Skager-rack and Cattegat.—Magnificent Sunset.—Elsinore.—Toll.—House of Tycho Brahe.—Kronborg.—Treaty of Vienna.—Danish Giant.— Fortifications.—Hamlet’s Grave.—True History.—Royal Castle.—Queen of Christian II.—Touching Prayer.—Royal Forest.—Castle of Peace.— Denmark.—Her History.—Valdemar II.—Schleswig-Holstein.—Christianity.— General Intelligence.—Education.—Copenhagen.—Thorvaldsen’s Museum.— Statues.—Vanity.—Hall of Christ.—Gems and Bronzes.—Vor Frue Kirke.— Religion and Art.—Church Service.—Baptism.—Love of Amusement.— Theatres.—Public Gardens.—Museum.—Ruins.—Monuments.—South American Gentleman.—Zealand.—Fleas.—Kiel.—Elmshorn.—Home Again 462 SPAIN. CHAPTER I. GRANADA. IN the grounds of the Alhambra, the ancient palace of the Moorish kings of Granada, what time those conquerors of Spain here held their right regal court, I have come to sit down and to rest. My lodgings are just under the walls of the old castle, in sight of its crumbling towers, in hearing of its many falling waters, and under the shadow of its English elms, which the Duke of Wellington gave to Spain. At any moment a few steps take me into the courts and halls and chambers of the Alhambra. In years past, while this pearl of Arab art and Oriental splendor was silently suffered to fall into ruin, with the lapse of centuries, it has been the habit of some travelled authors more addicted to romance than others, to get the easy privilege of sharing lodgings with the bats in some deserted chamber, and they doubtless fancied themselves inspired with the genius of the place, as they dreamed and wrote where fair sultanas with their charms eclipsed the splendors of the fairy place itself. As it is no part of my purpose to indulge in romance while writing these sketches of the Alhambra and of Spain, and as the walls of a comfortable inn are much more to the taste of a weary traveller than the stone floors and open windows of a tumbling old castle, it is my preference to take up my abode for the present with the good people in the Alhambra Hotel, and not with the keepers of the palace itself. Besides, there is no choice left. The government has undertaken the work of restoring the Alhambra to its pristine beauty, and this process is now going onward under the direction of Sr. Contreras. He has already displayed so much skill in imitating the arabesque decorations of the walls, that only a practised eye perceives the difference when the ancient and the modern art appear in the same chamber.