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Exam Ref AI-900 Microsoft
Azure AI Fundamentals
Julian Sharp
Exam Ref AI-900 Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals
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I would like to dedicate this book to my
wife, Clare Sharp, for her constant
support and demonstrating that
learning never stops.
—JULIAN SHARP
Contents at a glance
Introduction
CHAPTER 1 Describe Artificial Intelligence workloads and considerations
CHAPTER 2 Describe fundamental principles of machine learning on Azure
CHAPTER 3 Describe features of computer vision workloads on Azure
CHAPTER 4 Describe features of Natural Language Processing (NLP)
workloads on Azure
CHAPTER 5 Describe features of conversational AI workloads on Azure
Index
Contents
Introduction
Organization of this book
Preparing for the exam
Microsoft certifications
Quick access to online references
Errata, updates, & book support
Stay in touch
Chapter 1 Describe Artificial Intelligence workloads and considerations

Skill 1.1: Identify features of common AI workloads
Describe Azure services for AI and ML
Understand Azure Machine Learning
Understand Azure Cognitive Services
Describe the Azure Bot Service
Identify common AI workloads
Skill 1.2: Identify guiding principles for Responsible AI
Describe the Fairness principle
Describe the Reliability & Safety principle
Describe the Privacy & Security principle
Describe the Inclusiveness principle
Describe the Transparency principle
Describe the Accountability principle
Understand Responsible AI for Bots
Understand Microsoft’s AI for Good program
Chapter summary
Thought experiment
Thought experiment answers
Chapter 2 Describe fundamental principles of machine learning on

Azure
Skill 2.1: Identify common machine learning types
Understand machine learning model types
Describe regression models
Describe classification models
Describe clustering models
Skill 2.2: Describe core machine learning concepts
Understand the machine learning workflow
Identify the features and labels in a dataset for machine
learning
Describe how training and validation datasets are used in
machine learning
Describe how machine learning algorithms are used for
model training
Select and interpret model evaluation metrics
Skill 2.3: Identify core tasks in creating a machine learning
solution
Understand machine learning on Azure
Understand Azure Machine Learning studio
Describe data ingestion and preparation
Describe feature selection and engineering
Describe model training and evaluation
Describe model deployment and management
Skill 2.4: Describe capabilities of no-code machine learning
with Azure Machine Learning
Describe Azure Automated Machine Learning
Describe Azure Machine Learning designer
Chapter summary
Thought experiment
Chapter 3 Describe features of computer vision workloads on Azure

Skill 3.1: Identify common types of computer vision solution
Introduce Cognitive Services
Understand computer vision
Describe image classification
Describe object detection
Describe optical character recognition
Describe facial detection, recognition, and analysis
Skill 3.2: Identify Azure tools and services for computer vision
tasks
Understand the capabilities of the Computer Vision
service
Understand the Custom Vision service
Understand the Face service
Understand the Form Recognizer service
Chapter summary
Thought experiment
Chapter 4 Describe features of Natural Language Processing (NLP)

workloads on Azure
Skill 4.1: Identify features of common NLP workload scenarios
Describe Natural Language Processing
Describe language modeling
Describe key phrase extraction
Describe named entity recognition
Describe sentiment analysis
Describe speech recognition and synthesis
Describe translation
Skill 4.2: Identify Azure tools and services for NLP workloads
Identify the capabilities of the Text Analytics service
Identify the capabilities of the Language Understanding
service (LUIS)
Identify the capabilities of the Speech service
Identify the capabilities of the Translator service
Chapter summary
Thought experiment
Chapter 5 Describe features of conversational AI workloads on Azure

Skill 5.1: Identify common use cases for conversational AI
Identify features and uses for webchat bots
Identify common characteristics of conversational AI
solutions
Skill 5.2: Identify Azure services for conversational AI
Identify capabilities of the QnA Maker service
Identify capabilities of the Azure Bot Service
Chapter summary
Thought experiment
Index
Acknowledgments
I’d like to thank the following people without whom this book would not
have been possible.
Thank you to Loretta and Charvi for your patience and encouragement
with this project. To the various editors for your correcting my errors. To
Francesco for the quality of the review and your helpful suggestions. To
Andrew Bettany for originally recommending me for this book and also for
involving me in your Cloud Ready Graduate program, where I learned how
to refine the content and the messaging around AI Fundamentals for a wider
audience, making this a much better book as a result.
About the author
JULIAN SHARP is a solutions architect, trainer, and Microsoft Business
Applications MVP with over 30 years of experience in IT. He completed his
MA in Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. Julian has spoken at
Microsoft Ignite and many other community events. For the past 15 years, he
has been a Microsoft Certified Trainer delivering certification training
around Dynamics 365, Azure, and the Power Platform. He has taught
thousands of students with a high pass rate. Julian has a passion for Artificial
Intelligence to enhance user experience and customer data in the solutions
that he designs.
Introduction
A rtificial Intelligence (AI) impacts almost everything we do today with

devices and computers. The purpose of the AI-900 exam is to test your
understanding of the fundamental concepts of AI and the AI services
Microsoft provides in Azure. The exam includes high-level concepts for AI
and machine learning (ML), as well as the capabilities of particular Azure AI
services.
Having a high-level appreciation of AI is important to everyone involved
in building and using solutions that make use of AI. There are no prerequisite
skills or experience required.
Like the exam, this book takes a high-level approach and is geared
toward giving you a broad understanding of the use cases for AI, as well as
the common AI services in Azure. Both the exam and the book are at such a
high level that there is no coding involved.
This book covers every major topic area found on the exam, but it does
not cover every exam question. Only the Microsoft exam team has access to
the exam questions, and Microsoft regularly adds new questions to the exam,
making it impossible to cover specific questions. You should consider this
book to be a supplement to your relevant real-world experience and other
study materials. If you encounter a topic in this book that you do not feel
completely comfortable with, use the “Need more review?” links you’ll find
in the text to find more information and take the time to research and study
the topic. Great information is available on Microsoft Docs, and in blogs and
forums.
Organization of this book

This book is organized by the “Skills measured” list published for the exam.
The “Skills measured” list is available for each exam on the Microsoft Learn
website: http://aka.ms/examslist. Each chapter in this book corresponds to a
major topic area in the list, and the technical tasks in each topic area
determine a chapter’s organization. If an exam covers six major topic areas,
for example, the book will contain six chapters.
Preparing for the exam

Microsoft certification exams are a great way to build your resume and let
the world know about your level of expertise. Certification exams validate
your on-the-job experience and product knowledge. Although there is no
substitute for on-the-job experience, preparation through study and hands-on
practice can help you prepare for the exam. This book is not designed to
teach you new skills.
We recommend that you augment your exam preparation plan by using a
combination of available study materials and courses. For example, you
might use the Exam Ref and another study guide for your “at home”
preparation and take a Microsoft Official Curriculum course for the
classroom experience. Choose the combination that you think works best for
you. Learn more about available classroom training and find free online
courses and live events at http://microsoft.com/learn. Microsoft Official
Practice Tests are available for many exams at http://aka.ms/practicetests.
Note that this Exam Ref is based on publicly available information about
the exam and the author’s experience. To safeguard the integrity of the exam,
authors do not have access to the live exam.
Microsoft certifications
Microsoft certifications distinguish you by proving your command of a broad
set of skills and experience with current Microsoft products and
technologies. The exams and corresponding certifications are developed to
validate your mastery of critical competencies as you design and develop, or
implement and support, solutions with Microsoft products and technologies
both on-premises and in the cloud. Certification brings a variety of benefits
to the individual and to employers and organizations.
NEED MORE REVIEW? ALL MICROSOFT CERTIFICATIONS

For information about Microsoft certifications, including a full list of
available certifications, go to http://www.microsoft.com/learn.
Check back often to see what is new!
Quick access to online references

Throughout this book are addresses to webpages that the author has
recommended you visit for more information. Some of these links can be
very long and painstaking to type, so we’ve shortened them for you to make
them easier to visit. We’ve also compiled them into a single list that readers
of the print edition can refer to while they read.
Download the list at
MicrosoftPressStore.com/ExamRefAI900/downloads.
The URLs are organized by chapter and heading. Every time you come
across a URL in the book, find the hyperlink in the list to go directly to the
webpage.
Errata, updates, & book support

We’ve made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this book and its
companion content. You can access updates to this book—in the form of a list
of submitted errata and their related corrections—at:
MicrosoftPressStore.com/ExamRefAI900/errata
If you discover an error that is not already listed, please submit it to us at
the same page.
For additional book support and information, please visit
MicrosoftPressStore.com/Support
Please note that product support for Microsoft software and hardware is
not offered through the previous addresses. For help with Microsoft software
or hardware, go to http://support.microsoft.com.
Stay in touch
Let’s keep the conversation going! We’re on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/MicrosoftPress.
CHAPTER 1
Describe Artificial Intelligence

workloads and considerations
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is computers thinking and acting in a way that
simulates a human. AI is a technology that takes information from its
environment and responds based on what it learns. The goal of AI is to create
a machine that can mimic human behavior.
AI is more than learning—it is knowledge representation, reasoning, and
abstract thinking. Machine learning (ML) is the subset of AI that takes the
approach of teaching computers to learn for themselves, rather than teaching
computers all that they need to know. ML is the foundation for modern AI.
ML focuses on identifying and making sense of the patterns and structures in
data.
ML is about machines’ reasoning and decision-making using software that
learns from past experiences. ML allows computers to consistently perform
repetitive and well-defined tasks that are difficult for humans to accomplish.
Over the past few years, machine learning algorithms have proved that
computers can learn tasks that are tremendously complicated for machines,
demonstrating that ML can be employed in a wide range of scenarios and
industries.
AI is now being embedded into the software you use today, sometimes
without us realizing it. For example, Microsoft PowerPoint has a feature
called Design Ideas that offers suggestions for themes and layouts for slides,
and Microsoft Word offers suggestions to rewrite sentences to improve
clarity.
This chapter is an overview of how Artificial Intelligence and machine
learning can be used in different scenarios and industries ethically.
Skills covered in this chapter:

Skill 1.1: Identify features of common AI workloads
Skill 1.2: Identify guiding principles for Responsible AI
Skill 1.1: Identify features of common AI

workloads
Artificial Intelligence is software that mimics human behaviors and
capabilities. Today, software can use AI to automatically detect and predict
actions that machines, and humans, should take.
Microsoft Azure provides a set of services for Artificial Intelligence and
machine learning that you can utilize to create your own intelligent solutions.
Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals is a certification that requires you to have
entry-level knowledge of AI and ML concepts and knowledge of the related
Microsoft Azure services.
This skill covers how to:

There is a wide and rapidly growing series of services in Azure for AI and
ML. There are three services that are the focus of the AI-900 Fundamentals
exam:
Cognitive Services A set of prebuilt services that you can easily use
in your applications.
Azure Bot Service A service to help create and deploy chatbots and
intelligence agents.
Azure Machine Learning A broad range of tools and services that
allow you to create your own custom AI.
We will be exploring some of the features and capabilities of these three

services in this book. However, these services do not work in isolation; they
utilize many other Azure services to deliver solutions such as the following:
Storage
Compute
Web Apps
HD Insights
Data Factory
Cosmos DB
Azure Functions
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
Example ML architecture
To explain how Azure services support Azure Machine Learning, consider
the scenario of a company that wants to provide recommendations to its
users. By providing personalized targeted recommendations, users will more
likely purchase more of their products and user satisfaction will increase.
Figure 1-1 shows an example of an ML architecture to support
recommendations.
FIGURE 1-1 Example ML architecture

Azure Machine Learning is the foundation for Azure AI. In Azure Machine
Learning, you can build and train AI models to make predictions and
inferences.
Training a machine learning model requires lots of data and lots of
computing resources. Azure provides many services for preparing data and
then analyzing the data.
Azure ML is a platform for training, deploying, and managing machine
learning models. We will cover machine learning in more detail in Chapter
2.
Machine learning model types
Machine learning makes use of algorithms to identify patterns in data and
take action. The types of machine learning models created from the outputs of
the algorithms are as follows:
Anomaly Detection Finds unusual occurrences.

