The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1888-11-30
AN ARCHITECTS WIFE.
A SPANISH Tale.

fit were lawful to add another to
She eight Beatitudes given in the
~catechism, / would add the follow
Ding: BLESSED are they that marry
"a sensible woman, for theirs shall be
domestic felicity" And if it were
lawful to Illustrate the Beatitudes
with historical notes, / would append
no the aforesaid ninth the following
explanation:
In the middle of the fourteenth
century the Bastard, Don Enrique
sde Trastamara, was besieging
Toledo, which offered a brave and
tenacious defense, being loyal to
that king called by some ''The JUST
and by others "The Cruel" Many a
time and oft had the faithful and
courageous Toledanos crossed the
magnificent bridge of San Martin,
None of the handsomest and most
useful architectural treasures of
that monumental city, and hurl-
ing themselves upon the
camp of Don Enrique, es-
tablished in the Cigarrales, they
had wrought bloody havoc amid tho
abesieging host. To prevent the re-
petition of such saIlies Don Enrique
determined to destroy the bridge of
San Martin, which, as has already
tbeen said, was the noblest of the
many that from the girdle of the city
'of martyrs, of councils, and of cava-
HERS. But what value have artistic
COZ historic monuments in the eyes of
ethe ambitious politicians whose
dream is to bury a dagger in the
breast of a brother, that they may
aseat themselves in the throne he oc-
cupies? Well known it is that the
'Cigarrales of Toledo, to whose fame
so much has been contributed by
Tirso and other great Spanish poets,
consist of multitudes of villas and
country-houses, with their lovely
gardens and fruitful orchards, all
sshut in by hedges.
One night the leafy branches of
Shese trees were Topped off by the
soldiers of Don Enrique, and piled
gupon the bridge of San Martin. The
dawn was beginning to open, when a
glow of wondrous brilliance lit up the
devastated gardens, the waves of the
Tajo, the ruins of the palace ofDon
Rodrigo, and the little Arabian tower
reflected in the waters of the river,
sat whose foot, so history hath it, the
daughter of Don Julian was bathing
when the Inflated king set eyes upon
lher fateful beauty. An immense fire
sblazed on the bridge on San Martin,
land the cracking Of the massive ear
wen beams, wrought with all theskill
sof the chisel which created the mar
wells of the Alhambra, seemed the
pitifui plant of art crushed by brute
force. Toledanos, awakened by the
,sinister glow, ran to save their be-
aoved bridge from the imminent ruin
which menaced it, but they
ran futilely, for a frightful
crash that resounded lugubri-
ously through the hollows of the
TTajo told them that the bridgestood
no longer. When the rising sun
gilded the domes of the imperial city
the girls who went to fill their jars
with the cool and CRYSTALLINE water
of the river turned homeward again
with the vessels empty aid their
hearts full of sorrow and indigna-
ton, for the current of the Tajo ran
&urbid and boiling, carrying on it's
"%hirling waves the ruins of the bridge
,ofSan Martin, which still were smok-
ing.
= This act of vandalism reused to
fury the indignation of the Tole-
danes, who saw thus cut off their
only direct passage to the paradise
like Cigarrales, which they had in
herited from the Moors, together
with the Moorish passion for groves
land gardens. The valor of the citi-
zxens, which had grown feeble, gained
unexpected vigor, and ere many days
ethey had blotted out the camp of
erTrastamara, the blood of whose
tsoldiery raj in torrents over the
tCigarrales.
Many years had passed since the
4ratricide of Montiel destroyed the
sbridge of San Martin. Kings and
sarehbishops had exerted all their
powers to have it replaced by an
.yother which should be it's equal in
strength aud beauty. But the gent
us and endeavor ofthe best architects
Christian and Moorish, had not been
able to CRAFTY the ardent wishes of
the Toledanos, for the rapid current
sof the river always swept away foun-
~dations, piles, and stagings before
&he placing of the gigantic arches.
Don Pedro Tenorio, one of the great
5archbishops to whom Toledo owes
almost as much as to her kings, sent
sproclamations to almost every city
and village of Spain, calling for archi-
Sects to rebuild the bridge of San
Martin.
One day a man and a woman, en-
Girely unknown, entered Toledo by
She Cambron gate, and, after inspect
ing the ruins of the bridge, they hired
q house close by, and shortly there
after the man betook himself to the
archiepiscopal palace. The arch
bishop, surrounded ut the moment