We started to see the magnificent cathedral, wearing as usual, our gringos bonnets; Mr. P–– told us we should haply not be admitted in that head-dress; but being already accoutred, and inclined to think he was possibly in error, we continued on our way, resolved to try our fate.

When we came into the Grand Plaza, a little doubt and hesitation came over us. What streams of rebosos and mantillas were going in and out of the building,–not one bonneted head anywhere! Should we go on or turn back? One must have something on the head–simply unbonneting would not do. In deliberating mentally on the difficulty, and giving it due earnest consideration, I was disposed to believe, that our wearing bonnets, or no bonnets, then and there, would scarcely be regarded in the light of an ecclesiastical subject, or occasion an ecclesiastical controversy; that Protestants like us, if once allowed the enjoyment and free use of our abominable heretical heads, might, without doubt, put anything upon them we chose; and that if an Inquisition had still existed, and we had been given over to its tender mercies, the bonnet question would have easily been put to an end, by the heads that wore them being “put down” at once by the inflexible Sir Peter Laurie of that stern tribunal.