warmly engaged, fresh troops were sent into Fuentes, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Cadogan, of the 71st regiment; and so severe was the contest at this point, that the village was, at the point of the bayonet, repeatedly lost and won during the day. A very superior force attacked the 7th division on our right, which withdrew (as Lord Wellington himself said) in admirable order from the advanced post they occupied. Our cavalry charged, and while our right wing fell back, our left advanced, threatening the enemy's communication with the Agueda, which obliged Massena to relinquish the view of turning our right. His efforts to force our centre about Fuentes, too, being unsuccessful, he at length returned to the ground he had left in the morning; and the French troops were called off from the attack at the close of the day, all their attempts against our position having proved fruitless. It was calculated that they left nearly three thousand men on the field of battle, besides one thousand prisoners. Such a contest as this had been could not be sustained without a considerable and painful loss also on our side. Our sufferers amounted to about one thousand two hundred men, a num

ber which must have been considerably augmented but for the great skill displayed by Lord Wellington and the general officers in their disposition of the troops. Major-General Nightingale was wounded, but not dangerously. The 71st, 79th and 88th regiments were particularly distinguished on the occasion; and the Portuguese received great praise for their gallantry. The Spaniards were not engaged. At night Lord Wellington returned to Villa Formosa, and the two armies bivouacked in view of each other.

6th. Was spent in removing the wounded and burying the dead. The two armies continued in sight of each other.

7th. The French commenced their retreat, and crossed the Agueda. The British army returned to its cantonments, as before the action; the 6th division continuing to invest Almeida.

11th. The governor of Almeida (disappointed of the relief which the battle of Fuentes was intended to afford), had formed a plan for dismantling the fortress, and the escape of his troops; in pursuance of which

the garrison (by three separate detachments) left the town in the night, and conducted their march so quietly, that before their flight was discovered, they had nearly joined the French army beyound the Agueda, About this time, Marshals Massena and Ney (probably tired of serving in a campaign redounding so little to their honour), left the army and repaired to France, upon which the command devolved upon Marshal Marmont, Duke of Ragusa. Lord Wellington having learnt that Marshal Soult, in the south, was preparing to attack Marshal Beresford, ordered the 3d and 7th divisions, under Generals Picton and Houston, to march for the Alentejo, and he himself set out for the same destination on the 16th, the very day on which the sanguinary engagement was fought at Albuera.

BATTLE OF ALBUERA.

16th May, 1811.

Albuera is a village, about five Spanish leagues in front of Badajoz, and derives its

name from a little river or stream which runs through the plain. The ground is generally level, and the country open and uncultivated, which rendered it admirably adapted for the operations of cavalry. Marshal Soult having received a reinforcement from the interior provinces of Spain, augmented his army to thirty thousand fighting men, and having reached the vicinity of Albuera, obliged Sir William Beresford to convert the siege of Badajos into a blockade, when it was judged expedient to meet the enemy and prevent his further advance. Sir William Beresford, therefore, assembled his little army on the field of Albuera; and a most sanguinary conflict ensued.

The Spanish General Blake, though senior officer, waved the command in favour of Marshal Beresford; and the army having taken its ground about nine o'clock in the morning, the Spaniards, occupying what was deemed

one of the strongest points, were attacked, and lost the important post committed to their charge. The brunt of the engagement then fell upon the British troops, who sustained the shock with the greatest firmness and valour. For several hours successively the carnage was terrific: almost every regiment charged with the bayonet, and some companies, it was said, perished to the last man. Generals Stewart and Cole were both severely wounded, and Major-General Hoghton, commanding a brigade in the 2d division, was killed at the head of his troops; as were also Colonels Sir William Myers, of the 7th Fusileers, and Duckworth, of the 48th regiment. The action continued with great violence until about three o'clock in the afternoon, when the enemy (repulsed at all points) began to retire, and passed the river Albuera, leaving almost all their wounded in our hands. They retreated by Zafra upon Seville the next day, pursued by our cavalry. Our loss in this sanguinary contest was calculated to exceed in killed and wounded four thousand men, owing, in some degree, to the superiority the enemy had over us in