Nevertheless the mischief was sufficiently great, and the enemy’s infantry descending the heights, endeavoured some to turn the town on the left, while others pushed directly through the streets in pursuit, and thus with his front in disorder, and his rear skirmishing, Crawfurd commenced a retreat. The weather was, however, so boisterous that the fire soon ceased, and a few men wounded and the loss of some baggage was all the hurt sustained; yet so uncertain is every thing in war, that this affair had like to have produced the most terrible results in another quarter. The division, instead of marching by Caregada and Cadafaes, followed the route of Sobral, and was obliged in the night to make a flank march of several miles along the foot of the Lines to gain Aruda, which was meanwhile left open to the enemy. Hence, the cavalry patroles from Villa Franca, meeting some stragglers and followers of the camp near Caregada, were by them told that the light division was cut off, a report confirmed in some measure by the unguarded state of Aruda, and by the presence of the enemy’s scouts on that side. This information alarmed general Hill for the safety of the second line, and the more so that the weakest part was in the vicinity of Aruda; he made a retrograde movement towards Alverca with a view to watch the valley of Calandrix, or to gain the pass of Bucellas according to circumstances. Hence, when the enemy was in full march against the Lines, the front from Alhandra to the forts above Sobral, a distance of eight or nine miles, was quite disgarnished of troops. The true state of affairs was, however, quickly ascertained, and Hill regained Alhandra before day-light on the 11th. During this time the second and the eighth corps passed Alemquer, the former marching upon Villa Franca, the latter upon Sobral. Reynier’s movements were languid, he did not discover the unguarded state of Alhandra, and his picquets did not enter Villa Franca until the next day; but general Clausel, one of the most distinguished officers in the French army, coming upon Sobral in the dusk with the head of the eighth corps dislodged the troops of the first division, occupied the ridge on which the town is built, and in the night threw up some entrenchments close under the centre of the allies position. It is however time to give a more detailed description of those celebrated works, improperly called THE LINES OF TORRES VEDRAS. [Sidenote: Memoranda of the lines, &c. by Col. J. T. Jones, Royal Engineers, printed for private circulation.] It has been already said, that they consisted of three distinct ranges of defence. The first, extending from Alhandra on the Tagus to the mouth of the Zizandre on the sea-coast, was, following the inflections of the hills, twenty-nine miles long. The second, traced at a distance varying from six to ten miles in rear of the first, stretched from Quintella on the Tagus to the mouth of the St. Lorenza, being twenty-four miles in length.