Turning from the war in Catalonia to the operations in Navarre and Guipuscoa, we shall find lord Wellington’s indomitable energy overcoming every difficulty. It has been already shown how, changing his first views, he disposed the Anglo-Portuguese divisions to cover the siege of San Sebastian and the blockade of Pampeluna, at the same time attacking with the Spanish divisions Santona on the coast, and the castles of Daroca, Morella, Zaragoza, and the forts of Pancorbo in the interior. These operations required many men, but the early fall of Pancorbo enabled O’Donnel’s reserve to blockade Pampeluna, and Don Carlos D’España’s division, four thousand strong, which had remained at Miranda del Castanar to improve its organization when lord Wellington advanced to the Ebro, was approaching to reinforce him. The harbour of Passages was the only port near the scene of operations suited for the supply of the army. Yet it had this defect, that being situated between the covering and the besieging army, the stores and guns once landed were in danger from every movement of the enemy. The Deba river, between San Sebastian and Bilbaō, was unfit for large vessels, and hence no permanent depôt could be established nearer than Bilbaō. At that port therefore, and at St. Ander and Coruña, the great depôts of the army were fixed, the stores being transported to them from the establishments in Portugal; but the French held Santona, and their privateers interrupted the communication along the coast of Spain while American privateers did the same between Lisbon and Coruña. On the other hand the intercourse between San Sebastian and the ports of France was scarcely molested, and the most urgent remonstrances failed to procure a sufficient naval force on the coast of Biscay. It was in these circumstances Wellington commenced THE SIEGE OF SAN SEBASTIAN. This place was built on a low sandy isthmus formed by the harbour on one side and the river Urumea on the other. Behind it rose the Monte Orgullo, a rugged cone nearly four hundred feet high, washed by the ocean and crowned with the small castle of La Mota. Its southern face overlooking the town, was yet cut off from it by a line of defensive works and covered with batteries; but La Mota itself was commanded, at a distance of thirteen hundred yards, by the Monte Olia on the other side of the Urumea. The land front of San Sebastian was three hundred and fifty yards wide, stretching quite across the isthmus. It consisted of a high curtain or rampart, very solid, strengthened by a lofty casemated flat bastion or cavalier placed in the centre, and by half bastions at either end. A regular horn-work was pushed out from this front, and six hundred yards beyond the horn-work the isthmus was closed by the ridge of San Bartolomeo, at the foot of which stood the suburb of San Martin.