Note 25 — GOLD, SILVER, AND JEWEL WORK
Reading edition
To lend my censures further cogency, I leave this statement as I set it down some weeks ago; since when, on picking up a Spanish newspaper, I read the following telegram:—
“Theft in Santiago Cathedral
“Santiago, May 7th, 1906 (9.15 p.m.).
“This morning, when the canon in charge of the Chapel of the Relics unlocked the door, he was surprised to observe that some of these were lying in confusion on the floor. Fearing that a theft had been committed, he sent for the dean and others of the clergy, who had examination made, and found the following objects to be missing:—
“A gold cross, presented by King Alfonso the Great, when he attended the consecration of this temple in the year 874.
“Another cross, of silver, dating from the fifteenth century—a present from Archbishop Spinola.
“An aureole of the fifteenth century, studded with precious stones belonging to a statuette of the apostle Santiago.
“The authorities were summoned and at once began their search.
“They find that two of the thick iron bars of the skylight in the ceiling of the cloister have been filed through. This cloister has a skylight which opens upon the chapel.
“They have also found, upon the roof, a knotted rope. This rope was only long enough to reach a cornice in the chapel wall. The wall itself affords no sign that anybody has attempted to descend by it.”