Journal of the Eighty-third Regiment. chose to hear, that the French were to be attacked on the following day. Had Sir Arthur kept this design within his own breast, or had he restricted his confidence to the Adjutant and Quarter-Master-Generals, the attack might have been more successful; and it is not improbable that the greater part of the enemy's force, cantoned in the neighbourhood of Albergaria, would have been surrounded and taken; whereas, by allowing the scheme to be the topic of table conversation, the plan was soon known to our vigilant adversary, who failed not under favour of night to withdraw. It would be impossible to assign a cause for the liberty Sir Arthur then allowed to reign at his table. Convivial hospitality surely needed it not. And it has frequently been regretted that movements, which at the outset promised the completest success, have most unacountably miscarried in the execution. Whether these misfortunes may be ascribed to the public man'ner in which the schemes were often discussed, remains undecided. Be that as it will, a general officer must assuredly be blameable in permitting publicity being given those plans he has resolved on executing; it being a maxim with wise generals to studiously conceal their views, and endeavour to mislead their enemy by affecting to perform things never designed; for an enemy acquainted with his opponent's schemes is an overmatch for him, though the numerical forces of the two contending armies are equal; because, being prepared for the movements of his antagonist, he has time, so to distribute his forces, as to render all attacks unavailable. Generals Sherbrooke and Paget's divisions slept at Albergaria Nova, Albergaria Velha, and the adjacent villages, during the night of the 10th, while a small detachment of light cavalry pushed on as far as Oliveira, in front of which was stationed a strong piquet of infantry from LieutenantGeneral Paget's wing. The same night General Hill's brigade lay at Ovar, and on the return of the boats which conveyed it, General Cameron's brigade followed across the bay of Aveiro, and up a branch of the Vouga to Ovar, where it arrived before day-break on the morning of the 11th, and continued its march immediately, in support of General Hill, for Oporto, whither all the army was destined, and had been moving since the earliest dawn of light. At night-fall General Cameron's brigade bivouacqued in a fir grove, on the side of the Chamorro height, while General Hill was a little in front, and General Sherbrooke, with the reserve, in and around San Antonio de Arrifana. The advance under Lieutenant-General Paget occupied the ground between Grijo and Souto Redondo. Hitherto nothing had struck me beyond the ordinary attendants of war; but at Albergaria Velha the violent animosity which prevailed between the French and the Portuguese, appeared but too plainly in the treatment which the former had given this unfortunate village. Indeed the conduct of the enemy and the state of this place, which they had just quitted, was really painful to think upon. Every house had been broken open, and every piece of furniture destroyed; every cask of wine which they could discover had Journal of the Eighty-third Regiment. been staved, and the liquor wasted. All the fowls, pigs, and cattle had been killed, and several limbs were yet lying in various quarters of the streets. Such were the barbarous and revengeful acts the French had been guilty of before they retreated. The Portuguese in return had wreaked their vindictive hatred on the dead Frenchmen, and so completely had they disfigured the inanimated bodies, that it was not easy to distinguish any one human feature. ALBERGARIA NOVA.- Albergaria Nova bore a still more desolate appearance. The houses had been destroyed, the doors, tables, shelves; and other wood-work, broken or burnt. The straw had heen torn off the roofs, put in heaps and wantonly set on fire. Ashes, fragments of timber, furniture, &c. covered the fields for some distance around the village. Dead cattle, sheep, pigs, fowls, &c. appeared in the adjoining enclosures, while many more had been trampled and crushed under foot in the road. The miserable inhabitants lined the walls of their ruined habitations, and with tears of joy welcomed our arrival, and offered earnest prayers for our successful rencounter with their destroying enemy, whom they assured us were hardly three leagues in advance. Beyond this, in the woods around Pinheiro, a light-company officer of the Foot Guards, pointed out to me several dead bodies. Some were muti lated and naked, others had still a portion of covering; the former were French whom the Portuguese had found wounded, and before the arrival of our troops, had deprived of life and disfigured. The latter were peasants belonging to the militia, whom the enemy took prisoners, and had the atrocity, subsequently, to hang as rebels; their backs and heads bore evident marks of blows and other ill treatment. One more especially, who was said to have been a priest, from whose fare and head the skin had been stripped off and left hanging down the neck. At Oliveira de Azemeis I left the main body and cut across the country, for Ovar, where I expected to rejoin General