"Come, gentlemen, let us quit this place," said Dick, with a shudder; and, as they issued into the empty streets, daylight was beginning to struggle through their sinuous windings, while the merry rat-tat of the British and Portuguese drums was heard, as they beat _reveille_ in El Campo, the market-place, and before the old royal palace, where Anne of Austria first saw the light, and which, to the fourth story, was full of allied troops. The inlying picquets (always turned out in those days an hour before daylight) were standing under arms, looking pale, wan, and drowsy in their dark great-coats, in the Plaza Mayor. This place was square, and surrounded by an arcade, within which are shops, and the brick houses have balconies of gilded iron at all the windows. At a corner of the old palace our ramblers passed under a curious projecting clock, like that of Strasbourg; but being a loyal old Spanish clock, of true Castilian origin, it had never gone since the French entered Spain. "Senor," said Dick Duff to a Spanish cazadore who passed, and who seemed, like himself, to be on the look-out for a place of entertainment, "what house is that?" "You mean the house without windows?" "Si, senor, and which has only those little holes to admit light through its high walls." "The Holy Office, senor." Dick shrugged his shoulders and quickened his pace. "And is that place opposite the convent so famed for its pretty nuns?" "Which, senor?" "The convent of the Bleeding Heart." "No, senor," said the don, with a dark look; "it is the monastery of the Bloody Nose." "You seem to be a wag, my friend--well, and what place is that which the staff are just leaving?" "El Colegio de los Escosses." "Bravo--the Scots College!" said they altogether; "muchos gratias, senor--we shall go there." And just as Wellington, cloaked and muffled, with a telescope slung over his shoulder, his blue cape and cocked hat covered by oiled skins, trotted into the Plaza Mayor, followed by his aides-de-camp, one of whom was Prince Leopold, now King of the Belgians, Dick Duff and his comrades presented themselves at the arched doorway of the ancient Catholic seminary. "A college of priests!" said Dick; "I would infinitely prefer a convent of nuns--but we cannot choose, unfortunately." "Now, Duff," said Garriehorne, "you must behave with propriety." "Oh, you shall see; I am arranging my face to a most becoming length."