I have heard a good deal of the harsh treatment which French prisoners were accustomed to receive in the hulks at Portsmouth, and in other depots through Great Britain; but I defy any set of men to suffer greater hardships than those which were inflicted upon us during the whole period of our sojourn in this prison of the Spanish capital.

Our comrades of the Buffs seemed to have been long enough in confinement to tame down, in some degree, their spirits to their fate. They lay down, night after night, on the living straw, and showed no disposition to refuse us a share of it; but we could not bring ourselves to follow their example. On the contrary, we swept a portion of the floor, next to the entrance, as clean as we could make it; and there, on the hard stones, found such rest as they were calculated to afford. At the same time let me do justice to our captors. They did not prevent us from walking backwards and forwards, during the day, on the space in front of our prison, round which sentries were planted; and, slight as the indulgence may appear to persons more happily circumstanced, by us it was very highly esteemed. I verily believe, indeed, that but for these promenades, not one-half of us would have lived to tell how the enemy used to treat us.

We had occupied our quarters but a few days, when an officer, evidently of high rank,--for his dress was richly embroidered, and a numerous staff attended him,--paid us a visit. I am inclined to suspect that he was a person more elevated than he wished us to believe: indeed, I mistake the matter much if I did not see him, on a future occasion, enact the part of Majesty itself. But, however this may be, he read--whether Joseph or not--a sort of proclamation from a paper, with the purport of which an interpreter who accompanied him made us acquainted. It was an invitation from the intrusive king to join his service. It set forth that he was in want of volunteers, and especially of men accustomed to the duties of the cavalry; and it gave assurance of liberal treatment, and promotion, so soon as they should earn it, to such as might close with the offer. There was but one feeling excited amongst us by this precious document, and we did not scruple to make it known. The reader was greeted with murmurs and groans of disapprobation. Indeed, I went so far as to hiss, a salutation in which I was immediately joined by my comrades. One would have thought that an officer, even if be felt disappointed by the result, would at least have

had respect for the sentiment of honour which dictated ever so unmannerly a refusal: but it was not so with the personage before us. He flew into a violent passion; insisted on being told by whom the hissing was begun; and threatened in case we sought to screen the culprit, that he would inflict a severe punishment upon the whole. I confess that I was not without apprehension, lest some of my fellow-prisoners would betray me; and I own that I expected such an issue from the infantry,--but I did them injustice,--to a man they refused to speak. Yet I am sorry to say that, in another respect, they were not all so true to their own honour. Two men--one belonging to the buffs, the other wearing the uniform of the 49th regiment-stepped out as volunteers for King Joseph's service; and, being carried away by the still angry officer, visited us no more.

King Joseph, if indeed it were he, kept his promise to our hurt. We were shut up in the prison for three whole days--a terrible punishment, it must be confessed, even if our offence had deserved it. But at the expiration of that period his wrath appeared to subside, and we found the barn-door thrown open, as it used to be. We did not, of course, fail to take advantage of the privilege; yet, except to myself, this little promenade was not the source of any adventure: and mine seems, at this distance of time, so ridiculous that I scarcely know in what terms to describe it. But describe it I will.

To the right of the prison-door was a street, which communicated with one of the great squares of the city, though by what name called, or by what class of persons inhabited, I never had an opportunity to ascertain. The street in question was entered through an archway, over which was a suite of apartments, and close beside it a flight of stone steps, where, during the three weeks that I remained in Madrid, I was accustomed to spend no inconsiderable portion of my time. A corporal of the 13th Light Dragoons being, like myself, a prisoner, contracted, for me a great liking, and lent me a book, which I read with avidity, believing all the while that its details were authentic. The book was neither more nor less than Gil Blas; and it took the faster hold of my imagination, because I made acquaintance with it, for the first time, on the spot where many of the hero's adventures are laid. With Gil Blas in my hand, then, I was in the daily practice of repairing to the flight of stone steps, where I used to sit down, and in following the fortunes of an imaginary person, cease for some hours to speculate on what might be my own. My perseverance in this custom at length attracted the notice of the people who dwelt in the apartments above the archway, and more than once I could distinguish the drapery of a female, who seemed to watch me from the casement above. Gentle reader, have some mercy upon a youth, whose head was so full of the stories of Spanish devotion and Spanish intrigue that he quite forgot to take into account the absolute unfitness of his own bearing to enact, at that moment, the part of a cavalier. I confess then, that rags, and filth, and squalor notwithstanding, I took it into my wise head that some fair creature, dwelling in that elevated chamber, had fallen desperately in love with me. How I hugged the blessed vision to my soul! How brilliant were the pictures which I drew of her youth, her beauty, her extreme gentleness, her lofty spirit, and, dearest and sweetest of all, her absolute devotion to me! Gil Blas! Gil Blas was a commonplace character compared with me. I was on the brink of adventures which would throw all his into the shade. Accordingly, day after day I repaired to my wonted station, with a heart so full of its own musings that if ever I was myself in love at all, which is very doubtful, I was in love then with a being which my own imagination had created.

