The threatening appearance of the various French armies in Spain, which compelled Lord Wellington to raise the siege of Burgos, compelled him ultimately to withdraw into [Sidenote: Despatch to Lord Bathurst, dated 26 Oct. 1812.] Portugal for winter quarters. In leaving Burgos he found the activity of the commanding officers of Artillery very beneficial. It enabled him to carry off all his serviceable guns and stores in a single night; but the absence of cattle prevented his removing the few French guns which he had captured in the storming of the hornwork. During the retreat, the services of the Horse Artillery, under Major Downman, were of a high order, and called forth the commendation of Lord Wellington. The troop which most distinguished itself was Major Bull’s, commanded by Captain Norman Ramsay, Major Bull having been twice wounded,--on one occasion so severely,--when in advance with the Cavalry at Torquemada on the night of the 12th September, 1812,--that he was obliged to be invalided. He does not reappear in the story of his gallant troop until the battle of Waterloo. The retreat terminated on the 24th November, and the troops went into cantonments, the head-quarters being stationed at Frenada, and the Artillery at Malhada Sourda, three miles distant. An old friend reappears, in the winter of 1812-13, to the burrower among Artillery records. Captain--now Brevet-Major--Frazer, who last was mentioned in this work in the account of the operations at Monte Video and Buenos Ayres, arrived to take command of Major Bull’s troop during that officer’s absence. His own troop being on home service, he more easily obtained permission to assume this duty. He had not been many weeks in the Peninsula before he received a more important command,--that which had hitherto [Sidenote: Sir A. Frazer’s Letters, page 89.] been held with such distinction by Major Downman,--the command of the Royal Horse Artillery with Lord Wellington’s armies. Although a reserved man in public, and fond of solitude, he was almost diffuse in his correspondence. Happily for those who have succeeded him in the Corps, his letters from the Peninsula have been collected and published by one who served in his troop for seven years,--General Sir Edward Sabine. These letters, and the unpublished letters of Sir A. Dickson, give together a most graphic picture of the operations of 1813, 1814, and 1815, which cannot but lose by the necessary condensation of the historian.