In Estremadura, after Drouet’s retreat to Azagua, Hill placed a strong division at Merida ready to cross the Tagus, but no military event occurred until the 24th of July, when general Lallemand, with three regiments of cavalry pushed back some Portuguese horsemen from Ribera to Villa Franca. He was attacked in front by general Long, while general Slade menaced his left, but he succeeded in repassing the defile of Ribera; Long then turned him by both flanks, and aided by Lefebre’s horse artillery, drove him with the loss of fifty men and many horses upon Llera, a distance of twenty miles. Drouet, desirous to retaliate, immediately executed a flank march towards Merida, and Hill fearing for his detachments there made a corresponding movement, whereupon the French general returned to the Serena; but though he received positive orders from Soult to give battle no action followed and the affairs of that part of the Peninsula remained balanced. [Sidenote: August.] In Andalusia, Ballesteros surprised colonel Beauvais, at Ossuna, took three hundred prisoners and destroyed the French dépôt there. After this he moved against Malaga, and was opposed by general Laval in front, while general Villatte, detached from the blockade of Cadiz, cut off his retreat to San Roque. The road to Murcia was still open to him, but his rashness, though of less consequence since the battle of Salamanca, gave Wellington great disquietude, and the more so that Joseph O’Donel had just sustained a serious defeat near Alicant. This disaster, which shall be described in a more fitting place, was however in some measure counterbalanced by the information, that the revived expedition from Sicily had reached Majorca, where it had been reinforced by Whittingham’s division, and by the stores and guns sent from Portugal to Gibraltar. It was known also, that in the northern provinces Popham’s armament had drawn all Caffarelli’s troops to the coast, and although the littoral warfare was not followed up the French were in confusion and the diversion complete.