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artillery. Behind this point the promontory dilates, and there is formed a second esplanade which overlooks the first, and affords space enough for the troops of the garrison to parade in without difficulty. As the declivity is gentle, and of easy access, the English have made cuts in the rock in front, and surrounded the platform with a wall fifteen feet in height and as many in thickness, copiously furnished with artillery. Within this platform they have constructed besides an intrenched camp, which offers them a secure retreat in case they should be driven from their outer works. From this post they communicate with another still more elevated, and situated among steep and irregular masses; here the besieged had established their camp. Upon the western flank of the promontory, and upon the seashore, the town of Gibraltar itself occupied a long and narrow space. It had been almost totally destroyed by the artillery, in one of the preceding attacks. It is closed on the south by a wall, on the north by an ancient fortification called the castle of the Moors, and in front, next the sea, by a parapet sixteen feet thick, and furnished from distance to distance with batteries, which fire level with the water. Behind the town, the mountain rises abruptly quite to its summit. The English, for the greater security of this part, have constructed two other works, which project considerably into the sea. Both are armed with formidable batteries. The first, which looks to the north, is called the Old Mole; the second, the New Mole. Not content with these defences, they have erected in front of the castle of the Moors and of Old Mole, another work consisting in two bastions, connected by a curtain, of which the scarp and covered way, being well countermined throughout, are very difficult to mine. The object of this construction is to sweep, by a raking fire, that narrow strip of land which runs between the rock and the sea, and which forms the only communication of the Spanish continent with the fortress. In the front of this work, the water of the sea had been introduced by means of dikes and sluices, which forming a pool or fen, adds much to the strength of this part. The north side, or that which faces Spain, is by far the loftiest flank of the rock. It fronts the camp of St. Roch, and presents upon all its surface a prodigious quantity of batteries, which descend in tiers towards the Spanish camp. Thus art had combined with nature to make of this immense rock an impregnable citadel. Between the promontory of Gibraltar and the coast of Spain, lies towards the west a deep gap filled by the waters of the sea; it is the bay of Gibraltar or of Algesiras. The port and city of this name are situated upon the western shore of the bay. The garrison of Algesiras amounted to little over seven thousand men, with about two hundred and fifty officers. Such was the nature of that rock, against which the Spanish monarchy displayed the greatest part of its forces, and invoked besides the powerful assistance of France. This enterprise was the object of the most ardent

wishes of Charles III.; he considered the honor of his crown as deeply interested in its success. The king of France likewise saw in the reduction of Gibraltar the termination of the war. In order to push the operations of the siege and secure its success, the conduct of it was committed to the duke de Crillon; the public opinion designated the victor of Minorca as the conqueror of Gibraltar.

The preparations directed against this place exceeded every thing that had ever been heard of in like circumstances. Upwards of twelve hundred pieces of heavy cannon, eighty-three thousand barrels of powder, a proportionable quantity of bombs and bails, were destined to batter the works of the English. Forty gunboats, with as many bombketches, were to open their fire on the side of the bay, under cover of a formidable fleet of fifty sail of the line; twelve French, the others Spanish. Frigates and light vessels hovered in front of this line, in waiting to carry succour wherever it might be wanted. Upwards of three hundred large boats had been assembled from all parts of Spain, which came to join the immense number already in the bay of Algesiras. It was intended to employ them during the attack in carrying munitions and necessaries to the ships of war, and in landing the troops as soon as the works should be ruined. Nor were the preparations by land inferior to those that were made by sea. The Spaniards had already advanced by sap; and their lines, as soon as they were terminated, presented an astonishing number of batteries of heavy artillery. Twelve thousand French troops were brought to diffuse their peculiar vivacity and animation. through the Spanish army, as well as for the benefit to be derived from the example and exertion of their superior discipline and experience. At sight of the immense warlike apparatus assembled against the place, and of the ardor manifested by the soldiers, the generals who directed the siege considered themselves as so sure of success, that they were upon the point of ordering, without further delay, a general assault. They had resolved, that while the land forces should assail the fortress on the side of the isthmus, the fleet should batter it upon all the points contiguous to the sea. They hoped that the garrison, already little numerous, experiencing besides a great diminution in dead and wounded, would be totally incapable of sufficing for the defence of so extensive works. The loss of some thousands of men, and several ships of the line, would have seemed to the besiegers but a slender price for so inestimable a conquest. Meanwhile, the project of an attack by main force was not adopted by all the members of the council. Those who blamed its temerity, observed, that until the defences of the place on the land side were entirely prostrated, to attempt the assault would be sending the troops to a certain death, without any hope of success. On the part of the sea, they showed that an attack would be attended with the inevitable destruction of the ships, without producing the smallest