Not a syllable did I breathe of my happy state to any of my comrades. Even the corporal of the 13th remained in ignorance of the results to which his book had largely contributed; indeed, my plan was to become master of my fair prize in the first instance, and then to establish a claim on the gratitude of my countrymen, by making them all in some sort, partakers in my good fortune. For away upon the wings of the wind my fancy carried me, till I became a Spanish grandee at the least, and the prison-house was emptied of its inhabitants. Well, then, day by day, I repaired to my station, and each time I saw, fluttering behind the opened casement, the same feminine robe which had originally set my heart in a flame.
 

At length a hand and arm covered by a long black glove, were thrust out. They made a sign to me--to me! beyond all question; and when I returned it, by rising and bowing my head, the hand was instantly withdrawn. "She is coming," said I to myself; "be still, silly heart-prithee, beat not so. She is coming, and I shall require all my energies to carry me well through the interview." She was coming, sure enough; for scarcely had I resumed my seat when a door opened close behind me, and I heard a shrill cracked voice exclaim, "Signor Inglese." I turned round instantly--but conceive my horror. There stood at the doorway a little old woman, as ugly as it is possible for woman to be, who held in her hand a bundle of cigars, and offered them, with a few copper coins, for my acceptance. Down, down, in an instant, fell the fairy fabric which for livelong days I had been building.

It was no enamoured señorita that had so often watched me. I had excited no tender passion in any bosom, young or old; but was a mere object of charity to one of the most odious-looking hags that ever wore soiled cap over unkempt locks. I declare that I was so completely taken aback by the revelation, that I could not so much as obey the old woman's signal, far less thank her. However, grandmamma was a good old lady, and would not be refused. She kept becking and becking, till at last I moved towards her, when, thrusting the cigars and coppers simultaneously into my fist, she muttered something, to which I could make no reply, and most unceremoniously shut the door in my face.

It would be idle in me to attempt a delineation of the feelings which now swayed me. First, there was a sense of keen mortification, then of the ridiculous, equally keen; and, last of all, a consciousness that I had behaved extremely ill to my aged benefactress--who, albeit she did not bring what I expected, brought the best which she, doubtless, had to offer. I reproached myself severely because I had omitted to thank her; and passing from that to a review of my own situation, I determined not again to put myself in the way of being mistaken for one who sat to receive alms. But the most severe ordeal of all yet remained to go through. Somehow or another I could not keep my own counsel, and, telling the whole story to my troop-comrade, I got heartily laughed at for my pains. To do him justice, however, Jack was very merciful in his mirth; he contented himself with advising me to return the book, the study of which had proved too great a trial for my wits, and sharing the cigars with me, we smoked them out, often pausing to laugh again at the ludicrous issue of my most romantic day-dream.

At last the order arrived for the prisoners to be mustered, and marched with a convoy which was then about to return into France. Well pleased were we when this announcement reached us; for though the term "French prison" seemed to insure for us an indefinite period of confinement, our sufferings in Madrid had been such as to reconcile us even to that prospect, provided it brought not in its train a renewal of the hardships that were passed. Our arrangements for the journey, moreover, were very soon made. We had no baggage to pack, and, as to other matters, with these we had little concern. Unfortunately for me, however, my friend, the old woman, having, I presume, got scent of what was in progress, made me a present of a pair of rope-shoes, which I, forsooth, imagined would, when stuffed with cotton, prove peculiarly agreeable to a pair of stockingless feet. Accordingly I slung my leather affairs over my shoulder, and tying on the old dainsel's ropes, placed myself in the line of march, and went on. But I had not proceeded many miles ere I discovered that I had committed a grievous mistake. The cotton soon got into lumps--the rope wore my skin into blisters; and I was forced, after enduring indescribable agony, to throw the old woman's gift away, and return to my leathers. I have sometimes wondered since, whether the old jade, annoyed at the cold reception which I gave her, did not fall upon this ungenerous method of avenging herself

