In this posture of affairs, Lord Wellington directed the seventh division to cross the Turones and move down the left bank to Frenada. General Crauford, who had resumed the command of the light division, first covered the passage of the seventh, and then retired slowly over the plain in squares, having the British cavalry principally on the right flank. He was followed by the enemy’s horse, which continually outflanked him, and near the wood surprised and sabred an advanced post of the Guards, making Colonel Hill and fourteen men prisoners. Several times Montbrun seemed disposed to storm the light division squares, but we were too formidable to be meddled with. Yet, on the authority of Colonel Napier, there was not during the war a 142more dangerous hour than this for England. The whole of that vast plain, as far as the Turones, was covered with a confused multitude, amidst which the squares appeared but as specks. The seventh division was separated from the army by the Turones; five thousand French cavalry, with fifteen pieces of artillery, were close at hand, impatient to charge; the infantry of the eighth corps was in order of battle behind the horsemen; the wood was filled with the skirmishers of the sixth corps; and, if the latter body had issued forth, our division was in imminent danger of being broken. No effort of the sort was made. Montbrun’s horsemen merely hovered about our squares; the plain was soon cleared, the cavalry took post behind the centre, and the light division formed a reserve, sending the riflemen among the rocks to connect it with the seventh. At sight of this new front, so deeply lined with troops, the French stopped short, and commenced a heavy cannonade, which did great execution from the closeness of the allied masses; but twelve British guns replied with vigour, and the violence of the hostile fire abated. All this time a fierce battle was raging at Fuentes d’Onoro. Masséna had directed Drouet to carry this village, at the very moment when Montbrun’s cavalry should turn the right wing. It was, however, two hours later when the attack began. The three British regiments made a desperate resistance, but, overpowered by numbers, they were pierced and divided; two companies of the 79th were taken, Colonel Cameron was mortally wounded, and the lower part of the town was carried. The upper part was, however, stiffly held, and the rolling of musketry was incessant. In this manner the fight lasted till the evening, when the lower part of the town was abandoned by both parties; the British maintaining the crags, and the French retiring a cannon-shot from the stream. Fifteen hundred men and officers, of which three hundred were prisoners, comprised the loss of the allies; that of the enemy was 143computed at five thousand, but this I have reason to believe was an exaggerated statement.