Classification Classifies images or predicts between several
categories.
Clustering (including K-Means Clustering) Discovers structures.
Regression Predicts values.
NOTE MODEL TYPES

Understanding the differences between these model types is
foundational knowledge for this exam.
For each model type, you will need to understand the following:
How they work

What they do
What they can be used for
The metrics they produce
We will address these points later in the book.

Cognitive Services is a suite of prebuilt AI services that developers can use
to build AI solutions. Cognitive Services meets common AI requirements and
allow you to add AI to your apps more quickly with less expertise.
Cognitive Services are machine learning models trained by Microsoft
with massive volumes of data. While you can build your own custom AI
models to perform the same analyses, Cognitive Services allow you to meet
many AI requirements easily around processing images and analyzing text.
However, Cognitive Services only address a subset of AI requirements. You
can create your own machine learning models to meet more complex and
specific needs.
Cognitive Services are available as a set of REST APIs for the following
capabilities:
Computer vision, including images and video

Decision, including Anomaly Detector
Language, including text analysis and Language Understanding
Speech, including translation
Intelligent search, including knowledge mining
Cognitive Services have a broad and growing range of features and

capabilities. The Azure AI Fundamentals exam focuses on two of these
capabilities:
Image processing
Natural Language Processing (NLP)
A great example of the use of Cognitive Services is the free Seeing AI

app that uses these two capabilities. Designed for visually impaired people,
this app turns the physical environment into an audible experience, locating
faces, identifying objects, and reading documents.
Figure 1-2 shows the Seeing AI app in the App Store with sample
screenshots and an overview of its features.
FIGURE 1-2 The Seeing AI app
We will be looking at the computer vision and Natural Language

Processing services of Azure Cognitive Services in Chapters 3 and 4.

The Azure Bot Service is a cloud-based platform for developing, deploying,
and managing bots. Azure Bot Services provide the capabilities known as
conversational AI.
Conversational AI is where the computer simulates a conversation with a
user or customer. Conversational AI has extended beyond simple chatbots to
intelligence agents and virtual assistants like Cortana.
There are two conversational AI services included in the Azure AI
Fundamentals exam:
QnA Maker A tool to build a bot using existing support and other
documentation.
Azure Bot Service Tools to build, test, deploy, and manage bots.
Both QnA Maker and the Azure Bot Service leverage the Language
Understanding (LUIS) service in Cognitive Services.
We will look at bots in more detail in Chapter 5.

There are many use cases for AI. Here we will look at some common AI
workloads, describing their features and providing some examples for their
use.
EXAM TIP
You will be asked in the exam to pick the correct AI workload from
an example given, or to identify an example for a specified AI
workload. You should make sure you understand the use cases for
each workload.
Prediction
Prediction, or forecasting, is where the computer identifies patterns in your
historical data, and through machine learning associates the patterns with
outcomes. You can then use the prediction model to predict the outcome for
new data.
Types of predictions include the following:
Binary prediction There are two possible outcomes for a question—

yes/no or true/false.
Multiple outcome prediction The question can be answered from a
list of two or more outcomes.
Numerical prediction The question is answered with a continuous
number, not explicitly limited to a specific range of values.
Prediction models can be used in many varied scenarios. For example,

prediction models are found in financial services when evaluating credit
applications or evaluating risk. You can use a prediction model to forecast
customer churn rate, or to forecast the number of support calls that will be
received, or if an opportunity will be converted to a sale.
Following are some questions that could be answered using prediction:
Will this customer be approved for a $10,000 credit limit?

Will this flight be delayed?
Will this flight be on-time, slightly delayed, or very late?
How many minutes will this flight be delayed by?
Anomaly detection
Anomaly detection analyzes data over time and identifies unusual changes,
often for real-time data streams.
Anomaly detection, also known as outlier detection, can find dips and
spikes that may indicate a potential issue. Such issues are hard to spot when
analyzing aggregate data, as the data points are hidden in the vast volume of
data.
Anomaly detection can identify trend changes. Typically, the anomaly
will indicate problems such as a sticking valve, payment fraud, a change in
the level vibration on a bearing, or errors in text.
Anomaly detection enables pre-emptive action to be taken before a
problem becomes critical or adversely affects business operations.
NOTE ANOMALY DETECTION

Anomaly detection does not predict when a failure will occur; for
this, you should use a prediction model.
There are several algorithms that can be used for anomaly detection. The
Azure Anomaly Detector service selects the best algorithm based on the
data, making Anomaly Detector easy to use with a single API call. Anomaly
Detector can also run in a Docker container, so it can be deployed at the
edge on devices themselves.
Following are some examples of the use of anomaly detection:
Monitoring IoT devices Checking the telemetry from devices in real-

time to find anomalies.
Fault detection in electricity systems Identifying spikes and dips in
the electrical supply.
Computer network traffic access attacks Detecting unusual network
activity both inside the network and on the network perimeter.
Financial system fraud Identifying potential fraudulent payments from
the patterns of payments.
Hospital infection Recognizing high mortality rates from a particular
infection than from other causes of death.
Crowd surveillance Identifying changing crowd behaviors in complex
situations.
Computer vision
Computer vision is the processing of still images and video streams.
Computer vision can interpret the image and provide detail and
understanding about the image in computer-readable form.
Computer vision can determine if the image contains a specific object
(object detection) and can extract details from the image, such as colors or
text.
Computer vision can:
Describe an image
Categorize an image
Tag an image
Detect objects
Detect faces
Identify brands and products
Identify famous people
Identify landmarks
Extract text
There are many potential uses for computer vision:
Reading text and barcodes Reading and identifying text and barcodes
every day is not an easy job for a human.
Product assembly Manufacturers can ensure that assembly of products
and components are strictly adhering to standards. For example,
pharmaceutical manufacturers can inspect bottles in 360 degrees to
ensure correct packaging. They can examine critical features of
packaged bottles like cap seal, position, and labels.
Monitoring the length of the queue in retail stores Retailers can
determine if more checkout staff are required.
Detecting abnormalities in health scans Computer vision can sift the
scans, freeing up scarce highly skilled diagnostic staff to analyze the
more complex scanned images.
Natural Language Processing
Natural Language Processing (NLP) is the analysis of text to extract
information in a form that can be used by a computer.
Natural Language Processing interprets spoken and written text. NLP can
analyze the text to determine the language used, determine the sentiment
expressed, extract key phrases, and identify key entities and actions.
NLP can be used in many scenarios, such as the following:
Decision support Assisting users in making decisions from

unstructured and rapidly changing data.
Bots and intelligent agents Understanding the user’s question without
having been trained in the exact words or phrasing so that a response
can be formulated.
Translate commands into actions Understanding the intent in the
user’s request and performing the requested action.
SPAM detection Classifying emails based on the text in the subject
and body.
Monitoring news Extracting relevant news from different feeds that
are relevant to the user.
Grammar checkers Flagging words or phrases and attempting to offer
improvements.
Knowledge mining
Knowledge mining is the process of extracting key insights from structured
and unstructured data sources.
Knowledge mining uses a combination of AI services, including Azure
Cognitive Search, to extract meaning and relationships from large amounts of
information. This information can be held in structured and unstructured data
sources, documents, and databases. Knowledge mining uncovers hidden
insights in your data.
Microsoft provides a Knowledge Mining Solution Accelerator to help
you ingest different data and document source, enrich, and index the data, and
provides a user interface to explore the results.
Conversational AI
Conversational AI is the process of building AI agents to take part in
conversations with humans. Conversational AI is commonly experienced by
humans as chatbots on websites and other systems.
AI agents (bots) engage in conversations (dialogs) with human users.
Bots use natural language processing to make sense of human input, identify
the actions the human wants to perform, and identify the entity on which the
actions are to be performed. Bots can prompt the human for the information
required to complete a transaction.
There are three common types of bot that you may encounter:
Webchat
Telephone voice menus (IVR)
Personal Digital Assistants
You can use bots in many scenarios, including the following:
Customer support Handling common questions and inquiries and

providing a method for escalating to a human agent.
FAQs Providing an interactive question and answer service to users
over the web or in an app.
Online ordering Supporting customer ordering and answering
common questions about the products or delivery.
Travel reservation and booking Assisting the customer in finding
flights and accommodations that match their requirements and making
the booking on their behalf.
Healthcare triage Guiding the user when triaging a patient to check
for symptoms.
Skill 1.2: Identify guiding principles for
Responsible AI
Responsible AI is the provision of AI-based solutions to difficult problems
without any unintended negative consequences.
This section covers the six principles of Responsible AI. By following
these principles, you can ensure that your AI-enhanced solutions will put
people first.
EXAM TIP
Make sure you can describe each principle of Responsible AI in a
single sentence.
This skill covers how to:

NOTE PRINCIPLES FOR RESPONSIBLE AI
These principles should be taken into account when creating
solutions that use AI. Not every principle will apply to every
requirement, but you should check your solution against each
principle to see if it applies.

