When the commotions in the south subsided, Junot returned to Old Castile, Loison joined the sixth corps on the Tormes, Kellerman retired to Valladolid, detachments, placed on the Douro, maintained the communications between Ney and Junot, and the latter, having drawn a reinforcement from Bonet, invested Astorga with ten thousand infantry, two thousand cavalry, eighteen field-guns, six twenty-four pounders, and two mortars. His covering-divisions were placed, one at Benevente, to watch the road of Mombuey, one near Puebla de Senabria, and one at Puente Ferrada. Mahi immediately concentrated the Gallician army at Villa Franca and Fonceabadon, and detached fifteen hundred men, under Echevarria, to Mombuey and Puebla, to harass the flank and rear of the investing army; yet his force was weak. The Gallician authorities had frequently assured lord Wellington that it amounted to twenty thousand well-organized troops; but it now appeared that only eight thousand were in the field, and those ill provided, and prone to desertion. SIEGE OF ASTORGA. Santocildes, governor of this place, was an officer of courage; his garrison consisted of two thousand five hundred infantry, besides cannoneers and armed peasantry, and the Moorish ramparts had been strengthened by fresh works; but there was little ammunition, scarcely twenty days’ rations, and nothing outside the walls, capable of seriously disturbing the enemy. The town stood in an open plain, and had three suburbs: Puerto de Hierro, to the north; St. Andreas, to the east; and Retebia, to the west. On the two last Junot made false attacks, but conducted his real approaches, against the front, between Puerto de Hierro and Retebia. The place was invested the 22d of March; and Puerto de Hierro was carried by storm, two sallies repulsed, and the trenches opened, before the end of the month. A breach was then commenced, but the battering-guns soon became unserviceable, and the line of approach was flanked by the houses of Retebia, which were filled with Spanish infantry. Nevertheless, the town suffered from shells, and the wall was so much broken, on the 20th of April, that an assault was ordered. A previous attack on Retebia had failed; but Santocildes was distressed for ammunition, and, during the preparations for storming, offered to capitulate.