Buonaparte’s birthday recurred about this time, and the French general sent a letter into the city, informing the governor that it would be celebrated in due form with a discharge of cannon. Lili corresponded to this courtesy by sending a similar communication on the eve of Ferdinand’s anniversary; at the same time he sent the official notice which had reached him, that the yellow fever had broken out in certain ports of the Mediterranean, and that some ships were infected with it: this information, he said, was given as humanity required, in order that the enemy might take all possible precautions against the contagion in those parts of the country which were occupied by their troops. The holiday was observed with its usual solemnities and pageants, as if there had been no hostile encampment without the walls: in the morning there was service in the churches; in the afternoon the holy girdle, a relic of which Tortosa boasted, was carried in procession, a masque of giants going before it, accompanied by persons performing a provincial sword-dance, and followed by all the corporate bodies, civil and ecclesiastical, and by the military, with music, and banners displayed. Bull-fights with young animals who were neither tortured with fireworks (as is the manner in the serious exhibitions of that execrable sport) nor slaughtered, were held in the streets, and the day concluded with a ball, a banquet, and an illumination.

♦Conduct of the French general concerning Marshal Soult’s decree.
See vol. ii.♦

The next communication of Lili to the French general was not received so courteously by Harispe, who at that time was left in command of the besieging army. The Spaniards sent him copies of the decree issued by the Regency in consequence of Soult’s infamous edict against the Spanish armies, both edicts being printed on one sheet, in parallel columns; Lili sent them with a flag of truce, saying it was his duty to put the French general and his commander-in-chief in possession of this royal decree. Harispe replied, that he should always receive the Spanish commander’s messengers with pleasure, when they were the bearers of decent and useful communications; but in the present instance he must detain them prisoners of war, inasmuch as they seemed to have no other object than that of scattering satirical writings. If this reply had not been accompanied by an act in violation of the laws of war, it would have been satisfactory to the Spaniards; for the French general could not more plainly have shown the opinion which he entertained of Marshal Soult’s decree, than by thus affecting to believe that it was spurious. The besieging army, however, had given some examples of that merciless system upon which the intrusive government required its generals to act; ... for the bodies of some peasants were taken out of the river, with many bayonet wounds about them, and their hands tied: they were interred in the city, where the circumstance and the solemnity made a strong impression upon the people. There was a Piemontese, who, having resided more than twenty years in Tortosa, went over to the French, and rendered them all the service which his knowledge of the place and the country enabled him to perform. This treason on the part of a naturalized foreigner excited a strong desire for vengeance; some peasants watched his movements, laid wait for him, surprised him, and carried him prisoner into the city, where he was tried, and condemned to be shot in the back, under the gallows; that mode and place of death being chosen as the most ignominious, there being no hangman there. The besieged were gratified by another act of vengeance. An officer in the French army, before the serious business of the siege began, amused[5] himself, from a favourable station, with bringing down such individuals as came within reach of his gun. At length a deserter gave information that this unseen marksman’s stand was in a house called la Casilla Blanca, upon which the commandant of artillery, D. Francisco Arnau, went with his piece to a good station on the bank of the river, and getting aim at him while he was engaged in his murderous sport, had the satisfaction of seeing him fall.

