Two pontoon bridges, and one bridge of boats, were laid over the Bidassoa immediately after the passage had been effected; and works were thrown up to strengthen the position, in which Lord Wellington now waited for the surrender of Pamplona, that he might advance with his whole strength. That city, the modern capital of Navarre (Olite, now a miserably decayed place, was the ancient one), was the great bulwark against the French on that side. Lord Wellington trusted to a sure blockade for reducing it. Its wells supply it abundantly with water; and it was provided with a corn-mill, the largest in existence of its kind, to be worked by hand or by horses, and setting in motion four or five grindstones of such dimensions that four-and-twenty loads of wheat could be ground by each in a day. When corn began to fail for this well-constructed mill, and there was little prospect of relief after the failure of Soult’s great effort in the Pyrenees, the governor made a bold attempt to obtain subsistence from the very force which blockaded him: he sent to Don Carlos d’España, requiring him to furnish 7000 rations daily for the inhabitants of the city, whom, he said, he could no longer afford to feed. Don Carlos, who knew that the French general had, with characteristic effrontery, included his troops in this estimate, replied, that, unless the inhabitants were fed as well as the garrison, while any food lasted, he should hold the governor responsible for their treatment, and would strictly inquire into this when the place should be surrendered, as it must. When the stores were nearly exhausted it was reported and believed that the enemy intended, as they had done at Almeida, to blow up the works, and endeavour to effect their escape: the attempt would have been far more hazardous; but it is said to have been prevented by an intimation from Don Carlos, that if the place were thus injured he would put the governor and all the officers to death, and decimate the men. Towards the end of October they proposed to surrender, on condition of being allowed to march into France with six pieces of cannon; their second proposal was, that they should march thither under an engagement of not serving against the allies for a year and a day. Don Carlos replied, that he had orders not to grant them a capitulation on any terms excepting that they should be prisoners of war; and to this they declared they would never submit. Upon these terms, nevertheless, on the last day of October, they surrendered, being 4000 in number; and the Spanish general, setting an example of proper determination on such an occasion, refused to grant these till he had ascertained that none of the inhabitants had perished during the blockade either through ill-treatment or for want. ♦MARSHAL SOULT’S POSITION ON THE NIVELLE.♦