CHAPTER IV.
A few days after sailing from Cork, sir Arthur Wellesley quitting the fleet, repaired in a frigate to Coruña, where he arrived the 20th of July, and immediately held a conference with the members of Sir A. Wellesley’s Narrative. Court of Inquiry. the Gallician junta, by whom he was informed of the battle of Rio Seco; but the account was glossed over in the Spanish manner, and the issue of that contest had caused no change in their policy, if policy that may be called, which was but a desire to obtain money and to avoid personal inconvenience; they rejected all succour in men, but earnestly pressed for arms and gold; and even while the conference went on, the last was supplied, for an English frigate entered the harbour with two hundred thousand pounds for their use. Whereupon, the junta recommended that the British troops should be employed in the north of Portugal, and promising to aid them by sending a Spanish division to Oporto, supported their recommendation by an incorrect statement of the number of men, Spanish and Portuguese, who, they asserted, were in arms near that city, and by a still more inaccurate estimate of the forces under Junot; and in this manner persuaded sir Arthur not to land in their province. Yet, at the moment they were rejecting the assistance of the British troops, the whole kingdom of Gallicia was lying at the mercy of marshal Bessieres, and there were neither men nor means to impede the progress of his victorious army.
Mr. Charles Stuart, appointed to reside as British envoy near the junta, landed at Coruña, and sir Arthur Wellesley proceeded to Oporto, where he found colonel Browne, an active and intelligent officer, who had been sent there a short time before to collect intelligence, and to distribute supplies. From his information it appeared, that no Spanish troops were in the north of Portugal, and that all the Portuguese force was upon the Mondego, to the south of which river the insurrection had spread. A French division of eight thousand men was supposed to be in their front, and some great disaster was expected, for, to use colonel Browne’s words, “with every good will in the people, their exertions were so short lived, and Parliamentary Papers, 1809. with so little combination, that there was no hope of their being able to resist the advance of the enemy;” in fact, only five thousand regulars and militia, half armed, and associated with ten or twelve thousand peasants without any arms, were in the field at all. A large army was, however, made out upon paper by the bishop of Oporto, who, having assembled his Sir A. Wellesley’s Narrative. Court of Inquiry. civil and military coadjutors in council, proposed various plans of operation for the allied forces, none of which sir Arthur was inclined to adopt; but after some discussion it was finally arranged that the prelate and the paper army should look to the defence of the Tras os Montes against Bessieres, and that the five thousand soldiers on the Mondego should co-operate with the British forces.
This being settled, sir Arthur Wellesley hastened to consult with sir Charles Cotton relative to the descent at the mouth of the Tagus, which had so long haunted the imaginations of the ministers. The strength of the French, the bar of the river, the disposition of the forts, and the difficulty of landing in the immediate neighbourhood, occasioned by the heavy surf playing upon all the undefended creeks and bays, convinced him that such an enterprise was Sir A. Wellesley’s Narrative. Court of Inquiry. unadvisable, if not impracticable. There remained the alternative of landing to the north of Lisbon at such a distance as to avoid the danger of a disputed disembarkation, or of proceeding to the southward to join general Spencer, and commence operations in that quarter against Dupont. Sir Arthur Wellesley decided against the latter, which promised no good result while Junot held Portugal, and Bessieres hung on Sir H. Dalrymple’s and lord Collingwood’s Correspondence. the northern frontier. He foresaw that the jealousy of the Spaniards, evinced by their frequent refusal to admit English troops into Cadiz, would assuredly bring on a tedious negotiation, and waste the season of action before the army could obtain a place of arms, or that the campaign must be commenced without any secure base of operations. Nothing was then known of the Spanish troops, except that they were inexperienced; but without good aid from them it would have been idle with fourteen thousand men to take the field against twenty thousand strongly posted in the Sierra Morena and communicating freely with the main body of the French army. A momentary advance was useless; and if the campaign was protracted, the line of operations running nearly parallel to the frontier of Portugal, would have required a covering army on the Guadiana to watch the movements of Junot.
