while, to keep up their hope of foreign succour, the solemn promise of the Queen of England to support their privileges was deposited, with great solemnity, on the high altar of the cathedral. CHAP. 1714. 45. the Duke and forces siegers, The Catalans had need of all their courage and resources, for the preparations of France and Spain for Arrival of their reduction were most formidable. The blockade of Berwick, began in November 1713; but the want of heavy artil- of the belery, or any force adequate to the siege of so strong a June 1714. fortress so defended, prevented the commencement of regular approaches till the end of June in the following year, when the arrival of the twenty thousand French auxiliaries raised the besieging force around its walls to thirty-five thousand men, besides eight thousand stationed at Gerona to keep up the communication with France, and eight thousand scattered through Catalonia to overawe its warlike inhabitants. In the end of June, Berwick arrived with the patent of generalissimo to take the command; and that brave and humane prince had no sooner done so than he was horrified at discovering the savage intentions of the government, and of what cruelties he was intended to be the unwilling instrument. The orders to him were peremptory, if the besieged allowed the trenches to be commenced, to admit of no surrender but at discretion. Berwick was so shocked at this severity that he wrote both to Louis XIV. and the court of Madrid for fresh and more lenient instructions. He could obtain, however, no material modification. "The ministers," says he, "spoke of nothing but the grandeur of their monarch, the justice of their cause, and the despicable character of those who should venture to attack us. All the insurgents were to be put to the sword; all those who had not taken an active part in X. 1714. CHAP. Philip's favour during the civil war were to be treated as enemies, while those who had aided him were to be regarded only as having done their duty, without receiving any recompense. Had the ministers and generals of Spain held a more moderate language, Barcelona would have capitulated as soon as the Austrians withdrew; but as the cabinet and the Duke de Popoli, who had the command, spoke only of the sack and the cord, the people became furious and desperate. Popoli had a personal cause of enmity to the inhabitants, on account of some insults offered to his wife when the Archduke took the town in 1705."1 1 Berwick's Mem. 203, 205. Coxe's House of Bourbon, ii. 65-67. The death of Anne, and accession of the Hanoverian family to the throne of England, produced only a fruitless appeal to the humanity of the Spanish government in behalf of the Catalans, and an order for the British fleet to withdraw from the blockade. George I. was too much occupied with the dangers of Jacobite insurrection at home, and had too small an armed force at his disposal, to be able to think of foreign hostilities. Thus abandoned to their own resources, the Catalans with mournful resolution continued their resistance; the savage cruelty of the Spanish government had left them no alternative but victory or death. Berwick found in the camp eighty-seven heavy cannon and thirty-three mortars, with 1,500,000 pounds of powder, and every supply requisite for the longest siege; it was only a question, therefore, to which quarter his attacks should be directed. He determined to commence the attack on the side next the sea. On the 12th July, trenches were opened by ten battalions of foot and as many companies of grenadiers, and next day two considerable sallies, one with four, the other with six thousand men, were repulsed after a violent struggle, with considerable loss to the besieged. At the same time twenty vessels and a frigate steering for the port CHAP. X. 1714. Coxe's were captured by the blockading squadron coming, 1 Berwick, from Majorca; but thirty others, with three transports, 207, 208. reached the harbour in safety, and brought supplies House of of provisions, which proved of essential service to the ii. 67, 68. besieged.1 Bourbon, the siege. The breaching batteries opened their fire on the 25th 47. July from eighty heavy cannon; and such was the Progress of execution done, that, by the 12th August, three breaches were made on the outworks of three bastions, which were stormed on that day; but on the next the besieged drove them out with the loss of fifteen hundred men. At the same time a Miquelet chief, Del Poul, descended from the mountains with twelve thousand mountaineers, and came within a few leagues of the French camp; but Berwick attacked and defeated him with very severe loss. Having thus secured