On the 12th the French picquets appeared on the heights opposite the bridge and the ford, but no shots were exchanged between them and the two companies of Riflemen always posted at the ford. And indeed then, as throughout the war in the Peninsula, the best understanding existed between the Riflemen on outpost duty and the advanced posts of the French; the officers frequently saluting each other. And so far did this go that the Riflemen, when ordered to advance to drive in the French picquets, used to hold up their rifles and tap the brass bullet-box in the stock of the Baker rifle then in use, to show their opponents that they were in earnest, and that their adversaries were to stand on their defence. The insufficient food and the unwholesome position of their camp near the Bridge of Almaraz, in a damp situation, with poisonous vapours arising from vegetable matter decaying, and swamps half-dried under a burning sun, soon began to tell on the men of the Battalion; and fever and dysentery became prevalent among them. At midnight on August 20 the Light Division marched from Almaraz and arrived at Deletosa on the following day, where a large portion of Sir Arthur Wellesley’s force was encamped. This and the whole British army (except the Light Division) marched on the 21st for Truxillo. On that evening the Battalion marched; and about midnight lay down with their arms until daybreak, when they started again for Caceres, where they arrived on the 23rd. And on the three following days they continued their march towards the Portuguese frontier, starting in the night and proceeding during many hours of the day. During this march the men suffered much both from the heat of the sun in a barren, treeless country, and the constant insufficiency of provisions. And it was not until they reached Valencia de Alcantara on the 26th, where they halted during the 27th, that they were able to procure bread, and the luxury of fruit and vegetables from the neighbouring gardens. Late on the 28th they started again, and marching during most of the night crossed the rivulet which here divides Spain from Portugal on the 29th, and proceeding by Maravão, after a march of many miles encamped at Castello de Vide, where the Battalion halted for a week. On September 7 they marched to Portalegre, where they halted two days, after which, resuming their march, they arrived at Arronches on the 10th, whence one more march on the next day brought them to Campo Major, their winter quarter, where they remained three months. During these, sickness and death ravaged the Battalion; fever, ague and dysentery, the fruits of exposure, of want, and of the proverbially unhealthy climate of Alemtejo, in which Campo Major is situated, sent numbers into hospital; and it is said[68] that nearly three hundred men of the 1st Battalion died during their stay there.