seized by ten English dragoons that were posted there on purpose, and had marched in the mountains all night with the spies. The Spaniards being thus surprised and seized, the spy pretended the guard was drunk, and the officers, seeing a couple of dragoons lying apparently in that condition, slipped into the stable and took three of the horses, and so returned to the Conde de las Torres. This was enough to confirm the intelligence and gain credit to the spy, as officers of that country never fail to magnify their dangers and escapes. Sometimes the dragoons were brought prisoners, by consent, into the Spanish camp, by country people, seeming in their interest. By such artful means, and by such diligent application, a little body of men, about twelve or thirteen hundred cavalry and two thousand infantry, were brought to join in the neighbourhood of Castillon de la Plana."[39] Such were the services in which the ROYAL DRAGOONS were engaged, and an immense tract of country was delivered from the power of the enemy. A most romantic part of the adventure was, that the Earl of Peterborough, being deficient in cavalry, procured eight hundred Spanish horses, and constituted Lord Barrymore's regiment (now thirteenth foot) a corps of dragoons, of which he appointed the lieut.-colonel, Edward Pearce, colonel. The ROYAL DRAGOONS accompanied the Earl of Peterborough to _Valencia_. The enemy brought forward a numerous army to besiege this important place; but the British commander issued from the city with his gallant horsemen, and surprised and captured the Spanish battering-train; he also penetrated, by a night march, to the rear of their army, and attacked and defeated their reinforcements; and by these and other achievements of a similar character, which exhibit the valour and excellent conduct of the troops under his orders, he frustrated the designs of the enemy. These brilliant successes alarmed the courts of France and Spain, and a powerful attempt to regain the possession of the towns which had acknowledged King Charles was determined upon. The Spaniards were desirous of commencing with Valencia, but they were overruled by orders from France; and, the English fleet having left _Barcelona_ in the autumn, the siege of that place was undertaken by a land force commanded by King Philip in person, and the French fleet under the Count de Toulouse.