GENERAL HISTORY. 



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Lord Wellington continued 

 following the enemy who were 

 retiring upon Burgos ; and on 

 the 16th he was joined by three 

 divisions of infantry and a small 

 body of cavalry of the Gallician 

 army under General Castanos. On 

 the 17th the enemy were driven to 

 the heightsclose to Burgos, through 

 which city they retired in the night, 

 leaving behind them some stores 

 and a quantity of provision. A 

 considerable garrison was placed 

 in the castle of Burgos which com- 

 mands the passage of the river, and 

 retarded the crossing of the allied 

 army till the 19th, The French 

 had also fortified with a horn-work 

 the hill of St. Michael, three hun- 

 dred yards from the castle, and 

 commanding some of its works. 

 The possession of this hill was a 

 necessary preliminary to an attack 

 on the castle ; its outworks were 

 therefore immediately occupied by 

 the allied troops ; and as soon as it 

 was dark, an assault was made on 

 the horn-work, which was carried, 

 but not without considerable loss. 



On the night of the 22nd, Lord 

 Wellington directed that an at- 

 tempt should be made to storm the 

 exterior line of the enemy's works. 

 The attack was to have been made 

 by detachments of the Portuguese 

 who occupied the town of Burgos, 

 and invested the castle on the south- 

 west side, while a detachment of 

 English under Major Laurie should 

 scale the wall in front. The Portu- 

 guese unfortunately were not able 

 to overcome the opposition they 

 met with, and the escalade could 

 not take place. The loss on this 

 failure was severe. The French 

 army was now about Pancorbo and 

 Miranda on the Ebro, with their 

 adranced post at Breviesca. 



A mine which had been laid 

 under the exterior line of the castle 

 exploded on the night of the 29th, 

 and made a breach in the wall, 

 which a party of the assailants im- 

 mediately attempted to storm ; but 

 the darkness causing the detach- 

 ment which was meant to support 

 them to miss its way, they were 

 driven off. The superiority of the 

 enemy's fire afterwards prevented 

 the construction of batteries for 

 widening the breach. A second 

 mine, however, being sprung on 

 October 4th, another breach was 

 made, which was immediately 

 stormed with success, and the al- 

 lied troops established themselves 

 within the exterior line. The 

 French were still upon the Ebro, 

 and made no effort to disturb the 

 besiegers. Some days previously. 

 General Hill was on the Tagus be- 

 tween Aranjuez and Toledo. Bal- 

 lasteros was at Granada, which had 

 been quitted by Soult, who march- 

 ed on through Murcia to make a 

 junction with King Joseph. 



The garrison of the Castle of 

 Burgos made sorties on the 6th, 

 and the 10th, in which they con- 

 siderably injured the works of the 

 allies, and occasioned some loss of 

 men ; the besiegers, however, ef- 

 fected a breach in the interior line, 

 and lodged some troops close to it. 

 Things continued nearly in the 

 same state till the 18th, when Lord 

 Wellington having received a sup- 

 ply of ammunition, and completed 

 another mine, determined upon 

 storming the breach in the second 

 line as soon as that should explode. 

 The attempt was made with great 

 gallantry, but the fire of the ene- 

 my directed to the spot was so 

 powerful, that the assailants were 

 obliged to retire with considerable 



loss. 



