The 27th, however, he marched in person to Medellin, at the head of two divisions of infantry, and a brigade of heavy cavalry. Eight hundred Spanish horse posted on the right bank of the Guadiana, retired at his approach, and crossing that river, halted at Don Benito, where they were reinforced by other squadrons, but no infantry were to be discovered. The duke of Belluno then passed the river and took post on the road leading to Mengabril and Don Benito; hence, the situation of the French army in the evening was as follows:—
The main body, consisting of two divisions of infantry, and one incomplete brigade of heavy cavalry in position, on the road leading from Medellin to Don Benito and Mingabril.
The remainder of the dragoons, under Latour Maubourg, were at Zorita, fifteen miles on the left, watching the Spaniards in the Guadalupe.
The light cavalry was at Merida, eighteen miles to the right, having patrolled all that day on the roads to Badajos, Seville, and Medellin.
Ruffin’s division was at Miajadas eighteen miles in the rear.
In the course of the evening Victor received intelligence, that Albuquerque was just come up with eight thousand men, that the combined troops, amounting to twenty-eight thousand infantry and seven thousand cavalry, were in position on the table land of Don Benito, and that Cuesta, aware of the scattered state of the French army, was preparing to attack the two divisions on their march the next day.
Upon this, the duke of Belluno, notwithstanding the strength of the Spanish army, resolved to fight, and immediately sent orders to Lasalle, to Ruffin, and to Latour Maubourg, to bring their divisions down to Medellin; but the latter was directed to leave a detachment at Miajadas to protect the route of Merida, and a brigade at Zorita, to observe the Spaniards in the Sierra de Guadalupe.
Cuesta’s numbers were, however, greatly exaggerated; that general blaming every body but himself for his failure on the Tagus—had fallen back to Campanarios—rallied all his scattered detachments, and then returned to Villa Nueva de Serena, where he was joined, on the 27th, by Albuquerque, who brought up not a great body of infantry and cavalry as supposed, but less than three thousand infantry and a few hundred horse. This reinforcement, added to some battalions drawn from Andalusia, increased Cuesta’s army to about twenty-five thousand foot, four thousand horse, and eighteen or twenty pieces of artillery; and, with this force, he, fearing for the safety of Badajos, retraced his steps and rushed headlong to destruction.
Medellin, possessing a fine stone-bridge, is situated in a hollow on the left bank of the Guadiana, and just beyond the town is a vast plain or table land, the edge of which, breaking abruptly down, forms the bed of the river. The Ortigosa, a rapid torrent, rushing perpendicularly to the Guadiana, and having steep and rugged banks, yet in parts passable for artillery, cuts their plain, which is also traversed by two roads, the one leading to Mingrabil on the right, the other to Don Benito on the left, those places being about five miles apart, and forming with Medellin an irregular triangle.
The French army, with the exception of the troops left to cover the communications and those at Zorita, was concentrated in the town at ten o’clock; and, at one, about fourteen thousand infantry, two thousand five hundred cavalry, and forty-two pieces of artillery, went forth to fight the