Government of Spain, nor union enough among the provincial authorities, to take advantage of the opportunity which was thus afforded them. He arrived before Murviedro on the 21st, and took possession of the town. Blake, who had advanced thither to see that the garrison was complete, and the place provided for defence, offered no resistance when the enemy approached, but retired within an intrenched camp, on the right of the Guadalaviar; it rested with its right upon the sea, and covered the city of Valencia; he had the Murcian army behind him in reserve. The divisions of Obispo and Villacampa, under Carlos O’Donnel, had been recalled from the frontiers of Castille and Aragon: these remained in the field and formed his left; 4000 men occupied Segorbe and Liria, and Bassecourt, with about 2000, was in Requeña and Utril: besides these forces the commander-in-chief had 1600 cavalry, part of them veteran troops. Against such means of resistance Suchet would never have ventured to advance if he had not despised the Valencians. With an abundant population, brave and patriotic enough to offer themselves to any danger and submit to any sacrifices, ... and with resources greater than those of any other province from its redundant fertility, Valencia had scarcely made an effort in favour of its neighbours. When, at the earnest requisition of the British naval commander on that coast, a body of its troops had been detached into Catalonia, they were embarked without muskets, because there was an established regulation, that before they left the province their arms must be deposited in the arsenal. After arms had been provided for them, it was judged necessary to march them into Aragon; but they refused to enter that kingdom, because they had not been sent with that intention, and in consequence they returned to Valencia without having faced the enemy. Whenever, indeed, the Valencian army had faced them, some glaring misconduct had appeared, and some lamentable disaster been the necessary result. The spirit of provincialism ceased to paralyse them when the enemy was within their own territory, but Suchet still calculated upon want of discipline in the men, and want of skill in the leaders; some reliance, too, he placed upon those means of seduction by which France had triumphed as often as by her arms. ♦THE FRENCH REPULSED IN AN ASSAULT.♦