On the 17th of January I set out on a journey to Placentia, four leagues from Monte Hermosa. Being advised to travel in company with the country people, (who generally formed a numerous party,) on account of the suspicious characters above alluded to, I joined the cavalcade, and we all proceeded together. We crossed the Alagon by means of a ponderous flat-bottomed machine, answering the purpose of a ferry-boat, in which was also conveyed the mules, asses and baggage; being safely landed on the opposite bank we trotted forward at a brisk and lively pace, through the open and varied country. Having among our party a number of good-humoured buxom wenches we got on very pleasantly, for these sprightly damsels kept up such a round of merriment and noisy clatter, with occasional singing, that dullness and care with their attendant train of imps were forced to trudge it by another route, since they could get no quarter with us. The rustics, accustomed to exercise and hard Labour, kept up with us, while they tramped heartily along on foot, and the women in particular, being clean-limbed, light heeled, well made and healthy, carried on with all sail ahead, to the no small surprise and admiration of their companions and fellow-travellers. After passing through a poor and hungry-looking village, we entered the wide and dark forest of Carcaboso, where the road, hitherto level, became broken and mountainous. As we approached Placentia the prospect had no redeeming feature; all was desolate and bare, and, with the exception of a few peasants here and there, as wild as the rocks upon which they stood, nothing in the shape of a living creature was visible. We descended a rough and winding path-way, (for it claimed no better name,) towards an ancient bridge by which we crossed the Jerte, and were quickly in the streets of the old town of Placentia.[27] [27] It was in this town that a melancholy circumstance took place on the parade of the 3rd regiment, or Old Buffs. Lieutenant Annesley, of the grenadiers, was inspecting his company, when one of the soldiers, watching his opportunity, took his musket, and levelling it at the officer, shot him through the heart. Annesley was a long time in the Buffs, in which he was much esteemed, and he was a remarkably good-looking young man, from the south of Ireland. The soldier who had a pique against the Lieutenant, for some alleged ill-treatment, was a very different character, and one of those discontented sort of fellows common in every regiment; one who is usually termed by his companions a lawyer. He was shot soon after at Placentia, pursuant to the sentence of a General Court Martial.