CHAPTER XV: THE RELIEF OF BARCELONA
Although for months it was evident that the French were preparing tomake a great effort to recapture Barcelona, Charles and his Germanadvisers had done nothing whatever to place the city in the position toresist a siege. The fortifications remained just as they had been whenPeterborough had captured the city. The breaches which had been made bythe English cannon were still open, and even that in the all importantcitadel of Montjuich remained as it had been left by the explosion ofthe magazine.
Not until Tesse was pressing down from Lerida and de Noailles fromRoussillon did the king awake to his danger. Orders were sent out torecall all the troops who were within reach, the country people were setto work collecting provisions, and the king made an urgent appeal tothe citizens to aid in repairing the fortifications. The appeal wasresponded to; the whole male population took up arms, even priests andfriars enrolling themselves in the ranks. The women and children wereformed into companies, and all Barcelona labored in carrying materialsand in repairing the breaches. The king had received a letter fromPeterborough proposing the plan of which he had spoken to his aides decamp, and which, had it been carried out, would have changed the fateof Spain. His suggestion was that Charles should at once make his way bysea to Portugal, which, as the blockade had not then commenced, he couldhave easily done, there to put himself at the head of the allied army,twenty-six thousand strong, and march straight upon Madrid. This couldhave been done with a certainty of success, for the west of Spain andthe capital had been denuded of troops for the invasion of Catalonia andValencia, and no more than two thousand men could have been collected tooppose the invaders.
"If your majesty will undertake to do this," wrote the earl, "I willundertake to maintain the province here, and perhaps to open a way toMadrid."
But now, as before, this bold but really safe counsel was overruled byCharles' German courtiers and he resolved to remain in Barcelona andwait a siege.
As soon as Peterborough received the answer, he left a small garrison inValencia, and marched away with all the force he could collect, which,however, numbered only two thousand foot and six hundred horse, whilede Noailles had no less than twenty thousand gathered round Barcelona.Peterborough moved rapidly across the country, pushing forward atthe utmost speed of the troops till he arrived within two leagues ofBarcelona, and took up a strong position among the mountains, where hewas at once joined by the Count of Cifuentes and his peasant army.
"Ah, count," the earl said as he rode into his camp, "I am glad to seeyou again. You did not succeed in stopping Tesse, but by all accountsyou mauled him handsomely. And now, what are our prospects?"
"Indeed, sir, they are not over bright, and I do not see that we caneffect much to aid the king. My men will fight well enough, as CaptainStilwell has witnessed, when they choose their position and shoot behindshelter, but they would be of no use whatever in a regular action; andas to advancing into the plain to give battle with you against twentythousand regular troops, they would not attempt it, even if you were tojoin your orders to mine."
"We will not ask them, count," Peterborough said. "I know the Miqueletsby this time. They are admirable for irregular war, but worse thanuseless for anything else. All we will ask of them, count, is to scatterin strong bodies over the hills, to guard every road, and cut off anyparties of the enemy who may venture to go out to gather provisions orforage. If they can manage occasionally to threaten an attack upon theFrench camp, so much the better."
The next morning a strong body of the French took post round Montjuich,and at nine o'clock a force of infantry, supported by two squadrons ofhorse, attempted to carry the western outworks by storm. This was theweakest part of the citadel, and was manned by only a hundred men ofColonel Hamilton's regiment, who had arrived the night before, having intwo days ridden seventy miles on mules.
As the French advanced they received them with great determination,and poured in so sharp a fire that the assailants speedily retired withconsiderable loss. As they fell back the English threw up their caps andraised loud shouts, which so exasperated the enemy that they reformedand returned several times to the assault, but only to be repulsed ason their first attempt. This was a sharp check to the French, who hadexpected to find the place guarded only by the usual garrison of fortySpaniards.
When the sound of firing was heard in the town the whole garrison turnedout and marched to support Montjuich, only twelve men being left behindfor a guard to the king. This repulse of the first attempt of the enemyraised the spirits of the townsmen, and bands of them ventured beyondthe walls, and, sheltering in the gardens and groves, maintained astrong fire upon the French.
