed in his castle by a foray of the enemy, or summoned to the
field by his sovereign.
The custom remained after the wars were at an end, and what originated
in necessity was kept up through ostentation. The wealth which flowed into
the country from conquests and discoveries fostered the passion for princely
establishments. According to magnificent old Spanish usage, in which pride
and generosity bore equal parts, a superannuated servant was never turned
off, but became a charge for the rest of his days; nay, his children, and his
children`s children, and often their relatives to the right and left, became
gradually entailed upon the family. Hence the huge palaces of the Spanish
nobility, which have such an air of empty ostentation from the greatness of
their size compared with the mediocrity and scantiness of their furniture,
were absolutely required in the golden days of Spain, by the patriarchal
habits of their possessors. They were little better than vast barracks for
the hereditary generations of hangers on, that battened at the expense of a
Spanish noble.
These patriarchal habits of the Spanish nobility have declined with their
revenues; though the spirit which prompted them remains, and wars sadly with
their altered fortunes. The poorest among them have always some hereditary
hangers on, who live at their expense, and make them poorer. Some who, like
my neighbor the count, retain a modicum of their once princely possessions,
keep up a shadow of the ancient system, and their estates are overrun and the
produce consumed by generations of idle retainers.
The count held estates in various parts of the kingdom, some including
whole villages, yet the revenues collected from them were comparatively small;
some of them, he assured me, barely fed the hordes of dependents nestled upon
them, who seemed to consider themselves entitled to live rent free and be
maintained into the bargain, because their forefathers had been so since time
immemorial.
The saint`s day of the old count gave me a glimpse into a Spanish
interior. For two or three days previous preparations were made for the fete.
Viands of all kinds were brought up from town, greeting the olfactory nerves
of the old invalid guards, as they were borne past them through the Gate of
Justice. Servants hurried officiously about the courts; the ancient kitchen of
the palace was again alive with the tread of cooks and scullions, and blazed
with unwonted fires.
When the day arrived I beheld the old count in patriarchal state, his
family and household around him, with functionaries who mismanaged his estates
at a distance and consumed the proceeds; while numerous old wornout servants
and pensioners were loitering about the courts and keeping within smell of the
kitchen.
It was a joyous day in the Alhambra. The guests dispersed themselves
about the palace before the hour of dinner, enjoying the luxuries of its
courts and fountains, and embosomed gardens, and music and laughter resounded
through its late silent halls.
The feast, for a set dinner in Spain is literally a feast, was served in
the beautiful Morisco Hall of "Las Dos Hermanas." The table was loaded with
all the luxuries of the season; there was an almost interminable succession of
dishes; showing how truly the feast at the rich Camacho`s wedding in Don
Quixote was a picture of a Spanish banquet. A joyous conviviality prevailed
round the board; for though Spaniards are generally abstemious, they are
complete reveller on occasions like the present, and none more so than the
Andalusians. For my part, there was something peculiarly exciting in thus
sitting at a feast in the royal halls of the Alhambra, given by one who might
claim remote affinity with its Moorish kings, and who was a lineal
representative of Gonsalvo of Cordova, one of the most distinguished of the
Christian conquerors.
[See Hall Of Ambassadors]
The banquet ended, the company adjourned to the Hall of Ambassadors. Here
every one endeavored to contribute to the general amusement, singing,
improvising, telling wonderful tales, or dancing popular dances to that
all-pervading talisman of Spanish pleasure, the guitar.
The count`s gifted little daughter was as usual the life and delight of
the assemblage, and I was more than ever struck with her aptness and wonderful
versatility. She took a part in two or three scenes of elegant comedy with
some of her companions, and performed them with exquisite point and finished
grace; she gave imitations of the popular Italian singers, some serious, some
comic, with a rare quality of voice, and, I was assured, with singular
fidelity; she imitated the dialects, dances, ballads, and movements and
manners of the gipsies, and the peasants of the Vega, with equal felicity, but
every thing was done with an all-pervading grace and a lady-like tact
perfectly fascinating.
The great charm of every thing she did was its freedom from pretension or
ambitious display, its happy spontaneity. Every thing sprang from the impulse
of the moment; or was in prompt compliance with a request. She seemed
unconscious of the rarity and extent of her own talent, and was like a child
at home revelling in the buoyancy of its own gay and innocent spirits. Indeed
I was told she had never exerted her talents in general society, but only, as
at present, in the domestic circle.
Her faculty of observation and her perception of character must have been
remarkably quick, for she could have had only casual and transient glances
at the scenes, manners and customs, depicted with such truth and spirit.
"Indeed it is a continual wonder to us," said the countess, "where the child
(la Nina) has picked up these things; her life being passed almost entirely at
home, in the bosom of the family."
Evening approached; twilight began to throw its shadows about the halls,
and the bats to steal forth from their lurking-place and flit about. A notion
seized the little damsel and some of her youthful companions, to set out,
under the guidance of Dolores, and explore the less frequented parts of the
palace in quest of mysteries and enchantments. Thus conducted, they peeped
fearfully into the gloomy old mosque, but quick drew back on being told that a
Moorish king had been murdered there; they ventured into the mysterious
regions of the bath, frightening themselves with the sounds and murmurs of
hidden aqueducts, and flying with mock panic at the alarm of phantom Moors.
They then undertook the adventure of the Iron Gate, a place of baleful note in
the Alhambra. It is a postern gate, opening into a dark ravine; a narrow
covered way leads down to it, which used to be the terror of Dolores and her
playmates in childhood, as it was said a hand without a body would sometimes
be stretched out from the wall and seize hold of the passers by.
The little party of enchantment hunters ventured to the entrance of the
covered way, but nothing would tempt them to enter, in this hour of gathering
gloom; they dreaded the grasp of the phantom arm.
At length they came running back into the Hall of Ambassadors in a mock
paroxysm of terror; they had positively seen two spectral figures all in
white. They had not stopped to examine them; but could not be mistaken, for
they glared distinctly through the surrounding gloom. Dolores soon arrived and
explained the mystery. The spectres proved to be two statues of nymphs in
white marble, placed at the entrance of a vaulted passage. Upon this a grave,
but, as I thought, somewhat sly old gentleman present, who, I believe, was
the count`s advocate or legal adviser, assured them that these statues were
connected with one of the greatest mysteries of the Alhambra; that there was
a curious history concerning them, and moreover, that they stood a living
monument in marble of female secrecy and discretion. All present entreated him
to tell the history of the statues. He took a little time to recollect the
details, and then gaae them in substance the following legend.
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