Robert Southey

CATALONIA. BATTLE OF VALLS. DEATH OF REDING. BLAKE APPOINTED TO THE COMMAND. BATTLE OF ALCANIZ. FLIGHT OF THE SPANIARDS AT BELCHITE. COMMENCEMENT OF THE GUERILLAS.

?1809.
February.?

Three circumstances had materially contributed to the success of the Galicians: the aid and confidence which they derived from the British ships, whereby they were assisted first in recovering Vigo, and afterwards at the bridge of S. Payo; the rare virtues of Romana, whose single thought was how to serve his country, and who for that object, shrinking neither from responsibility nor obloquy, acted always with promptitude and decision upon his own judgement; and, lastly, the very condition, or rather destitution of his army: its name and presence had a powerful effect in rousing and encouraging the people, while the troops themselves felt and understood their utter inability for any other mode of warfare than that which their leader was pursuing, and thus derived strength from the very knowledge of their weakness. In Catalonia the people were not less brave and patriotic; there was a stronger British squadron off the coast; and the army was respectable for numbers, sufficiently equipped, and in a state of discipline not to be despised. But the Generals in succession were deficient either in military skill or natural talent, or that vigour of mind without which all other qualifications in a commander are of no avail.

?Proceedings of the French after the fall of Zaragoza.?

Neither in Aragon nor in Catalonia had the French been able to follow up their success. They had paid dearly for Zaragoza: even the army of observation had been so harassed during that ever-memorable siege, that it was necessary to allow them some repose. Having possessed themselves of Jaca by the treachery of the governor, and of Monzon, which was evacuated by the garrison because Lazan had taken no effectual measures for supplying it with provisions; they were repulsed in three attempts upon Mequinenza. They summoned Lerida, thinking to intimidate the inhabitants by the fate of the Zaragozans; but that example had produced an effect which neither Buonaparte nor his Generals were capable of anticipating; they estimated every thing by success, and with them to be unfortunate was to be despised and miserable. Marshal Lasnes was told in answer to his summons, that Zaragoza, unprotected as it was, had held out ten months against its besiegers, and that Lerida was a strong place. The Spaniards were also reminded that the Prince of CondÉ had been baffled before that fortress. It was expected by some of the Spanish officers that St. Cyr, in conjunction with the French from Aragon, would besiege the city without delay; that he would afterwards attack Tarragona, and then, marching from conquest to conquest, proceed against Valencia. Others ?CabaÑes, c. 14.? supposed, that for the more immediate object of securing the communication between France and Barcelona, his first measure would be to get possession of Hostalrich. Orders were indeed sent to St. Cyr to undertake with his corps the ?St. Cyr, 130.? sieges of Gerona, Tarragona, and Tortosa, at the same time; enterprises so much beyond his means, that the order made him doubt whether it was an error in the ciphers of the dispatch, or an act of folly in those who dictated instructions which could not have been obeyed without exposing the army to some great and inevitable disaster. That General had as little reason to be satisfied with his situation, as with the cause in which he was employed. Having exhausted the resources within reach, he was obliged to quit his position at Martorell, S. Sadurni, Villa Franca, and Vendrell, and draw nearer to Tarragona, Reus, and Valls. His great object was to bring on another action, for the purpose of establishing the superiority of the French arms in the feelings of his own army, as well as of the Spaniards; for notwithstanding the splendid successes which he had achieved, that opinion ?St. Cyr, 118.? was daily losing ground while the Catalans confined themselves to a system of desultory warfare.

?State of the Catalan army.?

Upon such a system Reding had resolved to act in conformity to the opinion of all his best officers. Hope, enterprise, and activity, were thus excited; and the spirit not of the irregular force alone, but of the troops, was raised, as every day brought tidings of some partial and animating success. Meantime he exerted himself in endeavouring to bring the army into a state of discipline, acting when that was in question with a decision which he wanted at other times. One regiment he broke for having refused to obey a Swiss officer in action. His character stood so high with the Catalans, that this vigorous measure did not injure his popularity; for he had the full support of public feeling and of the local authorities. The Junta of Tarragona coined not only the plate of individuals, but that of the churches also, for the pay of the troops; and for two months the hospitals received their whole supplies, and the army the whole of their pay, clothing, and food, from the inhabitants of that faithful city. It was at this ?CabaÑes, c. 14.? time that one of the best and ablest men whom these calamitous times forced into action, the Baron de Eroles, D. Joaquin YbaÑez, resigned his place in the Superior Junta, and putting on the Miquelet uniform, took the command of a body of those troops, believing that he could serve his country more effectually in the field than in council. Throughout the whole subsequent course of the war no Spaniard made himself more conspicuous, nor has any one acquired a higher or more irreproachable name.

?New levies.?

A conscription of every fifth man throughout the principality was called for, without distinction of ranks, in obedience to the decree of the Central Junta; the men were willing to serve, but an error was committed in embodying them with the regular troops, because the Catalans disliked that service, and were proud of the name as well as attached to the privileges of the Miquelets. Some attempt was made to bring this irregular but most useful force into a better state of order and uniformity, for which purpose the camp-marshal, D. Josef Joaquin Marti, was appointed their commander-in-chief; but this proved altogether abortive. Even the proper returns of the men who were to be under his command could not be obtained; and though he had ability as well as zeal to qualify him for the charge, nothing could be done, when means of every kind were wanting. The province, however, was in arms. The people, knowing their own physical strength, and impatient of seeing their country oppressed by a handful of invaders, began to murmur at the General’s inactivity: he was assailed by anonymous writings, accusing him of incapacity or treason; and this General was as sensitive to such attacks as he was sensible of the difficulties that surrounded ?CabaÑes, c. 14.? him. Brave, honourable, humane, and well acquainted with the art of war, he wanted the main qualifications for it when entrusted with command; having neither fortitude to persevere against vulgar clamour in the cautious system which he was sensible was best suited to the time, nor promptitude to act with vigour and decision when he departed from it.

?Reding determines to act on the offensive.?

The Central Junta had sent D. Tomas de Veri, one of its members, as its representative to Catalonia. A like measure had been adopted in the tumultuous times of the French Revolution; the circumstances in Spain were altogether different, and these missions appear neither to have produced good nor evil. On the present occasion Veri was in favour of active operations; and that opinion, which had necessarily much weight with Reding, was strengthened by assurances that an insurrection would be attempted in Barcelona as soon as any movements on his part should be made to favour it. The Camp-marshal Marti was called upon to form the plan of a general attack; his own judgement was decidedly opposed to it, but Reding had determined upon action in deference to the popular cry. He did not like to hear it remarked that the troops were more willing to eat their rations than to march against the enemy; and he wished also to ascertain in the field whether any reliance might be placed upon the Somatens, and upon that general enthusiasm which he did not participate, and in which he had no faith. If he entertained any hope, it was founded upon the promised effort in Barcelona, ... which of all hopes had the least foundation; ... for the fortresses having now been well victualled, the time was gone by when it might have been of advantage to have got possession of the city. But even after his resolution to act on the offensive was taken, the movements of the army were delayed by that ominous mood of mind which draws on ill fortune more surely than it foresees it. And in strange opposition to what happened in all other parts of the Peninsula, all Reding’s plans were perfectly well known to the French, while he obtained no information of their movements or of their numbers on which he could rely. On ?Staff. Befreiungs Krieg der Katalonier, p. 148.? the other hand, by a singular perversion of principle, the Catalans whom the French had in their pay made it a point of honour and conscience to communicate full and true intelligence. The task was not difficult; for Reding, in the certainty that his intentions were betrayed as soon as they were formed, gave up all hope of secrecy; and every thing was talked of in public, with a desperate carelessness, as if it were useless to observe even the rules of common prudence.

?The Spaniards driven from Igualada.?

