The general's hopes were, as usual, frustrated by the misconduct of those in whom be trusted, and the rapidity of Suchet's movements. At Dec. 26. day-break the two bridges were completed, and three divisions of infantry, and the whole of the horse, passed, and drove back the Spanish cavalry; and the French immediately getting possession of the sources, turned the waters of the canals into the river, and thus deprived Valencia of one means of defence on which she had relied. Another division crossed the river between Quarte and Mislata to occupy the Spaniards in front. Here Zayas again displayed that courage, and that military skill, which made him more, perhaps, than any other man at this time the hope of the Spanish armies; but the troops on the left, where Mahy commanded, gave way, as they had done in the former action; they abandoned the entrenchments at S Onofre,-the vital points of the line, without even waiting for an attack, and retired from Manisses almost upon the first fire. Mahy, with about 5000 men, reached Alcira, abandoning all the artillery, the rest of the division was unaccounted for;

the loss in killed could have been little or none, and the French made no boast of the numbers which they had taken,they who were missing then must mostly have dispersed in their flight, the unavoidable consequence when men have lost all confidence in their leaders. The investment of Valencia was completed before the close of the day, and Suchet again turning against the Spaniards those advantages of which they had so little availed themselves, secured himself every where by the canals and fosses with which the ground was intersected against any sorties, Still the lines remained which the Valencians had for three years been employed in constructing; but after the Jabour, and all the cost which had been

expended upon them, when the hour came they were found, or thought to be, untenable. Blake with the troops who were without the city might still have effected a retreat; but he wished to save as much of the army as possi ble, and to prepare the people for a catastrophe which they had never look. ed on to, and to which he perceived they would not be induced to submit, till they felt the extremest necessity. Such indeed were their dispositions, that men like Santiago Sass, and D Pedro Maria Ric, and such women as the Countess Burita, would have protected them better than Blake with his army and all their lines and defences.

A council of war was held, and it was agreed unanimously that the army should endeavour to effect its escape on the night of the 28th. They went through the gate of S Jose; but before they had gone far, the advanced posts discovered them; about 300 men made their way to the mountains under favour of the darkness, about as many more were killed or drowned in the canals, and the rest withdrew within their entrenchments, having no con, fidence in the works, nor in the fortune of their general; and their general having none in them, nor in himself, nor any hope from without or from within. An event more discouraging than the surrender of Murviedro occurred the day after this attempt, for the town of St Phillippe, half way on the road to Alicante, was given up without opposition to Suchet's advanced guard. This place had distinguished itself in the War of the Succession for its inflexible fidelity to the Austrian party. The inhabitants defended themselves, as Marshal Berwick relates, with unheard-of firmness, maintaining street by street and house by house, for eight days after his troops were within the walls; in revenge for which he razed the town, all the surviving inhabitants were removed to

Castile, and forbidden on pain of death ever to return; and Philip, when a new town was erected on the ruins, abolish ed its old name of Xativa, and imposed upon it that of St Phillippe. This name even the new race of inhabitants felt as a reproach; and but a few months before this cowardly surrender, the cortes at their petition had passed an edict restoring its old appellation. It was just restored in time to be disgraced. The French found a great quantity of provisions and a million of cartridges, hoarded there for this shameful end!

While the enemy suceeded thus, almost without opposition, in every thing they attempted, Blake resolved to make a second trial at escape; but the people compelled him to give up the project, and remain in patient expectation of a fate which he no longer made an effort to avert. This he calls an inconsiderate popular movement; but the people who saw their works as yet untouched, above 16,000 regular troops to defend them, including the best of ficers and artillerymen in the service, with artillery and military stores in abundance, and the population of the city ready and eager to bear their part in the defence, might have encouraged a general to hope, and ought to have inspired him with a more heroic despair. Suchet opened his trenches on the first night of the new year; on the fourth they were advanced within fifty toises of the ditch. Blake then called another council, the result of which was, that the lines were abandoned, and the troops retired into the city, taking with them their field artillery, but leaving eighty pieces behind.

