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cessible, was at Navedeaver, and the head-quarters at Villa Fermosa. A

fine line of battle Massena called it; but he thought it was not without dan ger to the troops that held it, for they had the rocky bed of the Coa behind them, and only a single carriage communication, and that sufficiently difficult, by the little town of Castello Bom. This communication, therefore, it was his plan to seize, and for this purpose, while with a part of his army he kept the centre of the allies in check, he proceeded in force against their right, and attacked Fuentes d'Onoro, which stands partly on the front of the hill, and is hidden by the nature of the ground. They began the attack in the afternoon; Lord Wellington instantly comprehended the plans of his antagonist, and reinforced the village as occasion required; the enemy had at one time obtained possession of part of the disputed post; but when night put a stop to the action, they had been driven out. The next day, Massena employed himself in making dispositions for a fresh attack, and thought he had found an accessible ground between Navedeaver and Poço Velho. Lord Wellington, from the course of his reconnoisance, divined his purpose, and therefore in the evening moved the 7th division under Major-General Houston to protect, if possible, the passage of the Duas Casas at Poço Velho, where the French intended to cross, in the hope of gaining possession of Fuentes d'Onoro in that direction, and of the ground behind the village.

On the morning of the fifth, one of the enemy's corps appeared in two columns in the valley of the Duas Casas, opposite to Poço Velho, having the whole of their cavalry on the left, under General Montbrun. General Houston's advanced guard was compelled to retire with some loss, but in good order: The French being thus established in this village, their cavalry

turned the right of the 7th division, between this place, and Navedeaver, from whence D. Julian had been obliged to fall back. According to Massena's account, General Montbrun now charged our cavalry in columns, with the greatest success, overthrew twenty squadrons of them successively, and drove them more than a league before him: but we know from Lord Welligton, that two or three squadrons of British dragoons met the charge of Montbrun's advanced guard, drove them back, and took the colonel of the 13th chasseurs prisoner; that their main body was checked and compelled to retire by the fire of General Houstoun's division, and that the charge was repulsed. The Chasseurs Britanniques, under Lieutenant-Colonel Eustace, and a detachment of the Duke of Brunswick's light infantry, distinguished themselves on this occasion. They were on the flank of the enemy, somewhat concealed by a rising ground: Availing themselves of this, they suffered the main body of the cavalry to come in a line with their front, and then rising up, threw in a well-directed volley, which checked them, and compelled them to retire.

Lord Wellington had occupied Poço Velho and the adjoining ground, in hopes of maintaining the communication across the Coa by Sabugal, as well as providing for the blockade. These objects were now incompatible with each other; placing therefore the light division in reserve, in the rear of the left of the 1st, he ordered the 7th to cross the river Turon, and take post on some commanding ground, which protected the right flank and rear of the 1st, covered the communication with the Coa, and prevented that of the enemy with Almeida, by the roads between the Coa and the Turon. The British position thus extended on the high ground from the Turon to the Duas Casas. The 7th division on the

left of the Turon covered the rear of the right, which was formed by the 1st division in two lines. Colonel Ashworth's brigade, in two lines, was in the centre, and the third division in two lines on the left. Don Julian's infantry joined the 7th in Freineda, and he and his cavalry were sent to interrupt the enemy's communication with Ciudad Rodrigo. Fuentes d'Onoro was in front of the left. Against this place, the chief efforts of the French were directed, as the possession of it would have given them the advantage. It was many times won and lost in the course of the day; but the enemy were finally driven through it by Colonel Mackinnon, and when night closed, four hundred of their dead were lying in the village, and our men held the In his official dispatches, Massena claimed a victory, and said that, in order to profit by the advantage, he intended to approach Almeida; but he had gained no advantage by which to profit. Two days the armies remained in their positions, the French not chusing to repeat an attempt, in which they had been so severely handled, and Lord Wellington, from the inferiority of his numbers, and the wretched state of his cavalry, not chusing to risk a general action. On the night of the 7th, Massena began to retire, and recrossed the Agueda, leaving Almeida to its fate, thus failing entirely in the object for which the movement had been undertaken and the battle fought. Our loss on both days amounted to 1378 killed and wounded, and 317 prisoners. That of the French was not ascertained; they admitted the loss of only 400; we estimated it at as many thousands; that it must have been greater than ours is certain, because the action was well fought, and they were defeated under circumstances in which courage decided the event. Massena's general orders, which he had issued at Ciudad Rodrigo, before

