The Spaniard's Episode.
| "He was a pleasant-looking fellow, |
| with huge black whiskers |
| and a roguish eye. He touched |
| the guitar with masterly skill, |
| and sang little amorous ditties |
| with an expressive leer." |
| Irving. |
A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE.
You have never heard of Alcala? Well, it is a little village nestling between the Spanish hills, a league from great Madrid. There is a ring of stone houses, each with its white-walled patio and grated windows; each with its balcony, whence now and then a laughing face looks down upon the traveller. There is an ancient inn by the roadside, a time-worn church, and above, on the hill-top, against the still blue sky, the castle, dusky with age, but still keeping a feudal dignity, though half its yellow walls have crumbled away.
This is the Alcala into which I jogged one winter evening in search of rest and entertainment after a long day's journey on mule-back.
The inn was in a doze when my footsteps broke the silence of its stone court-yard; but presently a woman came through an inner door to answer my summons, and I was speedily cast under the quiet spell of the place by finding myself behind a screen of leaves, with a straw-covered bottle at my elbow and a cold fowl within comfortable reach.