 | The Crayon miscellany |  |
ILLUSTRATIONS
OF THE
FOREGOING LEGEND.
THE TOMB OF RODERICK.
The venerable Sebastiano, Bishop of Salamanca,
declares that the inscription on the tomb
at Viseo in Portugal, existed in his time, and
that he had seen it. A particular account of
the exile and hermit life of Roderick is furnished
by Berganza, on the authority of Portuguese
chronicles.
Algunos historiadores Portugueses asseguran,
que el Rey Rodrigo, perdida la battalla, huyo a
tierra de Merida, y se recogio en el monasterio
de Cauliniano, en donde, arrepentido de sus culpas,
procuro confessarlas con muchas lagrimas.
Deseando mas retiro, y escogiendo por companero
a un monge llamado Roman, y elevando la
Imagen de Nazareth, que Cyriaco monge de
nacion griego avra traido de Jerusalem al monasterio
de Cauliniano, se subio á un monte muy
aspero, que estaba sobre el mar, junto al lugar
el monge en el hueco de una gruta por espacio
de un ano; despues se passo á la ermita de san
Miguel, que estaba cerca de Viseo, en donde
murio y fue sepultado.
Puedese ver esta relacion en las notas de Don
Thomas Tamayo sobre Paulo deacano. El
chronicon de san Millan, que llega hasta el ano
883, deze que, hasta su tiempo, si ignora el fin
del Rey Rodrigo. Pocos anos despues el Rey
Don Alonzo el Magno, aviéndo ganado la ciudad
de Viseo, encontro en una iglesia el epitafio
que en romance dize—aqui yaze Rodrigo,
ultimo Rey de los Godos.—Berganza, L. 1. c. 13.
THE CAVE OF HERCULES.
As the story of the necromantic tower is one
of the most famous as well as least credible
points in the history of Don Roderick, it may be
well to fortify or buttress it by some account of
another marvel of the city of Toledo. This ancient
city, which dates its existence almost from
the time of the flood, claiming as its founder Tubal,
the son of Japhet, and grandson of Noah,[1]
has
a strange diversity of races. It bears traces of
the artifices and divices of its various occupants,
and is full of mysteries and subjects for antiquarian
conjecture and perplexity. It is built upon
a high rocky promontory, with the Tagus brawling
round its base, and is overlooked by cragged
and precipitous hills. These hills abound with
clefts and caverns; and the promontory itself,
on which the city is built, bears traces of vaults
and subterraneous habitations, which are occasionally
discovered under the ruins of ancient
houses, or beneath the churches and convents.
These are supposed by some to have been the
habitations or retreats of the primitive inhabitants;
for it was the custom of the ancients,
according to Pliny, to make caves in high and
rocky places, and live in them through fear of
floods; and such a precaution, says the worthy
Don Pedro de Roxas, in his history of Toledo, was
natural enough among the first Toledans, seeing
that they founded their city shortly after the
deluge, while the memory of it was still fresh in
their minds.
Some have supposed these secret caves and
vaults to have been places of concealment of
the inhabitants and their treasure, during times
of war and violence; or rude temples for the
performance of religious ceremonies in times
and grave writers, who give them a still darker
purpose. In these caves, say they, were taught
the diabolical mysteries of magic; and here
were performed those infernal ceremonies and
incantations horrible in the eyes of God and
man. “History,” says the worthy Don Pedro
de Roxas, “is full of accounts that the magi
taught and performed their magic and their
superstitious rites in profound caves and secret
places; because as this art of the devil was prohibited
from the very origin of christianity, they
always sought for hidden places in which to practise
it.” In the time of the Moors this art, we are
told, was publicly taught at their universities, the
same as astronomy, philosophy, and mathematics,
and at no place was it cultivated with more
success than at Toledo. Hence this city has
ever been darkly renowned for mystic science;
insomuch that the magic art was called by the
French, and by other nations, the Arte Toledana.
Of all the marvels, however, of this ancient
picturesque, romantic, and necromantic city,
none in modern times surpass the cave of Hercules,
if we may take the account of Don Pedro
de Roxas for authentic. The entrance to this
cave is within the church of San Gines, situated
in nearly the highest part of the city. The portal
the walls of the church, but which are kept rigorously
closed. The cavern extends under the
city and beneath the bed of the Tagus to the
distance of three leagues beyond. It is, in some
places, of rare architecture, built of small stones
curiously wrought, and supported by columns
and arches.
In the year 1546 an account of this cavern was
given to the archbishop and cardinal Don Juan
Martinez Siliceo, who, desirous of examining it,
ordered the entrance to be cleaned. A number
of persons furnished with provisions, lanterns,
and cords, then went in, and having proceeded
about half a league, came to a place where
there was a kind of chapel or temple, having a
table or altar, with several statues of bronze in
niches or on pedestals.
