On the 11th of April, the light and third divisions crossed the fine stone bridge to the right bank of the Guadiana, and entered Campo-Mayor. The march of the troops presented the most warlike appearance. Many of the soldiers' blood-stained and torn uniforms were discoloured from explosions; numbers of the soldiers held their arms in slings, and carried their firelocks and caps slung on their knapsacks; whilst others were seen with bandaged heads, or lame from contusions through wounds inflicted by the iron-crows' feet with which the enemy had strewed the ditch of Badajoz. In this manner did all those gallant soldiers, who were able to join their ranks, trudge along for ten days, for the purpose of chasing out of the province of Beira the Duke of Ragusa, who now blockaded and threatened the fortresses of Almeida and Ciudad Rodrigo. Every morning before day light we were creeping over the rough, flinty, and winding roads along the _Cordon_ of Portugal, until we reached the neighbourhood of Ciudad Rodrigo, from which place the enemy had retired on our approach. On the 19th of May, General Sir R. Hill, with the second division, attacked, and carried by escalade, and destroyed the forts Napoleon, Ragusa, and the _Tête de Pont_, which guarded the bridge of boats thrown across the Tagus near Almaraz in Spanish Estremadura. As the summer came on, officers and soldiers rejoined us with wounds scarcely healed; others arrived from England to fill up the vacant ranks. A fresh campaign was in contemplation, and the officers from various divisions of the army flocked merrily into Ciudad Rodrigo. On the 12th of June, the army crossed the river Agueda, the light division leading the centre column. The march of the light division was worthy of notice. The men were not tormented by unnecessary parades—the march was their parade; that over, the soldiers (except those on duty) made themselves happy, while those with sore feet, by such a system, had rest, which enabled them to be with their comrades, when, by a mistaken notion of discipline, it would have been otherwise: their equipment was regularly examined, nor were the men on any pretence permitted to overload themselves—one of the most serious afflictions to an army. A general may be endowed with transcendant abilities, and by a forced march place himself in a situation to overthrow his enemies; he may possess the number of divisions, and the number of regiments, but through internal bad management, half his army may be straggling in the rear. Again, nothing is so pernicious as keeping the soldiers under arms, while the officers are rambling about: it destroys all _esprit_, causing the officers to forget the sufferings of the men after a weary march, and creating feelings of dislike towards them in the breasts of the soldiers. Such a system did not exist in the light division; and when a young officer fell in action, the old soldiers proffered their services with parental care.