July. CHAP. wholly to interrupt, the communication by land between BarceXII. lona and France. Materials of every kind were found in the 1808. well-stored arsenals and magazines of Barcelona, and the horses, mules, and carriages of the inhabitants of that city were put in requisition for conveying them. So sure of success was Duhesme, and so exasperated by his former failure, that he is said Cabañes, p. to have declared he would arrive before the city on one day, attack it the next, take it on the third day, and on the fourth destroy it. i. 80-85. Difficulties on the march. He began his march on the 10th of July, with about 6000 men. From Barcelona to Gerona is a journey of twenty hours; but Duhesme had not calculated upon the obstacles which he was to encounter on the way. The road for two-thirds of the distance lies always within sight of the sea, and in great part along the coast; the Catalans, under D. Francisco Milans, had broken it up, and annoyed him with great activity on his left, while an English frigate, and some smaller vessels, brought their guns to bear upon him from the sea; these impediments delayed him five days between Caldetas and San Pol. On the 19th he divided his troops; one part crossed the wild mountains of Vallgorguina to S. Celoni, and endeavoured by a sudden attack to get possession of Hostalrich. Twice they attempted to escalade it, and were repulsed with loss by the acting governor D. Manuel O'Sulivan. The other division continued the coast road, losing many guns and much of its ammunition there. They rejoined on the way to Gerona, and arrived before that city on the 22nd, where they were met on the following day by Reille with 2000 men from Figueras; but Duhesme had suffered so much on the Cabañes, i. march, that he was in no condition for active operations, and the remainder of the month was employed in preparing for the siege. On the very day that the French General appeared for the norca land second time before Gerona, the Marques del Palacio, with 4600 regular troops from Minorca, landed at Tarragona. Many officers, 85-87. Troops from Mi at Tarra gona. XII. who had hitherto remained in Barcelona, and several magistrates, CHAP. escaped now from that city to join him. The first measure of the Marques was to strengthen the line of the Llobregat, 1808. which the Somatenes and Miquelets, undismayed by their late August. defeat, had again occupied. The Conde de Caldagues was sent with a detachment upon this service, and the garrison, who made a vigorous attempt to dislodge him immediately on his arrival, were repulsed. The Catalans were now in high spirits, and with the assistance of Lord Cochrane, in the Imperieuse frigate, made a successful attack upon the Castle of Mongat, a small fort on the coast, about nine miles from Barcelona, which the French had strengthened, as a point of support for their plundering incursions to the eastward. About an hundred prisoners were taken there, seven pieces of cannon, and a considerable quantity of ammunition and stores. The enemy could no longer maraud in that direction, and feeling great present inconvenience, began to apprehend serious consequences from the blockade of Barcelona: Barcelona the British cruisers watched it effectually by sea, and in the only part of the land now open to them, which was the mountainous country in their immediate vicinity, between the Llobregat and the Besos, they had to contend with an armed and exasperated peasantry; for even those persons who would have Cabañes, p. remained quiet were driven to despair by the system of fire and sword which Duhesme pursued. blockaded. ii. 3-25. Barcelona, with its fort Monjuich, is one of the strongest Barcelona. places in Europe. It is remarked by Swinburne, that the citadel was calculated to overawe the inhabitants at least as much as to protect them from a foreign enemy. For this in fact it was built, when six hundred houses were demolished for its site; and to the same purpose it was now applied against the family which built it, when Buonaparte's perfidy had made the Bourbons as popular in Catalonia as they had been hated there during the war XII. August. CHAP. of the succession. Every house in Barcelona lies exposed to Monjuich, which stands singly on the south-west. A new fortress 1808. had been erected there early in Charles the Third's reign, and it had that completeness and magnificence which characterised public works in Spain. On the sea side it was considered impregnable, so admirably had the natural strength of the situation been improved by art; and toward the land the glacis had been sloped at an incredible expense in such a manner that no approaches could be made under shelter. The population of Barcelona in 1797 was 130,000, and if the increase since had been in proportion to that of the ten years preceding, it must have amounted to 150,000 at this time. Yet this population, than which a braver and nobler-minded people were no where to be found, was kept under control by 4000 French, Lechi having been left with no greater force. The city was so completely at the mercy of the citadel and Monjuich, that the invaders had nothing to fear