Suchet was at this time inspecting the defences of Lerida and Mequinenza, and his escort was necessarily large because Copons was hanging on his flanks in the mountains about Manresa; but his position about Villa Franca was exceedingly strong. Taragona and Tortoza covered the front; Barcelona, the rear; the communication with Decaen was secure, and on the right flank stood Lerida, to which the small forts of Mequinenza and Monzon served as outposts. The Anglo-Sicilian troops reinforced with Whittingham’s cavalry did not exceed ten thousand effective men, of which one division was on board ship from the 22d to the 26th. Elio and Roche were at Valencia in a destitute condition. Del Parque’s army thirteen thousand strong, including Whittingham’s infantry, was several marches in the rear, it was paid from the British subsidy but very ill-provided and the duke himself disinclined to obedience. Villa Campa did not join until the 28th, and Copons was in the mountains above Vich. Lord William therefore remained with ten thousand men and a large train of carriages, for ten days without any position of battle behind him nearer than the hills about Saguntum. His bridge over the Ebro was thrown within ten miles of Tortoza where there was a garrison of five thousand men, detachments from which could approach unperceived through the rugged mountains near the fortress; and Suchet’s well-organised experienced army was within two marches. That marshal however, expecting a sharp warfare, was visiting his fortresses in person, and his troops quartered for the facility of feeding were unprepared to strike a sudden blow; moreover, judging his enemy’s strength in offence what it might have been rather than what it was, he awaited the arrival of Decaen’s force from Upper Catalonia before he offered battle.