The detachment was formed at Belem under the command of Major Murphy of the 88th Regiment; he had men belonging to every regiment in the country, amongst whom several who had much rather remained at Belem than have paraded their bodies in a field to be shot at. We marched off about seven o'clock in the morning. The men of the Light Division who had been wounded with us and were well again, formed the rear-guard, and I travelled with it; but in spite of all my precautions several men skulked away unobserved, slipping into houses and other places. When we halted and called the rolls, 100 out of 800 that had marched off were missing, which sadly annoyed Major Murphy. He asked me how many of mine were gone. "Not one," was my answer, "and depend upon it none will leave now." "Well, then, sir, take the rear-guard to-morrow and make any straggler a prisoner, and I will bring him to a Drumhead Court-Martial"; which order he made known to the detachment. The rain had fallen heavily all day. We got under shelter into miserable houses that had been left by their inhabitants at Lumiar. [Sidenote: 8th] Marched under continued rain to Cabeza de Monchique, meeting numbers of poor people, making their way to Lisbon in the most wretched plight, telling us the British army were in full retreat before the French. At the end of this day's march, another one hundred _heroes_ had disappeared, which made our Commandant raving mad. Smith called upon me to assist him in a medical capacity. I had a bucket of spring water thrown upon him, which did him good; he had several fits, but this put an end to them, and he was better after he had rested a night. [Sidenote: 9th] Still raining tremendously. Arrived at Sobral. The 1st Division entered the town, retiring before the French. I soon found that the Light Division was marching to Arruda, so I moved off with my detachment, and arrived in that place about eight o'clock, wet through. The Quartermasters of regiments came in soon after, and then the town was divided; the troops followed. I took possession of a good house for Captain O'Hare's officers, and had a good fire against their arrival. They were glad to see me again, and we passed some hours in a description of the march of the enemy and the different fights and skirmishes they had had since I left the army, which was highly interesting to me. [Sidenote: 10th]