d he
therefore agreed to surrender in four days should no relief arrive. The
terms agreed upon were that the garrison should march out with all
the honors of war, and should be transported by sea to San Felix, and
escorted thence to Gerona; but as a few hours later the news arrived
that Gerona had declared for King Charles, Velasco requested to be
conveyed to Rosas instead. The capitulation was signed on the 9th of
October, and the garrison were preparing to march out on the 14th, when,
in the English camp, the sound of a tumult in the city was heard.

"Quick, Stilwell!" the earl cried, running out of his tent, "to horse!
The rascals inside are breaking out into a riot, and there will be a
massacre unless I can put a stop to it."

The earl leaped on to his horse, called to a few orderly dragoons
who were at hand to accompany him, and ordered that four companies of
grenadiers should follow as quickly as possible.

Galloping at full speed Peterborough soon arrived at the gate of San
Angelo, and ordered the Spanish guard to open it. This they did without
hesitation, and followed by his little party he rode into the city. All
was uproar and confusion. The repressive measures which the governor had
been obliged to take against the disaffected had added to the Catalan
hatred of the French, and the Austrian party determined to have
vengeance upon the governor. A report was circulated that he intended
to carry away with him a number of the principal inhabitants in spite
of the articles of capitulation. This at once stirred up the people to
fury, and they assailed and plundered the houses of the French and of
the known partisans of the Duke d'Anjou.

They then turned upon the governor and garrison. The latter dispersed
through the city, and, unprepared for attack, would speedily have
been massacred had not their late enemy been at hand to save them.
Peterborough, with his little party of dragoons, rode through the
streets exhorting, entreating, and commanding the rioters to abstain.
When, as in some cases, the mob refused to listen to him, and continued
their work, the dragoons belabored them heartily with the flats of their
swords; and the surprise caused by seeing the British uniforms in their
midst, and their ignorance of how many of the British had entered, did
more even than the efforts of the dragoons to allay the tumult. Many
ladies of quality had taken refuge in the convent, and Peterborough at
once placed a guard ov