The Archduke, eaving behind the main body…

The Archduke, eaving behind the main body of the army, advances with a guard of two thousand cavalry, hurrying back to Barcelona.

The rest of the army marches in two detachments, the division being imposed on them by difficulty of foraging.

Starhemberg marches ahead with the main body of twelve thousand men, a day's march ahead of the British troops, five thousand men under Lord Stanhope.

This division of forces invites disaster in the presence of the duc de Vendôme, a capable and resourceful leader, who pursues the retreating British army with a speed perhaps never equaled in such a season and in such a country.

The middle-aged Frenchman leads his Franco-Spanish army day and night.

In typical Vendôme style, he swims, at the head of his cavalry, the flooded Henares and in a few days overtakes Stanhope, who is at Brihuega with the left wing of the Grand Alliance army.

Stanhope has barely enough time to send off a messenger to the center of the army, which is some leagues from Brihuega, before Vendôme is upon him on the evening of December 8.

The town is invested the next morning on every side.

Blasting the walls of Brihuega with heavy cannon, a mine is sprung under one of the gates.

The British keep up a terrible fire until their powder is spent, then fight desperately against overwhelming odds as Vendôme's men storm the city with bayonets fixed and begin to take the town by bloody close quarters fighting, street by street.

The British set fire to the buildings that their assailants had taken, but in vain.

The British general sees that further resistance will produce only a useless carnage.

He concludes a capitulation and his army becomes prisoners of war on honorable terms.