The Republican journal., 1900-12-20

~ 10 VWO HOuIC Tllc lIUM I du W
Lourdes, the most famous place of pill
grimage in Europe; but which in late
years has grown almost revolving, be-
cause turned into speculation, with the
cool calculation of business and all the
resources of superstition. Instead of
going there, we preferred to cross to
the Spanish side of the Pyrenees-to
rock-ribbed Pamplona, whose brown
walls and towers stand out in striking
contrast to their background of SNOW
tipped mountains. The long reaches of
barren plain in front, called the .Key
of Navarro" resembles the Roman Cam
pagna for desolation and lack of color
ing. The railway station is deep down
in the valley, and rickety omnibus
takes you up to town by steep, winding
road, skirting the lofty walls and pas
sing drawbridge and gateway. No
trees are to be seen except few white
poplars, spared when all other trees are
cut down because of the Spanish tradi-
ton that poplars were the first trees
God created, Pamplona, the ancient
Pompeiopolis, was founded - nobody
knows when or by whom, and rebuilt
by Pompey 6S B. C. The Moors cor
rupted its Roman name to Bambilonah,
and hence the present appellation.
Many times conquered and recon
quered, by Goths, Romans, Moors and
Christians, the aspect of the place is
now distinctly Spanish - it's brightly
painted casas hung thick with iron
wrought balconies; dozens of plazas
fronting gray churches, where priestly
robes and shovel hats are seen mingling
with the gay costumes of the peasantry.
Its great plaza is the site of never-to-
be-forgotten tragedy, where ten thous-
and Jews were burned alive, human
bonfire visible for miles around, to do
honor to the marriage of Count de
Champagne. From this plaza-the
largest in Spain and one of the finest
a steep and stony street leads up to the
cathedral, built in the 18th century, but
overhauled a couple centuries later
by Charles of Navarro, nicknamed ''The
Noble
Following the line of walls, whose
strength in the middle ages gave to
Pamplona the title MY Noble, my
lead, y muy heroica," you come at last
to the citadel which Francis l. besieged
in 1921, while King Charles was absent
in Germany. A handsome young lieu
tenant, Ignatius Loyola, had been left
to guard it. After a brave defense, he
was wounded and disabled; when the
garrison, seeing him fall, surrendered.
A cannon-ball had struck both Loyola's
legs, and great were the consequences
to the Christian world. Such was his
personal vanity at the time that twice,
after the wounds were partially healed
he insisted upon having his legs opened
and a projecting bone sawn off. But it
was no use and he arose from his bed
lamed for life During his long deten-
ton in his fathers castle he asked for
romances to beguile the tilne but none
We're to be had in that early age of
printing, and they brought him, instead,
a history of Christ and some lives of
the Saints. These produced so strong
an impression upon the gay cavalier
that he then and there determined to
renounce the world and it's vanities and
devote himself to the service of God.
This change in the life of the founder
of the order of the ,Jesuits is commem-
Grated in Pampola by a chapel near one
of the gates, which contains fine por-
trait of Loyola in soldiers dress.
FANNIE b. WARD.