"He was a pleasant-looking fellow, with huge black whiskers and a roguish eye. He touched the guitar with masterly skill, and sang little amorous ditties with an expressive leer."
_Irving._
A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE.
You have never heard of Alcala? Well, it is a little village nestling between the Spanish hills, a league from great Madrid. There is a ring of stone houses, each with its white-walled patio and grated windows; each with its balcony, whence now and then a laughing face looks down upon the traveller. There is an ancient inn by the roadside, a time-worn church, and above, on the hill-top, against the still blue sky, the castle, dusky with age, but still keeping a feudal dignity, though half its yellow walls have crumbled away.
This is the Alcala into which I jogged one winter evening in search of rest and entertainment after a long day"s journey on mule-back.
The inn was in a doze when my footsteps broke the silence of its stone court-yard; but presently a woman came through an inner door to answer my summons, and I was speedily cast under the quiet spell of the place by finding myself behind a screen of leaves, with a straw-covered bottle at my elbow and a cold fowl within comfortable reach.
The bower where I sat was unlighted save by the waning sun, and I could see but little of its long vista, without neglecting a very imperious appet.i.te. The lattice was covered, I thought, with vine-leaves, and I felt sure, too, that some orange boughs, reaching across the patio wall, mingled with the foliage above my head. But all I was certain of was the relish of the fowl and the delicious refreshment of the cool wine.
Having finished these, I lay back in my chair, luxuriating in the sense of healthy fatigue, and going over again, in fancy, the rolling roads of my journey.
I believe I, also, fell into the prevailing slumber of the place, lulled by the soft atmosphere and gentle wine, and might have slept there till morning had a furious sneeze not awakened me with a start. I looked confusedly about in the dusk, but could see nothing save, at last, the tip of a lighted cigarette in the remote depths of the bower. I called out,--
"Who"s there?" and was answered, courteously, by a deep, gruff voice in Spanish,--
"It is I, senor, Jose Rosado."
"Are you a guest of "La Fonda"?" said I, for I had learned that this was the name of the inn, and was a little doubtful whether I had fallen into the hands of friend or foe.
"Ha! ha! ha!" with a long explosion of guttural sounds, was my only answer. Then, after a brightening of the cigarette-fire, to denote that the smoker was puffing it into life, he said,--
"I, senor, am the host."
At this I drew my chair closer, and found, in the thin reflection of the cigarette, a round, bronzed face beaming with smiles and picturing easy good health.
It was winter in Spain, but the scent of flowers was abroad, and the soft, far-off stars twinkled through the moving leaves. What wonder, then, that we fell into talk,--I, the inquiring traveller, he, the arch-gossip of Alcala,--and talked till the moon rose high into the night?
"And who lives in the castle on the hill?" I asked, after hearing the private history of half the town.
"Ah," said mine host, as if preparing to swallow a savory morsel, "there"s a bit of gossip; there"s a story, indeed!" He puffed away for a minute in mute satisfaction, and then began.
"That is a n.o.ble family, the Aranjuez. None can remember in Alcala when there was not a n.o.ble Aranjuez living in its castle, and they have led our people bravely in all the wars of Spain. I remember as a boy----"
But, having become acquainted with mine host"s loquacity, I broke in with a question more to the point,--
"Who, Senor Jose, lives in the castle now?"
He would have answered without a suspicion of my ruse, had not a bell just then rung solemnly forth, awakening the still night, and arousing Jose Rosado from his comfortable bench, promptly to his feet.
"Come," he said; "that is for the Christmas Ma.s.s. I will tell you as we go."
The little inn was lively enough as we emerged from the bower and crossed the court-yard towards the road. The woman who had prepared my supper came forth arrayed in a capulet of white and scarlet, and two younger girls who accompanied her wore veils and long, black robes which fell about their forms like Oriental garments. Two or three men, attendants and hostlers of the place, were also about to start, trigged out in queer little capes and high-crowned hats. All this fine apparel, mine host informed me, was peculiar to Christmas, and I soon found the highway full of peasants in similar garb.
As we got off, Jose Rosado resumed his story, which was brief enough to beguile us just to the church-door.
"You ask me, senor, who lives in the castle now? The Donna Isabella is alone there, now, the only survivor of the n.o.ble race, except--except senor," (he laid a peculiar emphasis on the word,) "except a wilful son, whom she has disowned and driven from her house. He is a handsome lad, and married, here in Alcala, the beauty of the town, in spite of his mother"s wounded pride. It was a love-match of stolen wooing and secret wedding,--but, ha! ha! _we_ saw it all, knew it all, before even they did themselves. Many an evening have I met them on these roads, billing and cooing like the doves on La Fonda"s eaves. They were made by nature for each other, though, and even the rage of the proud Donna Isabella could never part them."
"And do they still live in the town?" I asked.