The Spaniards occupied a line from Martorell to Tarragona, through Bruch, Capelladas, S. Magi, and Col de S. Cristina; the head-quarters, under Camp-marshal D. Juan Bautista de Castro, being at Igualada: this line covered the whole south of the principality, and touched upon the north at Valls, where the levy in mass was to be effected. St. Cyr waited till the Spaniards had weakened themselves to his desire by extending their line so far as to render it vulnerable in many points: then leaving Souham’s division at Vendrell to observe the troops at Col de S. Cristina and near Tarragona, he, with the divisions of Pino, Chabot, and Chabran, ?Feb. 17.? attacked the Spaniards on their left at various points, and, though at one time Chabot’s division was in danger of being routed, succeeded in driving them back upon Igualada, where, with an imprudence which experience had not corrected, large magazines had been assembled. They had neglected to occupy the road from Llacuna in sufficient strength, though it was the key to all their positions on the way to Barcelona; by this road they found themselves attacked in the rear, when falling back already dispirited and in confusion; and it was only by flight that they escaped in the directions of ?St. Cyr, 103–106.
CabaÑes, c. 14.? Cervera, Cardona, and Manresa. Castro was removed from his command, for the want of skill or of zeal which he had manifested in these operations. His subsequent conduct confirmed the worst suspicions that could then have been entertained; for he entered the Intruder’s service, and holding a military command under him, became, as far as his power extended, the scourge of his countrymen.

?Failure of the French attempt against the Abbey of the Creus.?

It was part of St. Cyr’s plan that Souham, when he was apprised of the success of these operations, either by the ceasing of the fire, or by any other means, should beat the detachment at Col de S. Cristina, and join him at VillarradoÑa, when it was hoped that the Spaniards might be driven from all their positions, in utter rout, once more within the walls of Tarragona. To effect this the French commander proceeded with Pino’s division against a body of Spaniards under Brigadier D. Miguel de Iranzo, who occupied ?Feb. 18.? the position of S. Magi. The distance had appeared trifling upon the map: it proved long and difficult, the road during great part of the way being so narrow that the troops, foot as well as horse, could only defile man by man: they did not reach the position till four in the afternoon; the attack lasted till night closed, and the Spaniards then, unable to maintain their ground, retreated under cover of the darkness. Here, however, an unexpected difficulty impeded the conquerors; they were not acquainted with the country, nor had they been able, with all their exertions upon the march, to find any person who could serve them as a guide. From this perplexity they were relieved by a circumstance which would not have occurred if St. Cyr had not deserved and obtained a reputation, most unusual among Buonaparte’s generals in Spain, for observing the humanities of war. A Spanish officer, who had been wounded and taken prisoner in this last affair, relying upon the French commander’s character, entreated that he would let him be carried to Tarragona: St. Cyr not only granted his request, but finding from him that he was able to direct those who bore him, added, that as there were no peasants to be found at S. Magi or in the adjoining parts, he would send him as far as the Convent of the Creus. By this act of compassion the French were extricated from the difficulty in which they had placed themselves. The wounded officer gratefully acknowledged this kindness, little thinking in what manner he was to serve the enemy. On the ?Feb. 19.? morrow accordingly he was sent forward; two or three persons at convenient distances behind observed his way, and the French by their direction followed the unconscious guide. During the whole day they did not fall in with a single person; but in the evening when they drew near the monastery, instead of finding there, as they had expected, good quarters and comfortable stores for the troops, who stood in need of both after four days’ exertions, they discovered that Iranzo had fallen back to this very point, and occupied it in strength. The French immediately saw that the post could not be forced without artillery, and they had none with them; they made, however, a feint of attacking it, with the intention of attempting an escalade, if the Spaniards should betray any want of alacrity in the defence. But the walls of the enclosure, the windows of the buildings, the roof of the church, and the tower, were presently manned; and a fire was opened upon them from two violentos, ... pieces of small artillery, so named from the manner in which they are used; they are fired not less than twelve times in a minute, and the exertion which this requires is so great, that the strongest and most expert artillerymen ?St. Cyr, 107–111.? cannot continue it more than a quarter of an hour. The French had learnt at Zaragoza what it was to attack the Spaniards where there were walls and buildings to be defended; and St. Cyr was not a man who would throw away the lives of his soldiers. His men, instead of the good quarters and better fare which they had promised themselves, were fain to bivouac upon the heights; and in the morning when the General had determined to cross the Gaya for the purpose of getting into a more open country, and effecting his junction with Souham’s division, they were obliged to defile under a sharp and well-directed fire of musketry from the Convent. When they reached VillarrodoÑa, to their great disappointment Souham was not there; the dispatches which had been sent to him had been all intercepted, and a day and half were lost in waiting till he arrived from Vendrell. ?Reding takes the field, and collects his scattered troops.? Reding meantime, as soon as he heard that his line had been broken, concluded that nothing now was to be done but to collect as many of the troops as he could, and withdraw them again under the protection of Tarragona; and feeling that this service was of too much importance to be entrusted to any one in whom he had not the most entire confidence, he set out himself on the morning in which St. Cyr marched from his unsuccessful attempt upon the Convent. He took with him only a battalion of Swiss, 300 horse, and six pieces of flying artillery; and as he marched from Pla saw the enemy on his right, where they were employed in sacking and burning VillarrodoÑa and La Puebla. Reding was not aware that the French Commander-in-chief was with this body of the invaders, nor did St. Cyr know that the Spanish General was passing within sight with such a handful of troops. His force, however, was soon increased with the detachment which had retired from Col de S. Cristina, and with the 1200 men under Iranzo, whom he now recalled. He then proceeded to S. Coloma de Queralt, and there effected his junction with Castro, with the detachment stationed at that place, and with the force which Castro had collected after his defeat. But here he was alarmed by learning that the enemy had entered Valls.

?He is advised to retreat.?

St. Cyr on his part was not without some anxiety concerning Reding’s intention. The movement which that General had made from his right upon his centre, led him to apprehend a purpose of re-establishing the line of communication with his left beyond the Noya, in which case the French detachment at Igualada would be in danger. That thought had passed across Reding’s mind. He had supposed that the object of the French, by occupying Valls, was to cut off his retreat to Tarragona, and intercept his communications with that fortress; and his first impulse was to move upon Igualada, and then upon Montbuy, to cut off the enemy at both places. But it was his fate never to decide resolutely and act with promptitude: a council of war was held; the Deputy Veri was for retreating, with the view of covering the plain of Tarragona. Accordingly they set out from S. Coloma, with the intent of leaving Valls on the right. That day they reached Montblanch. A party of French appeared in their rear, reconnoitred them, and then turned by the Col de Cabra toward Pla and Valls. As it was thus made certain that the enemy was observing them, a second council was held on the following morning, at which Marti was present, who had been summoned from Tarragona, where he had been left with the command. The force which Reding had with him consisted at this time of 10,000 men, who were in a better state than any body of troops which the Spaniards had yet brought into the field in that quarter. The question was asked, Where the French were posted, and in what numbers? The General could only answer that they were supposed to be in Valls, and that he estimated them at from 5000 to 6000, without artillery. Marti’s opinion was, that as the object was to save the army and protect the plain of Tarragona, where Reus and the other towns would otherwise be at the mercy of the enemy, it was not advisable to risk an action with a foe whom they knew to be superior in cavalry, and who, they had reason to conclude, had other troops near enough at hand to be brought together and overpower them if a battle should be ventured. He advised, therefore, that a few light troops and Miquelets should make a demonstration by the Col de Lilla against Valls in the morning, and make their way afterwards as they could, either to join the corps on the Llobregat, or to Lerida; ?CabaÑes, c. 15.? that their guns should be sent to that fortress, and that the troops should defile during the night by Prades and a mountain path impracticable for artillery to Constanti, where the whole army might be collected safely in a position that would cover the plain.

General Doyle, who, after the most anxious endeavours to effect something for the relief of Zaragoza, had joined the Catalan army that day on its march, was for hope and enterprise. The troops were in good condition and in good heart, and the opportunity favourable, when they were within reach of a force inferior in number. Reding, perplexed by these jarring opinions, and never venturing to decide at once upon his own responsibility, took a middle course. He thought it derogatory to steal as it were away through a mountain path like a guerilla chief; and moreover Marti was one of the persons on whom his suspicions had fixed. The course on which he determined had neither the prospect of advantage, nor the certainty of safety. It was to retreat with his artillery and baggage by the Col de Riba and the banks of the Francoli; to begin the march that evening; not to seek the enemy, but not to refuse battle if a favourable opportunity should be offered. Marti represented that to take this line was not only seeking the enemy, but putting it in their power to bring on an action upon ground advantageous to themselves. But Reding certainly had not come to this determination in the view of bringing on a battle, without incurring the responsibility of such a measure. He suffered some provision carts to be cut off by a reconnoitring party almost under his eyes, without permitting his troops to resent the insult; ... they were tired, he said, and he would not weaken the main body by sending ?CabaÑes, c. 15.? out any detachments. Nor could Doyle prevail upon him to make his retreat by day. It was commenced at seven in the evening, in good order and with all possible silence.