he marched upon this attempt to retrieve his superiority, were found upon some of the dead. They were in these words: "Soldiers of the army of Portugal, after six months of glorious and tranquil operations, you have returned to the first scene of your triumphs; but the enemies of Napoleon the Great have the audacity to blockade a fortress which they durst not previously attempt to defend. Soldiers, if your valour then intimidated their columns, will it not now punish them for their temerity? Will not you bring to their recollection, that you are still the same brave men who drove them to their trenches at Lisbon? Some regiments of cavalry, and reinforcements from his majesty's guards, conducted by the marshal of the district, assist in your efforts and your duties. Forget not that it is your courage which must maintain that superiority of heroism and intrepidity which forms the subject of the admiration, and the envy of other nations. Through you the honour of the French armies will render renowned the hitherto unknown banks of the Coa, as you have made the rivers of Italy and of the North to be for ever memorable. Soldiers, a victory is necessary, in order to procure you that repose which the equipment and administration of the regiments require. You will obtain it; and you will prepare yourselves in the leisure that will result from it to march to new triumphs."

Defeated in the field, and dissapointed in his hope of saving Almeida, Massena sent orders to the Governor General Brenier to blow up the works, and retire with the garrison upon Barba de Puerco. Brenier having previously received instructions from Bessieres and from Berthier to prepare for thus evacuating the place, should it be necessary, had made 140 cavities ready to be charged before the end of

April; but knowing that Massena would make every effort to retain possession of this fortress, which was the only fruit of his six months campaign in Portugal, he had prepared also for a vigorous defence, hoping to hold out till the first of June. The battle of Fuentes d'Onoro put an end to his hopes;-the firing was heard in Almeida, and proved that it was a serious action, and as the communication which he every moment expected did not arrive, Brenier could not doubt what had been the event. Massena's orders reached him on the 7th. Immediately the cavities were filled, the balls and cartridges thrown into the ditch, and the artillery destroyed by discharging cannon into the mouths of the pieces. Two days were employed in this work, and on the morning of the 10th he assembled the officers, and having read to them his instructions, told them, that when the place was once destroyed, the intentions of their sovereign would be perfectly fulfilled; that that single object ought to ani mate them; that they were Frenchmen, and ought to prove to the universe that they were worthy of being so, They continued to work in destroying stores and artillery, and compleating the mines, till the moment of their departure, and at ten at night, all being assembled with the greatest silence, General Brenier gave as a watch-word, Buonaparte and Bayard, and set off, he says, under the auspices of glory and honour. In coupling these names together, he seems not to have felt how cutting a reproach they conveyed to every honourable French

man.

About one the mines exploded, and at the same time the garrison attacked the picquets which observed the place, and forced their way through them. They marched in two columns, fired as little as possible, and passed between the bodies of troops which

