At the expiration of two days' journey, I reached the entrance of Cuellar, when a soldier came forward, and intimated that no sick could enter the town until the commandant's permission was obtained; and we were actually detained nearly two hours roasting in the mid-day sun, before a free passage was granted us. Much exhausted, and half suffocated, I at length obtained a most excellent billet in a gentleman's house, where I received the greatest attention from an assistant-surgeon belonging to one of the regiments quartered there; being unable to quit my bed. At this time the army had possessed itself of the passes of Segovia and the Guadarama, and had moved forward on the 11th of August towards Madrid, having, in the course of their march, forced the enemy's advanced guard of cavalry to retire; but in the afternoon these again advanced from Malajahonda towards Rosas, to reconnoitre the Portuguese dragoons, who were drawn up on a rising ground above the latter village, and made a show of charging, but when they had arrived sufficiently near to observe the hardened-looking visages of the sturdy French heavy horse, who displayed their long shining weapons, with brass hilts, like the Highland broadsword, with the exception of being one-third longer—at such a sight these our allies simultaneously wheeled about, and scampered off as fast as their Portuguese horses could trot and gallop, followed by their unmerciful pursuers, stabbing and hacking them down, and riding past three pieces of horse artillery that had been overturned. The heavy dragoons of the King's German Legion took to horse as speedily as possible, amidst the confusion, and, after a good deal of savage sabring, the enemy retired, leaving at night the captured guns behind them. El Rey Joseph had retired with his followers behind the Tagus, and the following day our army entered Madrid, where the French had injudiciously left a garrison in the Buen Retiro, who surrendered themselves prisoners of war, just as part of the third division, and some other detachments, were about to escalade the works. A vast quantity of stores, powder, and ball, fell into our hands, besides one hundred and ninety pieces of cannon, principally dismounted. About the 20th of August, a detachment of our regiment, from England, passed through Cuellar, but, as they had experienced a long march during the hot months, an enormous number of them died, and the sick continued to increase from the army in such a ratio, that most of us were ordered to proceed to Salamanca. Accordingly, on the sixth day after my arrival, I was placed in a car, drawn by bullocks, to begin another tedious journey. The sixth division was on parade, having been left at that station as a corps of observation, and to protect the sick and the stores of the army.