Page:A Mainsail Haul - Masefield - 1913.djvu/48

36 FROM THE SPANISH

galleon Spanish Rose was built in Saint Mary of the Bells by the Lord Alva of Meroquinez. He built her for one of the beauties of the court, whom he loved in a stately manner, that was ceremonious, like the worship of a relic. Being a rich man he built her of costly things, of cedarwood from the East, of Indian rosewood, so that each plank of her was sweet to smell. Her fastenings were of wrought silver, curiously beaten. The streets of the silver workers rang noisily for a twelvemonth over the lovely hammering of them. Her decks were beautifully inlaid by the parquetters of Verona, who made in them delicate patterns of coloured woods more brilliant than the seaweeds. The figure-head, carved in a hard wood, was the work of that artist who carved the Madonna in St. James's Church at Seville. It was a design of the Rosa Dei, bursting her golden petals that the cross might