Aranjuez 



already rather lame. At Ocana we left the main road for a 

 short cut which came out at Montivola, a village chiefly 

 formed of troglodyte habitations, burrowed out of the loamy 

 hill ; and from the flats above the village, we saw a fine 

 range of snow mountains, which must be beyond Madrid. 



Here we descended to a somewhat lower level. Towards 

 dusk we came in sight of water, a large sheet. At first we 

 took it for the Ta2:us, but it turned out to be a lake, where 

 innumerable frogs were croaking vociferously. I fired my 

 revolver in among them, and they stopped a moment, and 

 then began louder than ever, as if the report had given them 

 a fresh topic of conversation. After a while we descended 

 into the valley of the Tagus. 



Aranjuez seemed a pretty place, full of trees and gardens, 

 quite a paradise after the dreary country through which we 

 had just travelled ; but unluckily it was very nearly dark 

 when we got there. The moxa^ with whom I had carried on 

 a considerable conversation while she was arranging the 

 beds, ended by asking me whether I was an Andaluz. It 

 appears our disguise is beginning to take effect. The Cas- 

 tilians have a great contempt for the orthoepy of their 

 southern neighbours, so that it is but a slight compliment 

 to our Spanish after all. 



Next morning we passed out of Aranjuez. It is a pictu- 

 resque, gay tea-garden-looking town ; full of brick and stucco 

 colonnades and gingerbread triumphal arches, and avenues 

 of really fine trees, and glittering fountains, and bridges and 

 waterfalls, and flowers and statues and columns ; altogether 

 making a brilliant though somewhat French and artificial 

 ensemble. The palace has a faint resemblance to the 

 Tuileries. I dare say it is a very pleasant place for the 

 Court to lounge through the hot summer months. 



Along the last seventy or eighty miles of road, we have 



285 



