INTRODUCTION

XXXV

must set the fact that many of Leake's ships were Portuguese, and these not only hampered him at every turn, but in the hour of battle, with indiscriminate excitement, poured their broadsides into his flag. De Pointis took every possible precaution against surprise. He had frigates within and without the Gut, an unbroken ring of watchers along the coast, and sentinels on every church tower. And, in spite of all, Leake caught him unawares and annihilated the detachment that the weather had exposed. De Pointis might have run through the Straits and re-formed on the bulk of his fleet to the eastward. Questioned by his countrymen why he did not do so, he replied that the mercy of Providence must have prevented him, for whatever the number of ships he possessed not one would have escaped from Admiral Leake. And with this amazing tribute from a stricken foe the victory may be commended to the approval of Britons.

The siege of Gibraltar had whittled operations in the Peninsula to a single acute point. The final relief of the fortress, and its absorption as an integral part of the Navy's outfit, paved the way to a new and broader phase of the war, wherein none was destined to figure more prominently than Leake. The rest of his acts are chronicled with so much detail in the following pages that a brief summary may perhaps prove useful here as a clue to guide us through a labyrinth of facts.

On the death of the unhappy King of Spain, whose childlessness occasioned this War of Succession, the various provinces composing his monarchy were not unanimous in their choice of a successor. In spite of Louis XIV's epigram, the Pyrenees continued to exist, and, forming an insurmountable barrier with an average height of

nine thousand feet, exercised upon the struggle a vast, if not determining, influence. But although they could not be crossed, they could at either end be rounded; and much of what follows is intelligible only in terms of two passages or gates. The western gate, the Pampeluna gap, or Pass of Roncesvalles, leads from France directly into the heart of Spain-that is, into the province of Castile. But the eastern gate, or Gerona gap, leads (in local parlance), not into Spain, but into Catalonia. A French army passing through the Pampeluna gap would overrun the Iberian tableland, while a French army passing through the Gerona gap would find itself, topographically, in a cul-de-sac. The armies of Louis the Great, like the armies of Charles the Great, made use of the Roncesvalles route, and Philip V,' the French candidate, drew his main support from Castile. For that very reason the Catalans, who loathed the word 'Spaniard' as heartily as a Czecho-Slovak detests the name of Austrian, opposed the French candidate and were reported ready to welcome the English nominee.

When, therefore, in 1705 the Grand Fleet of Great Britain returned to southern waters, it was resolved in high council held at Lisbon that 'Charles III' should be transferred to Catalonia and there set up his court. The capital of the province, the great port of Barcelona, had, it is true, declared for the French. But sound reasons were adduced to prove that the place might be taken; and, when taken, it certainly promised a firm foothold where the nominee of the Grand Alliance could rally all Spain round his throne.

Barcelona, when approached in form, proved much better able to look after itself than the most

INTRODUCTION

Xxxvii

But

pessimistic of its assailants had anticipated. as in the previous year before Gibraltar, so now again the fleet performed miracles, and Barcelona after a stubborn defence, succumbed to the seapower of Britain. 'Charles III' went ashore, and was not only proclaimed king, but received with rapturous ovations. All the neighbouring fortresses gave up their keys, and at a single stroke the whole province of Catalonia was won. The new sovereign set up his court, Prince Lichtenstein was installed as Chancellor, favours were distributed, and ambitious plans were formed. The conquest of Catalonia reacted powerfully upon the neighbouring province of Valencia, and along the Mediterranean shores of Spain only Murcia remained loyal to the House of Bourbon. But the Grand Fleet of Great Britain, which was capable of controlling infinitely longer stretches of coast, was obliged at the approach of winter to return to home waters; and Sir Clowdisley Shovell, to whom the main credit for the capture of Barcelona must be given, bade the Austrian court farewell. Before he did so, however, he detached a watching squadron to remain behind, and in the most natural way in the world committed it to the man who had protected and saved Gibraltar.

No sooner had Sir Clowdisley sailed for England, and Leake for a refit repaired to the Tagus, than the French made their answering move. At Lisbon Charles III' would have been safe enough as long as Portugal was unconquered. But at Barcelona Charles III' had deliberately put himself in check, and his adversaries joyously hastened to 'mate' and win the game. The legions of Louis poured through the Gerona gap and compassed the little Austrian court with forces

that outnumbered those of Charles III' at least by twenty to one. It was not possible for them to establish proper lines of communication without subduing the whole of a countryside which teemed with Catalan irregulars; but the irresistible mass of the army of invasion was supplied from Toulon by the main French fleet acting in admirable co-ordination. The walls of Barcelona were battered down, and the last ounce of strength that the garrison possessed was exhausted in vain efforts to repair them. Philip V' in person, attended by his marshals and nobility, came in the gorgeous equipages beloved at Versailles to be present at the end of the siege. For the fall of Barcelona meant the capture of Charles III,' and the capture of the Grand Allies' candidate meant the conclusion of the war. The great day approached, and the last guns were brought up and trained on the widening breach. In effulgent glory the symbol of the Grand Monarque blazed from a cloudless sky.

And then, even as the sands ran out and the twelfth hour began to strike, Sir John and his squadron sailed into the bay; and Barcelona was saved! The Toulon fleet, flying in mad stampede, severed with its unseemly heels the life-line that sustained the army of invasion; and, abandoning guns and all else, the thirty thousand soldiers that were to have ended the war fled with their king, and their marshals, and their captains, while the sky grew black and the air grew chill, as the sun, like the earthly potentate who aped him, laboured in eclipse.

The relief of Barcelona has been justly compared with that other great event of 1706-the victory of Ramillies; and it is a French historian who mournfully exclaims: 'A battle lost could

INTRODUCTION

xxxix

not have been attended by results so utterly deplorable.' 1

When the forces of Louis raised the siege of Gibraltar, they opened to the British fleet the door of the Mediterranean. When they raised the siege of Barcelona, they set the British fleet at liberty to dominate those waters as it would. There were one or two seaports on the eastern coast of Spain that still refused to recognise the suzerainty of 'Charles III,' and against these Leake now turned. In May 1706 he took Carthagena, the capital of the Bourbon province of Murcia, and in July he moved against Alicante, a stronghold in the province of Valencia. The town was just one of those places that only an army can capture, having a harbour commanded by the city bastions, and a rock-built acropolis immune from naval guns. Stoutly defended by a son of Ireland, whose name the Spaniards had converted to Mahoni, it flung defiance at the British fleet. Sir John was expecting a military force to co-operate with him; but only a handful of soldiers put in an appearance. He employed them in cutting off the town from the land side and denying it the hope of relief. He then metamorphosed his fleet into the instrument he required; with regiments, corps of engineers, and artillery; with majors, colonels, and brigadiers. Thesea men were too impetuous and foolhardy in their methods of approach, but this only served to accelerate the event. With a reckless bravado and contempt of form, the tars took Alicante at the run. Mahoni flung himself into the acropolis and rehoisted the flag of defiance; but starvation caused him to pull in his belt, and the castle soon surrendered.

1

1 Lapeyrouse Bonfils, Histoire de la Marine Française, ii. 66.