The 50th, which since the death of Colonel Stewart, was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel I. B. Harrison, formed the garrison here, and the 71st Light Infantry, under Colonel Cadogan, and the 92nd under Colonel Cameron, were stationed at Banos, and the neighbourhood.
In the usual routine of friendly intercourse with the natives, we experienced a good deal of what might be termed a gay sort of life; the intervals, however, and they were tolerably long, were filled up with duty enough to satisfy the most fastidious martinet, the Adjutant or Sergeant Major, with their satellites, being perpetually at our skirts, at all hours, with some newly concocted order for our edification. The French troops, under Foy, being close at hand, watching a favorable opportunity to pounce upon us when off our guard, it was quite requisite that we should be on the alert, and keep our eyes about us; idle time was, therefore, a very rare commodity, so that between pickets, outlying and inlying, parades, and other matters of an equally pleasing description, there was not any very great room left to enjoy that society which, in a most inviting way, offered its varied charms for our gratification. By reason of the miserable state of the old defences of the town, that were tumbling about our ears, it became highly necessary to guard other openings than those which the gates presented, and, accordingly, our working parties were busy night and day, in repairing, with loose stones and clay, the several chasms and breaches made by time, that yawned in the ancient and crumbling walls.
Here, and at all the other weaker points, were well armed parties stationed, and it was by no means so agreeable a lounge as that of Bondstreet, or Pall Mall, to be pacing up and down, like a hungry tiger in his cage, behind those tottering stockades, ever and anon peering above the top, to look out for squalls, or watch the motions of our vigilant opponents. It was truly no joke, or rather it was a cool one, to remain thus shivering in every limb, from the damp and frosty air of a wintry morning. The whole regiment, with the exception of the lame and lazy, was planted at their alarm post, one hour before daylight, and at the rendezvous did they remain, in awful stillness, hardly wide awake, patiently to abide the moment of dismissal, which usually came when the first glimmering of dawn was seen in the horizon, or when a white horse was visible within a mile. With faces exposed to the gentle influence of a sharp norwester, and suffering a purgatorial trial, while straining our organs of vision to get a peep at the aforesaid quadruped, we might have waited till this hour, or even to the day of doom, for no such animal appeared. However, on the full assurance that our quondam neighbours had no desire to favour us with their company at that particular period, we were again despatched from the well known rendezvous, and, hastening to our quarters, we once more unharnessed, and lost no time in bundling into the warm nest from which we had so lately started.
Among the varieties of our cantonment, assemblies were got up by those of the officers who never failed to levy war against melancholy or the spleen. Dancing was therefore the grand attraction, and the votaries of that science were amply gratified. To the lively music of our band, the charming Senoritas figured away, in all the seducing attitudes of the bolero and the waltz.
In conformity with their absurd and to us hateful usage, the fair damsels on their appearance filed off right and left, in due order, and ranged themselves along the benches with a military precision, worthy of a better cause, taking their seats at such a distance that they seemed resolved, not even in the ball-room, "to trust their soft minutes with betraying man." It was soon manifest, however, that they had not abjured the other sex, for a volley of amorous glances was darted at the forlorn and deserted males, who, taking consolation in noisy converse with each other, were soon lost amid the smoke of their offensive cigars.
With voices naturally sharp and loud, the Spanish Dons continued a palaver, that seemed as though it came through a speaking trumpet, and a Babylonish jargon arose on all sides, equalled only in the noisy purlieus of a bull-ring, while, in the mean time, when they chanced to notice any thing particularly striking or amusing in the dance, their delight and admiration were proclaimed by deafening shouts and vociferous yells. Then, again, they might be heard crying out for various changes in the figure, such as bolero! bolero! fandango! seguidillo! contradanza! each bellowing for that which pleased his own fancy, to the utter discomfiture of those who would have preferred the quiet pleasures of a less stormy region.
Fortunately, however, for us, the brawlers were seized with a gambling mania, and a rush was immediately made by them to the folding doors of an adjoining chamber, where a table was ready, covered with dollars and doubloons.
The sight of these glittering lures caused the heroes to rejoice, and attracted thereby, they crowded to the room where the blind goddess presided, leaving the party in the other to the full enjoyment of their harmless mirth, for the remainder of the night.
The ladies were highly gratified at the departure of the noisy crew, for, being vain of their graceful shapes and figures in the dance, they were happy to show them off to advantage, and to exhibit in the waltz, which, owing to the crowd, they were before unable to accomplish. Previous to the vanishing of the gamesters, great was the jostling, pushing about, and trampling of toes, amidst the hooting and noise of the spectators.
The palace of the Duke of Ossuna, near the Square, has been in its day a noble and spacious mansion. Situated on the most elevated part of the ridge, its conspicuous appearance and lofty towers impart an air of respectability to the town, that could not be derived from any other object. The solid masonry of the outer walls, together with the massive staircase and iron balustrade, which time alone can destroy, remain in good preservation; but the interior, as well as the ornamental work, are utterly in ruins, and the mutilated shell is now the only monument of its original splendour.