We went into the adjoining Church of Santo Domingo, which has several very rich shrines of marble and gold.  A sort of priestly sacristan opened the Church of the Madonna del Rosario—–­a glittering mixture of marble, gold, and looking-glasses, which has rather a rich effect.  The beautiful yellow and red veined marbles are from the Sierra Nevada.  The sacred Madonna—­a big doll with staring eyes and pink cheeks—­has a dress of silver, shaped like an extinguisher, and encrusted with rubies and other precious stones.  The utter absence of taste in most Catholic shrines is an extraordinary thing.  It seems remarkable that a Church which has produced so many glorious artists should so constantly and grossly violate the simplest rules of art.  The only shrine which I have seen, which was in keeping with the object adored, is that of the Virgin, at Nazareth, where there is neither picture nor image, but only vases of fragrant flowers, and perfumed oil in golden lamps, burning before a tablet of spotless marble.

Among the decorations of the chapel, there are a host of cherubs frescoed on the ceiling, and one of them is represented in the act of firing off a blunderbuss.  “Is it true that the angels carry blunderbusses?” I asked the priest.  He shrugged his shoulders with a sort of half-smile, and said nothing.  In the Cathedral, on the plinths of the columns in the outer aisles, are several notices to the effect that “whoever speaks to women, either in the nave or the aisles, thereby puts himself in danger of excommunication.”  I could not help laughing, as I read this monkish and yet most unmonk-like statute.  “Oh,” said Mateo, “all that was in the despotic times; it is not so now.”

A deluge of rain put a stop to my sight-seeing until the next morning, when I set out with Mateo to visit the Royal Chapel.  A murder had been committed in the night, near the entrance of the Zacatin, and the paving-stones were still red with the blood of the victim.  A funcion of some sort was going on in the Chapel, and we went into the sacristy to wait.  The priests and choristers were there, changing their robes; they saluted me good-humoredly, though there was an expression in their faces that plainly said:  “a heretic!” When the service was concluded, I went into the chapel and examined the high altar, with its rude wood-carvings, representing the surrender of Granada.  The portraits of Ferdinand and Isabella, Cardinal Ximenez, Gonzalvo of Cordova, and King Boabdil, are very curious.  Another tablet represents the baptism of the conquered Moors.

In the centre of the chapel stand the monuments erected to Ferdinand and Isabella, and their successors Philip L, and Maria, by Charles V. They are tall catafalques of white marble, superbly sculptured, with the full length effigies of the monarchs upon them.  The figures are admirable; that of Isabella, especially, though the features are settled in the repose of death, expresses all the grand and noble traits which belonged