through the night they marched in a southwesterly direction over the
hills, and at daybreak reached the little seaport of Sitjes, some seven
leagues from Barcelona. Ordering the wearied soldiers to encamp behind
some low hills, the indefatigable general rode with Jack Stilwell into
the little port, and at once, by offering large rewards, set the sailors
and fishermen at work to collect the boats, barges, and fishing smacks
along the neighboring coast, and to bring them to Sitjes.

In two days he had succeeded in collecting a sufficient number to carry
the whole force. The news of the work upon which the general was engaged
soon spread among the force and caused the greatest astonishment. Jack
Stilwell was overwhelmed with questions as to the intentions of the
general.

"What on earth are we going to do next, Stilwell?" one of the colonels
said to him. "We are all ready, you know, to do anything that the chief
bids us, but for the life of us no one can make this business out. The
only possible thing seems to be that the chief intends to attack the
French fleet, and desperate as many of his exploits have been, they
would be as nothing to that. Even the earl could surely not expect that
fifteen hundred men in fishing boats and barges could attack a fleet of
some thirty men of war. The idea seems preposterous, and yet one does
not see what else he can have got in his head."

"Of course, colonel," Jack said, laughing, "you do not expect me to tell
you what are the general's plans. You may be quite sure that, whatever
they are, there is nothing absolutely impossible about them, for you
know that although the general may undertake desperate things, he never
attempts anything that has not at least a possibility of success; in
fact, as you know, he has never yet failed in any enterprise that he has
undertaken."

"That is true enough," the colonel said; "and yet for the life of me
I cannot make out what else he can be thinking of. Certainly to attack
Toulouse 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 think
you will have to wait very long before you know as much about it as I
do."

Jack was right in this, for on the night of the second day the earl
called his officers together, and informed them that he was waiting
to join the English fleet, which might at any moment come in sight. As
hitherto nothing had been known about the arrival of reinfo