During our stay at BadaJos, we suffered a good deal by reason, not only of the indifferent nature, but of the scanty allowance, of the provisions issued out to us. Each man received, per diem, four ounces of bad goat's flesh, with six ounces of black bread; but neither wine nor vegetables were served out; and as to salt, we never knew that such an article had existence. I believe, however, that in point of feeding we were not by many degrees worse treated than the French themselves, who could derive no supplies at all from the surrounding country, and into whose magazines time had already made grievous inroads. Indeed, it was melancholy to see the whole face of the surrounding country in flames; for the Spaniards, aware that they would not be able to reap the corn for themselves, set it on fire as soon as it approached to ripeness, in order that the enemy might not be benefited by it.

Our sojourn in Badajos was brief--only four days; at the termination of which we set out, on foot, for Merida. We suffered as may be imagined, terribly during that march; for, besides that several of us were wounded, cavalry soldiers are but little accustomed to pedestrian excursions, and the heat was quite overwhelming. Our lieutenant, indeed (for there was no distinction made in the treatment of officers, from that awarded to privates), became at last so weak that he fainted. Still, there was neither time given to rest, nor horse, nor mule, nor vehicle of any kind furnished for his conveyance. The French guard brought him to by shaking; and he was forced at the bayonet's point to struggle on--the captain supporting him as well as he could, till we reached a halting-place.

It was a miserable, ruined village, without inhabitants, or provisions, or accommodation of any kind; and into one of the dilapidated huts we were unceremoniously thrust. We were all famishing; for no food had been issued ere we quitted Badajos, and nothing of the sort was to be had here; yet we had endeavoured to provide against the extremity, too, by gathering vetches on the road-side as we passed along. Neither were the means of dressing them wanting, inasmuch as I had exchanged my boots with a French soldier for a cooking-kettle and a pair of shoes; and the vetches being duly boiled, we endeavoured to make a meal upon them, but none of us could eat them: they were so bitter, that our gorges rose, and we threw them away in despair.

The next morning by break of day, the drum called us from our lairs; and a morsel of black bread having been handed to each, we fell in, and the march began. It was neither so long nor so fatiguing as that of yesterday; and it ended at a solitary shed--a sort of long room, in which the farmer, whose house stood a little way off, seemed to have been accustomed to store his oil, for there were a good many large jars in one corner, all of them empty. Into two of these a couple of our men crept during the night--so cleverly, that the fact of their having done so was unknown even between themselves; and as we did not discover their absence till we had performed a good portion of a day's journey, they were fortunate enough to make good their escape.

The third day brought us to Merida, which we entered by crossing a long bridge, built, I believe, by the Romans, and still used in the common traffic of the town. We were halted in the market-place, where crowds, both of the inhabitants and of French soldiers immediately surrounded us. The former expressed great commiseration for our fate--the latter gloried in our capture and were not backward in saluting us with such epithets as marked a feeling for us both of hatred and contempt. But they did us no serious injury: and as we were permitted to halt here a day, our jaded limbs gathered a good deal of refreshment from the indulgence. On, however, we went at last, towards Madrid, changing our escort every third or fourth day, and leaving behind us one or more of our comrades at almost every hospital which we reached. Among others, a Portuguese major had on one occasion the charge of us--a deserter, as I need scarcely add, from the ranks of his own army; and if, in some respects, he appeared inclined to show us kindness, in others he cost us a prodigious deal of unnecessary trouble. Moreover, his was the only command which give birth to any tbing like an adventure. It was this:

We were not far from Truxillo, when groups of strange-looking men, that kept hovering about our flanks and in our front, caused an alarm. They were all mounted; but either because they considered our convoy too strong to be attacked, or that they wished to draw us deeper into a wild and uninhabited country, they held, for a time, so far aloof that none of us could quite determine what their occupation might be. We, that is, we English prisoners, believed, because we hoped that they were guerillas; whereas the major, though manifestly ill at ease, scouted the idea. But he was not destined to remain very long under a mistaken impression. The numbers of the stragglers increased: they halted on the road before us, and, spreading off to the right and left, bore down in a sort of irregular line.

