Twenty-six marble urns placed in niches round the chamber contain all that was mortal of the monarchs of Spain and their consorts from Charles V. to Alfonso XII., Philip V. and Ferdinand VI. excepted. There are tombs, too, awaiting the living. Ascending the steps we pass the sealed door of the Pudridero, where the bodies are kept five years before being placed in the Pantheon, and may visit the burial chambers reserved to the Infantes and Infantas. Several of the vaults are still empty. They are in purer, colder style than the heavier Pantheon of the kings. As one ascends to the living world from these awful chambers, the question suggests itself, what is the object of it all? The Pyramids of Nile ought to have convinced man once for all of the hopelessness of any effort to preserve his body unprofaned and solemnly housed through all the years. No matter how great the dynasty, how strong the tomb, the day must come when the jealously and reverently guarded ashes will form the prey of some ghoulish invader. With Rameses exposed to the gaze of wondering Cockneys, with Alexander’s tomb an object of curiosity to tourists in the museum at Stamboul, with the tombs of the kings of Judah explored on allfours by Cook’s trippers, how can one hope for an eternal immunity from profanation for the Invalides, for Westminster, for the Escorial? Kings ought to have learnt the lesson that in the pages of history alone can they look for an earthly immortality. The convent occupies the southern part of the building. It was inhabited, as I have said, by the religious known as the Hermits of St Jerome or Hieronymites, an Order established or recognised by Pope Gregory XI. in 1373. If it still exists it counts very few members and has played an insignificant part in ecclesiastical history compared with the spiritual descendants of Benedict, Dominic, Francis, Bruno, and Ignatius. For some reason or other Charles V. held the Hermits in particular esteem, and it was this predilection that determined his son to offer them the new monastery in 1561. The Order is likely to be best remembered by the ecclesiologist for the peculiar plan of its churches--cruciform, with diagonal lines extending from the ends of the cross-piece to the head of the upright limb. The granite cloisters in the Doric style are, or rather were, decorated with frescoes after designs of Tibaldi, now shockingly “restored.” In the centre of the Patio de los Evangelistas is a little octagonal temple, covering a fountain. It is one of Herrera’s best works, in which granite and marble have been combined with admirable skill. The white statues of the Evangelists at the corners were sculptured by Monegro; the appropriate inscriptions are in Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Syriac.