While they were regarding this mysterious
scene of ancient worship or incantation, one of
the statues fell, with a noise that echoed through
the cavern, and smote the hearts of the adventurers
with terror. Recovering from their alarm
they proceeded onward, but were soon again dismayed
by a roaring and rushing sound that increased
as they advanced. It was made by a
furious and turbulent stream, the dark waters of
which were too deep and broad and rapid to be
crossed. By this time their hearts were so chilled
they could not seek any other passage by which
they might advance; so they turned back and
hastened out of the cave. It was night-fall when
they sallied forth, and they were so much affected
by the terror they had undergone, and by the
cold and damp air of the cavern, to which they
were the more sensible from its being in the
summer, that all of them fell sick and several
of them died. Whether the archbishop was encouraged
to pursue his research and gratify his
curiosity, the history does not mention.
Alonzo Telles de Meneses, in his history of
the world, records, that not long before his
time a boy of Toledo, being threatened with
punishment by his master, fled and took refuge
in this cave. Fancying his pursuer at his heels,
he took no heed of the obscurity or coldness of
the cave, but kept groping and blundering forward,
until he came forth at three leagues distance
from the city.
Another and very popular story of this cave,
current among the common people, was, that in
its remote recesses lay concealed a great treasure
of gold, left there by the Romans. Whoever
would reach this precious hoard must pass
through several caves or grottoes; each having
its particular terror, and all under the guardianship
of a ferocious dog, who has the key of all
approach of any one, he shows his teeth, and
makes a hideous growling; but no adventurer
after wealth has had courage to brave a contest
with this terrific cerberus.
The most intrepid candidate on record was a
poor man who had lost his all, and had those
grand incentives to desperate enterprise, a wife
and a large family of children. Hearing the
story of this cave, he determined to venture
alone in search of the treasure. He accordingly
entered, and wandered many hours, bewildered,
about the cave. Often would he have
returned, but the thoughts of his wife and children
urged him on. At length he arrived near
to the place where he supposed the treasure lay
hidden; but here, to his dismay, he beheld the
floor of the cavern strown with human bones;
doubtless the remains of adventurers like himself,
who had been torn to pieces.
Losing all courage, he now turned and sought
his way out of the cave. Horrors thickened
upon him as he fled. He beheld direful phantoms
glaring and gibbering around him, and
heard the sound of pursuit in the echoes of his
footsteps. He reached his home overcome
with affright; several hours elapsed before he
could recover speech to tell his story, and he
died on the following day.
The judicious Don Pedro de Roxas holds the
account of the buried treasure for fabulous, but
the adventure of this unlucky man for very possible;
being led on by avarice, or rather the
hope of retrieving a desperate fortune. He,
moreover, pronounces his dying shortly after
coming forth as very probable; because the
darkness of the cave; its coldness; the fright
at finding the bones; the dread of meeting the
imaginary dog, all joining to operate upon a
man who was past the prime of his days, and
enfeebled by poverty and scanty food, might
easily cause his death.
Many have considered this cave as intended
originally for a sally or retreat from the city in
case it should be taken; an opinion rendered
probable, it is thought, by its grandeur and
great extent.
The learned Salazar de Mendoza, however,
in his history of the grand cardinal of Spain,
affirms it as an established fact, that it was first
wrought out of the rock by Tubal, the son of
Japhet, and grandson of Noah, and afterwards
repaired and greatly augmented by Hercules
the Egyptian, who made it his habitation after
he had erected his pillars at the straits of Gibraltar.
Here, too, it is said, he read magic to
his followers, and taught them those supernatural
arts by which he accomplished his vast achieve
to Hercules; as was the case, according
to Pomponius Mela, with the great cave in the
rock of Gibraltar; certain it is, that it has always
borne the name of “The Cave of Hercules.”
There are not wanting some who have insinuated
that it was a work dating from the time
of the Romans, and intended as a cloaca or
sewer of the city; but such a grovelling insinuation
will be treated with proper scorn by the
reader, after the nobler purposes to which he
has heard this marvellous cavern consecrated.
From all the circumstances here adduced from
learned and reverend authors, it will be perceived
that Toledo is a city fruitful of marvels,
and that the necromantic tower of Hercules has
more solid foundation than most edifices of
similar import in ancient history.
The writer of these pages will venture to add
the result of his personal researches respecting
the far famed cavern in question. Rambling
about Toledo in the year 1826, in company with
a small knot of antiquity hunters, among whom
was an eminent British painter,[2]
and an English
nobleman,[3]
who has since distinguished himself
in Spanish historical research, we directed our
steps to the church of San Gines, and inquired
was a voluble and communicative man, and
one not likely to be niggard of his tongue about
any thing he knew, or slow to boast of any marvel
pertaining to his church; but he professed
utter ignorance of the existence of any such
portal. He remembered to have heard, however,
that immediately under the entrance to the
church there was an arch of mason work, apparently
the upper part of some subterranean
portal; but that all had been covered up and a
pavement laid down thereon; so that whether
it lead to the magic cave or the necromantic
tower remains a mystery, and so must remain
until some monarch or archbishop shall again
have courage and authority to break the spell.
| The Crayon miscellany | |