It was known afterwards that a spy during the preceding night had entered the town, and his letters made General Robert immediately suspect the stratagem: disappointed of getting Van Halen into his hands, and of taking the Spanish officers in a counter-snare, he took the only vengeance in his power, by putting to death the wounded peasant who had brought the first forged letter. Eroles, meantime, not discouraged by this failure, lost no time in trying the same artifice elsewhere. Mequinenza had hitherto only been observed by part of one regiment; and the garrison, though reduced in number, made incursions for many leagues round, by which means they had laid in stores of provision for eighteen months, and kept the surrounding country in continual alarm. Eroles, on his way from Xerta towards Lerida, sent his adjutant, Don Antonio Mazeda, with Don José Antonio Cid, a member of the provincial deputation of Catalonia, to raise the Somatenes, and by this means cut off all communication with the place; and he dispatched before them a peasant with such another letter as that which at first had imposed upon General Robert. He halted that night a day’s journey from Lerida, having in his company Don Juan Antonio Daura, who forged the signatures, Van Halen, and Lieutenant Don Eduardo Bart, who spoke French so perfectly, that he was able to personate a French officer. Here they parted company, the two latter making for Torres del Segre, a place on the river of that name, six leagues from Mequinenza, and three from Lerida; there they remained in secret, coming out only at night to confer with Eroles, learn from him the state of affairs, and copy such papers as were required, none of which were forwarded till they had been examined by each of the party most carefully. The Baron himself proceeded to the blockading force before Lerida, and appearing there as Commandant-General of the blockade of that place, Monzon and Mequinenza, he reviewed the troops, inspected their posts, and made ♦FEB. 9.♦ dispositions for straitening the blockade; meanwhile the forged orders were sent in by a trusty agent to the governor, General Lamarque. Hither the spy from Mequinenza returned, bringing with him the reply of Baron Bourgeois, the governor, to Marshal Suchet, in which he acknowledged the receipt of his orders, said that he was preparing to obey, inclosed the returns of his force, the state of the military chest and the magazines, and thanked the Emperor for the grand-cross with which he had been pleased to honour him; the same messenger brought also a letter from Mazeda, saying that he had strictly blockaded the place. The reply from the governor of Lerida was in like manner brought him, and he thus obtained the exact returns which he wished, and understood also that both commandants were ready to fall into the snare.