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like our forefathers, let us leave to the women the care of our houses and families "

The Barcelona journal asserted that Lacy had fled with the junta. If the French, when they made this assertion, for a moment believed it, they were soon undeceived; he declared in one of his proclamations, that, even if his well-founded hopes of soon seeing better days should be disappointed, he would die with the last soldier, rather than abandon his post. He made himself felt as well as heard by the enemy. Deplorable as the state of Catalonia was for the natives, it was far more so for the invaders: they were masters of almost every fortress, but their dominion did not extend beyond the walls. Nothing was to be procured in any other manner than by force: they levied contributions upon the villages near their strong garrisons; and this was all; they could only move in large detachments, and wherever they moved they were harassed by the armed peasantry and the Somatenes. The daily and hourly cost of life at which they kept their ground was such, that the enemy, who avowed their determination of extirpating, half the inhabitants in order to intimidate the rest, would have exhausted the resources, if not the patience, of France, before such a determination could be executed.

Every success at this time was of great importance in its moral effect: men are usually alive to hope in proportion as their natures are get erous, and the same cause, which throughout the warrendered it impossible to depress the Spaniards, have made them easily elated. Of the patriotic journals which were published in every part of Spain, scarcely a number appeared which did not contain the details of some skirmish, some Guerilla attack, some suc cessful enterprize, or hair-breadth es

cape, even more animating than success in the recital. These things, more even than signal victories, tend to excite a military spirit in a people,when no other advantage accrues from them. But of the advantages which the Catalans at this time had obtained, one was of great importance. An expedition of Spaniards and English, who in all were but a handful of men, recovered the isles of Las Medas, Sept. 1. which had been betrayed to the enemy the preceding year. Colonel Green, the British commissioner, and Baron de Eroles, commanded in this well-planned and well-executed attempt; and the crew of the Undaunted frigate, Captain Thomas, displayed that zeal and those resources in dragging guns upon the rocks, by which British seamen have often made themselves dreaded upon their enemies shores. They found in the fort four guns, and provisions for three months. Both officers perceived how important it was to retain possession of a place which at little expence might be rendered a second Gibraltar,-for little was necessary to render it impregnable here was a post where they could receive supplies, and here a depot might be securely established. Eroles, therefore, dispatched orders for 500 men to come and garrison it. The French were equally aware of the advantages which the possession of this point would give to their enemies. They brought down a considerable force to Estardit, a village on the opposite shore, and opened batteries upon the island, which was within reach of shells. The succours which Eroles had gone to expedite did not appear; the force upon the island consisted only of 146 men, exhausted with the fatigue which they had undergone, and Colonel Green reluctantly yielding to this representation of the officer of the Undaunted, abandoned the works which he had be

gun, and with them the hopes Sept. 4. which he had so justly form ed, and blew up the fort. The opportunity, however, was happily retrieved; Lacy, who felt the want of such a point to look to, embarked with 200 men from Arens de Mar in the Undaunted, and taking with him labourers, tools, and stores in some transports, re-occupied the islands, giving them the names of the Isles of Restoration, because, he said, this Sept. 13. might be considered as the first step to the recovery of the principality. Water was discovered there, a sufficient garrison establish. ed, and the fortification commenced and carried on in sight of the enemy on the opposite shore, and in defiance of all their batteries. Bomb-proofs for men and stores were soon made in a situation so favourable for such works: the chief battery was named Lacy by the governor; but that general said he would not permit himself to receive this honour, and that it should be called Montardit, in honour of the last patriot whom the French, having taken in arms, had murdered afterwards, in violation and contempt of the laws of

war.

