JOURNEY HOME BY LAND. 179 



We had no desire to revisit otlier siglits of Madrid ; so 

 we spent both our days in the Miiseii ; we had once in our 

 lives witnessed a bull-fight here, and the horrors of that 

 cruel spectacle had haunted us so long, that the very 

 name of a fiesta de torsos recalls a scene of bloodshed and 

 butchery, quite sickening and disgusting to contemplate. 

 But we wandered about the streets of the capital, and we 

 went, with all the rest of Madrid, in the evenings to stroll 

 in the Prado, and lounge in the Alameda; and here we 

 were vexed to observe the French costume so prevalent, 

 and the national mantilla and the becominof veil, once so 

 universal, fast disappearing before Parisian fashions. But 

 that which astonished us most in this centre of monarchial 

 Spain, was to hear the open and undisguised expression of 

 opinion which none cared to conceal, with reference to the 

 impending revolution; of whose speedy development every- 

 body seemed well aware ; and about which people talked 

 in the streets and at the table d^hote without the smallest 

 reserve. It appeared, then, to be a mere question of time ; 

 and when it blazed forth a few weeks after our return to 

 England, it was by no means a matter of surprise to us, 

 for we had heard it coollv announced, over and over ajjain, 

 at ]Madrid. 



Our next stage homewards was to the pretty French 

 watering-place of Biarritz, on the shores of the Bav of 

 Biscay; and we again began our journey in the afternoon, 

 and travelled all night, reaching our place of destination 

 at midday. \Ve had a good view from the train of the 

 vast pile of buildings at the Escorial, which we had 

 thoroughly explored on a former visit, and where indeed 

 we had been so fortunate as to witness the interment of 

 an Infanta. Thence our line of railway wound at the foot 

 of the Guadarama mountains by Avila ; and subsequently, 

 during the night, we passed Valladolid and Burgos ; and 



