Page:Impressions of Spain in 1866.djvu/29

Rh the very material seems to be changed into Mechlin lace. The artist was Maestro Gil, the father of the famous Diego de Siloe, who carved the stair- case in the cathedral. He finished it in 1493 ; and one does not wonder at Philip n.'s exclamation when he saw it : * We have done nothing at the EscuriaL' In the sacristy is a wonderM statue of St. Bruno, carved in wood, and so beautiful and life-like in expression, that it was difficult to look at anything else.

Leaving Miraflores, our travellers broke tenderly to their coachmen their wish to go'on to Cardena. One of them utterly refiised, saying the road was impassable ; the other, moyennant an extra gra- tuity, undertook to try it, but stipulated that the gentleman should walk, and the ladies do the same, if necessary. Winding round the convent garden walls, and then across a bleak wild moor, they started, and soon found themselves involved in a succession of ruts and Sloughs of Despond which more than justified the hesitation of their driver. On the coach-box was an imp of a boy, whose delight consisted in quickening the fears of the most timid among the ladies by invariably making the horses gallop at the most difficult and precipitous parts of the road, and then turning round and grinning at the fiight he had given