It was of great consequence to the Spaniards to keep possession of those buildings without the walls, which would otherwise afford protection to the besiegers, but which also afforded such means for annoying them while they could be defended, that it had not been thought advisable to demolish them before the siege. The nunnery of Santa Cruz was the most important of these buildings. D. Ramon Castellanos was posted there with a company of sixty men, when three hundred of the enemy’s grenadiers, with a party of sappers, assailed it in the night, half the party attacking it in the rear, the other in ♦1810. JULY.♦ the front. They blew up the first and second gates; hand grenades were thrown on both sides; the Spaniards, having the advantage of the building, kept up a most destructive discharge of musketry; the commander of the one party was killed, the captain of engineers, who commanded the other, wounded, but he did not retire till he had set fire to the convent. Seeing the flames, the governor made signal for Castellanos to abandon the post, who accordingly let down his men from a window into one of the inner courts of the convent, and descending himself the last, they forced their way with the bayonet. It was a little after midnight when they reached the gate of La Colada: but seeing, while they took food and rested after the action, that the enemy had extinguished the flames, Castellanos went to the governor, and represented to him that his honour was concerned in recovering the post. He led his men at three in the morning, after only two hours’ respite, to the assault, and surprising the French, drove them from their dearly purchased conquest, where they left 158 dead, and 45 wounded behind them, the remainder of the wounded having been removed during the short time that they retained possession. ♦CONVENT OF ST. DOMINGO RECOVERED. JULY 2.♦