?Battle of Valls.?

St. Cyr, who was at this time with Pino’s division at Pla, had ordered Souham never to lose sight of Reding’s movements. That General occupied Valls; he had entered it on a market day, and supplied his hungry troops with the corn brought thither from Aragon and the plain of Urgel, as if there had been no enemy to fear! His advanced guard was to the north of that town, having its left upon the Francoli; his right was in the direction of Pla, and he had a post at Picamoxons, the point at which Reding must debouche upon the plain of Valls, if he went either by the valley of Montblanch or the Col de Lilla. At this point Souham’s orders were to give him battle; though some apprehension was entertained that he might pass by the Col de Cabra, with the view of cutting off the French from Barcelona. No such thought had ever entered Reding’s mind20. The narrowness of the passes and the badness of the road made the night march slower than had been calculated; at five in the morning, however, the vanguard under Castro and half the centre had passed Valls, leaving the enemy’s camp-fires on the left. They were proceeding ?Feb. 25.? silently and in the best order, and no advanced post of the enemy had yet been discovered, when, as the General was passing a little bridge, a volley of musketry opened upon him within pistol shot. This unexpected attack occasioned a momentary disorder: measures, however, were immediately taken to prevent the enemy from cutting off that half of the army which had not yet come up; the troops took their station with alacrity and precision; the artillery on both sides began to play: the French descended from the heights of Valls in several columns; they were met by the Spaniards, and attacked so vigorously, that notwithstanding the advantage of the ground, they were driven back. All the information which Reding had previously obtained concerning the enemy agreed in affirming that they had no artillery. It was therefore not without surprise that he had found two batteries open upon him. They had been silenced, however; the Spaniards had behaved even to his wish, and a manifest advantage had been gained. But when the French had been driven to the heights, reinforcements arrived which enabled them to make a stand, and Reding perceived by their smoke-signals and their rockets, that they were communicating with a fresh body of troops. It was now noon; his own men had been marching all night, and having been several hours in action, they began to feel exhausted. He therefore concentrated them, sent off the whole of the baggage, and determined to continue his retreat, as soon as they should have taken food or rest. The position which he had chosen was a good one, behind the bridge of Goy, on the right bank of the Francoli, and covered by that river. But time for rest was not allowed them. Pino’s division had now come up, and St. Cyr himself had arrived. That General, who was desirous of gaining such a victory as should give the French the utmost confidence in what was called their moral superiority, forbade his artillery to fire; though the opportunity for firing with advantage was such, that the commandant feigned not to understand the order, and when after a third discharge it was repeated to him in the most formal manner, expressed the unwillingness with which he obeyed. That of the Spaniards was well served; and when, having crossed the river and ascended the height, the French proceeded with the bayonet to the attack, they advanced under a fire of musketry which could not have been more regular at a review. The ?St. Cyr, 125.? right wing of the Spaniards was threatened, but the main attack was made upon the left, and this the enemy succeeded in breaking between four and five in the evening, about an hour after the action had been renewed. The Spaniards then began to retreat in good order for the next half hour, ... but then as usual fear and insubordination prevailed as soon as hope was lost. Reding himself, when it was no longer possible to perform the part of a general, was distinguished for his personal bravery. A body of French dragoons surrounded him and some of his staff: two of his aide-de-camps were killed, and he himself received five sabre wounds from a French Colonel, with whom he was personally engaged. The cavalry rendered little service in covering the retreat; but the infantry of the right and centre, and part of the left, retired ?CabaÑes, c. 15.
St. Cyr, 117, 126.? through the vineyards, where the horse could not pursue them. The other part of the broken wing took to the mountains, and made their way to Tortosa.

?The French received at Reus.?

The French estimated their own loss in this action at about a thousand men, that of the Spaniards at four; ... the Spaniards supposed it to be about two thousand on either side. In fact the evening was so far advanced, that they suffered comparatively little in their flight. Reding reached Tarragona that night; ... that city was only three leagues from the scene of action, and thither the greater part of the dispersed troops found their way before morning, some corps in good order, others in small parties. Some made for Reus, and from thence to Cambrils and Col de Balaguer. The artillery and baggage fell into the enemy’s hands. On the following day Souham entered Reus, a rich commercial city, second only in size and importance to Barcelona. The inhabitants had not, as had every where till now been done, forsaken it; on the contrary the municipality went out to receive the conquerors, and agreed to raise a contribution for the use of the army. Their wealth may explain a conduct which, in the then state of public feeling, surprised the French21 themselves. This supply came at a time when the paymaster had not a single sous in the chest. Resources of every kind were also found here, and here were some thousand of sick or wounded Spaniards in the hospital, whom St. Cyr sent to ?Arrangement concerning the wounded.? Tarragona. This measure led to a negotiation with Reding, by which it was agreed that in future whatever patients might be found in the hospitals should not be regarded as prisoners, ?St. Cyr, 127–8.? but allowed to remain where they were, and to rejoin their respective armies upon their recovery.

?Alarm at Tortosa.?

The enemy now occupied Villaseca and the port of Salon, and thus cut off Tarragona from all communication by land with the rest of Spain. They profited by their success with their wonted alacrity; and yet they might have improved it farther, and gained a far more important advantage than the victory itself, had they been aware of the alarm which prevailed at Tortosa, and of the condition in which that fortress had been left. The Governor and the Junta sent for General Doyle, who, as far as personal influence and example could go, possessed in an extraordinary degree the talent of exciting activity and creating confidence. He found the fortifications in such a state that they could not have resisted a coup-de-main; and the city so ill provided, that if the works could have resisted an enemy, it must presently have been reduced by famine. Provisions were now collected by requisition from the neighbourhood, receipts being given for the amount (for the public money had been constantly ordered to Tarragona), and the citizens were called out to work upon the ramparts; so that the place was put in a state for resisting any sudden attack. There were but two roads by which artillery could be brought against it: one was defended by the fort at Col de Balaguer; but from that post the troops at this important crisis were deserting for want of provisions. By General Doyle’s exertions it was immediately stored, and the other road, through Falcat, which, there had been no attempt to guard, was occupied according to his directions by 600 Somatenes. This was a position which could well be maintained by a small force, and this timely occupation prevented the advance of a French detachment which had been ordered thither. The Tortosans were soon encouraged by the arrival of the Marques de Lazan, who brought his army there when they might better have kept the field. The want of cordiality between ?Lazan separates his army from Reding’s command.? this General and Reding had been sufficiently manifested to be known even by the enemy; and Lazan now formally announced, that having previously been appointed second in the Aragonese army by the Cortes of that kingdom, he had upon the loss of his brother succeeded to the command in chief; and considering himself as independent of the commander in Catalonia, should thenceforth look upon the protection of Aragon as his proper business: but he would do whatever he could consistently with this object, for covering Catalonia on that side. Reding represented this to the war-minister as an act by which Lazan crippled the Catalan army, and exposed his own troops to certain destruction, without the possibility of effecting any service; and instructions were accordingly dispatched from Seville that he should obey Reding’s orders. The same spirit of provincialism was prevailing in Valencia; a corps of 6000 men ?1809.
May.? from that kingdom was stationed at Morela, with orders to remain there, though neither this place not that part of the country were threatened, but because that position covers Valencia on the side of Aragon. There was neither unity in counsel nor in command; ... each of these three provinces had its own army, acting upon its own views, and of course all acting without effect.

?Mortality in Tarragona.?

And yet St. Cyr had mistaken the character of the Spaniards when he supposed that the battle of Valls would convince them of their moral inferiority to the conquerors. Far from it; it had even raised the spirit of the Catalans; and the Central Junta spake of it in their proclamations as one of those defeats in which ill fortune brought with it no dishonour, but rather hope and confidence. It proved to the Spanish army far more disastrous in its consequences than in itself; they were crowded into Tarragona, and the French commander, by sending thither several thousand sick and wounded from the hospitals at Reus, increased or perhaps occasioned an infectious disease which broke out among them, and was aggravated by the uncleanliness arising from want of linen, the neglect of those precautions, and the destitution of all those means without which armies cannot be kept in health. We reconcile ourselves to the slaughter of a battle or a siege, because such destruction is the business of war, and the men engaged in it take their chance bravely for the evils which they are inflicting upon others; ... ?1809.
March.? but there is somewhat at which the heart revolts in making a league with pestilence or famine, however much the system of war may require and justify it. St. Cyr knew that disease was doing his work in Tarragona; officers as well as men were dying in such numbers, that if he could have kept them thus shut up within the seat of the contagion, more would perish in a month than he could have hoped to destroy in four pitched battles. He determined therefore ?St. Cyr, 133.? to remain in the plain of Tarragona as long as his army could be supplied with a quarter of a ration.

