150] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1815. 



did not proceed with the rapidity 

 that Lord Wellington had ex- 

 pected. An attempt to storm the 

 principal work on the night of the 

 23rd failed of success, with con- 

 siderable loss ; Major-general Bowes 

 was among the slain. On the 27th, 

 the baildings in the largest fort, 

 St. Vincente, being set on fire by 

 the guns of the besiegers, and a 

 breach being made in another fort, 

 the commander of St. Vincente, in 

 order to gain time, expressed a 

 desire to capitulate after a certain 

 number of hours. Lord Welling- 

 ton, however, perceiving his object, 

 ordered an immediate storm of the 

 two other forts, which succeeded ; 

 and the commander of St. Vincente 

 then sent a flag to notify the sur- 

 render of that fort, on the terms 

 of the garrison being prisoners of 

 war, which was accepted, though 

 the storm of the place had com- 

 menced. These forts were found 

 to be so strongly constructed, that 

 they could not possihly be taken 

 without a regular attack. They 

 cost the allies above 450 in killed 

 and wounded. Upon the intelli- 

 gence of this event, the French 

 army retired. Lord Wellington 

 on July 1st broke up his camp, 

 and advanced towards the French, 

 who were marching upon Torde- 

 sillas. Sir Stapleton Cotton at- 

 tacked their rear-guard on the 2nd, 

 and drove it in to their main body, 

 but the rest of the allied army 

 were too far distant to impede 

 them in their passage of the Douro, 

 after which they took a position 

 on that river, with their center at 

 Tordesillas. Lore Wellington took 

 post at Uueda. On the 7th the 

 French were reinforced by the 

 junction of General Bonnet, who 

 had advanced from Asturias. They 



afterwards extended to their right 

 as far as Toro, where they employed 

 themselves in repairing the bridge 

 which they had before demolished. 

 General Hill at this time had left 

 Albuera, and moved towards the 

 enemy, who retired before hiin 

 towards Cordova. He had reached 

 Lierena on the 9th. 



Maimont now turned upon the 

 allies, and assumed the part of an 

 assailaut. He sent a considerable 

 body over the Douro at Toro on 

 the ICth, while Lord Wellington 

 on that night moved the allied 

 army to thtir left, with the in- 

 tention of concentrating on the 

 Guarena, a river that runs into 

 the Douro. The French on the 

 same night recrossed at Toro, and 

 Marmont moved his whole army 

 to Tordesillas, where, on the 17th, 

 he again crossed the Douro, and 

 on the same day assembled his 

 troops at Nava del Rey. Various 

 movements then succeeded between 

 the two armies ; and the French, 

 on the 18tb, made an attack on a 

 body stationed at Castrejon under 

 the command of Sir Stapleton 

 Cotton, who resisted till the 

 cavalry joined him, and then re- 

 treated in excellent order to the 

 main army on the Guarena. The 

 enemy then «rossed that river, and 

 indicated an intention of pressing 

 upon the left of the allied army, 

 but it was defeated by a timely 

 attack made by General Allen's 

 brigade of cavalry, supported by a 

 body of infantry. In this affair a 

 French general was taken, with 

 other prisoners. A variety of 

 other movements were made, in 

 which it was the object of Mar- 

 mont to cut off the allies from 

 their communication with Sala- 

 manca and Ciudad Rodrigo, and 



of 



