SWABEY DIARY. 297 
arrests as it ought to have been, but General Hill merely published the 
letters. The circumstance of a correspondence between a lady and her 
admirer is considered as unworthy of remark in this country, where 
intrigue is the order of the day.! 
Apropos of Spanish ladies, the following account of an incident 
which probably occurred at Villa Franca, where the troop was 
on and off for upwards of two months is appropriate here. 
—F.A.W. 
[When I was with Sir Rowland Hill’s corps the warfare we carried 
on consisted chiefly in manceuvring, though not so constantly as to 
prevent our time being spent very agreeably. But the frequency with 
which places on the arc of the semi-circle in which we moved changed 
hands must have been trying to the inhabitants whose fidelity how- 
ever remained unshaken. 
I was at different times for some weeks in the same quarters, and in 
the idleness of the time, of course, like others formed acquaintance 
with as many fair ladies as would permit or encourage an intimacy. 
If my readers knew as much of the Spanish character, female as well 
as male, as I do, they would, which I fear they will scarcely otherwise 
do, acquit me of all vanity when I recite the following as a character- 
istic tale. A certain fair girl not more than 16 years of age gladdened 
the house in which I had several times resided, her name was not 
poetical, if was Johanna, but to live in the same house and not to have 
a tenderness for this fair one would indeed have argued an insensibility 
which no officer of my age could have been guilty of. { doubt not 
that habited as an Hussar she would have mounted one of my horses 
and ridden off, as these Spanish girls have done, provided I could have 
brought myself to swear never to desert her, but I was not for various 
reasons in that frame of mind nor could I deceive her, All this was 
distressing enough, but the last visit I made to the place a cousin of 
hers, “ La traidora,’® surpassingly beautiful, and whom I used to call 
Azulia though that was not her real name, was her frequent visitor. 
This girl was a being not to be viewed with safety or indifference, and 
Johanna on very shght grounds became ungovernably jealous. One 
day rushing into the room where I was engaged in innocent conversation 
with her consin, she stabbed her, fortunately not mortally, and but for 
my prompt action would have struck the fatal knife (it was not a 
stilletto) into her own heart. Here was a scene! Soon the fathers, 
1 Captain E. C, Whinyates writing from camp near Villa Garcia, July 20th, 1812, thus speaks 
of this incident. 
“The greater part of General Hill’s corps has been for some time in Llerena, a large and popu- 
lous town. There are a great many ‘Senoritas,’ ¢.e. young ladies, in it, and these (most wonderful 
to relate) have retained so much constancy for their French lovers, that although the English have 
oceupied the town a fortnight and have given almost every night balls to amuse them, they still 
remember their first attachments. A peasant was taken bearing the bédlets-douw of seventeen of 
these Penclopes to their lovers. These epistles afforded much amusement being written with all 
the warmth of Spanish passion. How long these fair ones may continue such unheard of fidelity is 
very uncertain.” 
2 <The traitress.’” 
