there were
sufficient waggons to carry all the wounded, both friends and
enemies, together with a considerable amount of flour.

The French wounded were taken to the ford by which Macwitty had
crossed; and then some of them who had been wounded in the leg and,
although unable to walk, were fit to drive, were given the reins
and told to take the waggons to Zamora, a distance of twelve miles.
Fifty men were told off to march with them, until within sight of
the town; as otherwise they would have assuredly been attacked, and
the whole of the wounded massacred by the Spanish peasants.

The force then broke up again, each column taking as much flour and
meat as the men could carry. The remaining waggons and stores were
heaped together, and set on fire.

Long before this was done, they had been rejoined by Ryan and his
command. He had remained guarding the river until the French had
disappeared up the valley, and had then crossed at the ford but,
though using all haste, he did not rejoin the force until the whole
of the fighting was over.

"This has been a good day's work, Terence," he said when, that
evening, the force had entered Tordesillas and quartered themselves
there for the night. "You may be sure that the general at
Valladolid will send messengers to Salamanca, giving a greatly
exaggerated account of our force; and begging them to send down to
Marmont, at once, for a large reinforcement. If the couriers make a
detour, in the first place, we shall not be able to cut them off."

"No, Dick, and we wouldn't, if we could. I have no doubt that he
will report the force with which his column was engaged as being
nearly double what it really is. Besides, sharp as we have been, I
expect some messengers will, by this time, have got through from
Zamora. The commandant there will report that a large force is in
the neighbourhood of that town; and that, without leaving the place
entirely undefended, he has not strength enough to sally out
against them. They cannot know that this force and ours have joined
hands in the attack on the Valladolid column, nor that this
represented anything like the whole of the force that have been
harrying the country and cutting off detached posts. The fact, too,
that this gathering was not a mere collection of guerillas, or of
the revolted peasantry; but that there were regular troops among
them, in considerable numbers, will have a great effect; and
Marmont will feel himself obliged, when he