ys caused at every village rendered the work slow, as well
as arduous. The French drove the light division through Coimbra
and, following, pressed so hotly that a number of minor combats
took place between their cavalry and the British rear guards.
Before Leiria the rear guards had to fight strongly, to enable the
guns to quit the town before the French entered it.

Terence presently received orders to collect his regiment again
and, crossing the Zezere, to endeavour to join Trant and the other
leaders of irregular bands, and to harass Massena's rear. He had
already, knowing that great bodies of French cavalry had crossed
the Mondego, called in the companies that were working Leiria and
the coast; as they might otherwise have been cut up, in detail, by
the French cavalry. With these he marched east, picking up the
other companies as he went and, on the same evening, the regiment
was collected on the Zezere.

Having followed the river up, he reached Foz d'Aronce and then,
finding that several bodies of French troops had already passed
through that village, he turned to the left and camped close to the
Mondego; sending ten of his men over the river, in peasants'
clothes, to ascertain the movements of the enemy. One of them
returned with news that he had come upon a party of Trant's men,
who told him that their main body were but two miles away, and that
there were no French north of Coimbra.

The regiment had made a march of upwards of forty miles that day.
Therefore, leaving them to rest, Terence forded the Mondego and
rode, with Ryan, to Trant's village.

"I am glad, indeed, to see you, O'Connor," the partisan leader
said, as Terence entered the cottage where he had established
himself. "Is your regiment with you?"

"Yes, it is three miles away, on the other side of the river. We
have marched something like eighty miles, in two days. We have been
busy burning mills and destroying provisions, but the French
cavalry are all over the country, so I was ordered to join you, and
aid you to harass the French line of communication, and to do them
what damage we could."

"There is not much to be done in the way of cutting their
communications; at least, there is nothing to be done to the north
and east of this place, for Massena brought all his baggage and
everything else with him; and cut himself loose, altogether, from
his base at Ciudad. If the people had but carried out Wellington's
orders, Massena would have suffer