The major no sooner saw this, than he detached a portion of his mounted force to oppose them. The cavaliers soon met, and forthwith a fire of carbines and pistols left us no room to doubt that a body of marauders were around us, and that our fate depended entirely on the courage with which they might push the enterprise. A council of war was promptly held among the English; and we agreed that, as soon as the affair should grow warm and close, we would rush upon the dismounted guard, which observed us, seize their arms, and give assistance to the guerillas. I do not know how far our intentions might have been divined by the major, for he appeared all this time in a state of the most pitiable alarm; yet he gave his orders with perfect propriety; and when in our rear a fire was likewise opened, he detached people in that direction also to sustain the guard. Then began a scene of awful confusion. We were a large convoy: there might be perhaps sixty laden mules, besides cars of various descriptions filled with goods; while our escort consisted of at least three hundred men, of whom upwards of one hundred were cavalry. But corps of even three hundred Frenchmen entertained the greatest dread of the guerillas, and the muleteers and attendants went very far beyond them in the exhibition of their terror. In a moment, the latter began to cut away the baggage, and to prepare for a more rapid flight on the backs of the mules. The cars, too, were in various instances emptied, and the bullocks goaded into a trot; while the parties both in front and rear gathered strength every minute, and the noise of the strife waxed vehement. It was then that the major halted; and seeing us collect into groups, advanced towards us. He used no threats; probably he guessed that we Englishmen were not likely to be swayed by them; but be implored us for our own sakes, and for his, to lie down upon the ground and keep quiet. We did as he desired, by no means relinquishing our own purpose;--of which the execution, by the way, seemed every moment to become more easy; for the guards, like their commander, took fright, and crept in among us as it seemed for protection. But, alas! for the realization of our hopes, the guerillas, as usual, fought for booty, not for honour. They appeared, also, to be perfectly well acquainted with the nature of the convoy--even to the particular waggons which contained the treasure; and these having been abandoned, whether purposely or not, I cannot say, they gathered round them in a crowd, and advanced no further.

I have no language in which to describe our mortification, when we saw the Spaniards turn the waggons on the road, and drive them to the rear. The French, on the contrary, seemed beside themselves with joy; while our commandant did not fail to praise us for our good behaviour, and to assure us that we should by no means be the losers by it. This was a poor compensation to us for the loss of our liberty. Yet we had not advanced half a league, ere we had reason to congratulate ourselves on our prudence, inasmuch as there met us there a battalion, which the officer commanding in the next town had sent out to meet us. Thus escorted we entered Truxillo, every window being crowded with heads as we passed beneath; and, being marched to the prison, we were there left for a brief space, to speculate on the sort of treatment that might be afforded us.

We had not indulged these anticipations many minutes, when the Portuguese major paid us a visit, to renew his expressions of satisfaction at our behaviour during the attack of the guerillas, and to promise us the indulgence of a day's rest as our reward. He assured us, likewise, that care would be taken to supply us with an abundance of provisions: and he was as good as his word; for, in as short a space of time as was necessary to bake the bread, a store of new loaves was handed in, with an allowance of fresh meat. But the Portuguese major was not the only person who seemed to feel for our wants, and to be desirous of relieving them. As evening closed, a quantity of loaves were thrown in at our window by the inhabitants, till we soon had enough to last us, not for the day alone, but for a whole week, supposing the means of transport to have been accessible. In like manner two live sheep were given to us early on the following morning, which we lost no time in slaughtering, with bread more and more abundant, all the gift of the inhabitants; and a fire being lighted, and the carcases duly cut up, we counted on a day of, to us, extreme enjoyment; but in this we were disappointed. The major, either jealous of the good will shown to us by the Spaniards; or, which is not improbable, fearing that an attempt might be made to rescue us, suddenly revoked his promise of a day's halt, and ordered the prisoners to be paraded. It was to no purpose that we protested against such a palpable breach of an engagement. The major had the power, and he chose to exercise it; so there remained for us only to pack up as much of our meat as we could carry, and to take our accustomed places in the convoy.

