_14th_.--[The price asked for a box being too high, we took reserved seats, and at two o'clock started on foot.... The Plaza de Toros at Valencia is a new building, only completed this year; it holds twenty thousand persons, and is the largest in Spain.... 'El Tato' is the second _matador_ of Spain: he is a well-looking and remarkably well-grown young man, and a well-grown figure is set off to great advantage by the dress. The horses used are only fit for the knacker's yard; they are contracted for at about six pounds each; on this occasion thirteen or fourteen were killed. As regards the horses, it is a cruel and disgusting sight; but as between the bull and the _matador_, the display of courage, eye and presence of mind, as well as of skill and agility, is most interesting and exciting.] We saw 'El Tato' kill six bulls.... [At dinner our conversation turned on the sight of the day. 'Tableau de moeurs espagnoles,' said a Frenchman, raising his shoulders. 'In Peru, where I have seen many bull-fights,' he went on, 'they use high-spirited and valuable horses, and the _picador_ would be for ever disgraced if he allowed the bull to touch his horse.'] _15th_. [From Valencia to Madrid is 308 miles; the time from 4 P.M. to 6.20 A.M., and our train was pretty punctual.] _16th_.--Saw Isabella and her Court enter Madrid. She was shot at [by a foolish, half-witted lad, who did not know how to load his pistol, and had no motive for the crime, or rather attempt]. Delighted with the gallery. [There are a few seats and no visitors; and the wisest thing travellers can do, and by far the pleasantest, is to spend all the hours of all the days they are in Madrid that the gallery is open in contemplating its treasures.] _17th_.--[Immediately after breakfast, Hopie and I went to the Museum. Henry joined us presently, and we remained till four o'clock.] _18th, Thursday_.--[We had intended to make the Toledo excursion to-day, but an undoubted attack of gout confines Henry to the sofa. Hopie and I walked before breakfast to the Church of the Atocha, where we were shown ... in a wardrobe in the vestry, the crimson velvet robe which Isabella had on when the Cure Merino stabbed her. [Footnote: On her way to the church, February 2nd, 1852. The priest, a Franciscan, was garotted in due course.] It has the stain of blood on the lining; the massive embroidery in gold saved her life by turning aside the knife.... After breakfast we took a walk through the unfashionable parts of the town: narrow streets, noisy and crowded, where open stores with bright-coloured scarfs and petticoats collected round them men in the peasant dress--short jackets, breeches, and gaiters partly open. These were picturesque, but the streets and houses were uninteresting enough.