Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-05-12
CHAPTER XVI.
A Secret of the Kings

A Secret of the Kings
DILAR said that the oxen were idiotic
dears to break their hearts for moth
ing, not even percentage on the twenty
pesetas But four-footed beasts are tragi-
ca1ly conscientious, and these farm yard
martyrs accomplished their task without
a groan; while the Gloria crept up close
behind on her own power. l thanked the
patron saint of COW creation when the
straining brutes got to the top. The sum-
NIT of the pass was crowned by lion on a
granite pedestal; lion with cold air of
pride in his mission of marking the limit
between Old CASTLE and New. For me
also he marked something for which I
owed him gratitude: my deeper advance
into the heart of my own land.
Close to our resting place at the top of
the pass there was rude hut, and one or
two wagons which had strained up from
the other side were hating their smoking
teams. Here, seated in the car again, as
we waited to see the oxen unyoked and
the boy paid, girl came out from the
little house with large volume in which
she asked US to sign our names. The
Cherub scrawled something; and as Dick
was scribbling, Carmona strolled across,
to see whether / intrusted my name to the
book had meant not to do So bat now
/ should have changed my mind had not
Colonel O'Donnel stopped me- Il wrote
your name, Cristoval, said he in his am
brosial voice, and the situation was saved.
Carmona made some commonplace re-
mark to account for his approach, and
walked away, as Pillars glance and Mont
cas- crossed the distance between the two
automobiles and met mischievously.
The gray car took the lead again, and
at turn of the road it seemed that the
whole world lay at Our feet. Yet it was
not even all of Old CASTLE, so vast coun-
try is my Spain. Far as the eye could
travel sped the fair land, green with the
tender green of spring, yellow with
patches of golden sand, darkly tufted with
woods, struck with flying shafts of light,
ringed in with ethereal blue.
Nothing could steal from me this i1lu-
minated missa1 of memories; and were /
to be banished tomorrow, should have
Spain to keep in my heart, ! said, as we
rushed down the steep, winding way
along the southern slope of the Guadar-
rama. A breakneck road it was, but nobly
engineered, twisting back upon itself in
many coils, letting US fly with the speed of
a bird to lower levels, and it seemed that
scarcely had we sunk over the brink of
the mountain than we were at the turn on
the right which would lead us to the
Escorial.
Straight before US, rising out of the bare
mountainside, and seeming part of it,
lowered and stretched building vaster
than any had seen even in the 1imitless
spaces of dreamland. If not for its cold
regularity, should have thought myself
approaching another desert of giants who
made toys of monoliths and obelisks; but
these appalling domes and towers could
be the work of man alone. There was no
toying here,-a1 was forbidding and
g1oony,-for this was the Escorial-im-
mense, sinister, as if fashioned from the
grim product of those iron mines which
gave it its name.
We lunched on extremely Spanish food
at an inn opposite the Escorial and when
the time came for SIGHTSEEING time for
us, but not for the public-the Duke
began by marshaling us all, except the
weary Duchess and the lazy Cherub,
through the great door guarded by Saint
Lawrence. Once within, we saw the
treasures, as bird in fight sees the
beauties of town over which he swoops:
but we did see them, and once ! had three
words and one look from Monica, before
it occurred to Lady Vale Avon to link an
arm in her daughters, in a sudden over
flow of maternal affection.