On the French side there was greater but more scattered power. Suchet had marched with nine thousand men from Valencia, and what with Pannetier’s brigade and some spare troops from Tortoza, eleven or twelve thousand men with artillery, might have come to the succour of Taragona from that side, if the sudden fall of San Felippe de Balaguer had not barred the only carriage way on the westward. A movement by Mora, Falcet, and Momblanch, remained open, yet it would have been tedious, and the disposable troops at Lerida were few. To the eastward therefore the garrison looked for the first succour. Maurice Mathieu, reinforced with a brigade from Upper Catalonia, could bring seven thousand men with artillery from Barcelona, and Decaen could move from the Ampurdam with an equal number, hence twenty-five thousand men might finally bear upon the allied army. But Suchet, measuring from the Xucar, had more than one hundred and sixty miles to march; Maurice Mathieu was to collect his forces from various places and march seventy miles after Murray had disembarked; nor could he stir at all, until Taragona was actually besieged, lest the allies should reimbark and attack Barcelona. Decaen had in like manner to look to the security of the Ampurdam, and he was one hundred and thirty miles distant. Wherefore, however active the French generals might be, the English general could calculate upon ten days’ clear operations, after investment, before even the heads of the enemy’s columns, coming from different quarters, could issue from the hills bordering the Campo. Some expectation also he might have, that Suchet would endeavour to cripple Del Parque, before he marched to the succour of Taragona; and it was in his favour, that eastward and westward, the royal causeway was in places exposed to the fire of the naval squadron. The experience of captain Codrington during the first siege of Taragona, had proved indeed, that an army could not be stopped by this fire, yet it was an impediment not to be left out of the calculation. Thus, the advantage of a central position, the possession of the enemy’s point of junction, the initial movement, the good will of the people, and the aid of powerful flank diversions, belonged to Murray; superior numbers and a better army to the French, since the allies, brave, and formidable to fight in a position, were not well constituted for general operations. [Sidenote: Appendix, No. 6.]