HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



ISI 



<m both the 7lh and the 8th, the 

 French retreated to St. Payo, from 

 whence also they were driven 

 back farther, throwing their dead 

 bodies in great heaps into pits 

 and wells. — When the French 

 bad suihcient time, it was their 

 practice, on some occasions, in 

 order to conceal the number of 

 their killed, to burn the dead bo- 

 dies of the men they had lost, 

 and bury the ashes. — The Spa- 

 niards, in these actions with the 

 French, were very materially as- 

 sisted by four gun-boats, sent up 

 the river by the British commo- 

 dore at Vigo. The loss of the 

 Spaniards, in the encounters at 

 the bridge of St. Payo, did not 

 exceed 110 in killed and wounded; 

 the reason of which was, that the 

 Spaniards had chosen their ground 

 in a situation where it was im- 

 possible for the French cavalry to 

 act with effect. Besides this, a 

 chain of parapets or wide battle- 

 ments was thrown up, behind 

 which the Spaniards were pro- 

 tected from the fire of the enemy. 

 Four hundred prisoners were taken 

 by the Spaniards. 



In the north east of Spain, after 

 the fall of Saragossa, a Spanish 

 army under the command of ge- 

 neral Reding, employed chiefly in 

 attempts to raise the siege or 

 else to throw succours into Ge- 

 rona, was exposed to the whole 

 force of the enemy. Two con- 

 flicts were sustained by the Spa- 

 niards with great valour. The 

 strength and the resolution of the 

 opposite armies seemed to be 

 nearly balanced, but the French 

 received a reinforcement of 8,000 

 men, which turned the scale in 

 their favour. Thus encouraged, 

 they made a third attack, when 



the patriots were completely rout- 

 ed ; and general Reding, who had 

 received five severe wounds, was 

 conveyed from the field of action 

 to Tarragona. The general, in 

 his dispatches to the junta, gave 

 a faithful account of what had 

 passed, without saying a word of 

 what he had personally suttered. 

 He was afterwards joined by the 

 army under general Blake, and 

 both were employed in opposing 

 the progress of the French in Ca- 

 talonia. 



On the 19th of May, the joint 

 army of Valencia and Arragon, 

 under the command of general 

 Blake, proceeded against Alcaniz, 

 a town in the kingdom of Arragon, 

 on the river Guadaloupe, near the 

 frontiers of Catalonia, which was 

 occupied by the French ; drove 

 them in great disorder from that 

 important post, and afterwards 

 routed and forced smaller parties 

 of French from other places. On 

 the 15th of June, general Blake 

 made an attack on Saragossa, 

 which had fallen at last, as will by 

 and by be related, but was re- 

 pulsed with great loss. For two 

 successive days he was attacked 

 by general Souchet, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Belshite, when the 

 enemy was repulsed. On the third 

 day the battle was renewed in 

 the valley of Almonazir, when the 

 whole of the Spanish army, with- 

 out firing a shot, though opposed 

 by only one-third of their num- 

 bers, suddenly took flight, and 

 left their general attended by only 

 six or seven officers. This array 

 consisted principally of raw re- 

 cruits from Valencia; but they 

 had acted with courage before, on 

 sundry occasions, and would pro- 

 bably have continued to display 



the 