The Fairness principle of Responsible AI is concerned with treating all
people fairly and reducing unfairness.
A Responsible AI-based solution must operate without giving any unfair
advantage to, withholding opportunities from, or allocating resources to a
specific group of people. There should be no bias regarding a person’s
gender, or any other characteristic.
AI systems can reinforce existing stereotypes and underrepresentation. If
correctly addressed, AI systems can reduce unfairness.
An AI model should be interpreted to quantify the extent of how data
influences the model’s prediction to help eliminate bias.
The Fairness principle means:
Eliminating bias for gender, age, or ethnicity

Removing unfair advantages
Preventing unfair allocation of resources
Preventing the withholding of information
Mitigating bias at each stage of developing and deploying AI systems
Following are some examples where the Fairness principle can have a
significant impact:
Bank loans/credit decisions

Hiring staff
Criminal justice system

Reliability & Safety requires the rigorous testing of an AI-based system’s
functionality and deployment to ensure that it works as expected and
eliminates potential risk to human life.
Features of Reliability & Safety are:
Rigorous testing
Works as expected
Eliminates threat of harm to human life
Areas where Reliability & Safety must be applied are as follows:
Autonomous vehicles
Healthcare diagnosis

Privacy & Security requires that an AI-based system should be secure and
respect privacy. AI-based systems typically operate on high volumes of data,
including personal data that should not be disclosed.
The reliance on data used in training the model, and new data used for
predictions, is subject to privacy rules.
AI systems that run on a user’s device should not leak the user’s data.
One way to achieve this is to run the AI processing on the device and not
transfer the personal data to a cloud service.
To be responsible, you should:
Respect privacy.
Be secure.
Avoid disclosing personal data.
Concerns covered by Privacy & Security are as follows:
Data origin Where has the data come from—is it user or public data?
Data use Validating that the data you are using has not been corrupted
or interfered with.

Inclusiveness requires AI-based solutions to empower everyone and supply
benefits to all parts of society, regardless of gender, physical ability,
ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other factors.
Inclusiveness means:
Empowering everyone
Engaging all communities in the world
Intentionally designing for the inclusivity principle

Transparency is the principle that AI-based solutions should be
understandable. Users should be aware of the purpose of an AI-based
system, how it operates, its scope, and its limitations.
Transparency is essentially about gaining the trust of users.
Transparency means:
Defining the purpose of the use of AI in your solution

Defining the scope of AI in your solution
Stating the limitations of AI in your solution
AI-based solutions should be understandable. You must be open about
how and why you are using AI to users and other stakeholders.
Transparency also means that people can understand the behavior of an
AI system; the outputs of an AI algorithm should be able to be interpreted.
For example, in some industries, you must be able to explain to regulators
how the AI algorithm has generated its results.

Accountability requires the people involved in designing and developing AI-
based solutions to operate within a clear governance framework due to the
impact AI can have on the world.
Accountability requires the people involved in designing and developing
AI-based solutions to follow clearly defined ethical policies and legal
standards.
Accountability requires that you have:
Governance framework
Ethical policies
Legal standards
Civil liberties are an area where accountability is a crucial factor when

determining if and how to use AI—for example, the use of facial recognition.
NEED MORE REVIEW? RESPONSIBLE AI

For more information on Responsible AI, see
https://www.microsoft.com/ai/responsible-ai.

To illustrate what Responsible AI means, let’s look at building a chatbot.
When building a chatbot, you need to consider many of the principles
outlined previously. The Transparency principle means that:
A customer should know they are interacting with a bot.

The purpose of the bot should be clear.
The limitations of the bot should be stated.
You can meet this requirement by having a clear welcome message,

stating that a bot is responding. It should be possible to seamlessly transfer
to a human agent.
Bots operate best when they have a clear purpose. Bots that attempt to
handle every possible scenario often perform poorly. The scope of a bot
should be reduced to a clearly defined purpose.
NEED MORE REVIEW? RESPONSIBLE CONVERSATIONAL

AI
Watch this demo of Responsible Conversational AI at
https://aidemos.microsoft.com/responsible-conversational-
ai/building-a-trustworthy-bot.

AI for Good is a Microsoft program that puts AI technology, cloud software,
and other resources into the hands of those working to create a more
sustainable and accessible world.
AI for Good is enabling advances in healthcare, environmental
protection, humanitarian action, cultural heritage, and other areas to make a
better world for everyone.
NEED MORE REVIEW? AI FOR GOOD

For more information on AI for Good, see
https://www.microsoft.com/ai/ai-for-good.
Chapter summary
In this chapter, you learned some of the general concepts related to Artificial
Intelligence. You learned about the features of common AI workloads, and
you learned about the principles of Responsible AI. Here are the key
concepts from this chapter:
Artificial Intelligence is a technology that mimics the human brain and

uses machines to complete complex tasks that humans find difficult to
do.
Machine learning uses algorithms to discover patterns and structures in
existing data, building a model that can be used to take actions (like
classify and predict) on unseen data.
Cognitive Services is a set of prebuilt AI models, trained by Microsoft,
that you can use without being a data scientist to add intelligence into
your applications.
Azure Machine Learning is a set of tools and services that you can use
to create custom AI models using your own data.
Azure Bot Service allows you to build and deploy chatbots and
intelligence agents.
Regression is the type of machine learning that predicts values from
historical data.
Classification is the type of machine learning that classifies images or
predicts between several distinct categories.
Clustering discovers structures in data, identifying groups based on
similarities in the data.
Anomaly detection finds unusual occurrences or events in time-series
data. Anomaly detection can identify outliers in the data.
Prediction is the model that predicts outcomes for new data. Predictions
are based on historical data. You can have predictions based on
regression, classification, and clustering algorithm. Prediction is also
known as forecasting.
Computer vision is the analysis of images and video to extract
information that can be used by computers. Computer vision can
interpret the contents of the image to classify the image, detect objects in
the image, and analyze and describe the image.
Natural Language Processing is the analysis of speech and text to extract
the meaning and intent of words in a way that can be used by computers.
Natural Language Processing can interpret text. Natural Language
Processing can analyze the text to determine the language used,
determine the sentiment expressed, extract key phrases, and identify key
entities and actions.
Conversational AI is used to create applications where AI agents
engage humans in conversations (dialogs). Conversational AI is
commonly experienced by humans as chatbots on websites.
Knowledge mining uses a combination of AI services to extract meaning
and relationships from large amounts of information. This information
can be held in structured and unstructured data sources, documents, and
databases. Knowledge mining uncovers hidden insights in your data.
Responsible AI is the use of AI in solutions without having unintended
negative impacts.
Fairness is the principle that AI-based systems should treat all people
fairly and reduce bias.
Reliability & Safety is the principle that requires rigorous testing of AI-
based systems to eliminate harm to human life.
Privacy & Security is the principle that AI-based systems should be
secure and respect privacy of personal data.
Inclusiveness is the principle that AI-based solutions should empower
everyone and supply benefits to all parts of society, regardless of any
characteristics or factors.
Transparency is the principle that AI-based solutions should be
understandable, or interpretable. Transparency requires that AI-based
systems have a defined purpose and scope and are clear on the
limitations of the AI in the solution.
Accountability is the principle that everyone at every stage in the
development of AI-based systems is accountable for the impact that
system may have.
Thought experiment
In this thought experiment, demonstrate your skills and knowledge of the
topics covered in this chapter. You can find the answers in the section that
follows.
You work for Contoso Medical Group (CMG), and your management is
interested in using AI in your applications and operations. CMG manages
and monitors drug trials, evaluating the efficacy of the treatments.
The CMG IT department is resource-constrained, and they do not have
data scientists or skilled AI developers available.
Having timely and accurate responses from patients improves the
accuracy of the analysis performed. CMG has created an app to capture and
track a patient’s daily symptoms. CMG has recently added the capability of
the app to take pictures to capture skin conditions. CMG is unable to analyze
the images due to the volume of images being captured. CMG is concerned
about the amount of data storage for these images, as well as controlling
access to the images.
CMG receives a lot of patient history and prescription records that are
keyed into CMG’s computer systems. These paper records are important
information used to track a patient’s response to drugs and treatments.
The support department is unable to handle the many inquiries CMG
receives. Customers are receiving inconsistent responses depending on
whom they speak to and how they are accessing customer support, whether
by phone, web, or mobile app.
Your manager has come to you asking for solutions that address these
issues. Whatever solution you offer must consider that the medical data in
this application is covered under HIPAA, and your manager wants CMG to
retain all control of the data. Your manager also wants to carefully control
costs.
You have decided that CMG can use AI, but there are several issues that
you need to resolve before proceeding.
Answer the following questions:
1. Which AI workload should you use for the customer support
department?
2. Which principle of Responsible AI should you employ to gain the trust
of users in your bot?
3. Which AI workload should you use to analyze the images for skin
conditions?
4. How can you address the storage requirements for the images?
5. Which principle of Responsible AI protects a patient’s personal
information?
6. Which AI workload could identify adverse reactions to a drug
treatment?
7. Which principle of Responsible AI requires rigorous testing of your AI-
based app?

This section contains the solutions to the thought experiment. Each answer
explains why the answer choice is correct.
1. Conversational AI will allow simple inquiries to be handled by an
automated bot. You can create a chatbot for your website, create an
assistant for customer service agents, and even enable a bot in a mobile
app.
2. Transparency is the principle that AI-based solutions should be
understandable. Users should be aware of the purpose of the AI-based
system, how it operates, and its scope and limitations. A chatbot should
clearly tell the user that it is a bot and what it can and cannot do.
3. Computer vision allows you to analyze images. You can train computer
vision with existing images to classify images to determine the type of
skin complaint.
4. You can run AI in the app on the mobile device. The image will not
need to be stored and will not leave the device. You will instead store
the results of the classification along with other symptom data and
discard the image.
5. Privacy & Security is concerned with keeping AI-based solutions
secure and preventing personal data from being disclosed.
6. Anomaly detection can detect adverse reactions. It can detect where
there is a change in trends and can detect unusual readings.
7. Reliability & Safety requires the rigorous testing of an AI-based
system’s functionality and deployment to ensure that it works as
expected and to eliminate potential risk to human life.
CHAPTER 2
Describe fundamental principles of

machine learning on Azure
Machine learning (ML) is the current focus of AI in computer science.
Machine learning focuses on identifying and making sense of the patterns and
structures in data and using those patterns in software for reasoning and
decision making. ML uses past experiences to make future predictions.
ML allows computers to consistently perform repetitive and well-defined
tasks that are difficult to accomplish for humans. Over the past few years,
machine learning algorithms have proved that computers can learn tasks that
are tremendously complicated for machines and have demonstrated that ML
can be employed in a wide range of scenarios and industries.
This chapter explains machine learning algorithms such as clustering,
classification, and regression. The chapter then explains how machine
learning works in terms of organizing datasets and applying algorithms to
train a machine learning model. The chapter then looks at the process of
building a machine learning model and the tools available in Azure.
Skills covered in this chapter:

