Meanwhile Blake was preparing, though with no great self-confidence, to make an attack on Suchet’s siege-lines, and was only awaiting the arrival of Mahy and the Murcians before striking. He began by trying a feeble diversion on the flank, sending back Obispo’s division once more to Segorbe, and getting some of the Empecinado’s bands to threaten Teruel, the southernmost of the garrisons in Aragon. This so far annoyed the French marshal that on the 20th of October he sent off Palombini, with one French and one Italian brigade and 400 horse, to drive Obispo out of Segorbe, and to open the road to Teruel. By so doing he placed himself in a dangerous position, for he had detached 4,500 men on an excursion which could not take less than four days, and if Blake had refused to wait for Mahy, and had let Obispo amuse Palombini, he could have marched against the siege-lines with 20,000 men, including all his best troops, and would have found only 12,000, besides the gunners of the siege artillery, left in the French camp. If Suchet had left any detachments to maintain the blockade, as he probably would have done, he could only have fought with odds of less than one to two. If he had brought up all his battalions, the garrison would have sallied forth and destroyed his siege-works.
But Blake did not take his chance—whatever it may have been worth: he waited for Mahy, who was only due on the 23rd. Meanwhile Palombini made a rapid raid upon Segorbe: but Obispo, leaving two battalions only to make a show of resistance, crossed the hills by by-paths and drew in to Liria, on the flank of the main army, and in close touch with it. He could have been used for a battle, if Blake had chosen to deliver one upon the 22nd or 23rd. But the unlucky Spanish general did not so choose: and Palombini—finding nothing serious in front of him, and hearing that Teruel had been already relieved by Severoli—rightly returned by forced marches to Saguntum, which he reached on the afternoon of the 24th of October.
Meanwhile the long-expected Mahy arrived at Liria on the night of the 23rd, and found Obispo already lying there. The two forces united, and marched on the 24th to Betera, but there again divided, the Murcians going on to join Blake’s main body, while the Valencian division received orders from the Commander-in-Chief to move as an independent flanking column, and from Naquera to fall upon the flank or right rear of Suchet’s position in front of Saguntum.
On the same day Blake himself broke out of the lines behind the Guadalaviar, and after issuing a well-worded proclamation, in which he said that Andriani’s gallant garrison must not perish unassisted, and declared a confidence which he must have been far from feeling in the resolution of his troops, advanced for some miles along the high-road, so as to place himself at nightfall within striking distance of the enemy.
His plan of operations, which was clearly set forth in his directions to Mahy[25], was ambitious in the highest degree, and aimed at the complete destruction of his enemy. Expecting to find Suchet drawn up to meet him in the plain south of Saguntum, it appears that he intended to fight a battle in which an immensely strong left wing was to turn and break down Suchet’s right, while a weaker right wing (composed, however, of his best troops) was to attack him frontally, and hold his main body ‘contained,’ while the turning movement was delivered. The left wing contained 26 battalions and nearly 20 squadrons, making nearly 16,000 bayonets and 1,700 sabres[26]. The detached division of Obispo, from Naquera, was to fall on the extreme French right from the rear; the two other Valencian infantry divisions (Miranda and Villacampa), led by Charles O’Donnell, were to tackle it in front. Mahy’s Murcians were to support O’Donnell, at the same time reaching out a hand towards Obispo—in order to do this Mahy was directed to send out two battalions (under a Colonel O’Ronan) to Cabezbort, a hillside intermediate between the point where Obispo was expected and the left of the two other Valencian divisions. The left wing had allotted to it the whole of the Murcian horse, 800 sabres, and one of the two Valencian cavalry brigades, under General San Juan, which was of about the same strength. It had also 18 guns.
So much for the left wing. The right wing, conducted by Blake in person, which had advanced up the high-road from Valencia towards Murviedro, consisted of the two ‘Expeditionary Divisions’ of Zayas and Lardizabal, both very weak because of the losses which they had suffered in the campaign around Baza in August—each was eight battalions strong; but the former had only 2,500, the latter 3,000 men, so that the units averaged well under 400 bayonets. But these were good old troops, which had greatly distinguished themselves at Albuera: they were the only part of Blake’s army in which any real confidence could be placed. In support of these veterans the Commander-in-Chief brought up the Valencian ‘Division of Reserve,’ which consisted entirely of the newly raised 3rd battalions of the regiments serving with Villacampa and Miranda. They had only been under arms a few months, were not fully equipped or clothed, and were dreadfully under-officered; for five strong battalions, of over 700 bayonets each, there were only 75 officers in all—fifteen per battalion, where there should have been thirty, and these were the mere leavings of the older units of each regiment, or else newly gazetted ensigns. As a fighting force these 3,500 men were nearly useless—and Blake put them where they were least likely to get into trouble. They were divided into two brigades: Brigadier-General Velasco seems to have been in command, vice Acuña, who had the division during the autumn. The right column was accompanied by the handful of horse belonging to the ‘Expeditionary Force’—300 sabres under General Loy—and by the second Valencian Cavalry Brigade under General Caro, some 800 mounted men more. It was accompanied, like the other wing, by three batteries. Thus, counting its gunners and sappers, the right wing had under 10,500 men, while the immensely strong left had over 17,000. But it is quality rather than mere numbers which counts in war—the weak wing fought a good battle against equal strength, and looked for a moment as if it might win. The strong wing disgraced itself, and was routed by a fourth of its own numbers.
