hopeless circumstances, would have brought an important succour. The inhabitants relied with great confidence upon this reinforcement; ... they expected hourly that these brave men would appear, and take post beside them at their gates, and in their streets; and one of the most successful artifices by which the traitors who made the capitulation depressed their zeal, was by reporting that a second battle had been fought, in which the army of the centre had been entirely defeated by Marshal Ney, so that no possible succour could be expected from it. At the very time when this falsehood was reported, a part of this brave army was only nine leagues from Madrid, impatient to proceed to its assistance. They were, however, compelled to remain inactive the whole of the next day, waiting for the second and third divisions and the van, which did not come up till the day following. ♦THE DUQUE DEL INFANTADO JOINS THEM.♦ On that day the Duque del Infantado joined them, having passed safely through the advanced posts of the French by favour of a thick fog. A council of war was held; the urgent danger of the capital was represented by the Duke, and low as his hopes had fallen, when he saw the deplorable state to which the remains of the army were reduced by fatigue and hunger, it was nevertheless determined that an effort should be made, not to attack the besiegers, for this would have been madness, but to collect as large a convoy of provisions as they could, and endeavour to enter with it under cover of the night by the Atocha gate. The Duke, however, knew but too well the situation of the metropolis; and at his suggestion a letter was sent to the French General who commanded before the walls, reminding him that a great number of French were in the hands of the Spaniards, and would be held responsible with their lives for any ill treatment which might be offered to the inhabitants of Madrid. Both the officer and the trumpet were detained prisoners by Buonaparte’s orders. ♦CONDITION OF THE TROOPS. DEC. 4.♦