"Oh, yes," said Jose; "over there in the white house where the olive trees are, at the bottom of the long hill."
I looked in the direction whither he pointed, but I could see little in the dim moonlight save a white wall amid dense shadows.
"And is Donna Isabella a very old lady?" I asked, because very old ladies are often charged with peculiar severity to very young ones.
"No, no, no," said Jose Rosado, with a quick turn of the head to each no. "She"s a widow lady of middle age; very proud and very handsome. You shall see her presently, for she has consented to take part in the Christmas play at the church."
As I had come a long journey to see this same Christmas play, my expectation was doubly aroused as we approached the old edifice, whose open belfry and rows of cloisters stood before us at the top of the hill we were ascending.
As we entered, the bells stopped ringing, for it was precisely midnight, and the priest at the altar began to say the Christmas Ma.s.ses. When he had reached the Gospel, he was interrupted by the appearance of a matron, dressed all in white, who stood at the end of the nave. She was clad like the Madonna, and was accompanied by Joseph, who wore the garb of a mountaineer, with a hatchet in his hand. An officious little officer with a halberd opened the way through the crowd before these personages, and they came solemnly up the aisle towards the chancel, which had been arrayed to represent Bethlehem, the Madonna reciting, as she moved forward, a plaintive song about her homelessness. Joseph replied cheeringly, and led her under a roof of leaves in the sanctuary, formed in the manner of a stable, in which we could see the manger against the wall. Here she took rest from her journey, while a little crib, wherein lay the Bambino--or waxen image of the Babe--all adorned with ribbons and laces, was brought from the sacristy and placed in the straw at her feet.
As the Madonna pa.s.sed us, Jose Rosado nudged me, and whispered audibly enough to make the crowd about us turn and stare,--
"Hist! here"s the Donna Isabella, senor! She looks like a saint to-night!"
I watched her closely as she went by me, and marked, under the meek expression a.s.sumed by the Virgin, a more characteristic one of severe resolution. She was, however, a queenly woman, in the ripest stage of maturity, but she bore herself, in the part she had taken, with a matronly grace something too conscious for the lowly Mary.
As she seated herself on the heap of straw, a little boy in a surplice, representing an angel, with wings of crimped lawn at his shoulders, was raised in a chair, by a cord and pulley, to the very top of the sanctuary arch, where he sang a carol to the shepherds,--
"Shepherds, hasten all With flying feet from your retreat; On rustic pipes now play Your sweetest, sweetest lay;
for"--so ran the song--"Mary and the King of Heaven are in yonder cave."
At this, an orchestra, concealed behind the high altar, set up a tooting from bagpipes, and flute, and violin, which served as a prelude to the appearance of the shepherds, who were concealed in the gallery.
Up they got, with long cloaks and crooked staffs, murmuring their surprise and incredulity at what the angel had said; some pretending to grumble at being awakened from sleep, others anxious to prove the truth of the strange tidings.
Then the angel sang a more appealing ditty still, whereat they were all about ready to advance, when one of their number, of a sceptical turn, urged them to avoid such fanciful matters and give heed to their sheep, who would otherwise become the prey of the wolf.
Hereupon, an old shepherd appeared, who gave three loud knocks with his crook, and denounced those who should disobey the heavenly messenger.
The practical man was thus silenced, and they expressed their willingness to go to the manger,--and at the same moment an angel appeared to guide them thither.
They descended from the gallery to the outer porch of the church and knocked loudly at the door, saying, as if to the innkeeper at Bethlehem:
"Pray, good master of the inn, Open the door and let us in."
But Joseph became alarmed at the approach of such a number of rustics, and inquired who they were. They held a songful colloquy with him; but he continued to refuse them admittance, until an angel again intervened, this time in the form of a tall acolyte from the sanctuary, accompanied by two little angelic choristers. He rea.s.sured Joseph, and invited the shepherds to enter and worship the Babe. They came up the aisle flourishing their be-ribboned crooks and singing in praise of the Child, but they were sorely vexed, when they saw the stable, that so humble a place had been found for His shelter. Joseph explained, in several couplets, that no other house would receive them, and the shepherds replied in several others, mingling sympathy and good advice, intended not for Joseph, but for the throng, who listened in religious awe.
After paying due homage to the child and Mary, the shepherds exchanged some more verses with Joseph, and then retired to the other end of the church, singing in chorus as they went.
All these ceremonies had so claimed my attention that I had given scarcely any heed to the Virgin. She was seated humbly in the straw beside the little crib, in which still nestled the Bambino, and, with eyes cast down in maternal thoughtfulness, she was a lovely object there beneath the roof of the leafy stable. She did not appear to notice the actors in the drama; and now, when three young girls, in gayest holiday attire, came forward with distaffs that streamed with bright ribbons, and knelt before her, she reached forth a hand as if to bless them, but kept her eyes turned meekly upon the ground.