180 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



ten fathom from the wall, and 

 stretching from the margin of the 

 river to the foot of the elevated 

 .flat, or table-ground, called the 

 Plateau D'Orleans, an extent of 

 250 fathom. And at the same 

 time on therightbank of the Ebro, 

 . a trench was openedai the distance 

 of 90 fathom from the Tele de 

 Pont and batteries were erected 

 and raised on it for flanking the 

 principle attack. On the 22nd 

 general Frere's division of the 

 army of Catalonia, arrived to join 

 the besieging army. He was 

 stationed on the Ebro at the dis- 

 tance of one league below Tortosa 

 to have an eye on the rout 

 towards Tarragona and the sea 

 coast. A batallion of observation 

 was detached from Frere's di- 

 vision to col. de L'Alba. On the 

 seventh night of the siege, the co- 

 vert-way was crowned, even before 

 the batteries were completed; a 

 circumstance which Suchet con- 

 sidered as altogether singular, 

 perhaps, in the history of sieges. 

 But not a few of those employed 

 in this work were killed ; among 

 whom were five officers of cr- 

 tillery. On three different nights, 

 Tiz. the 17th, the 24th, and 27th 

 of December, the Spaniards, in 

 columns of about 400 men each, 

 rushed out on the assailants with 

 incredible impetuosity and for 

 some little time carried all before 

 them. But the flower of the 

 besieging army coming up to the 

 aid of their fellow soldiers, at the 

 critical moment when one party 

 of Spaniards had penetrated, and 

 were burning some gabions in a 

 lodgement in the covert way, and 

 another advancing in greaterforce 

 by the Plateau D'Orleans, drove 

 them back within their walls, kill- 



ing numbers of them and making 

 others prisoners. In the mean- 

 lime the artillery, after surmount- 

 ing multiplied difficulties, suc- 

 ceeded in bringing over the park 

 of battering cannon to the left 

 bank of the Ebro. The naviga- 

 tion of the river which varied in 

 its current and depth of water 

 every hour was extremely diffi- 

 cult ; and the erection of bat- 

 teries was greatly counteracted by 

 a fire from the garrison, which 

 raked all the right bank of the 

 river. A battery within 50 fa- 

 thoms of Fort Orleans, was erect- 

 ed in broad day-light, with the 

 aid of a hot fire of musketry, di- 

 reeled against the embrasures of 

 the besieged, On the 29th, by 

 break of day, 45 pieces of cannon 

 from ten batteries raised on both 

 sides of the river, commenced a 

 fire, which in the space of two 

 hours silenced all that wasopposed 

 to them ; on the same day the 

 bridge was cut, and the day 

 thereafter entirely broken down. 

 In the night between the 29th 

 and 30th the Spaniards evacuated 

 the Tete de Pont, which was taken 

 possession of by the French. On 

 the 30th there was no firing but 

 from the castle, and on the 31st 

 none at all. The parapets were 

 destroyed ; the embrasures were 

 unfit for receiving cannon : two 

 breaches had begun to be made 

 in the wall ; parties had descended 

 and passed the ditch ; and the 

 miners commenced their subter- 

 raneous operations. In these 

 circumstances, in the morning of 

 the 1st of January, 1811, a flag of 

 truce was seen on the summit of 

 the castle. Two officers came to 

 the French general with a letter 

 from the governor, authoriz- 



