and wounded; and it was daily apprehended that the breaches already made in the walls would become practicable: yet did not Alvarez yield to doubt or despondency, and to speak of capitulation was not permitted in the city; and orders were issued commanding the soldiers to fire upon any man who should shrink from the perilous service of defending the battered walls of Gerona.

General Blake, who commanded in Catalonia, although fully sensible of the difficulties attending the enterprise, prepared to throw in succours to Gerona, and on the 1st of September he began his operations for that purpose. The French occupied a position to the north of Gerona, on the heights of Los Angeles; this position Don Manuel Llanden, of the regiment of Ultonia, was ordered to force, with a body of patriots, and Somatenes, and Blake himself, quitted his head-quarters at St. Ilari, and made a twohours' march towards the chapel of Pradro, with the reserve; from that place he dispatched the Commanding-Officer of the regiment of Ultonia, Don Enrique O'Donnell, with 1200 foot, and a small body of cavalry, to attack the French in their strong position of Brunolas.

By the mistake of his guides, Colonel O'Donnell was led more than two hours' march out of the direct road to Brunolas; this mischance retarded the projected attack, which he intended to have made before day-break; it did not, however, frustrate his plans. At Brunolas the enemy had posted two bodies, and they had a redoubt, with entrenchments, at the summit of the mountain.

O'Donnell stationed a division of his men at the foot of the ascent, to defeat the intention of the enemy, which he perceived was to attack his principal column in flank, and ordered Don Pedro Sarsfield, with the main body of his force, to attack the enemy in front. This service was achieved with complete success; the French were driven from their entrenchments; their attention was diverted from that point where the convoys for the relief of Gerona was intended to pass; reinforcements were immediately sent to them at Brunolas, and O'Donnell, to avoid the hazard of being overpowered by superior numbers, descended into the plain, and drew up his little army in order of battle, although the descent was difficult, and from the nearness of the enemy it was executed under every disadvantage.

Another division of the Spanish army, under General Loygorri, joined O'Donnell in the plain, and they continued in that position to occupy the attention of the enemy, and draw more of their troops from the side of the river Ter during the day.

In the meantime Don Juan Claros, in concert with a physician named Rovira, who, from his attachment to his country, and military genius, had obtained a distinguished command in the Patriot army, acted with equal success on the other side; the latter dislodged the enemy from the castle of Montagut, which they had fortified; and Claros drove them from the height which they occupied on the left bank of the Ter. He also set fire to their encampments at Sarria and Montrospe, carried the battery of Casa Enroca, and killed the Westphalian General, Hadelin. Lieutenant Llanden, of the Ultonian regiment, having gained possession of the heights of Los Angeles, which opened a passage for the convoy, under General Garcia Conde, who immediately advanced from Amer, crossed the Ter, and hastened rapidly along the right bank of that river towards the besieged city.

The attention of the enemy had been so well diverted, that Conde was enabled to force his way through those who remained to oppose him, to fire their tents, and effect his entrance with 4000 infantry, and 500 cavalry: at the same time a sortie was made from the city with 600 men, for the purpose of increasing the enemy's confusion, and, if possible, to restore the water-courses which had been destroyed. They advanced to the plain of Zalt, where the enemy had considerable magazines, which they might have carried off had they not consumed the precious moment in vain endeavours to restore the ruined aqueducts.

The operations of this day, viz. 1st September, so honourable to the General who planned them, and the officers to whom their execution was entrusted, will reflect a never-fading ray upon their names; it was in fact the only enterprise of the brave, but unfortunate, Blake, which was completely successful.

Alvarez, the Governor of Gerona, did not conceal from the troops who had arrived with succours the desperate service in which they had engaged; "If any one among you," said he, “dread the thoughts of death, now is the time to leave the city; for the Geronans, and their defenders, have sworn to perish rather than surrender will you swear the like?" Three thousand took the oath, and remained in the city; the rest, under Conde, together with the beasts of draught which had brought the convoy, effected their retreat as happily as their entrance.

The convoy which had been so ably introduced was unhappily scanty in proportion to the wants of the city; it contained indeed a sufficiency for fifteen days, and further succours were promised;

but the enemy, put upon their guard, would be more vigilant in future, and a second convoy could not be passed without difficulties superior to the first.

The besiegers after this directed their fire against the three points of St. Lucia, St. Cristobal, and the Quartel de Alemanes. This latter building rested partly upon the wall itself, and the enemy's object was to level it with the ground, that they might pass over its ruins as by a bridge, and thereby obtain an entrance into the city. The fire from the cathedral, the sarracinas, and the tower of Geronella, was, however, warmly kept up in return; but the enemy bad such a decided advantage in point of numbers and artillery, that Alvarez ordered a sally, in order to spike their guns.

