Victor, to which we belonged, left for a time its cantonments on the Guadiana, between Merida and Medellin; and approached the Tagus and Alcantara, to unite with the division of Lapisse, which had proposed terms of surrender to CiudadRodrigo, but without effect. A division of the Marshal's corps crossed that river on the 14th of May, after a slight engagement with the Portuguese militia, and proceeded once more to Alcantara. The 8th was spent reconnoitring in the direction of Castel-Blanco; but having learned that 8000 English and Portuguese were in possession of Abrantes, they conjectured that Marshal Soult's expedition against Lisbon had failed, and therefore they returned. Marshal Victor then collected together his troops in the vicinity of Truxillo, between the Guadiana and the Tagus, to secure his communications by the bridge of Almarez, to cover Madrid, and observe the army of Cuesta. The fourth corps, commanded by General Sebas tiani, had continued in La Mancha since the engagement at Ciudad-Real.

On the 20th of May, the officers and subalterns of the fourth squadron of all the cavalry regiments in the army, received orders from the Minister of War to return to the head depôts of their regiments, in order to raise additional squadrons. In consequence of this appointment, I quitted Spain, and on my arrival in France, was sent against the English on the coast of Flanders. Their expedition against the fleet and dockyards at Antwerp having failed, through the slowness and indecision of their leader, I returned to Spain at the commencement of the following year.

CHAPTER VI.

AFTER Marshal Soult had been obliged to leave Oporto and Portugal, the English army again passed the Douro, and returned to the towns of Thomar and Abrantes, near the Tagus, intending to march against Spanish Estremadura, by way of Coria and Placencia. The corps of Marshal Victor, occupying the country around Truxillo and Caceres, being apprehensive that the English would get behind them by the right bank of the Tagus, crossed that river in the beginning of June, and retired to Calzada, and afterwards on the 26th, to Talavera de la Reyna.

On the 20th of July, the English army, commanded by General Sir A. Wellesley, formed a junction at Oropeza with the Spanish army of General Cuesta. The number of the English was about 20,000, with from 4000 to 5000 Portuguese. General Cuesta's army amounted to 38,000. Another Spanish army, under the command of General Venegas, of 18,000 or 20,000 men, waited to co-operate with General Sir Arthur Wellesley and Cuesta, in La Mancha.

A party of Portuguese and Spaniards of the advance, commanded by the English General Wilson, passed on to Escalona by the Arenas moun

tains, arriving on the 23d, so as to open a communication with the Spanish army of General Venegas, which was advancing from Tembleque by Ocana, to Aranjuez and Valdemoro. Generals Wilson and Venegas were to march upon Madrid, and endeavour to get possession of it through the aid of the inhabitants. This combined movement was intended to oblige King Joseph to concern himself solely with the safety of his capital, and to prevent him from concentrating his scattered forces. The Anglo-Spanish armies hoped soon to overcome the French, or at least to expel them from Madrid and the centre of Spain, and force them to cross the mountains and retire to Segovia.

The armies of Generals Wellesley and Cuesta, advanced on the 22d of July to Talavera. Not far from that city, the cavalry of General Cuesta gained a slight advantage over the rear-guard of the French cavalry, which withdrew to the main body. This success inspired the Spaniards with the most confident hopes, longing to avenge their defeat at Medellin by attacking the French themselves, whom they believed to be half-defeated because they had retired. They left the English at Talavera, and unwisely advanced by El Bravo and Santa Olalla, towards Torrijos.

Marshal Victor retired behind the Guadarama, near to Toledo, and on the 25th was joined by the corps of General Sebastiani, and the troops brought from Madrid by King Joseph. The whole central French army thus united amounted to 47,000 men, and on the 26th it marched for Talavera, under the command of King Joseph.

The 2d regiment of Hussars, which formed part of the French advanced guard, almost annihilated

Villa Viciosa's regiment of dragoons, in the defile of Alcabon, near to Torrijos, and the whole army of Cuesta retired precipitately behind the Alberche. The French crossed the river in the afternoon of the following day, drove in the English picquets, and arrived by five o'clock within cannonshot of the enemy.

The Spaniards were posted in a situation deemed impregnable, behind old walls and gardenfences, which border and encompass the city of Talavera. Their right was defended by the Tagus, and their left joined the English, near a redoubt constructed on an eminence. The ground in front of the Anglo-Spanish armies was very unequal, and intersected here and there by ravines, formed by the rains of winter. The whole extent of their position was covered by the channel of a pretty deep torrent, at that time dry. The English left was strengthened by a conical eminence that commanded the greater part of the field of battle, and which was separated by a deep extensive valley from the Castilian chain of mountains.

This eminence was thus in a manner the key to the enemy's position and against this decisive point of attack, an experienced general, possessed of that intuitive glance which insures success, would immediately have led the principal part of his disposable force, to obtain possession of it. He would either have taken it by assault, or have turned it by the valley. But King Joseph, when he should have acted, was seized with an unfortunate spirit of indecision and uncertainty. He attempted only half measures, he destributed his forces partially, and lost the opportunity of conquering while feeling the way for it. Marshal

Jourdan, the second in command, had not that spur of patriotism in the Spanish war, which inspired him when he fought in the plains of Fleurus, to achieve the independence of France.

The French commenced the engagement by a cannonade and rifle-fire in advance of their right; and they despatched a single battalion only, and some sharpshooters, by the valley, to take the eminence which defended the English left, never thinking they would do otherwise than yield. This battalion, however, having to contend with superior numbers, was repulsed with loss, and compelled to return. A division of dragoons, which had gone to reconnoitre Talavera, found the ap. proaches to that city strongly fortified with artillery, and could not advance.

At nightfall, the French made another attempt to gain the hill. A regiment of infantry, followed at a short distance by two others, attacked the extreme left of the English with unexampled ardour, arrived at the summit of the hill, and took possession of it. But having been fiercely assaulted, in its turn, by an entire division of the English, just, when having conquered, it was breathless with exertion, it was immediately obliged to give way. One of the two regiments, commanded to assist in this attack, had lost its way, in a wood, on account of the darkness; the other not getting soon enough over the ravine, which covered the enemy's position, had not arrived in time.

Both these attacks had miscarried, though conducted with intrepid bravery, because they had been made by an inadequate number of troops. A single battalion had been sent, and then one di