JET. 31.] PENINSULAR WAR. 441 



" It is very unsafe to infer much from Bonaparte's 

 present inactivity. He did nothing for months after 

 Eylau and Baylen. 



"Malthus leaves Hertford to-day, and I suppose 

 will call at Howick in the course of a week or ten days. 



" I shall write again to-morrow or Monday. Be- 

 lieve me, &c. H. BROUGHAM." 



TO EARL GEEY. 



" July 4, 1809. 



" DEAR LORD GREY, There are letters from H. 

 Bouverie, dated Abrantes, June 1 7. They are stopped 

 for want of money, and must remain there a week or 

 ten days. Victor had just sent his baggage, &c., 

 through Truxillo, meaning to retreat by that way 

 to Madrid. I guess Wellesley will be well enough 

 pleased to let him do so. They complain of Cuesta's 

 obstinacy, but say his army is more respectable than 

 any that had appeared among the Spaniards. Mel- 

 lish had been with despatches to him, and gives this 

 account. You recollect what a bad one he gave of 

 Silviera's, which is some reason for crediting his 

 praises of Cuesta's. 



" An intercepted despatch to Joseph Bonaparte 

 gives Junot leave to return to France, after he shall 

 have fortified the bridge which commands Saragossa, 

 planned a fort at Tudela, and sent all the spare artil- 

 lery to France. This, with many of the other symp- 

 toms, looks like retreating to the Ebro again until 

 things are settled in Germany. 



