On the departure of the French they blew up several towers of the
outer wall, and left the fortifications scarcely tenable. Since that
time the military importance of the post is at an end. The garrison is
a handful of invalid soldiers, whose principal duty is to guard some
of the outer towers, which serve occasionally as a prison of state;
and the governor, abandoning the lofty hill of the Alhambra, resides
in the centre of Granada, for the more convenient dispatch of his
official duties. I cannot conclude this brief notice of the state of
the fortress without bearing testimony to the honorable exertions of
its present commander, Don Francisco de Serna, who is tasking all
the limited resources at his command to put the palace in a state of
repair, and by his judicious precautions, has for some time arrested
its too certain decay. Had his predecessors discharged the duties of
their station with equal fidelity, the Alhambra might yet have
remained in almost its pristine beauty: were government to second
him with means equal to his zeal, this relic of it might still be
preserved for many generations to adorn the land, and attract the
curious and enlightened of every clime.
Our first object of course, on the morning after our arrival, was
a visit to this time-honored edifice; it has been so often, however,
and so minutely described by travellers, that I shall not undertake to
give a comprehensive and elaborate account of it, but merely
occasional sketches of parts with the incidents and associations
connected with them.
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