There were now four open breaches in Gerona; Mazzuchelli’s brigade and the troops at La Bispal were added to the investing corps, and the immediate fall of the city seemed inevitable, when the French store of powder failed, and ten days elapsed before a fresh supply could be obtained. Alvarez profitted of this cessation, to retrench and barricade the breaches in the most formidable manner. Verdier had retaken the convent of St. Daniel in the valley of Galligan, and obliged the five hundred sick men to return to the town on the 4th; but Landen, the officer sent by Blake, on the 31st of August, to seize the convent of _Madona de los Angeles_, had fortified that building, and introduced small supplies of provisions; thus reviving, in the mind of Alvarez, a plan for taking possession of the heights beyond those on which the Capuchin and Constable forts were situated, by which, in conjunction with the post at Madona de los Angeles, and with the assistance of Blake’s army, he hoped to maintain an open communication with the country. A bold and skilful conception, but he was unable to effect it; for making a sally from the Capuchins on the 6th with eighteen hundred men, he was beaten by a single French regiment; and the same day Mazzuchelli’s Italians stormed Madona de los Angeles, and put the garrison to the sword. During these events, Verdier marched against Claros and Rovira who were posted at St. Gregorio, near Amer. He was repulsed with loss, and the French general Joba was killed. Meanwhile the batteries having recommenced their fire on the 13th, Alvarez made a general sally, by the gates of San Pedro, beat the guards from the trenches, and spiked the guns in one of the breaching batteries. The 18th, however, Verdier thinking the breaches practicable, proposed to give the assault, and required assistance from St. Cyr, but disputes between the generals of the covering and the investing forces were rife. The engineers of the latter declared the breaches practicable, those of the former asserted that they were not, and that while the fort of Calvary, outside the walls, although in ruins was in possession of the Spaniards, no assault should be attempted. Either from negligence, or the disputes between St. Cyr and Augereau, above five thousand convalescents capable of duty were retained in a body at Perpignan, and Verdier could not produce so many under arms for the assault, nor even for this number were there officers to lead, so wasting was the sickness. The covering army was scarcely better off, and Blake had again taken the position of St. Hilario. Howbeit, St. Cyr, seeing no better remedy, consented to try the storm provided Calvary were first taken. [Sidenote: St. Cyr’s Journal of Operations]