Finding that Barcelona was not to be taken as easily as they hadexpected, the French generals extended their camp so as to completelysurround the town. On their side the citizens were not inactive, and,sallying out, managed to cut off and drive in a flock of seven hundredof the enemy's sheep and twelve of their mules.
The following night the besieged sustained a severe loss by thetreacherous surrender, by its commander, of Fort Redonda, which stoodon the seashore and commanded the landing. The enemy at once profited bythis advantage and began landing their provisions, guns, and ammunition.This misfortune was, however, balanced by the enterprise of BrigadierGenerals Lord Donegal and Sentiman, with two English and two newlyraised Catalan battalions. They received the king's orders to returnto Barcelona too late to reach the town before its investment, but nowmanaged, under cover of night, to elude the enemy and enter the city insafety.
When the enemy received news of the success of this attempt they closedin their left wing to the eastward, in hopes of preventing furtherreinforcements from entering the town. But they had not reckoned uponthe Earl of Peterborough, who had received news that the garrison ofGerona, after evacuating that town on the approach of the army of theDuke de Noailles, had embarked in small boats and were about to attempta landing near Barcelona, on the north side. On the receipt of thenews he started as night fell with his whole force from his camp in themountains, and having, after a march of nearly twenty miles, arrived atthe spot named for the debarkation just as the boats were nearing theshore, and having escorted the Gerona men past the enemy's outpostand into the town, without the loss of a man, he again retired to themountains. These accessions of strength raised the force of troops inthe besieged town to upward of three thousand.
The next day a case of treason was discovered among the Spaniards in thegarrison of Montjuich. A boy confessed that he had been hired by oneof these men to put out all the gun matches, and to throw the primingpowder out of the matchlocks that night. He was told to do this on theweakest side of the works, where the attack would probably be made.
The discovery of this intended treason, following so closely on that atFort Redonda, excited suspicions of the loyalty of the Spanish Governorof Montjuich, and he was superseded and the Earl of Donegal appointed tothe command. For the next six days the French continued to raise batteryafter battery around Montjuich. Lord Donegal made some gallant salliesand several times drove the besiegers from their works, but in each casethey returned in such overwhelming force that he was obliged to abandonthe positions he had won and to fall back into the citadel.
The Miquelets, of whom there were many in the town, aided the besiegedby harassing the French. Every night they stole into their camp,murdered officers in their tents, carried off horses, slew sentries, andkept the enemy in a perpetual state of watchfulness.
At eight o'clock on the morning of the 15th of April the besiegers madea furious attack on the western outwork of Montjuich, having ascertainedthat it was defended only by a party of one of the newly raised Spanishregiments. They captured the post without difficulty, the Spaniardsflying at the first assault, but on the inner ramparts they were met byDonegal and his grenadiers, and a desperate struggle took place whichlasted for two hours.
The English fought with the greatest obstinacy, and frequently flungback among their assailants the
grenades which the latter showered amongthem, before they had time to explode, Lord Donegal himself setting themen the example. But though able to prevent the French from advancingfurther, the English could not recover the outpost which the Spaniardshad abandoned, and the French formed intrenchments and mounted a batteryupon it.
In spite of the continued fire which the besiegers now poured in uponit from all sides, Lord Donegal held out bravely. The little force underhis command was much reduced in numbers, and so worn out by constantexertion and loss of sleep that men frequently fell asleep while underarms under the heaviest fire. The besiegers were not idle in otherdirections. Several mortar vessels moved close in shore and threw shellsinto the town, while the batteries poured in red hot shot. This spreadgreat alarm throughout the town. The people could be hardly induced tocontinue working on the defenses, and many took refuge in cellars orin the churches. Ammunition began to fail, and despair was takingpossession of the defenders, when, at two o'clock in the morning of the21st, a galley ran safely into the harbor bearing a supply of powder andencouraging messages from Lord Peterborough.