?St. Cyr removes to the plain of Vicq.?

But the Spaniards were not idle. The Somatenes were once more in force and in activity; and the left of the Catalan army, which had not been engaged in the defeat, harassed the enemy on their right and in the rear. When Reding had formed his unfortunate plan of operation, 10,000 Miquelets and Somatenes, under Wimpffen, had been sent beyond the Llobregat to take advantage of any insurrection that might be attempted in Barcelona. These irregular troops, when they had no longer to depend upon the combinations of the Commander-in-chief, but were left to themselves to carry on their own kind of warfare in their own way, began again to acquire that superiority which such warfare assured them; Chabran’s division, harassed by repeated assaults, fell back successively from Igualada upon Llacuna, S. Quinto, and Villa Franca; and the Spaniards in that quarter, full of hope as ever, resumed the blockade of Barcelona. For a time they cut off St. Cyr’s communication with that city, and their position excited no trifling uneasiness in Duhesme and Lechi, who well knew the disposition of the inhabitants. But the English squadron, the sight of which always afforded hope to the Barcelonans, was compelled by a heavy gale to stand out to sea: and Chabran’s division, recovering the ground and the reputation which it had lost, once more broke up the irregular blockade. St. Cyr meantime maintained his position as long as it was possible to feed his army there; he then determined upon moving it into the little plain of Vicq, where he expected to find corn, and to remain till the harvest should be ripe in the environs of Gerona, where he foresaw that in the course of the siege his army must be established. The battle of Valls had not given that army the confidence which their General was so desirous they should possess; there was in fact an impression upon them which they had never felt in any other service; they knew that they were not the objects of mere military hostility, in which there is neither enmity nor ill will between man and man, but that they had the hatred and the curses of the whole country. Their removal now they looked upon as a retreat, and they knew what were the dangers of a retrograde movement in Catalonia. St. Cyr better understood how little able Reding was to take advantage of such a movement at that time; and for the purpose of showing his men that he could defy the Spaniards, while at the same time he was careful not to wound the feelings of a General whom he respected, he sent an officer to Tarragona with a flag of truce, and a letter stating that, as circumstances rendered it necessary for him to draw nearer the French frontier, he should depart from Valls the following day at noon, and if General Reding would send a detachment thither at that time, the hospital which had been formed in that town, and which it was of such consequence for him to preserve, considering the number of his sick, should be consigned to him as it stood. It was well furnished from ?St. Cyr, 134, 145–7.? the houses which the inhabitants of Valls had abandoned on the entrance of the enemy. The French commander left only a very few wounded men, who were not in a state to bear removal; because he doubted whether Reding would be able to make the Spaniards observe the agreement which had been concluded upon that subject. As far, however, as opportunity was given, it was properly performed.

This done, after having remained something more than three weeks in the plain of Tarragona, the French retreated toward the Llobregat. Chabot’s division occupied at this time Montblanch, for the double purpose of rendering it more difficult for Reding to communicate with Wimpffen, and of preventing the latter from holding any communication with Lerida. A brisk firing in a quarter where no alarm was looked for, occasioned this General to send out a reconnoissance. It was in time to save a detachment of 600 horse and foot, with two pieces of cannon, which Marshal Mortier had sent from Fraga to communicate with St. Cyr’s army, and bring him back intelligence of the state of things from Catalonia. A smaller party would have had no chance of succeeding in this service; and if this had been four-and-twenty hours later, it would have been cut off. They were fortunate enough to find a division of their countrymen here, but only half their object was accomplished; for though the army delayed its ?St. Cyr, 138.? movements two days in the hope of facilitating their return, and escorted them to some distance, the attempt was found to be so hopeless, that they were fain to continue with St. Cyr.

?Vicq deserted by its inhabitants.?

The troops in Tarragona were not in a condition to harass the French on their retreat; but the retreat was most important to them. They obtained room to distribute their sick, and the progress of the contagion was stopped as soon as its main cause was thus removed. Some affairs took place beyond the Llobregat with Wimpffen’s division, which dispersed, as it became irregular troops to do, when they were not acting at advantage. When the enemy reached Vicq, they found that that city had not been infected by the ill example of Reus; the Bishop, five or six old men, and the sick who were unable to remove, were the only inhabitants of that populous city who remained. The others, with a spirit worthy of their country and their cause, upon the unexpected approach of the invaders abandoned all that they could not carry with them in their instant removal, and went to seek shelter where they could; many of them actually lived among the mountains during the whole three months that the French continued there, though at the time of their flight the weather was severe, and the snow daily falling. ?St. Cyr, 156.? There had been no time to destroy the provisions, much less to remove them; if St. Cyr had not succeeded in effectually concealing his intention of quartering the troops there, this would have been done, and his army could then have derived no advantage from their change of position. As it was, they found corn enough to last till the harvest, lard for a month, and wine for a fortnight: but the change of diet, air, and climate (for they had moved into a higher region), and the want of wine as soon as the stock was exhausted, produced disease among the soldiers; and it was well for them that neither Reding nor his army was in a state to resume offensive operations; so that they were enabled to rest.

?Arrest of the persons in office at Barcelona for refusing the oath.?

St. Cyr himself remained some three weeks in Barcelona. From the depÔts of the Spaniards, which, in the course of this successful campaign had fallen into his hands, he had supplied the garrison of that city with grain, pulse, and salt for three months’ consumption: but there was not enough ammunition for a fortnight’s siege. Of being formally besieged indeed there was not now even the remotest danger; but from within there was sufficient cause for inquietude. The honourable feeling of nationality, for which the Catalans are eminently distinguished, was in no part of the principality stronger than in its capital. At this very time Barcelona had two tercios of Miquelets in the field, raised among its inhabitants, and paid and clothed by them. The individuals of those regiments, having no uniform by which they could be recognised, used to enter the city fearlessly whenever it suited them, for the purpose of visiting their friends, raising recruits, and receiving money or clothing: nor was it in Duhesme’s power, with all the vigilance, and it may be added, all the villany of his police, to detect a single person in this practice; so unanimous were the Barcelonans in their detestation of the intrusive government, and so well was the secret kept. That police was continually reporting to Duhesme and Lechi, and these again to the Commander-in-chief, the existence of conspiracies which they had discovered; but the members of the police were men of such character, that St. Cyr suspected these schemes to be suggested by their agents, if they were not mere fabrications, brought forward for the most nefarious motives. Now, however, that he was on the spot, he allowed Duhesme ?1809.
April.? to exact an oath of allegiance to the Intruder from all the public functionaries, and from the Spanish soldiers who had been disarmed after ?St. Cyr, 142–4.? the treacherous seizure of the place. Sunday was the day chosen for this act of oppression. They were summoned to the house of the Royal Audience, which was surrounded with horse and foot, and 3000 troops were drawn up on the esplanade and the sea-wall; the display and the actual force being necessary to keep down the indignation of a generous and most injured people. Every member of the Audience refused thus to disgrace himself and betray his country; only one of the Relatores took the oath, and only three of the numerous persons employed in the inferior departments. The French were not more successful in tempting the military. Persuasions and promises availed as little as the threat of immediate imprisonment. The Contador Asaguerre told Duhesme, that if all Spain were to acknowledge Joseph, he would expatriate himself. The French executed their threat. Nine-and-twenty of these honourable Spaniards were sent prisoners, some to Monjuic, others to the citadel. The people, undeterred by their strong escort, followed them as in procession, cheering them as they went, and promising that their families should be well provided ?Prisoners sent to France.? for during their imprisonment. Many others were put under arrest in their own houses, and the whole of the military were, by St. Cyr’s orders, marched with the prisoners of war, under convoy of Lechi’s division, as far as the Fluvia, where Reille received and sent them into France: and by Lechi’s return the commander-in-chief ?St. Cyr, 151, 158.? received the first intelligence from that country which had reached him since he crossed the Fluvia himself, ... five months before. His last remaining anxiety was for the provisionment of Barcelona; and that was removed soon afterward by the arrival of a squadron from Toulon, which had the rare good fortune to reach its destined port and return in safety. ?Barcelona relieved by sea.? The place was thus amply supplied with military stores as well as provisions, and the siege of Gerona then became the only object of the French.

