Toledo 



Spains had slept rather badly the night before, and certainly- 

 seemed sleepy now. The Queen is a prettyish, lady-like 

 woman, and looks about twenty-five. Her nose certainly is 

 not a very choice feature, but not near so bad as those 

 frightful snub-nosed caricatures on her coins would lead 

 one to expect. 



There was something singular in the perfectly easy, 

 unembarrassed, and unaffected manner in which she talked 

 of her household interests before a gathering crowd of her 

 subjects ; as if she saw no reason why a queen should 

 pretend to be more than a woman, or be ashamed of her 

 maternal anxieties and filial duties. But kings and queens 

 are accustomed to live in public, and I dare say she thought 

 no more of the hundred and fifty people or so who sur- 

 rounded her than if they had been half a dozen busts in her 

 own bedroom. 



So we went back to Madrid, on the whole not dissatisfied 

 with our day, nor altogether sorry we had missed the Toledo 

 diligence. 



Next day we learnt by inquiries, made this time in person, 

 that the diligence only went alternate days, and would not 

 go till the morrow. I passed the evening at the house of 



the Duque de R , a poet, historian, and an agreeable 



man : formerly ambassador of Naples. He has some lively 

 and pleasant daughters, and there was a good deal of cheerful 

 conversation. I went without invitation, having been 

 made free of the house, and the Duquesa receiving every 

 evening. I had made the Duque's acquaintance in Seville, 

 when he asked me to come and see him as I passed 

 Madrid. 



At last we got off to Toledo by the direct diligence. After 

 six or seven hours of bleak uninteresting country, we went 

 up a steep hill, and under a great Moorish gateway. I am 



298 



