The course of events, and the false position in which he found himself, so contrary, he said, to the rectitude and loyalty of his character, had greatly injured his health: he was growing old; nothing but honour and duty could detain him where he was, and his inclination would drive him away, unless the Emperor explained himself in a different manner from what he had hitherto done. There was also a letter to his brother Louis, expressing a hope to see him one day in good health, and with the happiness which arises from a good conscience.... That happiness the intrusive king Joseph might well envy! It is little excuse for him that he was more weak than wicked, and in mere weakness had consented to be made the instrument of his brother’s insatiable ambition. Even in these letters, where he manifested a full sense of his humiliating situation, no consciousness is expressed of its guilt. For the sake of his own credit, and no doubt of his own personal safety, he protested against any immediate dismemberment of Spain; but he would have been contented to serve his brother’s purpose, by nominally retaining the kingdom, till a pretext could be found for dismembering it at a general peace. But how long he should retain it depended upon something more than the will and pleasure of Napoleon Buonaparte, and this he was soon made to apprehend. ♦SIR ROWLAND HILL’S EXPEDITION TO THE BRIDGE OF ALMARAZ.♦ Lord Wellington was not about to remain idle with his victorious army; he prepared for offensive operations, and the first step was to interrupt the communication between the armies of Soult and Marmont. All the permanent bridges on the Tagus below that of Arzobispo had been destroyed; and the only way which was practicable for a large army was by a bridge of boats at Almaraz, in the line of the high road, where the noble bridge erected in Charles the Fifth’s time, at the city of Plasentia’s cost, had been demolished. For the protection of this important post, the French had thrown up strong works on both sides of the river: they had formed a flanked _tête-du-pont_ on the left bank, riveted with masonry and strongly intrenched; and on the high ground above it they had constructed a large and strong redoubt, called Fort Napoleon, with an interior intrenchment, and a loop-holed tower in its centre; here they had mounted nine pieces of cannon, and had garrisoned it with between 400 and 500 men. On the right bank, there was a redoubt called Fort Ragusa, in honour of Marshal Marmont, of the same strength and construction, except that the tower had a double tier of loopholes; this flanked the bridge, and between the redoubt and the bridge there was a flêche. For farther security, the invaders had fortified an old castle commanding the Puerto de Miravete, about a league distant, being the only pass for carriages of any kind by which the bridge could be approached. A marked alteration of climate is perceptible upon crossing