On reaching Salamanca, I obtained a billet, on presenting which, I was treated with the greatest insolence by the man of the house, who declared that I might enter, but that he had no accommodation for my servant; under these circumstances, I was under the necessity of sitting down in the street, until the soldier went to seek elsewhere for better success. After some farther delay, he procured me another on a public notary, where I was civilly received; but in the middle of the day my _patron_, smelling of tobacco and garlic, came in to take a _siesta_, in one of the two beds in a large recess. I asked him if he intended to sleep there; he replied "_Si, Señor_." To such an arrangement I objected; but he would not give up the point; a struggle then ensued between us, which lasted some minutes, although eventually I made him surrender. He was merely a diminutive old man; but I had become weak from the effects of my fever; and the scene was so amusing, that his own son, with a smiling countenance, was quietly looking on. A hospital mate being put in requisition, the first dose administered to me was an _emetic_, and whenever I complained, the same dose was repeated; therefore, whenever he visited me, I invariably declared _that I was better_. Our army had now occupied the heart of Spain, and the enemy, with rapid strides, were endeavouring to concentrate in the distant provinces round our centre, blowing up magazines, and eating up all before them, like a swarm of locusts. Napoleon was at this period traversing the wilds of Russia with his grand army, and his magnificent and highly-appointed Imperial guard. _The banners of Austria, Prussia, Italy, and the Germanic States, were marching under his control._ The _north_ and _south_ of Europe were in a blaze, and had become the extreme points of contest, which were ultimately to decide this mighty struggle for supremacy. The victory of Salamanca had shaken the combinations of the enemy in all parts of Spain, and put the whole of them in motion. On the 25th of August they destroyed their works before Cadiz, leaving behind them stores, heavy artillery, and mortars, many of the latter having been cast at Seville, by the order of the Duke of Dalmatia, for the purpose of throwing shells into the town of Cadiz.[42] Some Spaniards and British immediately advanced from the lines, and took forcible possession of Seville.