Three days later he managed to throw a body of Neapolitan troops intothe town, embarking them in boats at Matero, a small port a few miles tothe northeast of the town. He sent them close along the shore in orderto pass the enemy's fleet, if possible, unobserved. They found, however,that a line of boats had been drawn across the harbor to blockade theentrance. They attacked the boats, and after a sharp fight, which lastedover an hour, four hundred men succeeded in forcing their way through,and the rest returned to Matero in safety.
Peterborough now determined to endeavor to relieve the town by thedesperate expedient of attacking the enemy's camp with his little force.In order to do this with any prospect of success it was necessary towarn the king of his intentions, so that the garrison of the town couldissue out and attack the enemy at the same moment from their side. Hecommitted the dispatch to Captain Graham, who succeeded in making hisway through the enemy's lines to the city. The king agreed to join in acombined attack, and, having arranged all his plans, gave the dispatchto Graham to carry back to the earl.
On the way out he was less successful than he had been in entering. Hewas seized upon by a body of French before he could destroy the paper.Tesse was accordingly warned of the earl's plans, and at the hourappointed for the attack drew up his army in order of battle.Peterborough was ready to advance, and the besieged were all in arms onthe ramparts, but seeing that the enemy were fully prepared the projectwas abandoned, and the troops returned to their quarters.
But the fall of Montjuich was at hand. The besiegers secretly masseda large force in the trenches. At midday on the 22d a salvo of fourmortars gave the signal. The French rushed in with loud shouts andeffected a complete surprise. Before the troops could get under arms twobastions were captured.
So sudden was the affair that many of the English officers, hearing thefiring, ran out from the keep, and seeing some foreign troops drawn upin the works joined them, concluding that they were Dutch, and wereonly undeceived by finding themselves taken prisoners. The men were soconfused by the loss of many of the officers that, had the French pushedin at once, they would have been able to carry the main body of theworks with but little resistance. They halted, however, in the bastionsthey had won. The next morning the people of Barcelona, headed by theirpriests, sallied out to effect the relief of Montjuich, but were easilydriven back by the besiegers. The little garrison of the castle salliedout to meet their friends, but when these retreated to the town they hadto fight their way back to the castle, which they regained with greatdifficulty, the gallant Earl of Donegal and many of his officers beingkilled.
Finding that their position was now desperate, the remnant of theBritish troops abandoned the castle they had so stoutly defended, andsucceeded in making their way safely into the city. Tesse now pushed onthe siege of the town with vigor. Batteries of heavy guns were raisedopposite the newly mended breaches, and so close did he plant his gunsto the walls that the artillery of the besieged could not be depressedsufficiently to play upon them, while so heavy a fire of infantrywas kept up upon the walls that their defenders were unable to replyeffectively with their musketry.
The walls crumbled rapidly, and the defenders busied themselvesin raising inner defenses behind the breaches. Had the French beencommanded by an enterprising general there is little doubt that theycould have carried the town by assault, but Tesse, in his over caution,waited until success was a certainty. The alarm in Barcelona was great,and the king sent messenger after messenger to Peterborough to urge himto come to his relief; but, daring as was the earl when he consideredsuccess to be possible, he would not venture his little force uponan enterprise which was, he felt, hopeless, and he knew that the onlypossible relief for the city was the arrival of the English fleet.
Early in March Admiral Sir John Leake and Baron Wassenaer had sailedfrom Lisbon with the combined fleet in accordance with Peterborough'sorders; but the wind was contrary, and it was fully six weeks afterstarting that they reached the Straits, where they were joined byCaptain Price with a small squadron, on board of which were two Englishregiments. It was not until the 24th of April that they sailed fromGibraltar.
On reaching Altea they received news that another squadron had sailedfrom Lisbon to join them, and in spite of the warm remonstrances ofGeneral Stanhope, who commanded the troops on board, the Dutch andEnglish admirals determined to await the arrival of the reinforcementsbefore sailing to give battle to the fleet of the Count of Toulousebefore Barcelona.
