On April 11, the Regiment broke up from the camp before Badajos and marched to the north. Before doing so the men were ordered to give up the articles which they had plundered in Badajos; and to prevent their secreting any of them, their packs were examined. Whatever was found was collected in heaps and burned. But for two or three days before, the men had been selling what they had taken; crowds of country people thronged the camp to purchase; and it presented almost the appearance of a fair. On the 11th, however, the Regiment marched to Campo Major. On the next day they proceeded to Arronches and bivouacked in a wood. The 13th they marched to Portalegre, and on the 14th to Niza. On the next day they crossed the Tagus at Villa Velha, the 1st Battalion being in Monte de Senhora and the 3rd Battalion at Sernadas. On the 16th the Regiment marched to Castello Branco. Here they halted one day to allow the supplies to come up and to rest the troops, and the day following moved to As Caldas de Cima and Loisa. Here they came very close to the rear-guard of the French; and as they were informed by the peasants at S. Miguel d’Arch, which they reached on the 20th, that the enemy were in force, they moved with great caution to Penamacor on the 21st, San Bartolomeo on the 22nd, and passing through Sabugal on the 23rd, bivouacked near Alfayate. The British force on the north of the Tagus being as yet small, and the enemy falling back in force, their march had to be conducted with great caution. On the 24th they proceeded to Ituera, where they halted for two days, and from thence the Regiment occupied cantonments on the Agueda; the 1st Battalion being between Ituera and Castellejo de Azarva; and the 3rd Battalion at La Encina. Here every exertion was made to get the Regiment equipped for taking the field; the clothing was repaired, and shoes provided; and everything was done that could be done to turn the men out in good order for a summer campaign. Nevertheless, when the Regiment was reviewed by Lord Wellington on May 27 between Guinaldo and El Bodon, the clothing of the Riflemen was patched with pieces of many colours, and the dress of many of the officers was little better. But Lord Wellington, whose soldier’s eye measured not the spic-and-span appearance, but the endurance and daring of the men, told them that they ‘looked well and in good fighting order.’