The Marquis de Villadarias, having received a considerable reinforcement, evinced a disposition to storm the place, and on the 2nd of February, 1705, an attempt was made against the Round Tower, to ascertain what might be effected by a larger force. On the 7th the enemy attacked with five hundred chosen grenadiers, French and Walloons, commanded by Lieut.-General Thouy, and supported by one thousand Spanish troops. They ascended the hill in perfect silence at daybreak, and again attempted to storm the Round Tower, which was defended by Colonel Borr, of the Marines, now thirty-second regiment. The assailants, by throwing from above great stones and grenades on his men, at last obliged him to retire into that part of the works where the foot guards were posted. Flushed with success, they advanced too far; when they were gallantly charged by Colonel Moncall, of Barrymore’s (thirteenth) regiment, and driven from the Round Tower. Colonel Rivett, of the Coldstream foot guards, having got up the rock on the right of the covered-way with twenty grenadiers, favoured very much Colonel Moncall’s success. The garrison by this time had assembled, and kept up so destructive a fire that the enemy was obliged to make a precipitate retreat, losing seventy men killed on the spot; upwards of two hundred wounded; and one captain, four lieutenants, and forty men taken. The loss on the part of the garrison was twenty-seven men killed, and one hundred and twenty wounded. Marshal de Tessé arrived with additional troops to carry on the siege; the garrison also received fresh reinforcements from Portugal, besides supplies of every description. Admiral Sir John Leake sailed from the Tagus on the 6th of March, 1705, and his arrival in the bay of Gibraltar on the 10th, was again so sudden, that he completely surprised the Baron de Pointi, together with the whole of his squadron, consisting of live ships of the line, three of which were captured, and two were driven on shore, and burnt by the enemy. After a siege of seven months the enemy retired, in April, giving up all hopes of being able to make any impression on the fortress: his efforts were then confined to a very feeble blockade. The fortress of Gibraltar, seated upon the territory of Spain, was thus rendered subject to the British crown by the bravery of its Navy and Marines: its possession was subsequently secured by the defence made against the renewed efforts of the Spaniards in 1727, and by the glorious defence sustained by the troops, under General Lord Heathfield, for three years, from 1779 to 1782, when it exhibited to the nations of Europe a brilliant instance of the combined exertions of the British navy and army against the repeated, but unsuccessful, attempts of Spain and France to recover this important fortress.