Star.
London, England, 1809-01-23 00:00:00

FRENCH BULLETINS,

TWENTY-MST BULLETIN .OF THE ARMY 07
SPAIN. (NO DATE.)

el The English entered Spain on the e 29th October
.•-during the months of November and December
they beheld the destruction of the army of Galicia at
Espinosa ; of the army of Estramadura at Burgos,
_of that of Arragon and Valencia, at Tudela ; of the
Army of Reserve at Somo-Sierra ; in fine, they be.
held the fall of Madrid, without making a single
movement, and without any attempt to succoure
Spanish armies, to whom, however, a division of the
English troops would have proved of censiderabk
assistance. In the beginning of December, informa-
tion was received that the columns of the British
army were retreating on Corunna, where they were
to re-embark. By:later accounts, it afterwards ap-
that they had halted, and that on the 16th of
December they set out from Salamanca in order to
take the field. As early as the ISth, the light cavalry
bad marched from Valladolid. The whole of the,
English army passed the Douro, and arrived on the
Ind in presence of the Duke of Dalmatia at Saldanha.
As soon as the Emperor was apprized at Madrid
of this unexpected determination on the part of the
English, he marched in order to cut off their retreat,
and pursue their rear. But notwithstanding the dili-
gence exerted by the French troops, the passage of
the Mountain of Gnadararna, which was covered
with snow, the incessant rain, and the overflowing of
the torrents, delayed their march full two days.
On the 22d the Emperor left Madrid. His head-
quarters were on the 23,1 at Villa-Castin, the 2.5 th at
Tordesillas, and on the 27th at Medina de Rio-Secco.
On the 24th, at break of day, the enemy had begun
to move, in order to outflank the left of the Duke of
Dalmatia, but having been informed during the morn-
ing of the movement that took place at Madrid, they
immediately began to retreat, abandoning their Spanish
adherents, whose passions they had inflamed, the re-
mains of the Galician army, that had conceived fresh

hopes, some of their hospitals, and a part of their
baggage, and a great number of stragglers. They
trimmed great devastations, the inevitable result of
frrced marches of troops in retreat ; they carried away
with them mules, horses, and several other effects ;
they pillaged a great number of churches and con-
vi rts. In the Abbey of Sahagun, which contained
t: 0 Monks, and which had all along been respected
by the French army, they committed every sort of
depredation. Every where the Priests and the Monks
were seen flying at their approach. This disorderly
conduct exasperated the country against them, and
their difference of language, manners,ittnd of reli-
gion. contributed not a little to that disposition of
Teen's minds. They reproached the Spaniards with
Saving no longer an army to unite with theirs, and
with having deceived the English Government. The
Spaniards returned for answer, that Spain had nume-
rous armies, but that the English had allowed them
to be destroyed, without having made any effort to II
assist them.' During the fifteen clays that have just
elapsed, they did not fire a single musket. The light
cavalry only had given some blows with their swords.
General Duresrel, at the head of 400 light horse of
the guard, fell in at the close of the evening with a
column of English iiibrantry on their march, sabred a
11,1 rut suitat.is, And carried disorder into the co-
lumn.

General Lefebvre Disnonettes, Colonel of the'
Chasseurs of the Guard, who was detached twe days
before, with three squadrons of his regiment, having.
taken a quantity of baggage, of women and straggle a, "
and finding the bridge of Ezela cut down, imaginedthat
the tawn of Bcnavente was evacuated. Carried away
by that impetuosity with which the French soldiers
have been so often reproached, he swam across the
river, in Order to make for Benavcnte, where he fell
in with the whole of the cavalry of the rear-guard of
the English : a long contest here ensued, of 400 men
agAiiist 2000. There was no resisting numbers.—
Those brave fellows recrossed the river. The horse
of General Lefebvre was killed by a ball. He had
himself received a wound from a pistol shot, and be-
ing dismounted, was made prisoner. Ten of his
chasseurs, who had also been dismounted, were like-
wise taken, five were .drowned, and twenty were
wounded. This sharp affair must have convinced the
English what they would have to dread from such
men in general action; General Lefebvre undoubtedly
committed a fault, but it was the fault of a French-
man ; he ought to be blamed and rewarded at. the
same time. The number of prisoners taken from the
enemy up to the present moment, and who are chiefly
composed of scattered individuals and stragglers,
amounts to 300.

" On the 28th the head-quarters of the Emperor
were at \raid-eras ; the head-quarters of the Duke of
Dalmatia at Manilla, of the Duke of Elchingen, at
Villafora. On his departure from Madrid, the Em-
peror appointed King Joseph his Lieutenant-General,
with the command of the garrison of the Capital, to-
gether with the corps of the Dukes of Dantric and
lielluno ; the divisions of cavalry of Lasalle, Mil-
haud, and Latour-Maubourg are left for the protec-
tion of the centre.

‘, The weather is extremely bad. To a piercing
cold, heavy and continued rains have succeeded. We
suffer, but the English must suffer still more."

