锘跨埍鏉窞榫欏嚖419璁哄潧
e army at Almanza [June 21].
This disgraceful flight left the Valencian Junta almost destitute of troops for the defence of the 鏉窞娌瑰帇鎸夋懇澶氬皯閽?still stronger defile of the Cabrillas, which Moncey had yet to force before he could descend into the plain. The Junta hurried up to it two regiments of recruits鈥攐ne of which is said to have been first practised in the manual exercise the day before it went 鏉窞澶滅綉鐧捐姳鍧?into action[106]. These, with 300 old soldiers, the wrecks of the combat at the Cabriel, and three guns, tried[p. 135] to hold the pass. Moncey turned both flanks of this very inadequate defending force, and then broke through its centre. Many of the Spaniards dispersed, 500 were slain or captured, and the rest fled down the pass 鏉窞姘寸（qq缇?to Valencia. After riding round the position, Moncey remarked that it was so strong that with 6,000 steady troops he would undertake to hold it against Napoleon himself and the Grand Army [June 24].
Two days later, after a rapid march down the defile 鏉窞姘寸（ and across the fertile Valencian plain, Moncey
presented himself before the gates of its capital, and demanded its surrender. But he found that there was still much fighting to be done: a small column of regulars had arrived in the city, though the main 鏉窞妗戞嬁娲嬪 army from Almanza was still far distant. With three battalions of old troops and 7,000 Valencian levies, Don Jos茅 Caro, a naval officer and brother of the celebrated Marquis of La Romana, had taken up a position four miles outside the city at San Onofre. He had covered his front with some irrigation canals, and barricaded the 鏉窞姘寸（骞茬（ road. Moncey had to spend the twenty-seventh in beating back this force into Valencia, not without some sharp fighting.
On the next day he made a general assault upon the city. Valencia was not a modern fortress: it had merely a wet ditch and an enceinte 鏉窞姘寸（iso鍏ㄥ of mediaeval walls. There
were several points where it seemed possible to escalade the defences, and the marshal resolved to storm the place. But he had forgotten that he had to reckon with the auxiliary fortifications which the populace had constructed during the last three days. They had built up the gates with beams and earth, barricaded the streets, mounted cannon on the walls where it was possible, and established several batteries of heavy guns to sweep the main approaches from the open country. The city being situated in a perfectly level plain, and in ground much cut 鏉窞涓濊缇庡コ up by irrigation canals, it had been found possible to inundate much of the low ground. As the river Guadalaviar washed the whole northern side of the walls, Moncey鈥檚 practicable points of attack were restricted to certain short spaces on their southern 鏉窞娲楁荡涓績澶氬皯閽?front.
The marshal first sent a Spanish renegade, a Colonel Solano, to summon the place. But the Valencians were exasperated rather than cowed by their late defeats; their leaders鈥攅specially Padre Rico, a fighting priest of undoubted courage and capacity鈥攈ad worked them up to a high pitch of enthusiasm, and they must[p. 136] have remembered that, if they submitted, they would have to render an account for Calvo鈥檚 abominable massacre of the French r