Skill 2.1: Identify common machine learning types
Skill 2.2: Describe core machine learning concepts
Skill 2.3: Identify core tasks in creating a machine learning solution
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the flank of St Maria, the 6 gun Battery was also this morning turned
against it, and I have great hopes that on the 4th or 5th at furthest
it will be ready for the general assault. It will be a glorious night,
and I have not a doubt, though there are great disadvantages to
overcome, that we shall take the Town, and the enemy will probably
retire into the Castle, which is an old Moorish or Gothic one, and
from whence they will be forced to capitulate, as well as the
adjacent forts.
Our Artillerymen, both British and Portuguese, have fired
extremely well indeed, much better than the enemy, whose fire,
though at times very brisk, is very ill directed, and their shells do
very little harm, though tolerably well thrown, on account of some
mismanagement in their fuses. They either burst too soon, or so late
that everybody has time to get out of their way. Yesterday and the
day before their fire was heavier than I ever have seen it before in
the siege, but to-day it has been very slack indeed on their side. We
have lost two very good Portuguese Artillery Officers, Captn. Julio
Cæsar D’Amoral and Barceiros, both very gallant good Officers, and
Capt. Dundas of the British Artillery, and Lieut. Grimes, badly
wounded. The former has lost an arm. Major M’Leod of the
Engineers is doing well. He is a very zealous and good Officer.
The conduct of the Portuguese Troops during the whole Siege,
and under very trying circumstances, has been most exemplary,
particularly their Artillery, which is really very good. It is difficult to
say which troops, the British or Portuguese, are the most indifferent
to danger. In both it is quite remarkable. But John goes to work
more steadily and sullenly, while the Portuguese must be well led,
and have his joke. They are great wits in their way, and, without the
resolution and impenetrable sang froid of the British, which no
danger can disturb, they have more patience and subordination
under greater privations and hardship. But the Portuguese has not
the bodily strength of the former, is naturally lazy, and is not used to
our pickaxes and shovels. Therefore on the working parties the
British do their work better in half the time. But both seem equally
careless of danger. They agree perfectly well together, and amongst
the men there is scarce an instance of disagreement or disturbance.
On the evening of the 30th the Enemy made a small sortie with 2
or 300 men against a working party of 200 men of the Algarve
Brigade who were constructing a small Redoubt, on the other side of
the Guadiana opposite St Christopher’s Fort Napoleon, and who
allowed them to come close up to them, gave them a volley, and
drove them in a moment back into their works, leaving their
Commanding Officer and some men dead on the field, since which
they have never ventured to molest them, though they are only
2600 men, Portuguese, and part of the 3rd P. Cavalry without a
British Regiment, the 5th Divn. (Leith’s) having marched to Valverde
to be ready to join Graham, should it be necessary, which I much
doubt, for I hope we shall be in the place before either Soult or
Marmont can possibly arrive to relieve it.
With regard to what they are about, we have so many reports,
and so different, that I do not know exactly what to believe, but do
not think they can collect a sufficient force in time. I think by the 4th
or 5th the breaches will be ready for a general assault. We shall lose
a great many men, but I have not a doubt we shall take the Place.
General Graham’s expedition against Drouet did not succeed. The
enemy had too good information, or were too vigilant, and they
could only come up with their rearguard of cavalry, and there was a
little skirmishing.
Ewart is getting on quite well. His wound was slight through the
fleshy part of the arm. All our other friends are well. You will of
course, my dear Father, not show this letter to ... or mention my
being exposed at all. There is no occasion for them to know that I
have anything to do with the trenches or Batteries.
April 3rd.
Our new 6 gun Battery (opened) against St Pedro curtain, but I
have not yet heard with what effect. An attempt was made last night
to blow up the dam which confines the water in the inundation and
ditch of the place, but though our fine fellows, Captn. Douglas and
Robert Campbell, with their Companies, contrived to creep
unperceived to the place which is behind the Ravelin and St Roque,
and about 50 yards from the wall of the town, the explosion had not
the desired effect, but we had not a man hurt.
General Graham has returned to Villa Franca. Yrs., etc.,
Wm. Warre.
We have a pretty little spot for our Hd. Qrs. opposite the English
Troupe D’Orée, under a little hill, which just conceals us from the
town, whence they have never molested us, though they sometimes
fire along the road 40 yards to our left, and, if we are quite safe, we
have at all events all the advantage of the noise, which is at intervals
like the rolling of thunder.
Badajos Camp, April 7.

My Dear Father,
I have the happiness of communicating to you the capture of
Badajos by assault last night after a most obstinate resistance, and
with, I am grieved to add, as a painful counterpoise to the exaltation
of victory, very severe loss.
Since I wrote to you on the 3rd the breaches have become daily
more practicable, and the day before yesterday a new one, which
was begun between the two others, was also very forward and
yesterday practicable. It was intended to have stormed the day
before, but the enemy’s defences were considered in too perfect a
state, and the fire of most of our Batteries was directed for the last
two days against the new breach, and to silence and dismount their
guns.
The attack took place last night at 10 o’clock. The Light Division
was to storm the breach in the flank of the Bastion of St Maria. This
consists of 43rd, 52nd, 95th, 1st, and 3rd, P. Caçadores.
The 4th Division (Genl. Colville’s), the 7th, 23rd, 48th, 40th, and
27th, were to storm the main breach, while the 3rd Division
(Picton’s), the 5th, 45th, 88th, 74th, 94th, 77th, with 9 and 21
Portuguese, attacked the Castle by escalade, and General Leith’s
(the 5th Div.), consisting of the 4th, 9th, 1st, 44th, 30th, 38th, were
partly in reserve, and partly escaladed a weak part of the town near
the Guadiana.
The advances to the breaches were found much more difficult
than was expected, having to descend before the main ditch into a
very deep avant fossé, and the enemy perfectly prepared to receive
them with mines, shells, entrenchments, in short a most excellent
system of defence. Our brave fellows did all that men could do, but
they were mown down by hundreds, and their Officers mostly killed
or wounded, and, after losing a great many men, they were
repulsed, but fortunately the two attacks which were the least
probable, by escalade, having succeeded, Picton having got into the
old Moorish Castle, which commands the town, and part of Leith’s
people (General Walker’s Brigade) on the left, another rush was
made at the breaches by part of the Light Division, and, about
daybreak, the town and its adjacent forts were in our possession,
with Philippon the Governor, a General Weyland, a great many
Officers, and about 3500 prisoners.
I dare not enter into the detail of our loss. The papers will too
soon publish the painful news. Of all my friends Dawson is the only
one I can say is safe, and Hunt. The remainder I know nothing of for
certain, but that the loss of 52nd, and of that whole division, very
great indeed, as well as of the 4th, Generals Bowes, Colville, and
Walker, wounded, and poor Gibbs. Merry 52nd Regt. wounded, but
not very badly. Jones, Poole, Madden, killed. I am, thank God, quite
well, though very much tired and fagged. I was on horseback all
yesterday, (and the weather is dreadfully hot,) and all night, or on
foot, and such a night, I think, I never spent of suspense, horror,
and expectation. I was sent before daybreak, as soon as our men
were in the town, to endeavour to establish a communication, across
the Bridge and tête de Pont, with Genl. Bowes, who was on that
side. I met Lord Fitzroy Somerset, who was going on nearly the
same duty, and at the tête de Pont we found an Officer and 40 men,
and in Fort St Christopher, whither we heard he had retreated, the
Governor Genl. Philippon, General Weyland, and a great many
officers, all of whom surrendered immediately, on our summoning
them, and the Chiefs we conducted to Lord Wellington.
It is most extraordinary that, notwithstanding the obstinate
defence, and causes of animosity which our men had, and all their
previous determinations, they gave quarter to almost every
Frenchman, and I really believe their loss in killed and wounded
must be comparatively very small to ours. The Marshal and
everybody belonging to this Hd. Qrs. escaped unhurt, and are well,
as also all Lord Wellington’s Staff. My friends of the 4th Regt. have
suffered very much indeed. There was scarce a Regiment engaged
that has not, for the fire at the breaches was immense, and from the
depth of the ditches, and accumulated means of defence, it appears
to me that it was almost impossible for our brave fellows to force
them, and it was most fortunate that the side attacks succeeded at
the Castle and at the Bastion of St Vincente. I am so tired I can say
no more. God Almighty bless you all. My kindest love. Your most
affectionate Son,
Wm. Warre.
[Written across the above]
8th April.
My Dearest Father,
I avail myself of the delay of the Officer, who is to carry the
despatches, to tell you that I am quite well, notwithstanding the
fatigue of the other night which I have nearly got over. I think I
never was more completely fagged in my life than I was till I got to
bed last night, for mind and body had been on the constant stretch
for 36 hours incessantly.
I am just returned from the town, to which I had not been since
the night of the storm. The breaches and advance to them present a
dreadful spectacle even now that the wounded are removed. Our
loss was very great indeed, particularly in Officers. I think, including
the losses during the siege, we have upwards of 3000 killed and
wounded. Many Regiments (had) almost all their Officers hit in some
way or other, though I do not think the proportion of killed equal to
that of the wounded. The town also has suffered much from the
effect of three sieges within a year, and being taken by assault,
when it was almost impossible to restrain the avarice and
licentiousness of the soldiery, which so greatly sullies the brilliancy of
their conduct and victory, and forces their Officers to blush for the
excesses of the very men they before admired as heroes.
Fortunately a greater part of the inhabitants had quitted the place
previously. Those that remained have paid dearly for their folly, and
have but little reason to rejoice in the victory of their friends.
However, it is perhaps impossible entirely to prevent these excesses,
when the place is taken in the manner this was. And it is also as
prudent to hold our tongues, and shut our eyes on miseries it is out
of our power to prevent, but must deeply feel, and our hearts and
wishes naturally but longingly turn to dear, dear old England, and
those beloved friends it contains, as we pray Almighty God to
preserve them from the horrid scourge of war as the greatest of
human miseries.
The enemy’s defence was admirably prepared at all points, and
does great honor to the talents of the Chief Engineer, as well as the
great improvements he has made in the works of the place since the
last siege. Everything bespeaks of great activity and talent, and in a
few months hence the conquest would have been much more
difficult. Could one forget what rascals these fellows are, one would
admire their gallantry and military abilities as they deserve, but they
do nothing from laudable motives, and we are forced from many
circumstances to attribute even this obstinate defence rather to fear
of their relentless Tyrant, than to any motives of honour and proper
military spirit.
Their entrenchments behind the breaches, Chevaux de frise of
Sword Blades, etc., were very formidable, and, added to the
difficulty of access to the Breaches from heavy fire, made it almost
impossible to force them, had not our escalading parties fortunately
succeeded. Generals Colville, Walker, Harvey, P. Bowes, and Kemp,
are wounded. I had written General Picton, but it was only a
contusion from a spent ball and not worth mentioning.
Soult was advancing, but I believe with not sufficient force, to
endeavour to relieve the place, and perhaps, in conjunction with
Marmont, to have fought us, if necessary, but I now have little doubt
that he will retire again towards Seville. His advance was at Villa
Franca, but I fear has retired again. We are yet unable to foresee
Soult’s intentions. He is within 8 leagues of us, his advance guard.
But he has not more than 30 to 35,000 men, and we could fight
nearly double that number. I wish to God he would advance.
Marmont was between the Agueda and Coa threatening Almeida
and Ciudad Rodrigo, but I trust he will now be forced to retreat. The
latter place is but ill provided with provisions, but Spaniards require
little, and it would hold out some time. Unless he retreats I suspect
part of our Army will march again towards the North. Marmont,
however, cannot at all events subsist there long.
Camp before Badajos, April 10th, 1812.