The French general says, that the astonishing desertion from the Spanish army induced Blake to abandon these vast and important works. Blake himself assigns no such cause, but the desertion must undoubtedly have been very great,a commander who feels

no hope can excite none. The suburb of Quarte was immediately seized by the enemy, and Suchet bombarded the city during the whole of the fifth. The next morning he sent in a summons, "thinking," he says, " that an army which had just abandoned works of such strength, mounted with 81 pieces of cannon, would call loudly for capitulation, now that they saw the effects of a bombardment upon a city which at that time contained no fewer than 200,000 souls." The summons was in these words:-" General, the laws of war assign a period to the sufferings of the people; this period has arrived. The imperial army is now within ten toises of the body of your fortress; in some hours several breaches may be effected; and then a general assault must precipitate the French columns into Valencia. If you wait this terrible moment, it will no longer be in my power to controul the fury of the soldiers, and you alone will have to answer to God and man for the evils which will overwhelm Valencia. The desire to spare the total ruin of a great city, determines me to offer you an ho nourable capitulation: I engage to preserve to the officers their equipa ges, and to respect the property of the inhabitants. It is unnecessary for me to add, that the religion we profess shall be revered. I expect your reply in two hours, and salute you with very high consideration."

Blake replied, "Yesterday, perhaps before noon, I might have consented to change the position of the army, and evacuate the city, to save its inha bitants from the horrors of a bombard ment; but the first twenty-four hours which your excellency has employed in setting it on fire, have taught me how much I may depend upon the constancy of the people, and their resignation to every sacrifice which may be necessary, in order that the army may maintain the honour of the Spa

nish name. Your excellency may consequently continue your operations; and as to the responsibility before God and man, for all the misfortunes which the defence of the place occasions, and all those which war brings with it, it cannot attach to me." This reply led Suchet to apprehend he should have to encounter a Zaragozan resistance. "The general," said he in his dispatches, "is no longer the master; he is obliged to obey the decisions of a fanatical junta, composed of seven persons, five of whom are Franciscan monks, and the other two butchers of Valencia; the same who, about three years ago, ordered the massacre of 400 French families that were driven out of the country. I therefore continue my operations with vigour against the place, which at this present moment counts a population of 200,000 souls. Five of the principal chiefs of the insurgents are now within its walls, with all their property, and whatever Spain possesses of fanatics or madmen. The engineers will open their works under the walls. The artillery raises formidable batteries; and notwithstanding the ruins, it will in a few days be able to make a breach in the last enclosure. The army is waiting with impatience for the attack, and if we should have to make a war of houses as at Zaragoza, it will be but of short continuance, by the ability and rapidity of our mi

to the honour of Valencia. But Blake had nothing of the heroic character which had been displayed so eminently in Zaragoza and Gerona. He was a soldier, skilful enough in his profession, to have held a respectable, perhaps a high rank, if he had commanded well-disciplined troops; and now at the last he performed all that the code of military duty requires. Three days and nights Suchet bombarded the city, which was so utterly unprovided for such an attack, that the people had not even cellars in which totake shelter: the enemy continued their approaches, till they had effected a lodgment in the last houses of the suburbs, and placed mines under two of the principal gates. Blake then offered to give up the city, on condition that he might march out with the army. Such terms were of course rejected; a council of war was therefore held, and terms of capitulation proposed, to which Suchet agreed the more readi. ly, because, according to the system of Buonaparte, he meant to be bound by them no farther than suited his interest, or his inclination. The troops were to be made prisoners of war, the inhabitants and their property protected, and no inquiry made into the conduct of those who had taken an active part in the war. In one point the Spanish general exceeded his powers; forgetting that he was no longer in a situation, to act as one of the regents, and that even his free and voluntary act would have required the consent and approbation of the other members of the executive, he agreed that the French prisoners in Majorca, Alicant, and Carthagena, should be exchanged.