The dispatch in which Reding informed the Central Junta of his defeat at Valls, was marked equally by his habitual despondency and his magnanimity as to every thing which regarded himself. He rendered the fullest justice both to the policy and humanity of St. Cyr’s conduct as opposed to that of Duhesme and Lechi, and expressed an apprehension that it had produced some effect upon the public mind. Some ground for this had been afforded by what had happened at Igualada and at Reus; but the evil extended no farther. He had no reliance upon the Somatenes, he said, nor upon the enthusiasm which they displayed; order was wanting among them, and where order ended confusion began. He complained that he could obtain no intelligence of the enemy’s numbers, whereas they were well informed of every thing that related to his army; and he gave as a reason for having taken the field, the opinions of those whom he had consulted, and the popular cry. He made no mention of his own wounds; and when the government published such parts of his dispatch as were intended for publication, they noticed, as it became them, his silence upon this point. The wounds, though many, were not thought dangerous, and they appeared for a time to be going on well; but the symptoms changed, and in the course of a month they proved mortal. He fell in a foreign land, and in the service of a foreign state; but the cause in which Theodore Reding fell was the same for which his brother Aloys had fought amid their native mountains; and it was the cause of his own countrymen as well as of the Spaniards; the cause of all good men every where. The motives for which ordinary wars have been undertaken are so mean and transitory, and come so little to the heart of man, that after a few years have elapsed all interest concerning them is exhausted; and even nationality does not prevent us from feeling, that they, whose lives have been expended in such contests, have died rather in the exercise of their profession than of their duty. But the struggle of Spain against Buonaparte is of the same eternal and unfading interest as the wars of Greece against Xerxes: at whatever distance of time its records shall be perused, they will excite in every generous mind the same indignant and ennobling sympathy. Not, therefore, in an ungrateful service did Reding lay down his life, for with those records his name will be perpetuated: Switzerland will remember him with pride, as one of the most honourable, though not most fortunate of her sons, and Spain with respectful gratitude, as a soldier not unworthy of her service in its best day, and true to it in its worst.

Right as this General was in his opinion, that the co-operation of an irregular force was not to be relied on in a plan of regular operations, he estimated the effects of a popular resistance below its real importance, nor did he fairly appreciate the Catalan spirit. A fine example of it was shown immediately after his death by the peasants in the VallÉs. Their country lies in the line between Vicq and Barcelona, and the peasants taking arms to impede the communication occupied the heights near the Church of Canovellas, about a mile from Granollers, which is the capital of that district. The district is so strong, that the invaders were desirous of opening the communication by persuasion rather than by force; and therefore communicated to these insurgents in due form, that the French commanders ordered their troops to make war upon soldiers only, not upon peasants; that if they would lay down their arms, and retire every man to his house, no injury should be done them; but otherwise there was a division of the enemy in their front, and another was coming in their rear. A written answer was returned, in the name of the peasants of the VallÉs. “They held it a great honour,” they said, “to form a part, though but a small one, of the Spanish nation; and they had seen what their requital had been for receiving and entertaining the French troops, when their government had commanded them so to do; their peaceful habitations had been invaded, their property plundered, their houses burnt, their women violated, their brethren murdered in cold blood, and above all, the religion of their fathers outraged and profaned. Nothing remained for them but to repel force by force; and as they could not by themselves defend their open villages, they had taken to the mountains as to a strong hold: from thence they would defend their valleys, and oppose to the enemy the most obstinate resistance, as long as the government enjoined them to consider as enemies the subjects of Napoleon. The Spanish general in Catalonia was the person whose instructions they were to obey. For themselves, emulating as they did the courage and constancy of all Spain, they would never depart from those principles which the whole nation maintained. General St. Cyr and his companions might have the dreadful glory of seeing nothing but ruins in all that country; ... they might pass in triumph over the bodies of those whom they had sacrificed; but neither they nor their masters should ever say that the people of the VallÉs had submitted their necks to a yoke which the whole nation had justly rejected.” The Spaniards are a nation upon whom deeper impression would be made by a circumstance of this kind than by the defeat of one of their armies; and the success with which these peasants harassed the French, and cut off some of their artillery and baggage, raised the spirits of the Catalans more than the battle of Valls had depressed them.

Upon Reding’s death the command devolved upon the Marques de Coupigny, till Blake was nominated as his successor, and with more extensive powers, being appointed Commander-in-chief in Catalonia, Valencia, and Aragon. This General, after leaving Romana, had been sent to serve under Reding, and was in Tortosa at the time of Reding’s decease, where Lazan, obeying without hesitation the Central Junta’s instructions, resigned to him the charge of his division, and continued with it, to serve under him. The Aragonese had not been disheartened by the loss of their capital; they had regarded the former siege with a happier, but not with a prouder feeling, for of all examples, that of dignified suffering makes the deepest impression upon a generous and high-minded nation. The ?Movements of the Aragonese.? lordship of Molina de Aragon was surrounded with points which were occupied by the enemy. Nevertheless, the people, cut off as they were from support, took arms, trusting in themselves and the strength of their country: for want of better weapons some of them used slings, as the Somatenes also had done with good effect; and they made wooden artillery, so light, that a single man could carry one of these pieces up the heights, and yet strong enough to bear from fifteen to twenty rounds. The French endeavoured to surprise them with a detachment of 1800 men, for the purpose of opening the communication with Madrid, which they had cut off; but part of this body was itself surprised in Iruecha, and put to flight with some loss. The Molinese were about to pursue their success against another party in Alcolea, when they learned that General Suchet, who had now the command in Aragon, had passed the Puerto de Daroca, and was entering the lordship on its open side, with some 4000 foot and 600 horse. In the course of two hours the cavalry would reach Molina. The Junta gave instant orders for removing the ammunition, the town was deserted by all its inhabitants, and the men in arms retired with the Junta to the mountains five leagues distant. The efforts of the French to arrest the Junta or any of its members were in vain; the proclamations which they issued to intimidate or to delude the people were of no effect; and after remaining five days in Molina, they returned with no other advantage from this expedition than that of carrying away all the flocks and herds they could find.

There was no part of Spain in which the French had imagined themselves to be so secure as in Aragon, after the fall of Zaragoza. During that siege the army of Aragon had proved completely inefficient, and the Catalans were too hardly pressed themselves to make any efforts in behalf of their neighbours. In reliance upon this, some troops had been withdrawn to march into Germany; and that larger detachment under Mortier had been called off towards the Douro, which was to co-operate with Marshal Soult. Advantage was taken of this when Blake’s appointment to the command had raised the spirits of the soldiers and of the people, ... both being alike ready to impute their ill success to any cause except the true one, and to expect better fortune with every new commander. Blake brought with him a good name, for though always unfortunate, the Spaniards had never suffered any disgrace under his guidance; and the Roman government never demeaned itself with more generosity toward an unsuccessful general than the Central Junta. The first effect of the impulse which his arrival communicated was on the side of Lerida. As soon as Mortier had withdrawn from the neighbourhood of that city, the garrison, in conformity to Blake’s instructions, was on the alert. A French detachment occupied Barbastro and the places near, with other points on the right of the Cinca; on the left of that river they were in possession of Monzon; and from thence, as from a strong hold, they tyrannized over the country, levying contributions without mercy. The town of Albalda having refused to answer one of these oppressive demands, a detachment of 1400 was sent to make what was called an example of that place for its disobedience. The governor of Lerida, D. Josef Casimiro de Lavalle, who was apprised of this movement, stationed 700 of his garrison at Tamarite, under Colonels Perena and Baget, with some Aragonese and Catalan Somatenes, who succeeded in routing the enemy; the greater part retreated to Barbastro, and in consequence of this movement and defeat, about 200 only remained in Monzon. The inhabitants rose against them, though they had only seven muskets; knives and bludgeons supplied the place of other weapons; they recovered the Castle, and drove the invaders out.

