Passing through a lofty guard-room with raftered ceiling--the walls hung with tapestry--where casques and shields of antique pattern shone out, side by side with crescent banners and scimitars captured from the Moors, the guests arrive and are ushered into a Gothic hall of sculptured oak heavily carved, a richly wrought balustraded gallery breaking the lines high up under the cornice. All the great names of Burgos are present. The Villacruces, De Vaca, Peralta, Gomez, Laynes, descendants of the Cid Campeador, Lerma, De Bilbas, and Mendoza, making their way to tables ranged transversely across the dais at the upper end, bright with golden lamps, fed with delicately-scented oil, each place set with cups and sturdy flagons enriched with jewels, trophies of Arab filigree work, taken from the Moors, and gilded shields all wreathed with fruit and flowers to represent a garden of delight. In the centre of the board, on two chairs more elevated than the rest, sit the Archbishop of Toledo, his pale face outlined against the panels of dark oak; and opposite to him the courtly figure of the Marqués de Villena, his handsome features greatly set off by the quaint half-ecclesiastical costume he wears of the Master of Calatrava, with belt and sword, the cross of Christ embroidered on his breast. The days are past when the great nobles come to feasts in plumed casques and chain armour, as knights ready to mount and ride as the trumpet note sounds. Now more peaceful times have come, the land of castles has expelled the Moors--shut up in the east of Spain among the mountains of Granada where they are soon to be attacked--and the great chiefs can display their taste in abundance of costly jewels and apparel of brocade and velvet, samite and silk, crimson, purple, and yellow, close-fitting to display the person, with mantles trimmed with miniver or ermine; the long skirts worn to the ankle, embroidered with all the art the needle could attain, with the crests, cognisances, and initials of the wearer, pointed shoes and golden girdles thick with gems, holding glittering daggers, the head covered with graceful caps or furred bonnets adorned with circlets of jewels and plumes placed on flowing locks trimmed according to the fashion of the time. * * * * *