These were lamentable proofs of the heterogeneous character of the officers of the Legion; for during the whole of my career in our own service, I never knew of but one duel, which proved fatal to one of the principals. These singularities in the Legion were never much to the taste or approbation of the Spaniards; they naturally, however other changes might have influenced them, still clung to their old dislike of fighting, and rather looked upon us as so many powder-barrels, or rather monkeys, than as partaking in their own peculiar imperfections. But that spirit of bigotry which had formerly possessed the prejudices of the Spanish people had almost entirely vanished before the stride of improvement. This was most probably owing to the introduction of the foreign disputants during the last thirty-five years! Scarcely a monk was to be found at this time, though the monasteries held their old situation. Even the lovely dark-eyed nuns had forsaken their cloisters, and seemed to breathe a new life under the more enlightened state; as regarded religious enthusiasm, I was astonished at its decrease. On one occasion, among several others, I especially noticed it. This was evident on the festival of Corpus Christi; the streets through which the procession wound were certainly hung with what a zealot might call the richest tapestry, but in which I could acknowledge scarcely anything but old carpets, women’s dresses, and old bed counterpanes, &c. Triumphal arches were also erected, and the procession was attended, as usual, by the civil and military authorities, and by detachments from the different regiments of the garrison with their bands preceding them: the priests and canons also thickly followed after them. As they passed where several British officers and myself stood gazing amid a crowd of the inhabitants, I took off my hat, but except two or three old women, who went on their knees, not one of the natives followed the example, or even showed the slightest respect. This dereliction at one time, in Spain, would not have escaped severe penance. Indeed, under the Duke of Wellington, the guards always turned out, and British soldiers were compelled to salute the Host as it passed.