a gratifying piece of intelligence, with more confidence than I could have done in my letter written on the other side of Peñaranda. General Leith is surpassing our most sanguine expectations in the promise he is giving of a speedy recovery. The bone is fortunately not injured, and there is every reason to hope that he will experience neither stiffness nor other inconvenience from the wound after it is once healed. At headquarters they are full of his praises; he was the Bayard or Gaston de Foix of this battle, "the observed of all observers; he threw a truly chivalrous spirit into all those who were about him. The wits say that while he was advancing he looked like the presiding spirit of this tempest; his division the thundercloud that he rolled after him; and his staff were flashes of lightning that he scattered about him. I believe I have told you before that I ride a little horse they call "Phantom," from the activity with which it flits about; although, on common occasions, more, I think, in the style of Jack o' Lantern than a flash of lightning; and on this occasion I certainly gave him his head pretty liberally. We are longing all of us to hear from you in return for the details we have just sent home. I shall grow thin if we are not kept in perpetual motion till that time. The action of the body is certainly a relief to a restless mind.

'We have been taking many prisoners since I wrote to you last; and it is generally supposed that the French loss owing to this battle amounts nearly to twenty thousand men. Lord Wellington was yesterday in Valladolid. The remains of

Marmont's army are marching upon Aranda, where it is supposed they expect to give the meeting to Joseph Bonaparte, with a force from Madrid. I think it probable we shall be of the party. We march at three to-morrow morning, I believe, in that direction. Joseph will clear our way to Madrid, if he waits for us, depend upon it. I want to write a great many letters, but, kept so constantly moving as we are, I fear it will be long before I shall accomplish my purpose.'

CHAPTER XIII.

1812.

ENTRY INTO MADRID-ENTHUSIASTIC RECEPTION - LIEUTENANT-COLONEL FOR SALAMANCA -BURGOS-UNSUCCESSFUL SIEGE-TERRIBLE RETREAT -NEARLY DROWNED-DEATH OF HIS GRANDFATHER-LAMEGO-SURVEYING IN TRAS-OS-MONTES-ADVANCE OF THE ARMY OVER DOURO TO VITTORIA.

'Madrid: August 14, 1812.

ASK Goully whether I have not fulfilled, like a true knight, the vow I made to her some time since.

'Immediately after I wrote to you from the neighbourhood of Valladolid, the army marched upon Segovia and St. Ildefonso, crossed the mountains by the Guadarrama and Navacerrada passes, and on the 12th (the Prince's birthday) Lord Wellington entered Madrid. Yesterday the whole army arrived in the neighbourhood, and to-day we are investing the Retiro, which the French have strengthened, and occupied in the same manner as was done by the convent at Salamanca. If I live a thousand years I shall never pass such another day as yesterday, so full of delirium that the only assurance I have this morning that it was not all a dream, is that every one I meet has dreamed the same dream with myself; and I then dispose myself to believe that all was real. God forbid that anything which passed yesterday should lose its title to reality, or that the constitution so solemnly proclaimed, so enthusiastically received, should ever sink again into a mere name. I am afraid this will be a mad epistle, but I must write to you, and if I write nonsense do not be alarmed; I shall probably be better when I write again. If the brain was heated to ecstasy yesterday, it is pardonable that it should be a little unnerved to-day; it will recover its equilibrium by degrees;

but yesterday was too much for one not indifferent to what greatly concerns a generous people. I believe Goully knows Madrid; ask her, then, what effect she thinks likely to have been produced upon one entering Madrid for the first time, loving the Spaniards as I do, glorying in their cause as I do, at the very hour when the constitution was proclaiming with a pomp worthy the occasion; and every loving soul in Madrid cried, in the madness of their joy, "God save King Ferdinand!" "Glory to the English nation!" and saluting the English as they entered the town with the fondness of idolatry. I do not know who was profane enough to preserve his composure throughout this ceremony, but I am sure that a great many of us stood much in need of such a friend as the Roman general used to carry about with him during his triumph, and who repeated every five minutes the wholesome admonition, "Remember thou art a man." Madrid is a beautiful town; we all think we have seen nothing so finely connected in its buildings, so uniformly good, anywhere. Magic seems to have had a hand in providing it with at least half its population; but I will give you a better description of it when I am more sober, and have seen more. The attention we are obliged to give to this Retiro at such a moment is extremely annoying. It is not of sufficient importance as a military object to counterbalance, in our own estimation at least, the privations it occasions us. We are now encamped about a mile and a half from the town, having the Retiro between us and it.

