On reaching the banks of the Ceira the Riflemen came upon a sight of such wanton cruelty as seemed to stand out in horrid prominence in a retreat where cruelty, rapine and slaughter were of daily occurrence. Nearly 500 donkeys were standing in mute agony, hamstrung by the inhuman enemy who had fled the preceding night. That they should prevent their falling into the hands of their pursuers was natural; that they should choose this alternative of rendering them useless, instead of killing them, was brutal.
On the morning of the 17th the Battalion crossed the Ceira at the ford of Alça Perna; the ford was so deep that the men with difficulty kept their legs; and having passed it they halted on high ground covered with wood, a little short of the Alva. The next morning the enemy was found in a strong position on the rugged banks of the Alva, behind the Ponte da Murcella. They had broken down the bridge. However, the Battalion was formed up opposite the enemy, and some 9-pounders being brought up, their fire and the advance of the Riflemen ‘put them all in a bustle,’ to use Lord Wellington’s characteristic language;[95] and George Simmons says he never saw them go off in such confusion.[96] The Battalion halted on a swampy height covered with pine-woods, and bivouacked.
On the 19th, a temporary wooden bridge having been constructed, they crossed the Alva, and passing through Sabriera, halted for the night in a wood of pines.
On this day, amongst many other prisoners, an Aide-de-Camp of General Loison was taken, with a very handsome Spanish girl, dressed in a hussar uniform, who was said to be his wife. He was a Portuguese, a traitor to his country.
On the 20th, the Battalion advanced through Gallizes and halted in a fir-wood near Venda Nova. Here they found quantities of carts and waggons which had been abandoned by the enemy. On the following day they continued their advance and halted in fir-woods near Marusa. On the 22nd the Battalion went into houses in the town of Momenta de Serra in consequence of the inclemency of the weather. Here, as indeed during this whole advance, they found the dead and mutilated bodies of the people, and heard from the survivors heartrending accounts of the cruelties perpetrated by the retreating enemy. On the 23rd they advanced to S. Paio and bivouacked in a wood in front of it; on the next day they marched to and were quartered in the village of Mello, and on the 25th bivouacked in a wood near it.
During these days the Battalion was obliged to make these short marches in order to let the supplies come up. The men and officers suffered the greatest privation, only one ration of bread being given out in four days, and the country behind the retreating French being stripped of everything.
On the 26th the Battalion marched to Celorico, which the enemy had evacuated, and halted there the next day.
On the 28th the right wing of the Battalion by a forced march reached Avalans de Ribeira, and 100 men under Captain Charles Beckwith were sent to dislodge a strong rear-guard of the enemy from a mill in front of Freixadas. They found the French busily at work, grinding corn, and soon drove them out of the mill and the village; taking several prisoners. In this affair the Adjutant, Lieutenant James Stewart, having dashed into the village with a few Riflemen, was shot, from a window, through the left breast and heart. He was acting as Brigade-Major to Colonel Beckwith, and was universally esteemed in the Regiment. ‘It is not too much to say,’ Leach observes, ‘that no man in any corps ever filled the situation of adjutant better than he did, and very few half so well. He was open-hearted, manly, friendly and independent; a most gallant and zealous officer, and much devoted to his own Corps. He neither cringed to, nor worshipped any man, but did his duty manfully, and with impartiality: two qualities inestimable in adjutants. By the soldiers he was idolised, and very justly. When his duties as adjutant did not interfere, he was amongst the first to enter into any frolic and fun; and a more jovial soul never existed.’[97]
On the next morning at dawn the whole of the advanced guard, Riflemen, cavalry, and artillery, attended his funeral; and his body, wrapped in his cloak, and deposited in a chest, was buried in front of Colonel Beckwith’s quarter, in the village of Alverca.
The left wing of the Battalion, with the rest of the Light Division, had on the 28th crossed the Mondego, and occupied the villages of Baracal and Mavashal.