The enemy planted heavy cannon on the bank of the river, and made a show of re-crossing; but LORD PAGET guarded the fords all the day, and at night withdrew with the cavalry. The SEVENTH were constantly in the rear of the army, with the other hussar regiments, during the remainder of the retreat; they, however, suffered little from the swords of the enemy; but the effects of frost, snow, and of a deficiency in the supplies of provision and forage, were severely felt. The want of horse-shoes was a serious evil, which was owing to the impracticability of the forge carts accompanying the regiment. When the army withdrew from the position at Lugo, during the night of the 8th of January, 1809, the SEVENTH HUSSARS were left behind to keep up the bivouac fires, and to cover the retreat, and they were in the rear of the army until it arrived within three leagues of Corunna.
On arriving at Corunna, the regiment mounted two hundred and fifty horses only, out of six hundred and eighty which had marched from that port about two months before, and many of those which remained, were destroyed for the want of transport, which could be obtained only for the officers' horses and for about ninety troop-horses.
The French were defeated in a general action fought on the 16th of January, when SIR JOHN MOORE fell mortally wounded. The army afterwards embarked and returned to England. Thus the British had intercepted the blow which was descending to crush Spain; time had been given to enable the patriots to re-organize their armies; and Bonaparte being recalled to France, by the news that Austria and Russia were arming to oppose him, the war was protracted in Spain. On the passage to England the Despatch transport, having on board Major the Hon. G. C. Cavendish, Captain G. Dukinfield, and Lieutenant the Hon. Edward Waldegrave, with one hundred and thirteen men, and forty-four horses, was wrecked near the Lizard, on the coast of Cornwall, and only seven men escaped.
After its arrival from Spain, the regiment was quartered at Guildford, from whence it proceeded to Weymouth; in May, 1810, it embarked at Liverpool for Ireland, and was stationed at Dublin, with detached troops at Athy and Carlow.