The inhabitants, grateful for the discipline he had maintained, were even friendly, and while the main body thus moved, Musnier retreated from Requeña across the mountains towards Caspe, the point of concentration for the whole army: but ere it could reach that point, Clauzel’s flight to Jaca, unnecessary for he was only pursued from Tudela by Mina, became known, and the effect was fatal. All the Partidas immediately united and menaced Zaragoza, whereupon Suchet ordered Paris to retire upon Caspe, and pressed forward himself to Favara. Musnier, meanwhile, reached the former town, having on the march picked up Severoli’s brigade and the garrisons of Teruel and Alcanitz. Thus on the 12th the whole army was in military communication but extended along the Ebro from Tortoza to Caspe. Mina had, however, seized the Monte Torrero on the 8th, and general Paris evacuated Zaragoza in the night of the 9th, leaving five hundred men in the castle with much ordnance. Encumbered with a great train of carriages he got entangled in the defiles of Alcubiere, and being attacked lost many men and all his baggage and artillery. Instead of joining Suchet he fled to Huesca, where he rallied the garrison of Ayerbe and then made for Jaca, reaching it on the 14th at the moment when Clauzel, after another ineffectual attempt to join the king, had returned to that place. Duran then invested the castle of Zaragoza, and the fort of Daroca. The first surrendered on the 30th, but Daroca did not fall until the 11th of August. This sudden and total loss of Aragon made Suchet think it no longer possible to fix a base in that province, nor to rally Clauzel’s troops on his own. He could not remain on the right bank of the Ebro, neither could he feed his army permanently in the sterile country about Tortoza while Aragon was in possession of the enemy. Moreover, the allies having the command of the sea, might land troops, and seize the passes of the hills behind him, wherefore fixing upon the fertile country about Taragona for his position, he passed the Ebro at Tortoza, Mora, and Mequinenza, on the 14th and 15th, detaching Isidore Lamarque to fetch off the garrisons of Belchite, Fuentes, Pina, and Bujarola, and bring the whole to Lerida. Meanwhile the bulk of the army moving on the road from Tortoza to Taragona, although cannonaded by the English fleet, reached Taragona with little hurt and the walls were mined for destruction, but the place was still held with a view to field operations.