Beautiful indeed as is her description of a garden in Tulancingo, she
rises to real eloquence before some of "Nature's pageants," admiring a
sunset over the Monastery of San Fernando, walking under the shade of the
centennial trees of Chapultepec, or wandering within the gigantic Caverns
of Cacahuamilpa, the recollection of which, she says, "rests upon the
mind, like a marble dream," and where an unfortunate traveller, years
before, had lost his way and met a tragic death.

Prescott's statement that Madame Calderon's letters were not intended
originally for publication seems hardly credible; but, on the other hand,
there is no proof for the suggestion that she had the letters of Madame
D'Aulnoy in mind. Be that as it may, the fact is that just as the French
Countess has left us a living picture of Spain in the late seventeenth
century, in the same way the wife of the Spanish Minister drew a most
faithful pen-portrait of the social, political, and even economic order,
in Mexico in the early nineteenth.

As to Madame Calderon de la Barca's personal appearance, since a portrait
of her, which is said to exist in the possession of a relative, has never
been published, the reader is free to imagine that lively lady as it may
best suit his or her individual fancy. That she was clever, well-read, and
an excellent judge of character, as well as a true lover of nature and a
keen observer of manners and customs, is evident in her letters, which
constitute by common consent a most entertaining and truly delectable
narrative, which even the lapse of more than a century has not been able
to mar.

MANUEL ROMERO DE TERREROS, Marques de San Francisco.