Brigadier Richard Gorges, who succeeded the Earl of Donegal, as colonel of the thirty-fifth regiment, then serving as marines, moved from Elcho on the 21st of July to within a mile of Alicant, and all the marines of the fleet, with eight hundred seamen, were landed on that day, and on the following morning:--the bombardment commenced on the evening of the 22nd. A detachment of the navy, under Admiral Sir George Byng, rendered very essential service by dismounting many of the enemy’s guns on the coast. On the 24th of July the marines arrived from Carthagena, and were immediately landed; after four days the troops had gained possession of the suburbs, and all the boats were manned, and armed, in order to attack the town. On the 29th of July the ships having made a practicable breach on the Round Tower, at the west end of the place, and another at the middle of the curtain, the soldiers advanced to storm them. General Mahoni retired into the Castle, and was again summoned by Brigadier Gorges, and was at length obliged to surrender his charge on the 25th of August, after a most gallant resistance, and a heavy loss. The fleet proceeded to _Iviça_, where it arrived on the 9th of September: the governor immediately saluted, and tendered submission to King Charles III. It was next resolved to attack _Majorca_, which surrendered on the 14th of September: a garrison of one captain, one lieutenant, and one hundred marines, was placed in this island. [Sidenote: 1707] In June, 1707, an opportunity offered of co-operating with the Duke of Savoy and Prince Eugene, in an intended attack upon Toulon: the fleet proceeded for the coast of Italy, where it anchored, on the 28th of June, between Nice and Antibes, about a league from the Var: after a conference between the commanders-in-chief, it was decided that a joint attack should be made upon a part of the enemy’s army then entrenched upon that river: the positions, being evacuated by the enemy, were immediately occupied by six hundred British seamen and marines: the passage was thus secured for the Duke of Savoy to prosecute his designs, and frigates were stationed along different parts of the sea-coast: every aid was afforded by the fleet both as to men and cannon; but the enemy having daily augmented his forces, and having made a successful sally, the siege was raised on the 10th of August, 1707, after a loss of more than a thousand men. The French, from a sudden dread of consequences, sunk a number of their largest ships of war, which were ever after unfit for service. [Sidenote: 1708]