the force at his disposal ♦AUGUST.♦ had not been greatly diminished. Buonaparte had withdrawn all the Poles in his service from the peninsular, for the Russian campaign; and this deprived him of six thousand of his best troops, at a time when his army was otherwise greatly weakened by sending succours to Caffarelli in Navarre, and by the increased exertions which it was necessary to make against Duran and the Empecinado, Villacampa and Bassecourt. Before the battle of Salamanca the Intruder, in his dreams of triumph, informed Suchet that he must prepare for marching towards Madrid, and then accompanying him to the Tagus; and he ordered him to form a camp of 8000 men between Albaceyte and San Clemente; such a force it was impossible for him to spare; he could not venture to weaken himself further than by detaching 1500 men to Requeña and Cuenca, to relieve General Darmagnac, and he represented to Joseph that he could not move for Madrid with one of his divisions, unless he received orders to evacuate Valencia. The last orders from Paris were to direct all his efforts to the preservation of the countries under his command, and to keep his force concentrated. General Maitland knew less of Marshal Suchet’s actual strength than of his relative superiority to any force that could be brought against him; the best course, therefore, seemed to be that upon which he resolved; to secure the important fortress and port of Alicante, both as a place of arms from whence future operations might be undertaken, and as a rallying point for the wreck of Joseph O’Donell’s army. Thither ♦THE EXPEDITION LANDS AT ALICANTE.♦ accordingly the Anglo-Sicilian expedition sailed: contrary winds and bad weather retarded it some days upon the passage, but on the evening of August the 9th they anchored in the harbour, and on the following day the troops were landed. The French who were in sight of the fortress retired upon this, and formed their line in Chichona, Ibi, Castalla, Biar, and Villena. But Suchet saw that this position would not be tenable against General Maitland’s corps; ♦THE FRENCH FALL BACK TO THE XUCAR.♦ he concentred his divisions, therefore, about St. Philippe; fixed his head-quarters in that city; threw up field-works there, and upon the high road from Valencia to Madrid; and constructed a bridge of boats over the Xucar, near Alberique, which he secured with a _tête-du-pont_. His intention was not to fall back without fighting, provided the allies should attack him only in front, and were not too greatly superior in numbers. But the superiority was soon on his own side: the allies took the field on the 14th, and occupied the country from which the enemy retired; on the 18th they received intelligence that the Intruder with the force which he could bring together was about to join the army of Valencia, and then it became necessary for General Maitland to fall back to his position in front of Alicante.