Frequent communication was to be kept up between them, so that either column might speedily be reinforced, if necessary.
In the course of a week, the whole country was in a state of alarm.
Bridges were broken down, roads blocked by deep cuttings across them, convoys attacked, small French posts at Tordesillas, Fuentelapena, and Valparaiso captured--the French soldiers being disarmed, and then taken under an escort to within ten miles of Salamanca.

Toro was entered suddenly, and a garrison of three hundred men taken by surprise, and forced to lay down their arms.
The powder, bullocks, and waggons with their stores were sent, by circuitous routes, to the bridge across the Douro at Miranda, and then up to their stronghold.
So vigilant a watch was kept on the roads that no single courier was able to make his way from Valladolid to Salamanca or Zamora and, beyond the fact that the whole country seemed swarming with enemies, the French commanders were in absolute ignorance of the strength of the force that had so suddenly invaded Leon.
One day a messenger rode in from Macwitty to Fuentelapena, where Terence had his headquarters; saying that a body of 4000 French infantry, with 1000 cavalry, were on the march from Valladolid towards Zamora.

Strong positions had already been selected for the defence, and a bridge broken down at a point where the road crossed a tributary of the Douro.
Terence at once sent Ryan with 200 men to reinforce Macwitty, and despatched several mounted messengers to find Bull, and to tell him to join him on the road, four miles to the east of the point where Macwitty was defending the passage of the river.

He himself marched directly on that point, crossing the river at Tordesillas.

He arrived there early in the morning, and found that the French column had passed, late the evening before.
At this point the road ran between two hills, several times crossing a stream that wound along the valley.