A seasonable supply of flints, cartridges, and other necessaries, was sent at this time to Mina by the Junta of Aragon. He was soon seen at the gates of Estella; from that city he decoyed a hundred of the garrison, by showing only a few of his men, whom they sallied to cut off; then he rose upon them, killed half their number, and took the rest prisoners under the very walls of the fortress, not one escaping. A letter from Reille to Marshal Bessieres was intercepted shortly afterwards, in which he said, “that by this imprudence of the governor of Estella, they had lost more men in one foolish affair, than they had taken from the enemy during a pursuit of two months. The brigands,” he added, “had so many partisans, that their sick and wounded were in all parts of the country, and yet it was impossible to detect them: the public spirit was very bad, and the business could never be completed in Navarre, till a place of deportation was appointed for all the relations and connexions of the brigands, and strong escorts along the road to convoy them thither.”

Renewing their efforts for the destruction of an enemy who became every day more popular among his oppressed countrymen, the French attacked Mina a few days after his exploit before Estella, near Arcos. His inferiority in numbers was compensated by his perfect knowledge of every foot of the ground, the experience of his officers in their own mode of warfare, and his confidence in all his followers. After an action which continued nearly the whole day, he drew off in good order, and scarcely with any loss, having killed and wounded nearly 400 of the enemy. They obtained ♦March 26.♦ a reinforcement, and renewed the attack on the third day at Nacar, where he occupied a strong position, and where he succeeded in repulsing them, with the loss of forty killed, about 200 wounded, and seventeen prisoners. He now entered Aragon, and while one part of his force, under Cruchaga, approached Zaragoza, Mina, with three companies and a few horse, surprised a party of the enemy consisting of 152 gendarmes and twenty-eight cavalry: the horses, the commander, another officer, and seventy-seven of the soldiers, were made prisoners, all the rest fell, not a man escaping. Successes of this kind made Mina dangerous in more ways than one to the invaders. Germans, Italians, and even French deserted to him. In the course of five days fifteen hussars came over with their arms and horses, and fourteen foot soldiers, besides some poor juramentados, who were happy in an opportunity of joining their countrymen.

The Junta of Valencia sent him a timely supply of arms; he issued his proclamations through Navarre, and a man was soon found for every musket. Another convoy from Valencia was on its way, and had to cross the Ebro in front of Calahorra. Mina set forth to secure its passage, leaving one battalion at Puente la Reyna to observe the enemy in Pamplona, and another at Carcar to cover Lodosa, which the enemy occupied, and from whence he apprehended most danger. When he reached the river he stationed part of his little force upon the left bank to guard against any attack from Lodosa, on that side also, and with two companies forded, meaning to attack a body who occupied a village on the other side, about a league from the ford. They fled at his approach, leaving some of their effects behind them: 150 horse also, who were in Calahorra, fled to Lodosa; and the passage being thus freed, Mina received his convoy, and returned the same night to Estella, ... for the French after their late loss had evacuated that city, and he made it at this time his head-quarters.

Well had it been for Spain if all the supplies which the Juntas of Aragon and Valencia raised had been as well employed as the little portion allotted to Espoz y Mina. The French were now so well aware of the superiority of his followers over their troops in personal conflict, that they never moved against him without artillery. In his mode of warfare it was impossible for him to be provided with equal arms; but one of his men, by name Josè Suescun y Garcia, contrived to fix three barrels upon one stock and fire them by one lock; ♦May 17.♦ they carried two ounce balls, and were found to succeed well the first trial, which was in an action fought by Cruchaga near Tafalla, with an inferior force against 1500 foot and 180 horse. Between 300 and 400 of the enemy were killed and wounded, and twelve were made prisoners, whom Mina, upon the proposal of the French, joyfully exchanged for an equal number of his own men.

At this time the Intruder went to Paris, for the ostensible purpose of being present at the baptism of Buonaparte’s son. Mina was on the watch to incommode him, as he said, upon his journey; but this wretched man was too well aware of the danger not to take every possible precaution, and occupied every place along the road with a strong force before he ventured to advance. Mina had still his eye upon this road; and shortly afterwards, when 6000 of the enemy from Pamplona and Tudela were about to make a combined movement for the purpose of dislodging him from Estella, he abandoned ♦May 22.♦ that place to them, as if in fear of their numbers, and with the whole of his force entered the province of Alava. He himself, with three of his four battalions and the cavalry, reached Orbizu, the first village in that province, on the morning of the next day; the fourth proceeded by a different route. Here he received information that Massena was expected at Vitoria, on his way to France, with an escort of 2000 men, after his defeat at Fuentes d’Onoro. The hope of meeting with one who had been called the Child and Favourite and Angel of Victory delighted Mina, and he set off immediately in hopes of intercepting him; but Cruchaga, overcome by an illness against which he had borne up for many days, was most reluctantly compelled to remain behind.

