In consequence of the horses produced by the Portuguese authorities being of so inferior a description that the English officers rejected the greater part of them, only twenty men per troop of the ROYAL DRAGOONS were mounted; the dismounted men proceeded to Abrantes to await the arrival of horses, and the mounted men advanced to the frontiers of Portugal, and encamped on a pleasant plain near Estremos. Tardiness and inability were, however, manifested by the Portuguese authorities to such an extent, that the DUKE OF BERWICK, having arrived from France with eighteen battalions of infantry and nineteen squadrons of cavalry, and taken the command of the French and Spanish forces, attacked the frontiers of Portugal before the allies were prepared to take the field. The court of Lisbon was alarmed, the provinces were in consternation; the DUKE SCHOMBERG solicited to be recalled, and the EARL OF GALWAY was sent with reinforcements to Portugal, and appointed to the command of the British forces in that country. One hundred and twenty men of the ROYAL DRAGOONS formed part of a body of cavalry, which crossed the frontiers and made a successful incursion into the Spanish territory. Extraordinary measures were adopted to procure horses, and at the close of the summer the regiment had upwards of three hundred mounted men in the field. In the autumn the army was enabled to act on the offensive, and the ROYAL DRAGOONS were among the forces which penetrated Spain; but on arriving at the vicinity of Ciudad Rodrigo, the enemy was found so advantageously posted on the opposite side of the Agueda, that the Portuguese generals would not venture the passage of the river; and, after reconnoitring the hostile army several times, the allies returned to Portugal, and the ROYAL DRAGOONS went into village cantonments in the Alentejo.[37] [Sidenote: 1705] During the winter and the spring of 1705 the regiment procured an additional supply of horses, and when it again took the field it was much better mounted than in the preceding year. It joined the army in April, and, advancing into Spanish Estremadura, formed part of the force which invested _Valencia de Alcantara_, which fortress was captured in the early part of May. _Albuquerque_ was subsequently besieged and taken; and the capture of Badajoz was contemplated, but that undertaking was abandoned until the summer's heat was abated.