llation.
It once resisted for many Months an Army of that Force; and is almost
at the greatest Distance from _England_ of any Place belonging to that
_Monarchy_.

This short Description of these two Places will appear highly necessary,
if it be consider'd, that no Person without it would be able to judge of
the Design which the Earl of _Peterborow_ intended to pursue, when he
first took the Arch-Duke aboard the Fleet. Nevertheless the Earl now
found himself under a Necessity of quitting that noble Design, upon his
Receipt of Orders from _England_, while he lay in the Bay of _Altea_, to
proceed directly to _Catalonia_; to which the Arch-Duke, as well as many
Sea and Land Officers, were most inclin'd; and the Prince of _Hesse_
more than all the rest.

On receiving those Orders, the Earl of _Peterborow_ seem'd to be of
Opinion, that from an Attempt, which he thought under a Probability of
Success, he was condemn'd to undertake what was next to an Impossibility
of effecting; since nothing appear'd to him so injudicious as an Attempt
upon _Barcelona_. A Place at such a Distance from receiving any
Reinforcement or Relief; the only Place in which the _Spaniards_ had a
Garrison of regular Forces; and those in Number rather exceeding the
Army he was to undertake the Siege with, was enough to cool the Ardour
of a Person of less Penetration and Zeal than what the Earl had on all
Occasions demonstrated. Whereas if the General, as he intended, had made
an immediate March to _Madrid_, after he had secur'd _Valencia_, and the
Towns adjacent, which were all ready to submit and declare for King
_Charles_; or if otherwise inclin'd, had it not in their Power to make
any considerable Resistance; to which, if it be added, that he could
have had Mules and Horses immediately provided for him, in what Number
he pleas'd, together with Carriages necessary for Artillery, Baggage,
and Ammunition; in few Days he could have forc'd King _Philip_ out of
_Madrid_, where he had so little Force to oppose him. And as there was
nothing in his Way to prevent or obstruct his marching thither, it is
hard to conceive any other Part King _Philip_ could have acted in such
an Extremity, than to retire either towards _Portugal_ or _Catalonia_.
In either of which Cases he must have left all the middle Part of
_Spain_ open to the Pleasure of the Enemy; who in the mean time would
have had it in their Power to prevent any Communication of those Bodies
at such opposi