Page:Impressions of Spain in 1866.djvu/124

98 savage justice. The king overheard three of his judges combining to give a false judgment in a certain case about which they had been bribed, and then quarrel about their respective shares of their ill-gotten spoils. He suddenly appeared before them, and causing them to be instantly beheaded, placed their heads in the niches where now the paintings perpetuate the remembrance of the punishment. Less excusable was another tragedy enacted within these walls, in the assassination of the brother of the king, who had been invited as a guest, and came unsuspicious of treachery. A deep red stain of blood in the marble floor still marks the spot of the murder. Well may Spain's most popular modern poet, the Duque de Rivas, in his beautiful poem, exclaim: — Ann en las losas sc mira Una tenaz mancha oscnra;. . . Ni las edades la limpian! . . . Sangre! sangre! Oh cielos! cnantos, Sin saber que lo es, la pisan!

The gardens adjoining the palace are quaintly beautiful, the borders edged with myrtle and box, cut low and thick, with terraces and fountains, and kiosks, and 'surprises' of 'jets d'eau,' and arched walls festooned with beautiful hanging