But it is impossible to show in a more satisfactory manner, what was the state of a British army in the field than by giving, as I intend to do after a few observations, a letter from his Grace the Duke of Wellington to the Generals commanding divisions and brigades; yet, I trust it will not be deemed presumptuous if I venture to say that the real causes of irregularities and bad conduct on the part of soldiers, are not always perceived or ascribed even by men of the greatest talents and experience to the proper sources; but having, in the retreat from Madrid and Burgos, which is that alluded to by his Grace, had much to do with the part of the rear-guard under Sir Edward Pakenham, who then commanded the 3rd division of infantry, during the absence of Sir Thomas Picton, and having also seen a good deal on many other occasions, I hope I may be considered authorized to remark, that owing to the admirable management and unwearied exertions of Sir Edward Pakenham, the conduct of the division on that retreat was, I may say, tolerably good, except upon the night after we left Madrid; when many a pig was slain in the woods, and the lives of the staff and other officers of the division and brigades seriously endangered in their endeavours, under a sharp fire of musketry, kept up at these animals, to put a stop to such disorderly conduct on the part of the soldiers, as actually left the division, from the hunt having become almost general, at the mercy of the French, had they known what we were about; for they were close at hand, and must have wondered what could have occasioned the uproar and firing in our camp. But what occurred, day after day, during the retreat amongst the numerous disorderly stragglers from the several divisions, some of whom, in spite of all that could be done, occasionally fell into the hands of the enemy, most clearly evinced very bad conduct on the part of the troops, and also a want of management somewhere; but the irregularities, his Grace laments, were comparatively nothing to what occurred in the retreat to Corunna. In this instance, also, the weather, as usual in Spain, in the month of November, was very severe, so much so, that some men who had been barely able to reach the resting, or rather halting place for the night, which was, perhaps, an open ploughed field, become quite a swamp from the rain, were in the morning found dead, from the effects of cold, wet, and want of sufficient food, much of which, from those having charge of it, not knowing in what direction to move, had gone astray; and in one instance, we, as rear-guard, obtained a supply of biscuit, by taking a quantity of it off the hands of a conductor of a brigade of mules, who, in a few minutes more, had he not been prevented, would have led them in amongst the enemy.