After resting his army three days, and leaving 700 sick and wounded in the hospitals, Soult proceeded on his march. One division, which ♦MARCH 24.♦ found the bridge over the Ave at Barca da Trofa broken down, and the ford guarded too well to be passed without loss and difficulty, succeeded in winning and repairing the Ponte de S. Justo over the same river, higher up. The Ponte de Ave also was forced by Colonel Lallemand in a second attempt; and the officers who defended it were murdered by their men, who, feeling in themselves no want of courage or of will, imputed every reverse to treachery in their leaders. Without farther opposition the enemy advanced upon Porto, and the Marshal sent in a summons ♦MARCH 28.♦ to the Bishop, the magistrates, and the General, in the usual French style, protesting that the French came not as enemies to the Portugueze, but only to drive away the English; and that the rulers of the city would be responsible before God and man for the blood that would be shed, and the horrors which must ensue, if they attempted to oppose an army accustomed to victory. It was not without danger that the summons could be delivered; and General Foy, who either being deceived by the gestures of a party of soldiers, or mistaking them, advanced to receive their submission, was surrounded and carried into the city. A cry was set up that they had taken Loison; and Foy would have been torn to pieces, in vengeance for Loison’s ♦OPERATIONS, &C. 159–168.♦ crimes, if he had not possessed presence of mind enough to lift up both hands, and thus prove to the people that he was not their old one-armed enemy. ♦OLIVEIRA MURDERED.♦