From Gibraltar the fleet proceeded to the bay of Altea, in Valencia; and while at this small port the officers and soldiers had opportunities of observing the attachment of the inhabitants of that part of Spain to the house of Austria. A thousand Catalonians and Valentians, who had thrown off their allegiance to the house of Bourbon, and had acknowledged Archduke Charles as the sovereign of Spain, seized on the town of Denia, while others made demonstrations of giving effectual aid to the expedition; and such a spirit of enterprise was evinced by King Charles, the Earl of Peterborough, the Prince of Hesse d'Armstadt, and others, that every officer and man caught the ardent zeal of the superior officers, and resolved to do something great and noble. Under these feelings the famous city of _Barcelona_, the capital of Catalonia, and one of the most ancient towns in Spain, was selected to be the scene of the first attempt. Its situation, on a plain near the sea,--with a mole capable of containing only galleys and small ships,--defended by ten bastions, several old towers and other works,--with a strong castle and citadel, called _Montjuich_, on a hill on the west side and commanding the town; the garrison consisting of between five and six thousand men, under the viceroy of Catalonia, Don Francis de Velasco;--and the besieging army being unable to bring more than seven thousand men into the lines; these circumstances, with the fact, that, in 1697, this fortress resisted a French army of thirty thousand men eight weeks with open trenches, and cost the French monarch twelve thousand men, gave an interesting and romantic character to this enterprise, in which the SIXTH gained much honour, and which produced a great sensation throughout Europe.