eaded by the Marquis of Cifuentes, engineer officers being also sent to
put them in a state of defense. Of these Tortosa was, from its position,
the most important, as it commanded the bridge of boats on the Ebro, the
main communication between Aragon and Valencia. To this town two hundred
dragoons and one thousand foot were sent under Colonel Hans Hamilton.
The king turned his attention to the organization of the Spanish
army. He formed a regiment of five hundred dragoons for his bodyguard,
mounting them upon the horses of the former garrison, while from these
troops, swelled by levies from the province, he raised six powerful
battalions of infantry. He excited, however, a very unfavorable feeling
among the Spaniards by bestowing all the chief commands in these corps
upon his German followers.

But while the conquest of Barcelona had brought the whole of Catalonia
to his side, the cause of King Charles was in other parts of Spain less
flourishing. Lord Galway and General Fagel had been beaten by Marshal
Tesse before Badajos, and the allied army had retreated into Portugal,
leaving the French and Spanish adherents of Philip free to turn their
whole attention against the allies in Catalonia.

Weary weeks passed on before Lord Peterborough could overcome the apathy
and obstinacy of the Germans and Dutch. At a council of war held on the
30th of December Peterborough proposed to divide the army, that he in
person would lead half of it to aid the insurrection which had broken
out in Valencia, and that the other half should march into Aragon; but
Brigadier General Conyngham and the Dutch General Schratenbach strongly
opposed this bold counsel, urging that the troops required repose after
their labors, and that their numbers were hardly sufficient to guard
the province they had won. Such arguments drove Peterborough almost to
madness; the troops had, in fact, gone through no hard work during the
siege of Barcelona, and two months and a half had elapsed since that
city surrendered. Moreover, far from being reinvigorated from rest,
they were suffering from illness caused by inactivity in an unhealthy
country.

Already all the benefits derivable from the gallant capture of Barcelona
had been lost. The enemy had recovered from the surprise and dismay
excited by that event. The friendly and wavering, who would at once
have risen had the king boldly advanced after his striking success, had
already lost heart and become dispirited