Monzon, though in these days a place of little strength, was nevertheless a fortress of importance in that country, and in a war where every advantage, however trifling, raised the spirits of a people whom no disasters, however severe, ?May 16.? could depress. The French therefore being determined to retake it, and punish the people, came in considerable force, horse and foot, down the right bank of the Cinca to Pomar, where they crossed by the ford and the ferry. Perena, who had hastened to Monzon upon its recapture, was there to receive them with his battalion and with a tercio of Miquelets; and they were repulsed in their attack. They obtained reinforcements, and repeated it on the morrow, and forced their way into the streets; but Baget with his detachment came in all speed from Fonz, and arrived opportunely enough to assist in driving them out a second time, with considerable loss. They called to their assistance the 2000 men that were left in Barbastro, but meantime the Cinca had risen so as to be no longer fordable; and while they were thus cut off from succour, the Spaniards at Monzon were in communication with Lerida. Perceiving now their danger, they made for Albalete, hoping to cross at Fraga by the bridge; their intention had been foreseen, and a detachment from the garrison of Lerida, weak as it was, was dispatched to secure that point. Thus anticipated in that direction, and being now not more than 1000 men, with about forty horse, they fled toward Fonz and Estadilla, to cross the river in the mountains, above its junction with the Eseva. They were closely pursued by Perena and Baget; their commander was drowned in attempting the passage, eight companies were made prisoners, the whole detachment which had crossed the Cinca was thus cut off, and the French in consequence withdrew from Barbastro.

The prisoners were marched to Tarragona, where the Catalans, after so many reverses, were in no slight degree elated by seeing them. More however from humanity than from a motive of ostentation, proposals for exchanging them were immediately made to St. Cyr, and accepted by him. The French suffered another check, less mortifying indeed and less important, but one which impeded their movements, in the destruction of their flying bridge upon the Ebro. This, which was large enough to carry some hundreds at a time, they had removed from the river where it approaches Caspe, to the part near Alborge, where it was surprised and burnt by a detachment from Mequinenza. Blake meantime was not less successful in his own operations. Part of his troops were stationed at Morelia, to oppose the French division which occupied AlcaÑiz and its district, and to cover that part of Catalonia and Valencia which there borders upon Aragon: others formed a cordon along the Algas, to guard the difficult country by which they might have threatened Tortosa, or interrupted the communication between that place and Mequinenza. With the approbation of the Junta Blake formed a plan for driving the enemy from this part of the country; for which purpose it was necessary to collect these troops, and strengthen them with a small detachment from the garrison of Tortosa. The French division was that which Junot had commanded at the siege of Zaragoza, and was now under General Laval; it consisted of from 6000 to 7000 men and 500 horse, having lost about half its number during the siege. Laval’s head-quarters were at AlcaÑiz, where the greater part of the division was stationed; but he was at this time in the field with 2000 or 3000 men, for the purpose of driving away the Spaniards, who were observing him too closely, and continually harassing his posts.

D. Pedro Roca was to conduct the troops from Morella to the place appointed for their junction, Lazan those from the Algas. Both had orders to avoid any action with the enemy till the junction should have been effected. But it so happened that Laval took up his quarters in the village of Beceyte on the day when Lazan had to arrive there, and the Spanish general rightly concluded that his instructions were not intended to prevent him from seizing any decided advantage which might present itself. He stationed ?May 16.? some light troops in points that commanded the defiles through which the French must pass, and killed or wounded about an hundred of the enemy, with the loss of only five or six men on his own part. On the following day the junction was effected at Monroyo, great difficulty having been overcome in bringing the artillery through such a country. Having reached the Ermita at Fornoles, the vanguard ?May 18.? under D. Pedro Texada was sent forward to interpose between AlcaÑiz and Val de Algorfa, which was the usual position of the enemy’s van. Two columns, under D. Martin Gonzalez da Menchaca and D. Joseph Cucalo, had preceded them to occupy the villages of Castelseras and Torrecilla. The remainder of Blake’s little army, consisting of three columns of infantry, the cavalry, and the artillery, began their march by night along the only road from Morella to AlcaÑiz, from which place they were five or six hours distant.

Upon reaching Val de Algorfa, it was seen that the enemy were protected by the walls of the inclosures, and by a chapel, where they had formed a parapet. They were some 500 or 600 in number, and being dislodged from thence by the artillery, retreated toward AlcaÑiz; but when they had advanced about half a league, they came upon Texada’s detachment, and being thus between two fires, dispersed with as much alacrity as a body of Spaniards could have done. By this time Menchaca and Cucalo were approaching the city from the left, and the French, who were sallying forth against Texada, seeing themselves threatened on that side also, began to retreat hastily in the direction of Samper. There, and at La Puebla and Hijar, they collected their troops, withdrawing them from Caspe and Calanda. The people of AlcaÑiz, priests, women, young and old, went out to meet their deliverers, carrying refreshments for the soldiers, and blessing them with prayers and tears. Blake himself was affected at the sight, and said, that if the tyrant of the world, as he called Buonaparte, could have seen the emotions of that multitude, and heard their shouts for their King, their country, and their religion, he would perhaps have begun to doubt the possibility of raising for his brother in Spain a party, not of persons attached to his cause, but even of those who would be resigned to his usurpation.

Upon the approach of a Spanish detachment the enemy withdrew from Samper to the Puebla de Hijar, and being there reinforced from Zaragoza, ?May 21.? advanced towards AlcaÑiz, to revenge themselves for their late reverses. They were now 10,000 foot, with 800 horse and twelve pieces of artillery. Suchet commanded in person. Blake was informed of their approach, and drew up his army to meet them on the plain of AlcaÑiz, before that city. The plain is surrounded with heights. About two musket shot from the city is a range of hills, accessible for cavalry, and on all sides sloping gently to the plain. The road to Zaragoza crosses there. Here he stationed the main body of his forces, their wings being supported by two batteries, which, with others in the centre, completely flanked the whole line. The weak side of this position was on the right, where the plain was lowest, and there were trees enough to afford cover to the enemy; but the heights terminated here, and upon their loftiest part, where a chapel commanded the road from Caspe, he stationed 2000 men, under Camp-marshal D. Juan Carlos Areizaga. The vanguard, under Texada, was placed on an eminence in front of the position; some light troops, among the olive-yards on the left, to prevent the French from turning them on that side; and the cavalry, under D. Miguel Ibarrola, in front of all, upon the Zaragoza road.

At six in the morning the enemy appeared: the advanced parties retired before them, and the cavalry and the vanguard fell back before superior numbers, as they had been instructed; the infantry to the chapel on the right, the horse, with two pieces of flying artillery, to the protection of their batteries. The chapel, as Blake had anticipated, was the main point of attack; the enemy presented themselves in front of this post and on the right, and occupied all the immediate heights. After a brisk fire on both sides, a column of about a thousand grenadiers attempted to take this position with the bayonet: they were broken presently, and the light troops of the Spaniards in their turn attacked the French on the heights, who kept their ground. In the hope of relieving this post, which he saw would be again attempted in force, Blake directed Menchaca to make an attack upon the enemy’s centre; but the French were strong enough to attend to this and renew their efforts against Areizaga. The second effort, however, was not more successful than the first. The Spanish cavalry had been ordered from the Zaragoza to the Caspe road, to assist in supporting this point: and as they came out from the trees, a discharge from the French infantry wounded their commander Ibarrola; they were attacked with a superior troop of horse, and fell back to the position. The enemy, now abandoning their first plan of winning the chapel, turned upon Menchaca, who found himself suddenly assailed by very superior numbers; he fell back in good order to the position, but one light battalion found it necessary to retire upon Areizaga’s post. Encouraged by this, the French made a desperate attack upon the centre of the Spanish line: it was saved by the artillery: they approached almost to the cannon’s mouth, but were mown down by a fire of grape; and those who turned one of the batteries fell by the fire of the troops. Defeated in this attempt also, they withdrew to the heights on which they had first been seen, and after an action of seven hours, both armies remained looking at each other. The rich plain of AlcaÑiz was between them; and Blake said in his dispatch that the sight of it might have warmed the heart of the coldest Spaniard, and animated him to defend the beautiful country which God had given him. It would have been rash in him to have attacked the enemy when they had the advantage of the ground; to have thus decidedly repulsed them was no inconsiderable advantage in the state of his army, some corps of which had never before been in action. The French retreated under cover of the night, and took up a strong position behind the Huerba near Zaragoza. They left 500 dead on the field, and their total loss was estimated at22 2000; that of the Spaniards did not amount to 400.

Among the officers whom Blake particularly commended for their conduct Lazan was one, who was at his side during the whole day; Loigorri, the commandant of the artillery, was also deservedly noticed, and Areizaga, upon whom the brunt of the action had fallen; to the two latter he frankly declared that the victory was owing. He returned thanks to his army; and noticing that a few wretched men had fled from the field, said their names should be struck off the roll, that the Spanish army might no longer be disgraced by them. The Central Junta, in consequence of this success, nominated him Captain General of Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia, and Murcia, as well as General-in-chief of the united army of those provinces, and conferred upon him the Encomienda of the Peso Real in Valencia. The officers whom he recommended were promoted also, Areizaga to the rank of Lieutenant-General.

