ont, after having effected his object,
thought that he might as well take that opportunity of beating up our
quarters, in return for the trouble we had given him; and,
accordingly, on the morning of the 25th, he attacked a brigade of the
third division, stationed at El Bedon, which, after a brilliant
defence and retreat, conducted him opposite to the British position,
in front of Fuente Guinaldo. He busied himself, the whole of the
following day, in bringing up his troops for the attack. Our division,
in the mean time, remained on the banks of the Vadillo, and had nearly
been cut off, through the obstinacy of General Crawford, who did not
choose to obey an order he received to retire the day before; but we,
nevertheless, succeeded in joining the army, by a circuitous route, on
the afternoon of the 26th; and, the whole of both armies being now
assembled, we considered a battle on the morrow as inevitable.

Lord Wellington, however, was not disposed to accommodate them on this
occasion; for, about the middle of the night, we received an order to
stand to our arms, with as little noise as possible, and to commence
retiring, the rest of the army having been already withdrawn, unknown
to us; an instance of the rapidity and uncertainty of our movements
which proved fatal to the liberty of several amateurs and followers of
the army, who, seeing an army of sixty thousand men lying asleep
around their camp-fires, at ten o'clock at night, naturally concluded
that they might safely indulge in a bed in the village behind, until
daylight, without the risk of being caught napping; but, long ere that
time, they found themselves on the high road to Ciudad Rodrigo, in the
rude grasp of an enemy. Amongst others, was the chaplain of our
division, whose outward man, as I have already said, conveyed no very
exalted notion of the respectability of his profession, and who was
treated with greater indignity than usually fell to the lot of
prisoners, for, after keeping him a couple of days, and finding that,
however gifted he might have been in spiritual lore, he was as
ignorant as Dominie Sampson on military matters; and, conceiving good
provisions to be thrown away upon him, they stripped him nearly naked
and dismissed him, like the barber in Gil Blas, with a kick in the
breech, and sent him in to us in a woful state.

September 27th.--General Crawford remained behind us this morning,
with a troop of dragoons, to reconnoitre; and, while we w