Perilous as Lili’s situation now was, he had yet to receive intelligence of events which rendered it more desperate. On the 27th he learned at Salas de los Infantes, by some stragglers who had escaped from the action at Burgos, that that capital was now in the hands of the French. His spies brought him information, that the Intruder was with a great force at Aranda; that the enemy occupied all the bridges and fords of the Duero; and that the Somosierra was threatened: finally, to crown the distressing news of the day, a full account reached him of the battle of Tudela. On every side he was surrounded; to move in any direction seemed equally perilous, and he was utterly ignorant what course had been taken by the relics of the army which he wished to join. In these difficulties his first measure was to march to Canales, four leagues from Salas, where, in the very centre of the mountains, he might hope to remain concealed from the enemy, or resist them to the best advantage if he were attacked. There, amid those difficult and inclement heights, from whence the Arlanza flows toward Lerma, the Duero toward the plains of Castille, the Tiron, the Najerilla, and the Iregua toward Rioja, he remained six days. During this time he obtained sufficient intelligence of the movements of the French to direct his own, and then proceeded towards New Castille, in search of Castaños’s broken army. On the 5th he reached Quintanar de la Sierra, on the 6th San Leonardo. His men travelled the whole of the following day and night, and crossed the Duero at Berlanja. On the 9th they entered Atienza, and here the information which they found served only to occasion new perplexity; for here Lili learned that the central army had passed through, and been pursued by the French; that they had afterwards abandoned Guadalaxara and the heights of Santorcaz: of their farther movements nothing was known. Lili, however, considering all circumstances, was convinced that they must have retreated upon Cuenca, and he directed his march towards the same point. On the 11th, at daybreak, he crossed the great road from Zaragoza to Madrid, at an opportune and happy hour, passing between the last division of the French and their rear-guard, then on the way from Calatayud; and on the day that the Duke del Infantado reached Cuenca, he arrived at Villar de Domingo Garcia, from whence, on the 16th, he passed to the head-quarters of the Commander. During this whole retreat, which was over a tract of nearly four hundred miles, through the most difficult and untravelled ways, this corps had constantly been surrounded by the enemy, who were seldom more than ten or twelve miles distant from them. Food they had none, but what they could procure upon the way; most of the men were barefoot, many of them nearly naked, but their spirits never failed. ♦RETREAT OF THE CENTRAL JUNTA FROM ARANJUEZ.♦