General Beresford’s force still remained prisoners of war--some remaining at Buenos Ayres, the others divided in small detachments among the various villages in the neighbourhood. General Linières, the French commander of the Spanish forces, was most kind and courteous to the prisoners, and did all he could to promote their comfort. But the feeling of the people, more especially of the Roman Catholic clergy, was very bitter against the English, and led to a painful occurrence. On the 14th January, Captain Ogilvie, while riding with Colonel Pack of the 71st Regiment--who was also a prisoner of war--was assassinated; and his companion with difficulty escaped. Captain Ogilvie had been severely wounded at the first attack on Buenos Ayres, and his loss was deeply regretted. The command of the captive Artillery now devolved upon Lieutenant Alexander Macdonald, who had received two wounds in the attack on Buenos Ayres, and who had been recommended by Captain Ogilvie as a most deserving and zealous young officer. General Whitelocke decided on a second assault on Buenos Ayres; having first, and unsuccessfully, attempted to persuade General Linières to release his prisoners. The failure of his attempt on the city will, perhaps, be more readily understood, if a few words of description of Buenos Ayres, as it was in 1807, precede the narrative. [Sidenote: Major Nicolls’ 45 Regiment, MS. Journal in R. A. Record Office.] The city extended for nearly three miles along the banks of the Rio de la Plata, and its breadth at the widest point was about a mile and a half. The population, including the suburban villas or _quintas_, was about 70,000. Like most modern cities in the United States and Canada, it had been [Sidenote: Captain Frazer’s and Capt. Dickson’s Letters to D. A. Gen.] built on a fixed plan, not left to the distorted tastes of individual proprietors--as is not unfrequently the case in England. Its streets and squares were large, broad, and convenient; and although the individual houses did not always harmonise, and were rarely impressive, they did little injury to the general effect. Most of them were two-storeyed, and built in Moorish fashion, in the form of a square, with one large entry, the different apartments on the ground floor opening into the square, and the roof flat, and occasionally terraced. The Fort, or Citadel, was a miserable work, with a parapet of little more than two feet in height. In many places it was incapable of resisting artillery fire, and, at the best, was of little use save in overawing a mob, or as a receptacle for the city treasure and the public records. The most important public buildings were the Cathedral, and the churches of St. Francisco, St. Domingo, St. Michael, and the Jesuits--all imposing enough externally, but with gaudy interiors, which offended the sober taste of English travellers. There was also a large civic hall, known as the Cabildos; and the Plaza de Toros, where the