But this discipline, which thus elicited the approval of the great commander, was not enforced by Beckwith with sternness or severity. It is recorded how, during their halts at Campo Major and near the Coa, during the preceding winter, he had let his Battalion repose from the fatigues of their long marches, and their sufferings from famine and disease; not worrying the soldiers with drills or barrack-yard parades; but rather encouraging amusements and sports which refreshed and reanimated them. This it was, added to their knowledge of his valour and experience when leading them in the field, that made him loved by the Officers and Riflemen of his Battalion, made them ready to ‘follow him through fire and water when the day of trial came; for they well knew that he was the last man on earth who would give them unnecessary trouble, or, on the other hand, would spare either man or officer when the good of the service demanded their utmost exertions.’[75] About this time the 1st and 3rd Caçadores of the Portuguese army were added to Craufurd’s Division; the latter commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Elder, one of the original officers of the Rifle Corps.[76] At the same time Ross’[77] troop of Horse Artillery and the 14th and 16th Light Dragoons were attached to the Light Division. Soon after the attack on Barba del Puerco the troops (which had been reinforced with some of the 43rd and 52nd) were withdrawn to Villa de Ciervo. Early in April, in compliance with orders from home, the ten companies of which the Battalion on service had hitherto consisted were reduced to eight, two captains with subalterns, non-commissioned officers, and a few men returning to England to form a Depôt. These eight companies were of about a hundred men each, as the Battalion which embarked a thousand and ten rank and file, had been reduced in about nine months, principally by disease, to about eight hundred men in all.