At ten o'clock at night (of the same day we had entered Arganda,) the bugle-horns sounded the assembly, which never occurred without the most urgent necessity, as it was not customary for the horns to sound when manœuvring near the enemy, except under peculiar circumstances. The orderlies usually passed round, and gave the word to _pack up and accoutre_, no farther questions being asked either by officers or soldiers, and all repaired to the alarm post, and patiently awaited farther orders; and that so often without seeing an enemy, owing to the variety of marches and countermarches in war, that such orders had ceased to be a novelty or any surprise to us. The division soon fell in: I had to precede the column on duty with another officer, who was mounted on a sorry lank pony, which, on being touched on the near or off side, kicked out with one leg at every mule that passed him, in the most singular manner. I never recollect laughing more heartily; the muleteers cursed and swore, and particularly one who received a severe kick on the leg. This class of men wear a large hat, or a pocket-handkerchief of various colours, tied tight round the head, with the corner hanging down their backs, and a sort of red Moorish sash round the loins, dark blue, or green velveteen breeches, open at the knee, and leather gaiters, (with innumerable buttons up the sides,) open in the middle, so as to show the calf of the leg to advantage. The mules are very gaily caparisoned, with bells at the head, and the backs closely shaved; the tails tied up in bunch, with red or other coloured worsted binding; and when they are loaded, the men sit on the top astride, singing boisterously. They usually bivouac in the woods, when the day's journey is finished, cover themselves with a tarpauling, and allow their mules to browse about all night. These muleteers robbed the English army of hundreds of mules during the war. I lost two myself, and, during the time the light division was quartered in Madrid, the _ladrones_ caused false keys to be made to fit the stable-doors, and actually, in the middle of the day, took the animals clear off, which were never afterwards heard of. At the end of a tedious night march, the division bivouacked in the morning on a rising ground, about a mile from Alcala, watching the right bank of the river Henarez, and the cross-road leading from Arganda; the enemy, however, did not make their appearance, and at night we entered the town. The troops lay on their arms under the piazzas, which run through nearly all the principal streets; the inhabitants were so fearful that we might become engaged in the streets, that they illuminated the town for three successive nights.