army, about 10,000 infantry, 700 cavalry, and two batteries of field artillery[93]. He had made up his mind to return by the route of Montblanch and Valls, one somewhat more remote from the position of St. Cyr on the Gaya than the way by Pla, which he had taken in setting out to join Castro. Reding could only have got home without fighting by taking a circuitous route to the east, via Selva and Reus: the suggestion that he should do so was made, but he replied that having baggage and artillery with him he was forced to keep to a high-road. He chose that by Valls, though he was aware that the place was occupied: but apparently he hoped to crush Souham before Pino could come to his aid. He was resolved, it is said, not to court a combat, but on the other hand not to refuse it if the enemy should offer to fight him on advantageous ground. [February 24.] The truth is, that he was bold even to rashness, could never forget the great day of Baylen, in which he had taken such a splendid part, and was anxious to wash out by a victory the evil memories of Cardadeu and Molins de Rey. He set out on the evening of February 24, and by daybreak next morning was drawing near the bridge of Goy, where the high-road to Tarragona crosses the river Francoli, some two miles north of the town of Valls. His troops, as was to be expected, were much exhausted by the long march in the darkness[94]. [91] Two battalions of _miqueletes_ (Lerida and 1st of Tarragona), 300 cavalry, a field-battery, and a battalion of Reding’s own regiment of Swiss, about 2,100 men in all. [92] Col. Doyle was present at this council: his account of it is in the Record Office. He declares that he himself was all for fighting, that Reding wavered, and the majority refused to take risks. [93] There is a detailed estimate of Reding’s army given by St. Cyr in his Appendix no. 11. He says that the figures were given him by ‘a Spanish general taken prisoner at Valls,’ which must mean the Marquis of Casteldosrius, the only officer of that rank captured. The names of nearly all the battalions cited in this list are to be verified, either in Reding’s dispatch or in the narrative of Cabanes--all indeed except the regiment of Baza, and the three Miquelet Tercios, 1st and 2nd of Tarragona and Lerida. But it is probable that Casteldosrius gave St. Cyr a morning state of the whole army collected at Santa Coloma on the twenty-fourth, and that these corps (with a total force of 3,000 men) formed part of the force left with Wimpffen at Santa Coloma. I am driven to this conclusion by the statement of Doyle in his letter written from Santa Coloma, on the day before the battle, that Reding was marching “with 500 horse and a little over 10,000 foot,” for Tarragona. Doyle is arguing in favour of fighting, and has no object in understating the numbers. His figures are borne out by all the Spanish narratives. The force must have stood as follows:-- INFANTRY.