e he found himself stretched upon his back; but then he
struggled furiously against his assailants, who were no others than Don
Baltasar and the gipsy. So violent were his efforts, that he got the
gipsy under him, and was on the point of regaining his feet, when
Colonel Villabuena drew a pistol from the breast of his coat, and with
its but-end dealt him a severe blow on the head. The unlucky muleteer
again fell stunned upon the ground. In another minute his hands were
tightly bound, and Don Baltasar and his companion carried him swiftly
down one of the transversal corridors. Descending a flight of stone
steps, the two men with their burthen entered a range of subterranean
cloisters, at whose extremity was a low and massive door, which Don
Baltasar opened, and they entered a narrow cell, having a straw pallet
and earthen water-jug for sole furniture. Close to the roof of this
dismal dungeon was an aperture in the wall, through which a strong iron
grating, and the rank grass that grew close up to it, allowed but a
faint glimmer of daylight to enter. Placing their prisoner upon the
straw bed, Don Baltasar and Jaime took away his sabre and the large
knife habitually carried by Spaniards of his class. They then unbound
his hands, and, carefully securing the door behind them, left him to the
gloom and solitude of his dungeon.

FOOTNOTES:

[9] From an early period of the war, the Spanish dragoon regiments, both
light and heavy, were armed with the lance, that weapon being considered
the most efficient for the mountain warfare in which they were
frequently engaged.

SOMETHING MORE ABOUT MUSIC.

We mused on music some while ago; and as the subject still haunts
us--very much after the manner of an obstinate ghost that refuses to be
laid, even by the choicest Latin--we are strongly disposed to try the
effect of giving it full swing for once; and in idle mood, too idle to
oppose ourselves to its tyranny, letting it carry us whither it will, in
the hope that, in return for our complacence, it may in future suffer us
to conduct our meditations according to our own pleasure, and give that
sad and serious thought, which their merits demand, to the gravities of
this life--to corn-laws and _poor_-laws, (of all sorts!) and the Irish
question, and the debates to which all these give occasion, in reading
which we have already worn out we know not how many pairs of spectacles,
and one pair of excellent eyes; and last, not least,