Andujar is one of the principal towns of Andalusia, containing about fourteen thousand inhabitants. The streets are wide, and kept tolerably clean, and many of the houses have an appearance that denotes the easy circumstances of their proprietors. The Guadalquivir, after serpentizing through an agreeable valley, passes by the walls of the town, where it is crossed by a stone bridge of several arches. By this river, which is navigable for vessels of burthen from St. Lucar at its mouth in the bay of Cadiz to Seville, the French convey the artillery made in this last city, to supply their batteries against Cadiz. In the foundery at Seville, the French have cast mortars of such a size as will throw the shells much beyond the usual distance. A great quantity of grain and provisions are also conveyed down the Guadalquivir. The plain in which Andujar is situated produces wine, oil, and honey in abundance; and in the vicinity of the town is a very white argillaccous clay, of which earthenware of a good quality is manufactured to a considerable extent, and the town has besides extensive silk manufactures.
Here the English and Spanish prisoners were confined in the same convent, but in separate parts; the Spanish officers and men were indiscriminately crowded into the chapel, for since the desertion of the officers at Alcala Reale no distinction had been made. After breakfast (November 18) I paid my respects to General Blondeau, who received me in the most polite manner, doubtless chiefly owing to the flattering letters of recommendation from General Sebastiani, and gave me a general invitation to his table while we remained at Andujar. This day the dinner party consisted of above eighteen persons, besides the General’s staff; amongst the strangers were the Marquis de Contadura, and the Polish Major commanding the convoy, with whom I had some words on the road respecting the treatment of the prisoners; but we afterwards became good friends, on his changing the measures I complained of. – General Blondeau has all the appearance of a plain honest farmer, both in his dress and address, so that I felt perfectly at home in his company, and on his asking me to give my opinion of the dinner, I candidly recommended a less proportion of garlic and grease, and that the dishes should be sent warm to table. These observations produced an invitation to dinner the next day, and the cook was sent for and ordered to take my directions. The General at the same time informed me, the neighbouring country abounded with hares, and that the next morning he would mount me on his cream coloured charger, take out his fifteen greyhounds, and we should have a fine morning’s coursing, while he would also send out a chasseur with his gun, to procure a variety of game.
After dinner, when the rest of the party had withdrawn, he politely invited me to partake of a bowl of punch and smoke a pipe over a good fire in his cabinet, and we accordingly retired to this recess of sociability, when he at full entertained me with the history of his campaigns, and, like his countrymen,
As this subject was most uninteresting to me, I soon changed it to a disquisition on the female sex, and particularly French and Spanish women, to the latter of whom the General adjudged the palm of beauty; an opinion in which not finding me inclined to coincide, he determined to support it by ocular demonstration, and ringing the bell, it was answered by a beautiful Spanish girl of about eighteen, whose elegant shape, perfect head and bosom, shaded by the most beautiful hair falling in graceful ringlets over her shoulders, might have entitled her to sit for the picture of Venus. This interesting young creature, the General told me, had thrown herself on his protection to escape the brutality of the brigands, and that she officiated as his housekeeper. Without ceremony she drew a chair, seated herself beside me, and filled my glass with excellent punch, which she told me was of her own making. The General absented himself for some time, the fair Spaniard related her interesting story in elegant Spanish, and with a simplicity and modesty that gave it additional interest.Fought all his battles o’er again. . . . . .
And thrice he slew the slain.
Having emptied our bowl of punch, the General insisted on seeing me to my lodgings, where I prevailed on him to partake of a glass of grog, and a segar, which kept us up till four o’clock, when it became my turn to see him home.
Neat morning (November 19) being mounted on the General’s cream coloured horse, which, though shewy, I soon found had neither speed nor bottom, we proceeded in search of the promised sport, attended en prince by about one hundred dragoons. Our pack was composed of several greyhounds, who all ran by the nose, which the French consider a perfection, and were much surprised, when I told them that in England this quality would cause them to be hanged for lurchers. Our party was numerous, and consisted entirely of French officers, except the Marquis de Contadura, a Spanish nobleman, who had deserted his country’s cause and joined its invaders, while the other members of his family, and even his wife, remained steady in their loyalty; indeed this lady informed me, that his former friends had ceased all correspondence with him, although he was one of the most distinguished Hidalgos of Spain. Our sport consisted in a few tolerable gallops, which compl tel t knocked up my charger, and the produce of our three hours course was eighteen hares, the dragoons forming a line and beating across the fields, to put up the animals.
