November 7th. — HALTED this night at Alba de Tormes and next day marched into quarters in Salamanca, where we rejoined Lord Wellington with the army from Burgos.
    On the 14th the British army concentrated on the field of their former glory, in consequence of a part of the French army having effected the passage of the river above Alba de Tormes. On the 15th, the whole of the enemy's force having passed the river, a cannonade commenced early in the day, and it was the general belief that, ere night, a second battle of Salamanca would be recorded. But, as all the French armies in Spain were now united in our front and out-numbered us so far, Lord Wellington, seeing no decided advantage to be gained by risking a battle, at length ordered a retreat, which we commenced about three in the afternoon. Our division halted for the night at the entrance of a forest about four miles from Salamanca.
    The heavy rains which usually precede the Spanish winter had set in the day before; and, as the roads in that part of the country cease to be roads for the remainder of the season, we were now walking nearly knee-deep in a stiff mud into which no man could thrust his foot with the certainty of having a shoe at the end of it when he pulled it out again; and, that we might not be miserable by halves, we had this evening to regale our chops with the last morsel of biscuit that they were destined to grind during the retreat.
    We cut some boughs of trees to keep us out of the mud and lay down to sleep on them, wet to the skin; but the cannonade of the afternoon had been succeeded after dark by a continued firing of musketry, which led us to believe that our piquets were attacked, and, in momentary expectation of an order to stand to our arms, we kept ourselves awake the whole night, and were not a little provoked when we found next morning that it had been occasioned by numerous stragglers from the different regiments shooting at the pigs belonging to the peasantry, which were grazing in the wood.
    November 16th. — Retiring from daylight until dark through the same description of roads. The French dragoons kept close behind, but did not attempt to molest us. It still continued to rain hard, and we again passed the night in a wood. I was very industriously employed during the early part of it feeling, in the dark, for acorns, as a substitute for bread.
    November 17th. — At daylight this morning the enemy's cavalry advanced in force; but they were kept in check by the skirmishers of the 14th light dragoons until the road became open, when we continued our retreat. Our brigade-major was at this time obliged to go to the rear, sick, and I was appointed to act for him.
    We were much surprised, in the course of the forenoon, to hear a sharp firing commence behind us, on the very road by which we were retiring; and it was not until we reached the spot that we learnt that the troops who were retreating, by a road parallel to ours, had left it too soon and enabled some French dragoons, under cover of the forest, to advance unperceived to the flank of our line of march, who, seeing an interval between two divisions of infantry, which was filled with light baggage and some passing officers, dashed at it, and made some prisoners in the scramble of the moment, amongst whom was Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Paget.
    Our division formed on the heights above Samunoz to cover the passage of the rivulet, which was so swollen with the heavy rains as only to be passable at particular fords. While we waited there for the passage of the rest of the army, the enemy, under cover of the forest, was at the same time assembling in force close around us and the moment that we began to descend the hill towards the rivulet we were assailed by a heavy fire of cannon and musketry, while their powerful cavalry were in readiness to take advantage of any confusion which might have occurred. We effected the passage, however, in excellent order, and formed on the opposite bank of the stream, where we continued under a cannonade and engaged in a sharp skirmish until dark.
    Our loss on this occasion was considerable, but it would have been much greater had not the enemy's shells buried themselves so deep in the soft ground that their explosions did little injury. It appeared singular to us, who were not medical men, that an officer and several of our division, who were badly wounded on this occasion in the leg, and who were sent to the rear on gun-carriages, should have died of a mortification in the limb which was not wounded.
    When the firing ceased we received the usual order "to make ourselves comfortable for the night," and I never remember an instance in which we had so much difficulty in obeying it; for the ground we occupied was a perfect flat, which was flooded more than ankle deep with water, excepting here and there, where the higher ground around the roots of trees presented circles of a few feet of visible earth, upon which we grouped ourselves. Some few fires were kindled, at which we roasted some bits of raw beef on the points of our swords and ate them by way of a dinner. There was plenty of water to apologize for the want of better fluids, but bread sent no apology at all.
