approached so near to Alicante, that the most rigorous precautions were deemed necessary for preserving that part of the country from the contagion. But independent of all other considerations, he had neither sufficient troops to attack the united forces in the south, nor sufficient money to subsist his army beyond Madrid. Of the 70,000 dollars which he had borrowed there, he was obliged to make over half to the Portugueze, for the relief of their pressing necessities; and he had raised the loan on condition of repaying it at the expiration of a month. By acting in the north he should keep open his communication and his retreat; and in the north also the reinforcements, which after the tidings of his success he was sure would be expedited by all possible exertions, might join him before the enemy could move against him with their combined forces, from all quarters. The Intruder had with him 14,000 men, Suchet had 28,000 disposable in the field, and the army of the south, under Soult, consisted of 55,000; in all 97,000: in the north, there were the army of the north 10,000 strong, and the remains of Marmont’s army, now under Clausel, estimated at 25,000. Against this force, which had resumed its activity, it was resolved to act; and to this determination there was the farther motive, that if the Galician army were put in possession of Burgos, the castle there might enable it to make a stand upon that front, and with the assistance of a British and Portugueze corps to hold the army of Portugal in check while he should be engaged in active operations in the south. The castle would thus become a _tête-de-cantonment_ to this corps of observation, and the French when deprived of it would not possess any strong post on the great line of communication between France and the interior of Spain, this castle commanding the only good road for artillery, and for the movement of convoys. ♦LORD WELLINGTON MOVES TOWARD BURGOS.♦