15th
As soon as the fog cleared away we found the enemy's piquets were gone and the position had been vacated. About three o'clock in the afternoon the Light Division advanced upon the road to Alenquer and bivouacked near it for the night. I examined several encampments that the enemy had occupied and found them in a most filthy state, and in several huts I found dead men who had fallen victims to the inclement weather. The enemy's fires appeared five miles off. Colonel Winch took command of the 2nd Light Brigade, formerly commanded by Colonel Barclay, 52nd Regiment.
16th
The Light Division advanced at daylight and followed the enemy to Villa Nova. They had attempted to destroy the bridge here, but we advanced too rapidly for them. Moved forward to Izambuja, a town on the right bank of the Tagus, and remained for the night. We took a number of stragglers this day who had been suffering sadly from starvation and disease. The road was found strewn with rags and pieces of Frenchmen's appointments and caps, and occasionally a dead horse, mule, or jackass to enliven the scene.
17th
The Light Division marched two leagues to Cataxa; cavalry in front. The enemy showed three battalions of infantry and six squadrons of cavalry as a decoy, the remaining part of Junot's corps being concealed from our view. General Craufurd fancied that he saw the whole of the rear-guard and had made his dispositions to attack them, when Lord Wellington arrived on the ground and stopped the attack, observing, "Are you aware, General, that the whole of Junot's corps is close to the advanced body you now see, amounting to, at least, 23,000 men, a large portion of which is cavalry?" The attack was, of course, abandoned. General Slade's Brigade of cavalry advanced and took up the line of piquets. The Light Division entered Cataxa for the night. I was on inlying piquet. The cavalry sent in 105 prisoners.
18th
At daybreak we moved on, accompanied by Captain Ross's[16] Horse Artillery, which now is to remain attached to the Light Division. We advanced across a plain in considerable force, the enemy retiring before us and crossing a causeway and bridge over the Rio Mayor, the whole country in the neighbourhood of the river being a boggy impassable swamp. Our cavalry had a piquet close to the bridge, the advanced vedettes from which were dismounted, and occasionally exchanging long-shots across the causeway with the enemy. These men were highly pleased to see me arrive with some Rifle Men and take the post of honour from them, as the company I belonged to was sent on piquet, with orders to remain at the bridge. The French sent a few men forward to commence a fire upon us. I crawled on the bridge with three men, and lay down by a dead mule, where we had a good rest and took deliberate aim. The Frenchmen soon became wary of showing themselves, which convinced me we had hit some of them. The company, having had a hard day's work, were relieved at night by a company of the 52nd, but we were ordered to remain near at hand during the night as a reserve to it.
The weather was very rainy, but, fortunately for us, this part of the country was covered with olive-trees. This wood is very hard and so greasy that it is as inflammable as coal, so that, in spite of rain, we managed to have good fires. General Craufurd, over his wine, took it into his head that the enemy was moving off and he was anxious to be the first to find it out. He came to the piquet and took three soldiers and walked cautiously along the causeway until the French sentry challenged and fired. The General ordered his men to fire and retire. This circumstance created so much alarm in the enemy's camp, who imagined that the British army was passing the bridge and falling upon them, that they became panic-struck and commenced a tremendous fire in every direction for some time. The balls came rattling among the trees, and General Craufurd was sadly annoyed at being deceived in his conjectures and having caused such an uproar, with a great chance of foolishly throwing away his life.
19th