in Alba with twenty pieces of cannon, and bringing up 15 squadrons and a considerable force of infantry threatened an assault, their light troops advancing close to the walls which had been hastily thrown up. They continued their fire from two o’clock till darkness had closed; but they made no impression on the brave troops who were opposed to them, and therefore they did not repeat the attempt. The intermediate time till the 14th they employed in reconnoitring the fords, and the position which Lord Wellington occupied in front of Salamanca; and on the 14th they commenced the passage at three fords, about two leagues above Alba, near Lucinas. ♦LORD WELLINGTON RETREATS FROM SALAMANCA.♦ Lord Wellington immediately broke up from St. Christoval, ordered the troops to move towards Arapiles, and as soon as he had ascertained the direction of the enemy’s march from the fords, moved with a division of infantry and all the cavalry he could collect to attack them; but they had already crossed in too great force. The wind at this time blew strong, and a thick rain rendered all objects indistinct at little distance; Lord Wellington, nevertheless, under cover of a cannonade, reconnoitred their position, and saw that they were too strongly posted at Mozarbes to be attacked. In the evening therefore he withdrew the troops from the neighbourhood of Alba, having destroyed the bridges, and leaving only a Spanish garrison of 300 men in the castle, into which the remains of an old palace had been converted. During the night, and in the course of the ensuing morning, he moved the greater part of the troops through Salamanca, and placed Sir Edward Paget, with the first division of infantry on the right, at Aldea Tejada, to secure the passage there over the little river Zunguen, in case the movements of the French on his right flank should compel him to make choice either of giving up his communications with Ciudad Rodrigo or with Salamanca. The inhabitants of that city were some preparing for the worst, and others helplessly expecting it, yet with a lingering hope that another battle upon that ground which had proved so destructive to Marmont’s army might once more deliver them. Lord Wellington himself had this possibility in mind, and did not order the commissariat and hospital stores to be removed from Salamanca till the movements of the French rendered it certain that, notwithstanding their great superiority in numbers, they would not venture to bring on a general action. They fortified their position at Mozarbes, and sent out bodies of horse and foot towards their left, to act upon the communications of the allies with Ciudad Rodrigo. This was a sure game; they were too strong and too strongly posted for Lord Wellington to think of attacking them; nothing therefore remained for him but to retreat upon his resources; and this was the more necessary because the men were nearly exhausted with the fatigues of so long and arduous a campaign;