in his position, watching their move. ments, and perfectly certain that they could not long subsist the force which they had brought together. His line extended from Arronches to Jurumenha, the advanced guard being at Campo Mayor the French were upon the Guadiana from Merida to Badajoz.

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Before the allies retreated across the Guadiana, a plan was arranged between General Blake and Lord Wellington, that the former should make a movement into the county of Niebla, distract the enemy's attention by threat ening their rear, and take advantage of whatever favourable opportunity this concentration of the French forces might give him. Accordingly the Spaniards set out on the 18th from Jurumenha, and on the 22d reached Mertola, the distance is about 110 miles, but it was a most exhausting march in the midst of summer, through a dry country, for troops nearly half of whom were barefoot, and whose commissariat was in the most deplorable state. The provisions were never sufficient for full rations to be given; it is said that the Spaniards supported fatigue and hunger with their characteristic patience; but men will not continue to undergo such privations without a strong hope that some adequate success will recompense them, and Blake had unhappily acquired the character of being an unfortunate leader.

From Mertola, he embarked his artillery for Ayamonte. The horse swam the Guadiana, the men crost it by a temporary bridge of boats, and after resting two days to refresh the troops, he marched against NieJune 30. bla. Niebla is an old town, which was fallen to such decay, that its population at this time did not exceed an hundred persons; its walls, however, were less dilapidated than its houses, and the French had repaired its castle so as to render

it a post of respectable strength, from whence they domineered over the surrounding country. Blake probably found it stronger than he expected; he attempted an escalade in the night with ladders, which were not only too short, but too few, for the success of the enterprize; consequently the attempt failed, though the garrison did not consist of more than 300 men. He remained three days before the place, which the French governor of gave Seville time to take the field against him, and make some prisoners before his army could reach the mouth of the Guadiana, and re-embark for Cadiz. Great numbers of his men deserted during this ill-conducted expedition. It is certain that Blake possessed considerable talents, but the good which those talents might have produced, when he was called to the regency, was in great measure frustrated by his jealousy of the English. At Albuhera he seemed to have overcome this unworthy feeling, but it returned upon him, and Lord Wellington remarked in his public dispatches, that neither General Castanos nor himself had received any intelligence from himh since he began his march from Jurumenha.

This movement, therefore, which might have so considerably annoyed the enemy, and of which such expectations had been raised, that it was at one time reported and believed that Blake had actually entered Seville, ended only in the diminution of the army, and of the general's reputation. Lord Wellington, however, had taken his measures too wisely to suffer any other evil than that of disappointed hope from this failure. He knew that the enemy could not possibly long continue to subsist their forces when thus concentrated, and, as he expected, they broke up from the Guadiana about the middle of July, having fortified the old castles of Medellin and Truxillo to strengthen their hold upon Extrema

dura. Soult returned to Seville, and Marmont, re-crossing the Tagus at Almaraz, went again to his command in the North. Lord Wellington then moved his whole army to the left, and

cantoned them in Lower Beira, where he remained, waiting till time and op. portunity should offer for striking a blow.

ALBUHERA was not the only field up on which brave blood was sacrificed in unprofitable though glorious atchievements. When Soult marched against Badajoz, hoping to co-operate with Massena in the conquest of Portugal, he made such large drafts from the army before Cadiz, for the purpose of encreasing his own, that it was thought possible, by a well-concerted attack, to raise the blockade. The plan was, that an expedition should sail from Cadiz, and force a landing between Cape Trafalgar and Cape de Plata, or at Tarifa, or at Algeciras. The Spanish forces at St Roques were then to join, and a combined attack to be made upon the rear of the enemy's line; while, in the mean time, an attempt should be made from the Isle of Leon to open a communication with them. D. Manuel de Lapena was appointed to the command. He had commanded the wreck of the Central Army during the latter part of its memorable retreat, under circumstances in which no military skill could be displayed, but in which his patriotism and moderation had been fully proved. Lieutenant-General Graham, who commanded the British troops at Cadiz, consented to act under him. This officer was now in his sixty-first year. The former part of his life he had past in all the enjoyments of domestic comfort, amusing himself with rural sports,

with improving his estates, and with literature: after eighteen years of happiness his wife died on the way to the south of France, and Mr Graham, seeking for relief in change of place and in active occupations, joined Lord Hood as a volunteer when Toulon was taken possession of in 1793. Here he distinguished himself greatly by his exertions and intrepidity, and on his return to England obtained permission to raise a regiment, but not without great difficulty and express discouragement from the commander-in-chief. He was at Mantua with Wurmser in 1796, and escaped captivity by cutting his way through the besiegers in a night sortie: and he bore a distinguished part at Malta when Sir Alexander Ball, under circumstances the most painful, and with means the most inadequate, by his wisdom and perseverance recovered that island from the enemy. Nevertheless the time of life at which he had entered the army, and the manner, operated as a bar to his promotion; and he would probably never have risen in rank if General Moore had not experienced great assistance from him in his retreat, and at the battle of Coruna, and sent home so strong a recommendation that it could not be neglected.

The expedition, though upon no very extensive scale, was yet a great exertion for a government so poor in

means as the regency, so feeble, and with all its branches so miserably disorganized. The bustle in the roads was visible from the enemy's lines, as well as from the city; in Cadiz the highest hopes were excited, and Marshal Victor felt no little degree of alarm. He thought, and with good reason, that when Soult had so considerably weakened the blockading force, he should at least have placed Sebastiani's army at his disposal, in case of need: this had not been done, and Mar shal Victor, seeing the naval preparations, sent to Sebastiani, entreating him to manœuvre so as to alarm the allies upon their landing, and to endanger them; but his entreaties were of no effect, and Victor afterwards complain ed in his public dispatches, that this corps, though numerous, in good condition, and at leisure (for it was not seriously employed) had not given the least assistance to him.

