King, Georgiana Goddard: A brief account of the military orders in Spain (New York: The Hispanic Society of America, 1921)

IN SPAIN
107
indeed one way of guarding the confines of
kingdoms. By steep ways and built-up
levels and repeated zig-zag descents, the
town ranges down, between long-deserted
churches and half-abandoned nunneries, to
the gorge of the Tagus, and there the slope
is terraced and planted with gardens and
olive-orchards, to the shaly edges of the
bank.
Betwixt the setting sun and the rising
moon I came upon the bridge suddenly:
it was like a painting by Mantegna. The
bridge was plain and austere as the land-
scape. On the farther hillside a Moorish
watch-tower clung; on the nearer bank a
Roman temple stood_, a little, solemn
bridge-chapel. The dark water brimmed
silently below. The tawny hills were
soundless, the dim-coloured stone arches
stretched between them, forgetting noth-
ing. Two little Spanish soldiers, in dark
uniforms, kept the bridge-head with their
muskets. I crossed to them and gave them
a good day, and turned up the road to see
the rose-colour of the full moon turn into
silver, and as I came back to recross we
The
Bridge of
Alcantara
AND MONOGRAPHS