her actual rank and authority, her image was, after a most imposing public ceremonial, participated in by the religious, civil and military authorities, adorned with the decorations of the captain-general, and with the goldbordered red scarf as commander-in-chief. (Extract from Spanish account.)

After the capture of Valencia, Marshal Suchet visited her chapel, and in his Memoirs says: "We saw in the chapel of Nuestra Senora the image of the Virgin so highly prized by the Valencians; it still bore the insignia of generalissimo, with which it had been pompously invested by the Marquis del Palacio previously to the siege."

Although, however, a great degree of enthusiasm prevailed among the people, yet nothing indicating a desperate resistance was attempted; and it was very evident that the Valencians, if shut up within their walls, would neither imitate the citizens of Numantium nor Saragossa.

THE ADVANCE UPON VALENCIA

It was under these circumstances that the Marshal advanced to the Guadalaviar with only 17,000 men, while Blake by drawing reinforcements from Murcia now had 25,000 effective troops, of which nearly 3,000 were cavalry. On the 3rd of November Suchet seized Grao the port of Valencia with Habert's division, and the suburb of Serranos with his centre, notwithstanding a powerful resistance by the Spaniards, who defended it step by step. This suburb was separated from the city by the Guadalaviar. Blake had broken two out of five stone bridges on the river, had occupied some houses and convents which covered them on the left

bank, and protected those bridges which remained whole with regular works. Suchet, after carrying by assault the convents which covered the broken bridges in the Serranos, fortified his position there and at the Grao, and thus blocked the Spaniards on that side with a small force, while he prepared to cross the river higher up with the remainder of the army.

The whole line, including the city and entrenched camp, was about eight miles: the ground was broken with deep and wide canals of irrigation which branched off from the river just above the village of Quarte: the city was surrounded by a circular wall 30 feet high and 10 feet thick, but with a ditch and covered way only at the gates. Around this wall, about a mile farther out, was the rampart of the entrenched camp, five miles round, which enclosed the whole city and part of the suburbs; this earthen rampart was so steep as to require to be ascended by scaling-ladders, while a wet ditch ran along its front.

Marshal Suchet could not venture to force the passage of the river, much less to assail such powerful defences until he should be joined by the division of Severoli, consisting of Italians, and the French division of Reille, composed of the finest regiments of the old army of Naples. This was a force of nearly 15,000 good troops and forty guns, and was then on the march to join him under the walls of Valencia.

In this manner, nearly two months passed: the French waited for reinforcements, and Blake, who dared not risk another battle with his redoubtable antagonists in the open field, hoped that while he thus occupied their attention a general insurrection would save Valencia. The two divisions of Severoli and Reille having at length

reached his head-quarters, the Marshal prepared, with a force now augmented to 33,000 men, to complete the conquest of Valencia.

Situated on the right bank of the Guadalaviar, or Turia, River, and in the vicinity of the sea, Valencia is one of the most delightful cities which is to be found in Europe, being especially noted for the beauty of its women. At the time of the French invasion it had a population of 150,000 inhabitants; but of that number, many thousands inhabited the enchanting suburban villas which lie without the walls. These consist of a rampart of unhewn stones, rudely put together, including within their circuit an ancient citadel.

SIEGE AND SURRENDER OF VALENCIA

On the 25th of December, the Neapolitan division being placed in the camp at the Serranos suburb, to hold the Spaniards in check, Habert's division took post at the Grao, and Palombini's division was placed opposite the village of Mislata. The same night, 200 French hussars crossed the river several miles above the town, opposite the village of Ribaroya, by swimming their horses across, and put to flight the Spanish outposts. The engineers immediately began the construction of two bridges of pontoons, which had followed the hussars at a swift trot in their heavy wagons; and with such expedition were the operations conducted and the troops moved across, that, before the Spaniards were well aware of their danger, or the movement which was in contemplation, Marshal Suchet himself, with the main body of his forces, and the whole of Reille's division, had not only crossed over, but, by a semi-circular march, had got