SWABEY DIARY. 415 
upon what might be within reach of his more extended means of cookery 
than could be looked for at a troop mess, and great was my dis- 
appointment, when with little pomp a boiled shoulder of mutton was 
introduced; whether my hungry countenance betrayed my inward 
chagrin at this unpromising entrée I cannot tell, but I remember well 
his rubbing his hands with a kind of heroic satisfaction and exclaiming 
“ dinner fora king! dinner for a king!” though there was nothing but 
a soldier’s fare. Whenever I[ think of him, these words from an inimit- 
able French poem entitled “ Gastronomie”’ rush on my mind, “ Si par- 
fois on nous prie”’ ete. <A. soldier’s stomach ought always to be ready 
for coarse and indifferent fare, but it strikes me that an occasional 
supply of the good things of this life has an incalculably good effect 
in fitting it for the digestion of a more indifferent selection. J had been 
very jealous of this officer’s adjutant, but I own the shoulder of mutton 
bowllt reconciled me very much to my more humble destiny]. 
28th September.—Shall I say that I enjoyed the paradise I was in ? 
No. I had here no leisure to write or think, or to enjoy any of the 
pleasures on which my imagination indulges, the gaiety of the scene 
only made me melancholy, and I sighed again for the march. 
29th September.—We marched to Villamiel, where, if we did not 
receive so much attention as at Domingo Perez, we were treated with 
great cordiality, well lodged and readily supplied with corn and bread. 
On the road to this place is along line of Moorish fortifications, 
better preserved than the remains of Roman camps in England. Its 
centre is formed by the castle and town of Barciense, the property of 
the Duque del Infantado. The plan of the fortification is too exten- 
sive to be defended in these times without 500,000 men; its right 
rests on a mountain, and its left on the bridge over the river 
Guadarrama. 
30th September.—We marched to the archiepiscopal city of Toledo, 
famous for having been the imperial residence of Charles the V. and 
also of Ferdinand and Isabella, by whose marriage the kingdoms of 
Castile and Aragon were united,' and in whose reign the Moors were 
finally expelled from the Peninsula, the first step towards the consolid- 
ation of the several Gothic Kingdoms of Spain. The Tagus forms a 
barrier on three sides, and the height on which the city stands is for- 
midable to the approach. On the fourth side it is surrounded by an 
irregular wall, and though not fortified there are perhaps few open 
places so well capable of defence; it is the second city in Spain, and 
was once the first. 
1st October.—We happily halted to-day and had leisure to examine 
the wonders of Toledo. First the famous sword manufactory, the 
materials for which are now concealed underground and have escaped 
all the Gallican vigilance. The next object of curiosity is the alcazar 
or palace of Ferdinand and Isabella, famous certainly from the lustre 
1 Tn the year 1479, 
The conquest of the city of Navarre in 1512, by Ferdinand, after the death of Isabella, made 
him sovereign of Spain from Gibraltar to the Pyrenees.—Chambers’ Encyclopedia. 
