No sooner was the defeat of Beresford known in England than the ministry despatched a fast vessel from Portsmouth with orders to General Crawford to join Sir Samuel Auchmuty; whilst, shortly afterwards, a third body, consisting of sixteen hundred and thirty picked troops, set out under the orders of Lieutenant-General John Whitelocke, who was to assume the command-in-chief of the united English forces in _La Plata_, whose number would amount to twelve thousand men, supported by a fleet of eighteen men-of-war, together with eighty transports. [Sidenote: 1807.] General Auchmuty was the first to arrive. Taking with him the fourteen hundred men whom Popham had landed at _Maldonado_, and likewise three hundred men from the fleet, he invested _Monte Video_ on the 28th of January. He was attacked by Sobremonte, with some mounted militia, but who were quickly dispersed, and who retired to _Colonia_. Auchmuty then established his batteries, and commenced to bombard _Monte Video_ from the south. On the 2d of February the breach was declared practicable, and at daylight on the 3d the general ordered an assault. An English writer, who as a youth was present at the assault on _Monte Video_, gives a vivid picture of the scene. Arriving with high hopes in the river _Plata_, in December 1806, the author of “Letters on _Paraguay_,” and his fellow-travellers, learned to their dismay that _Buenos Ayres_ had been retaken by the Spaniards, and that General Beresford and his army were prisoners. Sir Samuel Auchmuty was now investing _Monte Video_, and, with the exception of the country immediately around that town, there was no footing for Englishmen in Spanish America. The “Enterprise” was ordered to proceed to the roadstead, there, together with hundreds of other ships similarly situated, to be under the orders of the English admiral. _Monte Video_ was strongly and regularly fortified. Its harbour presented a scene of the greatest animation; brigs-of-war were running close under the walls, and bombarding the citadel from the sea, whilst thousands of spectators on board ship were tracing, in breathless suspense, the impression made by every shell upon the town, and by every ball upon the breach. The frequent _sorties_ made by the Spanish troops, and the repulses which they sustained, were watched with painful interest. At length, one morning before dawn, the breach was enveloped in one mighty spread of conflagration. The roar of cannon was incessant, and the atmosphere was one dense mass of smoke, impregnated with the smell of gunpowder. By the aid of the night-glass, and by the flashes from the guns, it might be seen that a deadly struggle was going forward on the walls. It was succeeded by an awful pause; and presently the dawn of day revealed the British ensign floating from the battlements. The sight was received by a shout of triumph from the fleet.