[289] See _Correspondance_, 17,784, Napoleon to Clarke, 8th June, 1811. The divisions were composed as follows:-- Souham. 1st Line (4 batts.) and 62nd Line (4 batts.), from Turin and Marseilles; 23rd Léger (2 batts.), from Auxonne; 101st Line (4 batts.), from Turin and Spezzia. About 7,000 men. Caffarelli. 5th Léger (2 batts.), from Cherbourg; 3rd and 105th Line (each 2 batts.), from Rennes; 10th Léger (4 batts.), from Rennes; 52nd Line (2 batts.), from Toulon. About 6,000 men. Reille. 81st Line (2 batts. at Pampeluna, 1 from Genoa); 10th Line and 20th Line (4 batts. each), already at Pampeluna; 60th Line (4 batts.), from Toulon. About 7,500 men. Italian Division. 1st Line (4 batts.); 7th Line (4 batts.). About 4,000 men. SECTION XXV: CHAPTER II SUCHET ON THE EBRO. THE FALL OF TORTOSA DECEMBER 1810-MARCH 1811 In the last pages of the third volume of this work we brought the history of the campaigns of Suchet and Macdonald in Aragon and Catalonia as far as December 12th, 1810, the day on which the Marshal came down to the lower Ebro at the head of the field-divisions of the 7th Corps, in order to cover the long-delayed siege of Tortosa, which his colleague, the commander of the Army of Aragon, was about to take in hand. For five months, ever since August 1810, as it will be remembered, Suchet had been waiting to commence the attack on Tortosa, which he was not strong enough to conduct with his own resources, since the besieger would have not only to execute his own operations, but to fend off at the same time all attempts by the Spanish armies of Catalonia and Valencia to relieve a fortress which was equally important to each of them. For Tortosa commanded the one land route by which Catalonia and Valencia were still able to communicate with each other; no other bridge on the Ebro was in Spanish hands. It was highly desirable to keep the line of defence in eastern Spain unbroken, and Tortosa lay at its narrowest and most dangerous point. The Emperor Napoleon attached an immense importance to its capture, and considered that after its fall, and that of Tarragona, the conquest of Valencia and the termination of the war on this side of the Peninsula would be at hand. Already in September 1810 he was looking forward to all these events as matters of the near future[290]. But though Tortosa was actually to be captured in January 1811, Tarragona in June, and Valencia in December, the long-foreseen consummation was never to come to pass. For two years more, down to the very end of the war, the indomitable Catalans were destined to maintain their independence, despite of all the successes of the French arms. [290] _Correspondance_, no. 16,910, of September 10, 1810.