The Spanish privates took the business not less
seriously than the British, and however they felt the Spanish officers
did not allow themselves to look bored. The marching and countermarching
was of a refined stateliness, as if the pace were not a goose step but
a peacock step; and the music was of an exquisitely plaintive and tender
note, which seemed to grieve rather than exult; I believe it was the
royal march which they were playing, but I am not versed in _such_
matters. Nothing could have been fitter than the quiet beauty of the
spectacle, opening through the westward colonnade to the hills and woods
of the royal demesne, with yellowing and embrowning trees that billowed
from distance to distance. Some day these groves and forests must be for
the people's pleasure, as all royal belongings seem finally to be; and
in the mean time I did not grudge the landscape to the young king and
queen who probably would not have grudged it to me. Our guide valued
himself upon our admiration of it; without our special admiration he
valued himself upon the impressive buildings of the railway station in
the middle distance. I forget whether he followed us out of the
quadrangle into the roadway where we had the advantage of some
picturesque army wagons, and some wagoners in red-faced jackets and red
trousers, and top-boots with heavy fringes of leathern strings.
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