and hung against the wall as an ornament. Knives, forks, and spoons are rare articles; consequently, they make use of their fingers, and clapping their mess on a low stool, round which they assemble like a set of Hottentots, they endeavour to satisfy the cravings of nature. It is melancholy to contemplate these extraordinary repasts in a country which the All-bountiful Creator has distinguished by so much fertility. Such, however, is the lot of the unfortunate Spaniard.

16th December, 1808.

I have just heard, that in consequence of some dispatches which have been intercepted and brought to Sir John Moore, he has changed his plan of proceeding against Valladolid, and is going to Sahagun, to attack the Duke of Dalmatia, who is posted at Saldanha.

The army is to march to-morrow to some villages to the westward. Head-quarters are to remove to one of these, named Castro Nuevo. By some accident, my baggage-mules have not joined me since I left Salamanca ; and, as it is possible that they may have gone towards Zamora, I shall ride there to-morrow, to inquire about them.

Zamora, 17th December, 1808.

The road from Toro hither follows the course of the

Duero, through a very beautiful valley. The country around is chiefly in pasturage, in part tolerably clothed with groves of oak and alders, and diversified with several cheerful villages. Immediately around Toro the hills are covered with vines, which yield a red wine, little inferior in flavour to that of Burgundy.

Zamora, though of very ancient date, is much the most cheerful and cleanly town I have seen in Spain. It is placed on a hill commanding the Duero, which is here a beautiful river. A Gothic stone bridge of eleven arches. opens the communication with the southern bank, and the city of Salamanca, from which it is distant ten leagues.

This city was built on the site of an ancient Roman station, called Senica, by Alonzo the Third, towards the beginning of the ninth century, and made the capital of the kingdom of Leon. It was called Zamora, from the number of turquoises which were formerly found there, these stones being named zamora in the Moorish dialect. It is still surrounded with a strong wall, flanked with square towers, and the inhabitants consider it capable of posing some resistance to an enemy. Zamora is the seat of the military government of Old Castile, and has been. more than usually active in the patriotic cause.

op

It was at this place that that brave regiment belonging

to the Marquis de la Romana's army was raised, which made such an extraordinary march, to escape from the tyranny of France: if I recollect rightly, it was not less than seventy-two miles in twenty-four hours.

I here received a billet on the house of a Spanish gentleman, who received me with great hospitality. Indeed, the English have been better treated here than in any other part of the north of Spain. About two hours before I entered Zamora, a Spanish officer had arrived from Madrid, with accounts of the surrender of that city to Bonaparte, and several copies of the proclamation issued on that occasion. I have not been able to procure a sight of it, but am, however, acquainted with the leading points. The Junta here would not believe the intelligence; he was accordingly arrested and sent over to the Marquis de la Romana, at Leon. However, I must tell you, that the people cannot help expressing the delight they feel at the abolition of the Inquisition, and the partial suppression of the monastic orders. Several neighbours of the gentleman at whose house I am, came this evening to pay him a visit, and were absolutely capering about the room with joy. One of these was a cura, or secular clergyman. I mention this to you, as it will give you an idea of the great popularity which this first act of the new monarchy is likely to give to Joseph Bonaparte.

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LETTER XLIV.

ZAMORA.REFLECTIONS SUGGESTED BY ITS HISTORY.

FERDINAND

OF ARRAGON. THE INQUISITION,-CASTRO NUEVO.-VILLALPANDO. VALDERAS.-A FALL OF SNOW.-MAYORGA.-SAHAGUN.-LORD PAGET'S ACTION WITH A BODY OF FRENCH CAVALRY.

Sahagun, 21st December, 1808.

I ARRIVED here this afternoon, and shall give you my journal from the 17th, the date of my last letter.

18th. This morning, being unable to hear any tidings of my mules and baggage, I quitted Zamora, after taking a hasty survey of a town which had been the scene of so many interesting events, during the struggle of Ferdinand of Arragon for the crown of Castile. On getting to the top of a small hill without the walls, and stopping my horse to take, probably, the last look at Zamora, I could not but reflect that the landscape I then contemplated had been the theatre on which Ferdinand, that hero and conqueror of the fifteenth century, had laid the foundation of his future greatness. The whole events of that period seemed to flit before me with the rapidity of a vision.

Three centuries have now elapsed since the foundation of that tribunal, which the member of a new dynasty has just dissolved. Since the death of Ferdinand, what a change has taken place in the face of Europe, and how little has been done towards bettering the condition of Spain? It is three hundred years since the union of Arragon and Castile. Two dynasties have already occupied the throne of Ferdinand, and a third has commenced its career, by destroying that tribunal which had been left bý Ferdinand as a safeguard to the power of his successors. Since the death of that prince, the other states of Europe have been advancing in happiness, knowledge, and greatness; while Spain, at that period, assuredly the first of European powers, has been insensibly relapsing into imbecility and decay. A population of nineteen millions has decreased to nine or ten; and one thousand six hundred depopulated towns now cover the face of the country.* The expulsion of the unfortunate Jews, and the creation of the Inquisition, laid the foundation of the debasement of Spain; and not one of his successors has possessed sufficient talent or power to strike at the root of the mischief.

* In the time of Augustus the population of Spain amounted to fifty millions. Ferdinand left it at nineteen; and now it is supposed not to exceed nine or ten; two hundred thousand of which are clergy.