The allies occupied a fine table-land, lying between the Turones and the Dos Casas, the left at Fort Conception; the centre opposite to the village of Alameda; the right at Fuentes Onoro; the whole distance being five miles. The Dos Casas, flowing in a deep ravine, protected the front of this line, and the French general could not, with any prudence, venture to march, by his own right, against Almeida, lest the allies, crossing the ravine at the villages of Alameda and Fuentes Onoro, should fall on his flank, and drive him into the Agueda. Hence, to cover the blockade, which was maintained by Pack’s brigade and an English regiment, it was sufficient to leave the fifth division near Fort Conception, and the sixth division opposite Alameda. The first and third were then concentrated on a gentle rise, about a cannon-shot behind Fuentes Onoro, where the steppe of land which the army occupied turned back, and ended on the Turones, becoming rocky and difficult as it approached that river. FIRST COMBAT OF FUENTES ONORO. The French came up in three columns abreast, the cavalry, the sixth corps, and Drouet’s division against Fuentes Onoro; but the eighth and second corps against Alameda and Fort Conception, seeming to menace the left of the position; wherefore, the light division, after passing the Dos Casas, reinforced the sixth division. General Loison however, without waiting for Massena’s orders, fell upon Fuentes Onoro, which was occupied by five battalions of chosen troops, detached from the first and third divisions. Most of the houses of this village were quite in the bottom of the ravine, but an old chapel and some buildings on a craggy eminence, overhung one end. The low parts were vigorously defended; yet the violence of the attack was so great, and the cannonade so heavy, that the British abandoned the streets, and could scarcely maintain the upper ground about the chapel. Colonel Williams, the commanding officer, fell badly wounded, and the fight was becoming very dangerous, when the twenty-fourth, the seventy-first, and the seventy-ninth regiments, coming down from the main position, charged so roughly, that the French were forced back, and, after a severe contest, finally driven over the stream of the Dos Casas. During the night the detachments were withdrawn; but the twenty-fourth, the seventy-first, and seventy-ninth regiments were left in the village, where two hundred and sixty of the allies and somewhat more of the French had fallen. On the 4th Massena arrived, and, being joined by Bessieres with twelve hundred cavalry and a battery of the imperial guard, examined all the line, and made dispositions for the next day. His design was to hold the left of the allies in check with the second corps, but to turn the right with the remainder of the army.