At five in the evening of the 24th they reached the Puerto de Azazeta, and halted there till it was dark, lest they should be seen by the enemy or some of his scouts, in passing some plains which were at no great distance from Vitoria. Mina would not enter any village on his way, for the French, under pain of rigorous punishment, had enjoined all persons to give intelligence of his movements; and he was careful not to compromise the people. On the 25th, at four in the morning, he reached Arlaban, the mountain which forms the boundary between Alava and Guipuzcoa, and here he chose his ground, placing one battalion in the woods on the left of the road, two on the right, and the cavalry upon the plain; the fourth he meant to station in a grove when it should arrive, from whence it might surprise the enemy’s rear-guard. There was a little village near, about six miles only from Vitoria; and, that no information might be given by any of the inhabitants, he marched them all off, old and young, into the mountains, and placed a guard over them, ordering them to remain quiet for eight hours as they valued their lives.

Soon after these preparations were made, a messenger reached him with news that Massena had arrived at Vitoria, and would halt there; but that a great convoy was on the point of setting out, with a general in one coach, a colonel and lieutenant-colonel and two women in another, 1100 prisoners, and an escort of 2000 foot and 200 horse. The hope of delivering the prisoners repaid him for the disappointment of his design against Massena. Not trusting too implicitly to the messenger, for fear of deceit, he ordered him to be bound to a point of the rock, and placed a guard over him, who was to put him to death if he attempted to escape, but he promised him a munificent reward if his information should be verified. They were not long in suspense. About eight o’clock the enemy’s van appeared, ... 100 foot and twenty horse, who were allowed to pass unmolested; a second party of thirty foot and twelve horse passed in like manner, that Mina might not, by giving the alarm too early, lose his object. The main body came next with the prisoners, a number of carts laden with plunder, and one of the coaches. A fire was opened upon them from the left by one battalion, and the two others rushed out upon them from the right. The prisoners threw themselves upon the ground that they might not fall by the hands of their friends; then joyfully ran to join their deliverers. Mina went to the coach, for the purpose of saving its passengers; the two officers, however, refusing to surrender, defended themselves with their sabres; one was killed; Colonel Lafitte, the other, was wounded and made prisoner with the women. The French, though thrown at first into confusion and dreadfully cut up, formed with the celerity of well-disciplined and experienced troops; 600 foot and 100 horse brought up the rear with the other coach: upon the first fire the coach was driven back to Vitoria, escorted by the horsemen; the infantry remained and got possession of a height, from whence they annoyed the Spaniards, who were now completing their victory. Two hundred men from the garrison of Salinas came to their succour, but they were dislodged and driven to the gates of Salinas. Mina’s fourth battalion did not arrive till the business was done: the men had made a forced march of fifteen hours and were fasting, nevertheless they joined in the pursuit. By this time reinforcements came to the enemy from Vitoria, and the French in Salinas being joined by part of the garrison of Mondragon, and of all the neighbouring posts, again showed themselves. Mina drove them back, and then thought it advisable to secure what he had gained; the affair had continued five hours, and his men had neither eaten nor drank since ten in the morning of the preceding day; he therefore retired with his spoils to Zalduendo, six hours’ distance from the field.

The French lost their whole convoy and above 1000 men, of whom about 110 only were made prisoners. Among the slain was Valbuena, who, having formerly been aide-de-camp to Castaños, had entered the Intruder’s service, and distinguished himself by his cruelty to his own countrymen. The booty was very great: Mina reserved one load of specie for the public service, and his men took what they could find, many loading themselves with gold, ... the plunder which their enemies were conveying to France. The peasants’ artillery was tried on this day for the second time with excellent effect; at the first discharge it brought down above twenty of the French, and on the second dispersed a column which had formed in the road. The loss of the Spaniards was inconsiderable, but D. Pedro Bizarron, who that day commanded the cavalry, was dangerously hurt, to the great mischief of Mina and all his comrades. Many women were taken, they were treated with respect, and set at liberty. Among the Spaniards who were delivered were twenty-one officers; Garrido was one, the leader of a Guerrilla party in Castille.

