After a siege of five days the place surrendered. I had the pleasure of assisting, with a party of seamen, to form the mortar battery, which was no sooner opened than the shells were thrown with such precision by the artillery that an expense magazine was blown up in the castle, which, just as our breaching battery was about to open, capitulated. An artilleryman and myself had a most providential escape. Being very busy placing sand bags on the battery, on the morning of the 8th, just before day-break, down came three of the enemy’s shells. I ordered the working party to get behind the sand bags, and lie flat on their faces to avoid the splinters. One shell from an howitzer exploded behind us; two ten-inch followed, one fell about a couple of yards in front of me and the artilleryman, which made us both jump to get out of its way, when down came the second on the other side of us. The man called out very coolly--“I’ll be d---- if we are not done now!” After falling on the ground both fuses went out, and, much to our satisfaction, the shells, of course, did not explode. Captain Stodart, of the _Strombolo_, a brave officer, was employed to form the breaching battery, and Lieutenants Corbyn and P----, of H.M.S. _Invincible_, worked like slaves with their party to drag the heavy guns up hills, or what in England would be called mountains, by tackles and purchases. The commander of the French fort was perfectly astonished to see the places the guns had been dragged up in so short a time; and Suchet, who calculated upon its holding out ten days, was in a great rage when he heard it had been taken in five. I have his address to his corps upon the subject by me now, in which he informs his army “that a military commission will sit upon the conduct of the commander of the fortress of Balaguer.” We had done our part, and were looking for intelligence from our army before Tarragona with anxiety, as we could at night see the shells in the air, and hear the firing on both sides. Colonel Prevost, and Captain Charles Adam, of the _Invincible_, thinking it advisable to make a reconnaissance towards Tortosa to gain intelligence of the advance of the French marshal (for the information we got from the Spaniards was so vague that we could place no dependence upon it), on the morning of the 9th of June they, in company with Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton, Captain Arabin (Royal Artillery), Captain Du Cane, of the 20th Light Dragoons, with four of his men and myself, started from the castle we had taken, at three in the morning, all well mounted, to try and get a peep into Tortosa, about twenty miles from Balaguer, and where it was reported Suchet was to arrive in the course of the day.