♦Success at Lerida;♦
The news that Mequinenza was recovered had already spread; but none of the circumstances were known, and the better to deceive the French, it was now necessary to deceive the Spaniards also. Eroles, therefore, issued an order of the day, stating that Mequinenza was that day to be evacuated, and that Lerida and Monzon were to be given up by the same treaty; and commanding the Spaniards not to molest the French during the twelve days’ truce, but to treat them with that generosity which characterized the Spanish nation. He had approached the blockading force amid the rejoicings of the people, who gathered round him on his way. General Lamarque’s suspicions were completely disarmed; and when he requested that Van Halen might be allowed to enter the place and confer with him, because his own orders did not permit him to go beyond a certain distance from it, Van Halen, relying upon his courage and his strength of countenance, ventured in. The governor met him on the bridge, and they retired into an adjoining house, where, after some searching questions, he produced a dispatch received, as he said, by an emissary who had recently arrived, in which the Marshal approved of some proposals for the further security of the place, and held out a hope of succouring him in the course of a few weeks. Van Halen answered by a reference to the date of his own letter, and the recent events which had produced an alteration in the Marshal’s views. The conversation turned upon the Spanish Generals, and the circumstances of the blockade; and Van Halen took occasion to represent that Eroles seemed hurt by the General’s declining to communicate with him in person, when he, in proposing such a meeting, had gone beyond the line of his instructions from General Copons. The French General, upon this, not to be outdone in ♦Feb. 14.♦ courtesy, sent to offer a meeting; and went accordingly beyond his own advanced posts with his treacherous companion. At this interview everything was arranged, and three o’clock on the following afternoon was fixed upon as the hour for evacuating the city. Van Halen was invited to return with the General, and be his guest that night; but he pleaded the necessity of hastening to Monzon as his excuse, and thither he departed with a Spanish escort.
♦and at Monzon.♦
Monzon had been besieged by part of Mina’s troops since the end of September, to the great distress of the inhabitants, who were under the guns of the fortress. The besiegers attempted to mine the rock on which it was placed. There was but one man belonging to the engineers in the place, and he was a simple miner; but, being a man of great ability, the commandant and the garrison confided in him; and the ♦Suchet, 2. n. pp. 371, 372.♦ works which were executed under his direction were so skilfully devised, that they baffled all the attempts of the assailants, and they had in consequence converted the siege into a blockade. Here Van Halen had two difficulties to overcome with the Commandant: a report had reached him that there was a Spaniard at this time with Eroles who had served as aide-de-camp to Suchet; and, the place being held under the orders of the governor of Lerida, he could not surrender it, without sending to receive his instructions. The suspicion which the report ought to have excited seems to have been removed by the confidence with which Van Halen presented himself. And the second objection was easily disposed of: the false aide-de-camp, though he might reasonably judge that the real purport was to discover whether or not there was any fraud in the business, knew that Lerida had by this time been delivered up; he prevailed upon the blockading force, therefore, to let an officer pass with this commission, and required the Commandant to hold himself in readiness for marching as soon as he should return. The officer accordingly arrived before Lerida on the night after its surrender. Eroles affected anger when he heard his errand, and declared that, if there were any further delay, the treaty as it respected Monzon should be annulled, and he would march against it and reduce it to ashes. The officer, finding him in possession of Lerida, was confounded, made what excuse he could for his superiors, and faithfully promised that Monzon should be given up immediately on his arrival there; and this was done.
♦The three garrisons made prisoners.♦
Monzon was at this time stored for seven months, Mequinenza for eighteen, and Lerida for two years. By the recovery of these places, 40,000 inhabitants were saved from the miseries of a siege, and 6000 Spanish troops were rendered disposable for other service. The navigation of the Ebro, the Cinca, and the Segre was restored, and the most fertile part of Catalonia delivered, Aragon secured, and a direct communication opened with Lord Wellington’s army. The next business was to secure the garrisons who had been thus deceived, amounting to more than 2300 men. As soon as Eroles had taken measures for preserving order in Lerida, which, under such circumstances, required extraordinary care, he set out with two battalions of infantry and 200 horse in the rear of the French, Colonel Don Josef Carlos having gone before them with an equal force. The intention was to intercept them in the defiles of Igualada; but they made a forced march, and frustrated this part of the plan. Upon this, lest they should succeed in effecting a junction with the troops in Barcelona, part of the blockading army was sent for; and when they arrived at Martorell, they found themselves surrounded there. General Lamarque was then informed that he had been deceived by a stratagem of war; and that nothing remained for him but to lay down his arms, give up the public treasure, and to submit to fortune. Eroles expressed his personal esteem for the General, and his sorrow that the misadventure should have fallen upon him; he promised that the officers should be sent to Tarragona, and receive every attention which could alleviate their imprisonment; and he observed, that the General himself could not but in his heart approve a stratagem by which so much bloodshed and misery was prevented, as must have attended the reduction of these places, whether by siege or by blockade. Lamarque upon this asked if Van Halen was a Spaniard; and Bourgeois remarked upon the answer, that in truth he had rendered a great service to his country. The former said he had been dreaming for the last five days, and hardly knew if he were yet awake.[7]
Chagrined as Marshal Suchet was by the success of what, though he might justly deem it treachery in the agent, he could not but consider to be an allowable stratagem on the part of an injured, enterprising, and ever active enemy, ... it was even more mortifying for him immediately afterwards to make overtures, by order of ♦Suchet dismantles Gerona and other places. Suchet, 2, 374.♦ the minister at war, to General Copons for evacuating all the places which he yet retained, Figueras only excepted; and to find the allies so confident of speedily obtaining them unconditionally that his proposals were disregarded, in retiring from the vicinity of Barcelona he had destroyed his works at the bridge of Molins del Rey, and in the pass of Moncada, and at Mongat; he now found it necessary to demolish the fortified posts at Besalu, Olot, Bascara, Palamos, and other smaller places; and even to dismantle Gerona, evacuate it, and retire with the remains of his army to the neighbourhood of Figueras. Jaca, too, about the same time was compelled to surrender to a part of Mina’s army.
♦State of Lord Wellington’s army.♦
On the Biscayan coast Santona was the only place which still remained in the enemy’s power; the garrison were blockaded; but they contrived to get supplies by sea, sometimes by successful runners from the opposite side of the bight, sometimes by capturing traders that approached too near, for they had one or two armed vessels in the port; but more by means of smugglers, who ran in for the sake of a good market, and in the spirit of their illicit occupation cared not with whom they dealt. The British depôts had been removed from Bilbao and S. Sebastian’s; and, notwithstanding the stormy season, the army was always abundantly supplied, except with fodder; when this failed, bruized furze was used: the horses ate it with avidity, and kept in excellent condition. The men, during this inaction, suffered more; some of the corps were very sickly; and one regiment, which lost many men by a fever, was sent into the rear, both for change of air, and that it might be removed from intercourse with the rest of the army. The rain sometimes rendered it difficult to communicate with the more distant corps: a Portugueze brigade belonging to Sir Rowland was once four days without bread or meat, a rivulet, small at other times, being so swoln as to become impassable. But in general, money was the scarcest article: dollars, which were exchanged at so low a rate after the spoils at Vittoria, sold now for eight shillings each.
♦Operations are renewed.♦