During the latter days of January and great part of the following month, heavy rains delayed the expedition, and rendered all the roads impracticable by which the allies could have approached the enemy. On the 20th of February, the troops were all embarked, waiting a favourable opportunity to proceed into the Straits: General Graham had about 4000 men, British and Portugueze, the Spaniards were 7000. The British got to sea the next day, and not being able to effect a landing near Cape Trafalgar, nor at Tarifa, disembarked at Algeciras, from whence they marched to Tarifa. The roads between the two towns were impassable for carriages, and therefore the artillery, provisions, and stores, were conveyed in boats, by the indefatigable exertions of the seamen, against every disadvantage of wind and weather. The Spanish transports were thrice driven back, but reached Tarifa on the evening of the 27th, and the next day they be gan their march to the Puerto de Fa

cinas, a pass in that chain of mountains which, bounding the plain of Gibraltar on the west, runs to the sea from the Sierras of Ronda. To this point the road had been practicable for carriages, some days labour having been thus employed: From thence it descends to those spacious plains which extend from the skirts of the chain to Medina Sidonia, Chiclana, and the river Santi Petri: the roads below were in a dreadful state, the country being marshy, intersected with a labyrinthof streams: one of which, the Barbate, which receives the waters of the Lake of Janda, is a considerable river. At Veger, which is about half way between Tarifa and the Isle of Leon, the French had three companies of infantry and 180 horse. They had also a small fort with two pieces of cannon at Casas Viejas, on the road to Medina. These points it was hoped to surprise, and the troops therefore encamped on the side of the mountain, taking every precaution to conceal their movements from the enemy.

Lapena, when the troops commenced their march, addressed a proclama tion to them, which at once disclosed the extent of his object, and the confidence with which he expected to re alize it.

"Soldiers of the fourth ar my," said he, "the moment for which you have a whole year been longing is at length arrived: A second time Andalusia is about to owe to you her li berty, and the laurels of Mengibar and Baylen will revive upon your brows. You have to combat in sight of the whole nation assembled in its cortes;

the government will see your deeds; the inhabitants of Cadiz, who have made so many sacrifices for you, will be eye-witnesses of your heroism; they will lift up their voices in blessings and in acclamations of praise, which you will hear amid the roar of musketry and cannon. Let us go then to conquer: my cares are directed to this end; implicit obedience, firmness, and

discipline, must conduct you to it: if these are wanting, in vain will you seek for fortune. Woe to him who forgets or abandons them: he shall die without remission. The gold, whose weight makes cowards of those who have plundered it from us, the bounties which a generous government will bestow, and the endless blessings of those who will call you their deliverers,-behold in these your reward!" At Facinas the operations were to commence; here, therefore, the order of march was arranged, and the troops formed into three divisions, the van being under General D. Jose Lardizabal, the centre under Camp Marshal the Prince of Anglona, and the reserve under General Graham.

At night fall on the first of March, a detachment under Colonel D. Jose Aymerich with two four-pounders, began its march to surprise Veger. A squadron accompanied it under the first adjutant of the staff, Major-General Wall, as far as the Fountain del Hierro, where these two parties separated, Aymerich taking the direct line for Veger, Wall going to the right across the lake of Janda and the river Barbate, to cut off the retreat of the enemy by the roads to Medina and Chiclana. It was hardly probable that he should succeed in this attempt, for the way was not only circuitous and full of difficulties, but there was also another road, that of Conil, by which they might make their retreat, and which lay so wide of the others, that it could not be occupied: Wall's movement, however, covered Aymerich's, and facilitated his operations. The Barbate is navigable as far as Veger Bridge, where it touches the foot of the high hill upon which Veger stands. At this bridge Aymerich arrived in the morning; it was fortified, and the French, under every advantage of situation, was preparing to defend it, when Wall's cavalry appeared on the

VOL. IV. PART I.

other side; upon this they retired by the Conil road fast enough to secure their retreat. Three of their gun-boats and three pieces of cannon were taken here; the enemy suffered no other loss, but the chief object in view was accomplished, for the possession of this post secured the flank of the allies.

Meantime the main body advanced against Casas Viejas: the distance was only twelve miles, and Lapena suppo sed, from the information of his guides, that he should arrive some hours before day break. But there were so many streams to cross, and so many intervening marshes, that notwithstanding the hard labour of the pioneers, and the utmost exertions of the artil lery officers, these twelve miles were a journey of twelve painful hours, so that he did not arrive in time to reconnoitre the fort before it was broad day. The enemy having fired a few shot, took post upon a hill behind the fort, on the Medina road. The German hussars in the British service, and the Spanish carbineers under General Whittingham, were ordered to wheel round upon the enemy's right, to surround them in that direction, while Baron Carondelet, with another squadron of cavalry, forded the Barbate, and crossing a flooded marsh, where the water was up to their saddle-girths, advanced to charge them. Two battalions of infantry, the one Spanish, the other English, crossed at the same time to support him. The enemy presently gave way, leaving about 30 killed and wounded, 33 prisoners, two pieces of cannon, and all their stores.

The troops from St Roques joined this day, marching by way of Las Casas de Castano, and leaving a small detachment in Alcala de los Gazules, This division, consisting of 1600 men, was added to the centre, whose force now amounted to 6000, that of the vanguard was 2100, that of the rear 5100,

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