FRENCH OFFICIAL ACCOUNTS.

TWENTY-FIRST BULLETIN.

(No date.)—The English entered Spam on the 29th of October; during the months of November and December they beheld the destruction of the army of Gallicia 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 beheld the fall of Madrid without making a single movement, and without any attempt to succour the Spanish armies, to whom, however, a division of the English troops would have proved of considerable assistance. In the beginning of December, information was received, that the columns of the British army were retreating on Corunna, where they were to re-embark. By later accounts, it afterwards appeared that they had halted, and that on the 16th December they set out from Salamanca in order to take the field. As early as the 15th, the light cavalry had marched from Valadolid. The whole of the English army passed the Douro, and arrived on the 23d in presence of the Duke of Dalmatia at Saldanha.

As soon as the Emperor was apprised 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 diligence exerted by the French troops, the passage of the mountain of Guadarama, 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 bead-quarters were on the 23d at Villa Castin, the 25th at Tordesillas, and on the 27th at Medino de Rio-Seco. On the 24th, at

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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 morning of the movement that took place at Madrid, they immediately began to retreat, abandoning their Spanish adherents, whose passions they had inflamed, the remains of the Gallician army, that had conceived fresh hopes, some of their hospitals, and a part of their baggage, and a great number of stragglers. They committed great devastations, the inevitable result of forced marches of troops in retreat; they carried away with them mules, horses, and several other effects; they pillaged a great number of churches and convents. In the abbey of Sahagun, which contained 60 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 a gainst them, and their difference of language, manners, and of religion, contributed not a little to that disposition of men's minds. They reproached the Spaniards with having no longer an army to unite with theirs, and with having deceived the English government. The Spaniards returned for answer, that Spain had numerous armies, but that the English had allowed them to be destroyed, without having made any effort to assist them. During the fifteen days that have just elapsed, they did not fire a single musket. The light cavalry only had given some blows with their swords. Gen. Duresnel, at the head of 400 light horse of the guard, fell in at the close of the evening with a column of English infantry on their march,

sabred a number of soldiers, and carried disorder into the columns.

General Lefebvre, Disnonettes, colonel of the chasseurs of the guard, detached two days before, with three squadrons of his regiment, having taken a quantity of baggage, of women, and stragglers, and finding the bridge of Ezela cut down, imagined that the town of Benevente 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 Benevente, 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 against 2000. There was no resisting numbers. Those brave fellows re-crossed the river. The horse of Gen. Lefebvre was killed by a ball. He had himself received a wound from a pistol shot, and being dismounted, was made prisoner. Ten of his chasseurs, who had also been dismounted, were likewise 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 Frenchman; 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 Valderas; the head-quarters of the Duke of Dalmatia at Mancilla, of the Duke of Elchingen at Villafora. On his departure from Madrid, the Emperor appointed King Joseph his Lieutenant General, with the command of the garrison of the capital, together with the corps of the Dukes of Dantzic and Belluno, the divisions of cavalry of Lasalle, Milhaud, and La

tour. Maubourg is left for the protection of the centre.

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

TWENTY-SECOND BULLETIN.

Benevente, Dec. 31.-On the 30th, the cavalry commanded by the Duke of Istria, passed the Ezela. On the evening of the 30th, it traversed Benevente, and pursued the enemy as far as Puenta de la Vilana. On the same day the head-quarters were established at Benevente. 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 unprofitable, and which could be hurtful only to the country; the rear betook themselves to the most shocking plundering.— The soldiers, in the excess of their continual intemperance, gave reins to all the licentiousness 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 outra ges. This 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 Benevente ten days ago, triumphed already in hope, and already having their colours hung with trophies, nothing could equal the audacity and security they displayed. On their return, their countenance was sadly changed. They were harrassed with fatigue, and seemed to be borne down with the shame of retreating without a battle. In order to anticipate the just reproaches of the Spaniards, the English continued incessantly to repeat, that they had been promised to be joined by numerous forces;

and the Spaniards repelled their calumnious assertions by arguments to which there was no answer.

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 Spaniards bad put under arms; that these 180,000 men had fought, while, for six weeks, the English had remained 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 ago, they again moved forward, intoxicated with the silly hope of deceiving the vigilance of the French general, they fell into the snare which the French general had laid for drawing them into the open country. They had before made some marches on their return to their ships.

You ought, observe the Spaniards, to have persisted in that prudent determination, or else you should have been in force enough to balance the destinies of the French. Above all, you ought not to have at first advanced with such confidence, only afterwards to fall back with so much precipitation. You 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 accumulations of disasters, you ought not to throw the fault upon us.

