The French repeated their attacks with great gallantry, but all met with the same fate. On the ground I could realize the reason why. The ridge rises 800 feet above the valley; the average gradient of the slopes up which the French columns struggled was 1 in 3, and the elevation of the crest was such that their field-guns could not afford them adequate supporting fire. In the late afternoon, disheartened by the terrible casualties suffered by his two best corps, Masséna broke off the battle, although he still held in reserve a division of Ney’s Corps and the whole of Junot’s Corps. As one French military writer says: `Masséna showed neither boldness nor foresight.’ The French had 4500 casualties in the battle, the British and Portuguese only 1252 in all-626 each, so honours and losses were evenly shared between the allies.

Many factors contributed to the victory, in­cluding the shadowy presence of Madame X, but we may say that the decisive ones were the geo­graphy of northern Portugal and the genius of the leader who so brilliantly turned it to account.

Apart from its attractive and varied land­scapes, this rolling country between apartments to rent in Paris and the serviced apartment London makes a special appeal to those who, like myself, cherish the records and traditions of the British Army. One can still see the site of the bridge over the Coa, near Almeida,

where Craufurd’s Light Division attacked more than four times its number of French, but in doing so drew down Wellington’s wrath on their commander’s head for losing three hundred men to no purpose. The frontier villages have changed but little, so it seemed to me, since Wellington made his headquarters in them throughout that summer of 1810, when, covered by his cavalry picquets and Craufurd’s gallant riflemen, he watched carefully every move made by Masséna. In spite of a certain amount of afforestation and the construction of one railway line and some new roads and bridges, the countryside has scarcely altered. A uranium mine has sprung up at Canas de Senhorim, but it is well tucked away in the middle of a pine forest. The forests consist mainly of pine and eucalyptus, with a few chest­nuts and cork-oaks; vineyards and olive-groves clothe the hillsides, and the valleys are green with maize and orchards. Squat little white wind­mills crown the hill-tops and enormous water­wheels, introduced perhaps by the Moors, scoop up water from the rivers for irrigation. The roads are excellent, and the comfortable Ur­geirica Hotel at Canas de Senhorim, halfway between Celorico and Bussaco, makes a con­venient centre for exploring the topography of Masséna’s approach march. As I was able to discover, the British traveller is always assured of a warm welcome in this friendly country, with which our own has been allied for so many centuries.

“Precious time was lost while he secured lodging for Madame X, and he and his staff did not leave for the outposts till two in the afternoon.’ Masséna, who was an in­different horseman, did not reach Moura until late that afternoon, and then issued orders for Reynier to attack the position frontally at 7 a.m. the following morning; as soon as Reynier’s Corps should reach the crest, Ney’s Corps was to attack the Convent sector astride the main road. Incredible as it may seem, Masséna then returned to Mortagua to spend the night there. In contrast, Wellington remained on the battle­field, in one of the monk’s cells of the Bussaco Convent; in the garden I was shown the olive tree to which his horse was tethered.

At early dawn on the 27th, Reynier launched his attack on a two-division front, with fifteen battalions in column, up the steep slope south­west of the village of S. Antonio, where a rough track led across a col in the ridge. This sector was held by Picton’s 3rd Division, a weak division numbering under 5000 men. The French attack reached the crest, but was driven back by an immediate counter-attack by the 88th Regiment (The Connaught Rangers). Reynier, thinking that this was the extreme British right flank, continued to push his columns up the stiff slope, and Foy’s brigade succeeded in gaining the crest. The previous day, however, Leith’s 5th Division. and Hill’s 2nd Division had crossed the Mon­dego and were now holding the remainder of the ridge to its extreme right at Penacova. Wellington had ordered Leith, if not himself attacked, to close in and help the troops on his left. This Leith now did with great effect; his flank attack, together with Picton’s counter-attacks, drove the exhausted and shattered French columns down the hill.

As soon as Ney saw that Reynier’s troops had reached the crest of the Serra, he sent forward Loison’s and Marchand’s divisions on either side of the Moura-Coimbra road, directed on the Bussaco Convent. Here Craufurd was waiting for them with the Light Division. Although number­ing less than 4000 men, they held an ideal position, covered by the cross-fire of twenty British and Portuguese guns which enfiladed every turn of the road. Craufurd let Ney’s massed columns top the rise, then charged them with the bayonet and hurled them down the slope. The windmill from which Craufurd observed the French advance commands the whole valley below, and as I stood next to it, on the ‘Penedo de Craufurd’, it was easy to visualize the dis­comfiture of the French columns as they arrived exhausted on the crest. Further south along the ridge I found the rocky pinnacle from which Wellington personally controlled Leith’s and Picton’s deadly counter-attacks.