The day on which the battle of AlcaÑiz was fought was celebrated at Valencia as the anniversary of their insurrection against the intrusive government. The ceremonies were characteristic of the times and of the people. The festivities, as usual in Catholic countries, began on the eve of the holiday; the city was illuminated on the preceding night, the portraits of Ferdinand and his ally the King of Great Britain were exhibited under the flags of the allied kingdoms; and the Valencians displayed their national humour in caricatures of Murat, Buonaparte, and Joseph. In the morning, the civil authorities, the new-raised levies, and the city volunteers, went in procession to the Plaza of the Cathedral, where a statue of Ferdinand had been erected upon a Grecian column. The statue was concealed behind a silk curtain, so disposed as to fall in tent-hangings and disclose it, when the Captain General, D. Joseph Caro, asked the people in their own dialect if they wished to see their King? At the same moment the music struck up, the bells were rung, the guns fired, and the shouts of the multitude were heard prevailing over all. They then proceeded to the Cathedral, where the banners of the volunteers were blessed by the Archbishop at the high altar, and afterwards delivered to them at the feet of the statue. The display was in French taste, but it was sanctified by Spanish feeling. The Valencians were reminded of their defeats as well as of their triumphs; they were told that many of their countrymen who had assisted in driving Moncey from their gates had fallen in the field of Tudela, or lay buried under the ruins of Zaragoza.

A week after the ceremony Blake reviewed his army at Caspe, on St. Ferdinand’s day, which of all festivals in the year the Spaniards then regarded with most feeling. The Romanists, instead of birthdays, keep the festival of the saint from whom they take their names; this therefore was especially sacred to a people who, measuring the virtues of their captive King by their own loyalty, believed him to be all that they desired, and all that he ought to have been. They were told by their government that King St. Ferdinand, who had united in himself all the virtues of a man, all the talents of a hero, and all the qualities of a monarch, looked down from the heights of Heaven with complacent eyes upon the defenders and avengers of one who, as he inherited his throne and name, so also did he imitate and adore his virtues. An annual service on this day was appointed to be held in all cathedral and collegiate churches for evermore in remembrance of the sacred war against the usurper; and the day following was to be kept as a perpetual anniversary for the souls of all who fell in it. Blake’s army had now been increased to 14,000 men: their late conduct had filled him with what might have seemed a well-founded hope; and their appearance and discipline were now so satisfactory, that as they filed before him, he said, a few more such days as that of AlcaÑiz would open for them the way to France. There were indeed at that time evident marks that the French were dispirited: they had been weakened by the withdrawal of Mortier’s division; and having in this last action for the first time been beaten by a Spanish force, ?1809.
June.? not superior to them in number, and when the advantage of cavalry was on their side, it was believed that they were preparing to retire from Zaragoza. Blake was informed that their papers and baggage were already without the city, ready to be removed; and that they had actually begun their march toward Navarre, but returned in consequence of receiving dispatches on the way. The news of Buonaparte’s failure at Essling arrived at this time; and when Blake communicated it to the troops in general orders, he observed that it had taken place on the day when they had defeated another of his armies at AlcaÑiz.

While the hopes of the Spaniards in this quarter had thus been raised by their own success, by the events in Germany, and by the news from Portugal, circumstances occurred at Barcelona to heighten their indignation against the oppressors of their country, and exasperate ?May. 16.? the desire of vengeance. In conformity to a scheme concerted with the inhabitants of that city, Coupigny had sent a body of troops, who were to be admitted in the night, while the attention of the garrison should be called off by the cannonade of a Spanish frigate upon one of the batteries. The ship performed its part, and the troops approached the gates; but no movement was made to favour them. The French had obtained sufficient intelligence to put them upon their guard, and render it impracticable, and several persons were in consequence arrested. One of these, by name Pou, a doctor of laws in the university of Cervera, being asked upon his trial before the military tribunal whether he had not distributed fifty muskets, replied yes, and that he would do so again if he had an opportunity, as they were for the defence of his religion, his King, and his country. They told him this could not be, for religion forbade the shedding of blood, the King desired no such proceedings, and the country abhorred them: he replied, that as they neither professed the Catholic religion, nor acknowledged Ferdinand for King of Spain, nor belonged to that country, it was to be expected that he and they should differ in opinion. They asked him to whom the muskets had been distributed: his answer was, to good and loyal Spaniards, whose names he would never disclose. A young tradesman, who was tried before the same tribunal for endeavouring to purchase ammunition for the same purpose, threw back the appellation of traitor upon Duhesme, saying, “Your Excellency is the traitor, who, under the cloak of friendship, took possession of our fortresses: I only bought part of what you plundered from us.” This person, with two others, was hanged, at the same time that Pou and the Prefect of S. Cayetano were strangled, the Prefect administering the last offices of religion at the place of execution to his fellow-sufferers.

These executions occasioned a strong feeling among the Catalans, and it was heightened by a decree of Duhesme’s against the clergy, who were at the head, he said, of all the conspiracies for assassinating the French, and who made their churches and convents so many places of meeting ?Blake advances toward Zaragoza.? for the conspirators. All such buildings therefore were ordered to be closed at six in the evening, and not opened till half after five in the morning. If any person were found in a church or belfry between those hours, or in a convent if he did not belong to it, he was immediately to be delivered over to a military commission as a conspirator; and a secret agent of the police was to be appointed, who was to watch every church and convent, and be paid at its expense. The indignation of the Spaniards made them more eager in their hopes and expectations of deliverance; and the Valencians more especially expressed their confidence of fresh victories, because of the appearance and temper of the troops who marched from their city to join the army under Blake. That general’s head-quarters were at Samper de Calanda, part of his troops being stationed at Hijar and Puebla de Hijar. Having received intelligence that a French corps, which was estimated at a third part of the force under Suchet, had been detached to CarineÑa, and was committing its usual excesses in the surrounding country, he formed a plan for cutting off this corps, and then advancing upon Zaragoza, in the hope of effecting the deliverance of that city, an exploit which, if it were achieved, would of all possible successes produce the greatest impression upon the public mind, not in Spain alone, but throughout Europe. With this view he directed Areizaga to take post with his division at Botorrita, while he with the rest of the army proceeded to Villanueva de la Huerva. The artillery was to move behind Longares, where it was expected that the enemy would pass on their retreat to Zaragoza as soon as they knew the Spaniards were in motion. When Areizaga reached Botorrita, he learned that the greater part of the French had retired to their main body, about 1500 only remaining at Puebla de Muel, and these moved off so quickly towards the Xalon, that it was not possible to cut them off, ... only a convoy which they would have escorted to Zaragoza was taken by the Spanish advance.

As this corps had not fallen back upon the main body, which it might easily have done, but had passed on toward Alagon, Blake was confirmed in his opinion that the French did not mean to defend Zaragoza if it should be attacked. Nevertheless, reflecting that the country in his rear was entirely open, and considering the general situation of the Spanish armies, the importance of preserving his own, which was in so promising a state, and the complicated and hazardous movements of a retreat, in which he knew how little it could be trusted, he deemed it by no means advisable to bring on a general action, and therefore did not alter Areizaga’s position, looking upon Botorrita as a strong post, where, in case of any reserve, the ?June 14.? enemy might be detained. When he joined Areizaga there, the troops had begun to skirmish; this had been brought on by that general’s making a reconnoissance in considerable strength; and Blake was so well satisfied with the behaviour of his troops, that he endeavoured to surround the enemy, but they retired in time. Early on the following morning Suchet drew out his whole force from Zaragoza to attack him. The firing began at the advanced posts by five in the morning, and went on increasing till the same hour in the afternoon, when the French resolved to break the Spanish line, supposing that the men were weary and the ammunition spent.

