The Picturesque Antiquities of Spain: Described in a series of letters, with illustrations representing Moorish palaces, cathedrals, and other monuments of art, contained in the cities of Burgos, Valladolid, Toledo, and Seville.Wells, Nathaniel Armstrong
Islamic
The Picturesque Antiquities of Spain: Described in a series of letters, with illustrations representing Moorish palaces, cathedrals, and other monuments of art, contained in the cities of Burgos, Valladolid, Toledo, and Seville.
There are towns in which assassination and robbery are marked by more
audacity than is their habitual character in this part of Andalucia. Of
these, Malaga is said to be one of the worst, although perhaps the most
favoured spot in Europe, with respect to natural advantages. An instance
of daring ruffianism occurred there this winter. A person of
consideration in the town had been found in the street stabbed and
robbed. His friends, being possessed of much influence, and disposing,
no doubt, of other weighty inducements to action, the police was aroused
to unusual activity; the murderer was arrested, and brought before the
Alcalde primero. A summary mode of jurisprudence was put in practice,
and the culprit was ordered for execution on the following day. On being
led from the presence of the court, he turned to the Alcalde, and
addressing him with vehemence, threatened him with certain death, in the
event of the sentence being put in execution. The Alcalde, although
doubtless not entirely free from anxiety, was, by the threat itself, the
more forcibly bound to carry into effect the judgment he had pronounced.
The execution, therefore, took place at the appointed hour. The
following morning, the dead body of the Alcalde was found in a street
adjoining that in which he resided.
LETTER XXII.
INQUISITION. COLLEGE OF SAN TELMO. CIGAR MANUFACTORY. BULL CIRCUS.
EXCHANGE. AYUNTAMIENTO.
Seville.
In the faubourg of Triana, separated from the town by the river, may be
distinguished remains of the ancient castle, which became the
headquarters of the Inquisition, on its first creation, in 1482. That
body was, however, shortly afterwards, compelled to evacuate the
building, by a great inundation of the Guadalquivir, which occurred in
the year 1626. It then moved into the town, and, from that period to the
close of its functions, occupied an edifice situated in the parish of
Saint Mark. Its jurisdiction did not extend beyond Andalucia. The entire
body was composed of the following official persons:--three inquisitors,
a judge of the fisc, a chief Alguazil, a receiver, (of fines,) five
secretaries, ten counsellors, eighty qualifiers, one advocate of the
fisc, one alcayde of the prison, one messenger, ten honest persons, two
surgeons, and one porter. For the City of Seville, one hundred
familiars: for the entire district, the commissaries, notaries, and
familiars, amounted to four thousand. The ten honest persons cut but a
sorry figure in so long a list. Do they not tempt you to parody Prince
Hal's exclamation "Monstrous! but one halfpenny-worth of bread to this
intolerable deal of sack?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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