My Dear Father,
Though very much pressed for time I will not let the mail go
without adding a few lines to what I wrote you the day before
yesterday, particularly as I shall be unable to-morrow to wish you
many happy returns of your birthday, as I shall go into Elvas.
Our people are now busily employed in filling up the trenches and
destroying our Batteries. By yesterday evening most of the dead
were buried, though from the unavoidable confusion on such
occasions and their great number, it was delayed till the spectacle
became more horrid than can easily be conceived.
The inhabitants also are beginning to return. Most of them had
left at the beginning of the siege, and many to fly from the horror of
a storm on the morning that we entered, so that since order was
restored on the morning of the 8th, and most of our people except
the garrison turned out, the town looks quite deserted, and in many
parts is nothing but a miserable heap of ruins. Great pains are taking
to clean the streets and clear away the rubbish, which will, I hope,
prevent any great sickness from ensuing, and the weather has
fortunately become much cooler.
Soult had advanced to Villa Franca with about 30,000 men, but
hearing that the place was taken, and that Ballasteros had entered
Seville, he yesterday morning commenced his retreat again rapidly
towards the Sierra Morena, to prevent Ballasteros from attacking the
Cartucha where the French have huge magazines of stores of all
kinds. I hope he will in the first place destroy the Arsenal and
Foundry, for he can hardly expect to hold it, if the French were to
return in force, which was most probable, and these have been of
the greatest use to them. Soult’s communication with Victor now and
Cadiz must be very difficult.
Marmont also, with about 17,000 men, was between the Agueda
and Coa, and threatened Ciudad Rodrigo and Almeida, towards
which latter place he had sent about 4000 men to attempt to take it
by escalade, but they were repulsed most gallantly by the militia
under Trant and Colonel Le Mesurier the Governor. Yrs., etc.,
Wm. Warre.
The Marshal, Hardinge, etc., are quite well.
Gibb’s wound is, I hope, not bad.
Merry (52nd) is dead of his.
Nava, on the Road between Sabugal
and Alfaiates, April 24, 1812.
My Dearest Father,
Having just heard that the mail is detained I will not miss telling
you that I am well. I wrote yesterday to Jack, but in such a hurry
that I had not even time to read my letter over, and fear he will have
much difficulty in reading and making sense of my letter, as I was
obliged to write standing on an old broken chest at Malcato, and am
now using the same description of table, though with the luxury of
an old broken chair. It is impossible to give you an adequate idea of
the misery in every village into which the enemy have entered, as
they have destroyed everything that they could not carry away, and
in my present habitation a considerable part of the floor has been
torn up, and the windows, doors, and furniture burnt, except my old
chair and chest, which appear to have placed the flames at defiance.
Hunger and famine surround us in all directions among the unhappy
peasantry, and our charity to some few has now completely
exhausted our means. Money is of little use where nothing is to be
bought. All our forage for our horses, for the last two days, consists
in what we can cut in the fields, which even have not escaped the
rapacity of the enemy.
Marmont has retreated across the Agueda, and is I believe in full
march to Salamanca. We have communicated with both Almeida and
Ciudad Rodrigo. I do not myself think that Ld. Wn. can pursue them
much farther as the country is a desert, and our supplies very
distant, owing to his rapid and long march of 200 miles since the
14th inst. As far as Castello Branco we had most wretched weather,
but latterly it has been fine, though cold.
Thus has ended Marshal Marmont’s grand diversion with his whole
Army. He advanced to Castello Branco, Covilhao, and Fundão,
plundered the already often plundered places between them and the
Frontier, and drove away some cattle. He blockaded Ciudad Rodrigo,
and threatened Almeida, but was warmly received on a
reconnaissance he made there, and never made any further attempt.
His army has suffered dreadfully from want. The prisoners and
deserters describe it as equal to when they retired from the Lines,
and the few cattle he could catch in this mountainous country could
afford him a very scanty and precarious supply. The moment we
crossed the Tagus he fell back, the Division on his left upon Peña
Maior and Sabugal, and we were in hopes for a day or two that he
would wait for us, but that soon vanished, for as we advanced he fell
back, and finally across the Agueda without waiting even to see our
advance guard. Had Badajos held out some time longer this
diversion might have been of some consequence, as Ciudad Rodrigo
would have been much distressed for provisions, and Almeida not in
the safest state of defence. As it is, all he has got has been his
trouble for his pains, great sufferings to his army, and a hasty retreat
before an army but very little superior in numbers to his own.
Lord Wn.’s rapid movement appears to have astonished him a
good deal, and hitherto the Army has suffered no privations. Those
we do are owing to the ignorance and obstinate indolence of the
Portuguese Commissariat. I am perfectly ignorant of Ld. Wn.’s
intentions, but should not imagine we should advance much further
for the present. To-morrow we move to Fuente Guinaldo, 4 leagues.
We were to have gone there to-day, but the enemy was still with
their advances too near for Hd. Qrs., or rather were supposed to be,
for it appears they retired last night.
Our approaches at Badajos have been filled up and levelled and
the breaches put in some temporary state of defence. We have
therefore nothing to fear from that quarter, as Soult is fully occupied
in keeping Andalusia. Had Badajos not fallen, and that he had
persevered in advancing, he would have got a famous licking, as we
should have been equal at least to him, leaving 10,000 men to carry
on the siege. But Ballasteros’ advance to Seville embarrassed him
very much, and a defeat would be ruinous to him, or Marmont, who
to the great disappointment of our army seems determined not to
risk it.
I am perfectly well, though we have all had a good deal of fatigue
and knocking about in this wretched Beira. I fear our horses will
suffer most, which annoys me more than anything, and a person
must be more hardened than I am to warfare to be either very
happy, or in good spirits, surrounded as we are by scenes of misery
and distress beyond what we can give our happy countrymen in
England an idea of. I do not think it by any means improbable that
we shall return to the Alemtejo, and that the active scenes of this
Campaign, which is far from being over, will be in Spanish
Estremadura. But this is mere conjecture. The present object is to
revictual Ciudad Rodrigo and Almeida, and place them in a
respectable state of defence. I hear very well of the Spanish garrison
of the former.
All our wounded at Badajos are, I understand, doing extremely
well. This change of weather from great heat to cool and rain has
been quite providential and saved many lives.
The Marshall, Hardinge, Arbuthnot, etc., are quite well. Hardinge
got a shot through his coat at the assault, and as usual behaved
with great zeal and courage. Sewell is, poor fellow, ill again and
must return to England. I fear much that his is a bad case. Yrs., etc.,
Wm. Warre.
Ld. Wn.’s Hd. Qrs. are at Alfaiates to-day, as badly off as we are.
To-morrow he will be at Fuente Guinaldo.
P.S.—I have written on two half sheets for the best reason in the
world!
Extract from Letter to Sister.

