Meanwhile, general Spencer’s armament, long baffled by contrary winds, and once forced back to port, was finally dispersed in a storm, and a part arrived at Gibraltar by single ships the latter end of January. Sir Hew Dalrymple, the governor of that fortress, being informed, on the 5th of February, that a French fleet had just passed the strait, and run up the Mediterranean, became alarmed for Sicily, then scantily furnished with troops, and caused the first comers to proceed to that island the 11th. General Spencer, whose instructions were to attack Ceuta, arrived on the 10th of March, and the deficiency in his armament being supplied by a draft from the garrison of Gibraltar, a council was held for the purpose of arranging the plan of attack: the operation was, however, thought to be impracticable, and consequently relinquished. General Spencer would then have carried the remainder of his troops to Sicily, but the insurrection in Spain broke out at the moment and altered his determination. In the relation of Dupont’s campaign, I have already touched upon Spencer’s proceedings at Cadiz; but in this place it is necessary to give a more detailed sketch of those occurrences, which, fortunately, brought him back to the coast of Portugal at the moment when sir Arthur Wellesley was commencing the campaign of Vimiero. [Sidenote: Sir Hew Dalrymple’s Correspondence. MS.] When the French first entered Spain, general Castaños commanded the Spanish troops at St. Roque; in that situation he was an object of interest to Napoleon, who sent two French officers privately to sound his disposition. Castaños secretly resolving to oppose the designs of the emperor, thought those officers were coming to arrest him, and at first determined to kill them, and fly to Gibraltar; but soon discovering his mistake, he treated them civilly, and prosecuted his original plans. Through the medium of one Viale, a merchant of Gibraltar, he opened a communication with sir Hew Dalrymple, and the latter, who had been closely watching the progress of events, encouraged him in his views, and not only promised assistance, but recommended several important measures, such as the immediate seizure of the French squadron in Cadiz, the security of the Spanish fleet at Minorca, and a speedy communication with South America. But before Castaños could mature his plans, the insurrection took place at Seville, and he acknowledged the authority of the junta.