The Valencians, as soon as they were delivered from the tyranny of this frantic demagogue, prepared vigorously for defence. They burnt the paper money which had been stamped in Murat’s name, and stopped several chests of specie which were on the way to Madrid. The Catalans were not able to exert themselves with equal effect, because Barcelona, the second city of the kingdom in population, but in commercial and military importance the first, was in the hands of the French; but where the people were not controlled by the immediate presence of the enemy they declared themselves with a spirit worthy of their ancestors. The decrees from Bayonne and the edicts of Murat were publicly burnt at Manresa. The Governor of Tortosa, D. Santiago de Guzman y Villoria, was murdered by the raging populace, and that city declared against the intrusive government. Duhesme thought to secure Lerida by sending the Spanish regiment of Estremadura to occupy the citadel; he expected that, being Spaniards, no objection would be made to admitting them, and an order for relieving them by French troops might afterwards be obtained from the government at Madrid. But the people of Lerida refused to let them enter, in wrongful, though at that time necessary distrust; and the regiment, glad to find itself at liberty, took up its quarters at Tarrega, waiting to see where it might be employed with most advantage in the service of its country. ♦CABAÑES. HIST. DEL EXERCITO DE CATALUÑA. PART I. P. 23, 24.♦ They were soon invited to Zaragoza. It was for the purpose of keeping open a communication with that city that Duhesme had wished to occupy Lerida; and if both places had been secured, the French would then have had military possession of all the Pyrenean provinces. ♦PALAFOX ESCAPES FROM BAYONNE TO ZARAGOZA.♦