TWENTY-SECOND BULLETIN of the ARMY of SPAIN.
" Bensvente, December SI.
41 On the 30th, the cavalry commanded by the
Duke of Istria, passed the Ezela. On the evening
of the 30th, it traversed Benavente, and pursued the
enemy as far as Puenta de la Vilana. On the same
dig the head quarters were established at Benavente.
The English were not satisfied with destroying an
arch of the bridge of Ezela, but they also blew up
the buttresses with mines, a damage wholly unpro-
fitable, and which could be hurtful only to the
country ; the reat betook themselves to the most
shocking plundering. The soldiers, in the excess of
their continual intemperance, gave reins to all the
centiousness of brutal inebriety. Every thing in their
conduct bespoke rather an hostile army than one
which came to the assistance of a friendly power.—
The contempt of the English for the Spaniards gave
a sharper edge to the impression made by so many
outrages. Phis experience will throw a salutary
damp on those insurrections, instigated by foreigners.
One cannot help regretting. that the English had not
sent an army into Andalusia. The army that passed
through Benavente ten days ago, triumphed already
in hope, and having their colours already hung withl
trophies, nothing could equal the audacity and secu-
rity
they displayed. On their return, their counte-
nance was sadly changed. They were harassed with
fatigue, and seemed to be borne down with shame of
retreating without a battle. In order to anticipate
the just reproaches of the Spaniards, the English con.
tinned incessantly to repeat, that they had been pro.
raised to be joined by numerous forces ; and the
Spaniards repelled their calumnious assertions by ar-
guments to which there was no answer.
44 Ten days ago, when the English were traversing
the country, they well knew that the Spanish armies
had been destroyed. The Commissaries whom they
employed to accompany the armies of the left, of the
centre, and of the right, knew full well that it was
not 50,000 men only, but 180,000 men that the Spa-
niards had put under arms that these 180.000 men
had fought, while, for six w:eeks, the English had re-
mained unconcerned spectators of their struggles.—
These Commissaries could not but • have made it
known that the Spanish armies had ceased to exist.
The English, therefore, could not be ignorant that
the Spaniards were without armies. When, ten days
e
ago, they again moved forward, intoxicated with the
silly ho of deceiving the vigilance of the French
General, -they fell into the snare which the French Ge-
neral had laid for drawing them into the open coun-
try. They had before made some marches to their
return to their ships.
u You ought, observe the Spaniards, to have per-
sisted in that prudent determination, or else you
should have been in force enough to balance the des-
tinies of the French. Above all, you ought not to
have at first advanced with such confidence, only af-
terwards to FA back with so much precipitation.—
Yon should not have drawn the theatre of the war
among us, and- expose us to the ravages of the two
armies. After having brought down upon our heads
such accumulated disasters, you ought not to throw
the fault upon us.
" We have not been able to resist the French troops ;
nor d 6 you seem more able to make head against
them. Forbear therefore to accuse us, to outrage ds—
all our misfortunes we owe to you.
" The English had reported throughout the coun-
try that they had defeated 5000 of the French cavalry
on the banks of the Ezela, and that the field of battle
was covered with their dead. The inhabitants of
Benavente were much surprised upon visiting the
field of battle, to have found there only three Eng-
lislimen and two French. That contest of 400 men
against 2000, does great honour to the French.
64 During the whole of the 29th, the river conti-
nued to swell considerably, so that at the close of the
evening it became impossible to ford it. It was in
the middle of the river, and at the moment he was on
the point of being drowned, that General Lefebvre,
being carried away by the current to the side occu-
pied by the English, was made prisoner. The loss
of the enemy in killed and wounded in that affair of
advanced posts' has been far greater than that of the
French. The flight of the English was so precipitate,
that they left at their hospital their sick and wounded,
and were obliged to burn a fine magazine of tents
and clothing. They killed all the horses that were
over fatigued or wounded, and which might embar-
rass their retreat. It is scarcely here to be, credited ;
how that spectacle so shocking to our manners, of:
hundreds of horses shot with pistols, is revolting to
the Spaniards. Many persons look upon it as a sorti
of sacrifice. Some religious rite which gives rise, is

the mind of the Spaniards, to very strange pictures of
the religion of England. The English are retreating
in the utmost haste. All the Germans in their pay
are deserting. Our army will, this evening, be at
Astorga, near the borders of Galicia.

TWENTY-THIRD BULLETIN OF THE ARMY OF SPAIN.

" Benevente, Jan. 1.

The Duke of Dalmatia arrived bn the 30th Dec.
at Mantilla, where was the left of the enemy, con-
sisting of the Spaniards under General Romana.—
General Franchesi overthrew them in a single charge;
killed a great number, took two standards, and made
prisoners a Colonel, two Lieutenant-Colonels, 50
officers, and 1500 soldiers.

