of all these well-planned and well-attempted endeavours, that the Spanish troops had now become as efficient as the Portugueze. ♦SIEGE OF ST. SEBASTIAN’S RESUMED.♦ During these eventful days the guns had been withdrawn from the batteries before St. Sebastian’s, and, with all the stores, embarked at Passages, and the transports had been sent to sea; but a blockade was kept up, and the guard continued to hold the trenches. The vigilant enemy made a sortie on the morning of the 27th, and carried off between 200 and 300 Portugueze and English from the trenches prisoners into the town. Want of foresight on the part of the besiegers allowed them this opportunity, for some of the guns of the left embrasures had, in apprehension of such an attempt, been arranged so as to take the enemy in flank; and those guns were withdrawn with the others. On the 3rd the French surprised a patrol in the parallel and made them prisoners: but Soult’s defeat was known ♦AUGUST 6.♦ now; the stores were re-landed at Passages, and Sir Thomas Graham waited only for the arrival of more artillery and ammunition from England to recommence the siege. The infantry meantime rested on its arms; and the cavalry, who longed to eat the green maize (which was prohibited), kept their horses in good exercise in looking for straw. The 17th was Buonaparte’s birth-day; three salutes were fired from the Castle of St. Sebastian’s on the eve preceding, as many at four in the morning, and again at noon; and at night the words “_Vive Napoleon le Grand_” were displayed in letters of light upon the castle: ... it was the last of his birth-days that was commemorated by any public celebration. The expected artillery arrived at Passages on the 18th. That little town had never in the days of its prosperity, when it was the port of the Caraccas Company, presented a scene so busy, nor while it lasted so gainful to the inhabitants and peasantry of the surrounding country. The market for the army was held here, which they supplied with necessaries, the produce of the land; and which at this time wanted nothing wherewith England could supply it, so frequent now and so easy was the intercourse. Here the reinforcements were landed, which, now that the British government had caught the spirit of its victorious general, were no longer limited by parsimonious impolicy. When the horses were to be landed they were lowered from the transports into the sea, and guided by a rope as they swam to shore; but this sudden transition from the extreme heat of the hold to the cold water proved fatal to several of them.