We lost no time in proceeding onwards to overtake the column, and we came up with it in about two hours. The poor jaded prisoners looked at us as if they thought we could protect them from their abominable persecutors, and many of them begged our interference, and corroborated what the dying soldier told us. We heard the same melancholy complaint from the French commandant and his officers. He said he remonstrated with the commanding-officer of the Spaniards, but was answered that the men should keep close in the column, and then they would not be exposed to the danger of being murdered! My friend and I immediately rode up to the Spanish officer in command, and represented the horrid scene which was acted on the preceding night; but instead of a humane and soldier-like consideration of the report, he cooly observed that _he_ did not see them doing it, and that the prisoners must be more careful not to straggle. I asked him to investigate the matter, and concluded by hoping that the horrors of the night before would not be renewed that night. My friend added, that it was a disgrace to the name of a nation to murder their prisoners thus. He said he could not help it, and that these things must happen in spite of the officers. We plainly saw that those men, who from their rank should have been supposed to have known better, were indirectly as much of the base assassin as the wretches they commanded: however, I believe they were not the _regular_ troops of the line, but the militia of the province. God forbid that all the Spanish army were such as this sample! For the sake of human nature, I hope they were not. The Spaniards had certainly suffered much from the French invading army; but nothing should have operated so disgraceful a crime in them, as to murder the helpless prisoners _entrusted to their protection_. The British soldiers, with all their faults, never stained the name of their country with conduct like this: they have pilfered--they have plundered--they have rioted in drunkenness and debauchery; but they never _struck a prostrate foe_: they were the most formidable enemies to the French in Spain; but they were the first to whom the fallen of that nation looked to for protection--and not in _vain_--except in one _grand instance_ * * * But in this, thank Heaven! the _Nation_, although bearing the blame, _unjustly bears it_; for _it was the act of its evil director, and wholly unsanctioned by the hearts of its people_.