Nor were these valiant swordsmen yet exhausted. Their own general, Le Marchant, and many officers had fallen, but Cotton and all his staff was at their head, and with ranks confused, and blended together in one mass, still galloping forward they sustained from a fresh column an irregular stream of fire which emptied a hundred saddles; yet with fine courage, and downright force, the survivors broke through this the third and strongest body of men that had encountered them, and lord Edward Somerset, continuing his course at the head of one squadron, with a happy perseverance captured five guns. The French left was entirely broken, more than two thousand prisoners were taken, the French light horsemen abandoned that part of the field, and Thomieres’ division no longer existed as a military body. Anson’s cavalry which had passed quite over the hill and had suffered little in the charge, was now joined by D’Urban’s troopers, and took the place of Le Marchant’s exhausted men; the heavy German dragoons followed in reserve, and with the third and fifth divisions and the guns, formed one formidable line, two miles in advance of where Pakenham had first attacked; and that impetuous officer with unmitigated strength still pressed forward spreading terror and disorder on the enemy’s left. While these signal events, which occupied about forty minutes, were passing on the allies’ right, a terrible battle raged in the centre. For when the first shock of the third division had been observed from the Arapiles, the fourth division, moving in a line with the fifth, had passed the village of that name under a prodigious cannonade, and vigourously driving Bonet’s troops backwards, step by step, to the southern and eastern heights, obliged them to mingle with Clauzel’s and with Thomieres’ broken remains. When the combatants had passed the French Arapiles, which was about the time of Le Marchant’s charge, Pack’s Portuguese assailed that rock, and the front of battle was thus completely defined, because Foy’s division was now exchanging a distant cannonade with the first and light divisions. However Bonet’s troops, notwithstanding Marmont’s fall, and the loss of their own general, fought strongly, and Clauzel made a surprising effort, beyond all men’s expectations, to restore the battle. Already a great change was visible. Ferey’s division drawn off from the height of Calvaraza Ariba arrived in the centre behind Bonet’s men; the light cavalry, Boyer’s dragoons, and two divisions of infantry, from the forest, were also united there, and on this mass of fresh men, Clauzel rallied the remnants of his own and Thomieres’ division. Thus by an able movement, Sarrut’s, Brennier’s, and Ferey’s unbroken troops, supported by the whole of the cavalry, were so disposed as to cover the line of retreat to Alba de Tormes, while Maucune’s division was still in mass behind the French Arapiles, and Foy’s remained untouched on the right.