The convent of San Pasqual was, previous to the French invasion, the richest in paintings of any of the convents or monasteries in Madrid. It possessed the compositions of Van Dyk, Veronese, Titian, Da Vinci, Jordan, and many other eminent painters. The greater number of these have been removed; but there are still several left, that well repay the trouble of a visit to the church of the convent. There is the “Taking of Christ in the Garden,” by Van Dyk; a “Conception,” by Españoletto; “St. Francis in Prayer,” by Veronese; and one or two others by Españoletto. Several more valuable than these, among the rest, “Jacob Blessing his Sons,” by Guercino, have been removed from the church into the interior; but the porter informed me, that it was intended shortly to restore them again to the different chapels in the convent church. These paintings were bequeathed to this convent by its founder, the Duke de Medina y Almirante de Castilla; affording another example of the manner in which pictures may come into the possession of nuns. There is reason to believe that in the convent of Santa Teresa also, there are paintings of value. During the time of the scarcity in Madrid, several pictures that used to adorn the church of the convent, were openly sold; and these have since been replaced by others,--several of them, works of merit, which could not have come from any other quarter than the interior of the convent. But in the church, there is yet preserved a picture of great beauty and value: this is a copy of the “Transfiguration of Raphael,” by Julio Romano; one of the most successful disciples of that great master. This picture, also, was left to the convent by its founder, the Prince Astillano, under the condition that it should never be parted with. The only other convents worth visiting, are the Las Salesas Nuevas, which contains a Crucifixion of Greco; and Las Descalzas Reales, in which will be found a good statue of the Infanta Doña Juana, daughter of Charles V., from the hand of Pompeyo Leoni. I regret much that I was not able to see the palace with so much attention as it deserves. I delayed from time to time making any application for admission; and in the mean while, the situation of the queen bringing the court from La Granja two months sooner than usual, the palace was only to be seen at short intervals, when the king and queen left it; and as the hour of the _sortie_ was uncertain, the interval between obtaining the order, and their majesties return, was very limited.