Vitoria 



sublime that I stood well on to ten minutes beneath the 

 pelting rain to admire it. I dare say you think it was very 

 absurd to expose myself to the wet in such a cause ; but I 

 was sheltered beneath the ample folds of my capa^ or I should 

 not have been so chiId-(Harold)-ish. 



Next day we rode into Vitoria, an uninteresting town, 

 celebrated for tobacco and a battle. We filled our pouches 

 with the former, but about the latter I cannot speak, for I 

 grieve to say I never reached that volume of the " History 

 of Europe," and this excellent work is not of dimensions 

 amenable to form part of a travelling library on horseback. 



But I suppose everybody who comes by, that knows a 

 little about history and battles, contributes his mite of 

 explanation to the previous labyrinthine confusion which the 

 civilian mind is afflicted with at the very mention of battle- 

 fields. We shall not sleep here, but go on in the evening 

 to Salinas. You see our expedition is in its dregs — weary, 

 both man and beast, with hard travelling. We have thus 

 neither patience to go out of our way to find, wait for, or 

 even invent adventures. 



383 



