No further attack was made on this position; but the enemy’s skirmishers swarmed in the valley, and kept the Battalion employed till the afternoon, when Craufurd received a flag of truce with General Simon’s baggage, and granted a temporary cessation of arms. Leach mentions that, during that time, he went down into Sula, and met officers and men of Loison’s division, who acknowledged their loss to be very heavy; one of them asserting that his company, which mounted the hill 120 strong, could only muster 27 men after their repulse. The time limited for the truce having expired, the French seemed disposed to keep possession of the village of Sula; but Lord Wellington, who happened to be at hand, ordered a company of the Battalion to go down and drive them out: which they did in a very short time, and established a picquet there. On the 28th no movement took place; but on the morning of the 29th, owing to an attempt on Massena’s part to turn Lord Wellington’s position by getting round by Coimbra, the English army broke up and fell back at a very early hour. About nine the Battalion followed, forming, as usual, part of the rear-guard, with some cavalry; and at night halted in a wood some miles from Busaco. On October 3 they reached Pombal; on the 5th Batalha; and on the succeeding days, in incessant rains, proceeded to Alemquer, where they arrived on the 9th. On the 10th they were pressed by the French advanced guard, and after a little skirmishing fell back to Arruda in a tempest of rain. Thus they reached the Lines of Torres-Vedras, of which no description is needed here. The portion of the lines this Battalion occupied was on the right centre of the position, and on the fortified heights immediately behind Arruda, having advanced posts in front of the town. In very wet weather the Battalion were allowed to shelter themselves in Arruda during the day, but always returned to their bivouack on the heights during the night. While the Battalion remained in these lines the enemy made several reconnaissances, which occasionally brought on affairs of picquets. On one of these occasions, on October 14, a sharp affair took place near Sobral between the advanced guard of the 8th _Corps d’Armée_ and the light troops of Sir Brent Spencer’s division. In this skirmish a company of the 3rd Battalion, which had lately arrived from England and had been detained on its way to Cadiz by Sir Brent Spencer, as the Regiment was his,[81] was engaged, and Captain Percival and Lieutenant Eeles were severely wounded, and several men killed and wounded. These young soldiers (as George Simmons observes) ‘behaved _like Riflemen_, and were complimented.’