The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-09-04

ent as works Of art. AL lile entrdnc you are confronted by tWo-tipsy-lookin.
 mace-bearers, in granite; and other dis reputable figures are perched insecurel! in the jamb of each doorway. Saint are everywhere, life size and colossal standing on the altars and Tn the nun | dreds of plateresque nitches. In th' tympanum a magnificent Ecce Homo appears, in the midst of sculptures anc
 terra cotta figures setting forth the Be
 trayal, the Last Supper, the Cross Bearing, the Crucifixion, the Coronation
 of the Virgin, the Flight into Egypt
 and scriptural scenes without number i You spend days in this old sanctuary constantly finding new objects of inter
 est--old paintings in dark corners, GU l rious church plate from the llth cen ! tury down, and ancient tombs in
 shadowy chapels. Among the most
 beautiful sepulchers in that of the
 learned Alfonso Tostado de Madrigal who was bishop of Avila in 1450 and l considered the Solonnan of hls day | His effigy, carved in alabaster, repre- J sents the preate in the act of writing 1 which was the joy and business of his | CtlN llllS CNlctCiiNCi 'tliu iN iA' ot'''~'J ~ 1 lated that he wrote as many as three
 sheets q day for every day of his life.
 Outside the walls, on the river side, l is tiny Romanesque church, stand- | ing in little weedy inclosuro with 1 three tall stone crosses. Nowadays it is always closed and locked, but though the Cerebus who guards it charges out ragiously for producing the keys, you must submit oextortion for the sake of seeking the beautiful monument of it's patron, the bishop If S&n @e"u'7 @'7, He is said to have pusEed Moor over the batlements of the neighbours lo"4t with his own hands, deed of prowess which will always render him popular as a Spanish saint, although it does not seem consistent ith the angelic express sion of the kneeling figure rapt in an acstasy of prayer.
 In Santo Tomas another glorious f1g- ure is found that of Prince Juan, the only son of Ferdinand and Isabella
 whose death, in his twentieth year, broke his mothers heart though his tory records that she replied to the fla tai tidings only in the words of Scrip ture, The Lord hath given, the Lord hath taken away" Beautiful in per son, brilliant scholar. an accomplished linguist and musician, with the most amiabe and winning of characters, he was the delight of his parents and the
 idol of the people. Within a few days after his marriage Gin March, 1497) at Burgos, to Margaret, daughter of the Emperor Maximilian, he was seized with a terrible illness. His parents had gone to Valencia, to Witnes the mar riage of their daughter to the King of Portugal and when the news came, they hastened with all possible speed to the bedside of their son. But, they ar rived to find their boy cold i'll death and 1 learn that his last wor7s were q prayer that his parents might be able to feel the same resignation that he himself, experienced The exquisite sleeping figure of Prince Juan, the most touching of efigies. with folded-hands smiling features, lies upon a marble al- tar tomb. The coro of the church, plac- ed above an eliptical arch at the west ern entrance, still retains two splendid ly carved stalls, which Ferdinand and Isabella ever afterwards occupied at mass, close to the gallery rail- where they might look down meanwhile upon the image of their boy. They were dressed sackcloth, which in this great calamity was substituted for the white serge hitherto worn as royal mourning: and an historian of the day vividly de- scrbes how, as they sat, the eyes of one would seek the eyes of the other and cause a fresh outburst of grief. So kings and queens have their sorrows like commoner clay, when relentless death steps in and snatches the best beloved
 II is pity to have only a few days for Avila. One might proftably spend weeks here. and then find himself sorry to depart. FANNIE B. WARD.