On the 3d of April Sir George Byng arrived at Altea with some shipsfrom Ireland, and the next day Commodore Walker, with the squadron fromLisbon, also arrived; but the wind was now contrary, and although thefleet set sail, for three days they made no progress whatever, and eachhour so wasted rendered the position of the besieged at Barcelona moreand more desperate. While lying at Altea General Stanhope had sent amessage to Lord Peterborough telling him that he would use every meansin his power to hasten Sir John Leake's movements, and that he wouldgive him timely notice of the approach of the fleet.
He said that as it was of the utmost importance that the enemy shouldremain in ignorance of the approaching succors, his messenger shouldcarry only a half sheet of blank paper, so that if he were taken by theenemy they would learn nothing from his dispatch. When the fleetsailed he sent off a second messenger, who got safely to the earl, anddelivered his blank dispatch. With the exception of his aide de camp,who was always in his confidence, he told no one the meaning of thisblank dispatch, and his officers were surprised when orders were issuedfor the little army at once to prepare for a night march. Officersand men had, however, most implicit confidence in their general, and,doubting not that some daring enterprise was at hand, they started inhigh spirits.
All through the night they marched in a southwesterly direction over thehills, and at daybreak reached the little seaport of Sitjes, some sevenleagues from Barcelona. Ordering the wearied soldiers to encamp behindsome low hills, the indefatigable general rode with Jack Stilwell intothe little port, and at once, by offering large rewards, set the sailorsand fishermen at work to collect the boats, barges, and fishing smacksalong the neighboring coast, and to bring them to Sitjes.
In two days he had succeeded in collecting a sufficient number to carrythe whole force. The news of the work upon which the general was engagedsoon spread among the force and caused the greatest astonishment. JackStilwell was overwhelmed with questions as to the intentions of thegeneral.
"What on earth are we going to do next, Stilwell?" one of the colonelssaid to him. "We are all ready, you know, to do anything that the chiefbids us, but for the life of us no one can make this business out. Theonly possible thing seems to be that the chief intends to attack theFrench fleet, and desperate as many of his exploits have been, theywould be as nothing to that. Even the earl could surely not expect thatfifteen hundred men in fishing boats and barges could attack a fleet ofsome thirty men of wa
r. The idea seems preposterous, and yet one doesnot see what else he can have got in his head."
"Of course, colonel," Jack said, laughing, "you do not expect me to tellyou what are the general's plans. You may be quite sure that, whateverthey are, there is nothing absolutely impossible about them, for youknow that although the general may undertake desperate things, he neverattempts anything that has not at least a possibility of success; infact, as you know, he has never yet failed in any enterprise that he hasundertaken."
"That is true enough," the colonel said; "and yet for the life of meI cannot make out what else he can be thinking of. Certainly to attackToulouse would be madness, and yet there is no one else to attack."
"Well, colonel, I can only say that time will show, and I don't thinkyou will have to wait very long before you know as much about it as Ido."
Jack was right in this, for on the night of the second day the earlcalled his officers together, and informed them that he was waitingto join the English fleet, which might at any moment come in sight. Ashitherto nothing had been known about the arrival of reinforcements, thenews excited the greatest joy. The earl had hoped that at daybreak thefleet would be in sight, and as soon as it was light he mounted a hillwhich gave him a wide view over the sea, but to his deep disappointmentnot a sail appeared above the horizon. Knowing the desperate state ofthe garrison at Barcelona, and that at any hour he might receivenews that an assault had been delivered and the city captured,his disappointment at the delay in the appearance of the fleet wasunbounded.
The roar of the distant guns around Barcelona came distinctly to hisears, and he was almost wild with impatience and anxiety. On reachingthe shore again he found that a fast sailing felucca had just come infrom Barcelona. She had managed to evade the blockading fleet, and borean urgent letter from the king, praying Peterborough to come to hisassistance. The earl did not hesitate a moment, but determined to setsail at once to find the fleet, and to bring it on to Barcelona with allspeed.
