The main army having marched to Madrid, Sir Rowland Hill advanced to act in concert with Lord Wellington. The ROYALS advanced on the 27th of August, and on the 6th of September were at Villa Nova; left that place on the 13th of September; crossed the pontoon bridge at Almarez on the 19th, and arrived at Talavera, in the valley of the Tagus, on the 28th; from whence they proceeded to Tembleque, in New Castile. Lord Wellington having left Madrid and besieged the castle of Burgos, Lieutenant-General Sir Rowland Hill took up a position on the Tagus, and the ROYALS marched by Aranjuez,--a beautiful palace of the kings of Spain,--to Morata. The enemy, however, concentrated his forces, and advanced, with an immense superiority of numbers, to relieve Burgos, when Lord Wellington raised the siege and retired, and Lieutenant-General Sir Rowland Hill made a corresponding movement. The ROYALS commenced retiring on the 27th of October by Madrid and the pass of the Guadarama mountains, and arrived, on the 12th of November, at Salamanca; from whence they proceeded on the 15th to _Arguilla_, and on the 17th had an encounter with the enemy, when four men and one horse were wounded. Leaving Arguilla on the 28th of November they proceeded to Zelreira, and towards the end of December to Alcantara. [Sidenote: 1813] The ROYAL DRAGOONS passed the winter and spring of 1813 in Spanish Estremadura, from whence they advanced, in the middle of May, to turn the enemy's position on the northern bank of the Douro; and, arriving at Salamanca on the 26th of that month, they forded the river Tormes above the town, and encountered a body of French infantry and a few cavalry under General Villatte, who was retiring from Salamanca in the direction of Alba de Tormes, when the right squadron, led by Lieutenant-Colonel CLIFTON, charged the enemy with signal gallantry, sabred a number of men, and took one hundred and forty-three prisoners, with four tumbrils. In this action the ROYALS had five horses killed, and ten men and three horses wounded: Major Purvis's charger was also killed under him. After this action the ROYALS bivouacked near La Orbado until the 3rd of June, when they advanced, with the army, on Valladolid. The enemy withdrew his troops from Madrid, and retired on Burgos; and on the approach of the allied army blew up the castle and fell back towards the Ebro, and subsequently to _Vittoria_, where he prepared to give battle. The allied army followed in pursuit; and in this long and toilsome march the ROYALS were subjected to much fatigue and privation,--frequently marching from daybreak in the morning until dusk in the evening, through a romantic and difficult tract of country, and climbing mountains and passing defiles and rugged precipices heretofore deemed impracticable. The horses, from practice, ascended and descended the mountains with astonishing facility; and on the 20th of June the troops were in front of the enemy's position.