“Seated on a bank on the side of the road, and munching a raw turnip which I had gathered from the adjacent field, and just as I was feeling that I never could regain my regiment and must be taken a prisoner, a black-eyed drummer of the 96th came from the village, whither the young fellow had been to cater. Seeing I was exhausted, and almost as young as myself, and not yet a hardened old soldier, he slipped round his canteen, which he had contrived to fill with red wine, and gave me a hearty drink. He thus saved me from being taken prisoner by the French, who were rapidly advancing, and who, if they had had a regiment of cavalry in pursuit, might at that moment have taken prisoners, or driven into the mountains, a good third of the British forces. “With the draught of wine I trudged on again, and came in, at eleven o’clock of the 10th, into the town of Betanzos, and rejoined my regiment, which had marched in about fifty men only, with the colours, though ere night it was made up to its strength of six hundred and odd men. This fact alone shows better than a world of other evidence, what forced night-marches with a starving and retreating army must infallibly produce. At Tugo the 36th regiment was fit to fight anything; in two days it was a rabble. “Happily for me I tumbled into a shoemaker’s house. His handsome young wife washed my feet with warm water, and furnished me with stockings, while her husband came to my further aid with shoes. But my swollen feet had no time to recover. On the following day the whole army, such as it was, passed over the river, blowing up the bridge and taking up its last position. “There, remnant as it was, the army formed a respectable line—Corunna within two miles of us, and our fleet ready to back us. Provisions and shoes were served out to us, and with such luxuries the bivouac, even in the month of January, was well borne. In truth, the army got into comparative good spirits, and on the 15th the French crossed the last bridge we had blown up, and were defiling at a respectable distance along our front. We were quite refreshed, and ready to repel them. The picquets, indeed, of our (Hope’s) division had a sharp encounter in that evening, and when looking through the colonel’s glass, I saw Colonel Mackenzie, of the 5th regiment, fall dead from his grey horse whilst leading an attack on two of the enemy’s guns.