Sir Harry Burrard arrived in a frigate off the bay of Maceira, and sir Arthur was checked in the midst of his operations on the eve of a decisive battle. Having repaired on board the frigate, he made his report of the situation of affairs, and renewed his former recommendation relative to the disposal of sir John Moore’s troops; but Burrard, who had previously resolved to bring the latter down to Maceira, condemned this project, and forbid any offensive movement until the whole army should be concentrated; whereupon sir Arthur returned to his camp. The ground occupied by the army, although very extensive, and not very clearly defined as a position, was by no means weak. The village of Vimiero, situated in a valley through which the little river of Maceira flows, contained the parc and commissariat stores. The cavalry and the Portuguese were on a small plain close behind the village, and immediately in its front a rugged isolated height, with a flat top, commanded all the ground to the southward and eastward for a considerable distance. Upon this height Fane’s and Anstruther’s brigades of infantry with six guns were posted, the left of Anstruther’s occupied a church and churchyard which blocked a road leading over the extremity of the height to the village, the right of Fane’s rested on the edge of the other extremity of the hill, the base of which was washed by the Maceira. A mountain that commenced at the coast swept in a half circle close behind the right of the hill upon which these brigades were posted, and commanded, at rather long artillery range, all its upper surface. Eight guns, and the first, second, third, fourth, and eighth brigades of infantry, occupied this mountain, which was terminated on the left by a deep ravine that divided it from another strong and narrow range of heights over which the road from Vimiero to Lourinham passed. The right of these last heights also overtopped the hill in front of the village, but the left, bending suddenly backward, after the form of a crook, returned to the coast, and ended in a lofty cliff. There was no water upon this range, and some piquets only were placed there.