“A King must outshine his subjects,” says Pulgar with a conviction born of his intimate knowledge of Spanish character. The easy familiarity of the Emperor Maximilian, “Max the Penniless,” and his son might be appreciated in Germany and Flanders; the private thrift of a Louis XI., or lack of ostentation of a Lorenzo de Medici respected in France or Florence; but the Castilian nature demanded magnificence and aloofness in its rulers. Even a Ximenes de Cisneros had been unable to shake off the outward glory of his office when he accepted the Archbishopric of Toledo; and Ferdinand and Isabel, children of their race, were fully alive to the appeal of surroundings suitable to their rank. Of the impression made by their magnificence on foreigners we can gather from the diary of a certain Roger Machado who, in the capacity of king-at-arms, accompanied an English embassy to the Spanish Court at Medina del Campo in 1488. “People speak,” he says, “of the honour done to Ambassadors in England; but it is not to be compared to the honour which is done to Ambassadors in the kingdom of Castile.” The torchlight procession that accompanied them from their lodgings to their evening reception at the palace; the majesty and condescension of the sovereigns; the speeches, dances, bull-fights, tourneys; each in turn arouses his admiration; but it is in his account of the costumes and jewellery that his diary really reaches its apogee of enthusiasm. The King is “dressed in a rich robe of cloth-of-gold, woven entirely of gold, and furred with a rich trimming of fine sable.” The Queen has “a rich robe of the same woven cloth-of-gold ... and over the said robe a riding-hood of black velvet, all slashed in large holes so as to show under the said velvet the cloth-of-gold in which she is dressed.” She wears “crosswise over her left side ... a short cloak of fine crimson satin furred with ermine, very handsome in appearance and very brilliant.” [Illustration: ISABEL OF CASTILE CARVED WOODEN STATUE FROM THE CATHEDRAL AT GRANADA FROM “A QUEEN OF QUEENS” BY CHRISTOPHER HARE, PUBLISHED BY MESSRS. HARPER ] Roger Machado, had he lived to-day, would surely have made his fortune as journalist of some fashion-weekly; but even his facile pen finds it difficult to express adequately the splendour of the Queen’s jewellery,—her necklace of gold and jewelled roses,—the ribbon at her breast adorned with diamonds, rubies, and pearls,—the pouch of her white leather girdle set “with a large balass ruby the size of a tennis-ball between five rich diamonds and other stones the size of a bean.” “Truly, as I believe,” he comments, “and also as I heard it said at the time, I estimate the dress she then wore at the value of 200,000 crowns of gold”; while on another occasion he declares her dress so rich that “there is no man who can well imagine what could be the value of it.”