his rear, he resumed the siege with fresh vigour; and so effective was the fire, that by the 10th September seven huge breaches yawned in different parts of the rampart, at the foot of all which the ditch was filled up and the outworks carried. In these circumstances farther resistance was hopeless, and Berwick, moved by humanity, sent a flag of truce to propose a capitulation. But the summons was sternly ii. 296-300. rejected, and the besieged, headed by their leaders, House of repaired with desperate resolution to the breaches to ii. 68. resist the assault.2 2 Berwick, 211, 212. St Philippe, Coxe's Bourbon, storm of The storm took place on the 11th September, and 48. was one of the most bloody and dreadful recorded in Dreadful history. At the signal of ten guns and twenty mortars, the town. which were discharged at daybreak, the whole besieging Sept. 11. X. 1714. СПАР. force moved forward to the assault: fifty battalions led the attack, while forty more were in reserve ready to support them. The attack was directed against the three bastions which had been breached, and, the garrison not expecting an assault so early, the besiegers entered without much difficulty, and got into the streets of the town. But it was there, as in after times at Saragossa, that the conflict really began. A terrible fire was opened on the assailants from the barricades and loopholed houses; and such was the vigour of the defence that the French were driven out of the bastion of St Peter, and, after being several times taken and retaken, it finally remained in the possession of the Spaniards. Berwick, alarmed by the dreadful carnage at that spot, hastened in person and drew off his men, after above two thousand had fallen in the murderous conflict. But in other quarters the assailants were more successful; and Villaroit, the governor of the town, was wounded. At length, at three in the afternoon, after a dreadful conflict of ten hours' duration, in which nearly every male inhabitant within the place had borne a part, the besieged beat a parley, and demanded to capitulate. Berwick promised that their lives should be spared, and the besieged were left for the night in possession of their barricades. Next day the victors made their entry into the town on all sides, with such order that not a soldier quitted the ranks; and after one of the most desperate assaults recorded in history, the prodigy was exhibited of discipline being entirely preserved, and not a shop pillaged or a woman violated" a circumstance," says Berwick, "which can be ascribed only to God, for all the power of man could not have restrained the soldiers." 1 1 Berwick, This memorable siege cost the besiegers, by Berwick's X. 1714. 49. of Berwick sieged, and termination of the War of the Suc cession. admission, ten thousand men the loss of the besieged CHAP. did not exceed six thousand. Berwick enhanced the glory of his conquest by the clemency which he showed. to the vanquished. Twenty of the leaders were sent to Humanity the castle of Alicante, where they were imprisoned, and to the betwo hundred ecclesiastics were banished to Italy. But tha no blood was shed on the scaffold-a circumstance so much at variance with the usual cruelty of the Spanish character, and the declared intentions of the government, that it can be ascribed only to the humane interposition of Berwick. A few days after, he granted a favourable capitulation to the Count of Montemard in Caulona, which had the effect of entirely terminating the war in the Peninsula. Majorca alone still held out for Charles; but the fame of Berwick's clemency, and the arrival of ten thousand French troops, induced its inhabitants, House of after every preparation for resistance had been made, to ii. 70-73. accept the very favourable terms which were offered to ii. 304-307. them; and with their submission to Philip TERMINATED 216, 217. THE WAR OF THE SUCCESSION.1 1 Coxe's Bourbon, St Philippe, Berwick, of Marshal James Fitzjames, Duke of Berwick, who had the 50. glory of bringing this bloody and long-continued war to Biography a conclusion, was born in London on 21st August 1670 Berwick. -the natural son of the Duke of York, afterwards James II., and of Arabella Churchill, sister of the Duke of Marlborough. So decided was his turn for a military life, that, when only fifteen, he left the pleasures and seductions of the court of London to learn the art of war under one of its masters, Charles, Duke of Lorraine, then general of the Imperial armies in Hungary; and he made his first campaigns against the Turks. He was distinguished at the siege of Buda, and shared in the glorious victory of Mohatz. When his father, James, |