Page:Lisbon and Cintra, Inchbold, 1907.djvu/247

Rh whole district. Close to the Governor's palace stood the little chapel of S. Pedro—on the site of the cemetery now close to S. Maria dos Olivaes—where, on the feast of the saint's day, Britaldo, son of Castinaldo, saw Irene, and at once fell passionately in love with her. She had already made up her mind to become a nun, and refused to listen to any proposal that would compel her return to the outside world. Opposition but fed the young Count's ardour, and fearful lest another might grasp what he had failed to win—for those were days when passion, brooking no resistance, was often the prelude to forcible abduction—he caused her to be assassinated. Irene was in the habit of retiring to a little grotto in the river bank, where nothing but the murmuring water and songs of the birds intruded upon the ecstatic reveries of her devotions, and here at dawn, one fair October day of the year 653, she was surprised by the assassin, who threw her body into the river, and carried her blood-stained garments to Britaldo in proof of the accomplished death. The remainder of the legend concerns the finding of the body on the river bank at Santarem, which derived its name and patron saint from that source.

The stone bridge of Thomar is very ancient, the present structure dating from D. Manuel's reign, being only a renewal of the former one. It has six strong round arches, the foundations of every one showing their stone surface projecting diamond-shaped above the water on either side of the bridge. These are flanked by stout buttresses, with arched passages between to assist the flow of water when the river is in spate. The iron railings are of recent erection, taking the place of the thick walls which made the bridge too narrow for increased traffic. This interesting landmark of the past adds to the charm of the beautiful river, which is the chief source of the wealth of the 185