and certain towns are selected as more especially
_mal-composees_, for the headquarters of strong bodies of _guardia
civile_; without which precaution travelling would here be attended with
no small peril. This state of things is attributed partly to the
disorganising effects of the recent civil war, which raged with
peculiar violence in this province. The same causes have operated less
strongly in the adjoining Basque provinces, from their having to act on
a population of a different character,--colder, more industrious, and
more pacifically disposed, and without the desperate sternness and
vindictive temper of the Aragonese.

The inhabitants of this province differ in costume and appearance from
the rest of the Spaniards. Immediately on setting foot on the Aragonese
territory, you are struck by the view of some peasant at the road-side:
his black broad-brimmed hat,--waistcoat, breeches, and stockings all of
the same hue, varied only by the broad _faja_, or sash of purple, make
his tall erect figure almost pass for that of a Presbyterian clergyman,
cultivating his Highland garden. The natives of Aragon have not the
vivacity and polished talkativeness of the Andalucian and other
Spaniards; they are reserved, slow, and less prompt to engage in
conversation, and often abrupt and blunt in their replies. These
qualities are not, however, carried so far as to silence the continual
chatter of the interior of a Spanish diligence. Spanish travelling opens
the sluices of communicativeness even of an Aragonese, as it would those
of the denizens of a first class vehicle of a Great Western train, were
they exposed during a short time to its vicissitudes.

However philosophers may explain the phenomenon, it is certain that the
talkativeness of travellers augments in an inverse ratio to their
comforts. The Spaniards complain of the silence of a French diligence;
while, to a Frenchman, the occupants of the luxurious corners of an
English railroad conveyance, must appear to be afflicted with dumbness.

Saragoza is one of the least attractive of Spanish towns. Its situation
is as flat and uninteresting as its streets are ugly and monotonous. The
ancient palace of the sovereigns of Aragon is now the Ayuntamiento. It
would form, in the present day, but a sorry residence for a private
individual, although it presents externally a massive and imposing
aspect. Its interior is almost entirely sacrificed to an immense hall,
called now the Lo