Idaho news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1887-1891, 1888-12-15
AN ARCHITECTS WIFE.
spanish Tale.

tNt5s s'iNNsSh UT bilSJ hhAb mai
a sensible woman, for theirs shall be
domestic felicity" And If it were
lawful to illustrate the Beatitudes
with historical notes, would append
to the aforesaid ninth the following
explanation:
In the middle of the fourteenth
century the Bastard, Don Enrique
de Trastamara, was besieging
Toledo, which offered 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,
one 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 the
besieging host. To prevent the re-
petition of such sallies Don Enrique
determined to destroy the bridge of
San Martin, which. as has already
been said, was the noblest of the
many that from the girdle OF the city
Of martyrs, of councils, and Of cava-
liers But what value have artistic
or historic monuments in the eyes Of
the ambitious politicians whose
dream is to bury "A dagger in the
breast of a brother, that they may
seat 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
shut in by hedges.
One night the leafy branches Of
these trees were Topped off by the
soldiers of Don Enrique, and piled
upon the bridge Of San Martin. The
dawn was beginning TO open, when a
glow of wondrous brilliance litup the
devastated gardens, the waves Of the
Taio, the ruins ofthe palace Of Don
Rodrigosand the little Arabian tower
reflected in the waters OF the river,
at whose foot, SO history hath it, the
daughter Of Don Julian was bathing
when the Inflated king set eyes upon
her fatetul beauty. An immense fire
hlazed on the bridge on san Martin.
and the cracking Of the massive car
ven beams, wrought with all theskill
OF the chisel which created the mar
wells Of the Alhnmbra, seemed the
pitifli plant of art crushed by brute
force. Toledanos, awakened by the
sinister glow, ran to save their be,
loved bridge from the imminent ruin
which menaced it, hut tho
ran iutilely, for frightful
crash that resounded lugubri-
ously through the hollows OF the
Tajo told them that the bridgestood
no longer. When the rising sun
gilded the domes Of the imperial city
the girls who went to iii their Jars
with the cool and crystalline water
of the river turned homeward again
with the vessels empty and their
hearts full of sorrow and indigna-
ton, for the current of the Tajo ran
turbid and boiling, carrying on its
whirling waves the ruins of the bridge
of San Martin, which still were smok-
ing.
This act of vandalism reused to
fury tie Indignation of the Tole-
danos, 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
and gardens. The valor OF the citi-
zcns, which had grown feeble, gained
unexpected vigor, and ere many days
they had blotted out the camp of
Trastamara, the blood of whose
ran in torrents over the
Many years had passed since the
of Montiel destroyed the
bridge of San Martin. Kings and
had exerted all their
powers to have it replaced by an.
other which should be its 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
Of the river always swept away foun-
iations, piles, and stagings before
The placing of the gigantic arches.
Don Pedro Tenorio, one of the great
to whom Toledo owes
almost as much as to her kings, sent
Drorlamations to almost every city
md village of Spain, calling forarchi-
iects to rebuild the bridge of San
Martin.
One day a man and woman, en-
5irely unknown, entered Toledo by
-I,n EAa,.