The double line of operations, proposed by lord Castlereagh, was contrary to all military principle, and as Spencer’s despatches announced that his division was at St. Mary’s, near Cadiz, and disengaged from any connexion with the Spaniards (a fortunate circumstance scarcely to have been expected), sir Arthur sent him orders to sail to the mouth of the Mondego, whither he himself also repaired, and joined the fleet having his own army on board. Off the Mondego he received the despatches announcing sir Hew Dalrymple’s appointment and the sailing of sir John Moore’s troops.
This mortifying intelligence did not relax his activity; he directed fast sailing vessels to look out for Anstruther’s armament, and to conduct it to the Mondego, and having heard of Dupont’s capitulation, resolved, without waiting for general Spencer’s arrival, to disembark his own troops and commence the campaign—a determination that marked the cool decisive vigour of his character; for, although sure that (in consequence of Dupont’s defeat) Bessieres would not Sir A. Wellesley’s Narrative. Court of Inquiry. enter Portugal, his information led him to estimate Junot’s own force at sixteen to eighteen thousand men, a number, indeed, below the truth, yet sufficient to make the hardiest general pause before he disembarked with only nine thousand men, and without any certainty that his fleet could remain even for a day in that dangerous offing, at a moment also when another man was coming to profit from any success that might be obtained, and when a failure would have ruined his own reputation in the estimation of the English public, always ready to deride the skill of an Indian general.
It was difficult to find a good point of disembarkation, for the coast of Portugal from the Minho to the Tagus, presents, with few exceptions, a rugged and dangerous shore; all the harbours formed by the rivers have bars, that render most of them difficult of access even for boats, and with the slightest breeze from the sea-board a terrible surf breaks along the whole line of coast and forbids all approach, and when the south wind, which commonly prevails from August to the winter months, blows, a more dangerous shore is not to be found in any part of the world.
The small peninsula of Peniché, about seventy miles northward of the Lisbon Rock, alone offered a safe and accessible bay, perfectly adapted for a disembarkation, but the anchorage was completely within range of the fort, which contained a hundred guns and a garrison of a thousand men. The next best place was the Mondego river, and as the little fort of Figueras, taken, as I have before related, by the student Zagalo, and now occupied by English marines, secured a free entrance, sir Arthur commenced landing his troops Sir A. Wellesley’s Narrative. Court of Inquiry. there on the 1st of August. The weather was calm, but the operation was so difficult that it was not completed before the 5th. At that moment, by a singular good fortune, general Spencer arrived; he had not received sir Arthur’s orders, but with great promptitude had sailed for the Tagus the moment Dupont surrendered, and by sir Charles Cotton had been directed to the Mondego. The united forces, however, only amounted to twelve thousand three hundred men, because the fourth veteran battalion being destined for Gibraltar was left on board the ships.
The army being on shore, the British general repaired to Montemor Velho to confer with don Bernardim Freire de Andrada, the Portuguese commander-in-chief. The latter proposed that the troops of the two nations should relinquish all communication with the coast, and throwing themselves into the heart of Beira, commence an offensive campaign; he promised ample stores of provisions; but sir Arthur having already discovered the weakness of the insurrection, placed no reliance on those promises. He supplied Freire with five thousand stand of arms and ammunition, but refused to separate from his ships; and seeing clearly that the insurgents were unable to give any real assistance, he resolved to act with reference to the probability of their deserting him in danger. The Portuguese general, disappointed at this refusal, reluctantly consented to join the British army, but he pressed sir Arthur to hasten to Leria, lest a large magazine filled, as he affirmed, with provisions for the use of the British army, should fall into the enemy’s hands. After this the two generals separated, and the necessary preparations for a march being completed, the advanced guard of the English army quitted the banks of the Mondego on the 9th, taking the road to Leria. The 10th sir Arthur Wellesley followed with the main body, and thus commenced the
FIRST CAMPAIGN IN PORTUGAL.
