Lord Wellington at length discovered this, and in his next campaign profited by the example which the enemy showed him, and which ought to have been followed long before. On the 20th of October, 1812, the siege of Burgos was raised, and the troops before it retired towards the Douro, while the portion of the army which occupied Madrid made arrangements to join them when the proper time should arrive. Accordingly, the fort of La China was mined, the battering train found there removed, and all the necessary arrangements for retreat were completed. On the 31st of October the army quitted Madrid, and bivouacked in the Royal Park near the palace. The conflagration of La China continued all night, and story after story fell in until it became a heap of ruins. The following day, the 1st of November, the advance of the French entered Madrid, and on that day our army commenced its retreat upon Rodrigo and Portugal. On the side of Burgos matters were in the same state. The attack against the citadel, having failed, in default of means to carry it on, the army before it broke up on the 20th of October, and by the admirable arrangements of Lord Wellington, who took the command in person, gained two marches on the enemy before he was aware of it. Nevertheless a vigorous pursuit took place, and the Burgos army was closely pressed, until it reached the heights of San Christoval, where it was joined by the troops that had occupied Madrid. Up to this time no serious disaster had occurred, although from the heavy rains that had fallen, which rendered the roads nearly impassable, and the scanty supply of rations which the troops received, it was feared that, if Soult pressed on vigorously, our army would shortly become much disorganised; but the Marshal took six days, that is to say, from the 10th to the 16th of November, to examine the ground occupied by the British General. On the 14th, our army was in battle array close to the spot where we had fought the battle of Salamanca the July before, but Soult, although at the head of 90,000 soldiers, and two hundred pieces of cannon, declined the offer, and confined his operations to the sending a brigade or two on the line of our communication with Rodrigo. On the 17th, Lord Wellington commenced his march for the frontiers of Portugal, and from that moment he was closely pursued by Marshal Soult. The rain fell in torrents, almost without any intermission; the roads could no longer be so called, they were perfect quagmires; the small streams became rivers, and the rivers were scarcely fordable at any point. In some instances the soldiers were obliged to carry their ammunition boxes strapped on their shoulders to preserve them, while passing a ford which on our advance was barely ankle deep. The baggage and camp-kettles had left us; the former we never saw until we reached Rodrigo, and the latter rarely reached us until two o’clock in the morning, when the men, from fatigue, could make but little use of them.