Journeys Through Bookland, Volume 7 | Page 7

and while you may not really
pause to think about it at any time, yet you are always conscious of the
rhythm and remember that it is produced by a fixed arrangement of the
accented syllables. If you would look over the poems in these volumes,
beginning even with the nursery rhymes, it would not take you long to
become familiar with all the different forms.
While study of this kind may seem tiresome at first, you will soon find
that you are making progress and will really enjoy it, and you will
never be sorry that you took the time when you were young to learn to
understand the structure of poetry.

THE GOVERNOR AND THE NOTARY
By WASHINGTON IRVING
In former times there ruled, as governor of the Alhambra[20-1], a
doughty old cavalier, who, from having lost one arm in the wars, was
commonly known by the name of El Gobernador Manco, or the
one-armed governor. He in fact prided himself upon being an old
soldier, wore his mustachios curled up to his eyes, a pair of
campaigning boots, and a toledo[20-2] as long as a spit, with his pocket
handkerchief in the basket-hilt.
He was, moreover, exceedingly proud and punctilious, and tenacious of
all his privileges and dignities. Under his sway, the immunities of the

Alhambra, as a royal residence and domain, were rigidly exacted. No
one was permitted to enter the fortress with firearms, or even with a
sword or staff, unless he were of a certain rank, and every horseman
was obliged to dismount at the gate and lead his horse by the bridle.
Now, as the hill of the Alhambra rises from the very midst of the city of
Granada, being, as it were, an excrescence of the capital, it must at all
times be somewhat irksome to the captain-general, who commands the
province, to have thus an imperium in imperio,[21-3] a petty,
independent post in the very core of his domains. It was rendered the
more galling in the present instance, from the irritable jealousy of the
old governor, that took fire on the least question of authority and
jurisdiction, and from the loose, vagrant character of the people that
had gradually nestled themselves within the fortress as in a sanctuary,
and from thence carried on a system of roguery and depredation at the
expense of the honest inhabitants of the city. Thus there was a perpetual
feud and heart-burning between the captain-general and the governor;
the more virulent on the part of the latter, inasmuch as the smallest of
two neighboring potentates is always the most captious about his
dignity. The stately palace of the captain-general stood in the Plaza
Nueva, immediately at the foot of the hill of the Alhambra, and here
was always a bustle and parade of guards, and domestics, and city
functionaries. A beetling bastion of the fortress overlooked the palace
and the public square in front of it; and on this bastion the old governor
would occasionally strut backward and forward, with his toledo girded
by his side, keeping a wary eye down upon his rival, like a hawk
reconnoitering his quarry from his nest in a dry tree.
Whenever he descended into the city it was in grand parade, on
horseback, surrounded by his guards, or in his state coach, an ancient
and unwieldy Spanish edifice of carved timber and gilt leather, drawn
by eight mules, with running footmen, outriders, and lackeys, on which
occasions he flattered himself he impressed every beholder with awe
and admiration as vicegerent of the king, though the wits of Granada
were apt to sneer at his petty parade, and, in allusion to the vagrant
character of his subjects, to greet him with the appellation of "the king
of the beggars."

One of the most fruitful sources of dispute between these two doughty
rivals was the right claimed by the governor to have all things passed
free of duty through the city, that were intended for the use of himself
or his garrison. By degrees, this privilege had given rise to extensive
smuggling. A nest of contrabandistas[22-4] took up their abode in the
hovels of the fortress and the numerous caves in its vicinity, and drove
a thriving business under the connivance of the soldiers of the garrison.
The vigilance of the captain-general was aroused. He consulted his
legal adviser and factotum, a shrewd, meddlesome Escribano or notary,
who rejoiced in an opportunity of perplexing the old potentate of the
Alhambra, and involving him in a maze of legal subtilities. He advised
the captain-general to insist upon the right of examining every convoy
passing through the gates of his city, and he penned a long letter for
him, in vindication of the right. Governor Manco was a straightforward,
cut-and-thrust old soldier, who