The 15th, Laborde reached Penafiel; and Sylveira, hearing of La Houssaye’s march, retired to Villamea. The 18th, Laborde drove back the Portuguese without difficulty; and their retreat soon became a flight. Sylveira himself passed the Tamega at Amarante, and was making for the mountains, without a thought of defending that town; but colonel Patrick, a British officer in the Portuguese service, encouraging his battalion, faced about, and rallying the fugitives, beat back the foremost of the enemy. This becoming act obliged Sylveira to return; and while Patrick defended the approaches to the bridge on the right bank with obstinate valour, the former took a position, with five or six thousand men, on the heights overhanging the suburb of Villa Real, on the left bank of the river. The 19th, La Houssaye arrived; and the French renewing their attack on the town, Patrick again baffled their efforts; but when that gallant man fell mortally wounded, and was carried across the bridge, the defence slackened, and the Portuguese went over the Tamega: the passage of the river was, however, still to be effected. The bridges of Mondin and Cavez above, and that of Canavezas below Amarante, were destroyed: the Tamega was in full flood, and running in a deep rocky bed; and the bridge in front of the French was mined, barred with three rows of pallisades, and commanded by a battery of ten guns. The Portuguese were in position on the heights behind; from whence they could discern all that was passing at the bridge, and could reinforce at will the advanced guard, which was posted in the suburb. PASSAGE OF THE TAMEGA, AT AMARANTE. The 20th, the first barricade was reached by the flying sap; but the fire of the Portuguese was so deadly, that Laborde abandoned the attack, and endeavoured to construct a bridge on tressels half a mile below: this failed, and the efforts against the stone bridge were of necessity renewed. The mine at the other side was ingeniously formed; the muzzle of a loaded musket entered the chamber, and a string being tied at one end to the trigger, the other end was brought behind the entrenchments, so that an explosion could be managed with the greatest precision as to time. [Sidenote: Noble’s Campagne de Galice.] The 27th, the centre barricade was burnt by captain Brochard, an engineer officer, who devised a method of forcing the passage, so singularly bold, that all the generals, and especially general Foy, were opposed to it. The plan was, however, transmitted to Oporto; and Soult sent general Hulot, his first aide-de-camp, to report if the project was feasible. Hulot approved of Brochard’s proposal, and the latter commenced his operations on the 2d of May.