His plan embraced three principal objects:
1º. To hold on by the sea coast, as well for the sake of his supplies as to avoid the drain upon his weak army, which the protection of magazines on shore would occasion, and also to cover the disembarkation of the reinforcements expected from England.
2º. To keep his troops in a mass, that he might strike an important blow.
3º. To strike that blow as near Lisbon as possible, that the affairs of Portugal might be quickly brought to a crisis.
Sir A. Wellesley’s Narrative. Court of Inquiry.
He possessed very good military surveys of the ground in the immediate neighbourhood of Lisbon, and he was anxious to carry on his operations in a part of the country where he could avail himself of this resource; but the utter inexperience of his commissariat staff, and the want of cavalry, rendered his movements slow, and obliged him to be extremely circumspect, especially as the insurrection, although a generous, was but a feeble effort, and its prolongation rather the result of terror than of hope. The blow had been hastily struck in the moment of suffering, and the patriots, conscious of weakness, trembled when they reflected on their own temerity.
Proceedings of the Court of Inquiry.
From the English stores Bernardim Freire had received arms and equipments complete for five thousand soldiers, yet his army at Leria did not exceed six thousand men of all arms fit for action; and besides this force, there were in all the provinces north of the Tagus only three thousand infantry, under the command of the marquis of Valladeres, half of whom were Spaniards. Hence it appears, that nothing could be more insignificant than the insurrection, nothing more absurd than the lofty style adopted by the junta of Oporto in their communications with the British ministers.
Upon the other side, Junot, who received information of the English descent in the Mondego as early as the 2d, was extremely embarrassed by the distance Thiebault. of his principal force, and the hostile disposition of the inhabitants of Lisbon. He also was acquainted with the disaster of Dupont, and exaggerated notions of the essential strength of the Portuguese insurgents were generated in his own mind and in the minds of his principal officers.
The patriots of the Alemtejo and Algarves, assisted by some Spaniards, and animated by the manifestos and promises assiduously promulgated from the English fleet, had once more assembled at Alcacer do Sal, from whence they threatened the garrisons of St. Ubes and the French posts on the south bank of the Tagus, immediately opposite to Lisbon. The capital itself was very unquiet; the anticipation of coming freedom was apparent in the wrathful looks and stubborn manners of the populace, and superstition was at work to increase the hatred and the hopes of the multitude. It was at this time that the prophetic eggs, denouncing death to the French, and deliverance to the Portuguese, appeared; but less equivocal indications of approaching danger were to be drawn from the hesitations of Junot, who, wavering between his fear of an insurrection in Lisbon, and his desire to check the immediate progress of the British army, gave certain proof of an intellect yielding to the pressure of events.
At this period Loison, with between seven and eight thousand men, was in the neighbourhood of Estremos, two thousand five hundred men were in the fortresses of Elvas and Almeida, a few hundred were at Abrantes, a thousand were in Santarem, and the same number in Peniché. General Thomieres, with a brigade, was in the vicinity of Alcobaca, and the remainder were quartered in Lisbon and on a circuit round, including both sides of the river. The Tagus itself was guarded on the north bank by the forts of Cascaes, St. Antonio, St. Julians, Belem, and the citadel, between each of which smaller works kept up a continued line of offence against ships entering by the northern passage of the harbour. On the southern bank fort Bugio, built upon a low sandy point, crossed its fire with St. Julians in the defence of the entrance. Upon the heights of Almada or Thiebault. Palmela, stood the fort of Palmela. St. Ubes and Traffaria completed the posts occupied by the French on that side. The communication between the north and south banks was kept up by the refitted Portuguese ships of war, by the Russian squadron, and by the innumerable boats, most of them very fine and large, with which the Tagus is covered.
Such being the situation of the army on the 3d, Junot ordered Loison to march by Portalegre and Abrantes, and from thence effect a junction with general Laborde, who, with three thousand infantry, five or six hundred cavalry, and five pieces of artillery, quitted Lisbon upon the 6th, and proceeded by Villa Franca, Rio Mayor, and Candeiros, charged to observe the movements of the British, and to cover the march of Loison, with whom he expected to form a junction at Leria.