Though the enemy had established two bridges with a tete-du-pont to each between Mequinenza and Tortosa, they had not been able to render the passage of the river secure. Their boats were sometimes intercepted and sometimes sunk; and everywhere a system of war was carried on by which the armies of Macdonald and Suchet were so harassed, that the operations of the siege were impeded during five months. ♦Successes of Eroles.♦ Some brilliant achievements were performed in the Ampurdan by Baron Eroles, an officer who rendered himself so obnoxious to the enemy by the activity and success with which he discharged his duty to his country, that there was an order in the French army to hang him as soon as he should fall into their hands. The German troops in Catalonia had at this time been reduced by deaths, captures, and desertions, to such a state of inefficiency, that the few survivors were permitted to leave Spain, and stationed on the South coast of France; there in the enjoyment of rest and a benign climate, to recruit their broken health, before they returned to their respective countries. Some troops only were left in the garrisons of Lerida and Barcelona, ... the remainder, a few hundreds only of as many thousands, gladly departed from a country in which they had committed and suffered so many evils. Their place in the Ampurdan was supplied by a reinforcement of 5000 French, under General Clement; the new general, to signalize his entrance, entered Olot with 3000 men, and got possession of the stores which were deposited there, with which, and with the spoils of the town, he departed early on the ♦Dec. 6.♦ second day, having thus far successfully effected his purpose. Eroles was at Tornadis at this time, where he had collected his troops; and they were receiving their rations when intelligence was brought him that the enemy had left Olot, and were on their way to Castellfullit. A cry arose from the Catalans that they did not want their bread and their brandy then; what they wanted was cartridges, and to kill the French. The men knew their commander, and he knew his people, for what kind of service they were fit, and how surely they might be relied on in that service. The enemy had had two hours’ start, but they were impeded with artillery and plunder, and apprehending no danger, had made no speed: the Catalans had the desire of vengeance to quicken them, and performing in less than an hour and a half what is estimated at a three hours’ journey, they came up with the rearguard at Castellfullit, attacked and routed it. The French rallied, took a position on the plain of Polligé, where they were protected by the cavalry and their guns, and thus awaited for Eroles to attack them. His dispositions, however, as soon as he had reconnoitred the ground, were made for turning both their flanks; and when to prevent this they attacked his centre, their cavalry were repulsed, the attempt wholly failed, and they retreated to another position near S. Jayme. From thence they were driven, and fell back upon a battalion which had now formed in the plain of Argalaguer, and were protected by the buildings in that village; but supposing the few horse which Eroles then brought forward to be part of a greater force, Clement withdrew his men to a near wood, on the other side of a stream. Encouraged by success, the Catalans attacked them there also, drove them successively from thence and from Besalu, and did not give up the pursuit till night closed. In this affair Clement lost more than a thousand men, the Spaniards twenty-five killed and fifty wounded: scarcely any prisoners were taken; the French were persuaded that no quarter would be given, and in that persuasion some had run upon the bayonets of the Spaniards, and some had thrown themselves down a precipice near Castellfullit. The whole detachment would have been destroyed if Eroles had had his cavalry, but they had been detached before he knew of the enemy’s movements, and the utmost exertions did not suffice to bring them up in time. The Baron observed with satisfaction, in his dispatches, that they had been favoured with this victory by the patroness of Spain, on the[6]festival of whose conception it had been won.

Such, indeed, was the spirit which the French found in Catalonia, and such the exasperated temper on their part which this unexpected and brave resistance had occasioned, that they said it would be necessary to exterminate one-half the Catalans in order to intimidate the other. They found a similar spirit in Aragon; but there the country had not the same natural strength, nor was there a single fortress to afford protection to the people. The army, however, under D. Joze Maria Carvajal, was again in activity; and though, owing to the incapacity of their commanders in the first years of the war, and the want of means in the utter destitution wherein it was afterwards left, it was never fortunate enough to perform any splendid or signal service, it deserved this praise, that for patience and constancy under the most trying circumstances, this of all the Spanish armies was that which during the contest deserved most highly of its country. The severest means were used to intimidate the Aragonese, but in vain. ♦Edict against the Junta of Aragon.♦ Suchet, as governor-general of that kingdom for the intrusive government, published a decree, saying, it had come to his knowledge that a set of senseless men, who had the ridiculous audacity to style themselves the Junta of Aragon, had fixed themselves in the village of Manzanera, from whence they endeavoured to disturb the tranquillity of the Aragonese, by their incendiary libels, and despotically took possession of the public revenues and stores: he gave orders, therefore, that they should be pursued, delivered over to a military tribunal, and be sentenced within twenty-four hours: that the people of Manzanera, or of any other place to which they might betake themselves, should drive them out, or, failing so to do, receive an exemplary punishment, the Ayuntamiento and the parochial priest being responsible in their goods and persons for the behaviour of the inhabitants in this point: every place which received them was to be punished irremissibly, and the authorities to suffer ignominious death by the gallows. The Junta of Aragon, to show how they regarded this decree, printed it in their own Gazette, well knowing that nothing could contribute more to keep up that feeling in the nation which it was their duty to encourage and to direct. They called attention also to the important circumstance, that this decree was issued not in the name of Joseph the Intruder, but in that of the emperor of the French, King of Italy, and Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, of whose intention to include Spain, if he could, among the states subjected to him, no equivocal indication was here afforded. The intrusive government, however deceitful in its promises, was always sincere in its threats. Of this every province had abundant proofs, and none more than ♦Molina de Aragon burnt by the French.♦ that in which Suchet commanded. The city of Molina de Aragon in an especial manner provoked the vengeance of the invaders by the disposition which the inhabitants manifested, who, as often as the French entered it, took refuge in the woods ♦Nov. 1.♦ and mountains: the enemy at length set fire to it on all sides, and three parts of the city were consumed. But acts of this kind, which proved the intention of the invaders to reduce Spain to a desert rather than leave it unsubdued, served only to confirm the Spaniards in that resolution which rendered their subjugation impossible.

