The 23rd October, however, was to be a day of a much more lively sort. Souham and Caffarelli, having debouched from Burgos, brought all their numerous cavalry to the front, and at dawn it was coming up for the pursuit, in immense strength. There were present of the Army of Portugal Curto’s light horse, Boyer’s dragoons, and the brigade formerly commanded by Chauvel now under Colonel Merlin of the 1st Hussars. These, by the morning state of October 15th, made up 4,300 sabres. The Army of the North contributed the bulk of its one--but very powerful--cavalry brigade, that of Laferrière, 1,650 strong.[87] Thus there were nearly 6,000 veteran horsemen hurrying on to molest Wellington’s rear, where the covering force only consisted of Anson’s and Bock’s two brigades and of the lancers of Julian Sanchez--1,300 dragoons British and German[88], and 1,000 Spaniards admirable for raids and ambushes but not fit to be placed in battle line. Ponsonby’s dragoons and the regular squadrons of the Galician army were far away with the head of the column. To support the cavalry screen were the two horse-artillery batteries of Downman and Bull, and the two Light Battalions of the German Legion from the 7th Division, under Colonel Halkett, which were left behind as the extreme rearguard of the infantry. All day the main marching column of the allied army laboured forward unmolested along the muddy high road from Celada del Camino to Torquemada, a very long stage of some 26 miles: Wellington seldom asked his infantry to make such an effort. What would have happened to Clausel’s army if the British had marched at this rate in the week that followed the battle of Salamanca? Behind the infantry column, however, the squadrons of the rearguard were fighting hard all day long, to secure an unmolested retreat for their comrades. This was the most harassing and one of the most costly efforts that the British cavalry was called upon to make during the Peninsular War. The nearest parallel to it in earlier years was the rearguard action of El Bodon in September 1811[89]. But there the forces engaged on both sides had been much smaller.