Junot himself remained in Lisbon with a view of controlling the inhabitants by his presence. He embarked Thiebault. all the powder from the magazines, took additional precautions to guard his Spanish prisoners, and put the citadel and forts into a state of siege; but disquieted by the patriots assembled at Alcacer do Sal, he sent general Kellerman with a moveable column to disperse them, and to scour the country between that place and Setuval, ordering him to withdraw the garrison from the latter, to abandon all the French posts on the south of the Tagus except Palmela, and to collect the whole force in one mass on the heights of Almada, where an entrenched camp had been already commenced; but general Kellerman had scarcely departed when two English regiments, the one from Madeira, the other from Gibraltar, arriving off the bar of Lisbon, distracted anew the attention of the French, and increased the turbulence of the populace, and in this state of perplexity the duke of Abrantes lingered until the 15th, when the progress of sir Arthur Wellesley forced him to assume the command of the army in the field.
Loison entered Abrantes the 9th, and Laborde arrived at Candeiros the same day; from that point he could with facility carry his division upon Alcobaca and Leria, or form a junction with Loison upon the side of Santarem.
The armies on both sides were now in that state of attraction towards each other, which indicates an approaching shock. In the French camps the news of Bessieres’ victory at Rio Seco became known, and produced a short-lived exultation; and at the same moment intelligence of Joseph’s flight from Madrid reached the British army, and increased their confidence of victory. The 10th, Loison halted at Abrantes, and Laborde moved to Alcobaca, where he was joined by Thomieres and the garrison of Peniché.
Proceedings of the Court of Inquiry.
Sir Arthur’s advanced guard also entered Leria, and was there joined by Bernardim Freire and the Portuguese army, who immediately seized the magazine without making any distribution to the British troops. The main body of the latter arrived the 11th, and the whole marched in advance upon the 12th.
Laborde employed the 11th and 12th in looking for a position in the neighbourhood of Battalha; but the ground was too extensive for his numbers, and at the approach of the English, he fell back in the night of the 12th to Obidos, a small town, with an old Moorish castle situated on a gentle eminence in the Thiebault. middle of a valley. Having occupied Obidos with his picquets, and placed a small detachment at the windmill of Brilos, three miles in front, he retired the 14th to Roriça, a village four miles to the southward, situated at the intersection of the roads leading to Torres Vedras, to Montachique, and to Alcoentre, and overlooking the whole valley of Obidos.
This position enabled him to preserve his communication with Loison open, but as it uncovered Peniché, the fourth Swiss regiment, with the exception of the flank companies, was sent to regarrison that important point, and at the same time three hundred men were detached to the right by Bombarral, Cadaval, and Segura, to obtain intelligence of Loison.
That general, having made a demonstration on the side of Thomar the 11th, ascertained that Leria was in the hands of the British, and fell back the same day upon Torres Novas, then following the course of the Tagus he arrived at Santarem upon the 13th, but in such an exhausted state, that he was unable to renew his march until the 15th. Sir Arthur Wellesley’s first movement had thus cut the line of communication between Loison and Laborde, caused a loss of several forced marches to the former, and obliged the latter to risk an action with more than twice his own numbers.
As the hostile troops approached each other, the Portuguese chiefs became alarmed, notwithstanding the confident language of their public manifestos and the bombastic style of their conversation, an internal conviction that a French army was invincible pervaded all ranks of the patriots. The leaders, aware of their own deficiency, and incredulous of the courage of the English soldiers, dreaded the being committed in a decisive contest, because a defeat (which they expected) would deprive them of all hope to make terms with the victors, whereas by keeping five or six thousand men together, they could at any time secure themselves by a capitulation. The junta of Oporto also, who were already aiming at supreme authority, foresaw that in the event of a successful battle, it would be more advantageous for their particular views, to be provided with an army untouched and entirely disconnected with a foreign general, and Freire being well instructed in the secret designs of his party, resolved not to advance a step beyond Leria; but, to cover his real motives, he required the British commander to supply him with provisions, choosing to forget the magazine which he had just appropriated to himself, and as readily forgetting the formal promises of the bishop of Oporto, who had undertaken to feed the English army.
