hore; and as they
found no Battery against them, they failed not to play as briskly (as
_Spaniards_ will do when there is no body to hurt them) and did ten
times more Damage than the Castle.

[_O_] These Ships were ordered to cannonade purely to oblige the
General, who, because the Enemy's Ships fired at his Battery, desired
the Admiral would send Ships to cannonade the Castle, though there was
a Battery of twenty Guns to fire against five or six (for that was all
the Castle could bring to bear on the Battery) so they had their Masts
and Yards shot to pieces, and Numbers of Men killed and wounded,
without doing any other Damage than beating down the Rubbish; (which
the Battery would have done in half the Time, as being twice as near)
for they could not come to hurt the Enemy's Ships, nor did it divert
their Ships from firing at the Battery.

[_P_] So soon as the Enemy saw the Boats coming to Land, and these
Ships come to an Anchor close to the Battery, they deserted it, and
spiked up the Guns; but Captain _Watson_, and Captain _Coates_ marched
into it, and ripped up the Platforms, burned them and the Carriages,
and effectually demolished the Battery: The Enemy fired at them from
their Shipping, but with-out much Damage.

[_Q_] It may be remarked as something extraordinary, that although the
Army thought the Breach just practicable, they should entirely cease
firing, the Night before they intended the Attack; as it is a sort of
an established Rule in all regular Sieges, to keep firing in the Night,
to prevent the Enemy's removing the Rubbish, that is beat down in the
Day, which the Enemy would certainly have done, if they had been
sufficiently strong; for they began that Night a Counter-Battery of
Fascines on the Ramparts, in order to have disputed it longer, which if
they had had Time to have finished, and Numbers to have carried on both
Works together, (_viz._) moving the Rubbish from the Foot of the
Breach, and compleating these Counter-Batteries, they would have
rendered the Attack as difficult as from the Beginning.

[_R_] The Army having sent in the Night to reconnoitre the Breach, and
judging it surmountable, resolved this Evening to attack it, and after
having made their necessary Dispositions, sent off to acquaint the
Admiral with their Design, and that so soon as three Shells should be
thrown in the Evening by way of Signal, the Battery should begin to
fire warmly, till the Soldiers were almost at the Foot