MAKQUINEZ AND LA COLLEGIALA. 159 



visited, a few hours afterwards, by a column of French, 

 who stripped them of what little they had reserved 

 for their own support, accompanying their extortions 

 by the ample measure of ill-treatment they considered 

 themselves justified in bestowing on those who had so 

 recently sheltered their foes. Between friends and 

 enemies the peasants were impoverished, their houses 

 dismantled and pillaged, their fields trampled and 

 laid waste. 



It was on an autumn morning of the year 181-, 

 that a large number of cavalry soldiers were grooming 

 their horses in the streets of Ayllon. Some ill-clothed 

 but hardy-looking infantry men were grouped about 

 the doors of the houses, busily engaged in furbishing 

 their arms, whilst here and there, at the corners of 

 the streets, or in open spaces between the houses, a 

 few greasy-looking individuals were superintending 

 the preparations of the rancho, 1 a strong smelling ano- 

 malous sort of mess, contained in large iron kettles 



1 The rancho, or mess of the Spanish soldiery, is generally 

 composed of fat pork, garlic, and rice or dry beans, according 

 as the one or the other may have been issued for rations : the 

 whole being plentifully seasoned with red pepper, and boiled 

 so as to form a sort of thick pottage. The manner in which 

 this is eaten is somewhat original. Each company is divided 

 into messes of twenty or thirty men, and each mess forms a 

 circle round the vessel in which their dinner has been cooked, 

 every man with his bread and a large wooden spoon in his 

 hand. They tell off by fours, and a non-commissioned officer 

 calls out " El uno," No. 1. The five or six men who have told 

 off No. 1 take a pace to the front, dip their spoon in the 



