The garrison consisted, when the siege began, of 7,179 men, including 600 artillery and a weak battalion of Urban Guards. The regiments were drawn partly from the Catalonian and partly from the Valencian army, there being seven battalions from the former and four from the latter[294]. The governor was Major-General Lilli, Conde de Alacha, an old officer who had won some credit, two years back, by bringing off his small corps intact after the battle of Tudela, when he had been cut off by the French in the mountains[295]. Unfortunately it is impossible to argue that because an officer has made a skilful retreat he is a good fighting-man. Lilli, indeed, proved the reverse on this occasion--all that can be said in his defence is that he was old and in bad health. His conduct during the siege was vacillating and inexplicable; he more than once declared that he would give over charge of the defence to the second in command, Brigadier-General Yriarte. But he would then appear again, and countermand all Yriarte’s orders. In the end he capitulated on his own account, against the wishes and without the knowledge of the brigadier. [294] The strength of the garrison raises a conflict of authorities. The Spanish official figures are those given above, which are followed by Schepeler and Arteche. But Suchet says that he captured 9,461 prisoners, including the wounded in the hospitals, and that several hundred men more had perished before the surrender. He gives a muster roll of the garrison purporting to bear out his figures (_Mémoires_, i. p. 359), which Belmas copies. Since Suchet’s Spanish totals are often more than doubtful (cf. vol. iii. p. 304) I accept the figures given by his adversaries. The December figures of the Spanish Army of Catalonia show 13,040 men in all distributed in garrisons, including those of Tarragona, Tortosa, Seu de Urgel, Cardona, and smaller places. I think that 7,000 for Tortosa is probable. [295] See vol. ii. p. 6.