of his band, the Empecinado’s division on the following day, and on the 11th, the Camp Marshal Bassecourt with some of his troops. Fewer disorders were committed than might have been expected under such circumstances, and those chiefly by peasants and deserters, who thought to take advantage of the sort of interregnum in which the capital was left; but the officers caused these offenders to be arrested, and exerted themselves to prevent excesses. But the inhabitants were told that, as the human means of effecting with God’s blessing their own deliverance, they must contribute towards the support of the soldiers as much as their necessities could spare; and it may be supposed that this contribution was exacted with less compunction on the one part, and submitted to with less unwillingness on the other, because both well knew that when the French returned, the locust would devour what the palmer-worm had left. On the 6th Sir Rowland reached Arevalo, which is ♦JUNCTION OF THE RETREATING ARMIES.♦ about 80 miles from Madrid; the troops had suffered much from the weather, more from the gross ill management on the part of the commissariat and the staff, and not a little from their own irregularities, moral discipline having long been disregarded in modern armies. He was now in communication with Lord Wellington, and was instructed to continue his march by Fonteveros upon Alba de Tormes. By this time Lord Wellington’s army had been recruited by rest, and the enemy had rendered the bridges passable at Toro and at Tordesillas: he broke up therefore from his position in front of the latter city before daylight, leaving the fires burning: that day he fell back to Torrecilla de la Orden, continued his march the following day, and on the 8th took up the position which he had twice before occupied in front of Salamanca. Sir Rowland crossed the Tormes the same day at Alba, occupied that town and castle with Major-General Howard’s brigade, and stationed a Portugueze division on the left of the Tormes, under Major-General Hamilton, to support them. They were not followed during their retreat from the Douro; the enemy halted to collect provisions ♦JUNCTION OF THE FRENCH ARMIES.♦ and bring up their detachments, and the armies of Portugal and the north then formed their junction with those of the south, and of the centre under Soult and the Intruder: their united force amounted to not less than 80,000 foot and 12,000 horse, being the whole of their disposable force in Spain, and it was believed that they had with them not fewer than 200 pieces of cannon. The allies had 48,000 foot and 5000 horse. On the 9th the enemy drove in the piquets in front of Alba, and Major-General Long was obliged to withdraw his brigade through that town on the following morning. The enemy then, who were directing their main efforts against the right of the allies, approached their position on the Tormes, and prepared to force a passage. They attacked the troops