Cameron, but was disappointed, for the brigade had moved onwards. The country between Azemeis and Ovar was one of the most rich and agreeable I had observed since leaving Coimbra; though the road I jour, neyed over, was rough and intricate, it was, withal, skirted by well culti vated grounds and comfortable looking villages, the view from it was also delightful. To the northward, extensive groves crowned the heights of Corvo, while the nearer declivities were diversified with groups of fir trees. Westward was a lively and rich vegetable carpet; beyond every opening of which might be viewed the ocean, save where some thick groves of olive trees, whose dark foliage finely contrasted the azure blue of the sea, occasionally interrupted the prospect. To the southward, some gentle heights clad with forests of chesnut and other majestic trees, contributed to relieve the dismal prospect afforded by the rugged Serra de Alcoba. From Ovar a track led through a well wooded country to Feira, which is VOL. IV. NO. 21 Journal of the Eighty-third Regiment. the chief place of the most northern canton of Beira. This track, though forming a narrow road, is pretty level and well shaded with trees of forest growth. Feira is a neat borough town, and of some importance both as to size and wealth. It is built near the Castos rivulet, and on a table hill, a short distance off, stands a solid and respectable looking castle. The place likewise boasts a fine palace and several handsome stone houses. It was on this day that the advanced division under Lieutenant-General Paget, fell in with the enemy on the heights of Grijo, a barren and wild range, whose summits have no other covering than a sickly yellow weed. Towards the east, another desolate chain of hills rear their lofty cragged summits. Westward is the sea, separated from this poor tract by some green plots of ground: in which direction, indeed, great part of the land appeared well cultivated, though a few shelvy heights planted with fir trees still broke the face of the tilled plain. Notwithstanding that the encounter on the heights of Grijo was rather unexpected, the result was fortunate: and though this division, owing to the neglect of supplying the army with guides, wandered from the road destined for it, and had very nearly fallen on that of General Hill, it no sooner discovered the enemy, than it charged and routed them. The force of this division, including the Portuguese regulars attached to it, consisted of about 6000 infantry, 800 cavalry, and two brigades of artillery; that of the French was nearly equal. A squadron of the 20th Light Dragoons boldly pursued as far as the village of Grijo, and sabred several of the enemy. The 16th regiment of Portuguese infantry, commanded by Lieuttenant-Colonel Doyle, and a squadron of Portuguese cavalry gained credit by a bold and dashing charge they respectively made on the enemy's line during this engagement. After the action the British advance occupied the skirts of Carvalhos. This attack so discouraged the French, that they retired the same day on Oporto, and immediately set fire to the bridge of boats which communicated across the River Douro between Villa Nova and Oporto city. There is nevertheless no doubt that had the enemy known our numbers were so near their own, they would have made a stouter resistance; and as the roads by which their troops retreated, and through which our cavalry pursued, wete narrow and lined with high and thick hedges raised on solid embankments, they would either have placed an ambush or attacked our horse, in which case the squadron that charged up the road would most certainly have been totally destroyed. On this account some have censured the officer who directed this apparently rash advance of the dragoons. I know not exactly at whose door blame lies for suffering the army to move from Coimbra before guides were appointed to conduct the heads of columns; and it is not a little surprising that such inconvenience as the loss of roads was not provided against, when it might have been remembered that Journal of the Eighty-third Regiment. on our advance from Lisbon, many brigades were oftentimes uncertain which was the road destined for them to march upon. No one will surely assert that guides could not be procured, in a country where the great mass of population was not only in our favour, but exasperated to the highest pitch against the enemy; where no change of position could be effected, without legions of peasantry hovering about our flanks and rear, persons capable of directing the march could surely never be wanted, had inquiry been made for them; or admitting even that volunteers did not offer for this duty, it would have been no difficult matter, and perfectly justifiable, to seize on some individuals capable of acting in such capacity. This neglect of distributing guides to the different columns, when unity of action was of such essential importance, was, to say the least of it, a great oversight, and might have brought on melancholy consequences. But as the unintentional quitting of its route by this division, proved a cause of success, nothing further need be said; especially as Sir Arthur Wellesley thought it a "well timed movement by which General Murray