178 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



places, Suchet, it was stated by 

 the emperor, would be enabled, 

 with a corps of 30,000 and the 

 artillery necessary for a siege, to 

 march on Valencia and take that 

 town.* This was the first opera- 

 tion to be then undertaken. It 

 was necessary above all others ; 

 " for," says Berthier, " it has to 

 the present moment continued its 

 attempts from time to time, and 

 cost us a very considerable num- 

 ber of our men." The advantages 

 above mentioned, obtained by 

 general Sebastiani over the insur- 

 gents of Grenada and Murcia, 

 were not decisive. For his army 

 had no sooner retreated from 

 the pursuit of the fugitives, and 

 a fruitless attempt to take Va- 

 lencia, the siege of which had 

 been raised by don Ventura Cara, 

 iincle to the marquis of Romana, 

 than parties of insurgents from 

 Valencia began to assemble new 

 bodies of troops in Grenada, and 

 the adjacent provinces. General 

 Suchet, who, about the end of 

 March or beginning of April, in- 

 vested the town of Valencia with 

 12,000 men, and 36 pieces of 

 cannon, had entered into a corres- 

 pondence with some of the inha- 

 bitants favourable to the French. 

 It was agreed that an insurrection 

 should take place in the town, 

 during which the governor was to 

 be hanged, and the enemy admit- 

 ted. The plot was discovered by 

 Caro, on the day previous to that 

 fixed for its execution. Even 

 some members of the Junta of 

 Valencia had taken a part in the 



conspiracy. These, with one or 

 two hundred of the principal in- 

 habitants, were immediately arres- 

 ted as a measure of safety, and don 

 Caro having instantly mustered 

 his best troops, marched out, sur- 

 prised and attacked the French, 

 and defeated them with great 

 slaughter. On his return a number 

 of the leading conspirators were 

 tried, condemned, and executed. 

 Agreeable to the orders receiv- 

 ed from Paris, the 3rd corps, 

 after the reduction of Merida and 

 Mequinenza, began to move to- 

 wards Tortosa. The first division 

 blockaded the Tete de Pont (for- 

 tified end of the bridge) on the 

 right bank of the Ebro, opposite 

 to Mequinenza ; the second 

 marched to the frontier of Valen- 

 cia, after detaching a force to the 

 vicinity of Taarnel to keep in 

 check generalVilla Campo, a very 

 bold and active chief who had be- 

 come not a little formidable, and 

 to cover the city of Saragossa. 

 The third was stationed on the 

 Lower Ebro, for escorting con- 

 voys of provisions, and the train 

 of artillery, and for watching the 

 motions of the Spanish army in 

 Catalonia. From Mequinenza and 

 Caspe, a town of Arragon situate 

 at the conflux of the Ebro and 

 Guadaloupe, all the way to Torto- 

 sa, a road for carriages was cut, 

 waving to the length of thirty 

 leagues, through mountains scarce- 

 ly passable for mules or travellers 

 on foot. The park of artillery 

 was moved down partly by water- 

 carriage, and partly by land, as 



* In the same letter Berthier mentions the astonishment of the Emperor that 

 Soult should leave iny arms in the hands of the Spaniards ; and also that he did 

 not raise contributions for paying and feeding his army. 



