1 2 Scenes in Spain. 



into a pot; and with restored equanimity I took my seat by the fire, 

 and listened with some interest to the conversation of those around. 

 The chapelgorris were fine banditti-looking fellows, dressed in red 

 trowsers, loose grey frock coats, and the distinctive flat red caps. 

 Instead of the pipeclayed cross-belts, so conspicuous a part of a re- 

 gular soldier's equipment, they wore a black leathern girdle round 

 the waist, in which were little tin receptacles for cartridges, and in 

 the left side of which was stuck the bayonet. Their whole ap- 

 pearance was striking in the extreme, and 1 thought, as the bright 

 flashes of the fire threw its light upon their swarthy countenances, 

 that the whole group might have formed no bad subject for the 

 pencil of Salvator Rosa. These men are the Spahis and Delhis of 

 the Spanish army dreaded by the people for their marauding pro- 

 pensities they are looked upon with such dread by the Carlists that 

 they, in common with the foreign auxiliaries, are expressly exempted 

 from quarter, and if taken prisoners invariably put to death. De- 

 spising the inefficiency and cowardice of their countrymen, and 

 holding in thorough contempt the effeminacy of Spanish officers, 

 they attached themselves greatly to the English from the moment of 

 their arrival in the country ; and from observing the contrast be- 

 tween them and their own superiors, had formed a high respect for 

 the officers of the Legion. 



My friend C. soon after found his way into the kitchen ; and one 

 of the chapelgorris produced a bota or leathern bottle, full of excel- 

 lent wine, which as it circulated freely round, soon caused me to for- 

 five him and his^companions the abstraction of our supper, which I 

 ad internally taxed them with. Shortly after, all the latter retired 

 to rest except one, who was engaged in an earnest conversation with 

 thepatrona and one of her daughters. He was a slight-built man of 

 about six and twenty, of a handsome and intellectual countenance, 

 and an eye gleaming with fire and intelligence. He was pointing 

 out to his auditors, in eloquent terms, the fearful consequences that 

 would follow the success of Don Carlos. He dwelt on the wretched 

 poverty at present existing in Spain, and attributed it all to the ig- 

 norance of the people and the exactions of the monks he spoke of 

 the rapacity and immorality of the latter, and mentioned to us that 

 he himself had been brought up for the church, and had studied at 

 Salamanca till the breaking out of the civil war, when he had en- 

 listed in a regiment of the line; but admiring the greater inde- 

 pendence of a chapelgorri's life, he had deserted, and afterwards 

 enrolled himself in El Pastor's brigade. A few months afterwards, 

 when Espartero barbarously decimated that corps for the plunder of 

 a church, he fell one of the victims and an innocent one I be- 

 lieve to that inhuman decree. 



Although sufficiently interested with the conversation of our intel- 

 ligent companion, we by no means neglected, all this time, our 

 culinary operations when an unexpected obstacle to the enjoyment 

 of our repast presented itself, by the discovery that we were without 

 a bit of bread and meat without bread or vegetable, who ever 

 heard of such a thing '? The patrona declared she had not a morsel 

 in the house, when rny companion suggested that his servant, who 



