One evening, while reclining on the parched and sun-burnt turf at the tent door, our milch goat nibbling particles of hard biscuit out of my hand, on looking around, I was much struck with the beauty of the scenery; the azure sky was reddened and glowing with a variety of brilliant tints, reflected from the glare of the setting sun, whose bright rays glided the rugged peaks of the towering and great bulging mountains which every where inclosed us. A long line of grey-coated French sentinels lined the opposite ridge, and one of their bands was playing a lively French air. In the valley below us, the little active Basque boys and girls were pelting each other with apples,[56] between the hostile armies, while the straggling and half-starved Spanish soldiers (who dared not pluck the fruit) pretending to enjoy the sport, but in reality were picking up the apples, and carefully depositing them in their small forage bags. In the back ground sat our tanned and veteran batman,[57] employed in mending a pack-saddle, after a long day's forage, and casting an eye of affection towards his animals, which were tied round a stake, feeding, with ears turned back, on some fresh heads of Indian corn. In the meanwhile my messmate was conversing with, and drawing a caricature of, a dowdy woman,[58] (from the Asturias,) loaded with an oblong basket of fresh butter, with her arms akimbo, and her nut-brown knuckles resting on hips which supported no less than four short coarse woollen petticoats; from underneath these branched out a pair of straddling legs, of enormous circumference, the feet being wrapped in brown hairy skins, by way of sandals. In this position of things my contemplative mood was all at once interrupted by an officer of the _rifle corps_ riding up, who, with a mysterious air, whispered me, by way of a profound secret, that he had become acquainted with a Spanish family, residing in the town of Bera, and offered to introduce me, provided I would agree to limit my attentions to the eldest daughter, _Maria Pepa_, who, he acknowledged, was endowed with very ordinary attractions, whereas her sister, _Ventura_, of seventeen, possessed charms of a far superior description. As a matter of course, not wishing to throw any impediments in the way of so liberal an offer, I readily acquiesced in the proposal, and forthwith accompanied him to the _destined_ Casa, for as such I may justly nominate it, as I may affirm that this introduction was subsequently the means of the life of a wounded brother officer being preserved, owing to the kind attention of its inmates, who watched over his mattress night and day, until he was out of danger: his hurt in fact was so severe, that when a doctor was asked how he found the patient, he replied. "Pretty well, but no man can ever recover from such a wound."