With these views Lord Wellington took up the ground along the Duas Casas. He placed the fifth division on his extreme left, near the fort of La Conception, to defend the great road to Almeida, which crosses the river at a ford immediately in front of that fortification. The light and sixth divisions he placed opposite to the village of Almada; the first, third, and seventh, were placed in rear of Fuentes d’Honor, with the light infantry of the third division and of the brigades of Major-Generals Nightingale and Howard occupying the village, supported by a battalion of the German Legion, the 2d battalion of the 83d, and the 71st and 79th Regiments. A Spanish corps, under Don Julian Sanches, was posted on the extreme right, at Nava d’Aver. Brigadier-General Pack, with a brigade of Portuguese infantry and the 2d British or Queen’s Regiment, blockaded Almeida. Massena advanced from Ciudad Rodrigo on the 2d of May; and our troops having retired from the Agueda, he arrived, on the 3d, opposite to the position occupied by the allied army. In the evening he made a desperate attempt to carry the village of Fuentes d’Honor; but after a severe contest, most gallantly maintained, his troops were totally repulsed. Defeated with considerable loss in his first attempt, he spent the whole of the 4th in reconnoitring our position. Lord Wellington penetrated his intention of attacking the right of the allied army, and in the night moved the seventh division to Porco Velho, the only ford at which the enemy could cross the Duas Casas, and where the banks of that river opposed but a trifling obstacle to his advance. On the morning of the 5th, the eighth corps was discovered opposite to this village, and preparing to attack it; Lord Wellington moved the light division to support the seventh, while he directed the first and third divisions to occupy some high ground between the Turon and Duas Casas rivers; thus observing the sixth and ninth corps of the French army, which had made a movement to their left, and had approached the ground occupied by the eighth corps. Massena began the action of this day by an attack on the advanced guard of the seventh division; which, overpowered by numbers, was obliged to retire, giving up the village of Porco Velho. The French cavalry, under General Montbrun, (which had already driven Don Julian Sanches from Nava d’Aver) charged with a very superior force the cavalry of the allies, and though (in the first rencontre) its advance was driven back, yet it afterwards succeeded in penetrating to the infantry, which, supported in the most gallant manner by the artillery, received the French cavalry and repulsed it with considerable loss. At this moment Lord Wellington decided to withdraw his army into the more concentrated position, to which from the beginning he had felt inclined to confine himself.