battle.
Peterborough was ready to advance, and the besieged were all in arms on
the ramparts, but seeing that the enemy were fully prepared the project
was abandoned, and the troops returned to their quarters.

But the fall of Montjuich was at hand. The besiegers secretly massed
a large force in the trenches. At midday on the 22d a salvo of four
mortars gave the signal. The French rushed in with loud shouts and
effected a complete surprise. Before the troops could get under arms two
bastions were captured.

So sudden was the affair that many of the English officers, hearing the
firing, ran out from the keep, and seeing some foreign troops drawn up
in the works joined them, concluding that they were Dutch, and were
only undeceived by finding themselves taken prisoners. The men were so
confused by the loss of many of the officers that, had the French pushed
in at once, they would have been able to carry the main body of the
works with but little resistance. They halted, however, in the bastions
they had won. The next morning the people of Barcelona, headed by their
priests, sallied out to effect the relief of Montjuich, but were easily
driven back by the besiegers. The little garrison of the castle sallied
out to meet their friends, but when these retreated to the town they had
to fight their way back to the castle, which they regained with great
difficulty, the gallant Earl of Donegal and many of his officers being
killed.

Finding that their position was now desperate, the remnant of the
British troops abandoned the castle they had so stoutly defended, and
succeeded in making their way safely into the city. Tesse now pushed on
the siege of the town with vigor. Batteries of heavy guns were raised
opposite the newly mended breaches, and so close did he plant his guns
to the walls that the artillery of the besieged could not be depressed
sufficiently to play upon them, while so heavy a fire of infantry
was kept up upon the walls that their defenders were unable to reply
effectively with their musketry.

The walls crumbled rapidly, and the defenders busied themselves
in raising inner defenses behind the breaches. Had the French been
commanded by an enterprising general there is little doubt that they
could 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 him
to co