But these petty events, while they evinced the perseverance of the Spaniards, proved also the stability of Suchet’s power in Aragon. His system was gradually sapping the spirit of resistance in that province. In Lerida his conduct was as gentle and moderate as the nature of this unjust war would permit; and, however questionable, the morality of the proceeding by which he reduced the citadel, it must be acknowledged that his situation required most decided measures, for the retreat of the seventh corps set free not only O’Donnel’s army, but Campo Verde’s and all the irregular bands. The Somatenes of the high valleys appeared in force, on the Upper Segre the very day of the assault; eight hundred Miguelettes attacked Venasque three days after; and Campo Verde, marching from Cervera, by Agramunt, took post in the mountains of Lliniana, above Talarn and Tremp, where great bodies of the Somatenes also assembled.
Their plans were disconcerted by the sudden fall of Lerida; the Miguelettes were repulsed from Venasque; the Somatenes defeated at Tremp; and general Habert, marching from Balaguer, cut off Campo Verde from Cervera, and forced him to retreat upon Cardona. But, if the citadel of Lerida had held out, and O’Donnel, less hasty, had combined his march, at a later period, with these Somatenes and with Campo Verde, the third corps could scarcely have escaped a disaster; whereas, now the plain of Urgel and all the fertile valleys opening upon Lerida fell to the French, and Suchet, after taking measures to secure them, turned his arms against Mequinenza, which, by its situation at the confluence of the Segre and the Ebro, just where the latter begins to be navigable, was the key to further operations. The French general could not advance in force against Tortoza, nor avail himself of the water-carriage, until Mequinenza should fall.
Suchet’s activity was extreme; one detachment, sent the day after the assault of Lerida, by the left bank of the Segre, was already before the place, and general Musnier’s division, descending the right bank of that river, drove in some of the outposts and commenced the investment on the 20th of May.
Mequinenza, built on an elbow of land formed by the meeting of the Segre and Ebro, was fortified by an old Moorish wall, and strengthened by modern batteries, especially on the Fraga road, the only route by which artillery could approach. A shoot from the Sierra de Alcubierre filled the space between the two rivers, and narrowing as they closed, ended in a craggy rock, seven hundred feet high and overhanging the town, which was built between its base and the water.
This rock was crowned by a castle, with a rampart, which being inaccessible on two sides from the steepness, and covered, on a third, by the town, could only be assailed, on the fourth, along a high neck of land, three hundred yards wide, that joined the rock to the parent hills; and the rampart on that side, was bastioned, lined with masonry, and protected by a ditch, counterscarp, and covered way with palisades.
No guns could be brought against this fort, until the country people, employed by Suchet, had opened a way from Torriente, over the hills, and this occupied the engineers until the 1st of June. Meanwhile the brigade, which had defeated Lazan, at Alcanitz, arrived on the right bank of the Ebro, and completed the investment. The 30th of May, general Rogniat, coming from France, with a reinforcement of engineer-officers, and several companies of sappers and miners, also reached the camp, and, taking the direction of the works, contracted the circle of investment, and commenced active operations.
SIEGE OF MEQUINENZA.
The Spaniards made an ineffectual sally the 31st; and, the 2d of June, the French artillery, consisting of eighteen pieces, of which six were twenty-four-pounders, being brought over the hills, the advanced posts of the Spaniards were driven into the castle, and, during the night, ground was broken two hundred yards from the place, under a destructive fire of grape. The workmen suffered severely; and, while this was passing on the height, approaches were made against the town, in the narrow space between the Ebro and the foot of the rock. Strong infantry posts were also entrenched, close to the water, on the right bank of that river, to prevent the navigation; yet eleven boats, freighted with inhabitants and their property, quitted the town, and nine effected their escape.
In the night of the 3d the parallels on the rock were perfected, the breaching-batteries commenced, and parapets of sand-bags were raised, from behind which the French infantry plied the embrasures of the castle with musketry. The works against the town were also advanced; but, in both places, the nature of the ground greatly impeded the operations. The trenches above, being in a rocky soil, were opened chiefly by blasting; those below were in a space too narrow for batteries, and, moreover, searched by a plunging fire, both from the castle, and from a gun mounted on a high tower in the town wall. The troops on the right bank of the Ebro, however, opened their musketry with such effect on the wall, that a part of the garrison quitted it; both it and the tower were then escaladed without difficulty; and the Spaniards all retired to the castle. The French placed a battalion in the houses, and put those next the rock in a state of defence; and although the garrison of the castle rolled down large stones from above; they killed more of the inhabitants than of the enemy.
The 6th the French batteries on the rock, three in number, were completed; and, in the night, forty grenadiers carried by storm a small outwork called the horse-shoe. The 7th Suchet, who had been at Zaragoza, arrived in the camp; and, on the 8th, sixteen pieces of artillery, of which four were mortars, opened on the castle. The Spaniards answered with such vigour, that three French guns were dismounted; yet the besiegers acquired the superiority, and, at nine o’clock in the morning, the place was nearly silenced, and the rampart broken in two places. The Spaniards endeavoured to keep up the defence with musketry, while they mounted fresh guns, but the interior of the castle was so severely searched by the bombardment, that, at ten o’clock, the governor capitulated. Fourteen hundred men became prisoners of war; forty-five guns, large stores of powder and of cast iron were captured, and provisions for three months were found in the magazines.