Wellington pre

pares to retreat.

crossed the Tormes by the fords at Huerta and Alba de Tormes, the Spanish garrison which had been thrown into the latter place having been withdrawn without Wellington's knowledge. Leaving a body of troops in the fort at Alba de Tormes, Marmont encamped at nightfall near Calvariza de Ariba, with his left towards the Ciudad Rodrigo road. Wellington crossed the Tormes on the same day by the Santa Marta and Aldea Lengua fords, and encamped with his right at Arapeiles and his left at Santa Marta, a division being posted opposite Santa Marta to prevent any attempt on the part of Marmont to recross the Tormes and march down its right bank. In the evening, as the last regiments were moving to their bivouacs, the sultry weather, which had prevailed since these manoeuvres began, gave place to a very heavy storm of thunder and rain. So vivid was the lightning and so loud were the peals of thunder, that large numbers of the cavalry horses broke loose from the ground where they were picketed, rushed through the lines, doing considerable damage to the troopers, and some of them galloped into the French lines. In the course of the night Wellington received intelligence that a large reinforcement of cavalry under General Chauvel, from Caffarelli's Biscay army, was approaching Marmont, and that Joseph was coming up by forced marches. He therefore resolved to begin his retreat to Portugal on the following day unless some advantage for an attack should be presented.

The day broke threateningly on the 22nd, and heavy masses of clouds loured for some hours over the scene of the impending battle; but as the morning wore on the sun shone brightly, and in a short time the roads were again so dry that clouds of dust rose as the commissariat waggons were set in motion to the rear. At daybreak Marmont began to bring up his troops across the Tormes, from Babila Fuente by Huerta through the cork-tree forest; and some of his troops were stealing towards the two rugged hills, called the Hermanitos or the Arapeiles, from which they could have compelled Wellington to fight on disadvantageous ground, his back being to the Tormes.

Battle of

Salamanca.

A detachment was sent to stop them, but the French gained the height which was nearer to themselves. They were repulsed from the other, and Wellington then brought over the 3rd division from the right bank of the Tormes to a hollow near Aldea Tejada. A new disposition of the allies was made, the rear becoming the front, and the line extending from the Hermanito on the left to Aldea Tejada on the right, to meet Marmont's attack and to command the Ciudad Rodrigo road. The large number of hollows concealed the greater part of the troops, and the front of those who were visible seemed pointing to the Ciudad Rodrigo road. The dust from the retiring train of commissariat and baggage waggons was rising in clouds at noon, when Marmont, fearing that the allies would retreat before he could bring his troops out of the forest and form his order of battle, sent Maucune with two divisions, 50 guns, and light cavalry along his left to menace the Ciudad Rodrigo road. Wellington, who had retired to refresh himself, was told at three o'clock of the movement of the French left, and on repairing to the high ground, he saw the left wing entirely separated from the centre and moving carelessly towards the allies. So flagrant an error presented an unlooked-for opportunity of destroying the French army, and Wellington's resolution was instantly taken.

The troops on the Hermanito rushed down into the basin between the hills amidst a storm of bullets from the enemy, and the order of battle was immediately formed,-the 4th and 5th divisions, Bradford's Portuguese, and Le Marchant's heavy cavalry in the first line; the 6th and 7th divisions and Anson's light cavalry in the second; and the Spaniards, Arentschild's hussars, and D'Urban's Portuguese cavalry, connected with the 3rd division, which was posted in Aldea Tejada. Marmont saw with surprise the troops rushing down from the hill and out from the hollows, while his own left was performing this perilous evolution, and many of his soldiers were still making their way through the forest on the march from Huerta. To check the allies' advance, he assailed the Hermanito with Bonnet's division, and he dispatched orders to Maucune to halt and to the troops in the wood to hurry up.

At five o'clock Pakenham with the 3rd division issued from the extreme right, and fell like a thunderbolt upon Maucune's leading division, which Thomières had just brought up to the brow of a hill in the expectation of seeing the allies in full retreat. The halfformed line was broken into fragments by the furious onset of the British, the charges of cavalry, and the showers of grape, to which the French artillery bravely replied, till they were driven in with the rest upon the supporting columns on the wooded heights behind, where they were stifled with the clouds of dust and smoke, and the powerful rays of the sun beat full in their faces. In half an hour from the commencement of the action the French were reduced to a perilous state,-Thomières was killed, and his division was shattered but still at bay; Marmont's right arm was destroyed and his side mangled by a howitzer shell, and he was being borne in a litter from the field; Bonnet was beaten back from Arapeiles and severely wounded; and the 4th and 5th British divisions were steadily pushing back the centre and right. The command of the French had now devolved on Clausel, whose division had just emerged from the forest, and he hastily formed a connection with Maucune's wasted ranks. Sweeping down between Pakenham and the 5th division, Le Marchant's heavy dragoons and Anson's light horsemen galloped at full speed, enveloped in a cloud of dust, upon a column of the bewildered French infantry, and trampled them underfoot. Though disordered by their brilliant charge, the dragoons, with the usual impetuosity of British cavalry, still held on their victorious path, and bore down on a brigade which had formed under cover of some trees. The French awaited their attack, and threw in so destructive a fire that the dragoons were checked, and General Le Marchant himself fell; but Cotton halted them, reformed, and led them on against a second column. With a loud shout the 3rd division followed, and the French left was utterly broken: 2,000 prisoners were taken, two eagles, and 11 guns. Their light cavalry galloped off to the centre, where Bonnet's division had been slowly driven back to the extremity of the level ground and was now mixed with the broken remnants of Clausel's