“And this is the Alhambra,” said Capt. Sheridan, as the trio came out for a walk, after dinner.
“What is the meaning of the name of that hotel?”
“Hotel de los Siete Suelos,—the hotel of the seven stories, or floors.”
“But it hasn’t more than four or five.”
“Haven’t you read Irving’s Alhambra? He mentions a tower with this name, in which was the gate where Boabdil left the Alhambra for the last time. It was walled up at the request of the Moor.”
The party walked about the gardens till it was dark. The next morning, before the ship’s company were ready, the doctor and the three highest officers entered the walled enclosure.
“This is the Tower of Justice,” said the doctor, as they paused at the entrance. “It is so called because the Moorish kings administered the law to the people here. You see the hand and the key carved over the door. If you ask the grandson of Mateo Ximenes, who is a guide here, what it means, he will tell you the Moors believed that, when this hand reached down and took the key, the Alhambra might be captured; but not till then. Then he will tell you that they were mistaken; and give glory to the Spaniards. The key was the Moslem symbol for wisdom and knowledge; and the hand, of the five great commandments of their religion.”
The party entered the tower, in which is an altar, and passed into the square of the cisterns. Charles V. began to build a huge palace on one side of it; but the fear of earthquakes induced him to desist. He destroyed a portion of the Moorish palace to make room for it. The visitors entered an office where they registered their names, paid a couple of pesetas, and received a plan of the palace. The first names in the book are those of Washington Irving and his Russian companion.
“This is the Court of the Myrtles,” said the doctor, as they entered the first and largest court of the palace. “It is also called ‘the Court of Blessing,’ because the Moors believed water was a blessing; and this pond contains a good deal of it.”