Treachery, too, stepped in to shorten the time still further.

Almeida, garrisoned by Portuguese and commanded by Colonel Cox and a British staff, should have held a month.

But no sooner had the French appeared before it, on the 26th August, than a powder magazine traitorously fired exploded and breached the wall, rendering the place untenable.
To Wellington this was perhaps the most vexatious of all things in that vexatious time.

He had hoped to detain Massena before Almeida until the rains should have set in, when the French would have found themselves struggling through a sodden, water-logged country, through bridgeless floods and a land bereft of all that could sustain the troops.

Still, what could be done Wellington did, and did it nobly.