On the 4th the king and Bessieres, at the head of Mouton’s and Merle’s divisions, quitted Miranda, and advanced along the road of Osma, with the intention of feeling for Blake on the side of Frias and Medina, but the Spaniards were in force at Valmaceda. Joseph, deceived by false information, imagined that they were again in march towards Bilbao, and pushed on to Lodio, with the intention of attacking Blake during his movement. At Lodio the king ascertained the truth and halted. He was uneasy about Moncey, and therefore returned to Murquia on the 7th. In that town he left Merle to protect the rear of the troops at Bilbao, and proceeded to Miranda with the division of Mouton. On the 12th, Blake, still intent upon the insurrection of Biscay, placed a division at Orduña, and attacked Bilbao with fifteen thousand men. Merlin retired fighting up the valley of Durango as far as Zornosa, but being joined there by general Verdier, at the head of six battalions, he turned and checked the pursuit. At this time the leading columns of the great French army were passing the Spanish frontier, and Laval’s division advanced to Durango. Sebastiani, with six thousand men, relieved Merle at Murquia; the latter repaired to Miranda, and Verdier returned to Vittoria. Marshal Lefebre, duke of Dantzic, assumed the command of the three divisions posted at Durango. [Sidenote: Parliamentary Papers.] [Sidenote: Vindication of Castaños.] On the Spanish side, the marquis of Romana’s division disembarked on the 9th at St. Ander, and being completely equipped and provided from the English stores, the infantry, eight thousand in number, proceeded by slow marches to join Blake. The Asturians halted at Villarcayo; but the Estremaduran army, under the conde de Belvedere, was put in motion, and the Castillian forces arrived upon the Ebro. The first and third divisions of the Andalusian army were on the march from La Mancha, and Castaños, quitting Madrid, proceeded towards Tudela. All things announced the approach of a great crisis. Yet such was the apathy of the supreme junta, that the best friends of Spain hoped for a defeat, as the only mode of exciting sufficient energy in the government to save the state, and by some it was thought, that even that sharp remedy would be insufficient. A momentary excitement was, however, caused by the intercepted letter to Jourdan before spoken of. The troops in the second line were ordered to proceed to the Ebro by forced marches, letters were written pressing for the advance of the British army, and Castaños was enjoined to drive the enemy, without delay, beyond the frontier; but this sudden fury of action ended with those orders. Sir David Baird’s corps was detained in the transports at Coruña, waiting for permission to land; no assistance was afforded to sir John Moore, and although the subsidies already paid by England amounted to ten millions of dollars, and that Madrid was