A fortnight had elapsed since the arrival of the convoy under Conde, when the gate of San Pedro, which had been walled up ever since the fall of Monjuic, was re-opened, and the Spaniards rushed to attack the enemy's works with extreme rapidity: in many points the sortie was successful; but, unhappily, some of the persons chosen for the enterprise shrunk from the danger, although they shared the glory; and Colonel Marshal, an Englishman in the Spanish service, mortified at the result of the attempt, expressed his feelings in these emphatic words, "we have lost a great victory."

The activity of the French soon repaired the damage their cannon had received in the last sally; an unremitting fire was kept up upon the three breaches, and on the 18th the French engineers declared all three to be practicable; but the French, less confident than they were before the fall of Monjuic, sent a white flag to the walls of Gerona on the evening of that day: a solemn silence prevailed! the firing had ceased, and the soldiers of both armies looked on in awful suspense to mark the result. The flag of truce was not noticed, and the officers who bore it expressed themselves by gestures: at length Alvarez sent a verbal order to them to retire; they requested to be heard, and were again told to retire, on peril of their lives; they offered a letter to the Spaniards; when the fire from the Castle of the Constable and the Tower of Geronella re-commenced.

(Continued in the Supplement.)

LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

Notices of Military Works preparing for or in the press.

THE Memoirs and Campaign of the Crown Prince of Sweden, by John Philippart, Esq. we understand will appear in the course of March." The object of this work," the Author observes, "is similar to the Memoirs of General Moreau, and the author flatters himself he has succeeded in faithfully delineating the Characters, and detailing the Campaigns, of two most distinguished officers. The preponderance of the Crown Prince of Sweden in the Military and Political Affairs of Europe-his acute judgmentknowledge of human nature, and high fortune, render him the most attractive and conspicuous character of any of the Continental Princes; and under these considerations it is deemed important to present the public with an impartial statement of his Military and Political Career."

Mr. Scott, late Lieutenant in the Tower Hamlets, has prepared for publication a work on the Military Code, with the Custom of War, &c.

Captain Lockett, of the Royal Military Establishment, and of the College of Fort William, is preparing for the press an Account of his Researches amongst the Ruins of Babylon.

Mr. Southey will speedily publish Inscriptions, Triumphal and Sepulchral, recording the Acts of the British Army in the Peninsula.

Mr. Philippart, Author of the Northern Campaigns, the Memoirs of General Moreau, and other works on military subjects, has issued proposals for publishing the Lives of the British Generals, from the Norman Conquest to the present time, on the Plan of Campbell's Lives of the Admirals.-All communications relative to the Lives and Services of the British Generals, are to be addressed to the Author through the different London Booksellers.

Sir William Ouseley's Travels are in a state of forwardness. They will contain an account of the countries visited by him in 1810, 1811, and 1812. While in Persia he obtained permission to explore many places little known to Europeans: he traced the marches of Alexander from Persepolis and Passagarda to the Caspian sea, and has collected much interesting matter.

MILITARY CORRESPONDENCE.

Further Observations on the Bill for rendering the Militia disposable for Foreign Service*.

Sir,

February 4, 1814.

I AM well persuaded government meant not to injure officers of the line when they framed that part of the late act of parliament, allowing officers of the Militia, with the rank of Captain, to go into regiments of the line with the same rank as they held in the Militia; and I am aware it was a case of urgent necessity, as the men were to be got at every risk of temporary inconvenience to the service; yet it is, in its very nature, so inimical to the interests, and those the best interests, of the officers of regulars, that I am sure they never can be subjected to the evils and mortification thus entailed on them, without meeting with that protection and redress from the Royal Commander-in-Chief their case seems so urgently to call for. In many regiments of the line, which have served in the Peninsula for four or five years past, two, three, or four Militia Captains are thrust in as supernumeraries; by bringing men for the regiment, when vacancies occur, the eldest Lieutenants, who have probably served with it during all its hard service in the field, and are probably as one out of three of their companions who landed with them, are thus excluded, for a considerable time, from that promotion they have looked forward to and deserved ;-this is a peculiarly hard case, and it is universally and acutely felt throughout the army and as necessity, and nothing else, could at all justify the incorporation of Militia Captains with those of the regulars, certainly government ought to correct the mischief by the only means now in their power, viz. to continue the promotion in the army on death vacancies, without adverting to supernumeraries until peace takes place. Perhaps I may be told there has been already unprecedented promotion in those regiments; if so, I ask to what is this owing? it is in consequence of unprecedented casualties in the field-of continued fighting, hardships, and severe service; and are the residue of these brave officers, who have now become seniors on the list of Lieutenants, are they to be thus The Editor has much pleasure in returning his particular thanks to this Correspondent for his several estimable favours. A minute of the bill for rendering the Militia disposable for Foreign Service is given in page 362, et seq. of this volume. Feb. 12, 1814.