SWABEY DIARY. 409 
2nd division (not General Hill’s Quarter-Master-General who would 
have known better), gave us no division of the town. I think I never 
was in such a rage in my life. 
17th September.—I employed myself in examining the remains of this 
famous city, once the seat of all the nobility of Hstremadura, all whose 
palaces are now destroyed by the French. 
The first object of my search was the tomb of Pizarro, which stands 
in a chapel belonging to his family in the castle church ; it was robbed 
by the French who bore the relics to France. These artful conquerors 
know that the first blow to conquer the spirit of a people, is to destroy 
all the monuments of traditionary greatness that have been used to 
inspire them with a desire of emulating the deeds of their ancestry. 
There are two houses of a superior style of grandeur in the square 
which they tell you both belonged to their admired hero, one before 
his conquests, the other built by him after his fame was established. 
I did not credit their accounts as I detected the difference in the coats 
of arms by which they were adorned. One indeed might have been 
Pizarro’s being covered with trophies, amongst others, captive kings 
with chains about their necks. 
In the city church was a striking monument to the memory of a 
hero whose name was defaced, who had fallen in the wars with the 
Moors, date 1530, this story, which is that of a priest, is incorrect. 
The Moors were expelled in the 15th century.! 
The castle, containing six convents now destroyed by the French, is 
built on an high rock, and was evidently constructed on Moorish ruins. 
One of the convents I examined most minutely all over, and was able 
to trace through its apartments the habits of the unfortunate victims 
of superstition. Underground dungeons and places for solitary pen- 
nance, secret stairs and various chapels were numerous, well selected 
religious texts were inscribed on the walls, with a separate cell for 
every nun. Bats and owls and every inhabitant but comfort seemed 
to have taken refuge there from the world, the approach to even a 
view of which, was on one side obstructed by a rocky precipice, and on 
the other by the castle wall. 
I had only time to examine one of the six convents, the inhabitants 
of which are now crowded into one house, and having been robbed 
of all their riches and endowments, subsist precariously by the sale 
of stockings and other work ; they indeed kept a pastry cook’s shop 
during our stay, but I could not indulge myself in being a purchaser, 
or enquiring into their history for want of money. 
Truxillo has some fine houses in the square and castle which have 
singularly ornamented windows, cut in the angles in the form of 
segments of circles, and having a very pleasing appearance. 
There is more here of the grandeur of antiquity which you look for 
amongst these proud people than I have seen before. All the Hidalgos 
have fled to Cadiz, and the Spaniards at the coming of the French, 
having deserted all the country this side of the Tagus; the towns we 
have since passed are nearly destroyed. 
1 The Moors were expelled from Spain in 1492, 
