the
forests. There was little money afloat, for pay was four months in
arrear, but millions would have been useless where there was nothing to
buy. The country was deserted; every where the inhabitants fled on the
approach of the two armies. Disease was the natural consequence of so
many privations; ague and dysentery undermined the men's strength, and
many poor fellows, unable to proceed, were left upon the road. Horses
died by hundreds, and those which held out were for the most part
sore-backed, one of the greatest calamities that can happen to cavalry
and artillery on the march. Fortunately Soult, who, with ninety thousand
men, followed the harassed army, had some experience of British troops.
And what he had seen of them, especially at Albuera and on the Corunna
retreat, had inspired him with a salutary respect for their prowess.
They might retreat, but he knew what they could and would do when driven
to stand at bay. And therefore, although Wellington was by no means
averse to fight, and actually offered his antagonist battle on the very
ground where, four months previously, that of Salamanca had occurred,
the wary Duke of Dalmatia declined the contest. He played a safe game:
without risking a defeat by a general action, or attempting to drive the
British before him with the bayonet, he hovered about their rear,
disquieted them by a flank movement of part of his force, and had the
satisfaction of knowing that their loss by the casualties and fatigues
of the march and inclemency of the weather, was as great as it would
probably have been had he engaged them. For, besides those who perished
on the road, when the army got into winter quarters, a vast number of
men and officers went into hospital, and months elapsed before the
troops were fully reorganised and fit for the field. At a day's march
from Ciudad Rodrigo, Wellington's rear-guard had a smart skirmish, and
then Soult desisted from his pursuit, and the Anglo-Portuguese were
allowed to proceed without further molestation. Although disastrous, and
in some respects ill managed, the retreat was in no way disgraceful. The
French, very superior in numbers, had, whenever they pressed forward,
been bravely met, and invariably repulsed.

With this retreat, Mr Grattan's Peninsular campaigns closed. He returned
to Ireland, and in the summer of 1814, embarked for Canada. He rather
refers to, than records the service he saw there; taking occasion,
however, for a strong cen