General Lacy, being unable to make any considerable attempt against the enemy, determined, in the right spirit of a soldier, to make activity and enterprize supply the want of number, and cut up the invaders in detail. They had formed a chain of fortified posts from Barcelona to Lerida. These he resolved to attack, and began by a rapid march upon Igualada, where the enemy had fortified a Capuchine convent. 400 men with two guns were to have joined him from Cardona; but he was disappointed of this aid, for no means of moving the guns, nor for making the road practicable for them, could be procured in time, and all that could be done was to surprise the town, and cut off as many of the French as

possible before they could take refuge in their fort. At three in the morning the centinels were Oct. 4. put to the sword, the enemy surprised in their quarters, 25 prisoners were taken, and above 150 killed; the rest escaped into the convent, just as they got out of their beds; and Lacy seeing at day-break that succours were coming to them from Monserrat and Casa-Masana, retired to Coll de Gusem, satisfied with his success, and thence to Manresa. This made them suppose that he had desisted from offensive operations, and a convoy which, in fear of his movements, had been for some days detained at Cervera, ventured to move toward Igualada. Eroles with half the Catalan force got before it, and the commander-in-chief with the other half cut off its retreat. A column with artillery sallied from Igualada to its assistance, but came only to share in the defeat ; two hundred were wounded and made prisoners, the killed were in proportion, and the whole convoy was taken.

Oct. 7.

The general finding now that his presence was necessary in the junta, to forward the formation and organization of the army, left Eroles, his second in command, to complete the plan, which had already so far succeeded that the French, dreading a second attack, and weakened by this last loss, retired precipitately from Igualada, Monserrat, and Casa Masana to Barcelona. Eroles no sooner knew that Igualada had been evacuated, than he marched against Cervera; the French Oct. 10. immediately, when they saw him approaching, withdrew from the city into the university, which they had fortified, and a body of 500 foot and 30 horse, which had just arrived from Lerida to their support, turned back to provide for its own safety. D. Luis de Creeft, and D. Jose Casas, were sent to pursue them, while Eroles

with one ten-pounder prepared to attack buildings which had been design. ed by their founders for far other purposes than those of war. gun threw down part of the house in This single which it was planted; but Eroles turned this accident to his advantage, for while he affected to be replacing it, in order to deceive the enemy, the gun was moved to another situation, from whence it opened its fire anew, carriage was rattled along so as to make and its them believe that more artillery was about to be brought to bear. Their commandant soon hung out the white flag, and 630 men were made prisoners of war, at an expence to the Catalans of only ten in killed and wounded. This conquest set free a considerable territory, which, ever since the loss of Tarragona, had been at the ene my's mercy. Creeft, meantime, with a force inferior to that which he was pursuing, followed the column which was retreating to Lerida, and which on its way was joined by the garrison of Tarrega, another post abandoned by the French in their alarm. In this pursuit the corregidor of Cervera was taken attempting to escape with the enemy: he was one of those wretches who had joined the French, and with all the malevolence of a traitor, persecuted his own countrymen. He had invented a cage in which to imprison those who did not pay their contributions, or were in any way obnoxious to him; it was so constructed as to confine the whole body, leaving the head exposed to be buffeted and spit upon; and sometimes this devilish villain anointed the face of his victim with honey to attract the flies and wasps. "To-morrow," said Eroles in his dispatches, "the senor corregidor will go out to parade the streets in this same cage, where the persons who have suffered this grievous torment may freely behold him. Discite justitiam moniti et non temnere Divos."

The capture of this man was worth as
much as all the preceding success.

Eroles, with the rest of his division,
had blockaded about 400 French in
now hastened to Bellpuig, where Creeft
the old palace of the Dukes of Sesa,
a castle of the 15th century, which they
had fortified and which commanded
the town. The besiegers, had only
one ten-pounder, and the walls were
lose, for Latour, with the troops who
two ells thick. They had no time to
had escaped from Igualada, and the gar-
risons of the other evacuated posts, was
preparing, in concert with the enemies
from Lerida and Balagner, to march
against them.
to such operations, and, as Eroles said,
Unused as they were
without any other engineers than in-
genuity and strong desire, they made
three mines which reduced
the castle almost to a heap Oct. 14.
of ruins, 184 prisoners were
taken, the rest of the garrison perish-
ed. This success completed Lacy's
plan, and set free the whole of the
country between Lerida and Barcelo-
judicious as it was unexpected, while
na. Eroles then, by a movement as
the French commanders were concert-
ing plans against him, marched by the
Seo de Urgel to Puigcerda, where he
routed all the forces that the enemy
could bring against him; then having
occupied the pass of the Valle de Lue-
rol, he entered France, and levied con-
tributions in Languedoc. It was the
his troops in this expedition should be
earnest wish of Baron de Eroles, that
order, moderation, and humanity, as
as much distinguished by their good
the French in Spain were for their
crimes. In every place, except one,
this object was effected; but in the
little town of Marens, the only place
where resistance was made by the in-
habitants and an armed force, a sol-
dier, in direct violation of orders, set
fire to one of the houses; the wind
was high, the flames spread, notwith.

