started again, but only to find, within half-a-mile, another river, broader, deeper, and more rapid than the first, where they got a worse wetting than before. It may be imagined that the choice of such an unfortunate halting-place brought on the quartermaster-general's department a torrent of objurgations as deep and broad as the river that caused it. At Campo Mayor they halted a day; and on the 3rd moved to the old fortress of Arroncho, and next day, about noon, they re-entered their old quarters at Portalegre after twelve days' absence, and terminated their memorable trip into Spain amid the acclamations of the multitude. The bells were rung, the city was illuminated at night in their honour, and the inhabitants welcomed the soldiers with every demonstration of gratitude, admiration, and hospitality.

On the 7th of November, Lieut.-General Hill issued the following General Order at Portalegre:

"Lieut.-General Hill has great satisfaction in congratu lating the troops on the success which has attended their recent operations in Estremadura, and in doing so, he cannot but endeavour to do justice to the merits of those through whose exertions it has been obtained. A patient and willing endurance of forced and night marches during the worst of weather and over bad roads, of bivouacs in bad weather, oftentime without cover and without fire, and a strict observance of discipline, are qualities, however common in British soldiers, which the lieut.-general cannot pass unnoticed. Having on this occasion witnessed the exertion of them in no ordinary degree, he feels that nothing but the most zealous attention of commanding officers, the goodwill and zealous spirit of the N.-C. officers and soldiers, could produce such an effect; and he requests that they will generally and individually accept his warmest thanks, particularly those corps which were engaged in the action of Arroyo del Molinos, whose silent attention to orders, when preparing to attack and when manoeuvring before the enemy, could not but excite his notice and give them an additional claim on him."

Letters from the Secretary of State, dated December 2nd, and from H.R.H. the Commander-in-Chief, dated December 6th, were promulgated, expressive of H.R.H. the Prince

Regent's approbation and thanks to Lieut.-General Hill and the troops under his command.

In November the officers and N.-C. officers belonging to the 2nd Battalion, who had come out with the last draft and had been doing duty with the 1st, were sent home to rejoin their battalion, except the medical officer. The 1st Battalion remained quietly at Portalegre, where they were quite on friendly terms with the people, till Christmas. That festive day was spent as usual, and the officers at mess had just picked the bones of the Christmas goose, the glasses were set, and a Merry Christmas to those at home was being drunk, when an orderly entered. The battalion was to be at the alarm post next morning before daybreak!* and having bid adieu to their fair friends of Portalegre, on the evening of the 26th the First Brigade occupied Codeceira. Next day they were at Albuquerque, and on the 28th quitted that city en route for Merida, which had been taken possession of by the French under General Dombrousky. The troops bivouacked near the village of La Rocha under a hill, so that their fires might not be seen, the object being, if possible, to repeat at Merida the surprise of Arroyo.

At daybreak they started under cover of a dense fog. The cavalry, under General Long, preceded the infantry at a considerable distance, and about half-way to Merida they came bump upon one of the enemy's vedettes, belonging to a foraging party of 300 infantry and 150 hussars. Before he was made prisoner, the vedette warned his invisible friends by discharging his carbine, and on the fog rising the French were seen in square; they received the charge of our cavalry with admirable firmness, and beat them off with loss; then retiring in square, intrepidly sustaining charge after charge and taking every advantage of the inequality of the ground; and, notwith

* To conceal his design of taking Ciudad Rodrigo, Wellington ordered General Hill to assume the offensive in Estremadura, which had the effect of making Soult, supposing Badajos to be threatened, concentrate his forces in that direction.-Alison.

During the period his army was resting in cantonments, Wellington had been incessantly at work improving every department of the British and Portuguese armies, especially the transport and commissariat service and the military hospitals.

standing the fire of two pieces of artillery, by which he lost forty men killed and wounded, Captain Neveux and his gallant little band traversed several miles, till, on their being reinforced from Merida, our dragoons gave up the pursuit.

General Hill in his dispatch expressed his admiration of the courage and prudence of the commander and of the coolness and bravery of the Frenchmen he commanded. It furnished another example of how little a body of well-disciplined infantry, under an officer of courage and experience, has to fear from cavalry, even if very superior in numbers.

In the evening the whole corps closed up and bivouacked in front of La Nava, and next morning advanced to Merida, to find that the French had abandoned their unfinished works during the night, leaving behind them a quantity of bread and corn. Here Hill rested his troops on the 31st. Intending to fight Drouet, he marched from Merida on the 1st of January 1812, crossed the Guadiana and moved towards Almendralejo, where he expected to meet the enemy. Their way led over a barren heath, then over a rich cultivated plain, till, having ascended about five miles, the Gordons halted and enjoyed a delightful view of the country, with the long columns of horse, foot and artillery winding below; then jogged along again as cheerily as the fatiguing nature of the march would allow, till, near Almendralejo, it was time to prepare for action.

