The town, which contained about five hundred families, stands on the right bank, consisting chiefly of one long and narrow street, leading down a steep descent to the bridge. Hither the Portugueze retreated: a retrograde movement, in the presence of an active and adventurous enemy, tries the best troops; to the ill or the undisciplined it is usually fatal. Silveira’s rear-guard fell back in disorder, ... the confusion spread, and the enemy, when they entered Amarante pell-mell with their despised and broken opponents, thought themselves sure of winning the passage, and destroying a force upon which they were eager to wreak their vengeance. This expectation might probably have been fulfilled, if Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick, a British officer who had come out with Beresford, had not been present. Short as the time was which he had been with the Portugueze, it had been long enough for him to become acquainted with their character; and rallying a handful of men, who required only such a leader to be fit for any service, he posted himself at the head of the bridge. The example became as contagious as the previous disorder, and the Portugueze, who, despairing to maintain the passage, had begun to withdraw toward Mezam-frio, rallied and re-formed. The enemy persisted in the attack, knowing the importance of the passage; but the defendants stood their ground, and actually entrenched themselves in the street with the dead bodies of their enemies; they occupied the houses also, and the Convent of St. Gonçalo, one of the finest which the Dominicans possessed in that kingdom; and from thence they kept up a most destructive fire, till the enemy were driven out of the town with considerable loss. But Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick received several wounds, was carried off exhausted with loss of blood, and died within a few days, after having performed a service for which it is to be hoped a monument will one day be erected to his memory on the spot. ♦THE FRENCH ENDEAVOUR TO THROW A BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER.♦