Our march through Madrid was a very curious one. About 700 Spanish prisoners having been added to our force, the procession covered a prodigious extent of street; for multitudes of Frenchmen took advantage of the escort which guarded us, and, with their families and effects, wended their way home. In addition to these, we had a prodigious number of waggons, all laden with the plunder of churches, convents, and even of private dwellings; while the armed force which guarded the whole could not fall short of 500 men. But these were the least remarkable features in the conduct of the little drama. No attempt being made to clear the streets, enormous crowds choked them up,--whose business, almost undisguised, it was to aid their countrymen in escaping. Thus, from time to time, a wave of human being would break in upon the escort, with the efflux of which some half-dozen Spanish prisoners were sure to be carried off; and as these were instantly denuded of whatever articles of military clothing they might happen to wear, and had ordinary peasants' dresses thrown over them, it was impossible for the guard, bluster as they might, to recognise and recapture them. Then, again, holes were here and there cut in certain brick walls, along which our route lay, and prisoner after prisoner, leaping through, disappeared, and was heard of no more. I firmly believe that ere we cleared the capital not less than a third part of the Spanish prisoners had escaped; and I have more than once been surprised at myself that I did not attempt, by a similar process, to recover my liberty.

Our progress through the town, and for some little way after we quitted it, was full of interest; for we might say with perfect truth that it brought us acquainted with the entire Spanish nation. There, in their carriages, drawn each by eight or ten mules, went the proud and indolent hidalgos, their imbecile-looking countenances exhibiting no expression at all, and themselves attracting no marks of respect from their inferiors. Here walked the Castilian gentleman, wrapped up in his ample cloak, with all the dignity of an ancient Roman. Close beside him strode the muleteer from La Mancha, carrying a goad in his hand, and wearing a sort of kilt made of hide. He was followed by a group of Andalusians, whose long brown vests, checkered with blue and red, and their hair tied up in long silken fillets, gave to them an air and manner peculiarly their own. With prodigious volubility they were conversing, while their quick black eyes moved hither and thither, as if their speech, rapid as it was, could not keep pace with the flow of their ideas. Then again we encountered women sitting in the corners of the streets, and dressing food for these strangers. Long lines of mules, bearing burdens on their backs, and bells at their manes, which tinkled as they went; with asses by the score, which one man was leading, while he talked to them incessantly, and seemed to be fully understood. And, to sum up all, the ringing of the church bells, the strange dialects in which the crowd was speaking, the swarthy visages of most, the sonorous utterance of all, gave such complete occupation to the senses, that reason and imagination both became paralyzed. We had no time at the moment to compare one idea with another; nor was it till long after that the full extent of the information they communicated became, upon reflection, known to myself.

Before I quit Madrid, and in doing so turn a leaf in my personal history, I may, perhaps, be pardoned if I place on record here a little piece of intelligence respecting King Joseph's habits and tastes, which I picked up--I am sure I have forgotten how--on the spot. Probably the reader is aware that the Spanish patriots, the more to enlist the prejudices of their countrymen against him, represented Joseph, both in their writings and their speeches, as personally a deformed man. He was crooked, they said, and blind of an eye. Now Joseph might not care much about a libel on his beauty, were his beauty alone affected by it; but knowing how much importance his loving subjects attached to the circumstance, he took every means in his power to disabuse them of the fallacy. With this view he used to go a great deal into public. He walked the streets attended only by the members of his family. He carried tapers in many processions; and seldom or ever saw a person, no matter how humble, looking at him, but he turned round and stared the individual full in the face. Yet all his care availed not. The Spaniards derided the notion of his carrying a taper out of reverence for a religion which they believed that he had abjured; and, as to his blindness, they persisted, in spite of all that could be urged to the contrary, in declaring that it was real. Were the Spaniards singular in this respect? I suspect not. There is no arguing against prejudice, be the subject proposed for discussion what it may; and the conviction of the people of Madrid that Joseph was a Cyclops, amounted to a prejudice. Then let not these worthy people be held at nought in a country where men's greatest boast it is to think for themselves; and where all have been taught by experience the truth of the distich--

Convince a man against his will,
You'll find him but a doubter still.