Mina’s first care was to place the rescued prisoners in safety, and this could only be done by getting them into Valencia. For this purpose he sent to Duran and the Empecinado to co-operate with him, and pass along the bank of the Ebro in order to protect their passage; but Duran was too far distant, and the Empecinado was at this time closely pressed by the enemy; he had therefore nothing to rely on but himself. Accordingly he made preparations for throwing a bridge over the river, and named the place where it was to be done; the materials were sent towards this place, and he moved in the same direction: then in the middle of the night turning aside marched to a part of the river twelve miles distant, tried the depth by forcing his own horse into the water, and making each of his cavalry take up a man behind him, in this manner landed the whole in safety, while the enemy were waiting to attack him when he should be employed in making his bridge.

Next his band was heard of at Irun, when D. Josè Gorriz, who, according to the Maccabean system, had succeeded his kinsman in the command of the third battalion, forming a junction with the fourth under Ulzurrun, marched against that place, defeated the garrisons of Oyarzun and Beriatu, got possession of the stores of the Intrusive government at Irun, and burnt the bridge which the French had constructed over the Bidasoa, which there separates France from Spain; after which they returned with their booty, though all the force of the adjoining posts was collected to oppose them. Greater and more persevering efforts were now made to destroy him. Caffarelli arrived to take the command in Biscay, and his first object was to signalize himself by the destruction of an enemy, for whose blood Buonaparte thirsted as he had thirsted for that of Schill and of Hofer. Mina was in the village of Mendigorria with three of his battalions and his cavalry, when Caffarelli with one division came against him by Puente la Reyna, another by the Valle de Echaurri; Reille advanced with a third by Carrascal, and a fourth moved from Logroño upon Estella. The whole force in ♦June 14.♦ motion against him amounted to 8000 foot and 2000 horse. Mina put himself in ambush near Carrascal, meaning to attack Reille; he engaged him, and forced him to retire upon Tafalla: but when the Guerrilla chief had advanced in pursuit as far as the village of Barasoain, he discovered that Caffarelli, marching back from Puente, had contrived to cut off the battalion which he himself commanded, and place it between two fires. Reille and Caffarelli then, whose joint force amounted to 700 horse and 4000 foot, attacked him with as great advantage of ground as of numbers, and Mina for the moment expected to see six of the seven companies of his battalion cut off. Their desperate courage brought them off with the loss of twenty-three killed and eighty taken; a heavy loss, but far less than there had been cause to dread, ... and for which in the action they had revenged themselves. He himself was in the most imminent peril: a party of hussars surrounded him, and one of them aimed a blow which he had no other means of avoiding but by stretching himself out upon his horse; the horse at the same moment sprung forward and threw him; he recovered his feet and ran; the horse, ... whether by mere good fortune, or that, in the wild life to which Mina was reduced, like an Arab he had taught the beast to love him ... followed his master, who then lightly leaped into his seat, and, though closely pursued, saved himself.

He got to Lerga with his men; Reille marched to Tafalla, Caffarelli to Monreal; each division being thus three hours’ distance from him. The next day he moved to Sanguesa, and rested there the whole day. On the morrow he was apprized that Caffarelli was approaching Lumbier and Reille Caceda, both points within two hours of him: upon this he sent his cavalry along the river Aragon to call off their attention in that direction, while with the infantry he took his route for the mountains of Biqueza. The two hostile divisions followed him, one on the right, and the other on the left, hoping again to place him between two fires: he had the start of them only half an hour, and having gained the mountain, put his men in order to defend the post; but in the evening the enemy moved off, meaning to take him at more advantage, and he reached the village of Veguezal. This was on the 16th of June; the next day he was informed that Caffarelli and Reille, with the French from the district of the Cinco Villas, would attack him on the 18th on the three sides of the Puerto, Navascues, and Tiermas: he eluded them all by marching to Iruzozgui. Caffarelli followed him as far as Artieda, which was an hour and a half’s distance. Mina was not informed of this: they met on the way to Aoiz; the Spaniards had the good fortune to gain a strong position upon some heights, where they were able to repulse the enemy, notwithstanding his forces were double in number, with the loss of more than 300 killed. This gained them a day’s respite from their pursuers: on the 20th they learnt that Reille had again joined Caffarelli, and Mina once more resolved to divide his force, and thus multiply the chances of escape. Cruchaga, with the second battalion, took his course toward Roncesvalles, and he with the first and third marched for Zubiri. On his way he learnt that the French in Aoiz had been 6000 foot and 700 horse, who were now thus disposed of; 4000 were marching to Zubiri, 2000 with 400 horse to the town of Urroz, and Reille with 300 horse was gone to Pamplona; 200 who had escorted the wounded were also on their way to Zubiri with a supply of ammunition. Fearful as this intelligence was, his men ate their rations with composure, and then amidst incessant rain turned to Larrainzar; ... from thence he sent his third battalion to Bustan, and he himself, with the remaining one marched for the village of Illarse. His own danger was not diminished by this separation, for it seemed of more importance to the enemy to secure his single person than to destroy the troop; they followed close upon the scent: from Illarse they pursued him to Villanueva in Araguil, where he arrived at night, and from whence he set out at two in the morning: as little was he able to rest at Echarri Aranaz; from thence, through the Puerto de Tizatraga, he made for the Puerto de Lezaun; still they were close upon him; he got on to Los Arcos, and the enemy halted at Estella, twelve miles distant.

