as if nothing had ever passed. Lord Castlereagh said that he never entertained the slightest doubt of it, and his only object respecting you had been to employ you in the manner in which your services were most likely to be useful to the country' (Wellington, Suppl. Desp. vol. v.) Moore left Lisbon on 27 Oct. 1808, most of the troops being already on their way to Burgos. He was assured that he would receive the support of sixty to seventy thousand Spanish troops, under Blake and Romana. George Canning told the Marquis Wellesley that Moore was actually offered the chief command of the Spanish armies, but declined it (ib. vi. 350). Almeida was reached on 8 Nov. ; on 11 Nov. the British entered Spain ; at Ciudad Rodrigo they were greeted with the greatest enthusiasm ; on 13 Nov. they reached Salamanca.
Moore's services, great and varied as they had been, had not apparently given him the experience in dealing with administrative difficulties in the field that Wellington gained in his Indian campaigns ; while John Hookham Frere, then British plenipotentiary in Spain, was injudicious and meddlesome (cf. Frere, Works, with memoir by Bartle Frere, i. 89-122). At the end of November Moore found that the promises of support from the Spaniards were worthless. The Spanish armies were everywhere beaten in detail. His own difficulties, especially as regarded money, were accumulating daily. He decided to retreat into Portugal, ordering Hope, who had moved into Spain by a different route from Lisbon, to join him at once, and Baird, who was advancing, to return to Corunna. He did not propose to abandon the Spaniards altogether, but thought they could be aided by action elsewhere. On 1 Dec. he wrote to Sir Charles Stuart at Madrid that money must be had for the troops, even if it cost a hundred per cent. In reply he received an answer softening down the news of the latest Spanish defeat, and accompanied by a request from the whole junta that he would move to the defence of Madrid, which was prepared to make an energetic defence. The very next day, unknown to Moore and Frere, the Prince of Castelfranco and Don Thomas Morla were negotiating with the French to give up the city. Moore countermanded the retreat, believing that the altered circumstances justified his making a diversion in favour of the Spaniards by attacking Soult on the Carrion. He effected a junction with Baird at Majorga on 20 Dec. 'On 21 Dec. the British army, twenty-nine thousand strong admirable troops, as the historian Napier describes them, robust, well-disciplined, needing but a campaign or two to make them perfect was at Toro. On 23 Dec. Moore advanced with his whole force. The infantry was within two hours' march of the enemy when an intercepted letter brought the news that Napoleon in person had entered Madrid three weeks before, and that the French, who altogether had three hundred thousand men in Spain, had already cut off Moore's line of retreat into Portugal. It was resolved to retire at once on Vigo or Corunna. Thereupon commenced the historic retreat, over 250 miles of difficult country in midwinter, ending with the arrival of the dispirited army at Corunna on 13 Jan. 1809. A vivid description is given by the historian Napier. On 16 Jan. the transports had arrived, the embarkation had begun, when the French were seen descending the heights in three columns, the brunt of the attack falling on Lord William Bentinck's brigade in the British right wing. Moore, who had just been applauding a gallant charge of the 50th, under Majors Charles James Napier and Stanhope, was close to the 42nd highlanders, when a grape-shot struck him from his horse, shattering his left shoulder. A staff-officer, Henry Hardinge, afterwards Lord Hardinge [q. v.], went to his assistance, and a sergeant and two men of the 42nd carried him in a blanket to his quarters in the town, where he was laid on a mattress, and the news was presently brought that the French were beaten and in full retreat. His thoughtfulness for others rather than himself continued to the last ; but in his latest moments of consciousness he expressed a hope that England would consider that he had done his duty ; that his country would do him justice. At evening he died. A question arose whether his remains should be brought home, but it was decided to bury him in the citadel, beside his friend Robert Anstruther [q. v.], who had died the day the army reached Corunna. At midnight the officers of his staff carried his body to the quarters of his friend Colonel Thomas Graham, afterwards Lord Lynedoch [q. v.], in the citadel. Some soldiers of the 9th foot dug his grave ; and as the dark January morning broke, and the French guns on the heights reopened fire on the harbour, he was hastily laid to rest 'with his martial cloak around him.' The burial service was read by the Rev. J. H. Symons, then chaplain of the brigade of guards, and afterwards vicar of St. Martin's, Hereford (see Mr. Symons's note in Notes and Queries, 1st ser. vi. 274). An authenticated account of the burial is given in James Carrick Moore's 'Narrative of the Campaign in Spain in 1809.' The army sailed for England the same day. The historian Napier writes : 'The guns of
