The Cid's Portmanto 



when they brighten your posada^s portals with their presence, 

 what they come for ? Come for ? Why, dinner — supper 

 — beds — breakfast — and provender for our horses ! Here, 

 take them to the stables ; and you, other one, carry these 

 alforjas up to our apartment ! " 



We had a very decent dinner, which we did all the more 

 justice to from having been starved since the Escorial. Our 

 room was comfortable, and the beds not infested with 

 vermin. Before going to bed I put wet bandages on the 

 Moor's fetlock, which he cuts with the heel of his ofF shoe. 

 I hope it may take out the inflammation. I have been 

 keeping it wet all day. 



The post-office was not open this morning when we went 

 at first. The cathedral, with which we solaced our impa- 

 tience, is a mass of the richest carving inside and out. In 

 one of the sacristias they showed us a carved oak chest, 

 which the Cid had sent for from Valencia, charged with his 

 eflfects ; but it had never reached its destination, and is kept 

 here as a relic. Instead of being affected with pity of the 

 Cid for the loss of his wardrobe, our thoughts turned to our 

 own portmantos, now on the road from the metropolis to the 

 frontier, per galera. Alas ! how much more interesting to 

 the unlearned are contemporary events than those of history. 



We now returned through the sombre Gothic gateway, 

 niched with statues of Burgalese worthies, which opens from 

 the old town upon the bridge over the Arlanzon, and 

 seeking the post-office once more, were this time successful. 



I found in the list. No. 981, the name Tagtagy which, as 

 it seemed about as near as a Spanish post-officer was likely 

 to transcribe the word Cayley from an English superscrip- 

 tion, I asked to see. I recognised with delight a well-known, 

 much-loved specimen of excellent penwomanship, and broke 

 the blossom branch of hawthorn waving over the bell of the 

 device in wax of roseate hue. 



377 



