When Olivenza fell, a small garrison was in Albuquerque, and another in Valencia d’Alcantara; Carlos d’España was in Campo Mayor, and Virues, with Romana’s divisions, at Montemor. When Soult drove back the outposts of Badajos on the 26th, Mendizabel shut himself up with six thousand men in that fortress; but, although a siege had been expected for a year, the place was still unprovisioned. It was, however, still possible to execute the English general’s plan, yet no Spaniard moved, and, on the 27th, Latour Maubourg, crossing the Guadiana at Merida, forded the Gebora, and cut off the communications with Campo Mayor and Elvas! FRENCH SIEGE OF BADAJOS. This city stands on a tongue of land at the confluence of the Guadiana with the Rivillas; the first is a noble river five hundred yards broad, the second a trifling stream. A rock, one hundred feet high, and crowned by an old castle, overhangs the meeting of the waters, and the town, spreading out like a fan as the land opens between the rivers, is protected by eight regular curtains and bastions, from twenty-three to thirty feet in height, with good counterscarps, covered way, and glacis. On the left bank of the Guadiana the outworks were, 1º. the Lunette of San Roque, covering a dam and sluice on the Rivillas, by which an inundation could be commanded; 2º. an isolated redoubt, called the Picurina, situated beyond the Rivillas, and four hundred yards from the town; 3º. the Pardaleras, a defective crown-work, central between the Lower Guadiana and the Rivillas, and two hundred yards from the ramparts. On the right bank of the Guadiana a hill, crowned by a regular fort three hundred feet square, called San Christoval, overlooked the interior of the castle, and a quarter of a mile farther down the stream, the bridge, six hundred yards in length, was protected by a bridge-head, slightly connected with San Christoval, but commanded on every side. [Sidenote: Conquête de l’Andalusie, par Edouard Lapéne.] Soult constructed a ferry on the Guadiana, above the confluence of the Gebora, and three attacks were opened against the town the 28th, two on the side of Picurina and one on that of the Pardaleras. The 29th and 30th slight sallies were repulsed, but tempestuous weather spoiled the works. Gazan’s division was distant; the infantry before the place were few, and, on the 30th, the garrison making a vigorous sally from the Pardaleras, killed or wounded sixty men and cleared the trenches. Meanwhile some Spanish cavalry, gliding round the left of the French, sabred several engineers and sappers, and then retired. [Sidenote: Siege de Badajos, par le Col. Lamare.] [Sidenote: Lord Wellington’s Correspondence. MSS.] [Sidenote: Mr. Stuart’s Papers. MSS.]