We have not been able to resist the French troops; nor did you seem more able to make head against them. Forbear therefore to accuse us, to outrage us-all our misfortunes we owe to you.

The English had reported throughout the country that they had de

feated 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 Benevente were much surprised upon visiting the field of battle, to have found there only three Englishmen and two French. That contest of 400 men against 2000, does great honour to the French. During the whole of the 29th, the river continued 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 occupied 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 embarrass 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 sort of sacrifice;-some religious rite which gives rise, in 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. Benevente, Jan, 1, 1809.-The Duke of Dalmatia arrived on the 30th of Dec. at Mancilla, where was the left of the enemy, consisting of the Spaniards under General Romana. General Franceschi overthrew them in a single charge; killed a great number, took two stan

dards, and made prisoners a colonel, two lieut.-colonels, 50 officers, and 1500 soldiers.

On the 31st the Duke of Dalmatia, entered Leon, where he found 2000 sick. Romana has succeeded Blake in the command, after the battle of Espinosa. The remains of that army which, while before Bilboa, consisted of 50,000 men, were reduced to almost 5000 at Mancilla. These wretches, without cloaths, and oppressed with every misery, filled the hospitals.

The English are held in detestation by these troops whom they despise, and by the peaceable inhabitants, 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 fallacious 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 the meanest and most illiterate Spanish peasant. They know what they suffer and the authors of their sufferings are before their eyes.

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Meantime the English retreat with the utmost haste, pursued by the Duke of Istria, with 9000 cavalry. Among the magazines which they burnt at Benevente, were, in dependent 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 Eng

lish '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 folly of making a move. ment forward after the Spanish armies had been destroyed; that, in a word, it entered upon the new year by running away, pursued 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 enterprizes and such results can belong only to a country that has no government. Fox, or even Pitt, would not have been guilty of such blunders. To contend against France by land, who has one hundred thousand cavalry, fifty thousand horses for all sorts of military equip ment, and nine hundred thousand infantry were, on the part of Enggland, carrying folly to the utmost extreme; it betrays indeed a greed iness for disgrace; it is, in fine, to administer the affairs of England just as the cabinet of the Thuilleries could wish them to be administered. It betrays no small ignorance of Spain, to have imagined that any importance could be attached to popular commotion, or to indulge the smallest hope that by kindling in that country the flames of sedition, such a conflagration could be attended with any decided result, 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 convention 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 the unanimous resolution to re-assert rights of which she had been deprived in times of obscurity. In Spain, it was a few men who stirred up the people in order to preserve the exclusive 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 zeal for their personal interests, but could never infuse 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 Saint-Cyr shaped his march against Barcelona at the head of the 7th corps, He dispersed every thing that he found before that place, and formed a junction with Gen. Duhesme. That junction brought his army to 40,000 men.

The Dukes of Treviso and Abrantes have carried all the outworks at Saragossa. The general of Engineers, Lacoste, is preparing the means of getting possession of that city without any loss.

The King of Spain is gone to Aranjuez, in order to review the first corps commanded by the Duke of Belluno.

TWENTY-FOURTH BULLETIN.

Astorga, Jan. 2. The Emperor arrived at Astorga on the 1st of January. The road from Benevente to Astorga is covered with dead horses belonging to the English, with travelling carriages, artillery, caissons, and warlike stores. There were found at Astorga magazines of sheets, blankets, and the tools and implements of pioneers.

As to Romana's army, it is reduced almost to nothing. The small number that remain are without coats, shoes, pay, food, and it is no longer to be considered any thing.

The Emperor has charged the Duke of Dalmatia 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 inconsiderate 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 in their operations on the continent.

All that remains of the Spanish insurgent troops have been without pay for several months back.

TWENTY-FIFTH BULLETIN.

Benevente, Jan. 5.-His Majesty being informed that the English army was reduced to less than 20,000 men, resolved upon moving his headquarters from Astorga to Benevente, where he will remain some days, and from whence he will proceed to take a central position at Valladolid, leaving to the Duke of Dalmatia the task of destroying the English army.

His Majesty, on being informed that in the places, where the prisoners were collected, and where there are ten Spaniards for one Englishman, the Spaniards ill-used and plundered the English, gave orders for separating the English from the Spaniards, and for observing towards the former a particular sort of treatment.

The rear-guard of the English, by accepting battle at Prievas, had hoped to enable the left column which was chiefly composed of Spaniards, to form its junction at Villa Franca.-They also hoped to gain a night, in order more completely to evacuate Villa Franca. We found in the hospital at Villa Franca 300 English sick or wounded. The En glish burnt in that town a large maga zine of flour and corn. They also destroyed several artillery carriages, and killed 500 of their horses. We have already counted 1600 of them