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HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

chap, resistance. Ostalric surrendered, at the first summons. Bar-— celona would in all probability have fallen, had not the FrenchAdmirals learned that the conqueror of La Hogue was ap-proaching. They instantly quitted the coast of Catalonia, andnever thought themselves safe till they had taken shelter underthe batteries of Toulon.

The Spanish government expressed warm gratitude for thisseasonable assistance, and presented to the English Admirala jewel which was popularly said to be worth near twenty-thousand pounds sterling. There was no difficulty in findingsuch a jewel among the hoards of gorgeous trinkets which hadbeen left by Charles the Fifth and Philip the Second to a de-generate race. But, in all that constitutes the true wealth ofstates, Spain was poor indeed. Her treasury was empty: herarsenals were unfurnished: her ships were so rotten that theyseemed likely to fly asunder at the discharge of their own guns.Her ragged and starving soldiers often mingled with the crowdof beggars at the doors of convents, and battled there for amess of pottage and a crust of bread. Russell underwent thosetrials which no English commander whose hard fate it has been■ to cooperate with Spaniards has escaped. The Viceroy of Ca-talonia promised much, did nothing, and expected every thing.He declared that three hundred and fifty thousand rations were' ready to be served out to the fleet at Cartliagena. It turned outthat there were not in all the stores of that port provisions suf-ficient to victual a single frigate for a single week. Yet His Ex-cellency thought himself entitled to complain because Englandhad not sent an army as well as a fleet, and because the hereticAdmiral did not choose to expose the fleet to utter destructionby attacking the French under the guns of Toulon. Russell im-plored the Spanish authorities to look well to their dockyards,and to try to have, by the next spring, a small squadron whichmight at least be able to float; but he could not prevail on them