Page 28 - Four Famous American Writers: Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, James Russell Lowell, Bayard Taylor

He was no longer an idle young man unable to fix his mind on any serious
work; he had become the most famous of American men of letters. When

he reached New York his countrymen hastened to heap honors upon him,
and almost overwhelmed him with public attentions.

CHAPTER XIII

"THE ALHAMBRA"

Just before Irving’s return to the United States in 1832, he prepared for
publication some sketches which he had made three or four years before

while living for a few months in the ruins of the Alhambra, the ancient
palace of the Moorish kings when they ruled the kingdom of Granada. Next
to the stories of "Rip Van Winkle" and the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow,"

nothing that Irving has written has proved more popular than this volume of
"The Alhambra;" and it has made the ancient ruin a place of pilgrimage for

tourists in Europe ever since.

In this volume Irving not only describes in his own peculiarly charming

manner his experiences in the halls of the Alhambra itself, but he gives
many of the stories and legends of the place, most of which were told to

him by Mateo Ximenes, a "son of the Alhambra," who acted as his guide.
This is the way he came to secure Mateo’s services:

"At the gate were two or three ragged, super-annuated soldiers, dozing on a
stone bench, the successors of the Zegris and the Abencerrages; while a tall,

meagre valet, whose rusty-brown cloak was evidently intended to conceal
the ragged state of his nether garments, was lounging in the sunshine and
gossipping with the ancient sentinel on duty. He joined us as we entered the

gate, and offered his services to show us the fortress.

"I have a traveler’s dislike to officious ciceroni, and did not altogether like
the garb of the applicant.

"’You are well acquainted with the place, I presume?’