The astonishment and dismay of his officers at the news that theirgeneral was about to leave them and embark on such an enterprise werevery great, but the earl explained to the leaders the reasons for hisanxiety to gain the fleet. His commission appointed him to the commandat sea as well as on land, and on joining the fleet he would be itsadmiral in chief. He feared that at the sight of so powerful an armamentthe Count of Toulouse would at once decline battle and make for France.He determined, therefore, to advance only with a force considerablyinferior to that of the French, in which case Toulouse, rather thanabandon the siege of Barcelona just when success seemed assured, wouldsail out and give battle.
Should he do so the earl, however inferior his force, had no doubts asto obtaining victory. Accompanied only by Jack Stillwell and by CaptainHumphrey, who had taken the place of Graham, he embarked on board thelittle felucca and put to sea. The weather was cold and stormy, and themaster of the boat did not like putting out far from shore; but the earlwas peremptory, and the felucca stood well out to sea. Night came onwithout any signs of the fleet being discovered. The hours of darknesspassed slowly, for the boat was undecked and afforded no shelter, andthe heavy seas which broke over her kept all on board wetted to theskin.
At daybreak, to their great joy, they perceived a British man of warapproaching. They at once made for her, and found she was the Leopard,commanded by Captain Price. The astonishment of that officer, and of allon board, was unbounded at being boarded at break of day almost out ofsight of land from an open boat by the admiral of all the fleets. Theearl's stay on board was but a short one. As soon as he had learned thewhereabout of the rest of the fleet, and given instructions to CaptainPrice, he again embarked in the felucca, and sailed for Sitjes.
The joy of the troops was great at the return of their general, for thenight had been so stormy that there were great fears for his safety; buthe was not to remain with them long, for, having given orders that thewhole disposable force, about fourteen hundred men, should embark in theboats before daybreak next morning, and follow the fleet to Barcelona,he again with his aides de camp took his place in the felucca and sailedfor the fleet.
In the middle of the night he came across them, and boarding the PrinceGeorge, hoisted his flag as admiral of the fleet on the maintop, andtook the command. He then sent a boat to Sir John Leake to acquainthim with his orders and intentions, and another boat to advise GeneralStanhope of his arrival; but the darkness delayed the delivery of thesemessages till nearly morning, and when day appeared the whole fleet wasamazed at seeing the flag of the admiral in chief flying on the PrinceGeorge. The wind was strong and favorable, and the fleet crowded onall sail; but when within about eighteen miles of Barcelona one ofthe French lookout ships sighted them, and made a signal to a consortfurther along. She in turn passed on the news until it reached theCount of Toulouse, who, without waiting to ascertain the strength ofthe approaching squadron, at once signaled to his fleet to weigh anchor,and, putting to sea, sailed for France.
The disappointment of the earl was great, as he had fully calculatedupon gaining a great naval battle in sight of the city he had come torelieve. On the afternoon of the 8th of May the leading vessels anchoredoff Barcelona, and preparations were at once made for the landing of thetroops. The first to set foot on shore were the earl's veteran troops,who had according to his orders accompanied the fleet from Sitjes. Thesuccor was welcome, indeed; the breaches were no longer defensible, andan assault was hourly expected. The king himself came down to receivethe earl and his army; the city went wild with joy.
For a few days the French made a show of carrying on the siege. Theywere still enormously superior in force; but the energy and skill ofPeterborough counterbalanced the inequality. He worked day and nightin superintending the works of defense, and in placing the troops inreadiness for the expected assault. Philip and many of his officerswere still in favor of an attack upon the city; but Tesse as usual wasopposed to anything like vigorous measures, and his views were adoptedby a council of war.
