Saguntum having fallen, Suchet conceived the plan of enclosing and capturing the whole of Blake’s force, together with the city of Valencia, round which it was encamped; and he was not deterred from this project by the desultory operations of the Partidas in Aragon, nor by the state of Catalonia. Blake however, reverting to his former system, called up to Valencia, all the garrisons and depôts of Murcia, and directed the conde de Montijo, who had been expelled by Soult from Grenada, to join Duran. He likewise ordered Freire to move upon Cuença, with the Murcian army, to support Montijo, Duran, and the Partida chiefs, who remained near Aragon after the defeat of the Empecinado. But the innumerable small bands, or rather armed peasants, immediately about Valencia, he made no use of, neither harassing the French nor in any manner accustoming these people to action. In Aragon his affairs turned out ill. Mazuchelli entirely defeated Duran in a hard fight, near Almunia, on the 7th of November; on the 23d Campillo was defeated at Añadon, and a Partida having appeared at Peñarova, near Morella, the people rose against it. Finally Napoleon, seeing that the contest in Valencia was coming to a crisis, ordered general Reille to reinforce Suchet not only with Severoli’s Italians, but with his own French division, in all fifteen thousand good troops. Meanwhile in Catalonia Lacy’s activity had greatly diminished. He had, including the Tercios, above sixteen thousand troops, of which about twelve thousand were armed, and in conjunction with the junta he had classed the whole population in reserves; but he was jealous of the people, who were generally of the church party, and, as he had before done in the Ronda, deprived them of their arms, although they had purchased them, in obedience to his own proclamation. He also discountenanced as much as possible the popular insurrection, and he was not without plausible reasons for this, although he could not justify the faithless and oppressive mode of execution. He complained that the Somatenes always lost their arms and ammunition, that they were turbulent, expensive, and bad soldiers, and that his object was to incorporate them by just degrees with the regular army, where they could be of service; but then he made no good use of the latter himself, and hence he impeded the irregulars without helping the regular warfare. His conduct disgusted the Catalonians. That people had always possessed a certain freedom and loved it; but they had been treated despotically and unjustly, by all the different commanders who had been placed at their head, since the commencement of the war; and now finding, that Lacy was even worse than his predecessors, their ardour sensibly diminished; many went over to the French, and this feeling of discouragement was increased by some unfortunate events. [Sidenote: Appendix, No. I. Section 3.]