It was a very dark and stormy night, with heavy rain. George Simmons and Kincaid were on this picquet, and the latter relates a curious instance of the impossibility of a man’s walking quite straight in the dark. On going to visit one of his sentries about midnight, he found the man absent from his post. Being an excellent old soldier he felt assured that he had not deserted, and after searching for him in vain he called him by name. The man’s answer was instantly followed by the discharge of a French sentinel’s musket; and it then appeared that on every successive walk up and down his beat he had verged nearer and nearer to the French lines, which he was close to when called. The man, convinced that he had kept on his post, was astounded and incredulous that he had in the pitchy darkness edged away from it. On the 2nd the Battalion moved towards the right, and nearer to the bridge in front of Sabugal, and during this movement had some slight skirmishes with the enemy’s advanced posts. [Illustration: ACTION AT SABUGAL 3^{RD} APRIL 1811 _Drawn by Capt^n Moorsom, C.E._ _E. Weller, lith., London_ _London: Chatto & Windus._ ] On the morning of the 3rd a thick fog hung over the banks of the Coa. Beckwith’s Brigade of the Light Division was drawn up in close column behind the heights on the left bank of the river (in compliance with the disposition for the attack[99]), when a staff officer rode up and asked him ‘why he did not cross?’ Beckwith was not the man to whom such a question should have been addressed, nor one to hesitate in giving a practical answer to it. He immediately ordered his brigade to advance. Four companies (the right wing) of the 1st Battalion led. The banks were steep and the ford at which they crossed deep, the water nearly up to the men’s armpits. As soon as the Riflemen had climbed the opposite bank they advanced in skirmishing order. The officer in command of the French picquet ordered his men to fire as they retreated. Following the picquet, they soon came upon a regiment, and continued skirmishing till the rest of the brigade came up. Then they pushed the enemy through a chestnut-wood and up the hill; a blinding rain came on, and on advancing Beckwith found himself, when the shower ceased, confronted by the whole of Regnier’s _Corps d’Armée_. Their fire and overwhelming numbers forced back the four companies of the Battalion on the 43rd who were in support. Regnier followed with three strong columns; but the 43rd received them with such a fire that they fell back, and the 43rd charging them, drove them down the hill and into their position. Here the enemy made a stand, and being reinforced, again obliged Beckwith to retire. He got his Riflemen behind some walls, where he not only held and checked the enemy, but again drove the French back and pursued them; but on reaching their original position, Beckwith was attacked by infantry on the left, while cavalry on the right charged the skirmishers.