After disposing his field-pieces on the most favourable points, and while the impression of the first defeat was still fresh, Moncey summoned the governor to surrender. But the latter answered, “That he would defend the city.” The French guns then opened upon the place; the heavy guns of the Spaniards, however, soon overpowered them, and a warm skirmish ensuing about the houses of the suburbs and the vicinity of the gates, the Valencians so obstinately resisted, that when the night fell, not only no serious impression had been made upon the defences, but the assailants were repulsed with loss at every point. The situation of the French marshal became delicate; the persons sent to seek Chabran could gain no intelligence of that general’s movements; the secret connexions in the town, if any there were, had failed; the ammunition was nearly expended, and the army was encumbered with seven or eight hundred wounded men, and among them the general of engineers. Moncey, swayed by these embarrassments, relinquished his attack, and fell back to Quarte on the 29th, being harassed by Caro and the populace in his retreat. When it is considered that in a great city only a small number of persons can estimate justly the immense advantages of their situation, and the comparative weakness of the enemy, it must be confessed that the spirit displayed by the Valencians upon this occasion was very great; unfortunately it ended there, nothing worthy of such an energetic commencement was afterwards performed, although very considerable armies were either raised or maintained in the province. [Sidenote: Journal of Moncey.] At Quarte Moncey, hearing that the captain-general, Serbelloni, was marching upon Almanza to intercept the communication with Chieva and Buñol, resolved to relinquish the line of Cuenca, and to attack Serbelloni before he could quit the kingdom of Murcia. This vigorous resolution he executed with great celerity; for, directing the head of his column towards Torrente, he continued his march until night, halting a short distance from that town. And a forced march the next day brought him near Alcira, only one league from the river Xucar; from his bivouac at that place he despatched advice to general Chabran of this change of affairs.