As soon as the Seventy-fourth had returned, the business of recruiting occupied the earnest attention of its officers. Removed to Scotland for this purpose, it failed to complete its establishment, and, in consequence, was transferred to Ireland to receive its complement by volunteers from the militia. In 1810 it received orders to prepare for foreign service; and, accordingly, embarked from Cork for Portugal, under Lieut.-Colonel the Honourable Robert De Poer Trench, with a total strength of 730 effectives. Arrived in the Tagus and disembarked, it was advanced to Viseu. Its junction with the allied army of Lord Wellington was hailed with delight by that chief, who ever felt a warm interest in its history, as the “Assaye regiment” whose heroes had won for him his first great victory. Complimenting Colonel Trench, he said: “If the Seventy-fourth would behave in that country as they had done in India, he ought to be proud to command such a regiment.” Included in the third or well-known “Fighting Division” of Major-General Picton, the Seventy-fourth was brigaded with the first battalion of the Forty-fifth, the Eighty-eighth, and three companies of the fifth battalion of the Sixtieth Regiment. From the concentrated and overwhelming military might of Napoleon, Marshal Massena was detached at the head of 75,000 veterans, styled the “Army of Portugal,” charged with the destruction of the British who had dared to dispute the claims of his master to the dominion of the Peninsula. In presence of such a superior foe, as regards numbers, Wellington resolved on retreat; and, accordingly, withdrawing to his own defences, induced the enemy to draw off in pursuit. Taking advantage of every position which by natural or artificial strength afforded an opportunity to check or impede the pursuit of the French, Lord Wellington frequently severely punished the temerity of the foe. Thus, in the battle of Busaco, where the Seventy-fourth for awhile withstood the attack of an entire French column, until sustained by the Ninth and Thirty-eighth regiments, it drove the enemy down the hill.