e, in the uniform of a
French dragoon, with his head laid open by one of our bullets. He was
still alive, exciting any thing but sympathy among his former
associates. Towards the afternoon we found the enemy in force, on the
plain in front of Pombal, where we exchanged some shots.

March 11th.--They retired yesterday to the heights behind Pombal, with
their advanced posts occupying the town and moorish castle, which our
battalion, assisted by some Cacadores, attacked this morning, and
drove them from with considerable loss. Dispositions were then made
for a general attack on their position, but the other divisions of our
army did not arrive until too late in the evening. We bivouacked for
the night in a ploughed field, under the castle, with our sentries
within pistol shot, while it rained in torrents.

As it is possible that some of my readers might never have had the
misfortune to experience the comforts of a bivouac, and as the one
which I am now in, contains but a small quantity of sleep, I shall
devote a waking hour for their edification.

When a regiment arrives at its ground for the night, it is formed in
columns of companies, at full, half, or quarter distance, according
to the space which circumstances will permit it to occupy. The officer
commanding each company then receives his orders; and, after
communicating whatever may be necessary to the men, he desires them to
"pile arms, and make themselves comfortable for the night." Now, I
pray thee, most sanguine reader, suffer not thy fervid imagination to
transport thee into elysian fields at the pleasing exhortation
conveyed in the concluding part of the captain's address, but rest
thee contentedly in the one where it is made, which in all probability
is a ploughed one, and that, too, in a state of preparation to take a
model of thy very beautiful person, under the melting influence of a
shower of rain. The soldiers of each company have a hereditary claim
to the ground next to their arms, as have their officers to a wider
range on the same line, limited to the end of a bugle sound, if not by
a neighbouring corps, or one that is not neighbourly, for the nearer a
man is to his enemy, the nearer he likes to be to his friends. Suffice
it, that each individual knows his place as well as if he had been
born on the estate, and takes immediate possession accordingly. In a
ploughed or a stubble field there is scarcely a choice of quarters;
but, whenever there is a spr