Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-18

| sleep that partook more of the character
of nightmare than of natures sweet re-
storer.
Meanwhile his wife had for some time
made show of sleeping. But she watched
her husband anxiously. When she felt GER
| tain that he had at length succumbed to a
| deep sleep, she softly rose, and scarcely
daring to breathe, crept out into the
kitchen. She opened the window gently
| and looked out
The night was dark; now and again vivid
flashes of lightning lit up the sky. No
sound was heard save the roar of the rush
| ing current of the Tagus, and the sighing of
| the wind as it swept in and out among the
scaffolding and complicated framework of
the bridge.
Gathering noiselessly closed the window.
From the hearth she took one of the half
| burnt faggots which still smoldered, and
| throwing a cloak over her shoulders went
out into the silent streets, her heart beating
| wildly.
Where was she proceeding? Was she
carrying that burning fagot as torch to
light her path in the dense darkness of
moonless night? 1t was indeed a danger
Gus track, covered as it was with broken
boulders and uneven ground. Yet she
strove rather to conceal the lighted wood
beneath her cloak.
At last she reached the bridge. The wind
still sighed and whistled, and the
river continued to break its current
against the pillars, as though irritated
at meeting obstacles which it could no
longer sweep away.
Catherine approached the buttress of the
bridge. An involuntary shudder of terror
passed through her frame. Was it because
she stood on the edge of that abyss of roar
ing waters? Or YVES it because her hand,
only accustomed hitherto to deeds of good
ness, was now brandishing the torch of
destruction? Or rather did she tremble
because tremendous peal of thunder at
that moment resounded through the vault
of heaven.
Waving the torch to kindle it afresh, she
applied it to the dry, resinous wood of the
scaffolding. The wood quickly ignited,
and the flame, famed by the
ing and involving arches and framework and
the whole structure of the bridge
Then she quilted the scene swiftly. Aided
by the glare of the confagration and the
vivid flashes of-lightning which lit up the
sky, Catherine soon traversed the space
which separated her from her home. She
entered as noiselessly as she had left it, and
closed the door. Her husband still slept
soundly, and had not missed her. Catherine
again pretended to be fast asleep, as though
she had never left her bed.
A few moments later a noise of many peo-
pie running arose within the city, while |
from every belfry the bells rang forth the |
terrible alarm Of fire. A tremendous crash |
succeeded, followed by cry of anguish |
as had been uttered years before, when the |
besieging army wrecked the former bridge. |
Juan awoke in terror; Catherine Law at his |
side, apparently sleeping calmly. He |
dressed himself in haste and ran out to learn |
the reason of the uproar. To his secret |
joy he beheld the ruin of the burning |
bridge
The Cardinal Archbishop and the Tole-
dams attributed the disaster to a fash of
lightning which had struck the central arch,
and had, moreover, ignited the whole struc-
ture The general sorrow was intense
Great also was the public sympathy with
the despair which the calamity must have
caused the architect, who was on the eve of
a great triumph. The inhabitants never
knew whether it was fire from heaven or
an accident that had caused the confagra-
tion; but Juan de Arevalo, who was good
protection of heaven, never wavered for an
instant in the belief that the bridge had
really been destroyed by lightning
The destruction of the bridge however,
only retarded Juan's triumph for a twelve
month. On the following year, on the same |
festival of San Ildefonso, his new bridge was
thrown open by the Cardinal; and |
the joyous Toledans once more crossed the |
Tagus to visit the lovely grounds of the |
Cigarrales. which they had been deprived Of |
for so many years. On that auspicious day |
the Cardinal celebrst I'd the event by giving |
a magnificent banqSst. At his right hand |
sat the architect and his noble wife; and |
after highly complimentary speech from
the Cardinal, the whole company, amid |
'umult of applause, conducted Juan and
to their home.
Five hundred years have passed since then,
put Juan's bridge still stands secure above |
;he rushing waters of the Tagus. His Sec
md calculation had no error. The illustra-
ion at the head of this story shows its ap-
oearance at the present day.-Stra'sd Maga-
,i7le,