The Tongue
Of The Car Was Pulled By A Man With One Leg; A Half-Grown Boy Under The
Body Of It Hoisted It On His Back And Eased It Along; And A Monk With
His White Robe Tucked Up Into His Girdle Pushed It Powerfully From
Behind.
I did not make out why so strange a team should have been
employed for the work, but the spectacle of that quaint progress was
unique among my experiences at Valladolid and of a value which I wish I
could make the reader feel with me.
We ourselves were so interested in
the event that we took part in it so far as to push aside a bench that
blocked the way, and we received a grateful smile from the monk in
reward of our zeal.
We were in the mood for simple kindness because of our stiff official
reception at the Royal Palace, which we visited in the gratification of
our passion for _patios._ It is now used for provincial or municipal
offices and guarded by sentries who indeed admitted us to the courtyard,
but would not understand our wish (it was not very articulately
expressed) to mount to the cloistered galleries which all the
guide-books united in pronouncing so noble, with their decorative busts
of the Roman Emperors and arms of the Spanish provinces. The sculptures
are by the school of Berruguete, for whom we had formed so strong a
taste at the museum; but our disappointment was not at the moment
further embittered by knowing that Napoleon resided there in 1809.
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