Taking our departure the next morning, two of us being some short distance behind the detachment, at a very lonely spot, we observed a Spaniard of most ferocious aspect, with huge mustachios, a capacious _sombrero_, and clad in a leathern jacket, like a cuirass, with a short broad sword by his side, and a brace of pistols in his broad belt, which was buckled round his waist. We were instantly convinced that he was a robber on the look out, in the capacity of a spy, for his hidden _camarados_; however, saluting him as we passed, which he returned by a cold and distant bend of the head, the few baggage animals being in sight, we thought it necessary to warn the soldiers in charge to be on their guard, although, generally speaking, the British might pass all over the country without danger; yet some robberies had been committed in Spain and Portugal also by banditti. This day we halted at the village of Rosas, about two leagues from the capital. The country is bare and hilly, and even when within half a mile of Madrid, the traveller might fancy himself in a bare wilderness, as the town stands isolated in the midst of a rugged plain, skirted on the north side by distant mountains, and there is not the least sign of traffic, with the exception of a few mules or asses loaded with chopped straw, the usual forage (instead of hay) given to animals; all other vegetation being parched up, and even the shallow river of the Manzanares having at that time ceased to flow. After the short absence of seven weeks, having travelled, as already described, more than two hundred and thirty miles, and nearly recovered from the effects of my fever, I rejoined our first brigade quartered in Madrid, as well as the third division; the second brigade was stationed two leagues from the town, in support of those troops cantoned in the line of the Tagus. Here I received the welcome information, that since I had quitted the division they had not seen the enemy. The troops were quartered in the various convents and monasteries, and the officers were billeted on the most splendid houses; many of these had white papers stuck on the windows, to denote that the former occupiers of them had followed the fortunes and court of _El Rey Joseph_, thereby deserting their country's cause.