sea-port of the Spanish peninsula on the Mediterranean. It contained a
population of about one hundred and forty thousand. It was strongly
fortified. West of the city there was a mountain called Montjoy, upon
which there was a strong fort which commanded the harbor and the town.
After a short siege this fort was taken by storm, and the city was then
forced to surrender.

Philip soon advanced with an army of French and Spaniards to retake the
city. The English fleet had retired. Twenty-eight French ships of war
blockaded the harbor, which they could not enter, as it was commanded by
the guns of Montjoy. The siege was very desperate both in the assault
and the defense. The young king, Charles, was in the most imminent
danger of falling into the bands of his foes. There was no possibility
of escape, and it seemed inevitable that the city must either surrender,
or be taken by storm. The French and Spanish army numbered twenty
thousand men. They first attempted to storm Montjoy, but were repulsed
with great slaughter. They then besieged it, and by regular approaches
compelled its capitulation in three weeks.

This noble resistance enabled the troops in the city greatly to multiply
and increase their defenses. They thus succeeded in protracting the
siege of the town five weeks longer. Every day the beleagured troops
from the crumbling ramparts watched the blue expanse of the
Mediterranean, hoping to see the sails of an English fleet coming to
their rescue. Two breaches were already effected in the walls. The
garrison, reduced to two thousand, and exhausted by superhuman exertions
by day and by night, were almost in the last stages of despair, when, in
the distant horizon, the long looked-for fleet appeared. The French
ships, by no means able to cope with such a force, spread their sails,
and sought safety in flight.

The English fleet, amounting to fifty sail of the line, and transporting
a large number of land troops, triumphantly entered the harbor on the
3rd of May, 1708. The fresh soldiers were speedily landed, and marched
to the ramparts and the breaches. This strong reinforcement annihilated
the hopes of the besiegers. Apprehensive of an immediate sally, they
retreated with such precipitation that they left behind them in the
hospitals their sick and wounded; they also abandoned their heavy
artillery, and an immense quantity of military stores.

Whatever energy Charles might have shown during the siege, all seemed
n