As the Spaniards were too sanguine in relying upon the general enthusiasm which was displayed throughout the nation, so the French, on the other hand, more unreasonably regarded it with contempt. Having defeated and humbled the greatest military powers in Europe, they looked upon the Spanish insurgents as a rabble whom it was rather their business to punish than to contend with. It was fortunate for the Spaniards that they had no force at this time considerable enough to be called an army; the enemy knew not where to strike an effective blow, when the people were in commotion and in arms every where, but nowhere in the field. Their object therefore was to get possession of the provincial capitals, that the authority every where might be in their hands as it was in the metropolis. With this intent General Dupont with a considerable force was sent from Madrid to Andalusia, there to occupy Seville and Cadiz, and thereby crush the insurrection where it appeared to be gaining most strength. Marshal Moncey with his corps marched upon Valencia. General Lefebvre Desnouettes was sent from Pamplona against Zaragoza. Marshal Bessieres dispatched detachments against Logroño, Santander, Segovia, and Valladolid. And Duhesme in Catalonia sent General Schwartz against Manresa, and General Chabron against Tarragona, while he himself prepared to march against the armed Catalans. ♦MURAT LEAVES SPAIN.♦ Murat meantime had left Spain. Before he had well recovered from a severe attack of the Madrid colic an intermittent fever supervened, and when that was removed he was ordered by his physicians to the warm baths of Bareges. The Duc de Rovigo, General Savary, who had acted so considerable a part in decoying Ferdinand to Bayonne, succeeded in the command. ♦SEVERAL FRENCHMEN POISONED BY THE WINE.♦ It happened at this time that several French soldiers, after drinking wine in the public houses at Madrid, died, some almost immediately, others after a short illness, under unequivocal symptoms of poison. Baron Larrey, who was at the head of the medical staff, acted with great prudence on this occasion. He sent for wine from different _ventas_, analyzed it, and detected narcotic ingredients in all; and he ascertained upon full inquiry that these substances, of which laurel-water was one, were as commonly used to flavour and strengthen the Spanish wines, as litharge is to correct acidity in the lighter wines of France. The natives were accustomed to it from their youth; they frequently mixed their wine with water, and moreover the practice of smoking over their liquor tended to counteract its narcotic effects by stimulating the stomach and the intestines: it was therefore not surprising that they could drink it with safety; though it proved fatal[39] to a few strangers. M. Larrey therefore justly concluded that there had been no intention of poisoning the French; if such a suspicion had been intimated, execrated