"Aquel claro padre, aquel dulce fuente, Aquel que en el Castalo monte resuena Es don Enrique, Señor de Villena, Honra de España, y del siglo presente. O inclito sabio, autor muy sciente, Otra y aun otra vegada te lloro, Porque Castilla perdio tal tesoro No conveido delante la gente. "Perdio los tus libros sin sea conveidos Y como en exeginas le fueron ya luego, Unos metidos al avido fuego, Y otros sin orden no bien repartidos. Cierto en Atenas los libros fingidos Que de Protagoras se reprobaron Con armonia mejor se quemaron Cuando el senado le fueron leidos." The quantity of subterranean chambers and passages of this immense palace were supposed to have been used by Don Enrique for his parliaments of witches and wizards, and his awful meetings with the Horned One and his sulphureous satellites. Afterwards the palace fell into the hands of Samuel Levi, Pedro the Cruel's treasurer, the wealthy Jew who built the Transito close by. Then the Master of Santiago's haunts of witchcraft were used as Levi's treasury, until Pedro, in want of money, seized his treasurer's person, and the town sacked his palace. Henry IV. afterwards gave the palace to his minion, Juan Pacheco, with the titles of Duke of Escalona and Marquis of Villena. Neither title nor palace now exist. In a miserable part of the town, high up above the river, you may see a few broken arches and formless vaults and great blocks of stone. That is all. It was destroyed by fire in the reign of Charles Quint under circumstances of exceptional and romantic interest. Charles appointed the Casa de Villena as the residence of the great Constable of France, the treacherous Bourbon. The second Duke of Escalona, indignant at the thought that the French traitor should cross the threshold of his house, informed his sovereign that a house so polluted should prove the grave of such an insult to his family, and threatened to burn it in the event of the Constable's visit. Charles never believed in such an extravagant menace, and the Constable arrived. Diego Lopez de Pacheco, with all his family and servants, left Toledo for ever, and in a few days the stained house was burned to the ground as henceforth unworthy the habitation of honest men. In the little plaza of Santa Isabel there is another, supposed to have been one of the palaces of King Pedro, now the property of the Duke of Frias. One of the half-obliterated Arabian inscriptions has been traced by the late D. Pascual de Gallangos as meaning: "Lasting prosperity and perpetual glory to the master of this edifice." There are many Moorish [Illustration: REMAINS OF PALACE SAID TO BE THAT OF DON PEDRO EL CRUEL]