Page:The Burton Holmes lectures; (IA burtonholmeslect04holm).pdf/347

 It awed into submission the turbulent population of Granada, which then numbered half a million, being six times as great as to-day.

A WINDOW Photograph by Harlow D. Higinbotham

The towers all bear suggestive names, and to each is attached some fabulous tale in which Infantas, captive Princesses, and Christian knights play their romantic parts. Advancing, the Torre de los Picos, or battlemented Tower, comes in view. The ruinous condition of the walls, the frowning aspect of the towers, the air of neglect, and the suggestion of vanished greatness, combine to render our impressions identical with those attendant upon arrival beneath the ramparts of Fez, the Sacred City of Morocco, where the descendants of the builders of this Oriental pile are striving to maintain the shadow of the former power of the Moor.

Let me confess that I do not dwell with pleasure on my first walk through the famous interior courts and chambers of the Alhambra. All that I remember is that, in company with a small band of tourists, I was rushed by a guide in uniform through a confusing fairyland; that I listened to studied