" On the 31st the Duke of Dalmatia entered
Leon, where he found 2000 sick. Romana has suc-
ceeded Blake in the command after the battle of Es-
pinosa. The remains of that army, v.-high, while
before Bilboa, consisted of 50,000 men, were reduced
to almost 5000 at Mancilla. These wretches, with-
out clothes, and oppressed with every misery, filled
the hospitals.
" The English are held in detestation by these
troops whom they despise, and by the peaceable in-
habitants, whom they abuse, and whose substance
they devour, in order to support their own army.
" The mind of the people of the kingdom of Leon
is much changed. They loudly cry out for peace
and their king ; they curse the English and their fal-
lacious insinuations. They reproach them with being
the cause of the shedding of Spanish blood, in order
to feed the English monopoly and perpetuate the war
on the Continent. The perfidy of England, and her
motives are now obvious to tbe meanest and most
illiterate Spanish peasant. They know what they
suffer ; and the authors of their suffelllngs are before
their eyes.
" Mean time the English retreat with the utmost
haste, pursued by the Dtlk.2 of Istria with 9000 ca-
valry. Among the magazines which they burnt at
Benevente were, independent of tents, 4000 blankets
and a great quantity of rum. We picked up upwards
of 200 waggons of baggage and ammunition, left on
the road from Benevente to Astorga. The shattered
remains of Romana's army threw themselves into the
latter town, and increased the confusion.

" The events of the English. Expedition to Spain
must furnish materials for a fine opening speech to the
English Parliament. The English nation must be
informed, that her army remained three months in a
state of inaction, while it was in their power to assist
the Spaniards ; that its leaders, or those whose orders
they executed, have been guilty of the extreme fully
of making a movement lorvrard after the Spanish
armies had been destroyed ; that, in a word, k entered
upon the new year by running away, pumed by an
enemy, whom it did not dare to fight, and by the
curses of those whom it had stirred up to resistance,
and whom it was its duty to support. Such enter-
prises and such results can belong only to a count? y
that has no government. Fox, or even Pitt, would
not have been gaiity of such blunders. To contend
against France by land, who has 100,000 cavalry,
50,000 horses for all sorts of military equipment, and
' 900,000 infantry, were, on the part of England, car-
rying folly* to the utmost extreme ; is betrays indeei
a greediness for disgrace ; it is, in fine, to administer
the affairs of England just as the Cabinet of the Thuil-
leries batik' wish them to be administered. It betrays
no small ignorance of Spain, to have imagined that
any importance could be attached to popular com-
motion, or to indulge the smallest hope, that by kind-
ling in that country the flames of sedition, such a
conflagration could be attended with any decided re-
sult or any material duration. A few fanatical priests
are quite sufficient to compose and propagate libels,
to carry a momentary disorder into the minds of men ;
but something else is required to cause a nation to
rise to arms. At the time of the French Revolution,
it required three years and the presence of the Con-
vention to prepare the means of military successes ;
and who that does not know to what hazards France
was, nevertheless, exposed ? France was, however,
stirred up. Supported by tke unanimous resolution
to reassert rights of which she had been deprived in
times of obscurity: In Spain, it was a few men who
stirred up the people, order to preserve the exclu-
sive possession of rights odious to the people. Those
who fought for the Inquisition, for the Franciscans,
and for feudal rights, might be animated by an ardent
seal for their personal interests, but could never in-
fuse into a whole nation a firm resolve or a permanent
opinion. In spite of the English, feudal rights, the
Franciscans, and the Inquisition, have no longer any
existence in Spain.
" After the capture of Rosas, General Gouvion St.
Cyr shaped his march against Barcelona, at the head
of the ith corps. He dispersed evtry thing that he
found before that place, and formed a junction with
General Duhesme. That junction brought his army
to 40,000 men.

" The Dukes of Treviso and Abrantes have car-
ried all the outworks at Saragossa. The General of
Engineers, Laco&ti, is preparing the means of getting
possession of that city without any loss.
4, The King of Spain is gone to Aranjuez, in order
to review the first corps, commanded by the Duke of
Belluno."

TWENTY-FOURTH BULLETIN OF THE ARMY OF

SPAIN.

" Astorga, Jan. 2.

44 The Emperor arrived at Astorga on the Ist of
January. The road from Benevente to Astorga is
covered with dead horses belonging to the English,
with travelling carriages, artillery, caissons, and war-
like stores. There were found at Astorga magazines
of sheets, blankets, and the tools and implements of
pioneers.
44 As to Romana's army, it is reduced almost to
nothing. The small number that remain are with-
out coats, shoes, pay, food, aad it is no longer t. be
considered any thing.
" The Emperor has charged the Duke of "Dalma-
tia with the glorious mission of pursuing the English
to the place of their embarkation, and of driving them
into the sea, at the point of the sword.
" The English will learn what it is to make an in-
considerate movement in presence of the French army.
The manner in which they have been driven from the
kingdoms of Leon and Gallicia, and the destruction
of a part of their army will, no doubt, teach them to
be more circumspect of their operations on the Con-
tinent.
- All that remains of the Spanish insurgent troops
has been wit hi nt pay for several months back.'