To aid the communication between Peniché and the militia, a Spanish light battalion and a strong body of English cavalry advanced to Ramalhal. Obidos, surrounded by old walls, was placed in a temporary state of defence, and garrisoned by three hundred Portuguese, under major Fenwick; and a moveable column, under colonel Waters, issuing from Torres Vedras, made incursions against the enemy’s marauding detachments, capturing many prisoners, and part of a considerable convoy which was passing the Baragueda. The French were thus continually harassed, yet their detachments scoured the whole country, even beyond Leiria, and obtained provisions in considerable quantities. [Sidenote: See Annals of the Peninsular War, Vol. II. p. 331.] Meanwhile, the main bodies of the hostile forces remained quiet, although the French right was greatly exposed. Lord Wellington had four British divisions and Romana’s corps, forming a mass of twenty-five thousand men, close round Sobral, and, by directing the greatest part of his cavalry and the six battalions, at Bucellas, upon Aruda, he could have assembled from eight to ten thousand men there also, who, advancing a short distance into the plain, could, in conjunction with Hill, have kept the second corps in check; while the twenty-five thousand, pouring down at daylight from the Monte Agraça, from the valley of Zibreira, and from the side of Ruña, could have enveloped and crushed the head of the eighth corps long before the sixth could have reached the scene of action. But war is a curious and complicated web! and while the purely military part was thus happily situated and strong, the political part was one of weakness and alarm. Scarcely could the English general maintain a defensive attitude, struggling as he was against the intrigues and follies of men who have, nevertheless, been praised for their “earnest and manly co-operation.” CHAPTER IX. [Sidenote: Mr. Stuart’s Papers. MSS.]