from open attacks. Their only danger was from stratagems or famine. Against the former they were always on their guard; and it was to open the communication for supplies and reinforcements from France that Duhesme had undertaken the expedition against Gerona. The Junta of Cata lonia remove to the ters. The Marques del Palacio arrived in Catalonia without treasure or provisions, and there was no government to which he head-quar- could look for either. The contributions which had been raised had already been expended, and nothing was to be obtained by way of loan. A temporary resource was found in the confiscation of French property; for in these calamitous times the numerous French families who were settled in Spain bore their full share in the general misery and ruin. These funds, however, could not long suffice; and for the better establishment of some permanent system, it was agreed that the Supreme Junta of Catalonia, which had hitherto resided at Lerida, should remove from XII. August. sent to in that inconvenient situation, and accompany in future the head- CHAP. quarters. The Junta was newly constituted accordingly, and the Commander-in-chief was chosen president. The Marques would 1808. now have marched to raise the siege of Gerona; but such means as he would have deemed adequate were wanting; he had no cavalry, the little which there was in Lerida and Tarragona was unfit for action, and perhaps he reasonably distrusted his troops if they were led against a well-disciplined army. Caldagues, Caldagues however, was sent to harass the enemy and interrupt the siege, terrupt the with four companies of regular troops, 2000 Miquelets and Somatens, and three pieces of artillery. He was joined at Hostalrich by more of these new levies, making his whole number 4300 men, and he received two cannon from that fortress. They advanced to Castella, passing within sight of the French encampment; some officers came out of the city to confer with the Cabanes, ii. Count, and a joint attack upon the enemy's batteries was concerted for the following morning. siege of Ge rona. 30-32, 52-55. the enemy's. with suc This was on the night of the 15th; Duhesme had been so He attacks harassed in his operations, and so slow in them, that though he batteries arrived before Gerona on the 19th of July, it was not till the cess. morning of August 13 that his batteries began their fire. It was directed chiefly against the Castle, which, like that at Barcelona, bears the name of Monjuich, and which, with all the other forts around Gerona, had been neglected, and was in a state of great dilapidation. On the 15th a considerable breach had been made. The garrison was then strengthened with 900 men, who were ordered to be ready at daybreak, and to sally as soon as the relieving troops should be ascending the hill of Monjuich; but instead of waiting for this, they sallied as soon as they saw them marching down the distant heights of St. Miguel and Los Angeles. The execution therefore was as rash as the plan, and certainly few attempts in war have ever been made in which there was so XII. CHAP. little reasonable prospect of success. The besieging army consisted of 11,000 men, of which 1000 were cavalry, all disciplined 1808. soldiers, upon whom their officers could rely. There were August. 4700 regular troops in Gerona, who, for want of discipline, were not to be relied on in the field; and of the force which Caldagues had now collected, amounting to 6000, there were but 300 regulars. But Duhesme was at this time too much dispirited by the general prospect of affairs in Spain, and the reverses which he himself had suffered, to be sensible of his own superiority, or to profit by the errors of his opponents. One battery was taken at the point of the bayonet in this premature sally, and presently set on fire. A second also was stormed; the French, who had been driven from it, recovered it, being reinforced by a Swiss battalion; but a column of the Spaniards arrived in time to assist their countrymen, and it was again taken, and the carriages burnt. D. Henrique O'Donell, who held the rank of Sargento Mayor in the regiment of Ultonia, distinguished himself greatly in this part of the action. The destruction of these batteries was the object for which Caldagues had hazarded an attack upon an enemy so greatly superior in strength. His own troops, meantime, drove the French from the heights of S. Miguel to the village of CampDura; from thence they, in their turn, were driven back to the heights, and being there reinforced, made the enemy again give Cabañes, i. way before them, dislodged them from Camp-Dura, and pursued them till they crossed the river Ter to Sarria. 55-62. Duhesme raises the siege. Caldagues dispatched news of his victory from the field of battle to Tarragona, saying that the enemy's batteries were demolished, and all the artillery taken with which they had battered Monjuich in breach. All that he had hoped, and more than he could reasonably have expected, had been obtained; and when his troops, flushed with success, would have exposed themselves in the plain to the French cavalry, he restrained them, ordered |