On the 15th of May, 1811, the second battalion embarked at Leith for South Britain, arrived at Ramsgate on the 23rd of that month, and remained stationed in England for nearly two years. [Sidenote: 1st bat.] The first battalion, upon its route southward, crossed the Tagus on the 31st of May, and arrived near Albuhera on the 14th June, having passed through Portalegre, Aronches, Campo Mayor, and Talavera Real. The sanguinary battle of Albuhera, fought on the 16th of May, had obliged Marshal Soult to retire previously to the arrival of the reinforcements, which being considered no longer necessary, the battalion retired to Elvas, where it remained two days, moving to Toro de Moro on the 19th of June, where it remained for a month. At this encampment a detachment of 350 men, with a proportion of officers, joined from the second battalion then stationed at Deal. About this period the first battalion became a part of the army, under Lieut.-General Rowland (afterwards Viscount) Hill. The junction of the armies of Marshals Marmont and Soult having obliged Viscount Wellington to raise the siege of Badajoz, which had been resumed after the battle of Albuhera, the battalion, in co-operation with his Lordship’s retrograde movement, retired to Borba on 20th of July. Here it remained until the 1st of September, when it moved to Portalegre, and thence marched to Castello de Vido, on the 4th of October. A detachment from Marshal Soult’s army, under General Girard, having been levying contributions in Spanish Estremadura, Lieut.-General Rowland Hill, with a view of putting a stop to his movements, broke up his cantonment at Portalegre, upon the 22nd of October, proceeding by Albuquerque and Malpartida. On the 27th, when, within a moderate march of the enemy at Arroyo-dos-Molinos, he halted his troops, and, at night, breaking up his bivouac, made a flank movement close to the road by which the French intended to march on the following morning. In that position he awaited the approach of day, when on the 28th of October, the British marched directly on the rear of the town with such celerity that the cavalry pickets were attacked before they had time to mount. The French main body, though in the act of filing out, had so little intimation of danger, that the officers and men were surrounded before their formation was effected, and to seek safety they individually dispersed. Many of them were killed, and about 1,400 were taken prisoners. All the enemy’s artillery and baggage were captured. General Brun, and Colonel the Prince of Aremberg, together with several other officers, were among the prisoners. In this brilliant affair the Seventy-first was one of the three corps that advanced through the centre of the town, and were, therefore, principally engaged; but the enemy, from his complete surprise, being unable to make a combined resistance, the British sustained but a trifling loss.