At one o'clock a thick fog enveloped the surrounding objects, and prevented the general from seeing what the enemy were about, or what were their numbers. The First Brigade (in which was the 92nd) was ordered to move towards the town in order of battle. They had not proceeded far when the cavalry came into contact with the French pickets, which were instantly attacked and driven in; the rear brigades now moved up quickly on the left. It appears that when the first collision. took place, the French in the town were busy cooking their New Year's Day dinners and thinking more of beef than of bullets, but part of them instantly moved in support of their pickets, the remainder retreating to a rising ground in rear of the town, where, after a few rounds from the British artillery, the others joined them, and the whole retired to a height at a considerable distance, skirmishing all the way with Hill's Light

Companies. When the main column came up, expecting to be hotly received, and the fog lifted, they found the French general had withdrawn the main body of his troops to Zafra, leaving only a strong rear-guard to cover his retreat.

During this little affair the Highlanders were much amused by the conduct of the Marquis of Almeida, an elderly Spanish nobleman, who, having suffered severely from French rapacity, was their bitter enemy. Being a warm admirer of the British, he had attached himself to Hill's suite, and in compliment to the general he laid aside his Spanish habit and donned a long scarlet coat and a cocked hat, with very long red and white feathers dangling to his shoulders; but his singular appearance soon ceased to attract notice, and he became rather a favourite with all ranks. On this occasion he had no idea he was so close to his foes till bang, bang went the guns close in front of him. Neither he nor his horse had bargained for taking so active a part in the redress of his grievances. He stared, his horse reared, and on a third gun being fired, the old marquis, calling on "Jesu, Maria, Jose," and casting a glance towards those around him, which plainly said, "I'm off!" put spurs to his willing nag and was lost to view in the fog.

When the mist cleared away the rain began falling in bucketfuls; night was approaching, and, there being no chance of bringing the enemy to close quarters, General Hill gave orders for strong pickets to be posted on all the roads round Almendralejo, and the rest of the troops to march into the town. On taking possession of their quarters, many of them found the savoury stews still on the fires which the French had been preparing, an acceptable addition to their rations, which their Spanish hosts were delighted to accept their invitation to join in discussing, adding their country wine to the soldiers' rum, and thus their New Year's Day ended more agreeably than it began.

On the 3rd two detachments were sent to dislodge the enemy from Villafranca and Fuente del Maestro. The one which moved against Villafranca consisted of the 9th and 13th Light Dragoons, two pieces of artillery, the 50th, 71st, and 92nd Regiments, and Captain Blassier's Company of the

60th, under Major-General Howard. The other, under the Hon. Lieut.-Colonel Abercromby, was composed of the 2nd Hussars K.G. Legion, 4th and 10th Portuguese Cavalry, and the 28th Regiment (British). Both detachments started at noon. On reaching a height about half-way to Villafranca, General Howard's Brigade saw the enemy drawn up on a commanding position near the town; Colonel Cameron, with the 92nd, the Rifle Company, and one gun, advanced against the French left flank, while the remainder, under General Howard, moved direct upon the enemy's centre and right flank. Everything looked like a tough tussle. The enemy

were prepared, and stood their ground till just when the British were getting near enough to prepare to charge, when, to their great disappointment, the French faced about and walked off towards Los Santos, pursued by the cavalry. General Howard had no intention of letting the enemy pay him back in the coin of Arroyo dos Molinos; he placed strong pickets on every road leading to Villafranca, the rest being thrown into the town, with orders to remain accoutred so as to turn out at a moment's warning, and to be on the alarm post two hours before day. It was an awful night-rain, hail, and a hurricane of wind-so that the poor fellows on picket joined their battalions in the morning in a deplorable condition.* Those who had been in quarters proceeded to the alarm post, where they were drenched in ten minutes, and after being exposed to the fury of the elements for four hours, the whole returned to Almendralejo. Colonel Abercromby's detachment had had a skirmish with a regiment of cavalry which crossed their path, of whom they killed and wounded twenty-one and took thirty-two prisoners.

On the 5th, General Hill retraced his steps to Merida, where the men arrived looking as if they had been six months in the field instead of ten days. The marches had been often through adhesive clay, into which the soldiers sank; many tore their gaiters to pieces, and some actually left their shoes

* Colonel Cameron, in visiting the picket of his regiment, found that the young officer commanding it had placed his men in a hollow sheltered from the storm, but without keeping a proper lookout, for which he received a severe reprimand.