While in this state of uncertainty, tidings reached Madrid that the Duke
of Noailles was on the march, with fifteen thousand men, to cut off the
retreat of the Austrians, and at the same time Philip was advancing with
a powerful army from Valladolid. This intelligence rendered instant
action necessary. The Austrian party precipitately evacuated Madrid,
followed by the execrations of the people. As soon as the last
battalions had left the city, the ringing of bells, the firing of
artillery, and the shouts of the people, announced the popular
exultation in view of the departure of Charles, and the cordial greeting
they were giving to his rival Philip. The complications of politics are
very curious. The British government was here, through years of war and
blood, endeavoring to drive from his throne the acknowledged King of
Spain. In less than a hundred years we find this same government again
deluging Europe in blood, to reseat upon the throne the miserable
Ferdinand, the lineal descendant of this Bourbon prince.

Charles put spurs to his horse, and accompanied by a glittering
cavalcade of two thousand cavaliers, galloped over the mountains to
Barcelona. His army, under the leadership of his efficient English
general, followed rapidly but cautiously on, hoping to press through the
defiles of the mountains which separated them from Arragon before their
passage could be obstructed by the foe. The troops were chagrined and
dispirited; the generals in that state of ill humor which want of
success generally engenders. The roads were bad, provisions scarce, the
inhabitants of the country bitterly hostile. It was the middle of
November, and cold blasts swept through the mountains. Staremberg led
the van, and Stanhope, with four thousand English troops, occupied the
post of peril in a retreat, the rear. As the people of the country would
furnish them with no supplies, the pillage of towns and villages became
a necessity; but it none the less added to the exasperation of the
Spaniards.

A hurried march of about eighty miles brought the troops to the banks of
the Tagus. As General Staremberg, at the head of the advance guard,
pressed eagerly on, he left Stanhope at quite a distance behind. They
encamped for a night, the advance at Cifuentes, the rear at Brihuega.
The hostility of the natives was such that almost all communication was
cut off between the two sections of the army. In the confusion of the
hasty retreat, and as no en