About six o'clock in the evening
On the 13th of September the army received orders to embark on the morrow , while within the town the garrison and the inhabitants , who were , or pretended to be , well affected to the Bourbons held high rejoicing at the approaching departure . On the afternoon of that day a detachment of English and Dutch troops twelve hundred strong was ordered to assemble in the allied camp for the purpose , as was supposed , of covering the embarkation . Scaling ladders and everything necessary for an assault had already been privately prepared by the Catalan peasants under Peterborough 's instructions . About six o'clock in the evening four hundred grenadiers of the party assembled under the command of Hon. Colonel Southwell , and were ordered to march by the Serria road , as if en route to Taragona to meet the fleet and embark in that harbor . The remainder of the detachment followed in support at some little distance . At nightfall the Prince of Hesse Darmstadt was surprised by Lord Peterborough 's entrance into his quarters . Since their rupture all intercourse had ceased between them .