As soon as this movement was
seen from the hill where Terence's regiments had been for three days
resting, preparations were made for marching, and with haversacks well
filled with bread and meat, the troops started in good spirits. Terence
procured the services of a peasant well acquainted with the mountains, and
was led by paths used by shepherds across the hills, and after a twelve
hours' toilsome journey came down into the defiles that the French were
following. There he learned from peasants, that, with the exception of a
small scouting party two days before, there were no signs of any hostile
force.
The men were at once set to work to destroy a bridge across a torrent at
the mouth of a defile. It was built of stone, but was old and in bad
repair, and the men had little difficulty in prising the stones of the
side walls from their places, and throwing them down into the stream.
Another party made a hole over the key of an arch. A barrel of powder was
placed here, and a train having been laid, was covered up by a pile of
rocks. A third party formed a barricade six feet high, across the end of
the bridge, and also two breastworks, each fifty yards away on either
side, so as to flank the approaches to the other end and the bridge. The
troops were extended along the hillsides, one battalion on each side of
the defile, under the shelter of the rocks and brush.
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