St. Cyr intended to commence his retrograde movement on the 18th; but on the 17th a cannonade was heard on the side of Momblanch, which was ascertained to proceed from a detachment of six hundred men, with two guns, under the command of Colonel Briche. This officer being sent by Mortier to open the communication with St. Cyr, after the fall of Zaragoza, had forced his way through the Spanish partizan corps. To favour his return the army halted two days; but the enterprize, after a trial, appeared so dangerous, that he relinquished it, and attached himself to the seventh corps. The inactivity that succeeded the battle of Valls, and the timidity displayed by Chabran in the subsequent skirmishes, having depressed the spirits of the troops, they contemplated the approaching retreat with great uneasiness; and many officers, infected with panic doubt, advised the general to hide his movements from the enemy: but he, anxious to restore their confidence, took the part of giving the Spaniards a formal notice of his intentions; and desired of Reding that he would send proper officers to take over the hospitals which had been fitted up at Valls, as well as some of the French, wounded, that could not be moved. This done, the army commencing its retreat, reached Villa Franca the 21st of March; and the 22d passed the Llobregat, followed, but not molested, by some feeble Spanish detachments. The 23d, general Pino attacked and defeated Wimpfen, who having rallied the corps of Claros and the Milans, after the affair on the 24th, had taken a position at Tarrasa. Pino pursued him to the vicinity of Manresa, foraged that country, and returned with sufficient provisions to feed the army, without drawing on the magazines of Barcelona. [Sidenote: St. Cyr.] During these proceedings, Reding died in Tarragona of his wounds. He had been received there with great dissatisfaction after the battle of Valls, and the interference of the British consul was necessary to save him from the first fury of the populace, who were always ready to attribute a defeat to the treachery of the general. His military conduct was, by his own officers, generally and justly condemned; but although his skill in war was slight, his courage and honesty were unquestionable; and he was of distinguished humanity; for, at this unhappy period, when the French prisoners in every part of Spain were tortured with the most savage cruelty; when to refrain from such deeds was to incur suspicion, Reding had the manliness, not only to repress all barbarities within the range of his command, but even to conclude a convention with St. Cyr, under which the wounded men on both sides were to receive decent treatment, and to be exchanged as soon as their hurts were cured.