had been posted to support the pic quets. Brenier, who had been long preparing for this attempt, had studied the ground so well that he would not take a guide; a guide, he thought, would only make him hesitate and per haps confuse him; the moon served as his compass, the different brooks and rivers which he crossed were so many points which insured his direction, and he placed his baggage at the tail of each column, in order that it might serve as a lure to occupy the enemy, for to save it he well knew was impos sible. On the part of the blockading troops there was certainly a culpable negligence; for as the garrison had frequently attacked the nearest picquets, and fired cannon in the night during the whole blockade, but more particularly while Massena was between the Duas Casas and the Azava, they thought this attack was nothing more than one of the ordinary sallies, and did not even move at the sound of the explosion, till its cause was ascer tained. Brigadier-General Pack however, who was at Malpartida, joined the picquets upon the first alarm with his wonted alacrity, and continued to follow and fire upon the enemy, as a guide for the march of the other troops. The 4th regiment, which was ordered to occupy Barba del Puerco, missed the way, and to this Brenier was chiefly indebted for his escape. Regnier was at the bridge of San Felices to receive him, and there he effected his junction, having lost, in this hazardous and well-executedescape, by the French official account, only sixty men. The falsehood of this account is attributable to the system of the French government more than to Brenier himself, whose loss was at least tenfold what was there

stated. For though the lure of the baggage was not thrown out in vain, and too many of his pursuers stopt or turned aside to secure their booty when the horses and mules were cast loose,

he was followed and fired upon by General Pack's party, and by a part of the 36th regiment, the whole way from Almeida to the Agueda, and 490 prisoners were brought in; the number of killed and wounded must have been proportionably great.

The English and their general did full justice to the abilities with which Brenier performed his difficult attempt. Massena made use of it to colour over his late defeat, and represented the evacuation and not the relief of Almeida as the object for which the battle of Fuentes d'Onoro was fought. "The operation," he said, "which had put the army in motion was thus terminated." Shortly afterwards he returned to France with Generals Ney, Junot, and Loison, leaving behind them names, which will long be execrated in Por tugal, and which will for ever be infamous. Marmont, who in the Corsican's peerage is called Duke of Ragusa, succeeded him in the command.

The army, which still called itself the Army of Portugal, went into its cantonments upon the Tormes; and Lord Wellington set out for the south, summoned by intelligence from Marshal Beresford that Soult, notwithstanding the previous rumours, how he was occupied in fortifying Seville, and preparing to stand on the defensive in Andalusia, was advancing into Extremadura. These tidings reached Lord Wellington on the night of the 15th; he set out on the following morning, but it was too late, for on that day the expected battle was fought.

When the British commander had been recalled from Badajoz to secure the recovery of Almeida, Beresford, pursuant to his instructions, placed his troops at Almendralejo, Villa Alva, Merida, Montijo, and Talaveruela, waiting till the Guadiana should fall sufficiently for him to re-establish the bridge. The French under Latour Maubourg, when they had been forced to retire

from Llerena, fell back to Guadalcanal it was deemed of considerable importance to push them as far off as possible during the intended siege, and a combined movement of Colonel Colborne, Ballasteros, and the Conde de Penne Villamur, who commanded the cavalry of the Spanish army in Extremadura, to which Castanos had now been appointed, made Latour Maubourg retire to Constantino. This service having been successfully performed, the investment of Badajoz was commenced on the 4th of May; the heavy artillery was brought from Elvas, and placed in the batteries, and the siege was prosecuted with vigour on both sides, till on the night of the 12th, Marshal Beresford received intelligence that Soult with 15,000 men had left Seville on the 10th, with the avowed intention of coming to Badajoz, and that Latour Maubourg had returned upon Guadalcanal and Llere'na, and forced Penne Villamur to retire. This intelligence came from the Regent, General Blake, who had left Cadiz to take advantage of the success of the allies in Portugal. As this general had come down to Fregenal, and Ballasteros from Monasterio had pushed his advances within a league of Seville, Marshal Beresford thought it possible that Soult's movements might merely be intended to make them retire, and leave him undisturbed; but fresh dispatches in the middle of the night from various quarters made it beyond all doubt that the French general was rapidly advancing, and all that had been done towards the siege of Badajoz was now to be undone, for it was thought better to meet and give him battle with all the force that could be collected, Spanish, Portugueze, and British, than, by looking at two objects at once, to risk the loss of both.

The labour of eight precious days therefore was demolished, the guns taken from the batteries, and carried

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