On the 25th of August a thousand guns, stores in proportion, and all the immense works of Chiclana, St. Maria, and the Trocadero, were destroyed. Thus the long blockade of the Isla de Leon was broken up at the moment when the bombardment of Cadiz had become very serious, when the opposition to English influence was taking a dangerous direction, when the French intrigues were nearly ripe, the cortez becoming alienated from the cause of Ferdinand and the church; finally when the executive government was weaker than ever, because the count of Abispal, the only active person in the regency, had resigned, disgusted that his brother had been superseded by Elio and censured in the cortez for the defeat at Castalla. This siege or rather defence of Cadiz, for it was never, strictly speaking, besieged, was a curious episode in the war. Whether the Spaniards would or would not have effectually defended it without the aid of British troops is a matter of speculation; but it is certain that notwithstanding Graham’s glorious action at Barrosa, Cadiz was always a heavy burthen upon Lord Wellington; the forces, there employed, would have done better service under his immediate command, and many severe financial difficulties to say nothing of political crosses would have been spared. In the night of the 26th Soult quitting Seville, commenced his march by Ossuna and Antequera, towards Grenada; but now Wellington’s orders had set all the allied troops of Andalusia and Estremadura in motion. Hill advanced against Drouet; Ballesteros moved by the Ronda mountains to hang on the retiring enemy’s flanks; the expedition sent by sea to succour him, returned from Valencia; colonel Skerrit and Cruz Murgeon disembarked with four thousand English and Spanish troops, at Huelva, and marching upon St. Lucar Mayor, drove the enemy from thence, on the 24th. The 27th they fell upon the French rear-guard at Seville, and the suburb of Triana, the bridge, and the streets beyond, were soon carried, by the English guards and Downie’s legion. Two hundred prisoners, several guns and many stores were taken, but Downie himself was wounded and made prisoner, and treated very harshly, because the populace rising in aid of the allies had mutilated the French soldiers who fell into their hands. Scarcely was Seville taken, when seven thousand French infantry came up from Chiclana, but thinking all Hill’s troops were before them, instead of attacking Skerrit hastily followed their own army, leaving the allies masters of the city. But this attack though successful, was isolated and contrary to lord Wellington’s desire. A direct and vigorous assault upon the lines of Chiclana by the whole of the Anglo-Spanish garrison was his plan, and such an assault, when the French were abandoning their works there, would have been a far heavier blow to Soult. [Sidenote: September]