I met him
occasionally in society; he was young, of agreeable appearance and
manners, with bright black eyes, in which appeared to lurk some of the
fire of his ancestors. Among the paintings in the Vivarrambla, on
the fete of Corpus Christi, were some depicting, in vivid style, the
exploits of the family hero. An old gray-headed servant of the Pulgars
shed tears on beholding them, and hurried home to inform the
marquis. The eager zeal and enthusiasm of the old domestic only
provoked a light laugh from his young master; whereupon, turning to
the brother of the marquis, with that freedom allowed in Spain to
old family servants, "Come, senor," cried he, "you are more
considerate than your brother; come and see your ancestor in all his
glory!"
In emulation of this great Dia de la Toma of Granada, almost every
village and petty town of the mountains has its own anniversary,
commemorating, with rustic pomp and uncouth ceremonial, its
deliverance from the Moorish yoke. On these occasions, according to
Mateo, a kind of resurrection takes place of ancient armor and
weapons; great two-handed swords, ponderous arquebuses with
matchlocks, and other warlike relics, treasured up from generation
to generation, since the time of the Conquest; and happy the community
that possesses some old piece of ordnance, peradventure one of the
identical lombards used by the conquerors; it is kept thundering along
the mountains all day long, provided the community can afford
sufficient expenditure of powder.
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