his servant. Did you return from Spain with
the general, Captain Fromart?"

"Yes. There was nothing doing at the moment, and he gave us the
option of accompanying him or staying behind. We vastly preferred
the trip, as we considered it, for of course we had no idea that
the duke was about to be sent to Flanders. You hear a good deal of
the climate of Spain. It is said to be lovely. I vow that it is
detestable. The heat, when it is hot, is terrible, and when it is
not hot, there is a bitter wind that chills you to the bone. A
great portion of the country is but half populated, and you can go
a day's march without coming to a village. The roads are
villainous. There is nothing to buy, and it is as much as the
transport can do to get, I will not say enough bread, but a bare
sufficiency to maintain the troops. Moreover, the duke has been
constantly thwarted in his plans by the Spaniards, who are ready
enough to make promises, but never take a single step towards
their fulfilment. The duke's temper is of the shortest, and he has
quarrelled openly with most of the leading Spaniards, and has
threatened, four or five times, to throw up his command and return
to France. He did do so a year ago, but affairs went so badly,
without him, that the cause of France was seriously imperilled by
his absence, and it was at the urgent request of Philip that he
returned; for at that time the English general, Peterborough, was
striking dismay all over the country, and if the duke's advice had
not been taken, all our officers acknowledge that we should
speedily have crossed the Pyrenees."

"And do the population incline towards Philip or the Austrian?"

"As a rule, they incline towards the party which seems likely to
win. They would shout in Madrid as loudly for the Archduke Charles
as for Philip. Catalonia and Valencia are the exceptions. There
the balance of feeling is certainly in favour of the Austrian, but
this is principally because they are afraid of Peterborough, whom
they regard as almost supernatural, and fear he would take
vengeance upon those who deserted his cause. But there is no
accounting for them; cities have held out as stoutly for one
candidate as for the other, without any apparent reason, so far as
we can observe.

"We fight for Philip because he is Louis's grandson, and it is
important in the interest of France to stand closely allied with
his party. But as for the Spaniards with us, I can tell you that
we have but