This extraordinary demand, that an auxiliary force just disembarked should nourish the native soldiers, instead of being itself fed by the people, was met by sir Arthur Wellesley with a strong remonstrance. He easily penetrated the secret motive which caused it, but feeling that it was important to have a respectable Portuguese force acting in conjunction with his own, he first appealed to the honour and patriotism of Freire, and warmly admonished him, that he was going to forfeit all pretension to either, by permitting the British army to fight without his assistance; but this argument had no effect upon don Bernardim. He parried the imputations against his spirit and zeal by pretending that his intention was to operate independently on the line of the Tagus; and after some further discussion, sir Arthur, as a last effort, changed his tone of rebuke to one of conciliation, and recommended to him not to risk his troops by an isolated march, but to keep in the rear of the British, and wait for the result of the first battle. This advice was so agreeable to Freire, that at the solicitation of captain Trant, a military agent, he consented to leave fourteen hundred infantry, and two hundred and fifty cavalry, under the immediate command of the English general.
The defection of the native force was a serious evil. It shed an injurious moral influence, and deprived sir Arthur of the aid of troops whose means of gaining intelligence, and whose local knowledge, might have compensated for his want of cavalry. Nevertheless, continuing his own march, his advanced guard entered Caldas the 15th, and that day also Junot reluctantly quitted Lisbon, with a reserve composed of two thousand infantry, six hundred cavalry, and ten pieces of artillery, carrying with him his grand parc of ammunition, and a military chest, containing forty thousand pounds. General Travot was left at Lisbon, with above seven thousand men, of which number two battalions were formed of stragglers and convalescents. Thiebault. He occupied both sides of the Tagus, distributing two thousand men in Palmela, the Bugio fort, and on the heights of Almada, in order to protect the shipping from the insurgents of the Alemtejo, who, under the orders of the Monteiro Mor, were again gathering at Setuval. A thousand French he kept on board the vessels of war, to guard the Spanish prisoners and the spare powder; with two thousand four hundred he garrisoned the citadel and supported the police. A thousand were distributed in the forts of Belem, St. Julians, Cascaes, and Ericeia (the last named place is situated to the northward of the rock of Lisbon, and commands a small harbour a few miles west of Mafra), and a thousand were at Santarem, protecting a large depôt of stores; thus, if the garrisons of Elvas, Peniché, and Almeida be included, nearly one half of the French army was, by Junot’s combinations, rendered inactive, and those in the field were divided into three parts, without any certain point of junction in advance, yet each too weak singly to sustain an action. The duke of Abrantes seems to have reigned long enough in Portugal to forget that he was merely the chief of an advanced corps, whose safety depended upon activity and concentration.
The French reserve was transported to Villa Franca by water, from whence it was to march to Otta; but the rope ferry-boat of Saccavem being removed by the natives, it cost twenty-four hours to throw a bridge across the creek at that place. On the 17th the troops were on their march, when Junot hastily recalled them to Villa Franca. This retrograde movement was occasioned by a report that the English had landed near the capital. When the falsehood of this rumour became known, the reserve resumed the road to Otta, under the command of general Thiebault, Junot himself pushing forward to Alcoentre, where he found Loison, and assumed the personal direction of that general’s division.
Sir A. Wellesley’s Despatch.
During this time, sir Arthur Wellesley was pressing La Borde. The 15th he caused the post at Brilos to be attacked, and the piquets to be driven out of Obidos. Two companies of the 95th, and two of the 5th battalion, 60th, were employed in the former operation; they carried the windmill without loss, but pursued the retiring enemy with such inconsiderate eagerness, that at the distance of three miles from their support, they were outflanked by two superior bodies of French, and were only saved by the opportune advance of general Spencer. Two officers and twenty-seven men were killed and wounded in this slight affair, which gave a salutary check to the rashness, without lowering the confidence of the troops.
