As all the physical strength of the region for leagues around Saragossa had been gathered in that city, its fall secured the submission of the surrounding country. Lannes was called to join the grand army in Germany. Junot, who was left in command of the troops at Saragossa, prepared for an expedition against Valencia. City after city passed, with scarcely any resistance, into the hands of the French. The campaign in Germany rendered it necessary for Napoleon to withdraw all his best troops, leaving Joseph to maintain his position in Spain, with a motley group of Italians, Swiss, and Germans, who were by no means inspired either with the political intelligence or the martial enthusiasm of the French. The Spanish peasants, depressed by failure, and inspired, not by intelligent conviction, but by momentary religious fanaticism, threw down their arms and returned to their homes. There was but little integrity or sense of honor to be found in Spain, long demoralized by a wretched government; and the immense supplies which England furnished were embezzled or misapplied. The Spaniards are not cowards. The feeble resistance they often made proved that they took but little interest in the issues of the war. Ferdinand had done nothing to win their regard. But he was a Spanish prince, in the regular line of descent from their ancient kings. Joseph Bonaparte was a stranger, a foreigner, about to be imposed upon them by the aid of foreign arms. It was easy, under these circumstances, to rouse a transient impulse for Ferdinand, but not an abiding devotion. General Duhesme was in Barcelona with a few thousand troops, cut off from communication with his friends by the English fleet, and a large army of Spanish peasants which was collected to secure his capture. General St. Cyr, with about sixteen thousand infantry and cavalry, marched to his relief. In a narrow defile, amidst rocks and forests, he encountered a Spanish force forty thousand strong, drawn up in a most favorable position to arrest his progress. St. Cyr formed his troops in one solid mass, and charging headlong, without firing a shot, in half an hour dispersed the foe, killing five hundred, wounding two thousand, and capturing all their artillery and ammunition. The next day St. Cyr entered Barcelona. The Spaniards were so utterly dispersed that not ten thousand men could be re-assembled two days after the battle.