The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1900-08-16
sided and kept his treasures in it. At
his death, Governor Andres de Cabrera,
husband of Beatriz de Boabdilla, the

lHuSUdIlu VI DedtTlZ Uc DOHUUlili, tu6
early friend of Isabella), held the fort
ress and money for her against all
claimants, and therefore to him she
largely owed her accession to the
throne. From this Alcazar she proceed
ed in state, lin December of 1870, to
her browning as Queen of CASTLE. Two
years later, when a Segovian mob arose
against Gov. Cabrera, Queen Isabella
rode over the drawbridge alone and out
among the excited populace, quelling
them at once by her presence of mind
and body. A deep trench cut across
the rocky platform on which the AL
cazar stands completely isolates it,
and must have made it impregnable
before the introduction of siege artil-
larry. From its windows you look down
a perpendicular cliff on one side into
the deep bed of the Eresma, and on the
other into the deeper ravine that inter
sects the city From one of these win
dows, by the way, projecting from the
salon de los Raves. a careless nurse let
fall little prince, son of Enrique Nj.
i'll the year 1896. The boy was two
years old, the only son of his father
and heir to the crown, and the tragedy
took, such hold of the public heart. that
his little tomb. together with that of
the nurse who leaped after him. is still
pointed out. after more than six hun
dred years. us one of the sights" of
Sagovia. In this medieval castle
visit to Spain in search of wife was
Hospitality entertained. in the year 1923.
when-so says the historian of the time
he supped right royalty on ''certaine
trouts of extraordinary greatnesse."
Philip Y. converted the -AlcaZar into
prison and confined in it's lowest dun
geon the Dutch charlatan Ripperda,
who had risen from nothing to be pre-
mier of Spain. 1t is related that in one
of the now Quilted upper rooms the
student-king, Alonzo ell Subio, pursuing
his astronomical investigations, ventur-
ed to doubt that the sun moved around
the earth: thereupon, so goes the story,
a flash of lightning from a clear sky
interrupted his studies and nearly killed
the king. In memory of this miracle,
and as warning to future unbelievers.
the rope of Saint Francis was modelled
and put up, and Alonzo ever afterwards
wore the original as a penance. In later
times this AlcaZar has served as a pris-
on for the pirates of Barbary and Ma
rocco, taken along the coasts of Spain;
therefore it may easily have happened
that a descendant of the very prince
who reared this stately pile may have
languished i'll its duegeons. For a long
period its central tower was the enforc-
ed abode of state prisoners accused of
high treason. Readers of Gil Bias will
remember that he was confined in this
very tower
The glory of >egovia is many centuries
Older than the Alcazar-one of the-very
oldest monuments in this old, old
country great Roman auueduct
known to have existed during the seige
of the Emperor Traian, and ascribed by
popular tradition to yet greater anti
guilty. Indeed it is believed by many
to have been built by the Prince of
Darkness himself, and is therefore To-
cally known as FL Puents del Diabo-
The Devils Bridge" The legend runs
that his Satanic majesty fell in love
with a gill OF Segoyia and offered to
perform any miracle she might require
in return for her tavors She replied
that she was tired Of going up and down
the long hill, twice every day, to fetch
water from the Eresma. and if he would
only cause the water to come to her
without trouble on her part. she would
gladly be his. He promised TO do so:
and behold. the very next morning
there stood the aqueduct. all complete.
But after all, the Church declared the
contract void, because one stone was
lacking, and so the work went lnre-
warded. The big, two-storied bridge,
beginning near the monastery of San
Gabriel and striding across the deep
valley into the city, making many bends
in its process to give solidity, is 1921
feet long, and has 800 colossal arches,
those in the middle, as the valley deepens,
set one upon the other. 1t brings pure
cold water from the Furra Fonfria, ten
miles distant, and is still in perfect
working order after eighteen hundred
years-a blessing through all the cen
turtles, for the steep banked river imme-
diately below the city is not only very
difficult of access, but unsanitary, hav-
ing been drained into since time out of
mind. Like other structures of the
Romans in Spain, the aqueduct unites
solidity and utility with extreme sim
plicity, in wide contrast to the elabor-
| ately ornamented works of the Moors.
The Goths respected the noble bridge;
| but the Saracens of Toledo, who sacked
Segovia in 1911, destroyed about half
its arches. 1t remained in ruins four
hundred and seventy wears until by