Lord Wellington, now considering that Soult would certainly endeavour to disturb the siege with a considerable force, demanded the assent of the Spanish generals to the following plan of combined operations, before he would commence the investment of the place. 1º. That Blake, marching up from Ayamonte, should take post at Xeres de los Cavalleros. 2º. That Ballasteros should occupy Burquillo on his left. 3º. That the cavalry of the fifth army, stationed at Llerena, should observe the road of Guadalcanal, and communicate through Zafra, by the right, with Ballasteros. These dispositions were to watch the passes of the Morena. 4º. That Castaños should furnish three battalions for the siege, and keep the rest of his corps at Merida, to support the Spanish cavalry. 5º. That the British army should be in second line, and, in the event of a battle, Albuera, centrically situated with respect to the roads leading from Andalusia to Badajos, should be the point of concentration for all the allied forces. In consequence of the neglect of the Portuguese government, the whole of the battering-train and stores for the siege were necessarily taken from the ramparts and magazines of Elvas; the utmost prudence was therefore required to secure the safety of these guns, lest that fortress, half dismantled, should be exposed to a siege. Hence, as the Guadiana, by rising ten feet, had again carried away the bridge at Jerumenha on the 24th, lord Wellington directed the line of communication with Portugal to be re-established by Merida, until settled weather would admit of fresh arrangements. [Sidenote: Appendix, No. II. Section 10.] Howbeit, political difficulties intervening obliged him to delay the siege. The troops under Mendizabel had committed many excesses in Portugal; the disputes between them and the inhabitants were pushed so far, that the Spanish general pillaged the town of Fernando; while the Portuguese government, in reprisal, meant to seize Olivenza, which had formerly belonged to them. The Spanish Regency publicly disavowed Mendizabel’s conduct, and Mr. Stuart’s strenuous representations deterred the Portuguese from plunging the two countries into a war; but this affair, joined to the natural slowness and arrogance of the Spaniards, prevented both Castaños and Blake from giving an immediate assent to the English general’s plans: meanwhile, intelligence reached the latter that Massena was again in force on the Agueda; wherefore, reluctantly directing Beresford to postpone the siege until the Spanish generals should give in their assent, or until the fall of Almeida should enable a British reinforcement to arrive, he repaired with the utmost speed to the Agueda. OPERATIONS IN THE NORTH.