Shortly after this the 51st went into winter quarters at Pena Macor, while Wellington perfected his arrangement for converting the blockade of Ciudad Rodrigo into a siege. That the regimental officers did not take a very bright view of the situation is evident from the following letter from Major Rice:-- "PENA MACOR, _4th December 1811_. "We have got papers down to the 15th November. Grand news was expected, such as Northern Coalition--the old joke! I wish we could get those Russian bears on foot; nothing can be done here but by something of the sort. Bony, I fear, is too deep, and John Bull such a cursed fool that I am no longer sanguine in the cause and the issue of the glorious struggle. The army has again been on the _qui vive_, but nothing done. A convoy of provisions was attempted to be thrown into Ciudad Rodrigo, but our lord was too deep. He has good intelligence and certain requisites. General Renaud passed some days here with us. He likes good living and plenty of wine--a tolerable sort of Frenchman. He was taken by Don Julian, the famous guerilla partisan. He thinks Bony will never forgive him, and is alarmed. I shall struggle on a little longer before I give in--take another round or two--the odds against me. My poor brother major[64] died the other day--a short illness, which terminated with a melancholy disease--what the wigs call _timor orsi_--otherwise, fear of hell." So 1811 closed, and was followed by a year of strenuous work for the British troops--a year of great victories, yet one also of arduous marches, vast hardships, and heavy casualties. And Major Sam Rice managed to "struggle on" to the end of it. CHAPTER IX. CIUDAD RODRIGO AND BADAJOZ.