Andalusia, while others had made for Catalonia. All had
unquestionably made a considerable sum of money by their frauds,
and would take good care not to fall into the hands of the French.

"They will never be able to return here," Desmond remarked to
Colonel Crofton.

The latter smiled.

"You do not know these people yet, Captain Kennedy, or you would
not say so. Some of these fellows are certainly among the richest
men in the province, and we may be quite sure that, in a very
short time, when the affair has blown over, they will, partly by
influence and more by bribery, obtain from the central junta an
order that no proceedings shall be taken against them. Anything
can be done with money in Spain. There are many upright and
honourable Spaniards, but very few of them take any part in public
affairs, and would not associate with such men as those who are in
the ascendant in all the provincial juntas, and even in the
central body in Madrid.

"In France there is distress enough, and no doubt the men who farm
the taxes are no more scrupulous than they are in Spain, but there
is not the same general corruption, and the French nobility,
haughty and despotic to their tenants as they may be, are not
corrupt, and would scorn to take a bribe. Now that there is a
French king on the throne here, there may be, when matters have
settled down, some improvement; but it will be a long time,
indeed, before the nation can be regenerated, and even the king
will soon find that, if he is to reign peaceably, he must not
interfere too violently with methods that are so common that they
have come to be accepted as inevitable, even by the people who
suffer by them.

"I can assure you that I, myself, have been many times approached
by men who supply forage and other things to the regiment, and
when I have indignantly refused to entertain any proposals
whatever, they have not been at all abashed, but have said boldly
that it was the general custom. I do not believe they thought any
the better of me for refusing even to listen to their offers, but
regarded me as a sort of Don Quixote, with ridiculously
exaggerated ideas of honour."

On the morning following his return to Badajos, Desmond started on his
way to Madrid. Although this time he had no apprehension whatever of a
planned attack, he thought it safer and better to travel north from
Badajos, and skirt the foot of the sierras until he reached the banks
of the Tagus, where there was