midday
Number Five Calle de la Merced has its history like the rest of the monasteries , and the rounded cobblestones of the large courtyard bear to-day a black stain where , the curious inquirer will be told , the caretakers of the empty house have been in the habit of cooking their bread on a brazier of charcoal fanned into glow with a palm leaf scattering the ashes . But the true story of the black stain is in reality quite otherwise . For it was here that the infuriated people burnt the chapel furniture when the monasteries of Saragossa were sacked . The Sarrions left their carriage at the corner of the Calle de la Merced , in the shadow of a tall house , for the sun was already strong at midday though the snow lay on the hills round Torre Garda . They found the house closely barred . The dust and the cobwebs were undisturbed on the huge windows . The house was as empty as it had been these forty years .