at the beginning of July. Before Macdonald could co-operate with him, it was necessary to secure the entrance of a convoy into Barcelona; for the patriots, in spite of all the enemy's force, kept up such an active warfare upon the Llobregat, that that city was always in some degree blockaded. Macdonald brought 12,000 July 18. men to cover the entrance of these provisions; with 8000 he attacked the force which O'Donnell had sent to intercept it, while the remaining four escorted the convoy within the walls. The French effected their purpose through an error of the armed peasantry, who ought to have attacked the rear of the convoy, but were too intent upon pursuing an advantage where it was of less importance.

The main efforts of O'Donnell were directed to the relief of Tortosa, and the manner in which, by his incessant activity, he impeded the siege for many months, affords the strongest proof of military talents. Macdonald, to distract his attention, and thus favour the operations of Suchet, made a movement about the end of August upon Tarragona, and a warm skirmish took place in sight of the city, so near the sea, that the guns of an English frigate were enabled to contribute materially to the success of the Spaniards; the enemy then retreated from the plain of Tarragona, having derived no other advantage from their attempt than the plunder of the town of Reus. Sarsfield and Ibarrola harassed them in their retreat, recovered part of the booty, made 130 prisoners, and killed and wounded about 300.

After this repulse, Macdonald took a position near Cervera, as a central point, from whence he could cover Suchet's army before Tortosa, and

threaten the rear of the Spanish force upon the line of the Llobregat, while at the same time he occupied an extent of country capable of supplying him with provisions. O'Donnell was at this time about to renew the system of warfare which had proved so successful against Augereau, and this movement of Macdonald's enabled him to do it with more advantage. He embarked a small detachment, provided with artillery, at Tarragona, which sailed under convoy of a small Spanish squadron, and the Cambrian frigate. On the sixth of September he put himself at the head of a division, and leaving the Marquis of Campoverde to throw up works near La Beguda, and secure him on that side, proceeded to Esparraguera; from thence he reconnoitred El Bruch, and Casamasanas, and leaving Eroles to guard that position, ordered Brigadier Georget to take post at Mombuy, close by Igualada; and CampMarshal D. Jose Obispo to advance by a forced march from Momblanch, to the heights upon the right and left of Martorell. This was on the ninth; that same night he ordered Campoverde to march the following morning for San Culgat del Valles, reinforce Georget with one battalion, and join him. On the tenth, the whole division reached Mataro, and joined on the day following. There, on the morning of the twelfth, one party, under D. Honorato de Fleyres, an officer of engineers, was dispatched to take post that night at the Ermida, or Chapel of St Grau; and O'Donnell moved for Tordera, sending off two detachments to Hostalrich and Gerona, which he was about to leave in his rear, that by appearing before the walls they might induce the garrisons to suppose he was reconnoitring them with a view to invest those places.

I

This service they executed with great success; one party bringing off nine prisoners from the suburbs of Hostalrich, the other eleven from ! under the walls of Lerida. A field piece and a mortar were landed at Cafella; with this artillery O'Donnell halted for the night at Vidreras, and prepared to attack General Schwartz on the following morning at Bisbal, to prevent him from succouring St Felio de Guixols and Palamos, which Fleyres was to attack at the same time. From Vidreras to Bisbal, is a distance, which, in that country, where distances are measured by time, is computed at eight hours. At daybreak on the 14th, he advanced with the regiment of Numantia, 60 hussars, and 100 volunteers from the corps of Iliberia, Aragon, and Gerona: the regiment of Iliberia followed him at a less exhausting pace; the rest of the division, under Campoverde, went by Llagostera to take post in the valley of Aro, where it might act as a body of reserve, and cut off the communication of the enemy, in case they should retire from the points which they occupied. O'Donnell proceeded so rapidly, that he performed the usual journey of eight hours in little more than four; the infantry keeping up with the horse at a brisk trot the whole way. As soon as they approached the place, they occupied all the entrances, to prevent the enemy, who had shut themselves up in an old castle, from escaping; the infantry took possession of the houses near the castle, and began to fire upon it, while others ascended the church tower, rung the somaten, and from thence also fired upon the castle. The peasants who were within the sound took arms; O'Donnell, seeing that mus. ketry was of little avail, and that

Schwartz did not surrender at his summons, resolved to set fire to the gates; but approaching too near, he received a musket-ball in his right leg just at this time a party of 100 foot, and 32 cuirassiers, came from the side of Torruella, to succour their friends at Bisbal. The corps of reserve charged them; the cuirassiers fled towards Gerona; the infantry were all taken, as was also a small convoy with its escort. The regiment of Iliberia also now came up, and at night-fall Schwartz was glad to obtain the honours of war, and surrender with his whole party, consisting of 6.50 men, and 42 officers.

Fleyres meantime, leaving St Grau at two in the morning of the same day, divided his little force, that he might attack St Felio de Guixols and Palamos at the same time. Against the latter place he dispatched D. Tadeo Aldea, with 300 foot and 20 horse; he himself, with the same number of horse and 250 foot, proceeded against St Felio; and 150 men were left, as a reserve for both parties, upon the heights of the road of La Zeroles. After some resistance at St Felio, in which the French lost 36 men, they surrendered, dismayed, as it appears, at O'Donnell's name: 270 men and eight officers were taken here. At Palamos the success was equally complete. Here the squadron co-operated, and more resistance was made, for the enemy had batteries which they defended; but after the loss of 60 men, 255, with seven officers, surrendered: 70 more were taken by Fleyres in the castle of Calonje. The squadron on its way, on board of which General Doyle had embarked, met with equal success at Bagur; and the result of the expedition was, that more than 1200 men,

with threescore officers, and 17 pieces of artillery, were taken.

