The battle of Fuentes de Onoro, fought on the 5th May, 1811, was no very decided triumph, although most undoubtedly a victory, since the principal object of the allies, the covering of the blockade of Almeida, was successfully accomplished. The village of Fuentes, so often attacked throughout the day, was unflinchingly and gallantly defended; and on the chapel and crags which surmount the town we maintained our ground to the last, while the French retired a cannon-shot from the stream. My attention was invited in a more lively degree by the neighbouring fortress of Almeida, which was the scene of such repeated actions during the Peninsular War, and where occurred the curious siege in 1844 by the forces of the Portuguese government, when it was occupied by a revolutionary party under the Conde do Bomfim, aiming at the subversion of Dona Maria’s prerogative. The battle of Albuera was fought on the 16th May, 1811, eleven days after the battle of Fuentes de Onoro. At Albuera the personal gallantry of Marshal Beresford was more conspicuous than the generalship. Our loss in killed and wounded here was greater than in any other action during the Peninsular War. Wellington arrived on the field the third day after the battle. For several days before it the Spaniards had been reduced to horse-flesh for a subsistence! Yet on the whole they fought well. It was the terrific charge and indomitable valour of the Fusiliers that gained the day. Never was British infantry seen to greater advantage. “The terrible balance hung for two hours, and twice trembling to the sinister side, only yielded at last to the superlative vigour of the fusiliers.” (Napier, _Hist. War in the Penins._ book xii. chap. 7.)