The loss of the French was six hundred killed and wounded; among the latter was Laborde himself. The British also suffered considerably; two lieutenant-colonels and nearly five hundred men being killed, taken, or wounded, and as not more than four thousand men were actually engaged, this hard fought action was very honourable to both sides. [Sidenote: Sir A. Wellesley’s evidence. Court of Inquiry.] The firing ceased a little after four o’clock, and sir Arthur getting intelligence that Loison’s division was at Bombaral, only five miles distant, took up a position for the night in an oblique line to that which he had just forced, his left resting upon a height near the field of battle, and his right covering the road to Lourinham. Believing that Loison and Laborde had effected their junction at the Quintade Bugagliera, and that both were retiring to Montechique, he resolved to march the next morning to Torres Vedras; but before night-fall he was informed that general Anstruther’s and general Acland’s[13] divisions, accompanied by a large fleet of store ships, were off the coast, the dangerous nature of which rendered it necessary to provide for their safety by a quick disembarkation. He therefore changed his plans, and resolved to seek for some convenient post, that, being in advance of his present position, would likewise enable him to cover the landing of these reinforcements. The vigour of Laborde’s defence had also an influence upon this occasion; before an enemy so bold and skilful no precaution could be neglected with impunity. The 18th sir Arthur marched to Lourinham, and Junot at the same time quitting Cereal with Loison’s division, crossed the line of Laborde’s retreat, and pushed for Torres Vedras, which he reached in the evening of the same day. The 19th being joined by Laborde, and the 20th by his reserve, he re-organized his army, and prepared for a decisive battle. CHAPTER V. The day on which the combat of Roriça was fought the insurgents attacked Abrantes, and the feeble garrison being ill commanded, gave way, and was destroyed. The 19th sir Arthur Wellesley took up a position at Vimiero, a village near the sea-coast, and from thence sent a detachment to cover the march of general Anstruther’s brigade, which had, with great difficulty and some loss, been that morning landed on an open sandy beach called the bay of Maceira. The French cavalry scoured the neighbouring country, carried off some of the women from the rear of the camp, and hemmed the army round so closely that no information of Junot’s position could be obtained. In the night of the 20th, general Acland’s brigade was also disembarked, and this reinforcement increased the army to sixteen thousand fighting men, with eighteen pieces of artillery, exclusive of Trant’s Portuguese and of two British regiments, under general Beresford, which were with the fleet at the mouth of the Tagus. [Sidenote: Appendix, No. 9.]