Suchet unable to find subsistence in the valleys, resolved to attack this celebrated place, and for this purpose leaving Frere and Harispe at Vich and Moya, with orders to move at a given time upon Montserrat, returned himself with the reserve to Reus. Here he received despatches from Napoleon, who had created him a marshal, and had sent him orders to take Montserrat, to destroy the works of Taragona, with the exception of a citadel, and finally to march against Valencia. He therefore preserved the upper town of Taragona, ruined the rest of the works, carried the artillery to Tortoza, and marched against Montserrat on the 22d of July by the way of Momblanch and San Coloma to Igualada. At the same time Harispe and Frere moved by Manresa, and Maurice Mathieu entered Esparaguera with a part of the garrison of Barcelona. TAKING OF MONTSERRAT. This strong-hold was occupied by fourteen or fifteen hundred Miguelettes and Somatenes, inadequate as it proved to defend it against a great body of men such as Suchet was bringing up. But Eroles was daily raising recruits and adding works to the natural strength, and it would soon have been impregnable; for on all sides the approaches were through the midst of steeps and precipices, and high upon a natural platform, opening to the east, and overlooking the Llobregat, stood the convent of “_Nuestra Señora de Montserrat_,” a great edifice, and once full of riches, but the wary monks had removed their valuables to Minorca early in the war. It was now well stored and armed, and above it huge peaks of stone shot up into the clouds so rude, so naked, so desolate, that, to use Suchet’s expressive simile, “It was like the skeleton of a mountain.” There were three ways of ascending to this convent; one from Igualada which winded up on the north, from Casa Mansana, between a perpendicular rock and a precipice; this road which was the only one supposed practicable for an attack, was defended by two successive batteries, and by a retrenchment immediately in front of the convent itself. The other two ways were, a foot-path on the south leading to Colbato, and a narrow road crossing the Llobregat and running by Monistrol on the east, but both so crossed and barred by precipices as to be nearly inaccessible to troops.