On 21 February 1809 the half-destroyed city of Zaragoza at last surrendered. Henry de Brandt, a Polish officer with the French army, recalled the scene: “We had been there for an hour when the first elements of those who had so valiantly defended Zaragoza appeared. They were mostly youths of sixteen to eighteen years old, without uniforms, wearing grey greatcoats and red cockades…While casualty smoking their cigarettes, they lined up in front of our ranks. The majority of the troops followed them closely…These were men of all ages and all conditions… A few had uniforms but the greater number wore peasants' clothes. The officers were only distinguished from their men by being mounted on mules and wearing large bicorns and long cloaks.” However, the absence of military uniform allows artistic license to the painter, so it would be easily applicable to other cities or battles of the Peninsula Wars. As an example of this we mention the entertaining text: “Hug Bertran was a miguelet trooper under the command of Colonel Francesc Rovira, the hero of Figueres at the time when Rovira led his guerrilla force of 464 men in the recapture of the important San Fernando fortress on the night of the 9 th of April 1811 . With the collaboration of fellow Catalans working in the stores of the fortress, duplicate keys were obtained to a door under the bridge of the main gate, through which Rovira's partisans infiltrated in the dead of night after climbing down into the defensive ditch without being detected. Once the guards of the French-italian garrison were overcome, Rovira's group was joined by a second column of 400 guerrillas. 1100 prisoners were taken along with the French governor, General Guillot. The news of this daring coup spread throughout the Peninsula rapidly, fanning the flames of revolt further and boosting morale amongst the patriotic forces fighting against the French occupation. Rovira and his men became legendary heroes overnight. Adam Kuigley