On the 3d of August, the breaching batteries opened against St. Engracia and Aljaferia; the mortar batteries threw shells at the same time, and a Spanish magazine of powder blowing up in the Cosso (a public walk formed on the line of the ancient Moorish ramparts), destroyed several houses, and killed many of the defenders. The place was then summoned to surrender on terms, but Palafox having rejected all offers, on the 4th of August the town was stormed through a breach in the convent of St. Engracia; the French penetrated to the Cosso, and a confused and terrible scene ensued. Some defended the houses, some drew up in the streets, some fled by the suburb to the country, where the French cavalry fell upon them; cries of treason were every where heard, and became the signal for assassinations; all seemed lost, when a column of the assailants seeking the way to the bridge over the Ebro, got entangled in the Arco de Cineja, a long crooked street, and being attacked in that situation, were driven back to the Cosso; others began to plunder, and the Zaragozans recovering courage, fought with desperation, and set fire to the convent of Francisco. At the close of day the French were in possession of one side of the Cosso, and the Spaniards of the other. A hideous and revolting spectacle was exhibited during the action; the public hospital being taken and fired, the madmen confined there issued forth among the combatants, muttering, shouting, singing, and moping, according to the character of their disorder, while drivelling idiots mixed their unmeaning cries with the shouts of contending soldiers. [Sidenote: S. Journal of Lefebre’s Operations. MSS.] The Spaniards now perceived, that with courage the town might still be defended; and from that day the fighting was murderous and constant, one party endeavouring to take, the other to defend the houses. In this warfare, where skill was nearly useless, Verdier’s force was too weak to make a rapid progress; and events disastrous to the French arms taking place in other parts of Spain, he received, about the 10th of August, orders from the king to raise the siege, and retire to Logroña. Of this operation I shall speak in due time. OBSERVATIONS. 1º. Mere professional skill and enterprise do not constitute a great general. Lefebre Desnouettes, by his activity and boldness, with a tithe of their numbers, defeated the insurgents of Aragon in several actions, and scoured the open country; but the same Lefebre, wanting the higher qualities of a general, failed miserably where that intuitive sagacity that reads passing events aright was required. There were thousands in the French army who could have done as well as him; probably not three who could have reduced Zaragoza, and yet it is manifest that Zaragoza owed her safety to accident, and that the desperate resistance of the inhabitants was more the result of chance than of any peculiar virtue.