At one o'clock on the morning of the 11th of May the besiegers brokeup their camp, and in great confusion made their way toward the Frenchfrontier, for Tesse preferred even the ignominy of falling back intoFrance with his unsuccessful and dispirited army to retracing his stepstoward Saragossa, where his devastations and cruelty had caused thewhole population to rise in insurrection as soon as his army had passedinto Catalonia. Besides which, he had received news that Peterboroughhad caused every pass and town on his way to the west to be fortifiedand held by the Miquelets. Philip accompanied the retreating army toRoussillon. The downfall of his hopes had been utter and complete. Buta few weeks before it had seemed that Spain was his, and that the forcesat his disposal were ample to crush out the insurrection in Barcelona,and to sweep into the sea the handful of the invaders. But all his planshad been baffled, all his hopes brought to naught by the genius andenergy of one man, in spite of that man being thwarted at every turn bythe imbecile German coterie who surrounded the king, and by the jealousyand ill will of his fellow generals.
Bad news met the fugitive at Roussillon. There he heard that hiscountrymen had suffered a disastrous defeat at Ramillies; that nearlyall the Netherlands had been wrested from France; that a heavy defeathad been inflicted upon her at Turin, and that Italy was well nigh lost.It needed, indeed, but the smallest amount of unanimity, enterprise, andconfidence on the part of the advisers and generals of King Charles tohave placed him securely and permanently upon the throne of Spain.
When the flight of the besieging army was discovered after daybreak bythe besieged, they poured out from Barcelona into the deserted camp. Allthe ordnance and stores of the French had been abandoned. Two hundredheavy brass guns, thirty mortars, and a vast quantity of shot, shells,and intrenching tools, three thousand barrels of powder, ten thousandsacks of corn, and a vast quantity of provisions and stores were foundleft behind in the camp. Tesse had left, too, all his sick and woundedwith a letter to the Earl of Peterborough begging him to see that th
eywere well cared for.
The news of the hasty retreat of Marshal Tesse from before Barcelonacaused a shock of surprise throughout Europe. In France it had neverbeen doubted that Barcelona would fall, and as to the insurrection, itwas believed that it could be trampled out without difficulty bythe twenty-five thousand French veterans whom the marshal had athis disposal. As to the handful of British troops whose exploits hadoccasioned such astonishment, none had supposed for a moment that theywould be able to effect anything when opposed to so overwhelming a forceof the disciplined troops of France.
Peterborough himself had hardly hoped to save Barcelona, but, unlikehis enemies, he had not considered that the fall of that city wouldnecessarily entail the final defeat of the cause for which he fought.While busying himself with the marches and achievements of the troopsunder his command, he had never ceased to take measures to provide forthe future. His marches and counter marches had made him thoroughlyacquainted with the country, and he had won the entire confidence of thepeople.
He had, therefore, taken measures that even if Barcelona fell Philipshould not march back again to his capital. From the day Tesse advancedhe had had thousands of the country people at work, under the directionof a few of his own officers, rendering each of the three roads by whichthe French army could march from Barcelona to Madrid impracticable.Gorges were blocked with vast masses of rock rolled down from themountain side at spots where the road wound along on the face ofprecipices; and where it had only been made by blasting, it was bysimilar means entirely destroyed. Bridges were broken down, every castleand town on the lines of retreat placed in a state of defense, and thecattle and provisions driven off to places of safety.
Thus while the earl was himself engaged in the most perilous adventures,he neglected nothing that the most prudent and cautious general couldhave suggested to insure the success of his plans. Even when affairslooked most unpromising in Barcelona the earl wrote cheerfully to theDuke of Savoy, saying that the circumstances were much better thanwere generally supposed; and that the French officers, ignorant of thesituation of the country, would be astonished at the difficulties thatwould be opposed to them on advancing even after success; and that ifthe siege were raised they would be forced to abandon Spain, while allthe western frontier would be clear for the progress of Lord Galway andDas Minas to Madrid.
A few days after the retreat of Marshal Tesse, to Jack's great pleasureGraham came into Barcelona. He had, in the confusion of the retreat, hadlittle difficulty in slipping away from his captors. His only danger hadbeen from the peasantry, at whose hands he had narrowly escaped death,as they took him for a French officer; but, upon being convinced by hisassurances that he was an Englishman and an aide de camp of the Earl ofPeterborough, they had provided him with a horse to make his way back toBarcelona.