The French had formed their plan for hunting him down with perfect knowledge of the country, meaning to hem him in on all sides among the mountains; and they had assembled not only all their troops in Navarre for this service, but had drawn soldiers from Alava also, and from part of Castille, and were aided by reinforcements from France. Not less than 12,000 men were now employed against him. Mina, however, knew the ground as well as his pursuers, and never losing hope, and never without resources, he once more divided his men into small moveable columns, which he dispersed among the mountains in contrary directions, but with such instructions, that whenever a favourable opportunity arrived, the reunion might be effected as rapidly as before. The French were thus compelled either to extend their line so far that their strength would not be sufficient to cover it, or else to keep it together without any object upon which they could bring it to bear. As he expected, they found themselves at fault, and before they knew how to act, or where to seek him, he had reunited his three battalions and all his cavalry in Estella, where Cruchaga, with the other battalion, hastened to join him, after having attacked the enemy in Roncesvalles, killed and wounded twenty-five of them, and driven the rest into their fort.

Mina’s reputation was greatly raised by the ability with which he extricated himself from so many dangers, and the loss which he so frequently inflicted upon the enemy; but these persevering efforts of the French had the desired effect of rendering it impossible for him to undertake any enterprise which might tend to the relief ♦Suchet, T. 2. 20. Tarragona.♦ of Figueras, or, by disturbing Suchet in Aragon, operate in aid of Tarragona. That city, one of the most remarkable in Spain for its monuments of antiquity, and for the historical circumstances connected with it, stands about the distance of a musket-shot from the sea shore, on a steep and rocky ♦España Sagrada, T. 24. p. 69.♦ eminence, where (in the words of Florez) it commands and enjoys a free air, a clear sky, and its own fertile plain. Its foundation being in an age beyond the reach of history, has been variously ascribed to Tubal, Hercules, Teucer, Remus, a king of Egypt, and a colony of Phocæans, by fablers who sought in their inventions to gratify that allowable and useful pride which citizens learn to take in the place of their birth and abode ... or to accredit their own theories, or to support some baseless etymology of its name. This alone is certain, that it was a considerable place before

♦Ycart. Grandezas de Tarragona, 65.♦ the Romans and Carthaginians contended for the dominion of Spain; and the remains of its more ♦Laborde Voyage Pittoresque. Introd. p. 31.♦ ancient walls, which excited the wonder of antiquaries in the sixteenth century, excite in the present age their sagacity, their conjectures, and their doubts; for, though resembling those which are called Cyclopean in magnitude and solidity, they differ from them in construction. The Scipios so greatly enlarged and embellished it, as almost to be considered its refounders; and on the division of the Peninsula under the Romans, it gave name to that province which had before been called Citerior Spain. Augustus, according to fond Spaniards, issued from Tarragona his ever memorable decree that all the world should be taxed: here it was that the palm was said to have grown upon his altar during his life; and the year after his death the inhabitants sent deputies to Rome, soliciting permission to erect a temple to him as a god: ... a fragment of that altar, a single stone of that temple, and a few medals, are now the only remains of their vile and impious adulation. When Galba was declared ♦Suetonius.♦ emperor, the crown of gold for his inauguration was taken from the temple of Jupiter in this city. The Egyptian Isis was worshipped here, and the African goddess Cœlestis: and when the Romish church had corrupted Christianity with the polytheism and idolatry of Pagan Rome, changing the names, but retaining the superstition, the craft, and the sin, it was then inferred that Santiago must have sanctified Tarragona by his presence, it being certain that he was at Zaragoza when our Lady descended there with the pillar from heaven. When the barbarians in the reign of ♦Orosius, L. 7. § 15.♦ Gallienus first entered Spain, Tarragona was reduced by them almost to a heap of ruins; and it was the last place in that country which the Romans retained. Many of the Gothic kings coined money there. It underwent a second destruction from the Moors, in revenge for the resolution with which the inhabitants resisted them. Louis the Pious recovered it from them at the beginning of the 9th century, but the Christians could not hold it long; nor is it known by whom it was finally taken from the Mahommedans, nor when, except that it was some time in the 11th century, ... an uncertainty, which shows how slowly it had risen ♦Ordericus Vitalis, 892, quoted by Florez, T. 25. p. 116.♦ from its ruins. Indeed, when Oldegar was made archbishop there, in the year 1116, large oak and beech-trees were growing in the cathedral. This personage, eminent during his life, as a politic prelate and saint militant, and as a worker of miracles after his death, refortified the city, and may be said to have refounded it.