Blake’s advanced guard was at Maria, where the road from Zaragoza to Madrid crosses the cordillera: the ground between him and the city consisted of hills and vales, ridge behind ridge. His cavalry was stationed in the high road, the rest of the line was formed by the infantry and artillery. The Spaniards, fighting and retreating in good order, fell back successively from one of these heights to another, but when they reached the fourth, their cavalry had been worsted. Blake then thought it necessary to fall back on Botorrita, which he did with as much order as the nature of the ground would permit. A few guns were spiked and abandoned; not from necessity, but because it was more advantageous to fire them to the last than bring them off. The two armies were near, and in sight of each other, when night closed. Blake ?June 16.? expected to be attacked the next day; but as the enemy manifested no such intention, he rightly concluded that they were manoeuvring either with a view to surround him, or to threaten his rear. Accordingly he ascertained that 3000 French were posted at Torrecilla. About two hours before nightfall a brisk fire was opened upon his left, with the intent of making him change his position, in which case his rear would have been exposed to this detachment. But the attack was repulsed, as was a second which the enemy made upon the centre a little before midnight. The Spanish general then retreated to Belchite in perfect order, which he did without being molested. The next day the enemy came again in sight, and Blake, who had hitherto had no reason to distrust his troops, took a position in full expectation of being attacked on the morrow, and in good hope of repelling the enemy as completely as he had done before AlcaÑiz.

Belchite, once the capital of a petty Moorish sovereignty, stands upon the slope of some bending hills, which almost surround it: toward Zaragoza the country is level, covered with gardens and olive-yards. The position which Blake had taken was singularly advantageous; his right was completely safe from the enemy’s cavalry, and protected by a chapel, with a number of outbuildings and two large sheep-folds, which were all pierced for musketry: to attack the centre, the enemy’s horse must be exposed to a tremendous cross fire, and the left had their retreat upon the strong post which was occupied by the other wing. Blake’s arrangement was so made, that if the enemy, as he expected, should make a great effort on his left, three columns might be brought to attack them on that side; and if unsuccessful, they could have fallen back upon the centre and the right flank, being meantime assailable only in front, and protected the while by their artillery, which also had its retreat secure to the same strong ?June 18.? post. He had harangued his troops, and they made a thousand protestations that they would do their duty. The attack was made, as he had expected, on the left; four or five shot were fired on both sides, and the French threw a few shells, which wounded four or five men. But upon one shell falling into the middle of a regiment, the men were seized with a sudden panic and fled; the panic instantly spread, ... a second and a third regiment ran away without firing a gun, and in a few minutes the generals were left with none but a few officers in the midst of the position. With all their efforts they could not rally more than two hundred men, and nothing was left for them but to make for the nearest strong place, leaving artillery, baggage, and every thing to the enemy.

The defeat was in all its circumstances so thoroughly disgraceful, ... so disheartening and hopeless in its consequences, that Blake almost ?Blake offers his resignation, which is not accepted.? sunk under it. He told the government that he was incapable of entering into details, but considered it due to the nation that a judicial inquiry should be instituted into the conduct of a general under whose command an army of from 13,000 to 14,000 effective men had been utterly routed and dispersed. “He knew that he had not been culpable,” he said, “but after so many proofs of his unhappy fortune, he wished not to be employed any longer in command. As a Spaniard and a soldier he was still ready to serve his country in an inferior station, and he requested only that some portion of his present pay might be continued for the support of his family, or a part of the Encomienda which had recently been conferred upon him, but which it was not fitting that so useless a person should retain. The government, however, neither accepted his proffered resignation, nor instituted any inquiry. The former would have been unjust towards a brave and honourable officer whose conduct was unimpeachable, and his character above suspicion; the latter must have been altogether nugatory. The panic had been instantaneous and general, and it was impossible to punish a whole army. All that could be done was to publish the whole details, in no degree attempting to disguise or palliate the injury and disgrace which had been brought on the nation: to declare that the commander-in-chief and the generals had done their duty, and retained the full confidence of the country, and to brand the fugitives in a body, as men who were the opprobrium of the Spanish name, and had rendered themselves objects of execration to their countrymen.

The men who in their panic had thus lost all use of reason, as well as all sense of honour and of duty, were not likely, when they found themselves in safety, and recovered their senses, to be affected by this denunciation. A religion which is contented to accept the slightest degree of attrition, and keeps short reckonings with conscience, had taught them to be upon easy terms with themselves; ... moreover the moral disease was so endemic, that it had ceased to be disgraceful: the greater part of these men had behaved well at AlcaÑiz and in the subsequent operations; and no doubt expected to be more fortunate on a better occasion, for a report was raised that the French had received so great a reinforcement at the moment of commencing the action as to render resistance hopeless; and though this was indignantly contradicted by Blake, the men found an excuse for themselves in believing it. The disgrace was deeply felt by the government, and by the general whose hopes were blasted by it in the blossom; but the Spaniards were in no degree disheartened, not even those upon whom it brought immediate danger; and when the French, in the course of a few days, attempted to carry Mequinenza by a coup de main, they were beaten off with considerable loss.

At this time also that system of warfare began which soon extended throughout Spain, and occasioned greater losses to the French than they suffered in all their pitched battles. The first adventurers who attracted notice by collecting stragglers from their own dispersed armies, deserters from the enemy, and men who, made desperate by the ruin of their private affairs in the general wreck, were ready for any service in which they could at the same time gratify their just vengeance and find subsistence, were ?Porlier.? Juan Diaz Porlier in Asturias, and Juan Martin Diaz in Old Castille, the latter better known ?The Empecinado.? by his appellation of the23 Empecinado. A lawyer, by name Gil, commenced the same course in the Pyrenean valleys of Navarre and Aragon. After a short career of some two months he disappeared, and Egoaguerra, who renewed the attempt, withdrew from that wilder way of life to engage in Doyle’s battalion. The third adventurer who at this time raised the spirits of the Pyrenean provinces, and for a while gave employment to the French in Navarre, was that D. Mariano de Renovales by whom the Convent of S. Joseph had been so gallantly defended ?1809.
May.? at the last siege of Zaragoza. Having been ?Renovales in the valley of Roncal.? made prisoner when the city surrendered, he had effected his escape on the way to France, and collected in the valleys of Roncal and Anso a body of men and officers, who, like himself, believed that the scandalous manner in which the terms of capitulation had been violated by the French released them from any obligation of observing it. They had probably agreed to rendezvous in these valleys as many of them as could escape, and his intention was to form them into a body, and rejoin the army. But when it was known that they were collecting there, and that the mountaineers, confiding in their presence, refused obedience to the intrusive government, 600 men were ordered from the garrison of Pamplona to enter the valleys at six points, and reduce them to subjection.

Men who, like Renovales and his officers, had served at Zaragoza, were neither to be lightly surprised nor easily taken. They were upon the alert, the mountaineers were ready for their assailants, and of the column which advanced against the little town of Anso not a man escaped. The four columns which entered by Navasques, Uztarroz, Salvatierra, and Fago, effected their junction; but the movements of the Spaniards were concerted and executed with as much precision; and after two days’ fighting the French were driven to the foot of a high rock called Undari, where all that survived, seventy-eight in number, with their commander, the chef de bataillon, Puisalis, were taken prisoners: ?1809.
June.? the sixth column was not engaged, forty men having deserted from it before they entered the valleys; the others thought it imprudent to proceed, and thus they were preserved from suffering a like fate with their companions. Puisalis, being severely wounded, was lodged by Renovales in his own quarters, and treated with the utmost care. The other prisoners were sent with a guard of forty men to be delivered to General Blake, but the ruffian, Buruchuri by name, who had charge of the escort, when he had advanced far enough to be under no control, massacred them all; ... a crime which he appears to have committed with impunity. Puisalis was more fortunate; as soon as his wounds were healed, he was sent with five other prisoners to Blake, and reaching him a little before the rout at Belchite, recovered his liberty at that time.

This intelligence cheered the Aragonese and the Catalans after that most disgraceful dispersion, and both Lazan and Blake took measures for assisting and encouraging the mountaineers. Ammunition was sent from Lerida; Renovales himself was indefatigable in his exertions: he collected arms from all the villages within reach, sent for armourers from Eybar and Placencia, and set up an armoury in Roncal. A second force was dispatched to crush the growing insurrection. The valley of Roncal was the part which they attacked; the Spaniards were driven ?June 15.? from the point of Yso, where their advance was stationed; but Renovales arrived in time with 200 men of the vale, and as many more from that of Anso; he drove the enemy out, and pursued them as far as Lumbier, with the loss of more than forty killed; and twice that number of wounded were removed on the following day to Pamplona. This second defeat had so weakened the garrison of that city, that the Spaniards now cut off their communication both with Aragon and with France; they scoured the roads in all directions; not a day passed in which some party of the invaders, who hitherto had travelled in safety in those parts, was not intercepted and cut off, and sometimes the enemy were pursued to the very gates.