This arrangement sufficed while the Agueda was swollen; but that river was capricious, often falling many feet in a night without apparent reason: when it was fordable, Crawfurd always withdrew his outposts, and concentrated his division; and his situation demanded a quickness and intelligence in the troops, the like of which has never been surpassed. Seven minutes sufficed for the division to get under arms in the middle of the night; and a quarter of an hour, night or day, to bring it in order of battle to the alarm-posts, with the baggage loaded and assembled at a convenient distance in the rear. And this not upon a concerted signal, or as a trial, but at all times and certain. The 19th of March, general Ferey, a bold officer, either to create a fear of French enterprise at the commencement of the campaign, or to surprise the division, collected six hundred grenadiers close to the bridge of San Felices, and, just as the moon, rising behind him, cast long shadows from the rocks, and rendered the bottom of the chasm dark, he silently passed the bridge, and, with incredible speed, ascending the opposite side, bayonetted the sentries, and fell upon the piquet so fiercely that friends and enemies went fighting into the village of Barba del Puerco while the first shout was still echoing in the gulf below. So sudden was the attack, and so great the confusion, that the British companies could not form, but each soldier encountering the nearest enemy, fought hand to hand; and their colonel, Sydney Beckwith, conspicuous by his lofty stature and daring actions, a man capable of rallying a whole army in flight, urged the contest with such vigour that, in a quarter of an hour, the French column was borne back, and pushed over the edge of the descent. This skirmish proved that, while the Agueda was swollen, the enemy could gain nothing by slight operations; but it was difficult to keep in advance of the Coa: the want of money had reduced the whole army to straits, and Crawfurd, notwithstanding his prodigious activity, being unable to feed his division, gave the reins to his fiery temper, and seized some church-plate, with a view to the purchasing of corn. For this impolitic act he was immediately rebuked, and such redress granted that no mischief followed; and the proceeding itself had some effect in procuring supplies, as it convinced the priests that the distress was not feigned.