While this action was taking place at Meza d’Ibor, Villatte’s division, being higher up the Sierra, to the left, overthrew a smaller body of Spaniards at Frenedoso, making three hundred prisoners, and capturing a large store of arms. The 18th, at day-break, the duke of Belluno, who had superintended in person the attack at Meza d’Ibor, examined from that high ground all the remaining position of the Spaniards. Cuesta, he observed, was in full retreat to Truxillo; but Henestrosa was still posted in front of Almaraz. Hereupon Villatte’s division was detached after Cuesta, to Deleytosa; but Laval’s Germans were led against Henestrosa; and the latter, aware of his danger, and already preparing to retire, was driven hastily over the ridge of Mirabete. In the course of the night, the raft bridge was thrown across the Tagus; and the next day the dragoons passed to the left bank, the artillery followed, and the cavalry immediately pushed forward to Truxillo, from which town Cuesta had already fallen back to Santa Cruz, leaving Henestrosa to cover the retreat. The 20th, after a slight skirmish, the latter was forced over the Mazarna; and the whole French army, with the exception of a regiment of dragoons (left to guard the raft bridge) was poured along the road to Merida. The advanced guard, consisting of a regiment of light cavalry, under general Bordesoult, arrived in front of Miajadas on the 21st. Here the road dividing, sends one branch to Merida, the other to Medellin. A party of Spanish horsemen were posted near the town; they appeared in great alarm, and by their hesitating movements invited a charge. The French incautiously galloped forward; and, in a moment, twelve or fourteen hundred Spanish cavalry, placed in ambush, came up at speed on both flanks. General Lasalle, who from a distance had observed the movements of both sides, immediately rode forward with a second regiment; and arrived just as Bordesoult had extricated himself from a great peril, by his own valour, but with the loss of seventy killed and a hundred wounded. [Sidenote: Journal of Operations MSS.] After this well-managed combat, Cuesta retired to Medellin without being molested, and Victor spreading his cavalry posts on the different routes to gain intelligence and to collect provisions, established his own quarters at Truxillo, a town of some trade and advantageously situated for a place of arms. It had been deserted by the inhabitants and pillaged by the first French troops that entered it, but it still offered great resources for the army, and there was an ancient citadel, capable of being rendered defensible, which was immediately armed with the Spanish guns, and provisioned from the magazines taken at Meza d’Ibor.