The 16th Laborde’s position was examined. The road from Caldas to Obidos runs through a valley, formed by the ramifications of the Monte Junto. The high table land upon which Roriça is situated closed this valley to the southward, and Laborde’s division being posted on a small plain immediately in front of that village, completely overlooked the country as far as Obidos. All the favourable points of defence in the valley, and on the nearest hills on each side, were occupied by small detachments. One mile in the rear, a steep ridge extending about three quarters of a mile from east to west, and parallel to the French position, offered a second line of great strength. The main road led by a deep defile over this ridge, which was called the height of Zambugeira, or Columbeira, and beyond it, very lofty mountains rose abruptly, stretching from the sea-coast to the Tagus like a wall, and filling all the space between that river and the ocean down to the rock of Lisbon.
The valley leading from Obidos to Roriça was bounded on the left by a succession of ridges that rose the one above the other like steps, until they were lost in the great mass of the Sierra de Baragueda, itself a shoot from the Monte-junto.
Laborde’s situation was becoming truly embarrassing. Loison was at Alcoentre, and the reserve was at Villa Franca; that is one and two marches distant from Roriça. If he retired upon Torres Vedras, his communication with Loison would be lost. To fall back on Montachique was to expose the line of Torres Vedras and Mafra. To march upon Alcoentre, and unite with Loison, was to open the shortest road to Lisbon (that of Montachique) for the British army; and to remain at Roriça, it was necessary to fight three times his own force.
Animated, however, by the danger, encouraged by the local advantages of his position, and justly confident in his own talents, Laborde resolved to abide his enemy’s assault, in the feeble hope that Loison might arrive during the action.
COMBAT OF RORIÇA.
Sir Arthur Wellesley attacked upon the 17th.
Early in the morning of that day, a dense mass, consisting of thirteen thousand four hundred and eighty infantry, four hundred and seventy cavalry, and eighteen guns, issued from Obidos, and soon afterwards broke into three distinct columns of battle.
The left, commanded by lieutenant-general Ferguson, was composed of his own and major-general Bowe’s brigades of infantry, reinforced by two hundred and fifty riflemen, forty cavalry, and six guns, forming a total of four thousand nine hundred combatants. They marched by the crests of the hills adjoining the Sierra de Baragueda, being destined to turn the right flank of Laborde’s position, and to oppose the efforts of Loison, if that general (who was supposed to be at Rio Mayor) should appear during the action.
The column of the right, under captain Trant, composed of a thousand Portuguese infantry, and fifty horse of the same nation, moved by the village of St. Amias, with the intention of turning the left flank of the French.
The centre column, nine thousand in number, with twelve guns, was commanded by sir Arthur in person, and marched straight against the enemy by the village of Mahmed. It was composed of generals Hill’s, Nightingale’s, Catlin Craufurd’s, and Fane’s brigades of British infantry, four hundred cavalry, two hundred and fifty of which were Portuguese, and four hundred light troops of the same nation.
As this column advanced, general Fane’s brigade, extending to its left, drove back the French skirmishers, and connected the march of Ferguson’s division with the centre. When the latter approached the elevated plain upon which Laborde was posted, general Hill, who moved upon the right of the main road, being supported by the cavalry, and covered by the fire of his light troops, pushed forward rapidly to the attack. On his left general Nightingale displayed a line of infantry, preceded by the fire of nine guns. Craufurd’s brigade, and the remaining pieces of artillery, formed a reserve.
At this moment, Fane’s riflemen crowned the nearest hills on the right flank of the French; the Portuguese troops showed the head of a column beyond St. Amias upon the enemy’s left, and general Ferguson was seen descending from the higher grounds in the rear of Fane. Laborde’s position appeared desperate; but with the coolness and dexterity of a practised warrior, he evaded the danger, and covered by his excellent cavalry, fell back rapidly to the heights of Zambugeira. A fresh disposition of the English became indispensable to dislodge him from that formidable and well chosen post.
Colonel Trant continued his march, and turned the left of the new field of battle.