This capitulation delivered into the hands of the enemy 16,131 effective troops of the line, besides about 2000 in the hospitals, 1800 cavalry and artillery horses, 22 generals, Zayas and Lardizabal among them, 893 officers,

and 374 pieces of cannon. The most irreparable loss was that of 50 good artillery officers, formed in the school of Segovia, nearly 400 sappers and miners, and 1400 old artillerymen. The battle of Ocana drew after it more disastrous consequences, but the loss in itself had been far less severe. Thus terminated General Blake's unfortunate career; his failure at Niebla was the only one of all his misfortunes which was disreputable, but all experience was lost upon him: often and severely as he had felt the want of discipline in his troops, his obstinacy was not to be overcome, and he never would consent that the Spanish army should be regenerated by the English, though he had seen that a similar measure had delivered Portugal, and must have known that it would as certainly deliver Spain. This measure he would always have opposed. But though the loss of a general, thus incorrigible in error, and whose continual ill fortune was such as almost to deprive the army under him of all hope, could not be regretted for the sake of Spain, Blake himself, amid all his errors and misfortunes, maintained the character of a brave

man, and it was not possible to read his last dispatch without some degree of respect as well as compassion. "I hope," said he, "your highness will be pleased to ratify the exchange which has been agreed upon, and to transmit orders in consequence to Majorca. As to what concerns myself, the exchange of officers of my rank is so distant, that I consider the lot of my whole life as determined; and therefore in the moment of my expatriation, which is equivalent to death, I earnestly entreat your highness, that if my services have been acceptable to my country, and I have never yet done any thing to forfeit the claim, it will be pleased to take under its protection my numerous family."

Suchet observed the capitulation like a Frenchman of the new system. He had promised that no man should be molested for the part which he had taken; the wickedness which made such an article necessary rendered it useless. No sooner was he master of the city, than he sent 1500 of the monks prisoners into France, and excuted in the public square the most distinguished of the patriots.

WHEN Marmont and Soult, finding it impossible to take Lord Wellington at advantage, separated on the Guadiana, their plan was, that the former general should keep the English in check, while Dorsenne, who had succeeded Bessieres in the north, by a rapid movement should enter Galicia, disperse the Galician army, fortify Lugo, seize Coruna by a coup de main, and in this manner once more obtain military possession of the province.

D. Xavier Abadia had just taken the command of the army of Galicia; it was in the most wretched state of equipment, and without magazines of any kind; but the men had confidence in their general, and abundant proofs had been given in the course of the war, that when Spanish soldiers have this feeling to invigorate them, they will support privations under which the troops of almost any other nation would sink. His advanced guard was at S Martin de los Torres, and occupied the bridge of Cebrones, one division was at Baneza, another at the bridge of Orbigo, and the reserve at Astorga. Dorsenne collected his troops in a line of operation on the Ezla, the right leaning upon Leon, and the left at Castro Gonzalo. Early in the morning of the 25th of August, the enemy crost the Ezla, one division marching upon the bridge of Orbigo, two upon Baneza, and the reserve, under Dorsenne himself, upon Cebrones. The

Spanish general was too well convinced of the state of his army, and the strength of the country behind him, to risk a battle, and had formed his plans in case of such an attack. The division at Baneza manoeuvred well, withstood a charge of lancers, and, keeping the French at bay, fell back in good order to Castro Contrigo, from whence its retreat was unmolested to Puebla de Sanabria, the place appointed.

The other divisions of the Spanish army fell back equally in order from four in the evening, when the enemy first presented themselves, till night had closed, when they were all collect ed in Castrillo. The next day the French entered upon the mountains behind Astorga in pursuit. The points of Manzanal and Molina Seca were well defended, and though the Spaniards re tired at both points before superiornumbers, they brought off with them the eagle of the sixth regiment of infantry, which Abadia, in the name of the ar my, dedicated to Santiago, and deposi ted in the chapel of that saint, in his ca thedral at Compostella. The Spanish general, seeing the force of the enemy, and divining their purpose, fell back with all his artillery and ammunition to Ponferrada, covering, with the little cavalry which he had, a considerable body of men who were incapable of service, being crippled for want of shoes, and in the most dismal state of nakedness and want. The ferry in Val