November 1.—On arriving at Arronches, seven leagues from Estremoz, find Major Gilmore, who gives me soup. Sleep in the justice house. Little Kickery[20] comes on well. Buy a blanket, of, I think, a rogue.
November 2.—Start for Albuquerque and overtake the 95th Regiment, having first passed the Spanish boundary and taken out the Portuguese cockade. On arriving at Albuquerque we find the deaf Corregidor disputing with the General’s staff in a great rage; they receive me with smiles, to the astonishment of the others, and insist on my being quartered there. At least fifty officers come in about quarters. They make no hand of the deaf Corregidor, but I explain the matter to the lady, and she soon arranges it, for she is, in fact, a very good Corregidor. Find the 20th Regiment here, and Colonel Ross quartered at the house of my friend the Governor.
November 3.—Colonel Ross comes to induce the old Corregidor to swear in the paymaster. The wife achieves it, otherwise the old man would have first inspected the regimental accounts!!
N.B.—The man who ran off with his mules before has never returned. I am badly off here now, for the great room that I had before is occupied, and I am in the family.
November 4.—Start in the morning with the 20th Regiment for Aliseda. Ready at three. No mule. Colonel Ross starts. The Corregidor in a fury. I start at four, leave the column in the dark, and take a doubtful road. Hear a dog bark, and ferret out a peasant, who rights us; but soon after we were again presque au désespoir, when a dear dog not far off began to bark. We made for the noise, holloaing, and at length a peasant rights us. It now begins to rain like the devil. Lose my way again in a great wood, but retrieve it, and arrive at Aliseda, wet and tired, at eleven o’clock. Regiment arrives at two, after a wet, painful march.
November 5.—Fine fair day, and after breakfast we leave for Brozas.
November 6.—Start again at daylight in excessive rain, and arrive at Alcantara at nine, perfectly wet. Quartered on my old friend the Alcalde (Mayor), who receives me with the greatest bon cœur. The General is quartered at the Benedictine convent, the richest order in Spain, and the Prior, who is chaplain to Charles IV., undertook to prepare dinner for the General, his baggage not having arrived. So one was rather disposed to expect something sumptuous, and at half-past four go up to the convent to dinner; dismayed to see a little tabletto with one glass and a pint of wine. For dinner there was a soup made of bread, water, beans, and salt in a flat plate, and a light leg and shoulder of goat—execrable; silver plates, and a few grapes after dinner.
Coming home we hear the Fandango playing and singing. Go to the door, which is immediately shut. Complain to the Alcalde. “Do you wish to see it?” said he quickly. “Yes.” “Vamos.” And away we went, and were now highly received among the dancing peasants. I think it exceedingly pretty, the girls seem so glorified, dizened out in all their finest costume, and preserving such a gravity of modest dignity, that awes the boors into distance and respect. They, on the contrary, with their hats on, and in all their working dirt, dance with the fair, but never touch them, both snapping their fingers all the time, and raising their heads alternately with a graceful motion. When it was over we retired to the Alcalde’s house, and entered into conversation, in the midst of which he was called out to quell a disturbance in the street. I asked what it was. “Nothing,” they said; but from the looks of the women, who wished to detain me in the house, I suspected some English were concerned, so I went out, and Bernardo followed me, and, directed by the noise to a neighbouring house, we found two English officers—Tilford and Falls—in a small room, bayed by about fifty Spaniards with swords and fixed bayonets. I was going to inquire very quietly what was the matter, and prevent mischief as skilfully as I could, when that fool Bernardo, like a horse taking fright on the brink of a precipice, darted on one of the peasants, dragging him away, and calling him all the devils in hell, and cuffing him with all his might.
This immediately, as I foresaw, raised the fury of this disorderly patrole to ungovernable bounds. They heeded neither corporal nor Alcalde. They entirely threw off all authority, and seemed prepared, with drawn daggers and swords and fixed bayonets, to take the most plenary revenge. I seized Bernardo, stamped and bawled to him to be quiet, but still the fool with his damned tongue and violent gestures inflamed them so much, that, losing all distinction, having seized him, they hemmed us in, and drove us backward into the room.
Seeing Bernardo pinioned, with a parcel of swords clashing about and twenty bayonets ready, I expected fully every instant to see him fall with fifty stabs, and pushed forward to the Spaniards, saying, “Prighonera, prighonera,” meaning that they should take him prisoner and not kill him. And perhaps this hint saved him, for they repeated, “Yes, yes, prisoners; all of you prisoners.” Just then Bernardo broke loose, and rushed to us within the room.