Captain Hopkins, commanding a flank company of the forty-third, immediately ran out to the right, and with admirable presence of mind seized a small eminence, close to the French guns and commanding the ascent up which the French troops turning the right flank were approaching. His first fire was so sharp, that the assailants were thrown into confusion; they rallied and were again disordered by the volleys of this company; a third time they endeavoured to form a head of attack; when Hopkins with a sudden charge increased the disorder, and at the same moment the two battalions of the fifty-second regiment, which had been attracted by the fire, entered the line. Meanwhile, the centre and left of the forty-third were furiously engaged and wonderfully excited; for Beckwith wounded in the head, and with the blood streaming down his face, rode amongst the foremost of the skirmishers, directing all with ability, and praising the men, in a loud cheerful tone. The musket-bullets flew thicker and closer every instant, but the French fell fast, a second charge cleared the hill, a howitzer was taken, and the British skirmishers were even advanced a short way down the descent, when small bodies of French cavalry came galloping in from all parts, and obliged them to take refuge with the main body of the regiment. The English line was instantly formed behind a stone wall above; yet one squadron of dragoons surmounted the ascent, and, with incredible desperation, riding up to this wall, were in the act of firing over it with their pistols, when a rolling volley laid nearly the whole of them lifeless on the ground. By this time however a second and stronger column of infantry had rushed up the face of the hill, endeavouring to break in and retake the howitzer which was on the edge of the descent and only fifty yards from the wall; but no man could reach it and live, so deadly was the forty-third’s fire. Meanwhile two English guns came into action, and the two battalions of the fifty-second charging upon the flank of the assailants, vindicated the right of the division to the height. A squadron of French cavalry, which had followed the columns in their last attack, then fell in amongst the fifty-second men, extended as they were from the circumstances of the action, and at first created considerable confusion, but it was finally repulsed. [Illustration: _Vol. 3, Plate 10._ MASSENA’S RETREAT Combat of Sabugal 1811. _London Published by T. & W. BOONE Nov^r 1830._] [Sidenote: Official Despatch.]