As I had promised to instruct the General’s cook in making hare soup, on our return I repaired to the kitchen, where I found four brace of partridges, brought in by the chasseur, us well as some wild ducks, and knowing that the French roast game to a cinder, I with much difficulty persuaded the cook to dress the ducks simply à la broche, and to serve them up with the sauce I should compose, taking care to specify particularly, that they were not to be put to the fire until the first course was served up. Although the cook and his assistants were diverted with the bizarrerie of the cuisine Anglois, I had the satisfaction to find at dinner that my hare soup was universally relished, and the ducks declared to be delicious. After dinner I retired with the General to his cabinet, where we played a party at piquet, while his charming housekeeper kept our glasses replenished with excellent punch, and promised to bring her sister to be of our party the following evening. Thirty-six Spanish prisoners made their escape this night.
In the morning (November 20) I strolled about the immediate environs of the town, and even for this short distance I was obliged to have an escort, so great was the dread of the brigands. At dinner at the General’s I met a party of ten, one of whom was a clergyman, who spoke his political opinions with a freedom that surprised me, in a French military society, where such kind of discussions are considered as little less than treason; a point in which the French differ entirely from us, who are taught to believe, that truth is most certainly to be attained through the medium of argument.
On retiring to the General’s cabinet, we found the fair housekeeper had not forgot her promise of introducing her sister, whose charms were equal to her own, and whose conversation made the evening pass with additional pleasure.
Next day (November 21), a convoy being expected to arrive from Seville, I went out to meet it, accompanied by Monsieur de Billi, and by some of our officers. Before we fell in with the convoy we met with three Irishmen, without any escort, who pretended they were prisoners taken at Cadiz, but who in reality were deserters from the 87th regiment. There were also with them some English sailors, and among them a young lad named Archibald Lindsey, belonging to the Thames frigate, who told me that he had been constantly kept in irons, and treated with the greatest cruelty, to oblige him to enter into the French service.
We at last met the convoy, which was not very considerable, the number of prisoners in it being only fifty, among whom were a few English soldiers and sailors. I dined as usual with the General, but this day most uncomfortably, from a custom prevalent among the people of condition in Spain, than which nothing can be more contrary to an Englishman’s habits and ideas, that of making complimentary visits during dinner. Just as we had sat down to table the Countess of Superonda and her daughter paid one of those mal à propos visits to a Madame Benedicio, who had arrived with the convoy from Seville, and dined with the General. “Place aux dames” was of course a necessary civility, and I was obliged to retire my chair a yard from the table, which made my situation most disagreeable; and, what was still worse, while the ladies were thus annoying me, as much as if they had studied a week before how to do so, they cried out every moment, “Monsieur, ne dérangez vous pas, je vous en prie.” Unfortunately, neither these polite requests, nor their frivolous chit-chat, consoled me for the almost entire loss of my dinner; and I could not help reflecting, that what one people regards as the height of politeness, another considers as the very extreme of rudeness.
After returning to the salon for a short time, and joining in the public conversation, I took leave of the good General, whose kind attention I cannot easily forget; and on this occasion I must observe, that I have always found the well educated French extremely attentive to, and apparently interested in an Englishman, as if there was something extraordinary in him that called forth their admiration. While we remained in the salon, M. Huet and M. Cavällos, the former Paymaster of the 9th corps, and the latter Paymaster-General of the army of Portugal, attached themselves to me, and laughed heartily at my description of the annoyance I suffered at dinner, from the intrusion of Madame Superonda, who I observed was not badly named; for the enormous rotundity of her person frightened me from entering the lists with her against such dreadful odds, and I thought it therefore most prudent to draw back my chair, even at the expence of my dinner. These observations called forth a number of sarcastic remarks from the Frenchmen on the Countess’s embonpoint; and the levity of manner of her handsome daughter gave occasion to others not less cutting, but of a different nature. I could not decline the invitation of my facetious companions to sup with them, and we did not part till four o’clock in the morning.