[284] Arapiles is the name by which the great English victory of Salamanca is known to French and Spanish writers. It was fought on July 22, 1812, and the news reached Napoleon on the banks of the Borodino on September 7, inducing that strange hesitation and want of alacrity which distinguished his operations next day. The village of Arapiles is about four miles from Salamanca.
[287] Savage mules.
[290] “See the crossing! see what devilish crossing!” Santiguar is to make the sign of the cross, to cross one’s self. Santiguo is the action of crossing one’s self.
[291] As late as 1521, Medina del Campo was one of the richest towns in Spain. Long one of the favourite residences of the Castilian court, it was an emporium, a granary, a storehouse, a centre of mediæval luxury and refinement. But the town declared for the Comuneros of Castile, and was so pitilessly sacked, burned, and ravaged by the Flemish Cardinal Adrian, acting for the absent Charles of Hapsburg (in 1521), that it never recovered anything of its ancient importance. The name, half Arab, half Castilian, tells of its great antiquity. To-day it is known only as a railway station!
[292] “Carajo, what is this?”
[293a] We have adopted in English the Portuguese form Douro, which gave the title of Marquis to our great duke . . . of Ciudad Rodrigo, as the Spaniards prefer to call him.
[293b] Madhouse.
[293c] “May the Virgin protect you, sir:” lit. “May you go with the Virgin.”
[293d] Valladolid, like so many place-names, not only in southern, but in central Spain, is Arabic, Balad al Walid, “the land of Walid,” the caliph in whose reign the Peninsula was overrun by the Moslems. The more ancient name of Pincia is lost.
[295] A friend and comrade of Zumalacarregui, who came into notice after the death of the greater leader in June, 1835.