inued actions with the
French:--'Here I shall take occasion to state another instance of the
patience (and, I will add, the chearfulness) of the Spanish soldiers
under the greatest privations.--After the action of Soronosa on the 31st
ult., it was deemed expedient by Gen. Blake, for the purpose of forming
a junction with the second division and the army of Asturias, that the
army should make long, rapid, and continued marches through a country at
any time incapable of feeding so numerous an army, and at present almost
totally drained of provisions. From the 30th of October to the present
day (Nov. 6), with the exception of a small and partial issue of bread
at Bilboa on the morning of the 1st of November, this army has been
totally destitute of bread, wine, or spirits; and has literally lived on
the scanty supply of beef and sheep which those mountains afford. Yet
never was there a symptom of complaint or murmur; the soldiers' minds
appearing to be entirely occupied with the idea of being led against the
enemy at Bilboa.'--'It is impossible for me to do justice to the
gallantry and energy of the divisions engaged this day. The army are
loud in expressing their desires to be led against the enemy at Bilboa;
the universal exclamation is--The bayonet! the bayonet! lead us back to
Soronosa.'

2. On the 10th of November the Estramaduran advanced guard, of about
12,000 men, was defeated at Burgos by a division of the French army
_selected_ for the service--and having a vast superiority in cavalry and
artillery. This event, with the same neglect of circumstances as in the
former instance, Sir J.M. thus reports:--'The French, after beating the
army of Estramadura, are advanced at Burgos.' Now surely to any
unprejudiced mind the bare fact of 12,000 men (chiefly raw levies)
having gone forward to meet and to find out the main French army--under
all the oppression which, to the ignorant of the upper and lower classes
throughout Europe, there is in the name of Bonaparte--must appear, under
any issue, a title to the highest admiration, such as would have made
this slight and incidental mention of it impossible.

The two next events--viz. the forcing of the pass at Somosierra by the
Polish horse, and the partial defeat of Castanos--are, as might be shewn
even from the French bulletins, no less misrepresented. With respect to
the first,--Sir J. Moore, over-looking the whole drama of that noble
defence, gives only the catastrophe; and