♦Bassecourt takes the command in Valencia.♦

While Carvajal impeded Suchet’s operations from the side of Aragon, some efforts were made from Valencia; a province where, with ample means, little exertion had been found, and less ability to direct it. The Regency relied upon the unexhausted resources which existed there, believing that if the Valencian force were well employed, even though it should not undertake any grand operations, Tortosa could not be taken by less than 30,000 men. But when Bassecourt arrived to take the command there, he found the army in a miserable condition both as to equipments and discipline, which might have made him hopeless of success in any other warfare than that desultory one, wherein inexperienced troops may be trusted, and in which nothing is lost if they find or fancy it necessary to disperse and provide every man for his own safety. Some field-pieces had been sent from Valencia to the army of Aragon: the French obtained intelligence of this, and a strong detachment ♦Oct. 31.♦ under the Polish General Chlopisky entered Teruel to intercept this artillery, when General Villacampa, for whom it was intended, was at Alfambra, six hours distant: ... the officer in charge of the guns endeavoured to retreat with them, but was pursued and overtaken at Alventosa, and the whole fell into the enemy’s hands. After this success Chlopisky sought to inflict another blow upon Villacampa’s division, and an affair took place between Villel and La Fuensanta, which the Spaniards considered as a victory on their part, because, though compelled to retire from the ground, they had not been pursued, nor had any dispersion taken place. Somewhat better fortune attended ♦Nov. 12.♦ a maritime expedition from Peñiscola, which was planned by General Doyle and executed by his aide-de-camp, Lieutenant-Colonel San Martin; by this force the strong tower of S. Juan, which commanded the Puerto de los Alfaques, was surprised, and immediately garrisoned and stored; and thus the enemy were deprived of a port in which their corsairs and coasters found protection. A land expedition, undertaken at the same time in the hope of cutting off a French detachment at Trayguera, failed altogether; the French had withdrawn in time, and receiving a timely reinforcement, compelled the Spaniards ♦Defeat of the Valencians at Ulldecona.♦ in their turn to retreat. No loss was sustained in this attempt. General Bassecourt was less fortunate in an enterprise of greater moment; he projected an attack upon Suchet’s army, which if it succeeded, should have the effect of breaking up the siege; ... this general had not yet learnt how little either his men or officers were to be relied on in any combined or extensive operations; in full expectation[7] that every thing would be executed as exactly as ♦Nov. 26.♦ it had been planned, he left Peñiscola at night, put himself at the head of his central division, and reaching the bridge over the Servol, beyond Vinaroz, halted there to give time for the movements of his right, under Brigadier Porta, which took the road of Alcanar. Having, as he supposed, allowed a sufficient interval for this, he proceeded towards Ulldecona, and halted a little before five in the morning at a place called Hereu. Here he inspected his troops, and promised them a speedy triumph, when a messenger arrived from Porta, requesting that the signal for attack might be delayed, inasmuch as his division had not been able to get forward with the speed which they had calculated on. Bassecourt waited impatiently a full hour till day began to break; then, as success depended in great measure upon surprising the enemy, he sent his advanced parties forward to attack the French outposts, and directed his cavalry to gallop into the town as soon as the gun should be fired and the rocket discharged that were the signal for attack. General Musnier’s division was quartered here; Bassecourt’s made three attempts to force its position, but not hearing any firing either to the right or left, he perceived that on both sides his combinations had failed, and deemed it therefore necessary to retreat. He succeeded in reaching Vinaroz, ... there Porta joined him with the right column; there he halted to give the harassed troops some rest, and to obtain some intelligence of his left; ... and there the enemy surprised him. The men instantly took to flight, and all that his personal exertions could effect, was to keep a few of the better soldiers together, and, under protection of his cavalry, reach Peñiscola with them.

♦Captain Fane taken at Palamos.♦

The disgrace of this affair was greater than the loss, which the French estimated at 3000 men. They were more elated by an advantage which they obtained shortly afterwards against an enemy over whom it was seldom that they had any real success to boast. The boats of the English squadron ♦Dec. 13.♦ attacked a convoy of eleven vessels laden with provisions for Barcelona, and lying in Palamos Bay, the French having re-occupied that town. The batteries which protected them were destroyed, the magazines blown up, two of the vessels brought out, and the rest burnt, ... and our men, having completely effected their object, were retiring carelessly, when two Dutchmen, who were in the British service, went over to the enemy, and told them that the sailors had but three rounds of ammunition left. The French were at this time joined by a party from S. Feliu, and the English, instead of retreating to the beach, where the ships might have covered their embarkation, took their way toward the mole, through the town, not knowing that it had been re-occupied. The boats made instantly to their assistance, and suffered severely in bringing them off, the loss amounting to thirty-three killed, eighty-nine wounded, and eighty-six prisoners, Captain Fane among the latter. The enemy behaved with great inhumanity in this affair; they butchered some poor fellows who had stopped in the town and made themselves defenceless by drunkenness; ... and they continued to fire upon a boat after all its oars were shot away, in which a midshipman was hoisting a white handkerchief upon his sword, as the only signal that could be made of surrendering, till of one-and-twenty persons who could neither fight[8] nor fly, all but two were wounded, ... when another boat came to their assistance, and towed them off.

♦Trenches opened before Tortosa.
Dec. 15.♦