The ruined and almost desolate city, with all belonging or which ought to belong thereunto, was given to this prelate and his successors in the see, under the Romish church, by the Count of Barcelona, Ramon ♦Florez, T. 25. App. No. v.♦ Berenguer 3; the deed of gift transferring to the archbishop full power of every kind, stipulating only for an alliance offensive and defensive with the Tarragonans. Oldegar, finding that after ten years his means were not sufficient to complete the cathedral, or to defend the city, transferred the grant to ♦Ordericus Vitalis, L. 13. § 5. Florez, T. 10. App. ult.♦ be held as a feud under the see to a Norman knight, Rodbert Burdet by name, who had married in that land, and had acquired there considerable possessions and a great name; but ♦Diago. Condes de Barcelona, p. 183.♦ this family, a branch whereof continues to flourish in England, seems to have taken no root in Spain. The tithes both of the sea and land were reserved for the see: ... those of the nuts26 alone from the Selva de Avellana are said to have yielded in some years a thousand escudos. Funds for completing the cathedral, the largest and massiest in Catalonia, were raised by a contribution which the Pope imposed upon the suffragan bishops, and by soliciting alms in aid of the work throughout the province: but the city never recovered even a semblance of its former prosperity. ♦Florez, T. 24. 69.♦ Its circumference is now little more than two miles, and the river Francoli, which, when it bore its ancient name of Tulcis, ran close to Tarragona, is now a mile distant from it. War had not been the cause of this improsperity; for after its restoration, the Moors never attempted it; it suffered little in the revolt of the Catalans; and nothing in the Succession War, the English being received there by the inhabitants, and retiring from it after the peace of Utrecht. But at the time when it might otherwise have partaken the improvement which was then general in Spain, the neighbouring town of Reus made an extraordinary advance in industry and opulence, trebling its population in the course of fifteen years; and making Salo its port, it had the effect rather of taking from Tarragona what trade it might have had, than of contributing to it.

When this unexpected war commenced, Tarragona was deemed so little important as a fortress, that its garrison consisted only of fifty men; it was now the only strong place which the Catalans possessed upon the coast; every exertion had been made to strengthen its works, and they who relied upon fortresses regarded it as the last bulwark of Catalonia. The city was crowded with fugitives from the open country and from towns in the enemy’s possession; there was a strong garrison; and Tarragona had this advantage above every other place in the province which had yet been besieged, that supplies and reinforcements could at all times be thrown in by sea. Captain Codrington was in the roads with the Blake, Invincible, and Centaur, ready to aid in any way wherein the zeal and intrepidity of British seamen could be rendered available. Under these circumstances, the spirit of the principality being what it was, and Valencia with unexhausted resources close at hand, a resolution like that of the Zaragozans and Geronans, or an influencing mind like that of Palafox or of Mariano Alvares, would have baffled all the efforts of the enemy; and unity of counsels, with a competent leader in the field, might have rendered the siege fatal to the besiegers. There were men and means in abundance; the inhabitants as well as the garrison were prepared to act or to suffer; neither will nor resolution were wanting; but there was no commanding mind, no harmony of purpose; some hearts were accessible to fear, and some to corruption. This Count Suchet knew, and could calculate as certainly upon confusion and perplexity in their counsels as upon steadiness and method in his own.

