[Illustration: L JOUSTING HARNESS OF PHILIP THE HANDSOME (_Royal Armoury, Madrid_)]
There also are preserved in this collection a shield (late sixteenth century) adorned by Mexican Indians with a most elaborate "mosaic of feather-work," and a number of Spanish _adargas_ of the same period, for playing the _juego de cañas_ or "game of canes." The armoury contained in former days as many as forty-two _adargas_; but the fire of 1884 completely destroyed sixteen and badly damaged twenty-three, obliterating their heraldic and other decoration. A yet more sinister event befell on December 1st, 1808, when the Spanish mob, exasperated by the French, broke in and seized three hundred swords, not one of which was afterwards recovered. Mention of these disasters leads me to recall the quantity of beautiful or historic military gear that Spain has lost through many tribulations and vicissitudes. Formerly her noble families had excellent collections in their palaces or castles. Such were the private armouries of the Dukes of Pastrana at Guadalajara, and of the Dukes of Alburquerque at Cuéllar Castle, near Segovia. Bertaut de Rouen describes the first as "une des plus belles qui se voyent pour un seigneur particulier. Il y a quantité d'armes anciennes, et l'on y void une épée qui s'allonge et s'accourcit quand on veut, de deux pieds et demy."[130] The Cuéllar armoury was pulled to pieces by Philip the Fourth to arm his troops against the French. "Send me," he wrote to the Duke from Madrid, in a letter dated April 16th, 1637, "all your pistols, carbines, harness for horses, breastplates and other arms for mounted fighting"; and the loyal nobleman complied upon the spot, despatching more than five hundred pieces, many of which were doubtless of the greatest interest.[131]
[131] Gonzalo de la Torre de Trassierra; Articles on Cuéllar published in the _Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Excursiones_.
Had I the erudition and the time, I would attempt to write, as it deserves to be written, an introduction to the history of Spanish swords. Of all the objects mentioned in these volumes, here is the most inherently symbolic of the Spanish character and history. The Spanish Moors and Spanish Christians spoke of it as something superhuman. "Once the sword is in the hand of man," observed, in solemn tones, the Wise Alfonso, "he hath it in his power to raise or lower it, to strike with it, or to abandon it." The Spanish Mussulmans talked of putting "clothes and breeches" on a sword that had a sheath, as though it were a breathing person; while a Spaniard of the time of Gongora would often use such language as the following: "Truly in point of look there is as great a difference between a costly sword and a _Toledan Loyalty_ or _Soldier's Dream_, as between a marquis and a muleteer, or a washerwoman and the Infanta. Yet every sword is virtually an hidalgo. Does not the basest of our Toledanas, even to the _perrillos_ and _morillos_, which have no core, and cost a dozen _reales_ merely, afford a chivalrous lesson to its wearer, as it bids him _no me saques sin razon, ni me envaines sin honor_?[132] The horse and the sword," he continued, taking a magnificently damascened rapier, and stroking it caressingly, "are the noblest friends of man, albeit the nobler is the sword; for the horse at times is obstinate or faint-hearted, but the sword is ready continually. The sword, moreover, possesses the chiefest of all virtues--justice, or the power of dividing right and wrong; a soul of iron, which is strength; and, last and greatest, the Cross, which is the symbol of the blessed Catholic Faith."[133]