Fuente Guinaldo, May 20, 1812.
I must begin in order to prepare you for the worst by telling you
that this is a very stupid place, that I am very stupid, and that I
have nothing to say, and therefore you must receive a very stupid
letter....
I am quite well, though we are all heartily tired of Fuente Guinaldo
where our only amusement is hunting. Yesterday we went out to a
grand Chasse au Sanglier, but the only bore we got was a great
wetting, for it rained incessantly after we were posted behind trees
and rocks, and while a great many peasants were driving the woods
towards us, and not a single boar or wolf made its appearance. We
were so completely wet through that when I tried to fire at a fox
which passed close to me, my gun missed fire, being quite wet, and
we returned home two leagues in despair. It would have been a very
pretty scene if the weather had been fine, as we went out a large
party, and a great many peasants, and all in great glee. We should
have found some wild animals, as there are a great many,
particularly wolves, who have had the impudence to walk away with
several mules and horses from this place, but it rained so heavily,
that both the wolves and boars remained at home, and were not to
be seen, and we became cold geese for going to see them in such
weather. We hope before we leave this to have another hunting
party, as it must be a very gay and fine spectacle in fine weather.
The Peasantry are obliged by law to go out on these occasions, as
the destruction of these animals is beneficial to the whole
community. The people that are armed are placed behind trees or
rocks, or hid in the brushwood forming a sort of chain round a
particular part of the mountain, and the remainder go in with dogs,
and by their shouts and noise drive the animals towards you.... We
do not know when we are to leave this place, or in what direction
we are to move. It is so great a secret and so well kept that I cannot
even guess it, but I am sure I shall have no great regret for Guinaldo
whichever way we go.... I can hardly write at all, and to add to my
misfortunes they have just been trying a poor devil of a Commissary
at the same table, and I wonder I have not entered some minutes of
his examination.
Fuente Guinaldo, May 28, 1812.
My Dear Father,
I had yesterday the pleasure to receive your very affectionate and
kind letter, and with all my soul I thank you for all the solicitude you
express about me, and congratulations on my escape at Badajos. I
have hitherto been very fortunate, and have much cause to be
grateful to Almighty God for his infinite goodness in protecting me. It
appears to mortals almost a lottery. Some are never hit, while others
less exposed never go into action without.
I felt painfully the loss of so many friends, but in this profession
we dare not long indulge or admit such feelings. It would but ensure
continued misery, and such is the force of habit or prejudice that one
scarcely feels for the death of a friend in action, whose death if from
illness or other cause would be a source of real affliction; and
fortunate it is that it is so. We are all quite well here (barring a
broken shin I got from a stone, which has confined me for a day or
two, but is now getting well) and all most anxious for a move,
though it is yet a secret which way it is to be. As far as conjecture
goes I do not think we shall recross the Tagus, for the present at all
events, and probably move forward towards Salamanca.
Sir Rowland Hill’s success at Almaraz has put us all in great spirits,
and must have puzzled the enemy a good deal as to Lord
Wellington’s plans. This affair has been conducted with his usual
judgement and gallantry. The General had arrived by a rapid march
in front of the Enemy’s works at Mirabete, which is a strong pass
over the mountains leading to the Bridge at Almaraz, and about a
league distant from it, but he was delayed here a few days, as he
found the works were not to be carried by a coup de main, nor could
he while they were in the enemy’s possession get his Artillery over
the steep rocky mountains in order to attack the Forts, which
protected more immediately the Enemy’s Arsenal, Barracks, Bridge,
etc. He therefore left it behind, and a Corps to observe the Fort, and
made his Infantry scramble over the mountains with nothing but
their fire-locks, and immediately attacked with the greatest gallantry
the enemy’s works on the other side of the River, and carried them,
turning their fire on those which they had over the Bridge on this
side, which they were forced to abandon, and he got possession of
the whole, except those at Mirabete, with the loss of only two
Captns. killed, about 9 Officers wounded, 25 men killed, and 120 or
130 wounded. I have not seen the return. The enemy lost 300 taken
Prisoners, and 200 were drowned by the Bridge giving way, or killed.
300 cars of different descriptions, the Bridge, Arsenal, and Barracks
they had constructed, a large Depôt of Stores and Provisions, all the
works, and two large Pontoons they had on the stocks, completely
destroyed, and the communication the most direct between the
North of Spain and Castile cut off, which must annoy the French very
much, and force them to communicate by the Bridge of Arçobispo,
which is considerably about. Major Currie, A.D.C. to Sir R. Hill, goes
home with the account, but as he goes by the Packet, which has
been detained, I think it the surest way to send this in the mail.
The enemy on hearing of this affair have evacuated Ledesma, and
only left a very small garrison to take care of their sick at
Salamanca, which shows that they do not think of opposing us
should we move on in that direction.
Hill had moved again towards Medellin and Don Benito, which will
force the enemy to withdraw the small parties they have in that
neighbourhood, or advance in force, which I do not think they are
likely to do.
Lord Wellington has adopted a new plan in order to derive a more
effectual assistance from the Spaniards. Each British Regiment,
except the Guards and Dragoons, are allowed to enlist ten men per
Company of a certain stature, 5 ft. 6 inches, who are to be in every
respect treated as British soldiers, to serve as long as the Army
remains in the Peninsula, and then to have a month’s pay to take
them to their homes. I think it is a most excellent plan, and I have
very little doubt we shall very soon get the whole number, 5000, and
they will make excellent recruits, for in point of activity and fineness
of appearance the Spanish Peasantry are certainly inferior to none,
and this measure may hereafter serve as a foundation for a more
regular Spanish Army, and Napoleon will be greatly annoyed at our
having adopted this measure of filling up our casualties, without
draining England, and with recruits little inferior to our own in
appearance or physical strength.
I went yesterday to a Review of the Light Division, 43rd, 52nd,
95th, 1 and 3 Caçadores, and a troop of R. Artillery. It was a most
animating sight, and they moved very well. Ld. Wn. was apparently
much satisfied with them. They are getting very strong again in
numbers, nearly 3000 in the field, but very weak in Officers from the
losses at Cd. Rodrigo and Badajos.
[Remainder of letter wanting.]
[On a small sheet separate.]
May 30th.
The mail has been detained, and I therefore open my letter to add
that Hill has returned to his old positions after resting his troops a
few days at Truxillo. Graham has also returned to his cantonments at
Port Alegre, having advanced to Caçeres and Albuquerque to support
Hamilton’s Division, in case Drouet had thought proper to assault it
in Hill’s absence. Everything is quiet in our front. I am laid up with
my broken shin, but more from prudence than necessity. As we are
likely to move soon, I thought it best to get it well while I could, for
fear that by moving in the heat it might give me a great deal of
trouble. It was deep and on the bone, and I sillily neglected it at
first. It is now getting much better. The Marshal is quite well. Poor
Sewell has left us and gone home ill, I fear very seriously so,
whether from his liver or consumption....
Pray see about the places I mentioned, what can be done about
them. They are highly desirable in every point of view, and there are
several of the same description abroad, but I have no great fancy to
go to the West Indies or further East than the Cape, though should
such a situation be offered me in the East, I scarce think I could
refuse it....
Salamanca, June 17, 1812.
My Dearest Mother,
I have hesitated whether I should write to you to thank you for
yours of 30th of May, or to my father for his of 21st and 27th.... We
arrived here yesterday, the enemy having retired towards the River
Douro, only leaving a small garrison in a fort they have made in the
town round the Convent of St Vicente, and round which they have
pulled down all the houses. It is, however, a very bad fortification
and was not finished. I have therefore no idea that it can stand a
day, when our Battery opens, which will be to-morrow morning. We
are quite out of danger in this part of the town and very comfortably
quartered.
The Army crossed the Agueda in 3 columns on the 13th. The
right, commanded by Sir J. Graham, marched by Tamames; the
centre, by General Leith, marched by San Meñios; and the left, by
General Picton, by St Espiritu and Martin d’El Rio. These roads run
parallel very near to each other, so that the Army was nearly
assembled every night. On the 13th the River Yeltes, the 14th the
Huebra, and the 15th the Valmaza. We saw nothing of the enemy till
the 15th. When about two leagues from this the Advance Guard fell
in with some Cavalry, about 5 Regts. supported by 1500 Infantry,
near the Town, with which our Cavalry skirmished with very little
loss, and as our Columns advanced gradually drove them back upon
the City, within two miles of which our posts were established. They
took from the enemy an Officer and about 20 men. Our loss is 3
Officers wounded slightly, and about 7 men wounded and some
horses.
Yesterday at 1 a.m. Marmont left this, with his Cavalry, taking the
road to Toro, and only leaving a garrison in the Fort or Convent,
which appears to me sacrificed, for they cannot hold out. Our
Cavalry passed the Tormes without opposition and occupied the
town, avoiding the streets which lead to the Fort, and the left
column and Advance Guard moving to the Villages in front of this,
and the greater part of the Cavalry. The Enemy attacked the Cavalry
Picquets in the evening, but were immediately driven back, and to-
day, when we rode out at daybreak, we could only see them at a
great distance, where I suppose they will watch our movements, but
most probably retire as we advance towards the Douro, which
appears to be Ld. Wn.’s plan, and the French have yet no force to
meet our Army. But I do not suppose Ld. Wellington will himself
advance further than that, but he keeps his plans a profound secret,
and the whole Army follow him with confidence and affection
wherever he chooses to lead us.
We have been everywhere received with the greatest cordiality
and joy by the Spaniards as their deliverers from the oppressive
tyranny of the French, much more than ever I saw before. At this
place yesterday it was quite affecting to see the joy of the
inhabitants. Many absolutely cried for joy, and we were embraced, or
had to shake hands with everybody we met. One old woman hugged
and kissed Ld. Wn. to his great annoyance, and one man literally
kissed my horse as I rode into the town. We were followed through
the streets with cheers and vivas, which have annoyed the
Frenchmen a good deal, and they revenged themselves by firing at
everyone they saw in the cross streets leading to their works. They
have pulled down a considerable part of the town to lay open the
space round them, and down to the bridge, over which nobody can
as yet pass safely. But in two days I hope they must surrender, or be
taken by storm. It is such an insignificant place that nobody except
the troops immediately employed in making the battery or covering
the workmen, seem to trouble their heads about them, and walk
about the streets, men, women, and children, in perfect safety and
with the greatest unconcern.
I am perfectly well though a little fagged, as we have for the last
few days had an active life both for mind and body. We generally get
up at 3 o’clock and ride till 11 or 12, and sometimes again in the
Evening. Everything is done to avoid the heat of the day, which,
however, has not been very great, as we are very high above the
sea in this part of the Country. There is almost always a breeze, and
at this moment the Bejar mountains, which are at no great distance,
are covered with snow.
Parts of this fine city have suffered very much from the Enemy,
who have destroyed part of it to make their Fort, and yesterday
burnt a suburb that was near it, but notwithstanding there are some
beautiful buildings left, particularly the Cathedral, which is
magnificent. But the monsters fired at the steeple yesterday and
knocked away a very beautiful buttress, and nobody is allowed to go
there, to avoid drawing their attention in that direction at all.
I quite agree with you about the state of the Country (sc.
England). It is most lamentable though most disgraceful at the time,
that in the middle of Peace our worthless manufacturers, excited by
still more worthless because wiser Politicians, are killing and rioting
amongst themselves. In this town, yesterday evening, the people
were, in the very centre of warfare, dancing and gay in almost every
street. Such are the dispensations of Providence. There is no
accounting for such things, and it shows how little people know
when they ought to be happy and contented, and how unjust to
repine at whatever our fate may be. But it is Human nature, and I
blush to think that I must cease to consider the British the high
minded generous people they used to be. It can hardly be believed
that Englishmen could glory in the most cowardly of all revenge, that
of assassination, with which they have so often rebuked other
nations.
Your countrymen (sc. The Irish) have behaved very well, and most
sincerely I wish them the reward they deserve, and every civil liberty
which is compatible with the Constitution of the State. I have written
a very stupid and hurried letter, which pray excuse as I have been
up since 3 o’clock, and did not go to bed till past 11, besides a long
ride, but I never was in better health in my life, and so are the
whole army. Yrs., etc.,
Wm. Warre.
I am so tired I can hardly write, so pray excuse my stupid letter to
my dear Father.
Salamanca, 25 June 1812.

