alley of the
Mondego, and fixed his head-quarters at Gouvea. The French army
commenced its march down this valley on the 15th of September, taking
its route along the right bank of the river, in the direction of
Coimbra, through Viseu. This was the very worst road Massena could have
taken; and Wellington, perceiving his error, crossed the river and took
up a strong position in front of Coimbra. On the 24th, his whole army,
including the Portuguese, and the corps of Generals Hill and Leith,
which he had called up for the purpose of assisting in the
coming struggle, were collected upon the Serra de Busaco, a lofty
mountain-ridge extending from the Mondego to the northward. From these
heights, on the 26th, the French army was seen advancing. One of the
spectators of the imposing sight says:--"Rising grounds were covered
with troops, cannon, or equipages: the widely extended country seemed
to contain a host moving forward, or gradually condensing into numerous
masses, checked in their progress by the grand natural barrier on which
we were placed, at the base of which it became necessary to pause.
In imposing appearances, as to numerical strength, I have never seen
anything comparable to that of the enemy's army from Busaco: it was not
alone an army encamped before us, but a multitude--cavalry, infantry,
artillery, cars of the country, horses, tribes of mules with their
attendants, suttlers, followers of every description, formed the moving
scene upon which Lord Wellington and his army looked down." By the
evening of the 26th this army encamped in the plains below Busaco; and
on the next morning, as the mist and the gray clouds rolled away, they
made two desperate simultaneous attacks on the English, the one on the
right and the other on the left of Wellington's position. These attacks
were vain: the enemy was repulsed, leaving 2000 killed upon the field of
battle, and having from 3000 to 4000 wounded, and several hundreds taken
prisoners. Both the British and the Portuguese alike fought valorously;
the latter, according to Wellington's own statement, proving themselves
on this their first trial to be worthy of contending in the same ranks
with the former. Thus checked in his career, on the 28th, the day after
the battle, Massena moved a large body of infantry and cavalry from the
left of his centre to the rear, and his cavalry was seen marching
over the mountains by another road to Oporto Colonel Trant with his
Portuguese di