From Cordova, I resolved to travel to Seville by the diligence; and finding a vacant place in the _coupé_, I left Cordova at one o’clock next day. The views are very charming in leaving Cordova; fine vistas are caught among the neighbouring mountains, from which, embowered in wood, several convents look down upon the plain. I saw here, for the first time, the date tree, which in the kingdoms of Valencia and Murcia, adds so great a charm to the landscape: two of them were seen towering far above all the surrounding trees, in a convent garden,--their tall stems, and fan-like branches, carrying me in fancy, to the tent of the wandering Arab, and the fountains of the desert. All the way from Cordova to Carlotta, the country is well cultivated and well wooded; and to a great distance on every side of this newest of the new settlements, neat white cottages are scattered over the plain. Carlotta, itself, is a remarkably pretty town; and the inhabitants looked clean and well fed. We arrived at Ecija about seven o’clock, after crossing the Xenil by a fine bridge, and found an excellent posada, and a supper that would have done honour to a French table. We were also regaled by the most delicious perfume; for the walls of the _patio_ were entirely covered with jasmine, of a luxuriance and fragrance beyond any thing that I had ever seen elsewhere; every blossom was larger than the largest periwinkle. I had sufficient time and light, before supper, to stroll through the town, which is more flourishing, and even more populous than Cordova. Returning to the posada by the Plaza Mayor, a fine spacious square, with a double row of balconies the whole way round, I stepped into a barber’s shop, and while he was preparing his implements, I ventured to ask him if he had heard the news? “What news?” said he. “Why,” replied I, “that with the assistance of God, the king’s troops have defeated and taken prisoners the whole army of refugees.” I was not aware of any such news, but I wished to hear the sentiments of an Andalusian. “Thank God! thank God!” said he, “and so we shall be allowed to live in our own way after all.”