The year 1812 was the most eventful in the Peninsular War. Already marked by the successful sieges described in the last chapter, it was to be distinguished by events, both in Spain and elsewhere, which were to have a great effect on subsequent hostilities. The English General--who opened the year with an unexpected attack on Ciudad Rodrigo--was destined, ere it should be much more than half over, to defeat his enemy in a pitched battle, drive him ignominiously before him, and enter the capital of Spain in triumph. These successes were to be further heightened by Soult raising the long-continued siege of Cadiz, in alarm at the intelligence of the French disasters in the north. Scarcely, however, were these advantages to be realised, ere the whole picture should change. The conqueror at Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz should find himself fretting hopelessly before the castle of Burgos; and the General, who entered Madrid in triumph at the head of a victorious army, should lead that same army--in disorder and semi-mutiny--from Salamanca to Portugal, in retreat. The light and shade in the military operations of the Peninsula were also to be intensified by news from without, which should mightily affect the powers whose armies had faced one another for so many years. Another war should be thrust upon England’s preoccupied people;--her own children in America should seize the opportunity of gratifying a seemingly undying jealousy;--while, away in the colds of Russia, the greatest army that even Napoleon had ever commanded, should dissolve, as utterly as the snows amid which they died should melt before the strengthening sun. It was, indeed, a year of great events: but of these the two with which this history has most interest were the battle of Salamanca and the siege of Burgos. [Sidenote: Colonel Dickson to D.-A.-Gen. dated Orbada, 30 June, 1812.]