He established his head-quarters at Reus: the inhabitants of that busy town had been properly rewarded for the inclination which they had shown toward the French; and their hatred toward them now was in proportion to their sufferings and their repentance. Suchet endeavoured to win them over by maintaining strict discipline, and by courting the chief authorities, civil and religious. Expecting also an obstinate resistance, he prepared extensive hospitals with all things necessary to receive his wounded, and made arrangements for removing them without delay from the trenches; measures whereby he deserved and obtained the affections of the soldiery in a greater degree than any other of the French generals in Spain. He pushed the siege with characteristic vigour, and had soon the satisfaction to learn that Campoverde, having ♦Campoverde enters the city after a defeat.♦ been defeated before Figueras in attempting to relieve that fortress, had hastened back to Tarragona by sea with the remainder of his troops, who were more likely to dispirit the garrison by the distrust which they had conceived of themselves and of their commander, than to bring any increase of real strength. Sarsfield remained with one division in the field, and threatened the enemy’s line from Mora to Reus. This brave and enterprising officer annoyed them on that side; and that part of the besieging army which was encamped on the high and dry level ground at a distance from the Francoli and the Gaya, suffered for want of water, having continually to repair and protect the aqueduct. The most important of the outworks were Fort Francoli, on the left bank of the river to the west of the city, and Fort Olivo: the latter was a new fort, about 400 toises to the north, on ground so high that it could not with safety have been left unoccupied; and this it was deemed necessary to reduce before any attack could be made upon the body of the place. On the part of the enemy’s engineers everything was done which could be expected from a thorough practical knowledge of their destructive art; and so vigorously were their advances resisted by the Spaniards, that the wounded who were carried to the French hospitals are stated by Suchet himself to have been from fifty to threescore daily during the siege of this outwork. The Spaniards estimated them as nearer 300. In one of the sorties General Salme was killed; his body was buried under a part of the aqueduct; his heart embalmed, and deposited under that well-known monument which is called the Tomb of the ♦Fort Olivo betrayed.♦ Scipios. Olivo held out till the night of the 29th; nor would it then have been taken had there not been found a wretch wicked enough to sell the blood of his comrades and the interests of his country. The garrison, consisting of 2000, was to be changed that night, the regiment of Illiberia returning into the town, and that of Almeira taking its place: the French presented themselves at the same time with the new garrison, while a false attack was made in another quarter, and entered with them; others found their way through a dry aqueduct, which the Spaniards had neglected either to destroy or properly to secure, and Fort Olivo was thus taken, some 800 Spaniards being made prisoners, and more than as many slain. For the information which led to this carnage a price had been bargained, and the money27 was paid.

At this time General Senen de Contreras arrived at Tarragona in a frigate from Cadiz. He had distinguished himself when a young man, by abridging the voluminous Military Reflections of the Marquis de Santa Cruz, and was thought to have studied his profession so well that he was sent by Charles III. on a travelling mission, to examine into the military institutions of other countries. On this service he was employed four years, visiting England, France, Prussia, Austria, and Russia, and in the campaign of 1788 he served against the Turks. In the war against revolutionary France he acted as aide-de-camp to General Urretia in the Pyrenees; and in the present contest had afforded a timely support to the Portugueze in Alemtejo and Algarve, ... had been in the retreat of the central army, gaining some partial successes in those disastrous days, ... and afterwards, in some critical situations and some important stations, supported the reputation which he had obtained. He landed now at Tarragona in an inauspicious hour, and had immediately a command entrusted to him at the gate opposite Fort Olivo, where he passed the first unhappy night after his arrival in receiving the fugitives. On the following morning Campoverde assembled his chief officers and the deputies of the superior Junta: it was agreed that an effort for raising the siege should be made in the field; and while the general in chief should be thus ♦Contreras appointed to command in the city.♦ employed, Contreras was appointed to command in the city. The danger of the place, and the numerous defects of its incomplete works, were obvious to all military men; and to no one more clearly than to the general who now unwillingly took upon himself the charge of defending it. He represented ♦June.♦ that he was neither acquainted with the troops and officers whom he was to command, nor with the civil authorities with whom he should have to act, nor with the people on whose energetic aid he must rely, nor with the place itself (of which not even a plan could be produced), having, in fact, none of that information which might be considered indispensable for such a command. With this responsibility, however, Contreras was left; and Campoverde ♦Campoverde goes out to act in the field.♦ departed by sea with his staff, and so many officers (every man seeming to act at his own pleasure), that of the regiments in the garrison only two were left with their own colonels or proper commanders. He issued a proclamation before his departure, promising to return in the course of six or eight days with an army, and make an effort, which was to be seconded by the garrison, for raising the siege. The new commander had no expectation that this promise would be performed; but the garrison and the inhabitants looked with confidence to its fulfilment, ... for the Spaniards are a hopeful people, and, all circumstances considered, they had on no former occasion had such reasonable ground for hope. They had lost about 3000 men during the siege, which they supposed to be a less loss than the French had sustained, and they could more easily be reinforced. If, indeed, the same means of defence had been resorted to here as in Zaragoza and Gerona, Tarragona, defective as its works were, must have been impregnable; it was secure against famine; it was in no danger of pestilence; and its numbers might always have been kept up. The enemy had broken the aqueduct, expecting to distress the besieged by reducing them to use the brackish water of their wells; but in this he was deceived, for no distress was occasioned by it. The very sight of the English squadron, and the constant communication with it, and its aid on all opportunities, contributed greatly to the confidence which was felt.

