The Shadow of the Cathedral

light that had scarcely begun to touch the eaves and roofs, spread out more freely in the little Piazza del Ayuntamiento, bringing out of the shadows t

commanding situations, showing themselves freely in the full pride of their beauty, and he compared them with this Cathedral of Toledo, the mother-church of Spain, smothered by the swarm of poverty-stricken buildings that surrounded it, clinging closely to its walls, permitting it to display none of its exterior beauties, beyond what could be seen from the narrow streets that closed it in on every side. Gabriel, who w

patch of open sky the early morning light showed the three immense Gothic arches of its principal front, the hugely massive bell tower, with it

nd where he himself had spent the happiest days of his life. How many years had passed

revisit the Cathedral, and had spent nearly an hour walking round it, listening to the barking of the Cathedral watch-dog, who growled suspiciously, hearing the sound of footsteps in the surrounding streets. He had been unable to sleep;

of the porch, and noting its defects aloud, as though he wished to call the stone

ing a wide, flagged space, where in former times the sumptuous processions of the Chapter had a

d canopies, and by shields emblazoned with lions and castles. On the pillar dividing the doorway stood Jesus in kingly crown and mantle, thin and drawn out, with the look of emaciation and misery that the imagination of the Middle Ages conceived neces

the guardians of public religion to take the oath to fulfil the duties of their office. Both were enriched with stone statues on the jambs,

1: Of th

2: Of th

y. Jesus and the twelve apostles, all life size, seated at the table, each under his own canopied niche, could be seen above the central porch, shut in by the two tower-like buttresses which divided the front into

eserved. But, then, the Archbishop of Toledo had eleven millions of yearly revenue, and the Chapter as many more; they did not know what to

l nave. The whole was crowned by a balustrade of open-worked stone following the sinuosities of

ne tiles of the pavement, and, out beyond the tower, under the great arch of communication between the archbishop's palace and the Cathedral, the beggars were gathering in order to take up their accustomed positions at the cloister door. The faithful and "God's creatures" [1] knew

e 1: Por

orning assemblage, he proceeded to open the door of the lower cloister, narrow and pointed as an arrow-head. Gabriel recognised him, it was Mariano, the bell-ringer. To avoid being noticed he remained motionless

oor of the rol

me steps leading down into the cloister, for the Cathedral, be

dels, who, with big turbans and enormous whiskers, were beating the saint. In the interior of the Mollete doorway was represented the horrible martyrdom of the Child de la Guardia; that legend born at the same time in

ut Gabriel could still see the horrible face of the judge standing at the foot of the cross, and the ferocious gesture of the man, who with his knif

illars. Gabriel looked a long time at the garden, which was higher than the cloister; his face was on a level with the ground on which his father had laboured so many years ago; at last he saw again that charming corner of verdure-the Jews' market converted into

ell if this early morning visitor with the worn-out cloak, the shabby hat, and the old boots, was simply an inquisitiv

me to the back of the staircase by which the archbishops descended from their palace to the church; a wall covered with Gothic interlacings, and large escutcheons, and almost on the level of the ground was the famous "stone of light," a thin slice of marble as clear as glass,

oing his rounds and opening all the doors; first of all a dog came out, stretching his neck as though he was going to bark with hun

ano," said one of the

aretakers of God....

athedral; locked into the church since the previous

st off the scraps left by the students, free till such time as the guar

e and there by the uncertain red spots of the lamps burning in the different chapels, wavering in the shadows. The bats flew in and out round the columns, wishing to prolong their possession of the fane, till the first rays of the sun shone through the windows; they fluttered over the heads of the devotees, who, kneeling before the altars, were praying loudly, as pleased to be in the Cathedral at that early hour as though it were their own house. Others chattered with the acolytes and

in front of the sacristy; the church vibrated under the blows of certain acolytes engaged in removing the dust from the famous carved st

s though the tombs of all the kings, archbishops and wa

traversed by underground water drains, and the leakage of subterranean and hidden tanks that stained the pave

ightest and most beautiful of temples. One could now see all the elegant and daring beauty of the eighty-eight pillars soaring audaciously into space, white as frozen sno

; but he was soon obliged to rise and move on, the dampness of the stone, and

stopped in their prayers to watch him. A stranger at that early hour, which b

nown man, of poverty-stricken aspect, who wandered aimlessly about at an hour when the treasur

acristan of the chapel of the Sagrario, "Azul de la Virgen,"[1] as he was called by the

