On the French side, Cassagne’s reserve came in from Medina, a council of war was held in the night of the 5th, and Victor, although of a disponding nature, proposed another attack; but the suggestion being ill received, nothing was done; and the 6th, Admiral Keats, landing his seamen and marines, dismantled, with exception of Catalina, every fort from Rota to Santa Maria, and even obtained momentary possession of the latter place. Confusion and alarm then prevailed in the French camp; the duke of Belluno, leaving garrisons at the great points of his lines, and a rear guard at Chiclana, retreated behind the San Pedro, where he expected to be immediately attacked. If La Peña had even then pushed to Chiclana, Graham and Keats were willing to make a simultaneous attack upon the Trocadero; but the 6th and 7th passed, without even a Spanish patrole following the French. On the 8th Victor returned to Chiclana, and La Peña instantly recrossing the Santi Petri, destroyed the bridge, and his detachment on the side of Medina being thus cut off from the Isla, was soon afterwards obliged to retire to Algesiras. All the passages in this extraordinary battle were so broadly marked, that observations would be useless. The contemptible feebleness of La Peña furnished a surprising contrast to the heroic vigour of Graham, whose attack was an inspiration rather than a resolution, so wise, so sudden was the decision, so swift, so conclusive was the execution. The original plan of the enterprise having however been rather rashly censured, some remarks on that head may be useful. “Sebastiani, it is said, might, by moving on the rear of the allies, have crushed them, and they had no right to calculate upon his inactivity.” This is weak. Graham, weighing the natural dislike of one general to serve under another, judged, that Sebastiani, harassed by insurrections in Grenada, would not hastily abandon his own district to succour Victor, before it was clear where the blow was to be struck. The distance from Tarifa to Chiclana was about fifty miles, whereas, from Sebastiani’s nearest post to Chiclana was above a hundred, and the real object of the allies could not be known until they had passed the mountains separating Tarifa from Medina. [Sidenote: Appendix, No. IX. Section 5.] Combining these moral and physical considerations, Graham had reason to expect several days of free action; and thus indeed it happened, and with a worthy colleague he would have raised the blockade: more than that could scarcely have been hoped, as the French forces would have concentrated either before Cadiz or about Seville or Ecija; and they had still fifty thousand men in Andalusia.