The battalion proceeded to join the fourth division of the Peninsular army at Aranjuez, near Madrid, on the 25th of October. On the morning of the 31st, at eight o’clock, the advanced guard of Marshal Soult, consisting of nine thousand men, attacked the passage of the bridge and fort of _Puerto Largo_, several times during the day, but was defeated with considerable loss. The second battalion of the EIGHTY-SEVENTH regiment on this occasion behaved with great gallantry, and, continuing its march to Madrid, reached it that night, but, on the following one, commenced its retreat to Salamanca, during which the rear-guard, being formed by the third brigade, of which the EIGHTY-SEVENTH then composed a part, was, on the 16th of November, attacked several times by the enemy’s cavalry. In the end of December, the regiment arrived at Salamanca, having lost during the retreat to Portugal, two officers, namely, Ensigns De Courcy Ireland and William Ireland, eight Serjeants, two drummers, and one hundred and eighty-two rank and file, by disease caused by fatigue and extreme bad weather. It rained continually for three days and nights, during which the regiment had no tents to cover them. The men were obliged to sit down in line each night to receive the enemy. Serjeants Coppin, M’Mahon, Milligan, O’Hara, and Palmer, were promoted to be ensigns after the retreat, on account of the good conduct of the regiment. A striking instance of intrepidity and presence of mind occurred on one of those marches in the Peninsula, which so frequently terminated in a general action. During a short halt, the EIGHTY-SEVENTH took up its ground upon a hill not far from the enemy, and the men were sitting down to rest, when a howitzer, that had been masked, opened upon them; some shells fell short, but one alighted in the centre of one of the companies. The men naturally endeavoured to get out of its reach, when James Geraghty, a private grenadier, called out to the men, “that he would show them how they played foot-ball at Limerick;” and immediately kicked the live shell, with its burning fuse, over the edge of the hill: the moment it touched the ground it exploded without injuring a man of the regiment. For this gallant act the commanding officer made the man a handsome present. [Sidenote: 1813.] The army took the field in 1813, and arrived in the neighbourhood of _Vittoria_ on the 18th of June, and on the 21st of that month the regiment was engaged with the French army until dark, when the enemy was routed with immense loss; one hundred and fifty-one pieces of artillery, a stand of colours, with all his baggage, falling into the hands of the victors.