My Dearest Father,
I have been too constantly occupied since the 17th to write even a
few lines to anybody. I gave in my letter of that date some account
of our advance to this place....
We have had a most interesting though harassing time of it since I
wrote. On the 18th we began to fire at the Fort, from a Convent
near it, with field-pieces, and next day, finding it much stronger than
was expected, 4 iron 18 Prs. were mounted, which knocked down
very soon one end of the Convent, but the works, which we found to
be by no means so easily forced, were not at all injured, and the
enemy seemed determined to make a gallant resistance. On the
19th, in the morning, accounts arrived that Marmont and his whole
army were advancing in sight. The 6th Division under Clinton was
therefore left to carry on the attack of the Forts, and the rest of the
army assembled in a position tolerably strong for an army of equal
strength, the left near St Christoval de la Cuesta extending in rear of
Castillejos de Morisco and Morisco towards the Tormes, from which
our right, however, was some distance, though the ground is strong
and we could easily move to it if all attacked in that direction. The
Spanish Corps of about 3000 men under Don Carlos d’Espanha, and
800 Cavalry Guerrillas under Dn. Julian Sanchez, were on our left on
some strong ground in continuation of our line.
On arriving there we distinctly saw the French army advancing
towards us from Toro, by Aldea Nueva, Archidiacono, etc., etc., in
heavy columns of Infantry with a strong advance guard, and about
3000 Cavalry.
The day was very unfavourable, as we had heavy rains and
thunderstorms, which however have cooled the air, and since been
of great use to us. During the night of the 20th the enemy
advanced, and occupied the ground within cannon range of our
position, and the villages of Castillejos and Morisco, concealing their
numbers by the inequalities of the ground, and certainly giving us
every occasion to believe they had come down determined to fight,
which everybody was glad of, as it would save a great deal of
trouble in going after them, away from our resources, and which we
could not do till we had taken the Fort in the Town, which
completely commands and prevents our making any use of the
Bridge.
Nothing, however, was done on the 20th, except a pretty brisk
cannonade towards evening on both sides, though it did not last
long. We lost a few horses of the Heavy Dragoons, and there was
some skirmishing on the right with the 11th Lt. Dns. and 1st German
Hussars.
On the 21st the enemy continued all day to receive very strong
reinforcements. We were so close, and overlooked their position so
completely, that we could see everything that entered their lines and
every movement they made.
Everybody expected that they would have attacked next morning,
as it was known that Marmont had received every succour he could,
except Bonnet’s Division from the Asturias, which was not expected
to be coming up, but we were again disappointed. They only
occupied a small hill on our right near Morisco, which overlooked our
position, but from which they were driven by part of the 7th
Division, which cost about 60 or 70 killed and wounded, but the
enemy’s Cavalry and Infantry must have suffered a good deal from
our cannonade and musquetry, as they were very close to each
other. The enemy seemed jealous of their left flank, which was not
at all secure, and moved the greater part of his Cavalry, and a
column of Infantry to strengthen it, but nothing more was done,
except that our Cavalry chased Marmont, who had advanced a good
way to our left to reconnoitre, but he had some Infantry with him
and they could do nothing against it. The enemy fired a few cannon
shot at them, which did very little harm.
The next morning, to our great surprise, we found the enemy had
retired, and when the day broke saw them moving off at a short
distance towards our Right, and then halted on some heights, about
6 miles in front of our position. The Cavalry was sent forward to
pursue them, and took up a line of vedettes very near them. Lord
Wellington and the Marshal rode out to reconnoitre them, but I do
not think anybody could make out anything of their intentions. We
were very close to them, and they appeared to be halted near Aldea
Rubia, and Morréra, to allow their baggage to move off to the rear,
which, however, does not seem to have been the case, for they are
still there.
We thought this morning that they had retired further, in
consequence of which we returned early to this place and the
Baggage was ordered up, but I have just heard that they are still
near the same ground.
Marmont yesterday crossed the Tormes with about 5000 men,
Cavalry and Infantry, to manœuvre to get Lord Wn. from his
position, I suppose, or to endeavour to get off the garrison of the
Fort, which still holds out. But not succeeding they returned in the
evening, having contented themselves with cannonading the Heavy
Cavalry of the German Legion, who behaved with great steadiness
and gallantry and have received Ld. Wn’s. thanks.
Several Divisions were moved to our right, ready to cross, and the
1st Div. was at the ford of Sta. Martha. The 7th went over to prevent
any attempt towards the Bridge of the town and to support our
Cavalry. The whole day was spent in manœuvring.
After the unaccountable movements of the enemy lately, it is
impossible even to guess the probable result of all these
movements. I think a general action probable. Till they retired, I
thought it was inevitable. For I suppose there was scarcely ever such
a thing heard of as two hostile armies being without any obstacle
between them, the lines within cannon shot of one another, and the
advanced vedettes short musquet shot, without a Battle. Marmont, I
think, certainly intended to fight, but his courage failed him. Our
position is tolerable but very extensive, and we have thrown up
some parapets to cover the Artillery. From the Enemy’s lines they
could not see our force, and could have but little idea either of its
strength or disposition. I have not a doubt that we should have beat
him, and shall now, whenever he chooses to fight us, even though
joined by Bonnet from the Asturias, which an Officer of theirs, who
deserted this morning, says they expect would be in two days, and
that he was at Valladolid yesterday. But this is not believed generally,
and he certainly shows no inclination to fight until he arrives.
Some people say that it is a pity Lord Wn. did not attack him on
the 20th before his reinforcements arrived, and when he was so
near us. But I think Ld. Wn. knows what is right to do. He must to
have attacked him given up the advantage of his position, and
advanced along a plain a very great distance, without any cover,
exposed to a heavy fire. He must have forced two Villages, and his
loss would be much greater than by waiting for the enemy, and a
very great victory to his army would almost be a defeat. For if this
army gets crippled very much it cannot continue the operations. For
my own part I feel perfect confidence in anything he decides upon,
though I shall be glad of anything that will give us a few days rest,
and I think we had better fight them here than further on.
Our mode of life has been latterly extremely harassing. On the
march up we turned out at 3 a.m. and only marched part of the day.
Latterly, as the Marshal has generally returned 5 or 6 miles to town,
we usually rise at 1 a.m. and often, after either riding all day, or
broiling in the sun, on a position, which has not a twig to defend us
from the sun, or a drop of water but at a distance, we do not get
anything to eat, or home till 9 or 10 at night, and rise again at one,
so that we are all completely tired, and our faces so burnt that we
cannot bear to touch them. The weather, however, has been very
favourable, as there has always been a breeze. The mornings are
very cold, but the whole army are extremely healthy, and I am quite
well. I had hoped these vagabonds were off, and that we should
have had a good night’s sleep instead of 3 hours, but I suspect that
we shall move as usual at one, and therefore took a nap this
morning.
The Fort still holds out. Some 24-lber. Howitzers have fired with
the 10 prs. against it, and a large part of the building of the Convent
was knocked down, but the works are otherwise unimpaired. It was
attempted to be stormed on the night of the 23rd but failed. We lost
some Officers and about 150 men killed and wounded. Poor General
Bowes, who was wounded at Badajos, is killed, I believe, and Sir
George Colquhoun of the Queen’s. The Commandant had been
previously summoned to surrender, but, while the flag of truce was
up, he answered that he had had a communication from his army,
and would listen to no proposals. I hope he will now be given no
terms. He deserves to be cut to pieces with his Garrison, not for his
obstinate defence of the Fort, that is right enough, but for his
wanton and cruel barbarity in firing upon the town and killing or
wounding several people, or for firing and defacing the beautiful
Cathedral, one of the most magnificent works in Europe, without a
shadow of utility, and from mere love of mischief. We have been
obliged to desist from firing for want of ammunition, but I hope the
day after to-morrow we shall have enough in, and, unless Mr
Marmont can beat us before that, I think we shall knock the place
about his ears. Their loss inside has already been very great we
know, and if the fellow had only defended himself like a gentleman,
everybody would have admired his defence.
There seem great doubts whether or not Bonnet is coming up
from the Asturias to join Marmont, though the deserters say he is,
but, whether or no, I think we need be under no alarm for the result
of a Battle.
Soult is said to be advancing from the South, and Hill has taken up
his old position at Albuera....
The Enemy in the villages they have entered have proceeded with
their usual barbarity, unroofed and quite destroyed them de fond en
comble. I could never give you an idea of the scenes we witness of
misery and suffering, nor do I wish to attempt it....
Of your domestic news in England I say nothing. The Ministry, and
a country, showing that they have lost that noble, generous spirit for
which they were so remarkable, are not very cheering topics, and I
am too much fagged to dwell on anything so disgusting. I wish we
had some of the soi-disant Patriots here for a month. Yrs., etc.,
Wm. Warre.
The Marshal is, thank God, perfectly well, and so is Ld. Wn.,
which, considering all his mind and body go through, is wonderful.
Villa Escusa, Prov. of Toro, June 30th, 1812.

