♦Blake takes the command.♦
Zaragoza had defended itself without any other reliance than what the inhabitants placed in themselves. Valencia prepared for its defence under very different circumstances. The Regent, General Blake, embarking with all the force he could collect, had landed at Almeira to take the command in those provinces, which, since the fall of Tarragona, were so seriously menaced. From thence he proceeded to Valencia, with full powers, civil as well as military, and the whole strength of the executive authority, to carry into effect whatever measures he might think needful. The collected force under his command was more than equal in number to that of the invaders; one division of 6000 men, taking its name from the field of Albuhera, had attained discipline upon which the officers could rely, and reputation which every effort would be made to support. Some of the generals also stood high in public opinion; Lardizabal had distinguished himself in Lapeña’s expedition; and Zayas was thought by the English, as well as by his own countrymen, one of the best officers in the Spanish service. But Blake himself inspired no confidence wherever he went; he had the reputation of being an unfortunate general; and what credit he acquired in the battle of Albuhera had been lost by his subsequent movements in the Condado de Niebla. The Valencians, therefore, were unwilling to receive him, and would fain have persuaded the Marques del Palacio to retain the command, to which, in these times of insubordination, a popular election would have been considered as conferring a legitimate right; but the Marques had been bred in a better school, and though he had some reason to complain of the manner in which he was thus suddenly superseded, demeaned himself toward his successor with a frankness and cordiality deserving a better return than they obtained. In the course of more than thirty years’ service, it had been his good fortune never to incur the slightest disaster in any command which he had held; twice during the present war, having been appointed to armies which he found incomplete and ill-equipped, he had placed them upon a respectable footing; and being then removed from the command, they had presently under his successors been dispersed or destroyed; he was popular, therefore, because no miscarriage could be laid to his charge. Embarking from Cadiz for Alicante on the day that Tarragona was taken, he brought with him no supplies either in men, arms, or money, nor was any thing sent after him; it seemed as if the eastern provinces were left to their own resources; and Alicante and Orihuela, from whence he might have drawn supplies, were separated from his government. The Murcian army consisted nominally at this time of 20,000 foot and 5000 horse; he asked for 3000 of these men and 600 cavalry, and they were refused. The effect of this was, that feeling he had no external support to look for, he formed his plans for defence upon the nature of the country, and that moral resistance, in which the strength of the Spanish cause consisted: but Blake coming with the entire confidence of the executive Government, of which he was a member, had the Murcian forces at his command, and seemed to think his military means so fully sufficient, that he disregarded all other resources. The Marques would have defended the strong ground through which the enemy must pass before they could attack Murviedro. Between that town and Valencia is a labyrinth of water-courses, gardens, plantations, and deep narrow roads, through which no force could penetrate against the resistance of a determined people; ... and if that resistance had been overcome, he would have cut the dikes and inundated the country. These plans he communicated to Blake, who never bestowed a thought upon them, contemplating no measures which were not in the ordinary course of tactics, and thinking, that if the punctilios of his profession were correctly observed, nothing farther could be required on the score of honour or of duty.
♦Murviedro.♦
Murviedro is an open town twelve miles east of Valencia, but its fortress, called the Castle of San Fernando de Sagunto, was, both for its natural strength and artificial defences, a most formidable post. D. Luis Maria Andriani commanded there with a garrison of 3500 men, who had volunteered for its defence. The name which that fortress bore, and the knowledge of the resistance which upon that spot had been made against Hannibal, as it might well have given confidence to its defenders, induced Suchet to expect greater difficulty in its conquest than any which he had yet overcome. The Roman theatre here, which was one of the most perfect remains of the ancients, and the other antiquities of this sacred spot, were held in such proper estimation by the Spanish Government, that in 1785, under the ministry of the Conde d’Aranda, an officer was appointed to preserve them. When it was deemed necessary to fortify the place, the engineers condemned the theatre; the conservator appealed to the Cortes, and the Cortes unanimously agreeing that it would be a reproach to the nation if this precious monument should be destroyed, addressed the Regents, requiring them to give orders for its careful preservation: but such considerations could no longer be allowed, when the paramount interests of the nation were at stake, and instructions were given to make any demolition which might be required for the security of the place. Andriani entered upon his command there in the middle of September, and a few days afterwards the French from Tortosa and from Aragon began their march toward Valencia. Suchet had with ♦Suchet takes possession of the town.♦ him all the disposable troops from Aragon and Catalonia, ... withdrawing many of the less important garrisons and smaller detachments, in full confidence that there was neither energy enough in the general Government of Spain, nor union enough among the provincial authorities, to take advantage of the opportunity which was thus afforded them. He arrived before Murviedro on the 21st, and took possession of the town. Blake, who had advanced thither to see that the garrison was complete, and the place provided for defence, offered no resistance when the enemy approached, but retired within an intrenched camp, on the right of the Guadalaviar; it rested with its right upon the sea, and covered the city of Valencia; he had the Murcian army behind him in reserve. The divisions of Obispo and Villacampa, under Carlos O’Donnel, had been recalled from the frontiers of Castille and Aragon: these remained in the field and formed his left; 4000 men occupied Segorbe and Liria, and Bassecourt, with about 2000, was in Requeña and Utril: besides these forces the commander-in-chief had 1600 cavalry, part of them veteran troops.
