Lord Wellington formed his army, after this retreat of twelve miles, with his right at Aldea Velha, and his left at Bismula: the fourth and light divisions with General Alten’s cavalry in front of Alfayates, the third and seventh in second line behind it. Alfayates, though now one of the most wretched of the dilapidated towns in Portugal, was once a Romish station, and has since been considered as a military post of great importance. It is about a league from the border, standing so as to command an extensive view over a beautiful, and in happier times a fertile, country. Here Lord Wellington stood by the castle (one of the monuments of King Diniz), observing the enemy with a glass. Marmont had intended to turn the left of the position at Guinaldo by moving a column into the valley of the Upper Azava, and thence ascending the heights in the rear of the position by Castillejo; from this column he detached a division of infantry and fourteen squadrons of cavalry to follow the retreat of the allies by Albergaria, and another body of equal strength followed by Forcalhos. The former drove in our piquets at Aldea da Ponte, and pushed on to the very entrance of Alfayates. Lord Wellington, with General Stuart and Lord Robert Manners, stood watching them almost too long; for the latter, who retired the last of the three, was closely pursued by ten of the enemy’s dragoons, and might probably have been taken, if his horse, being English, and accustomed to such feats, had not cleared a high wall, and so borne him off.
General Pakenham, supported by General Cole, and by Sir Stapleton Cotton’s cavalry, drove the enemy back through Aldea da Ponte upon Albergaria; the French being reinforced by the column which had marched upon Forcalhos advanced again about sunset, and again gained the village, from which they were again driven. But night had now come on; General Pakenham could not know what was passing on his flanks, nor was he certain of the numbers which might be brought against him; and knowing that the army was to fall back farther, he evacuated Aldea da Ponte during the night. The French then occupied it; and Lord Wellington, falling back one league, formed his army on the heights behind Soito, having the Sierra das Mesas on their right, and their left at Rendo on the Coa. Here ended his retreat. Marmont had accomplished the object of throwing supplies into Ciudad Rodrigo, and could effect nothing more. Lord Wellington was not to be found at fault. He had fallen back in the face of a far outnumbering enemy, without suffering that enemy to obtain even the slightest advantage over him. The total loss of the allies on the 25th amounted to twenty-eight killed, 108 wounded, twenty-eight missing. On the 27th, fourteen killed, seventy-seven wounded, nine missing. The hereditary prince of Orange was in the field, being then for the first time in action.
♦The French retire.♦
While the British took their position behind Soito, the French retired to Ciudad Rodrigo, and then separated, Dorsenne’s army toward Salamanca and Valladolid, Marmont’s towards the pass of Baños and Plasencia. Marmont boasted in his dispatches of having forced Lord Wellington to abandon an intrenched camp, and driven him back with great loss ♦Marmont boasts of his success.♦ and confusion; “The Spanish insurgents,” he added, “have felt the greatest indignation at seeing themselves thus abandoned in the north as well as in the south; and this contrast between the conduct of the English, and the promises which they have incessantly broken, nourishes a natural hatred, which will break out sooner or later.” “We should have followed the enemy,” said Marshal Marmont, “to the lines of Lisbon, where we should have been able to form a junction with the army of the south, ... which is completely entire, and has in its front only the division of General Hill, ... had the moment been come which is fixed for the catastrophe of the English.” Soult, of whose unbroken strength Marmont thus boasted, was at this time devising measures for destroying the army which Castaños had recruited, or rather remade, since it had been so miserably wasted after Romana’s death. General Girard therefore, with a division of about 4000 foot and 1000 cavalry, was sent into that part of Extremadura which was still free, thus to confine Castaños within narrower limits, and deprive his army of those rations which it still, though with difficulty, obtained, and which were its sole means of subsistence; for in the miserable state of the Spanish commissariat and Spanish Government, their armies subsisted upon what they could find, and had little or nothing else to depend upon.
♦Girard in Extremadura.♦
Girard took his position at Caceres, extending as far as Brozas. Of the spirit in which his detachment acted, one instance will suffice. He sent a party against the house of D. Jose Maria Cribell in Salvatierra, an officer in the service of his country; they carried off his wife in the fifth month of her pregnancy; plundered the house, even to the clothes of her two children, one five years old, the other three, and left these children naked to the mercy of their neighbours. The presence of such a force greatly distressed the country, and produced the intended inconvenience to Castaños; that general, therefore, concerted with Lord Wellington a movement for relieving this part of Extremadura by striking a blow against the enemy. The execution was entrusted to general Hill, with whom a Spanish detachment was to co-operate under Camp-Marshal D. Pedro Augustin Giron.
General Hill, with such a portion of his force as was thought sufficient for the service, moved from his cantonments in the neighbourhood of Portalegre on the ♦General Hill moves against him.♦ 22nd of October, and advanced towards the Spanish frontier. On reaching Alburquerque he learned that the enemy, who had advanced to Aliseda, had fallen back to Arroyo del Puerco; and that Aliseda was occupied by the Conde de Penne Villemur with the rear of the Spaniards. At that place, the allies and the Spaniards formed their junction the next day. The French occupied Arroyo del Puerco with 300 horse, their main body being at Caceres. Penne Villemur, on the 25th, drove back their horse to Malpartida, which place they held as an advanced post. At two on the following morning the allies began their march upon this place, in the midst of a severe storm; they arrived at daybreak; but the enemy had retired in the night. Penne Villemur, with the Spanish cavalry, and a party of the second hussars, followed them, skirmishing as far as Caceres, supported by the Spanish infantry under D. Pablo Morillo. Girard, as soon as he knew that the allies were advancing, retired from that city, and General Hill received intelligence of his retreat at Malpartida, but what direction he had taken was uncertain. In consequence of this uncertainty, and of the extreme badness of the weather, the British and Portugueze halted for the night at Malpartida, the Spaniards occupying Caceres.
♦Oct. 27.♦
The next morning General Hill, having ascertained that the enemy had marched on Torremocha, put his troops in motion, and advancing along the Merida road, by Aldea del Cano, and the Casa de D. Antonio; for as this was a shorter line than that which Girard had taken, he hoped to intercept him and bring him to action. On the march he learned that the French had only left Torremocha that morning, and that their main body had again halted at Arroyo Molinos, leaving a rear-guard at Albala. This proved that Girard was ignorant of the movements of the allies, and General Hill therefore made a forced march that evening to Alcuescar, a place within four miles of Arroyo Molinos, where he was joined by the Spaniards from Caceres. Everything confirmed the British general in his opinion that the enemy were not only ignorant of his near approach, but also off their guard; and he determined upon attempting to surprise them, or at least bringing them to action, before they should march in the morning. The troops, therefore, lay under a hill, to be out of sight of the enemy; they had marched the whole day in a heavy rain, the rain still continued, and no fires were allowed to be made.
♦Arroyo Molinos.♦