Colonel Graham returned on the 9th, bringing the first intimation of the capitulation of the capital. He had been able to proceed no further than Talavera, where he encountered two members of the supreme junta. By them he was told that the French, being from twenty to thirty thousand strong, possessed the Retiro, but that the people retained their arms, and that La-Peña, with thirty thousand men of the army of the centre, was at Guadalaxara; that fourteen thousand of St. Juan’s and Heredia’s forces were assembled at Almaraz, and that Romana, with whom they anxiously desired that sir John Moore would unite, had likewise an army of thirty thousand fighting men. Finally, they assured colonel Graham that the most energetic measures were in activity wherever the enemy’s presence did not control the patriots. Mortifying as it was to find that Madrid, after so much boasting, should have held out but one day, the event itself did not destroy the ground of sir John Moore’s resolution to advance. Undoubtedly it was so much lost; it diminished the hope of arousing the nation, and it increased the danger of the British army by letting loose a greater number of the enemy’s troops; but as a diversion for the south it might still succeed; and as long as there was any hope, the resolution of the English general was fixed, to prove that he would not abandon the cause even when the Spaniards were abandoning it themselves. CHAPTER IV. The forward movement of the British army commenced on the 11th of December. Sir John Moore’s first intention was to march with his own and Hope’s division to Valladolid, with a view to cover the advance of his stores and to protect the junction of sir David Baird’s troops, the rear of which was still several marches behind Astorga. The preparations for a retreat upon Portugal were, however, continued, and sir David was ordered to form magazines at Benevente, Astorga, Villa Franca, and Lugo. This arrangement secured two lines of operation, and permitted a greater freedom of action. The 13th, head-quarters were at Alaejos. Two brigades, and the cavalry under lord Paget at Toro. General Hope was at Torrecilla. The cavalry under brigadier-general Charles Stewart, was at Rueda; having the night before surprised a French post of fifty infantry and thirty dragoons, killing or taking almost the whole number. The prisoners declared that in the French army it was believed that the English were retreating to Portugal. [Sidenote: Appendix, No. 13, section 4.]