We follow a passage to the Patio de las Doncellas (Court of the Maidens). This large and lofty hall has twenty-four beautiful Morisco arches, and singularly rich ornamentations. The fifty-two marble columns are of the Renaissance period, and were substituted between the years 1540 and 1564 for the original pillars. Notice the glazed tiling decorations of brilliant colouring. These date from the time of Pedro the Cruel, who added to the ancient palace until little of the original remained. Notwithstanding, the style is distinctly Moorish, and the decoration was the work of _Mudéjares_, whose quaint _azulejos_ may be here studied to advantage. The Salón de Embajadores adjoins the Court of the Maidens. This was the Hall of the Ambassadors. It is about thirty-three feet square. The dome is of the _media naranja_ or 'half orange' shape, the favourite design of the Moorish architects. On the walls are portraits of the monarchs of Spain. This is the most sumptuous of the salons of the Alcázar; the walls veritably dazzle the spectator with their richness of colouring. Not one inch of space on the arches, walls and doorways is left without an ornate pattern. The doors of the salon are massive and finely decorated. In this hall Charles V. was married to Isabella of Portugal. The Comedor, or dining-room, opens out of the Hall of Ambassadors on the west side. We find in this room the latest restorations of the palace. Here, on September 21, 1848, was born the Infanta Doña Maria Isabel de Orleans y Borbón, Condesa de Paris. The bedroom of Isabella the Catholic adjoins the Comedor. Returning to the Hall of the Ambassadors, we enter the room of Philip II., and pass through it to the small Patio de las Muñecas. Note the pigmy figures in the ornamentation, which give the name of the Dolls' Court to this chamber. The upper parts of the gallery are modern, and were constructed in the years 1855 and 1856, at the time of the last extensive restoration of the Alcázar. The Salón of the Princes, approached from the Patio de las Muñecas, is a spacious hall, in the mixed styles of the _Mudéjar_ and the plateresque. The Dormitory of the Moorish Kings should be inspected. Then cross the Patio de las Doncellas to the Salón de Carlos V. This chamber has a remarkably fine ceiling, and beautiful decorations of _azulejos_, made by Cristobal de Augusta, an Italian, who worked in Triana in 1577. From the salon we may enter the room of Maria de Padilla.