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.♦