as to Strength, of the two contending Powers: The _French_,
at the Birth of the Siege, consisted of five thousand Horse and
Dragoons, and twenty-five thousand Foot, effective Men. Now grant, that
their kill'd and wounded, together with their Sick in the Hospitals,
might amount to five Thousand; yet as their Body of Horse was entire,
and in the best Condition, the Remaining will appear to be an Army of
twenty-five Thousand at least. On the other Side, all the Forces in
_Barcelona_, even with their Reinforcements, amounted to no more than
seven thousand Foot and four hundred Horse. Why then, when they rais'd
their Siege, did not they march back into the Heart of _Spain_, with
their so much superior Army? or, at least, towards their Capital? The
Answer can be this, and this only; Because the Earl of _Peterborow_ had
taken such provident Care to render all secure, that it was thereby
render'd next to an Impossibility for them so to do. That General was
satisfy'd, that the Capital of _Catalonia_ must, in course, fall into
the Hands of the Enemy, unless a superior Fleet remov'd the Count _de
Tholouse_, and threw in timely Succours into the Town: And as that could
not depend upon him, but others, he made it his chief Care and assiduous
Employment to provide against those Strokes of Fortune to which he found
himself again likely to be expos'd, as he often had been; and therefore
had he Resource to that Vigilance and Precaution which had often
retriev'd him, when to others his Circumstances seem'd to be most
desperate.

The Generality of Mankind, and the _French_ in particular, were of
opinion that the taking _Barcelona_ would prove a decisive Stroke, and
put a Period to the War in _Spain_; and yet at that very Instant I was
inclin'd to believe, that the General flatter'd himself it would be in
his Power to give the Enemy sufficient Mortification, even though the
Town should be oblig'd to submit to King _Philip_. The wise Measures
taken induc'd me so to believe, and the Sequel approv'd it; for the Earl
had so well expended his Caution, that the Enemy, on the Disappointment,
found himself under a Necessity of quitting _Spain_; and the same would
have put him under equal Difficulties had he carry'd the Place. The
_French_ could never have undertaken that Siege without depending on
their Fleet, for their Artillery, Ammunition, and Provisions; since
they must be inevitably forc'd to leave behind them the strong Towns of
_Tortosa_,