and friend of the Marquis of Cadiz, and one of the most distinguished warriors in the Moorish wars. His exploits are the theme of many a song; and some years after the fall of Granada, he died gallantly, overwhelmed by a host of Moorish mountaineers who had broken out into rebellion. My illness also prevented my visiting the Church of St. Peter, where I believe there are some very ancient paintings on the right wall. At least I have a note to that effect, but I forget from what work I made it.

Mrs. H made an excursion to the hermitages in the Sierra Morena, a league and a half distant, which are well worth visiting, if only for the sake of the beautiful view of Cordova and the verdant plain, and in the distance the mountains towards Gibraltar. The hermitages are small huts, with a box at each door for the presents of their charitable friends and pilgrims, and a bell to summon the hermits. Mrs. H was in one which was unoccupied, and saw the hard boards on which they lie, and one of the iron chains, with which it is said. they scourge themselves.

CHAPTER VI.

DEPARTURE FOR

MADRID-BAYLEN-DEFEAT OF THE FRENCH

-CAROLINA-GERMAN

COLONISTS-GORGE OF DESPENA

PERROS - ANDALUSIANS LA MANCHA DON QUIXOTEVENTA DE

QUESADA-WINDMILLS-ARANJUEZ-PALACE

BEAUTIFUL GARDENS-ARRIVAL AT TOLEDO.

WE started from Cordova at nine o'clock in

the evening; but I had very nearly abandoned the places I had taken from Seville to Madrid, price eight guineas; for, although so much better when I left the hotel that I thought I was cured, I had scarcely got seated in the coupé when I fainted completely, and on my recovery felt quite unequal to the journey. Fortunately, a friend, Mr. L——, happened to be in the diligence, who had a bottle of good brandy, which revived me, and repeated doses made me all right. The coupé

was so roomy and comfortable for two persons, and the road so good, especially compared to the bad one from Seville to Cordova, I bore the journey

admirably, and Mrs. H-- was not at all fatigued. Ladies generally dread this long journey from the North to the South of Spain, but the diligences are so heavy, they are not easily shaken; and though the idea of travelling two days and two nights is formidable for all accustomed to English railway speed, the fatigue is really not great, and is felt less the second night than the first.

Travellers should take a good supply of provisions for the whole journey, for the meals are almost always at unseasonable and irregular hours; and not a single dish without the Spanish abominations, bad oil, saffron and garlic. When I awoke the first morning, we were just approaching Andujar, an interesting town on the Guadalquiver, with brown towers and roofs, a picturesque old bridge, and rather a fine range of hills behind, of the same tawny colour. We then ascended some wild hills, through which the river Herrumblar rushes, the views occasionally picturesque, especially near the bridge. Passing groves of olives and vineyards, we came to Baylen, a miserable little place, famous for the splendid victory gained by the Spaniards over the French. Castanos's army consisted of twenty-five thousand infantry, two thousand cavalry, and a very heavy train of artillery, and large bodies of armed peasantry, commanded by officers of the line. The whole multitude that advanced towards the Guadalquiver could not have

After very

been less than fifty thousand men. little fighting, eighteen thousand French soldiers, under Dupont, laid down their arms before this raw army, incapable of resisting half that number, if they had been led by an able man. Joseph Buonaparte fled from Madrid, and all Europe was astonished at this victory and its results. The French troops, instead of being sent to France, according to the capitulation, were maltreated, and a number of them murdered in cold blood, especially at Lebrixa, where above eighty officers were massacred in the most cowardly manner. All who survived the march to Cadiz, after suffering every species of indignity, were cast into the hulks, where the greatest number perished in lingering torments,* and others were exposed on the destitute Island of Cabrera, without food or clothing, to feed on each other like howling wild beasts. These horrors were said to have been instigated by the clergy reclaiming the plunder the French had taken from the churches,† and may, in some measure, atone for the terrible retaliation of the French when they again invaded Spain. From Baylen to Guarroman, a miserable little village, the country is poorly cultivated.

We have now bid adieu to the beautiful villages and towns of the South of Spain, and really it is

* Napier's Peninsular War, vol. 1, p. 125. Foy, IV, p. 107; and see Handbook, 305.

difficult to bear the loss of the exquisitely white houses, the freshly painted balconies, the Moorish lattices, the appearance of comfort, and even opulence-all is now changed for wretched dirty-looking huts and undisguised poverty. The country after passing Guarroman became rather pretty, covered with magnificent carob-trees, under which were tolerable crops of grain, and the hills planted with groves of olives. As we approached Carolina, the view is extensive, and the ranges of the Sierra Morena visible in the distance. This is one of several towns, built and colonized, in 1767, by Germans and Swiss, brought here to supply the place of the banished Jews and Moors; but the promises held out to induce them to leave their country were never kept, and most of the foreigners died broken-hearted.

The town is uninteresting, with wide streets, and is anything but Spanish in its appearance. The inhabitants appeared generally dark, but I observed some with very light complexions, and two or three with sandy hair, the descendants, no doubt, of the colonists. The peasants working in the fields were coolly and picturesquely dressed, having nothing on their bodies but a white shirt, reaching half way down their thighs, and bound at the waist with a red sash; white stockings, extending from the knees to their ankles only, sandles on their feet, and a conical-shaped hat, seldom without holes or bruises, completed their costume. Leaving Carolina,