72 JAMES MUSPRATT 



commissions in mounted regiments were 

 retained for those favoured in high quarters, 

 and Muspratt was only able to obtain the 

 offer of a commission in the infantry. This 

 he scorned to accept, but still attracted by 

 military and camp life, he followed in the 

 wake of the troops. 



Two or three days after the 22nd July 

 (1812) he visited the bloody but glorious field 

 of Salamanca and during the next month 

 or two was with his countrymen in Madrid. 

 Wellington received the acclaims of the 

 Madrilenos on the I2th August, on his 

 triumphant entry into the capital. General 

 Hill, to whose keeping he handed over the 

 city, was compelled to retreat ten weeks later, 

 and during that time the fever, which had 

 hovered around the pathway of the armies 

 and their halting grounds, seized on young 

 Muspratt. He received scarcely any care, 

 or attention of any sort, and had he not 

 had a splendid constitution he must have 

 succumbed to the disease. 



Before he had risen from his sick bed the 

 city was full of tumult at the rapid approach 

 of the French forces in overwhelming 

 numbers, and a hurried retreat had to be 

 made down the valley of the Tagus west- 



