8th
At daylight marched, and passed through Carbonnero. The women in this part of Spain had tremendous pigtails, which produced much joking amongst the soldiers as they went along. Bivouacked in a wood near the Rio Eresma.
9th
Marched through Madrona and bivouacked in a wood near Palacio del Rio Frio.
10th
Marched and bivouacked near Otero and Madrona. Segovia is about 1¼ leagues from the latter place, which I could not visit, being on duty.
11th
Passed through the Puerto de Guerto de Guadarama—these mountains separate New from Old Castile—and bivouacked in the park of the Escorial. The men of the Division had only just got off their knapsacks when two large wild boars were started from a thicket. They were so alarmed at the sight of so many men that they literally ran directly amongst them, and tumbled over numbers of them, but after receiving a cut or a stab from a hundred bayonets or swords, they fell covered with wounds, and in five minutes their carcases were divided and distributed.
12th