My Dearest Father,
Since I wrote to you on the 25th from Salamanca a very hasty
letter, our military situation has altered very much, and you will see
by the map that we are already two marches in advance. The Forts
at Salamanca, which had given us more trouble than was at first
expected, were taken on the morning of the 27th. On the evening of
the 26th, our Reserve Ammunition having arrived, a battery was
opened against the rear of the advanced Fort of St Catano with
excellent effect, and the Convent of St Vicente, in the principal Fort,
was set on fire by red hot shot, but as night came on, and the
breach in St Catano was not practicable, the firing ceased from the
Batteries till morning. The enemy kept up their fire with great
briskness the whole evening, but we lost very few men. In the
morning the firing was renewed, and when we returned from the
position with Ld. Welln., it was found that the breach in the outwork
was practicable, and the Convent in a famous blaze. The Garrison
appeared cowed and in considerable confusion and fired very little.
The morning had been rainy and unpleasant, but towards 10 o’clock
it cleared and everything was ready for the assault, when the enemy
sent out several flags of Truce, but it appeared that they only
wanted to gain time and perhaps put out the fire. They asked 3
hours to consider it, but as we had no time to lose, the Fort was
attacked, and surrendered with very little resistance, and was taken
possession of by our troops. We had only one man killed, and 5 or 6
wounded, even at the points assaulted, and our people behaved
with their usual humanity to the enemy. We found these Forts a
great deal stronger than we had any idea of, with deep ditches, the
whole faced with strong masonry, the stones for which they took
from about a 3rd of the town and some of the most beautiful
buildings which they had pulled down to make an Esplanade round
their works. They also had excellent casements and splinter proofs,
and but for the circumstance of the place being on fire, they did not
appear to have any more reason to surrender now, as far as their
works went, than the first day.
The enemy had between 5 and 600 men in them, and the
Commandant who did his duty very well, and is a fine young man
enough, told me they had 3 Officers killed, 11 wounded, 40 men
killed and about 140 wounded during the siege. They had mounted
29 guns and 7 Howitzers; a large quantity of ammunition and stores
of all descriptions for their whole army, clothing, provisions, etc.
The flames gained so fast that it was impossible to extinguish
them, and it was feared that the Magazine would blow up. The
wounded were therefore removed as quickly as possible, and some
of the stores that evening, and nobody allowed to go near it. It,
however, fortunately did not explode, and all that was not burnt has
been removed, and proper Officers have been left completely to
demolish the Forts.
The capture of these Forts was of the greatest consequence, as
they most completely commanded the bridge over the Tormes, and
gave the enemy, in case of any accident, a nearer way to cross than
we had by the Fords; besides opening a direct and easier
communication for our provisions, etc.
On the 27th, next morning as the day broke, we found that
Marmont had retired, and on advancing about two leagues to
reconnoitre him with the Cavalry, we came up with his rear-guard
near Pitiegna, who retired on our approach. The enemy seemed to
take the road to Valladolid, retiring rapidly. Yesterday our whole
army advanced in three columns, the advance guard to Aldea Nueva
de Figueroa and Parada de Rubiales, and the army to near the little
stream of Orbada, at which place were Ld. Wellington’s Hd. Qrs., and
ours at Pajares.
To-day the army has again advanced to the River Guarena, the left
at Fuente Sanco, and advance at Guaratte.
Ld. Wn.’s Hd. Qrs. are at Fuenta da Capeña, the right of the army
near Castrillo, and our Hd. Qrs. at this place.
The whole army continue healthy and in high spirits. We have only
seen the enemy’s posts at a distance, and their army, it appears to
have crossed the Douro, over which they have destroyed all the
bridges except those of Toro and Zamorra. It is impossible to know
what Ld. Wn.’s intentions are. The position at Toro is very strong,
and 6 leagues from hence.
General D’Urban with about 1000 P. Cavalry are manœuvring in
rear of the enemy, and the Galician Army under Santo Cildes is also
at Astorga trying to take the French Fort, or advanced on their rear.
He has, I believe, about 15,000 men.
Mina and Longa’s Guerillas and Mendizabel’s Corps are near
Burgos or Valladolid. Therefore the enemy will find himself assez
reserré, but whether Lord W. intends to force his position, or to
manœuvre to make him quit it without an action, it is, I believe,
known to himself, the Marshal, and Sir T. Graham alone. We feel
quite confident in what he may think proper, and a day or two will
show. I do not think he will fight if he can do without. But if he does,
I have no doubt we shall beat them most completely.
In Estremadura Drouet, finding General Hill steady, has retired
from Villa Franca, and our people have moved forward to Sta.
Martha, etc., etc. Nothing can exceed the joy of all classes of the
people of this country at their delivery from their insolent
oppressors. For two nights after the Fort was taken they were
dancing and singing all night in almost every street (which were
illuminated), nothing was heard but the tabor and pipe and
castanets. Next morning there was a grand Te Deum in the
Cathedral, and the town gave a ball in the evening, to which,
however, not many Officers went, as it began at 10, and we were to
march at ½ past 3, and had not had 4 hours’ sleep (at least Staff
Officers) any night since the 19th, so that we were very glad to get
some rest.
I amongst others did not go. I never was in better health in my
life notwithstanding the really harassing, fatiguing time we have had
latterly for mind and body. The weather has fortunately not been
very hot, and we have had a constant breeze, or I scarce know what
we should have done on that scorching hill all day without shelter of
any description, or water....
I hear Admiral Martin is coming to Lisbon to supersede the
Berkeleys. I think you know him, or that my Uncles do. He can be
sometimes very useful to me, and I therefore wish you would
continue to have me strongly recommended to him. The old
administration continuing in has astonished us not a little. I should
hardly think it could stand. Yrs., etc.,
Wm. Warre.
We look anxiously towards Russia, and I hope they will not fight a
general action but retire and draw the Tyrant on. If they fight they
will be beat, I fear.
The Marshal and Lord Wn. are perfectly well, which I wonder at,
for they have scarce a moment’s rest for mind and body. Sir T.
Graham has equally not had a moment quiet, and I am sorry to say
had a painful disorder in one of his eyes. He is one of the most
excellent, worthy men I know anywhere, and like Hill beloved by
everybody. Ferguson is arrived at Lisbon, and I am sorry to say has
been unwell. I saw Genl. Leith to-day quite well. He desired to be
most kindly remembered to you, as do Le Marchant, Hardinge,
Douglas, and the Marshal.
La Seca, Provce. of Valladolid, July 7th, 1812.

My Dear Father,
Since I wrote to you on the 30th from Villa Escusa the Enemy
have gradually retired, and the Allied Army have occupied on the 1st
a bivouac on the River Trabancos with Head Quarters at Alaejos, and
on the 2nd it moved towards the river Zapardiel, with the right at
Medina del Campo, and the left extending towards Torrecilla, while
Lord Wellington moved himself with the Cavalry Light Division and
Pack’s Portuguese Brigade, supported by the 3rd Divn. and the
Spanish Infantry and Bradford’s P. Bge., on Rueda, to induce the
Enemy to cross the Douro at Tordesillas, while the main body of the
Army moved parallel to it so as to threaten their communication with
Madrid. At Rueda we came up with the Enemy’s rear-guard, and a
sharp skirmish and cannonade took place in which the Enemy lost
considerably owing to not bringing up their guns till very late in the
day, and our loss was only a few horses. They gradually retired, and
as we gained the high ground between Rueda and Tordesillas, we
could distinctly see the greater part of the Enemy’s army formed in
large massive Columns covered by their Cavalry preparing to cross
the River, which they did in the course of the day without Ld. Welln.
being able to interrupt them, as he had only his Cavalry and advance
guard up. In the evening he took up his Hd. Qrs. at Villa Verde, and
the Marshal at Nava del Rey.
The Army has been nearly in the same positions ever since, but on
the 4th he moved to Rueda and the Marshal to this place (La Seca).
The troops are placed so as to watch the different fords of the
Douro, and be ready to move at once in any direction circumstances
may require, and are extremely healthy and in high spirits.
The 3rd Division and Spaniards under Don Carlos d’Espanhana are
near Pollos on the Douro watching the Fords.
On the 3rd Ld. Wn. and the Marshal made a reconnaissance on
them with some cavalry and that Division. The Enemy had 5 Battns.
and some cavalry, which on being cannonaded retired to the heights
behind the Fords, and some of our people got over and have since
established themselves on the other side. They returned our fire
very briskly but with no effect, as their shot all fell short, and we
have very few men hurt by the skirmishing.
The Enemy appear to have concentrated their force on Valladolid,
leaving some strong Corps on the Douro to watch us, and
sometimes patrolling to about 2 leagues from this on the river Adaja.
I do not think they are yet in force to undertake anything against us,
and Ld. Welln.’s plans are too well kept to himself for it to be
possible for any one to guess what they may be. I think, if we
advance, the enemy will fight us. I have not a doubt of the result, in
the state of their army, whose morale appears gone. But how far Ld.
W. may think right to risk an action is quite another question.
Though the harvest is extremely abundant this year, it is not yet
ready. Deserters report that they are much distressed for provisions
at Valladolid. If this is true (which I doubt), Lord Wn. perhaps
intends to force them back by waiting patiently till they have
exhausted what they have. But these are all speculations without
much data, and Ld. Welln.’s despatch may give you better grounds
to conjecture upon than I can.
The Country, through which we have marched from Salamanca, is
extremely fertile and well cultivated, producing abundance of corn of
all descriptions, sometimes in one year for the consumption of three,
and this year the crops are remarkably fine, though much has been
consumed and more destroyed uselessly by both armies. The
country on this side of Villa Escusa produces mostly wine, and the
whole face of the country is covered with vineyards, which give it a
very rich appearance in general. The country is flat and quite open,
almost totally without trees, and not much water. From the want of
the two latter our troops have suffered considerably, for the weather,
though far from so hot as Portugal, has been hot to people marching
and obliged to be always exposed to it. We have had a very
harassing, fatiguing life of it since we left Guinaldo, and are much
the better for the few days’ rest we have had here. The towns in this
part of Spain are generally very large, clean, and populous. The
houses particularly neat. Nothing can exceed the joy and
acclamations with which the Army is everywhere received by all
classes. That there are many traitors I believe, but that the joy of
the greater part is sincere it is impossible to doubt. Nothing can have
been more oppressive or insolent than the conduct of the French for
the last 4 years. They levied enormous and repeated contributions
upon the people, at the same time that they deprived them in kind
of the means of paying them. Military executions and coercion
followed of course, and all its miseries. It will scarcely be believed
that even at this moment they have several of the principal Ladies
and inhabitants of this large town prisoners at Tordesillas as
hostages for the payment of some of their requisitions.
While writing, Mr Bertie of the 12th Lt. Dns. has brought me a
letter of introduction from you, and on every account, both as the
Admiral’s son and from your letter, I shall be most happy to have it
in my power to show him any kindness or civility. He is a very fine
lad and quite well. We yesterday received letters and papers to the
19th....
From circumstances that have occurred I am no longer so anxious
about the Majority of Infantry, unless with the certainty of returning
to the Cavalry. The other situations are indeed desirable, if not
beyond my reach, but many considerations have now determined
me otherwise to remain in the Cavalry. Lt.-Genl. Sir T. Graham left
the Army yesterday for England to consult the best advice about a
disorder in one of his eyes. I fear it is a bad case. He is regretted by
everybody and the Army as a most excellent zealous soldier, and a
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Chapter 1 Describe Artificial Intelligence workloads and considerations

Chapter 2 Describe fundamental principles of machine learning on

Chapter 3 Describe features of computer vision workloads on Azure

Chapter 4 Describe features of Natural Language Processing (NLP)

Chapter 5 Describe features of conversational AI workloads on Azure

A rtificial Intelligence (AI) impacts almost everything we do today with

Organization of this book

Preparing for the exam

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Describe Artificial Intelligence

Skills covered in this chapter:

Skill 1.1: Identify features of common AI

This skill covers how to:

Describe Azure services for AI and ML

We will be exploring some of the features and capabilities of these three

FIGURE 1-1 Example ML architecture

Understand Azure Machine Learning

Anomaly Detection Finds unusual occurrences.

NOTE MODEL TYPES

How they work

We will address these points later in the book.

Understand Azure Cognitive Services

Computer vision, including images and video

Cognitive Services have a broad and growing range of features and

A great example of the use of Cognitive Services is the free Seeing AI

We will be looking at the computer vision and Natural Language

Describe the Azure Bot Service

Identify common AI workloads

Binary prediction There are two possible outcomes for a question—

Prediction models can be used in many varied scenarios. For example,

Will this customer be approved for a $10,000 credit limit?

NOTE ANOMALY DETECTION

Monitoring IoT devices Checking the telemetry from devices in real-

There are many potential uses for computer vision:

Decision support Assisting users in making decisions from

You can use bots in many scenarios, including the following: