Had an orderly retreat been made before, almost all their belongings might have been saved.

Now but little could be taken, even by the most fortunate.

The children, the sick, the aged had to be carried in carts and, in their haste and terror, they left behind many things that might well have been saved.
The peasantry in the villages suffered less than the townspeople, as their horses and carts afforded means of transport: but even here the scenes were most painful.

In the towns, however, they were vastly more so.

The means for carriage for such a large number of people being wanting, the greater number of the inhabitants were forced to make their way on foot, along roads so crowded with vehicles of every kind that the British divisions were frequently brought to a standstill, for hours, where the nature of the country prevented their quitting the road and making their way across the fields.
On the 29th, the greater portion of the British troops passed the Mondego.