Contreras did not partake that confidence; his measures, however, were such as might support it. He established a military police; he formed the inhabitants into companies; and he employed the women in such services as they were capable of performing. On their part, indeed, a spirit was manifested such as the time required; no danger deterred them from administering refreshments to the soldiers at their stations, nor from bearing away the wounded: it was sometimes necessary to restrain their ardour, but on no occasion did it need excitement. The military chest was almost exhausted; the commander replenished it by levying a contribution upon those merchants who had retired to Villa Nueva with their effects. He gave ear to no overtures from the enemy of whatever kind. When Suchet proposed a suspension of hostilities, that the dead might be interred who lay in heaps around Fort Olivo, in sight from the ramparts of the city, even that proposal was rejected; and in that hot season of the year, and on that rocky soil where graves could not be dug, the French, for their own sakes, were compelled as long as the siege continued to consume the slain by fire.

They gave the fort which they had won the name of Salme, from the general who had fallen before it. And now their attacks were directed against Fort Francoli, which they reduced at length to such a state that the commandant found it necessary to abandon it as untenable, destroying such stores as he could not remove. Hitherto there had been no want of firmness in the besieged; but vigour, confidence, and unanimity were wanting among their leaders. Three members of the supreme Junta were in the city, in order that the civil power might through them afford all the aid which the military might require: this they did most unreservedly; but the proposals which they made met with no correspondent consideration, and the soldiers complained of the inaction in which they were kept. When Campoverde first entered the place, it was supposed that he had invested Sarsfield with powers to act for him both as governor-general of the province and ♦Sarsfield.♦ commander in the field; but Sarsfield was soon called after him to Tarragona, and remained there after he had departed. This general was one of the best officers in the Spanish service for an inferior command, ... an intelligent, enterprising, intrepid, and honourable man; but he was punctilious and irritable, and thought less of his country and his duty than of his own personal importance, ... differing in this most widely from Eroles, of whose high reputation and higher virtues he was so jealous, that he regarded him with a dislike little short of personal enmity. This same unhappy temper made it impossible for him to act cordially with Contreras. In the field he might have been far more serviceable than in the fortress, for in the field it was that the best service might have been effected, and the French acknowledged and feared his activity as a partisan; but though he kept up that character in the sallies which he directed, his impractical disposition marred all his better qualities. What he did ♦Cataluña Atribulada, 13.♦ was without consulting the governor; he neither thought it necessary to concert operations with him, nor even to inform him of the results.

Meantime the siege was pressed with the utmost skill and exertions; and on the part of the Spaniards there was as much want of concert and ability without the walls as within. Troops were twice sent from Carthagena to reinforce the place, and both times without arms, so that when they arrived they were useless, there being already 2000 men there more than there were weapons for; and therefore by desire of Contreras they were carried on to Villa Nueva, there to be armed, if Campoverde could arm them, or to take their own course! And on the part of Campoverde himself there was such uncertainty, such seeming apathy, that the British officers, who were exerting themselves with indefatigable zeal, apprehended the worst consequences from the incapacity which they now perceived in him. O’Donell, now Conde de Bisbal, was not yet sufficiently recovered from his wound to take the field: his services were never more needed than at this time, when there was no lack of means or men, only of hearts and heads to direct them. He consulted, however, with his brother, who had a command in the Valencian army, and in concert with him and Captain Codrington it was agreed that 4000 of the best Valencian troops should be sent in British ships to reinforce the garrison, while the rest of that army should move to the banks of the Ebro, and there, in concert with the Aragonese, threaten Suchet’s depôts, the movement which of all others he apprehended most. These troops, under General Miranda, were accordingly embarked at Peñiscola, with written orders to land at Tarragona; the intention being that they should join in a sally, which Captain Codrington thought could not fail of success. Miranda, however, refused to land, protesting that both his written and verbal instructions forbade him to shut himself up in the fortress with his division. This was neither the place nor the time for disputing; and as little good service can be expected from one in whom good will is evidently wanting, the division landed at Villa Nueva, according to Campoverde’s desire, that they might join him at Igualada, and act upon the besiegers’ flank.

