In the mean time important events had occurred in Europe, which called the second battalion of the FOURTEENTH Regiment into active service. After reducing Germany to submission to his will, and forcing Russia to accede to his decrees, Napoleon was prompted by his restless ambition to attempt the subjugation of Spain and Portugal. The Spaniards and Portuguese rose in arms to assert their national rights, and in the summer of 1808 Portugal was delivered by a British army under Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Wellesley. In the autumn Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore received orders to advance with a body of British troops from Portugal, into the heart of Spain, at the same time several regiments were sent from the United Kingdom to co-operate in this enterprise. The second battalion of the FOURTEENTH Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Jasper Nicolls, embarked from Cork for Spain, and landed at Corunna, forming part of the force under Lieutenant-General Sir David Baird. Advancing up the country, the British troops encountered many difficulties and privations, and the Spanish armies, with which they were directed to co-operate, were defeated and dispersed by the legions of Napoleon, who had three hundred thousand men in Spain. To confront this host of veterans, the British general had not twenty-five thousand men; yet, with that intrepidity for which he was always distinguished, he advanced and menaced the enemy's lines. Sir David Baird's division joined the troops under Sir John Moore on the 20th of December, at Majorga, from whence the army advanced to Sahagun, and preparations were made for attacking the French troops under Marshal Soult; but information being received that Napoleon was advancing at the head of an overwhelming force, the army retreated towards the coast. In this retrograde movement of two hundred and fifty miles, along roads covered with snow, over rivers and mountains, and along narrow defiles, the troops endured privation and suffering of various kinds; but the ability of their commander was conspicuous, and the army arrived, unbroken, at _Corunna_, in January, 1809. The soldiers obtained shelter, food, and repose in the town and neighbouring villages, and their wasted strength was recruited while they waited the arrival of shipping to transport them to England.