Bilbao had remained a month in possession of the enemy; it was then retaken by the Marques de Portazgo, and if his advanced posts had not ♦1808. OCTOBER.♦ begun to fire too soon, the garrison might have been surprised and made prisoners. After an action of three or four hours they effected their retreat, losing some 400 men. But considerable bodies of French had now passed the Pyrenees; and Marshal Ney, who came at this time to take the chief command till Buonaparte himself should arrive, feigning to retreat upon Vitoria for the purpose of deceiving Portazgo, suddenly marched with the centre of his army upon Bilbao. The Marquis drew off in time, without losing a man or a gun, and took up a position at Valmaseda. There he was joined by a detachment of the Galician army, and Blake immediately made preparations to recover the city; but General Merlin, whom Ney had left to command there, knew that the place was not tenable against a superior force, and evacuated it on the night of Oct. 11. ♦POSITION OF THE ARMIES IN OCTOBER.♦ The French force at that time amounted to about 60,000; and the Spanish Generals knew, by an intercepted dispatch, that 72,000 more would enter Spain before the middle of November. The Spaniards were nominally 130,000, but the effective number was very far short of this. With the left or western army Blake occupied a line from Burgos to Bilbao. The eastern army, that of Aragon and Valencia, under Palafox, was stationed, part near Zaragoza, and part was as far advanced as Sanguessa, on the left of the enemy, outflanking them on that side, as Blake did on the west. The head-quarters of the central army, under Castaños, were at Soria; ... so that the whole formed a crescent. The Spaniards now began to experience the ruinous effects of that false policy which had exaggerated their successes and their strength, and had represented the final deliverance of the country as an event soon and certainly to be looked for. This delusion made the people clamorous for the accomplishment of their expectations, and the government itself either partook or yielded to this impatience. The wise precautions with which the Junta of Seville began the war were disregarded, and the Central Junta called upon the Generals to hasten their operations. However strong, they said, might have been the reasons for delay, loss of time had already proved injurious, and must be more so if the enemy should receive their expected reinforcements. An end therefore must be put ♦COMMISSIONERS SENT TO THE SPANISH ARMIES.♦ to this inactivity. And, as if dissatisfied with their generals, they appointed D. Francisco Palafox to go as their representative to the armies, with the Marques de Coupigni and the Conde de Montijo under him. He was to be received with the same honours as a Captain-General of the army, to confer with the Commanders, concert operations with them, and himself decide upon the plan of attack. Another reason for this mission was,