Certainly to attack Toulouse would be madness, and yet there is no one else to attack." "Well, colonel, I can only say that time will show, and I don't think you will have to wait very long before you know as much about it as I do." Jack was right in this, for on the night of the second day the earl called his officers together, and informed them that he was waiting to join the English fleet, which might at any moment come in sight.

As hitherto nothing had been known about the arrival of reinforcements, the news excited the greatest joy.

The earl had hoped that at daybreak the fleet would be in sight, and as soon as it was light he mounted a hill which gave him a wide view over the sea, but to his deep disappointment not a sail appeared above the horizon.

Knowing the desperate state of the garrison at Barcelona, and that at any hour he might receive news that an assault had been delivered and the city captured, his disappointment at the delay in the appearance of the fleet was unbounded.
The roar of the distant guns around Barcelona came distinctly to his ears, and he was almost wild with impatience and anxiety.

On reaching the shore again he found that a fast sailing felucca had just come in from Barcelona.