On the 25th, fourteen squadrons of their cavalry drove in our posts on the right of the Azava. General Anson’s brigade charged them, pursued them across the river, and resumed the posts. But their chief attention was directed toward the heights on the left of the Agueda; and they moved a column in the morning, consisting of between thirty and forty squadrons of cavalry, fourteen battalions of infantry, and twelve guns, from Ciudad Rodrigo, against that point. The cavalry and artillery arrived first, and one small body sustained the attack. A regiment of French dragoons succeeded in taking two pieces of cannon; the Portugueze artillerymen stood to their guns till they were cut down; and the guns were immediately retaken by the second battalion of the fifth regiment under Major Ridge. When the enemy’s infantry were coming up, Lord Wellington saw they would arrive before troops could be brought to support this division, and therefore he determined to retire with the whole on Fuente Guinaldo. The 77th, which had repulsed a charge of cavalry, and the second battalion of the 5th, were formed into one square, and the 21st Portugueze regiment into another, supported by General Alten’s small body of cavalry, and by the Portugueze artillery. The enemy’s horse immediately rushed forward, and obliged our cavalry to retire to the support of the Portugueze regiment. The 5th and 77th were then charged on three faces of the square; Lord Wellington declared, that he had never seen a more determined attack than was made by this formidable body of horse, and repulsed by these two weak battalions. They halted, and received the enemy with such perfect steadiness, that the French did not venture to renew the charge.
In the evening, Lord Wellington had formed his troops into an _echellon_, of which the centre was in the position at Guinaldo, the right upon the pass of Perales, and the left at Navedeaver. In the course of that night and of the ensuing day, Marmont brought his whole army in front of the position. Fuente Guinaldo stands on an extensive plain, and from the convent there the whole force of the enemy, and all their movements, could be distinctly seen. Their force was not less than 60,000 men, a tenth part being cavalry, and they had 125 pieces of artillery. There was no motive for risking a battle, for the happiest result would only have been a profitless and dearly-purchased victory, as at Albuhera. Lord Wellington therefore retired about three leagues. No movement was ever executed with more ability in the face of a superior enemy; ... yet even this, performed with consummate skill and perfect courage, without hurry, without confusion, and almost without loss, presented but too many of those sights which make the misery of a soldier’s life. The sick and hungry inhabitants of the villages were crawling from their huts, too well aware of the fate which awaited them if they trusted to the mercy of Buonaparte’s soldiers; women were supplicating our troops to put their children in the provision cars; and the sick and wounded were receiving medical assistance, while they were carried over a rugged and almost impassable road.