After the first ebullition at Manresa, the insurrection of Catalonia lingered awhile; but the junta of Gerona continued to excite the people to take arms, and it was manifest that a general commotion approached; and this was a serious affair, for there were in the beginning of June, including those who came out of Barcelona, five thousand veteran troops in the province, and in the Balearic islands above ten thousand. Sicily contained an English army, and English fleets covered the Mediterranean. Moreover, by the constitution of Catalonia, the whole of the male population fit for war are obliged to assemble at certain points of each district with arms and provisions, whenever the alarum bell, called the _somaten_, is heard to ring; hence the name of _somatenes_; and these warlike peasants, either from tradition or experience, are well acquainted with the military value of their mountain holds. [Sidenote: St. Cyr.] [Sidenote: Victoire et Conquestes des Francois.] [Sidenote: Foy.] [Sidenote: Cabanes.] Hostilities soon commenced; Duhesme, following his instructions from Bayonne, detached general Chabran and five thousand two hundred men, with orders to secure Tarragona and Tortosa, to incorporate the Swiss regiment of Wimpfen with his own troops, and to aid marshal Moncey in an attack on Valencia. At the same time general Swartz having more than three thousand men, Swiss, Germans, and Italians, under his command, was detached by the way of Martorel and Montserrat to Manresa, with orders to raise contributions, to put down the insurrection, and to destroy the powder mills at the last town; then to get possession of Lerida, and to incorporate all the Swiss troops found there in his own brigade, placing five hundred men in the citadel; after which he was to penetrate into Aragon, and to co-operate with Lefebre against Zaragoza. [Sidenote: Ibid.]