Medellin, possessing a fine stone-bridge, is situated in a hollow on the left bank of the Guadiana, and just beyond the town is a vast plain or table land, the edge of which, breaking abruptly down, forms the bed of the river. The Ortigosa, a rapid torrent, rushing perpendicularly to the Guadiana, and having steep and rugged banks, yet in parts passable for artillery, cuts their plain, which is also traversed by two roads, the one leading to Mingrabil on the right, the other to Don Benito on the left, those places being about five miles apart, and forming with Medellin an irregular triangle. The French army, with the exception of the troops left to cover the communications and those at Zorita, was concentrated in the town at ten o’clock; and, at one, about fourteen thousand infantry, two thousand five hundred cavalry, and forty-two pieces of artillery, went forth to fight the BATTLE OF MEDELLIN. The plain on the side of Don Benito was bounded by a high ridge of land, behind which Cuesta kept the Spanish infantry concealed, showing only his cavalry and some guns in advance. To make him display his lines of infantry the French general sent Lasalle’s light cavalry, with a battery of six guns and two battalions of German infantry, towards Don Benito, while Latour Maubourg, with five squadrons of dragoons, eight guns, and two other battalions, keeping close to the Ortigosa, advanced towards the point of the enemy’s ridge called the Retamosa. The rest of the army was kept in reserve; the division of Villatte and the remainder of the Germans, being one-half on the road of Don Benito, the other half on the road of Mengabril. Ruffin’s division was a little way in rear of the other, and a battalion was left to guard the baggage at the bridge of Medellin. As the French squadrons advanced, the artillery on both sides opened, and the Spanish cavalry guards in the plain retired slowly to the higher ground. Lasalle and Latour Maubourg then pressed forward; but as the latter, who had the shortest distance to traverse, approached the enemy’s position, the whole Spanish line of battle was suddenly descried in full march over the edge of the ridge, and stretching from the Ortijos to within a mile of the Guadiana,--a menacing but glorious apparition. Cuesta, Henestrosa, and the duke del Parque, with the mass of cavalry, were on the left; Francisco Frias, with the main body of infantry, in the centre; Equia and the marquis of Portazzo on the right; and, from thence to the bank of the Guadiana, Albuquerque, with some scattered squadrons, flanked the march of the whole host as it descended, with a rapid pace, into the plain. Cuesta’s plan was now disclosed; his line overlapped the French left, and he was hastening to cut their army off from Medellin, but his order of battle was on a front of three miles, and he had no reserve.