turned the enemy's flank." The heights of Grijo, which are of an argillaceous and mica state, connect themselves with a high close chain of steeper hills, extending far up the banks of the Douro, by Lamego. They are seen in the extreme point of the horizon, even from Aveiro, but become gradually of smaller elevation as they approach the sea. The two villages of Grijo and Corvo, are in Entre Minko é Douro, a small part of which province lies south of the latter river, where, notwithstanding the natural barrenness of the soil and the mountainous face of the country, a better cultivation begins to appear. In the vallies, flax and maize are grown; on the hills flourish fir woods. The enclosures are formed of good hedges, whence arise some luxuriant timber trees, around the branches of which the vine interlaces itself. CARVALHOS.-At Carvalhos is a very large estalagem or inn. The road hence to Oporto is rough and fatiguing, but in return it is commonly shaded by venerable and majestic looking trees; sometimes it crosses a tract of cultivated corn fields edged with trees and rich vines. The villages also through which it leads, though at first bad, gradually improve and become more frequent and populous, while numerous scattered houses are seen in every direction, the female inmates of which were chiefly occupied in spinning flax, which they afterwards weave into coarse linens. The army moved forward very early on the 12th, and, eager to rejoin my brigade, I made no small haste to gain the front, as the different divisions now began to close. About nine o'clock A. M. the waving outline of some distant hills in the north-east, discovered my near approach to the Douro, while the high grounds to the southward gradually disappeared from the horizon. By eleven o'clock A. M. I found myself on the heights forming the left bank of the Douro, and saw some brigades already making for the edge of that river. General Murray had been previously dispatched with a bri gade of the German Legion rather towards the right, in the direction of the Journal of the Eighty-third Regiment. river Aada, with orders to secure all the boats in that neighbourhood. He had the good fortune to find some, and hastened to pass them down the river, to a spot at the foot of the convent of Serra de Villa Nova, pointed out by Sir Arthur Wellesley. A steep, narrow, and rugged path, was the only means of communicating with the place of embarkation. The 3d, 48th, and 66th, regiments being the advanced brigade, bastened from the convent to the point fixed upon, and threw themselves into the boats. About the same moment a brigade of horse artillery arrived and was placed in battery on a small tongue of land at the end of the convent garden; here, masked by fir trees and a stout palissade, the guns were completely hidden from the enemy until ready to open their fire. By the time I reached this spot, where I fully expected to meet the brigade, the passage of the river had been attempted. Four small boats were the only means of transport. A part of the Buffs had embarked in these and were consequently the first British troops which reached the Oporto side. These instantly pushed forwards; and two companies after reaching the suminit of the cliff, by a zigzag path, having attacked and driven the French from the landing place, immediately occupied a large unfinished stone building, destined for the future residence of the bishop. Under this cover, and protected by our artillery posted upon the south bank, these two companies found means of retaining possession of their post until reinforcements arrived, and as more boats were now continually descending the stream and repairing to the point of embarkation, the transport of General Hill's brigade was soon completed. General Edward Paget, who crossed in one of the first boats, formed the troops as they reached the summit of the height, in front of the intended Episcopal Palace. Hitherto no troops had reached the northern bank saving General Hill's brigade, which consequently, had alone to sustain the attack of the enemy's whole force during a couple of hours. This delay in passing over reinforcements occurred from Sir Arthur Wellesley's apparent desire to give the Guards an opportunity of sharing in the honours of victory. This last brigade at length arrived, and was detached in double quick time, together with the 29th regiment, 1st battalion of detachments, and 1st battalion 16th Portuguese regiment, with instructions to force a passage lower down the river, as near the ferry of Villa Nova as possible; but notwithstanding the greatest alacrity and zeal, those corps were unfortunately too late to have any influence on the action, which the 3d, 48th, and 66th regiments had supported in so brave and creditable a manner, and which General Hill can justly boast, was gained without the actual aid of any other brigade than that which had the good fortune to be under bis immediate command. The conduct of the French in their defence of this city amazed many: it was expected they would have made a much more vigourous stand, particu larly as their numbers were far greater than ours. In their army were calculated 25,000 effectives, while, including the Portuguese, we hardly amounted |