tered his apartment,
"what news do you bring me from Barcelona? I hear that Tesse has
invested the town."

"My last news is from Madrid, general," Jack said; "I have had to stay a
week in that city."

And he then proceeded to relate the series of events which had happened
from the time he joined the Count of Cifuentes.

"I know I exceeded my duty, general," he said when he finished, "in
going up into Arragon without orders; but I felt that I was of little
use with the count, who handles the Miquelets well, and I thought that
you would be glad of trustworthy information of the state of feeling in
Arragon, and perhaps of Castile."

"You were quite right," the earl said, "and have done exceedingly
well. Yours has been an adventure after my own heart, and you have just
arrived here in time, for I am on the point of starting to do what I can
to harass the besiegers of Barcelona."

CHAPTER XV: THE RELIEF OF BARCELONA

Although for months it was evident that the French were preparing to
make a great effort to recapture Barcelona, Charles and his German
advisers had done nothing whatever to place the city in the position to
resist a siege. The fortifications remained just as they had been when
Peterborough had captured the city. The breaches which had been made by
the English cannon were still open, and even that in the all important
citadel of Montjuich remained as it had been left by the explosion of
the magazine.

Not until Tesse was pressing down from Lerida and de Noailles from
Roussillon did the king awake to his danger. Orders were sent out to
recall all the troops who were within reach, the country people were set
to work collecting provisions, and the king made an urgent appeal to
the citizens to aid in repairing the fortifications. The appeal was
responded to; the whole male population took up arms, even priests and
friars enrolling themselves in the ranks. The women and children were
formed into companies, and all Barcelona labored in carrying materials
and in repairing the breaches. The king had received a letter from
Peterborough proposing the plan of which he had spoken to his aides de
camp, and which, had it been carried out, would have changed the fate
of Spain. His suggestion was that Charles should at once make his way by
sea to Portugal, which, as the blockade had not then commenced, he could
have easily done, there to put himself at the head of the allied army,
twenty-six thousand strong, and