but made a gallant defence and fought its way through the enemy. In the commencement of 1809, Napoleon had again quitted Spain in order to conduct the war on the Danube in person. His marshals, left by him in different parts of the Peninsula, took Saragossa, drove the British under Sir John Moore out of the country, and penetrated into Portugal, but were ere long again attacked by a fresh English army under the Duke of Wellington. This rendered the junction of the German troops with the main body of the French army necessary, and they consequently shared in the defeats of Talavera and Almoncid. Their losses, more particularly in the latter engagement, were very considerable, amounting in all to two thousand six hundred men; among others, General Porbeck of Baden, an officer of noted talent, fell: five hundred of their wounded were butchered after the battle by the infuriated Spaniards. But Wellington suddenly stopped short in his victorious career. It was in December, 1809, when the news of the fresh peace concluded by Napoleon with Austria arrived. On the Spaniards hazarding a fresh engagement, Wellington left them totally unassisted, and, on the 19th of November, they suffered a dreadful defeat at Ocasia, where they lost twenty-five thousand men. The Rhenish confederated troops were, in reward for the gallantry displayed by them on this occasion, charged with the transport of the prisoners into France, and were exposed to the whole rigor of the climate and to every sort of deprivation while the French withdrew into winter quarters. The fatigues of this service greatly thinned their ranks. The other German regiments were sent into the Sierra Morena, where they were kept ever on the alert guarding that key to Spain, while the French under Soult advanced as far as Cadiz, those under Massena into Portugal; but Soult being unable to take Cadiz, and Massena being forced by the Duke of Wellington to retire, the German troops were also driven from their position, and, in 1812, withdrew to Valencia, but, in the October of the same year, again advanced with Soult upon Madrid.