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They gave her no ill words, they indulged in no fantastical whims and vapours, and they did not even seem to expect other entertainment than to walk the country roads, to play with their little lap-dog Cupid, wind silks for their needlework, and please themselves with their embroidery-frames.
Not long after this, the earl got secret intelligence of a rich caravan of merchants belonging to the Saracens, who were travelling to a certain fair which was to be held near Alexandria, with a multitude of camels, asses, and mules, and many carts, all richly laden with silks, precious jewels, spices, gold, silver, and other commodities, besides provisions and other matters of which the soldiers were then in great want.
And yet, had she been wearing richest silks and costliest gems, she could not have blushed and smiled with a prettier confusion. "We are expecting Uncle Anselmo this evening, papita," she replied. "Leave the child, Batata," said the mother. "You know what a craze she has for Anselmo: when he comes she is always prepared to receive him like a queen."
The princely sprezzatura of its ancient occupants, careless of these unfinished courts and unroofed galleries amid the splendor of their purfled silks and the glitter of their torchlight pageantry, has yielded to sullen cynicism the cynicism of arrested ruin and unreverend age.
It was also agreed that the latter should have a part of the stuffs and silks given them for clothes, of which they stood in great want.
Work is absolutely suspended, and the entire population dons its holiday garb. The Puerta del Sol at this season blazing with relentless light is crowded with patient Madrilenos in their best clothes, the brown-cheeked maidens with flowing silks as in a ball-room, and with no protection against the ardent sky but the fluttering fan they hold in their ungloved hands.
Some of them bore their goods on camels, others had hired native carriers, who staggered under the heavy bales and cases, and the uproar was deafening and incessant as they wrangled over their bartering and dazzled the eyes of their customers with rolls of English and French silks, pigs of iron, copper, and brass, sacks of rice and sugar, glittering Manchester cutlery, American beads, and cans of gunpowder.
Of this you may form a remote notion if you imagine a bright silver green radiant with all the vividness and brilliancy you sometimes see in the sunsets of your southern climes. Some of our silks in the natural state are of a chalky white.
Garlands of green, with roses interspersed, were in swags and loops about the splendid walls, where hung the pictures of bygone viceroys in ribbon and star, in frames to match the mirrors that multiplied the scene a hundredfold. And, more than all, the handsomest women in Ireland were decked out in silks and satins and all the family jewels, and they sparkling like the lustres above their heads.
We saw the exterior of some temples and an interesting tea-house and bazar which were similar in arrangement to those in Canton, and contained about the same articles. The native town is very tame in comparison with Canton. Before luncheon we visited two large silk houses, where we examined a remarkable display of all kinds of silks and embroideries.
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