    Some divisions of the army had commenced retiring as soon as it was dark, and the whole had been ordered to move so that the roads might be clear for us before daylight. I was sent twice in the course of the night to see what progress they had made; but such was the state of the roads that even within an hour of daylight two divisions, besides our own, were still unmoved, which would consequently delay us so long that we looked forward to a severe harassing day's fighting; a kind of fighting, too, that is the least palatable of any, where much might be lost and nothing was to be gained. With such prospects before us, it made my very heart rejoice to see my brigadier's servant commence boiling some chocolate and frying a beef-steak. I watched its progress with a keenness which intense hunger alone could inspire, and was on the very point of having my desires consummated when the general, getting uneasy at not having received any communication relative to the movements of the morning, and, without considering how feelingly my stomach yearned for a better acquaintance with the contents of his frying-pan, desired me to ride to General Alten for orders. I found the general at a neighbouring tree, but he cut off all hopes of my timely return by desiring me to remain with him until he received the report of an officer whom he had sent to ascertain the progress of the other divisions.
    While I was toasting myself at his fire, so sharply set that I could have eaten one of my boots, I observed his German orderly dragoon at an adjoining fire stirring up the contents of a camp-kettle that once more revived my departing hopes, and I presently had the satisfaction of seeing him dipping in some basins, presenting one to the general, one to the aide-de-camp and a third to myself. The mess which it contained I found, after swallowing the whole at a draught, was neither more nor less than the produce of a piece of beef boiled in plain water; and, though it would have been enough to have physicked a dromedary at any other time, yet, as I could then have made a good hole in the dromedary himself, it sufficiently satisfied my cravings to make me equal to anything for the remainder of the day.
    We were soon after ordered to stand to our arms, and, as day lit up, a thick haze hung on the opposite hills, which prevented our seeing the enemy; and, as they did not attempt to feel for us, we, contrary to our expectations, commenced our retreat unmolested; nor could we quite believe our good fortune when, towards the afternoon, we had passed several places where they could have assailed us in flank with great advantage and caused us a severe loss, almost in spite of fate; but it afterwards appeared that they were quite knocked up with their exertions in overtaking us the day before and were unable to follow further. We halted on a swampy height, behind St Espiritu, and experienced another night of starvation and rain.
    I now felt considerably more for my horse than myself, as he had been three days and nights without a morsel of any kind to eat. Our baggage-animals, too, we knew were equally ill off, and, as they always preceded us a day's march, it was highly amusing, whenever we found a dead horse or a mule lying on the road-side, to see the anxiety with which every officer went up to reconnoitre him, each fearing that he should have the misfortune to recognize it as his own.
    On the 19th of November we arrived at the convent of Caridad, near Ciudad Rodrigo, and once more experienced the comforts of our baggage and provisions. My boots had not been off since the 13th, and I found it necessary to cut them to pieces to get my swollen feet out of them.
    This retreat terminated the campaign of 1812. After a few days' delay, and some requisite changes about the neighbourhood, while all the world were getting shook into their places, our battalion finally took possession of the village of Alameida for the winter, where, after forming a regimental mess, we detached an officer to Lamego and secured to ourselves a bountiful supply of the best juice of the grape which the neighbouring banks of the Douro afforded. The quarter we now occupied was naturally pretty much upon a par with those of the last two winters, but it had the usual advantages attending the march of intellect. The officers of the division united in fitting up an empty chapel, in the village of Galegos, as an amateur theatre, for which, by the by, we were all regularly cursed from the altar by the bishop of Rodrigo. Lord Wellington kept a pack of foxhounds, and the Hon. Captain Stewart, of ours, a pack of harriers, so that these, in addition to our old Bolero meetings, enabled us to pass a very tolerable winter.
    The neighbouring plains abounded with hares; it was one of the most beautiful coursing countries, perhaps, in the world; and there was also some shooting to be had at the numerous vultures preying on the dead carcasses which strewed the road-side on the line of our last retreat.
    Up to this period Lord Wellington had been adored by the army, in consideration of his brilliant achievements and for his noble and manly bearing in all things; but, in consequence of some disgraceful irregularities which took place during the retreat, he immediately after issued an order conveying a sweeping censure on the whole army. His general conduct was too upright for even the finger of malice itself to point at; but as his censure on this occasion was not strictly confined to the guilty, it afforded a handle to disappointed persons, and excited a feeling against him on the part of individuals, which has probably never since been obliterated.
