On the 26th the Battalion marched to Celorico, which the enemy had evacuated, and halted there the next day. On the 28th the right wing of the Battalion by a forced march reached Avalans de Ribeira, and 100 men under Captain Charles Beckwith were sent to dislodge a strong rear-guard of the enemy from a mill in front of Freixadas. They found the French busily at work, grinding corn, and soon drove them out of the mill and the village; taking several prisoners. In this affair the Adjutant, Lieutenant James Stewart, having dashed into the village with a few Riflemen, was shot, from a window, through the left breast and heart. He was acting as Brigade-Major to Colonel Beckwith, and was universally esteemed in the Regiment. ‘It is not too much to say,’ Leach observes, ‘that no man in any corps ever filled the situation of adjutant better than he did, and very few half so well. He was open-hearted, manly, friendly and independent; a most gallant and zealous officer, and much devoted to his own Corps. He neither cringed to, nor worshipped any man, but did his duty manfully, and with impartiality: two qualities inestimable in adjutants. By the soldiers he was idolised, and very justly. When his duties as adjutant did not interfere, he was amongst the first to enter into any frolic and fun; and a more jovial soul never existed.’[97] On the next morning at dawn the whole of the advanced guard, Riflemen, cavalry, and artillery, attended his funeral; and his body, wrapped in his cloak, and deposited in a chest, was buried in front of Colonel Beckwith’s quarter, in the village of Alverca. The left wing of the Battalion, with the rest of the Light Division, had on the 28th crossed the Mondego, and occupied the villages of Baracal and Mavashal. On the 29th the army moved forward on the front and flanks of the strong position of Guarda, which stands perched on a high hill, and is said to be the most elevated town in Portugal.[98] Notwithstanding the strength of his position the enemy did not await our onset, but moved off in the direction of Sabugal, pursued by cavalry and artillery only. The Light Division was not now handled by the fiery Craufurd; and the enemy escaped with the loss of barely 200 prisoners, which fell into the hands of the pursuing cavalry. The Battalion halted in Carapeta and other villages at the foot of the hill on which Guarda is placed. On April 1 the Battalion marched by Adão to Pega, where they halted about an hour in very heavy rain; and then proceeded to Quintas de S. Bartolomeo on the banks of the Coa, and nearly opposite Sabugal, where the 2nd Corps of the French army, under Regnier, were posted in great force, having picquets on our side of the river. The Battalion furnished the picquets, which were ordered to be extremely vigilant; not to interfere with the enemy if he did not molest them; but if attacked, to hold their post and never to quit it.