ant in
corn-fields and vineyards, until the 12th, when we arrived within two
or three leagues of Burgos, (on its left,) and where we found a body
of the enemy in position, whom we immediately proceeded to attack; but
they evaporated on our approach, and fell back upon Burgos. We
encamped for the night on the banks of a river, a short distance to
the rear. Next morning, at daylight, an explosion shook the ground
like an earthquake, and made every man jump upon his legs; and it was
not until some hours after, when Lord Wellington returned from
reconnoitring, that we learnt that the castle of Burgos had been just
blown up, and the town evacuated by the enemy.

We continued our march on the 13th, through a very rich country.

On the 14th, we had a long harassing day's march, through a rugged
mountainous country, which afforded only an occasional glimpse of
fertility, in some pretty little valleys with which it was
intersected.

We started at daylight on the 15th, through a dreary region of solid
rock, bearing an abundant crop of loose stones, without a particle of
soil or vegetation visible to the naked eye in any direction. After
leaving nearly twenty miles of this horrible wilderness behind us, our
weary minds clogged with an imaginary view of nearly as much more of
it in our front, we found ourselves, all at once, looking down upon
the valley of the Ebro, near the village of Arenas, one of the
richest, loveliest, and most romantic spots that I ever beheld. The
influence of such a scene on the mind can scarcely be believed. Five
minutes before we were all as _lively_ as stones. In a moment we were
all fruits and flowers; and many a pair of legs, that one would have
thought had not a kick left in them, were, in five minutes after, seen
dancing across the bridge, to the tune of "the downfal of Paris,"
which struck up from the bands of the different regiments.

I lay down that night in a cottage garden, with my head on a melon,
and my eye on a cherry-tree, and resigned myself to a repose which
did not require a long courtship.

We resumed our march at daybreak on the 16th. The road, in the first
instance, wound through orchards and luxurious gardens, and then
closed in to the edge of the river, through a difficult and formidable
pass, where the rocks on each side, arising to a prodigious height,
hung over each other in fearful grandeur, and in many places nearly
met together over our heads.

After following the cours