Ferguson and Fane being united, were directed to penetrate by the mountains, and outflank the French right.
click here for larger image.
SKETCH OF THE
COMBAT OF RORIÇA.
17th August 1808.
Generals Hill and Nightingale advanced against the front, which was of singular strength, and only to be approached by narrow paths winding through deep ravines. A swarm of skirmishers starting forward, plunged into the passes, and spreading to the right and left, won their way with extreme difficulty among the rocks and tangled evergreens that overspread the steep ascent; with still greater difficulty the supporting columns followed, and their formation was soon disordered in the confined and rugged passes. The hollows echoed with a continued roll of musketry; the shouts of the advancing troops were loudly answered by the enemy, and the curling smoke that broke out from the sides of the mountain marking the progress of the assailants, showed how stoutly the defence was maintained. Laborde, watching anxiously for the arrival of Loison, gradually slackened his hold on the left, but clung tenaciously to the right, in the hope of yet effecting a junction with that general. The ardour of the 9th and 29th regiments, who led the attack, favoured this skilful conduct. They pressed forward with such vigour, as to force the two strongest passes and reach the plain above, long before the flank movements of Ferguson and Trant had shaken the credit of the position, the 29th first arrived in disorder at the top; ere they could form, a French battalion came forward at a rapid pace, poured in their fire, and breaking gallantly through the midst of the English regiment, slew the colonel and many others, and made the major and fifty or sixty men prisoners; but the 29th were not to be overthrown. They rallied, and being joined by the 9th, the colonel of which also fell in this bitter fight, maintained their dangerous footing. Laborde, who brought every arm into action at the proper time and place, made repeated efforts to destroy these regiments before they could be supported; failing in that, he yet gained time to withdraw his left wing and to rally it upon the centre and right; but the English troops were gathering thickly on the upper ground, and general Ferguson, who had at first taken an erroneous direction towards the centre, now regained the true line, and was rapidly passing the right flank of the position. The French general, seeing that the day was lost, commenced a retreat by alternate masses, protecting his movements by vigorous charges of cavalry. At the village of Zambugeira he made another desperate stand, but the English troops bore on him too heavily to be resisted, and thus disputing the ground, he fell back to the Quinta de Bugagliera, there he halted until his detachments on the side of Segura had rejoined him, and then taking to the narrow pass of Ruña he marched all night to gain the position of Montechique, leaving three guns on the field of battle, and the road to Torres Vedras open for the victors.
Thiebault.
The loss of the French was six hundred killed and wounded; among the latter was Laborde himself. The British also suffered considerably; two lieutenant-colonels [Appendix, No. 19.] and nearly five hundred men being killed, taken, or wounded, and as not more than four thousand men were actually engaged, this hard fought action was very honourable to both sides.
The firing ceased a little after four o’clock, and sir Arthur getting intelligence that Loison’s division was at Bombaral, only five miles distant, took up a position for the night in an oblique line to that which he had just forced, his left resting upon a height near the field of battle, and his right covering the road to Lourinham. Believing that Loison and Laborde had effected their junction at the Quintade Bugagliera, and that both were retiring to Montechique, he resolved to march the next morning to Torres Vedras; but before night-fall he was informed that general Anstruther’s and general Acland’s[13] divisions, accompanied by a large fleet of store ships, were off the coast, the dangerous nature of which rendered it necessary to provide for their safety by a quick disembarkation. He therefore changed his plans, and resolved to seek for some convenient post, that, being in advance of his present position, would likewise enable him to Sir A. Wellesley’s evidence. Court of Inquiry. cover the landing of these reinforcements. The vigour of Laborde’s defence had also an influence upon this occasion; before an enemy so bold and skilful no precaution could be neglected with impunity.
The 18th sir Arthur marched to Lourinham, and Junot at the same time quitting Cereal with Loison’s division, crossed the line of Laborde’s retreat, and pushed for Torres Vedras, which he reached in the evening of the same day. The 19th being joined by Laborde, and the 20th by his reserve, he re-organized his army, and prepared for a decisive battle.