Seven long leagues under a burning sun we accomplished that day; of which the effects were made apparent in the utter decomposition of our meat. Not having any other means of conveying it except suspended in lumps from sticks, it soon began to spoil; and had become, when we halted, so offensive, that we were forced to cast it away. Our evening's meal was therefore made, as usual, upon bread and water. Neither was there anybody in the miserable hamlet where we slept who possessed the power, whatever his inclination might be, to render our fare more nutritious. On the morrow, however, after traversing the field on which the battle of Talavera had been fought, we entered Talavera itself; and experienced, in a degree more gratifying than ever, the liberality and kindness of the Spaniards. Far be it from me to detract from the excellency of the motives which swayed these generous creatures. I do not for a moment doubt, that we English, had we come alone, would have been dealt by exactly as befel, yet it is proper to observe that we did not come alone. From the different towns through which we passed, our commandant gathered together all the Spanish prisoners that were in confinement, of which the number, when we reached Salamanca that day, had swelled to 300 at the least. It is quite possible, therefore, that the inhabitants, commiserating their countrymen, extended to us, in like manner, a share of the feeling,--in which case we were much the gainers by the misfortune of our fellow-captives. But, however this may be, soup, bread, wine, and fresh hay to lie down upon, were all brought in ample quantities to the prison; and of the three former luxuries we partook abundantly, and with extreme gratefulness. The latter, however, we were not permitted to enjoy; for again the jealousy of our commandant stood in the way; and, just as we had stripped and laid ourselves out for a night of sound sleep, the horrid drum called us to the muster. It was a cruel outrage this upon our exhausted strength. We had performed a fair day's journey since morning, and were ill able to endure the fatigue of a night march; nevertheless, endure it we did, over six leagues of deep sand; and then, just as the dawn was beginning to break, we halted. Not yet, however, was any permanent rest afforded to us. The last stages between Talavera and the capital were, it appeared, peculiarly dangerous to convoys like ours; and our commandant was directed, in consequence, to steal a march upon the Spaniards, of whose intention to deliver us some rumour had got abroad. Accordingly, at the expiration of two hours we were roused from our beds on the sand, and commanded to push on; nor did we stop, even for a moment, till the suburbs of Madrid were gained.

It was the common practice of the French to show off their prisoners to the Spaniards, with the greatest possible ostentation. For this purpose they used to march us by circuitous routes, in order to carry us through the larger towns, and always took care to enter these at an hour when the mass of the inhabitants should be abroad. This good custom, it was not to be supposed that they would omit in the capital; and hence, though we arrived within half a mile of it so early as three o'clock, we were kept lying by the wayside till six, the season--especially on a Sunday--when high and low, rich and poor, are to be found in the public promenades, or seated at the balconies. Meanwhile, our guards set to work, furbishing up their arms, washing their faces and hands, and otherwise getting rid, as far as circumstances would allow, of the stains and soils of travel; and, finally, when the proper moment came, we were ordered to take our places.

I never shall forget, as long as I live, the circumstances which attended our entry into Madrid. We--that is, the English--were in a truly pitiable state. Covered with dust and sweat, ragged, unshaven, and foot-sore, we made but a sorry appearance, even beside the escort; and they, be it observed, were not over-nice in their persons. Yet we were surrounded, so soon as we passed the gate, by crowds of well-dressed people, whose very commiseration--and I believe that most of them pitied us sincerely--became, by reason of the earnestness with which they pressed forward to give vent to it, an intolerable burden. For myself, I was certainly not in a condition to receive gracefully the salutations of the fair. I had taken off my overalls on the march, and now stood in a pair of flannel drawers,--very black, be it observed, and somewhat scanty,--without shoes or stockings on my lower limbs, and having the upper part of my person covered by a helmet and a military jacket. As to my face and beard, these were what weeks of toil had rendered them. And yet I was quite unconscious of the ridiculous figure which I must have presented, till an old woman, forcing her way through the throng, suddenly caught me in her arms, and, weeping aloud, covered me, to my extreme horror, with kisses. It was in vain that I struggled to shake her off. She held me with so tight a grasp, that I began to dream of dying by suffocation: nor could all my efforts succeed in forcing the hands asunder which she had twined round my neck. Poor creature! I never could make out why these marks of affection were shown to me,--whether I resembled her son, or was to her nothing more than a stranger in distress,--but that she meant well, the termination of the adventure sufficiently indicated. Having indulged her feelings as long as was agreeable to herself, she suffered me to go, and, slipping a pisetta into my hand, disappeared amid the crowd.

The proceedings of this old woman caused me naturally to turn an eye upon my own person, and I confess that I never felt so ashamed in all my life; for, of the multitudes who flocked round to gaze, a large proportion were young women, before whom I had little ambition to appear in the character of. Don Quixote. Well pleased, therefore, was I, when the officer, after a quarter of an hour's halt, gave the word to move on--and more satisfied still, when the building which had been set apart as our place of confinement appeared in view. It was not very inviting, to be sure, in its exterior, yet it promised at least to hide us from an inquisitive crowd; and I therefore entered beneath its portal with a lighter step than I had as yet planted since I first turned my back on the position of the British army.