Romana's troops were but a motley gathering. The force that he had brought
with him from Holland had been landed at Santander, marched to Bilbao, and
joined Blake's army, and had shared in the crushing defeat suffered by
that general at Espinosa, where most of them were taken prisoners. They
were again incorporated in the French army, and afterwards took part in
the Russian campaign, and in the retreat no less than four thousand of
them were taken prisoners by the Russians and handed over by them to
British transports sent to Cronstadt to fetch them. Romana himself had
escaped from the battle-field, and afterward raised a fresh force. This
had dwindled away from 15,000 to 5,000 when he joined Moore on his
advance, and now amounted to barely 2,000, of whom the greater portion had
thrown away their arms in their flight.

On the following day Romana, with a small body of cavalry, left Toabado,
crossed the Minho, descended into the valley of the Tamega, and took
refuge close to the Portuguese frontier line. Here he was, for a time,
safe from the pursuit of the French, the insignificance of his force being
his best protection. Soult lost no time. As soon as the English army had
left, Corunna opened its gates to him, as did Ferrol, although neither of
these towns could have been taken without a siege, and Soult must have
been delayed until a battering-train was brought from Madrid.

The magazines of British powder and stores that had been lying for months
in Ferrol were invaluable to him.

The soldiers were set to work to make fresh cartridges, and then, after
six days' halt to give rest to his weary and footsore men, he began to
prepare to carry out Napoleon's orders to invade Portugal. Ney, with
20,000 men, was to maintain Galicia, and, reinforced by a fresh division,