march, the road behind them being thickly dotted by stragglers. The
rearguard, commanded by the general himself, covered the rear, but
fortunately the enemy did not come up until evening; but so numerous were
the stragglers that when the French cavalry charged, they mustered in
sufficient force to repel their attack, a proof that it was not so much
fatigue as insubordination that caused them to lag behind. The rear-guard
halted a few miles short of Friol and passed the night there, which
enabled the disorganized army to rest and re-form. The loss during this
unfortunate march was greater than that of all the former part of the
retreat, added to all the losses in action and during the advance.

The next day the army halted, as the French had not come up in sufficient
numbers to give battle, and on the following day marched in good order
into Corunna, where, to the bitter disappointment of the general, the
fleet had not yet arrived. At the time, Sir John Moore was blamed by the
ignorant for having worn out his troops by the length of the marches; but
the accusation was altogether unfounded, as is proved by the fact that the
rear-guard--upon whom the full brunt of the fighting had fallen, who had
frequently been under arms all night in the snow, had always to throw out
very strong outposts to prevent surprises, and had marched eighty miles in
two days, had suffered far more than the other troops, owing to the fact
that the food supply intended for all had been several times wasted and
destroyed by the excesses of those who had preceded them--yet who, when
they reached Corunna, had a much smaller number missing from their ranks
than was the case with the three other divisions.

After all the exertions that had been made, and the extraordinary success
with which the general had carried his force through a host of enemies,
all his calculations were baffled by the contrary winds that delayed the
arrival of the fleet, and it remained but to surrender or fight a battle,