1: Virgi

ringed with bristly hair, his bull neck that scarcely allowed him to breathe, and that made every breath like the blast of a bellows. All the servants

peculiar property, and he often came very near tur

erhanging brows. Where had he seen this strange fellow before? Gabriel noted the effort he made to recal

assed through them, entering the church hurriedly by the door of the Presentacion; the beggars saluted them all by name, but without stretching out their hands. They knew them, they all belonged to the "household," and among fri

tory of the Cathedral, remembered the origin of its name. At first it was called "of justice," because under it the Vicar-General of the Archbishopric gave audience. Later it was called "del Mollete," because every day after high mass the acolytes and vergers assembled th

hurch. They were people accustomed to seeing each other daily at the same hour, and they fe

he cloister, then some words from th

es old 'Vara

1: Woode

y, Se?or

ack, and shaved like a cl

placing himself between him an

rebellious thought arising to disturb his immovable beatitude. He stood doubting for some time, as though he could scarcely credit the remote re

brother! is i

ich seemed to have acquired the immobility of its pil

have you been? What is you

ise by incessant questions, never

revious night, and that he had waited outside the chur

e to move on, and so once again I begin my march. I am a man to be feared, Esteban, even as you now see me, with my body ruined before old age, and the certainty before me of a speedy death. Again, yesterday in Madrid, they told me I should be sent once more to prison if I stayed there any longer, and so in the evening I took the train. Where shall I go? The world is wide; but for m

eemed to tear his chest. He expressed himself vehemently, moving his arms freely, wit

the honour and profit of the family! But you were always wrong-headed, although you were the cleverest of us all. Cursed talent that leads to such misery! What I have suffered, brother, trying to hear about your affairs! What bitterness have I not gone through since you last came here! I thought you were contented and happy in the printing office in Barcelona, receiving a salary that was a fortune compared to what we earn here. I was disturbed at readi

el sadly. "I am only a theorist; I condemne

little one always astonished us by your kindness; you who seemed like a saint, as our poor moth

rcome by the recollection of those att

even more from my anxiety that no one here should know of your situation; you a Luna! a son of Se?or Esteban, the old gardener of the Primate, with whom all the canons and even the archbishop talked. You mixed up with those infernal scoundrels who wish to destroy the world. For this reason when Eusebio the 'Virgin's Blue,' asked me if you could possibly be the Luna of whom he read in the papers, I replied that my brother was in America, that I heard from him now and again, but that he was occupied with a big business-you see what pain! Fearing from

s though admiring the s

had been put on board ship with orders never to return to Spain, and, up to the present time, never a letter or a scrap of news, good or i

d in his eyes his gra

been more painful than death. On my return to Spain, pressed by poverty and persecution, my life has been a hell. I dare stop in no place where men congregate; they hunt me like dogs, forcing me to live out of the towns, driving me to the mountains, into the deserts, where no human beings live. It appears I am still a man to be feared, more to be feared than those desperadoes who throw bombs, because I can speak, because I carry in me an irresistible strength which forces me to preach the Truth if I find myself in the presence of miserable and trodden-down wretches-but all this is coming to an end. You may be easy, brother, I am a dead man; my mission is drawing to a close, but others will come after me, and again others. The furrow is open and the seed is in its bowels-'GERMINAL!'[1]

1: "It wil

ooden Staff" laid his

iel'

you were a child reading us his history in the long evenings? Go along, dreamer, what does it signify to you if the world is better or worse regulated? As we found it, so it has always be

er, being able to hear a single word. They crossed the street and entered the staircase of the tower. The steps were of red brick, worn and broken; the whitewashed w

ly, gasping, and sto

ill; these bellows let ou

ting his forgetfulnes

wife? I hope s

nt contracted, and his eyes beca

e said with l

il, struck with surprise; then, after a short si

looked like a queen, with her crown of auburn hair and her smiling face, with its go

d even more sad, and he lo

died," he

ead!" exclaimed

thing. Brother, by all you love best i

beginning once more his ascent. During his absence a terrible event had happened in his broth

t supported the old beams of the roof. It had been a provisional work three hundred years ago, and had always remained in the same state. All along the whitewashed walls, the doors and windows belonging to the "habitacions" of the Cathedral servants opened without order or symmetry. These were transmitted with the office from father to son. The cloiste

e was born and died in the very heart of Toledo without ever going down into the streets, clinging with traditional instinct to the carved mountain of stone, whose arches served it as a refuge. They lived saturated with the scent of

of his mother, were shaking the bedclothes out over the garden, or sweeping the red bricks opposite their dwellings; everything seemed the same. Time had left it quite alone, evidently thinking there was nothing there that he could possibly age. The "companion" could now s

since the last words were spoken, tried

t I am nothing but a sad old 'Wooden Staff.' Since my misfortune happened I have had an old woman to keep house, and Don Luis, the Chapel-master, lives with me. You w

ght with constant rubbing, looked like new, in spite of their curves, which showed them to belong to a previous century, and their seats almost ready to drop through. Through a half-open door he could see into the kitchen, where his brother had gone to give some orders to a timid-looking old woman. In one corner of the room, half hidden, was a sewing machine. Luna had seen his niece working at it the last time he came to the Cathedral. I