    It began by telling us that we had suffered no privations; and, though this was hard to be digested on an empty stomach, yet, taking it in its more liberal meaning, that our privations were not of an extent to justify any irregularities, which I readily admit; still, as many regiments were not guilty of any irregularities, it is not to be wondered if such should have felt, at first, a little sulky to find, in the general reproof, that no loophole whatever had been left for them to creep through; for I believe I am justified in saying that neither our own nor the two gallant corps associated with us had a single man absent that we could not satisfactorily account for. But it touched us still more tenderly in not excepting us from his general charge of inexpertness in camp arrangements; for, it was our belief, and in which we were in some measure borne out by circumstances, that, had he placed us at the same moment in the same field with an equal number of the best troops in France, that he would not only have seen our fires as quickly lit, but every Frenchman roasting on them to the bargain, if they waited long enough to be dressed; for there, perhaps, never was, nor ever again will be, such a war-brigade as that which was composed of the forty-third, fifty-second and the rifles.
    That not only censure but condign punishment was merited in many instances is certain; and had his lordship dismissed some officers from the service and caused some of the disorderly soldiers to be shot it would not only have been an act of justice, but probably a necessary example. Had he hanged every commissary, too, who failed to issue the regular rations to the troops dependent on him, unless they proved that they were starved themselves, it would only have been a just sacrifice to the offended stomachs of many thousands of gallant fellows.
    In our brigade, I can safely say, that the order in question excited "more of sorrow than of anger;" we thought that, had it been particular, it would have been just; but, as it was general, that it was inconsiderate; and we, therefore, regretted that he who had been, and still was, the god of our idolatry should thereby have laid himself open to the attacks of the ill-natured.
    Alameida is a Spanish village, situated within a stone's throw of the boundary-line of the sister-kingdom; and, as the headquarters of the army, as well as the nearest towns, from whence we drew our supplies, lay in Portugal, our connexions, while we remained there, were chiefly with the latter kingdom; and, having passed the three last winters on their frontier, we, in the month of May, 1813, prepared to bid it a final adieu with very little regret. The people were kind and hospitable, and not destitute of intelligence; but somehow they appeared to be the creatures of a former age and showed an indolence and want of enterprise which marked them born for slaves; and, although the two cacadore regiments attached to our division were at all times in the highest order and conducted themselves gallantly in the field, yet I am of opinion that as a nation they owe their character for bravery almost entirely to the activity and gallantry of the British officers who organized and led them. The veriest cowards in existence must have shown the same front under such discipline. I did not see enough of their gentry to enable me to form an opinion about them but the middling and lower orders are extremely filthy both in their persons and in their houses, and they have all an intolerable itch for gambling. The soldiers, though fainting with fatigue on the line of march, invariably group themselves in card-parties whenever they are allowed a few minutes' halt; and a non-commissioned officer, with half-a-dozen men on any duty of fatigue, are very generally to be seen as follows, viz. one man as a sentry, to watch the approach of the superintending officer, one man at work, and the non-commissioned officer, with the other four, at cards.
    The cottages in Alameida, and, indeed, in all the Spanish villages, generally contain two mudfloored apartments: the outer one, though more cleanly than the Irish, is, nevertheless, fashioned after the same manner, and is common alike to the pigs and the people; while the inner looks more like the gun-room of a ship-of-war, having a sitting-apartment in the centre, with small sleeping-cabins branching from it, each illuminated by a port-hole about a foot square. We did not see daylight "through a glass darkly," as on London's Ludgate Hill, for there the air circulated freely, and mild it came, and pure, and fragrant, as if it had just stolen over a bed of roses. If a man did not like that, he had only to shut his port and remain in darkness, inhaling his own preferred sweetness! The outside of my sleeping-cabin was interwoven with ivy and honeysuckle, and among the branches a nightingale had established itself and sung sweetly, night after night, during the whole of the winter. I could not part from such a pleasing companion, and from a bed in which I had enjoyed so many tranquil slumbers, without a sigh, though I was ungrateful enough to accompany it with a fervent wish that I might never see them again; for I looked upon the period that I had spent there as so much time lost.

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