The country between Penamacor and the Tagus, that is to say, the lines of the Elga and the Ponçul, was guarded by ten regiments of militia, a regiment of native cavalry, and the Lusitanian legion. In the Alemtejo, including the garrisons, four regiments of militia were stationed, and three regiments held the fortresses of the Algarves. There remained in reserve, twelve regiments of the fifty composing the whole militia force, and these were distributed in Estremadura on both sides of the Tagus, but principally about Setuval. The regular Portuguese troops, deducting those in garrison at Almeida Elvas and Cadiz, were at Thomar and Abrantes.
But the British, organized in five divisions of infantry and one of cavalry, were distributed as follows:—
| Men. | ||||
| 1st Division | General Spencer, | about | 6000 | Viseu. |
| 2d Division, including the 13th Dragoons | General Hill, | ” | 5000 | Abrantes. |
| 3d Division | General Picton, | ” | 3000 | Celerico. |
| 4th Division | General Cole, | ” | 4000 | Guarda. |
| Light Division | Robert Crawfurd, | ” | 2400 | Pinhel. |
| The Cavalry | General Cotton, | ” | 3000 | Valley of Mondego. |
| ——— | ||||
| Total | 23,400 | under arms. | ||
| ——— |
Thus the wings of the defence were composed solely of militia and ordenança, and the whole of the regular force was in the centre. The Portuguese at Thomar, and the four British divisions of infantry posted at Viseu, Guarda, Pinhel, and Celerico, formed a body of thirty-eight thousand men, the greater part of which could, in two marches, be united either at Guarda or between that position and the Douro. On the other side Beresford and Hill could, in as short a period, unite by the boat-bridge of Abrantes, and thus thirty-two thousand men would be concentrated on that line. If the enemy should attempt the passage of the Elga either direct from Coria, or by a flank movement of the second corps from Estremadura, across the Tagus, Beresford could succour the militia by moving over the Sobreira Formosa to Castello Branco, while Hill could reach that place much quicker than general Reynier, in consequence of an arrangement which merits particular attention.
It has been already said that the march from Abrantes to Castello Branco is over difficult mountains; to have repaired the roads between these places would have been more useful to the enemy than to the allies, as facilitating a passage for superior numbers to penetrate by the shortest line to Lisbon. But lord Wellington, after throwing boat-bridges over the Tagus and the Zezere, and fortifying Abrantes, established between the latter and Castello Branco a line of communication by the left bank of the Tagus, through Niza, to the pass of Vilha Velha, where, by a flying bridge, the river was recrossed, and from thence a good road led to Castello Branco. Now the pass of Vilha Velha is prodigiously strong for defence, and the distance from Abrantes to Castello Branco being nearly the same by Niza as by the other bank of the river, the march of troops was yet much accelerated, for the road near Vilha Velha being reconstructed by the engineers, was excellent.
Thus all the obstacles to an enemy’s march by the north bank were preserved, and the line by Vilha Velha, enabled not only Hill to pass from Portalegre, or Abrantes, to Castello Branco by a flank movement in less time than Reynier, but it also provided a lateral communication for the whole army, which we shall hereafter find of vital importance in the combinations of the English general, supplying the loss of the road by Alcantara and the pass of Perales, which otherwise would have been adopted.
The French, also, in default of a direct line of communication between Estremadura and the Ciudad Rodrigo country, were finally forced to adopt the circuitous road of Almaraz and the pass of Baños, and it was in allusion to this inconvenience that I said both parties sighed over the ruins of Alcantara.
But, notwithstanding this facility of movement and of concentration, the allies could not deliver a decisive battle near the frontier, because the enemy could unite an overwhelming force in the Alemtejo, before the troops from the north could reach that province, and a battle lost there, would, in the dry season, decide the fate of Lisbon. To have concentrated the whole army in the south, would have been to resign half the kingdom and all its resources to the enemy; but to save those resources for himself, or to destroy them, was the very basis of lord Wellington’s defence, and all his dispositions were made to oblige the French to move in masses, and to gain time himself, time to secure the harvests, time to complete his lines, time to perfect the discipline of the native troops, and to give full effect to the arming and organization of the ordenança, and, above all things, time to consolidate that moral ascendancy over the public mind which he was daily acquiring. A closer examination of his combinations will shew, that they were well adapted to effect these objects.
1º. The enemy durst not advance, except with concentrated masses, because, on the weakest line of resistance, he was sure to encounter above twenty thousand men.