FUENTES DE ONORO. A. D. 1811. May 5. LORD WELLINGTON brought no troops with him, but his timely arrival on the scene of action was regarded by the army as worth a reinforcement of 10,000 men. "Indeed," says one of his officers, "there was a charm not only about himself, but all connected with him, for which no odds could compensate. * On the 2nd of May, the French marshal, having been joined by some fresh cavalry sent to him by Bessières, moved from Ciudad Rodrigo, crossed the Agueda, and entered Portugal with 40,000 foot, 5,000 horse, and thirty pieces of artillery. He had declared to Bessières that it would be a shame and disgrace to allow Almeida to surrender to the English in the presence of two marshals of the empire. Lord Wellington, fully aware of the intention of relieving Almeida at all hazards, determined to fight another battle rather than give up the blockade of that place. The rein forcements sent down to the south to Marshal Beresford had so weakened our main army, that his lordship had only 32,000 foot and 1,200 horse to oppose to Massena. The country, too, near Almeida was in good part very favourable to the operations of cavalry, in which arm Wellington was most deficient. Moreover, in order to maintain the blockade and prevent all access to or egress from the Portuguese fortress, his lordship was obliged to leave a mass of troops under Almeida, and to extend his lines for seven long miles from the river Turones to the river Das Casas (two affluents of the Agueda), having his left on Fort Concepcion, his centre opposite the village of Almeida, and his right at the village of Fuentes de Onoro. • Kincaid, Adventures in the Rifle Brigade. This extended position was on a low and open table-land between the two parallel streams, the Turones and Das Casas; the river Coa, which had been crossed, flowed in the rear, and there was only one bridge whereby to cross it in case of a retreat the bridge of Castello Bom. The ground was openest on the side of Fuentes de Onoro, which village soon merited its name "the Fountain of Honour,”—and there Massena resolved to attack in great force, hoping to gain the village, turn Lord Wellington's right, push it upon its centre, and then drive the whole of that army back upon the Coa and the one narrow and perilous bridge. On the morning of the 3rd of May, Massena's army advanced, our foremost light troops slowly retiring before them, across the plains of Espija, and approaching the position appointed for them. Towards evening the French left, under cover of a hot cannonade from a ridge which commanded the village, made a resolute assault upon Fuentes de Onoro. Colonel Williams, with a battalion of light companies, sustained this first attack in a manner worthy of his well-tried zeal and valour, but his battalion was of necessity driven in by the French, who set up a tremendous shouting. They carried the lower part of the village, and drove the English to the upper part, where the defence was, for a time, confined to a few strong houses and a chapel that stood upon a rock. But Wellington, at the opportune moment, sent down a fresh brigade, and the confident assailants were driven back at the point of the bayonet. This first support was most gallantly led by Colonel Cadogan of the 71st Regiment, who was ever foremost in the ranks of danger and honour. Massena fed his columns of attack with more and more reinforcements, and the struggle in the narrow streets of the village was tremendous. Repeatedly bayonets were crossed (that very rare occurrence in war), the French and English being occasionally intermixed. But no French troops ever yet stood such a contest, and the assailants were soon driven out of the lower part of the village, and across the Das Casas river. Completely foiled in this effort, Massena passed all the following day in reconnoitring and in making plans of attack which were all foreseen by Wellington and provided for. One of our officers says, "On the 4th, both armies looked at each other all day without exchanging a shot." In the course of that day Marshal Bessières, who had joined Massena with a body of Bonaparte's imperial guards, reconnoitred also, declaring to his impatient and irritated colleague, that great caution and circumspection would be necessary against a commander so skilful, and troops so steady as those now before them. On the morrow, the 5th of May, as early as three o'clock, the French columns were in motion, and at about six Massena made a grand attack on the British right at Pozo Velho, with the greater part of his army, including the entire mass of his cavalry. In executing some necessary movements upon the open ground, the British light division suffered rather severely from the charge of the French horse, led on by Montbrun, and there was one terribly critical moment, but General Craufurd got his division into squares, Montbrun drew his bridle-rein, and the French horse wheeled round on the plain and retired from the compact masses and the murderous fire of the British infantry; and, though Massena commenced a heavy cannonade which did great execution, twelve British guns were plied with such vigour that his fire soon slackened. After this the French marshals were foiled in everything they attempted; no feint, no movement or manoeuvre whatsoever, produced any visible effect. All the troops which Wellington considered it necessary to withdraw from his extreme right and centre to concentrate on his right, the object of Massena's grand attack, were withdrawn and concentrated, a new front was formed, and it was so deeply lined with troops as to strike Massena's heart with despair. "The execution of our movement presented a magnificent military spectacle, as the plain, between us and the right of the army, was by this time in possession of the French cavalry, and, while we were retiring through it with the order and precision of a common field day, they kept dodging around us, and every instant threatening a charge, without daring to execute it." † The village of Fuentes de Onoro, again attacked with excessive fury and obstinacy, was again defended as stoutly as it had been on the 3rd. Again there seemed different |