regimental eagle was lost[193], while their colonel was taken prisoner. Ney saved the situation, which had arisen through his own disobedience to Masséna’s orders, by charging, with the third battalion of the 69th regiment[194] the rifle companies which had got into Foz do Arouce and were threatening the bridge. They were driven back on to their support, the 52nd regiment, and the passage having been cleared by the Marshal’s exertions, the troops to the left and right crossed it in some disorder, and took refuge on the opposite bank. They were shelled during their defile, not only by Ross’s and Bull’s horse artillery batteries, but by some guns belonging to their own 8th Corps, which in the deepening twilight failed to distinguish between pursuers and pursued. By the time that night had fully set in, the French rearguard was all over the river, and the bridge was blown up. If the attack had been delivered an hour earlier, it is probable that Ney would have suffered losses far greater than he actually endured--perhaps 250[195] men killed, wounded, drowned, or taken--for the British divisions were prevented by the failing light from acting as effectively as they otherwise might against the masses hastily recrossing the bridge. Wellington’s loss was trifling--4 officers and 67 men, nearly a third of them in the rifle companies which had broken the French centre for a moment, and had then been driven back by Ney. The small remainder of the baggage of Marchand and Mermet was captured on this occasion, including some biscuit, which proved most grateful to the Light Division, as it had, like the rest of the British army, outmarched its transport. [193] It was found in the river at low water and sent to London. The loss is mentioned in George Simmons’s diary under March 16. Wellington sent it home in July. (_Dispatches_, viii. p. 78.) [194] So both Masséna’s dispatch, and Fririon, who was present with the brigade of which the 69th formed part. Marbot is wrong in saying that it was the 27th. All the narratives on the French side are very confused, and differ widely. [195] Sprünglin says 400, Masséna, in his dispatch to Berthier, under 200, Marbot 150, _Victoires et Conquêtes_ 400. Sprünglin, as Ney’s aide-de-camp, had the best chance of knowing. But Martinien’s lists, in which I can only find ten or twelve casualties among officers, suggest a smaller total, roughly perhaps 250.