Page:Impressions of Spain in 1866.djvu/127

Rh creepers, and a 'luxe' of Oriental vegetation. On one side are the white marble baths, cool and sombre, where the beautiful Maria de Padilla forgot the heat aiid glare of the Seville sun. It was the custom of the courtiers in her day to drink the water in which the ladies had bathed. Pedro the Cruel reproached one of his knights for not complying with this custom. ' Sire,' he replied, ^I should fear lest, having tasted the sauce, I should covet the bird ! '

The Alcazar formerly extended far beyond its present limits; but the ruined towers by the water-side are all that now remain to niark the course of the old walls.

Oiu* travellers could not resist one walk through the matchless cathedral on their way home ; but reserved their real visit to that and to the Giralda till the following day. The kind Regente de la Audiencia and his wife, to whom they had brought letters of introduction, came to them in the evening, and arranged various expeditions for the ensuing week.

Early the next morning the Countess L de R came to fetch one of the party to the Church of S. Felipe Neri, which, like all the churches of the Oratorians, is beautifiiUy decorated, and most devout and reverent in its services. It