When we got to Cromley, it was too early to go to the spike, and we walked several miles farther, to a plantation beside a meadow, where one could sit down. It was a regular caravanserai of tramps—one could tell it by the worn grass and the sodden newspaper and rusty cans that they had left behind.

The soldier is not unfrequently destitute of portions of his uniform, or his regimental coat and continuations are in such hopeless rags, that even in the sultry summer the slate-coloured great-coat is worn as a hide-all and slut-cover, like the begrimed blanket of a Mexican lépero. Clumsy gaiters, ill-buttoned and discoloured, descend over shoes which, in one case out of three, are broken in pieces, disclosing to view the naked toes of the men—such in Spain are the glories of the vida military!

It was surer to go down myself: and more virtuous than continued fœtor and promiscuity in Tafileh.

The cat's body decayed rapidly.