speed.

The French advanced and endeavoured to take the bridge. General Paget,
however, held the post with two regiments of cavalry, and then fell back
to Lugo, where the whole army was now assembled. The next day Sir John
Moore issued an order strongly condemning the conduct of the troops, and
stating that he intended to give battle to the enemy. The news effected an
instant transformation. The stragglers who had left their regiments and
entered the town by twos and threes at once rejoined their corps. Fifteen
hundred men had been lost during the retreat, of whom the number killed
formed but a small proportion. But the army still amounted to its former
strength, as it was here joined by two fresh battalions, who had been left
at Lugo by General Baird on his march from the coast. The force therefore
numbered 19,000 men; for it had been weakened by some 4,000 of the light
troops having, early in the retreat, been directed towards other ports, in
order to lessen as far as possible the strain on the commissariat.

The position was a strong one, and when Soult at mid-day came up at the
head of 12,000 men he saw at once that until his whole force arrived he
could not venture to attack it. Like the British, his troops had suffered
severely from the long marches, and many had dropped behind altogether.
Uncertain whether he had the whole of the British before him, he sent a
battery of artillery and some cavalry forward; when the former opened
fire, they were immediately silenced by a reply from fifteen pieces. Then
he made an attack upon the right, but was sharply repulsed with a loss of
from three to four hundred men; and, convinced now that Moore was ready to
give battle with his whole force, he drew off.

The next day both armies remained in their positions. Soult had been
joined by Laborde's division, and had 17,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry, and