Note 632 — SECTION XVI: CHAPTER V

Several eye-witnesses declare that Lapisse’s division escaped notice owing to a curious chance. Before abandoning the further bank of the Alberche, Mackenzie’s troops had set fire to the huts which Victor’s corps had constructed on the Cazalegas heights, during their long stay in that position. The smoke from the burning was driven along the slopes and the river bottom by the wind, and screened one of the fords from the British observers in the woods; over this ford came Lapisse’s unsuspected advance.