OPORTO, 22nd May - Barca d’Avintas

Man after man in threes, and horse after horse, were beginning to move down the slope and there amongst them, the 15th, was Willoughby on his horse of the strangest pattern. He glanced towards the horsemen of the King German's Legion.

For a moment his gaze stopped on an officer, Von Lossow. He looked away quickly and pressed at the horse's sides, Herrero moving forward in time with the others and quickened his pace down the slope.

And then the recall was sounded which had many a rider look startled. There wasn't a battle, and they weren't even close to engaging. They glanced back and their horses neighed perhaps as startled by the sound. The first line began a turn, and after them the second. "What on.." Kenley voiced what many were thinking. They were being recalled just after an order to go!

v Lossow was silently fuming. The uppish staff dandy was waving a note at him, presumably Murray's orders, and he briefly entertained thoughts of ripping the paper out of his lily-white hand and shoving it down the arrogant dolt's gullet.

Instead he forced a "Taking position behind the infantry forthwith." through clenched teeth. What was Murray thinking? They could rout the French right here! They were demoralised and in full retreat!

"We ought ter be goin' down there." A mutter silenced quickly at an approach of a higher ranked man. The 15th were riding their horses back just at the cavalry of the Germans. They exchanged looks with them, but none spoke to interchange the reason of their 'retreat'. There was an officer who didn't know what was right but there wasn't a man in those lines that would dare say it out loud. Herrero reared.

Willoughby cursed and tried to have the horse advance. It reared again his flank nearly bumping into the horse's nose, behind him. He was stopped. Then his sides were kicked again and the animal atleast advanced, leaving the young rider annoyed but back in a proper line. The beast held his head high and proud, careless of the fact of what it has just done or perhaps wittily believing that it was a finest joke.

v Lossow exchanged a look with the jager captain as he followed his men. There were no words that wouldn't get them courtmartialed.

Resentfully the cavalry filed down the hill, very much on the wrong side of it, in their opinion, and took their place behind the KGL infantry.

They would make a flank movement now, parallel to the Douro, and out of sight of the retreating French. Plodding along slowly, oh so slowly behind the infantry.

The 15th followed along with the other cavalry and looked anything but happy. Horses seemed to share their mood, though for what was worth, they conducted themselves professionally enough.

Slow progress behind the infantry wasn't something any of the men imagined or fancied. A slow and steady step when they could've cantered, galloped or perhaps only trotted, but it would still have been faster!

Pierce said nothing during all this, except to relay Murray's orders to the 15th. His face, - not particularly most of the time, - was set in such a scowl that his lips went white. Not even Sergeant Parker, who was allowed much more leeway than anyone else, dared say a word to the Captain, fearing that the man might just explode and get the entire troop court martialled.

v Lossow was swearing. He was doing it quietly enough that only the nearest troopers could hear him, and those were were sitting their horses stiffly, eyes front, not daring to comment.

The reason for v Lossow's vile ejaculations was that they had been ordered to halt.

The two battalions of the Grerman Legion, with their attendant squadrons
of cavalry, were now halted on an open field between the Douro and the hills to their right, watching the whole French army pouring past them on the line of a road, with redcoats were fighting the French rear in the suburbs and fields near the city.

While General Murray was making a momentary reconnoitre, taking himself and his staff onto one of the hills, to get an even better view of the retreating French.

v Lossow felt entirely justified in taking His name in vain.

With Firebird going at her fastest gallop, George spotted the combined cavalry soon enough, but senior officers were absent. He let Firebird thunder to an abrupt halt, that raised dust into the air, near the front of the cavalry column where the KGL officer was riding.
'Sir, are you in command of these troops?' He asked meaning both the KGL and the 15th.

[OOC I have Trooper Willoughby's permission to mod his character, in this thread, while his player is away. I will do my best to do him justice.]

All cavalrymen watched the rider approach with interest, and in some cases acute envy. Horses like thas one, covering the uneven ground with easy grace, were rare.

Trooper Willoughby patted his mount's neck as he fidgeted and wanted to break out of his file. While he admired the staff officer's horse, he was perfecly happy with his own, and would not have traded him for a kingdom.

A rider was approaching fast from the direction of the town, a red blur on a black horse. v Lossow ceased swearing and wondered what would send another staff officer their way. He didn't dare to hope for new orders...

"I am. Rittmeister v Lossow, at your service."

'I have orders for you to proceed forward on the double and provide our infantry in front with support, sir.' Firebird threw up her head, dancing in place a little, as if the distance they covered was just a warm-up exercise.

[OOC: I hope that order makes sense. ^_^;;]

"This is the best news I had all day! You are a godsend, sir!"

v Lossow regarded the brocken ground in front of them, littered with bits of stone walls, larger boulders and fallen trees. He turned in the saddle and gestured.

"Captain Pierce! Orders! We are to support the infantry in front!" Turning slightly he now adressed both other men.

"We'll cross to the road as fast as we can, but it's the devil's ground. Try not to break too many legs. Once we are on the road we'll form up and charge the French rear. Any questions?"

[OOC v Lossow will kiss your feet for anything involving the words 'forward' and 'front']

George looked a bit startled by such enthusiasm, but quickly recovered.

Pierce who came as close to grinning as he ever did, as evidenced by the upward twitch of his lips: 'No, Rittmeister, no questions.' With that he turned his horse and bellowed orders, ignoring the presence of his suriving liuetenant and cornets.