Against such means of resistance Suchet would never have ventured to advance if he had not despised the Valencians. With an abundant population, brave and patriotic enough to offer themselves to any danger and submit to any sacrifices, ... and with resources greater than those of any other province from its redundant fertility, Valencia had scarcely made an effort in favour of its neighbours. When, at the earnest requisition of the British naval commander on that coast, a body of its troops had been detached into Catalonia, they were embarked without muskets, because there was an established regulation, that before they left the province their arms must be deposited in the arsenal. After arms had been provided for them, it was judged necessary to march them into Aragon; but they refused to enter that kingdom, because they had not been sent with that intention, and in consequence they returned to Valencia without having faced the enemy. Whenever, indeed, the Valencian army had faced them, some glaring misconduct had appeared, and some lamentable disaster been the necessary result. The spirit of provincialism ceased to paralyse them when the enemy was within their own territory, but Suchet still calculated upon want of discipline in the men, and want of skill in the leaders; some reliance, too, he placed upon those means of seduction by which France had triumphed as often as by her arms.
♦The French repulsed in an assault.♦
The day after he reached Murviedro, he assaulted the fort at two in the morning; in three places the escalade was attempted, but the French were repulsed at all points with the loss of their ladders, and of more than 400 killed and wounded. Suchet was induced to make this dangerous attempt by his engineers, who discovered two old breaches which had not ♦Mem. 2. 161.♦ been effectually repaired, and who were sensible of the great difficulties they should have to encounter in a regular siege. His men, too, he says, since their exploits at Tarragona, regarded it as pastime to march to an assault; but the way there had been prepared for them by corruption. They kept possession of the town, broke through the party walls of the houses, that they might communicate without exposing themselves ♦October.♦ to the garrison’s fire, barricadoed the streets, and planted guns in those houses which looked toward the fort. This was not effected without loss, and they had not yet brought up their battering train; it was to come from Tortosa, and the little fort of Oropesa in their rear commanded the road. Suchet gave directions for reducing this, and acted in the meantime against the troops in the field. Obispo was attacked on the 30th at Seneja, and driven back upon Segorbe; there he rallied, but reinforcements came to the enemy, which again gave them the superiority; they entered Segorbe in pursuit of his broken troops, put all who resisted to the sword, and drove him towards Liria. The next object of Suchet was to drive Carlos O’Donnel’s division beyond the Guadalaviar. On the night of October 1st he marched against it; the advanced guard was attacked and routed at Betero; the main body at Benaguacil. Little loss was sustained by the Spaniards in these actions, but they did not contribute to raise the character of the Valencian troops in the eyes of their enemies; and Suchet, who knew that the struggle would be with Blake, endeavoured to provoke that general into the field, by reproaching him for having remained idle in Valencia while two divisions of his army were defeated.
♦Oropesa taken by the enemy.♦
He had made himself, however, already so far master of the field, as to continue his operations against Murviedro without interruption. Oropesa surrendered on the 11th, after a cannonade of a few hours; Captain Eyre, in the Magnificent, had just arrived to assist it, but he came only in time to bring off the garrison of a tower about a mile distant. Artillery and tools could now be safely brought from Tortosa; and a week afterwards a practicable breach was effected. Twice in the course of a day and ♦Oct. 11.♦ night the French attempted to storm it, and were repulsed with great slaughter. The fort, though, according to the inveterate habit of procrastination which has for centuries been the reproach of Spanish policy, its works were incomplete, yet was capable of ♦A second assault repelled.♦ making a very formidable resistance; for it was so constructed as to form four parts, each of which might be defended after the others were taken. Blake calculated upon the impetuosity of the enemy, the steadiness of the garrison, and the patriotism of the governor; the two former did not deceive him: and he had laid down for himself a wise plan of operations; which was to abstain from battle, in hope that the French would weaken themselves in the siege, and might be compelled to retreat by movements upon their flank and on the side of Aragon.
♦Guerrilla movements in aid of Murviedro.♦