ack and rejoin

ask for what you want, for though I am poor I shall take little credit to myself

smiled

is quite gone; a little milk is enough f

k, and he had hardly seated himself by his brother's side when the doo

uncle!" h

yes were malicious, and above his ears we

, come in," said t

, turning to

er, who washes the linen of the choir, and of the se?ores canons; and it is a delight to see how she crimps the surplices. Thomas, lad, bow to the gentleman; i

by the sad and suffering face of their relative, whom he had

into the street, were it not for respect to the memory of his father and grandfather, and also to the name he bears, for everybody knows the Lunas are as ancient in the Cathedral as the stones in

anon in charge

eart he felt some pride in his nephew's scrapes, who received his reprimand with grimaces that m

s much inclination to examine details. It is a grievous pity to see how everything is going down. What desolation, Gabriel! If you could only see it! The Cathedral is as beautiful as ever, but we do not now see the former beauty of the Lord's worship. The Chapel-master says the same thing, and he is indignant to see that on great festivals only about half-a-dozen musicians take their place in the mi

A game of d

de a gesture as though scandalis

tell me all about it, and I, thinking that as his father was dead I ought to act in his place, I watched for our gentleman as he returned tricked out smartly from the bull-ring, and I thrashed him up the tower staircase to his rooms with the same wooden staff that I use in the Cathedral, and he can tell you if I have not a heavy hand when I am angry. Virgin of the Sagr

1: Tato-

with his glance, but this latter only smiled without pay

ario-Officer appoint

ke a fancy to him. The English ask him if he is a toreador, and he-what does he want better than that! When he sees they pay him according as he pleases them, he brings out his pack of lies, for, unfortunately, no one has any check on the deceit, and he tells them about all the great bull-fights in which he has taken part in Toledo, and all about the bulls he has killed; and these blockheads from England make a note of it in their albums, and even some coarse hand may make a sketch of this imposter's head; all he cares for is that they should believe all his lies and give him a peseta on leaving. It matters very little to him, if when these heretics return to their own country they spread the report that in Toledo, in the Holy Metropolitan Chu

whose special duty it is to

cular staircase in the thickness of the wall tha

he is going to say his mass in the chapel of

forehead, round and prominent, seemed to crush with its weight the dark and irregular features, much pitted by smallpox. He was very ugly, but still the expression of his blue eyes, the brilliancy of his white an

om you have spoken to me so often," said he

l. They both looked very sickly, but their bodil

minary," said the Chapel-master, "h

g that I remember of

l over the world, you must have

t pleasing of all the arts. I do no

iends. You must tell me all sorts of thing

ed in, with a layer of grease on its flaps, miserable and old, like the cassock and the shoes. But in spite of this poverty the Chapel-master had a certain refinement about him. His hair, rather too long for his ecclesiastical dress, curled round his temples, and the d

ike distant thunder, floated int

d the "Tato." "We ought to have been in the Ca

lad you were here to rem

speaking to the

on; now we must fulfil our obligations, for those who are late will, as yo

lingly, as though forced to a task that was to him both irksome and painful. He hummed absently while giving his hand to Gabriel, who t

ndeavouring to overcome the repugnance of his weak stomach, which almost refused to retain the liquid. His body, fatigued by his restless night and the long morning wait, at last assimilated the nourishment, and a soft, dreamy languor spread over

restlessness formed in dark dungeons, expecting hourly to see the door open, to be beaten like a dog, or led off between a double file of muskets to the square of execution; the habit of living perpetually watched, of feeling in every country the espionage of

ch was to him as a gentle caress, the noble calm of the temple, that immense pile of worked stone

, resting his elbows on the balust

itator like a gentle narcotic. The seven centuries surrounding those stones seemed to him like so many veils hiding him from the rest of the world. In one of the dwellings of the Claverias you could hear the incessant tap, tap, of a hammer; it was that of a shoemaker whom Gabriel had seen through the window-panes, bending over his bench. In the square of sky framed by the roofs some pigeons were flying, lazily moving their wings,

arden, leaving the rest in cool green shade, a conventual twilight. The bell-tower hid one portion of the sky, displaying on its reddish sides, ornamented with Gothic tracery and salient buttresses, the fillets of black marble with heads of mysterious pe

ved at its most solemn moment, the mountain of stone seemed to tremble with the vibration, which w

cooing of the pigeons could again be heard, and, down in the garden, the twitte

seven centuries, built by vanished greatness for a dying faith, should be his last refuge. In the full tide of unbelief the church should be his sanctuary, as it had been in former days to those great criminals of the Middle Ages, who, from the height of the cloister mocked at justice, detained at the doors like the beggars. Here should be consummated in silence and calm the slow decay of his body, here he woul

ship; this had been his hope, and he was beginning to realise it. The church would receive h

t last!" mu

ng behind him, as though he were going to some remote place, situated in another p

very far off, the shrill sound of a trumpet and the muffled roll of drums, then he remembered the Alcazar of Toledo, dominating the Ca

ight, and when he thought himself so very far from it, he could stil