[305] Yet he had the hardihood to write to the Emperor that ‘after some slight skirmishing, he did not think it worth while to make a serious attack on Gerona’ (Nap. Corresp., xvii. 347).
[306] The Valais was a republic from 1802 till 1810, when it was annexed to the Empire, as the ‘department of the Simplon.’
[307] From Nap. Corresp., 14,092, 14,150, 14,151, and 14,168, we get the composition of this force. They account for the following:
| Two batts. of the 113th (Tuscans) | 1,300 |
| National Guards of the Pyrénées Orientales | 560 |
| 1st Provisional Battalion of Perpignan (companies from the dépôts of the 1st, 5th, 24th, 62nd of the Line, and 16th and 22nd Léger) | 840 |
| 2nd Provisional Battalion, similarly formed from the 23rd, 60th, 79th, 81st of the Line, and the 8th and 18th Léger | 840 |
| A mixed battalion of the 16th and 32nd French and 2nd Swiss | 1,100 |
| Another from the 7th and 93rd of the Line | 840 |
| Another from the 2nd, 56th, and 37th of the Line | 840 |
| One battalion of the ‘5th Legion of Reserve’ from Grenoble | 500 |
| Battalion of the Valais | 800 |
| Two squadrons of Tuscan Dragoons | 250 |
| Two escadrons de marche (French) | 300 |
| Two batteries of artillery | 200 |
| 8,370 |
There were also nine companies of gendarmerie and ‘departmental reserves.’
[308] Foy, iv. 165, 166.
[309] The Montague, of 74 guns, Captain R. W. Otway.
[310] Foy, iv. 169.
[311] Neither Toreño nor Arteche mentions the trouble caused by this tiresome old man, to whom the delay in succouring Catalonia was due. For the negotiations with him see Lord Collingwood’s correspondence (Life, ii. 291, 292), and Foy (iv. 181).
[312] The numbers of these corps before the fighting commenced in June had been: