four o'clock in the morning
Soult ordered Major Doulong , an officer celebrated for his courage , to take a hundred grenadiers and secure the passage . A violent storm was now raging , and their footsteps being deadened by the roar of the wind , the French crept up , killed the Portuguese sentry on their side of the bridge before he could give the alarm , and then crawled across the narrow line of masonry . Then they rushed up the opposite heights , shouting and firing , and the peasantry , believing that the whole French army were upon them , fled at once . The bridge was hastily repaired , and at four o'clock in the morning the whole of the French army had crossed . Their retreat was opposed at a bridge of a single arch over a torrent , by a party of Portuguese peasantry , but after two repulses the French , led by Major Doulong , carried it . They were just in time , for in the afternoon the British came upon a strong rear-guard left at Salamende . Some light troops at once turned their flank , while Sherwood attacked them in front , and they fled in confusion to the Ponte Nova .