'Good luck, sir. Wish I was coming with you.' Said Hunter to von Lossow and kicked Firebird's flanks: he had to rejoin the Staff.

v Lossow thought there was a definitly wistful tone to what the staff Captain was saying. As the horse turned around Lossow got a good look at the other's sword... a Schaschka. His eybrows rose.

"Well Sir, if you can use the weapon you carry, I'd be honoured to ride at your side."

George thought for a moment and decided that having a chance to participate in a cavalry action once again, - even though not the kind of cavalry he was used to, - was worth risking Wellesley's wrath. He grinned at von Lossow.
'Thank you for your kind invitation, sir. I believe I will take you up on it.'

(and the filling begins! :p)

The arrival of another Captain seemed to change their orders again. It felt like going back and forth and back and forth, a dog following it's master who was a child or perhaps a pair of them. Of course they could never make up their minds and so it was as confusing as ever to decide where to set their paw or in this instance, hoof.

The arrival he recognised. Captain Hunter and an ADC. He turned as if ready to leave and then something - of course none from where Willoughby stood with his horse could hear it - was said, and the man seemed to change his mind. He must've thought of departing, considering the direction he had been turned.

"..Might be going now, Herrero." The rider murmured to his beast. "...Might." For it was never a certain if the earlier experience was anything to judge by.

"Hah! Welcome to the cavalry then! Good hunting!" v Lossow shouted and turned his horse to give his own orders.

As the cavalry began to organize itself for a push forward, George loosened his neckerchief and undid the two top buttons of his jacket: he was quite unused to participating in cavalry action in full uniform of a British officer and felt like his movements would be stifled by the clothing, especially if they were going to involve anything tricky like not actually sitting in the saddle during the fight.

Having gotten his squadraon organised they set of to cross to the road as fast as possible. The troopers could not keep in formation across the broken ground and quickly dissolved into a loose column, breaking up to swerve around obstacles and reforming again.

v Lossow didn't like the troopers loose formation at all, but there was no way to negotiate the ground otherwise. He trusted his own men to form easily once they reached the road, and hoped the british horsemen were as well trained.

The terrain was anything but enjoyable. Allowing horses to pick some of the paths enabled the animals to be smarter on finding the path, still the two pair of eyes belonging to their riders, helped and kept a general watch to try and avoid what the animal did not see. The reins were held a bit looser by the young Hussar, allowing the spotted horse room, if he slipped and his head would bob forward. There was no need to be yanked over or for the horse not to be able to catch itself more easily.

Willoughby was silent and concentrated on the task, nudging his horse's sides every so often and giving the tug of one or the other rein's side any time he wished to indicate his direction. Another horse near slipped to his left. The formation was not what it ought to have been. But then, it seemed the terrain wrought permission for that from the officers.

The 15th fell into a even looser column than the KGL in front: most of the men were new recruits that were quite unused to having to negotiate such terrain. And although Pierce ordered the Sergeants and Corporals to try and keep some sort of formation, he knew it was more important to keep the horsed unharmed before the actual engagement happened. He would just need to judge the right moment when to force the men back into the proper formation for the attack.

Firebird, never content with following and quite used to wandering in strange places just as her owner, fell in with von Lossow's mount. Even though enjoying the anticipation of a cavalry charge, George did not forget to tighten his sash, so that his pistols wouldn't fall out: not that he expected to use them. In fact he'd have rather replaced the pistols with his knives, at least his aim with those was much better.

Relieved that the staff officer seemed to know what he was doing, v Lossow turned his attention back to the road. It was comming up fast now, and the redcoats had noticed them and were cheering and waving as they cleared the road for the cavalry.

"Column of Threes! Column of Threes!" v Lossow raised his voice above the din, and the bugler took up the call.

The KGL squadron managed to form up in threes on reaching the road, and turned right to pursue the French.

The 15th followed the KGL's example, except for one trooper, whose horse lost her footing and barely managed to stay upright, although she went lame.

George wished he could take his jacket off completely, but thought better of it. His eyes gleamed with anticipation of the fight and he barely restrained himself from reaching for his sabre and letting Firebird break into a hard gallop.

The talkative brat, the broadshouldered gambler and Willoughby came to ride side by side in one of the threes, formed by the 15th. Williamson grinned and muttered a simple:" I bet the French will.."

Before the young mouth Kenley interrupted him with a :".. run at the first sight of us? Ain't a fair bet that!"

Willoughby glanced at the two, shook his head and gave Herrero a nudge at his sides, so that they rode in time with the rest.

There had been a running battle between the rearguard of the French, and the men of the 62nd. The redcoats were supported by Riflemen - a section of Captain Vickery's men and the 95th, who could harass the fleeing Frenchmen from a distance. But the bulk of the shooting was left to the line, exchanging musket shots with their French counterparts, unable to do anything to stop the flight.

Waldegrave heard the sound of a bugle first, and then the cavalry appeared, behind them, led by the King's Germans, forming columns even as they emerged onto the road from the broken hillside, and turning right they passed almost immediately into a full gallop. Waldegrave's face broke into a grin, powder blackened, and the whole section moved to the side of the road. For once, the infantry cheered the cavalry wholehearted, and with relief, as they took over the pursuit, passing in a cloud of dust and the smell of horses.