148 COMMUTATION OF TAXES. 



would come back to this state of things by reducing their profits ; 

 but competition would drive them to it in the same manner as it has 

 in the drapery trade a branch which, since the war,, has totally 

 been compelled to give up its monopoly. 



THE FAT BRIGAND. 



CATALONIA, at that period of the Peninsular war when the writer 

 served on its coast, was very differently situated to the rest of Spain : it 

 had been left entirely to its own resources to make the best resistance 

 it could against the invaders of its liberties. The principal fortresses 

 were in the hands of the French : Barcelona, Gerona, Lerida, and 

 Rosas were strongly garrisoned by them ; but the Spaniards had 

 still a considerable force, possessed some few fortified places, and 

 continued to oppose the enemy with vigour and effect. We had then 



no army in Catalonia; but a military agent (General D ) always 



resided at the Spanish head- quarters, in order to keep up the com- 

 munication between the army and our squadron, which supplied them 

 with arms, ammunition, and clothing, and occasionally issued procla- 

 mations to fan the embers of Spanish patriotism. 



At the time of our arrival off the coast, the Catalans were in high 

 spirits from having just got possession of Figueras, an almost impreg- 

 nable fortress, by accident or rather treachery. The English were 

 as much liked in Catalonia as the French were detested. The sol- 

 diers and the people were animated with the most devoted enthu- 

 siasm, and the names of Sarsfield, Manzo, the Baron D'Eroles, and 

 many others, prove that leaders were not wanting to head as gallant 

 a people as ever struggled in defence of their liberties. But these 

 chiefs were unfortunately not united among themselves ; they were 

 jealous of each other's success, and Campo- Verde, the Captain- 

 General, had not the talent to keep them together. They were most 

 of them sincere patriots, and anxious to destroy the enemy ; but they 

 all chose to do it their own way, with their own followers ; so that 

 there was no unanimity in their operations, or consistency in their 

 councils. 



It was a most curious mode of warfare, and probably more disas- 

 trous to the French than the movements of a regular army ; for they 

 were constantly attacked by enemies they could never find, and de- 

 stroyed as it were by invisible means. The province of Catalonia is 

 bounded by the Pyrenees on one side, and the Mediterranean on the 

 other, so that all the convoys or divisions of the army that passed to 

 or from France were obliged to choose one of the two roads that led 

 through Arragon and Valencia to the interior of Spain. If they took 

 the upper road, which wound among the mountains, they were ex- 

 posed to the Guerillas ; if they came the lower one, they were ob- 

 liged to pass along the sea-shore so close to the beach, that they be- 

 came exposed to the point-blank range of our squadron, which some- 

 times did sad havoc among them. The Guerillas of Catalonia were a 