Suchet had been somewhat troubled by the first news of Blake’s sudden sally from Valencia, for though he desired a battle, wherein success would probably win him the immediate surrender of the hard-pressed garrison of Saguntum, yet he did not wish that matters should be forced to a crisis in Palombini’s absence. It was only after the well-timed return of that general to his camp, that he welcomed the approach of a decisive action. But with Palombini at his disposition again, he was eager to fight.
He had at this moment with him, in the lines before Saguntum, 35 battalions of foot (of which the three Neapolitan units under Compère were mere skeletons, with little over a thousand men between them), with 15 squadrons of horse and 36 field-guns. He left behind him, to maintain the siege-works before the fortress, two battalions of the 117th line from Habert’s division, and Balathier’s Italian brigade, making four battalions more. The weak Neapolitan brigade of Compère, only 1,400 men, even with its cavalry included, was placed in support of the blockading force, at Gillet and Petres, to watch the road from Segorbe, by which some outlying Spanish detachment might possibly attempt to communicate with the garrison of Saguntum. This left for the line of battle 26 battalions—six of Habert’s, eleven of Harispe’s, four of Palombini’s Italians, and five of Robert’s reserve brigade. The total amounted to about 12,000 infantry, while the whole of the cavalry, except the two Neapolitan squadrons, was put in the field to the amount of some 1,800 sabres. Counting the gunners of the six batteries of artillery, Suchet’s fighting force was not much over 14,000 men. He had left 4,000, besides the gunners of the siege-train and the sappers, to deal with the garrison of Saguntum. This was little more than half of Blake’s numbers, for the Spanish general—as we have seen—was marching forward with 27,000 men in line. That Suchet gladly took the risk sufficiently shows his opinion of the quality of the greater part of the Valencian army. It seems, we must confess, rather hazardous to have left 4,000 men in the blockading corps, when forces were so unequal. In a similar case Beresford at Albuera took every man out of the trenches, and fought with his whole army. Andriani’s garrison was not numerous enough to execute any really dangerous sally in the rear, and was so constricted, in its precipitous fastness, that it could not easily come down or deploy itself. Perhaps Suchet may have feared, however, that it would take the opportunity of absconding by some postern, if it were not shut in upon all sides. But there were to be moments during the battle when the Marshal would gladly have had the assistance of two or three more battalions of steady troops.
Suchet had chosen for his fighting-ground the narrow plain south of Saguntum, extending from the sea to the foot of the hills of the Sancti Espiritus range—a space of less than three miles in very flat ground. It was open for the most part, but sprinkled in certain sections with olives and carob-trees, and contained one or two slight eminences or mounds, which rose above the general surface, though only by a score or two of feet, so that they had a certain command over the adjoining flats. The left of the line, nearest to the sea, was formed of Habert’s imperfect division, which, having detached two battalions for the blockade of Saguntum, had only six left—2,500 bayonets—in line. The right consisted of Harispe’s division, which was stronger than Habert’s, as it had nine battalions in line, even after setting aside one regiment (the 44th) for a flank-guard. Its force was about 3,600 bayonets. This division lay to the right of the road from Murviedro to Valencia. The reserve consisted of the Italian brigade (that of Saint Paul), which had not been told off for the siege, and of the three French cavalry regiments, in all 2,000 bayonets and 1,300 sabres. It was drawn up half a mile in rear of Habert and Harispe, ready to support either of them. The batteries, horse and foot, accompanied their respective divisions.
We have thus accounted for 10,000 men. The remainder of Suchet’s fighting force constituted a flank-guard, to prevent his line from being turned on its right, the side of the hills. It originally consisted of Robert’s ‘reserve brigade,’ five battalions, or 2,500 bayonets, and of one cavalry regiment, Schiazzetti’s Italian dragoons—450 sabres—with one battery. These troops were drawn up on the higher slopes of the Sancti Espiritus hills, covering the pass of the same name and the country road which goes over it. To these Suchet added, at the last moment, one regiment from Harispe’s division, the 44th, under the Brigadier Chlopiski, who, being senior to Robert, took command of the whole flank-guard. These two battalions—1,200 men—took post on the hill-slopes to the left of Robert, half-way between his position and that of Harispe’s right. The whole force, including the dragoons and the artillery, made about 4,300 men. Compère’s Neapolitans were too far to their left rear to be reckoned an appreciable support, and had their own separate task, though they were never called upon to discharge it. The ground occupied by Chlopiski’s 4,300 men was exceedingly strong, and the Marshal hoped that they might be relied upon to hold off the turning movement, which he was aware was to be made against his inland flank. For he knew that Charles O’Donnell was advancing from the direction of Betera, which could only mean a projected attack on his own right. Had he realized that not only O’Donnell, but also Obispo and Mahy’s Murcians, in all some 17,000 men, were about to operate against Chlopiski, he must surely have strengthened his covering force, for the odds would have been impossible if the Valencians had made any fight at all. But they did not!