This expedition was planned and executed with equal ability; but the success, complete as it was, was dearly purchased, for O'Donnell was disabled by his wound. A reinforce

ment of 10,000 French enDec. 13. tered Catalonia. The boats of the English squadron at. tacked a convoy of 11 vessels, laden with provisions for Barcelona, in Palamos Bay, which the enemy had reoccupied the batteries which protected them were destroyed, the magazines blown up, two of the vessels brought out, and the rest burnt; but our men, having completely effected their object, retired in some disorder; the French were joined by a party from St Felio, and the English, instead of retreating to the beach, where the ships would have covered their embarkation, made for the mole, thoughtlessly taking their way through the town, which the enemy had now occupied. The boats made instantly to their assistance, and suffered severely in bringing them off. Our total loss amounted to 33 killed, 89 wounded, and 86 taken prisoners. Captain Fane, of the Cambrian, was among the latter. Campoverde, Eroles, and Sars field continued to make head against Macdonald, notwithstanding the reinforcement which he had received; but O'Donnell was compelled to quit the command, and retire to Majorca, to be healed of his wound. His activity and successful enterprizes had gained him the entire confidence of the Spaniards, and made him the terror of the enemy, and his loss therefore was severely felt. Suchet, who had been impeded five months in his operations against Tortosa by the incessant vigilance of the Catalans, was

at length enabled to break ground before it. The Valencians, under General Bassecourt, made an attempt to relieve it, and were defeated at Üldecona, on the 26th of November. Af. ter this victory Suchet pursued the siege without interruption, for the Catalan generals were sufficiently occupied by Macdonald. The place was not defended as might have been expected from Lili's former conduct, nor as it ought to have been: after thirteen days of open trenches, and four days of bombardment, the French had established themselves at the bottom of the ditch; they had carried on mining operations for two days, and there were three practicable breaches in the body of the place. There were 7800 troops within the town; but Lili, instead of withstanding an assault, surrendered at discretion. The French, to excuse this surrender, asserted that the garrison could not have defended themselves an hour longer without being put to the sword. The Spaniards thought otherwise; they remembered what Mariano Alvarez had done at Gerona, where a French army, equal in number to that of Suchet, lay for ten weeks in sight of an open breach, which they did not dare assault a second time. They pronounced sentence of death against the Count de Alacha, for having thus delivered up a city which he had so much better means of defending, and beheaded him in effigy in the marketplace of Tarragona. This surrender took place on the 2d of January, and a few days afterwards Coll de Balaguer was lost also, either by the treachery or cowardice of those who should have defended it. But the spirit of the province remained unbroken, though the loss of Tortosa cut off its communication with Va

encia, the great object of the French eing, as they said, to insulate Cataonia from the rest of Spain; and reparations were immediately made or the investment of Tarragona, the ast of its strongholds, and the most

important, because of its port. It is painful to reflect, that at any time during the war ten thousand British troops would have turned the scale in this part of Spain.

VOL. III. PART I.

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AFTER the battle of Ocana, Lord Wellington clearly perceived what would be the business of the ensuing year. There was no longer a Spanish army in the field capable of occupying the attention of the enemy, and the continental peace left Buonaparte at liberty to employ his whole force in the nefarious project of subjugating the peninsula. It could not therefore be doubted that he would make the utmost efforts to destroy the English army, and obtain possession of Portugal; the former of which objects, could he effect it, would be as gratifying to his pride, and his rancorous hatred of the British name, as the latter was essential to the fulfilment of his ambitious projects. Well aware of this, Lord Wellington, from the time that he found it impossible to co-operate with the Spanish armies, began to prepare for the defence of Portugal.

The Portugueze army had taken the field almost as soon as Marshal Beresford was appointed to the command, so that little or nothing had been done towards improving it. The army, indeed, like the government of that country at the commencement of this new era, was in the worst possible condition; both were in the lowest

state of degradation to which inveterate ignorance and imbecility could reduce them. Portugal had excellent laws, and a constitution, the restoration of which might satisfy the most enlightened of her patriots; but her laws and her constitution had long been suspended by a stupid despotism, and the noble character of the people seemed to be suspended with them. In every department, from the highest to the lowest, the rankest abuses prevailed; and had it not been for the activity which was kept alive by their commercial relations, the institutions of the realm were in such a state, that the Portugueze would soon have ceased to be ranked among civilized nations. Yet such are the effects of commerce, that it was an improving country, in spite of its government, its idolatry, its inquisition, the degeneracy of the higher ranks, the decay of learning, and all the other evils attendant upon the total loss of liberty. Had it not been for the French revolution, Spain and Portugal might have fermented and purified themselves of their civil abuses.

The government of Portugal ought at this time to have been completely under our controul. The events in Spain had enabled us twice to expel