On the 10th, the enemy having shown himself in great strength, in order to check the advance and to take up a position, the Battalion retired about half a league, and bivouacked in a pine-wood. On moving forward on the 11th it was found that the French had taken up a strong position at Pombal, occupying the old castle situated on an eminence and the town with infantry; the rest of their force being posted on the heights behind the town. Two companies of the 1st Battalion, O’Hare’s and another, with Elder’s Caçadores, dashed over the bridge leading to the town, and found the enemy in some houses near the bridge, from which they kept up a brisk fire; which the Riflemen, entering the opposite houses, returned for some time. Till at last Sergeant Fleming and a few men rushed into one of the houses held by the enemy and made several prisoners. Then the Riflemen drove them out of the houses. Lieutenant Hopwood, as he was entering one of them, got a bad wound in the thigh; pushing on they carried the castle, the key of the position; and pursuing the enemy, after some sharp fighting with their voltigeurs, who obstinately disputed ground which from its nature was very defensible, drove them completely out of Pombal. But continuing their pursuit too far, some were taken prisoners, and others escaped with difficulty. The combat continued till dark, which fell before Lord Wellington could bring up a sufficient body of troops to make a general attack. After this hard day’s fighting the Battalion bivouacked in a ploughed field, exposed to torrents of rain. In this skirmish the two companies captured a grey horse, which carried the baggage of Colonel Soult, the nephew of the Marshal; and the contents were sold by auction by the captors in the bivouack; except his medals, which the men presented to Captain O’Hare, whose company had been actively engaged.