The 25th of February the head of Reding’s column was suddenly fired upon, at daybreak, by Souham’s detachment, at Pixa Moxons. The French were immediately driven back upon the main body, and, the attack being continued, the whole division was forced to give way. During the fight the Spanish baggage and artillery passed the Francoli river; and the road to Tarragona being thus opened, Reding might have effected his retreat without difficulty, but he continued to press Souham until St. Cyr, who had received early intelligence of the action, came down in all haste, from Pla, upon the left flank of the Spaniards, and the latter seeing the French dragoons, who preceded the infantry, enter in line, retired in good order across the Francoli, and took a position behind that river. From this ground Reding proposed to retreat in the evening; but St. Cyr obliged him to fight there. BATTLE OF VALLS. It was three o’clock when, Pino’s division being come up, St. Cyr’s recommenced the action. The banks of the Francoli were steep and rugged, and the Spanish position strong and difficult of access; but the French general, as he himself states, wishing to increase the moral ascendancy of his soldiers, forbad the artillery, although excellently placed for execution, to play upon Reding’s battalions, fearing that otherwise the latter would fly before they could be attained by the infantry, and, under this curious arrangement, the action was begun by the light troops. The French, or rather the Italians, were superior in numbers to the Spaniards, and the columns, covered by the skirmishers, passed the river with great alacrity, and ascended the heights under an exceedingly regular fire, which was continued until the attacking troops had nearly reached the summit of the position; but then both Swiss and Catalans began to waver, and, ere the assailants could close with them, broke, and were charged by the French cavalry. Reding, after receiving several sabre wounds, saved himself at Tarragona, where the greatest number of the vanquished also took refuge, but the remainder fled in the greatest disorder on the routes of Tortosa and Lerida. The count of Castel d’Orius, general of the cavalry, many superior officers, and the whole of the artillery and baggage were taken, and four thousand men were killed or wounded; the loss of the French was about a thousand; and, during all these movements and actions, Reding received no assistance from the Somatenes; nor is this surprising, for it may be taken as an axiom in war, that armed peasants are only formidable to stragglers. When the regular forces engage, the peasant, sensible of his own weakness, gladly quits the field.