standing all the efforts which were made to stop the conflagration, and the whole place was burnt. Marshal Macdonald a few months before had deliberately set fire to the city of Manresa, to punish the inhabitants for their patriotism. Sarsfield and Eroles came up with the rear guard while it was still in flames, and the inhabitants crying aloud for vengeance; the sight so exasperated the soldiers that they gave no quarter. D. Manuel Fernandez de Villamil, governor of La Seo de Urgel, who commanded this division of Eroles' army, endeavoured to stop the flames in Marens; he expressed his deep regret at

the scene; "But, perhaps," he said, "the furious hand which committed the evil had been impelled by divine justice, that France might behold an image of Manresa." Every where else the orders of the commander were rigidly observed, and the French, admiring the humanity of an enemy who had been so grievously wronged, in many places where they paid the required contribution, acknowledged the justice of this retaliation. Some thou sand sheep, and corn, and specie to the amount of 50,000 dollars, were the fruits of this first inroad of the Spa niards into France.

CHAP. XIII.

Blake goes to the Eastward. Suchet enters the kingdom of Valencia. Siege of Murviedro. Defeat of Blake, and Capture of Murviedro and the Capital.

1

THE Regent General Blake, as soon as he had returned to Cadiz after his feeble attack upon Niebla, prepared to take the field in the eastern provinces which were now so imminently endangered. Embarking, therefore, with all the force he could collect, he landed at Almeria to join the army of Murcia, and took a position between Guadix and Baeza. Soult, who knew better how to profit by favourable opportunities, marched against him; when the French forces broke up from the Guadiana, he turned the right of the Spanish army under General Freyre, and compelled him to fall back upon Murcia; a retreat, however, which was effected with honour, though not without considerable loss. Soult shortly afterwards returned to Seville, and Blake proceeded to Valencia, where Suchet was now advancing in his destructive career.

The Marquis del Palacio had been appointed captain general of the king. doms of Aragon, Valencia, and Murcia. He announced his coming in a proclamation from Alicante, of a very different character from those which have so greatly contributed to support the cause of Spain. "From the moment," said he, "that I set foot in this country, and knew the fall of Tarragona, my spirit, far from being cast

down, seemed as if it had taken fresh strength and courage to run to danger as well as to victory. Do not hold me arrogant and vain, for my hopes are not rested upon my arm of flesh. From afar I see the walls of Valencia of burnished and impenetrable brass; and the more secure, inasmuch as the enemy cannot perceive them. I see also a cloud of protection over the whole kingdom, whereof that which for for ty years protected the people of God was but a type and a figure. The brazen walls are the Valencian breasts, who have loyalty for their stamp and shield of arms, and the cloud which protects us is the Queen of Angels,she who is the general of the best appointed army, our adorable and generous Madre de Desamparados, mother of the helpless, with her omnipotent son. Heaven itself has given the greatest proof of this truth, and of its predilection for the city and kingdom of Valencia. Is there any other capital in all Spain which has not been entered by some army of this Corsican robber, this impious tyrant? Is there any other province which has twice repel. led them from its centre, without walls and without armies? Heaven and her invincible Deborah, or Judith, have saved us, and will save us, if our conduct is not unworthy of her protection.

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