'Our late rambles have been such as an amateur who came for the sole purpose of seeing the country would have chosen to follow, step for step. From Valladolid we visited the fine town of Segovia; the Palace, magnificent, I must call it, of San Ildefonso; the Guadarrama Mountains; the Escurial, Madrid. How shall I trace out the future? Aranjuez, Toledo; I should be sorry to fix a boundary to the amateur's exploits, yet my pencil is not bold enough to trace out for him further at this moment. A piece of singular good fortune, and in which the amateur is generally more favoured than we are who make a military excursion, has been that we have had time allowed us

to give to each of these objects the attention they merit; unless I must except San Ildefonso, for I should like to live there. But we have the advantage over all the amateurs who have ever gone before us, or perhaps of all who will ever follow us, in a visit to these places, in that we have had the satisfaction of driving before us as we entered them a band of detestable fellows, with the king of them at their head; and this circumstance has given us an additional pleasure in beholding them, similar to that which one feels in beholding a beautiful and valuable possession of one's own. The poor fugitive king (for I believe he is not a bad man) marched from Madrid in the direction of Aranjuez with a few French and several thousand Spaniards, who, if truly reported of, are at this moment more false to him than they have hitherto been to their country. I hope I shall soon have to tell you of a Spanish army raised in Madrid, in which the double obligation of patriotism and loyalty will have a common object, not frightfully at variance, as among the tribe I have just been talking of.

'... If I get into Madrid with this abominable Retiro out of the way, there is no knowing how far I may transgress myself against the law of correspondence between you and me, and I shall therefore, in the true spirit of policy, refrain from passing any censure for what appears to me your long silence. Tell Goully I shall begin making fresh tours when I can trust myself; I should deserve to have my wings clipped for such as I should make now, if I made any. There are not many Madrids, or I should write with more consideration both for you and myself; for writing paper has been very scarce among us, and I learned the consequences that will result to you from my extravagance in this particular.

'One o'clock. The Retiro has this moment surrendered, and I am going into Madrid. Adieu.'

Lord Wellington, in his despatch to Lord Bathurst of the same day, says:

:

The army moved forward yesterday morning, and its left took possession of the city of Madrid, the king having

retired with the Army of the Centre by the roads of Toledo and Aranjuez, leaving a garrison in the Retiro.

It is impossible to describe the joy manifested by the inhabitants of Madrid upon our arrival, and I hope that the prevalence of the same sentiments of detestation of the French yoke, and of the strong desire to secure the independence of their country, which first induced them to set the example of resistance to the usurper, will induce them again to make exertions in the cause of their country, which, being more wisely directed, will be more efficacious than those formerly made.

The heavy guns with which we took Salamanca are in the rear of the army, and I hope we shall not find it difficult to take the Retiro, but I believe that we must break ground before the place.'

On the following day, August 15, 1812, Lord Wellington wrote announcing that the garrison of the Retiro surrendered. by capitulation yesterday. He says:

'We invested the place completely on the evening of the 13th; and the troops were preparing to attack the works preparatory to the arrangements to be adopted for the attack of the interior lines and building, when the governor sent out an officer to desire to capitulate, and I granted him the honours of war-the baggage of the officers and soldiers of the garrison, etc.—as specified in the agreement.'

There were found in the Retiro 189 pieces of brass ordnance in excellent condition, 900 barrels of powder, 20,000 stand of arms, and considerable magazines of clothing, and provisions, and ammunition. The eagles of the 13th and 51st Regiments, which were also found there, were sent by Lord Wellington to H.R.H. the Prince Regent.

The Escurial: August 21, 1812. They have taken care for the present that Madrid shall not be our Capua, and have quartered four divisions of