Suchet, meantime, was not without uneasiness: he had already lost 2500 men, including 280 officers; and hitherto the chief advantage which he had gained had been obtained less by force of arms than by corruption. But the feeble irresolution of the Spanish leaders and their ruinous delays gave him time, by which he profited like one who knew its value; and on the evening of the 21st he assaulted the lower town; three breaches had been made, and with all its defences, it was in the course of an hour in his hands, at the cost of about 500 men. It is said that the same means for insuring success had been provided here as at Fort Olivo28. With the exception of a small number, all the Spaniards were put ♦The lower town taken.♦ to the sword in the town, at the port, in the houses, and in pursuit ... to the gates of the upper town; only 160 prisoners were taken, most of whom were wounded; no more than these were spared, while the number of bodies which the French collected and burnt amounted to 1350. Suchet then held forth a threat which he had now shown, that the troops whom he commanded were capable of carrying into effect: “I ♦Suchet’s threat.♦ fear much,” said he, “that if the garrison wait for the assault in their last hold, I shall be forced to set a terrible example, and intimidate Catalonia and Spain for ever by the destruction of a whole city!”

Sarsfield, who was slightly wounded in this action, embarked immediately to join Campoverde and act in the field; this he did without informing Contreras of his intention, and at a moment when his presence was more needful than it had been at any former time. An officer was appointed to succeed him as soon as his departure was known; but before that officer could repair to his post, the enemy had forced it, and were ♦The mole at Tarragona.♦ masters of the mole. Ten years had not quite elapsed since that port had been a scene of proud rejoicing, the King and Queen of Spain having visited it to inspect the works at the mole, which having been commenced in the year 1790, were then on the point of completion. The quarries being near at hand, an enormous stone had been prepared for this occasion, on which an image of Neptune, ten feet high, was placed, with one hand reining the dolphin on which he stood, with the other holding his trident. The huge mass was raised by the exertions of three hundred men, and let down into its place in the sea. Neptune descending with it as into his own empire, amid the sound of music, and the festive discharge of artillery, and the exulting acclamations of myriads of beholders. The beach which on that day had been lined with happy multitudes was soon to become the scene of the most atrocious tragedy in this whole dreadful war.

The Junta of Tarragona were now so indignant at the conduct of Campoverde, whose futile movements at this crisis were as injurious as his inactivity, that they enclosed to him his own proclamation, issued at the time of his departure, wherein he had promised to relieve them in the course of a few days. Three weeks had now elapsed; he had been reinforced with 4000 Valencian troops on whom he had not counted when that promise was made; and there was a general outcry against his unfitness for the command. Eroles alone acted with the spirit which the exigence required, and succeeded in capturing a convoy of 500 laden mules between Mora and Falset, and cutting off part of their escort. Wherever his services were most needed there he was always to be found, ... seeking as little to aggrandize as to spare himself, his single object being the deliverance of his country. The magazines at Reus were not so well provided but that the loss of these supplies would have been felt by the besiegers, if the city had been defended after the manner of Gerona. But the Geronans were commanded by a man of the old heroic stamp, and they had no base examples to discourage them: whereas the garrison and the people of Tarragona saw nothing in the conduct of their leaders and their countrymen but what was disheartening. While the gun-boats and launches of the British squadron were employed every night, and all night long, in annoying the enemy’s working parties, there were two Spanish frigates which remained quiet spectators. While the English were removing women, children, and wounded, in their transports to Villa ♦Ill behaviour of the Spanish frigates.♦ Nueva, those frigates would not receive on board their wounded countrymen who were sent off to them; and these poor creatures were left to lie without assistance of any kind in the boats which brought them off till relief was sent them from the British ships. This heartless disregard of all duty called forth strong remonstrances from General Doyle, as well as from Captain Codrington; and it was not till above 2000 people had been removed in our transports that the positive orders of Contreras, and the threat of General Doyle, that the captain of one of their frigates should be put under arrest if he refused to receive the wounded, compelled them to act as if they had some sense of honour and humanity. Had the Spaniards in the fortress and in the field displayed as much spirit and alacrity as was manifested by the British ships in their aid, Contreras has declared that Tarragona could not have been taken.