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effect upon the fortress. Nevertheless,' they added, as a simple attack by land must necessarily be fruitless, it is highly desirable that a kind of ships could be procured more capable of resisting artillery than those of an ordinary construction.' It could not be expected to carry Gibraltar by an attack of short duration; but was it possible to prolong it without hazarding the ruin of the fleet? This consideration occupied the thought of several men of talents. They present*ed plans of various inventions, all having for object to facilitate the battering of the fortress on the part of the sea. These schemes were examined with extreme attention. Several were rejected as incompetent to the purpose in view, none as too expensive. At length, after long deliberation, it was agreed to adopt the plan of the chevalier d' Arcon, a French engineer of high note; it was thought ingenious and infallible. His project went to the construction of floating batteries, or ships, upon such a principle, that they could neither be sunk, nor fired. The first of these properties was to be acquired by the extraordinary thickness of timber, with which their keels and bottoms were to be fortified; the second, by securing the sides of the ships, wherever they were exposed to shot, with a strong wall, composed of timber and cork, a long time soaked in water, and including between a large body of wet sand. But the ingenious projector not being yet satisfied with his work, and wishing to render it more proof against the redhot shot from the fortress, executed a contrivance for communicating water in every direction to restrain its effect. In imitation of the circulation of the blood in a living body, a great variety of pipes and canals perforated all the solid workmanship, in such a manner, that a continued succession of water was to be conveyed to every part of the vessels; a number of pumps being adapted to the purpose of an unlimited supply. By this means, it was expected that the redhot shot would operate to the remedy of its own mischief; as the very action of cutting through those pipes would procure its immediate extinction.

To protect his floating batteries from bombs, and the men at the batteries from grape or descending shot, the chevalier d' Arcon had contrived a hanging roof, which was to be worked up and down with ease, and at pleasure. The roof was composed of a strong ropework netting, laid over with a thick covering of wet hides; while its sloping position was calculated to prevent the shells from lodging, and to throw them off into the sea before they could take effect. All this scaffolding was constructed upon the hulks of great ships, from six hundred to fourteen hundred tons burthen, cut down to the state required by the plan. There were ten of these floating batteries; they were armed in all with an hundred and fifty-four pieces of heavy brass cannon, that were mounted; and something about half the number of spare guns were kept ready to supply the place of those which might be overheated, or otherwise disabled in action. The

Pastora alone, which was the largest, carried twenty-four in battery, and twelve in reserve. The Talla Piedra, commanded by the Prince of Nassau, and the Paula, which was also one of the stoutest, mounted a no less numerous artillery. That its fire might not be slackened by losses in dead or wounded, thirty-six men, as well Spaniards as French were allotted to the service of each piece. The command of this flotilla had been confided to admiral don Moreno, a seaman of equal valor and ability, who had served with distinction at the siege of Port Mahon. The vast bulk of the battering ships, the materials employed in their construction, and the weight of their artillery seemed likely to render them extremely heavy and unmanageable. They were however rigged with so much skill and ingenuity, that they executed their various evolutions with all the ease and dexterity of frigates.

When all these preparations were completed, there were few persons in the camp of the besiegers who did not consider the fall of a place so vigorously attacked as inevitable. It was at this epoch, towards the middle of August, that two French princes arrived at the army before Gibraltar; the count d' Artois and the duke de Bourbon. The object of their mission was to animate the troops by their presence, and that they might themselves come in for a share of the glory of so signal and illustrious an enterprise. The army were impatient to receive the signal of attack; their ardor had more need of restraint than incitement. So sanguine was the general hope, that the duke de Crillon was thought extreinely cautious of hazarding an opinion, when he allowed so long a term as fourteen days to the certainty of being in possession of Gibraltar. Twentyfour hours appeared more than sufficient.

The arrival of the French princes afforded an opportunity for the display of that politeness, and the exercise of those humanised attentions and civilities, by which the refined manners of modern Europe have tended so much to divest war of many parts of its ancient savage barbarity. The Spaniards had intercepted some packets, containing a number of letters directed to the officers in Gibraltar, and had transmitted them to the court of Madrid, where they lay, at the time that the count d' Artois arrived at that capital. The French prince obtained the packets from the king, and on his arrival at the camp, had them forwarded to their address. The duke de Crillon sent with them a letter to general Elliot, in which, besides informing him of this particular mark of attention shown by the count d'Artois, he farther acquainted him that he was charged by the French princes respectively, to convey to the general the strongest expressions of their regard and esteem for his person and character. He requested in the most obliging terms, that he would accept of a present of fruit and vegetables, for his own use, which accompanied the letter, and of some ice and partridges for the gentlemen of his

household; farther entreating, that as he knew the general lived entirely upon vegetables, he would acquaint him with the particular kinds which he liked best, with a view to his regular supply. General Elliot answered with the same politeness; he returned many thanks to the princes and the duke de Crillon, for the flattering attentions they were pleased to show him. But he informed the duke that in accepting the present, he had broken through a resolution which he had invariably adhered to from the commencement of the war, which was, never to receive, or to procure by any means whatever, any provisions or other commodity for his own private use; and that he made it a point of honor, to partake of both plenty and scarcity, in common with the lowest of his brave fellow-soldiers. He therefore entreated the duke, not to heap any more favors of the same kind upon him, as he could not in future apply them to his own use. This exchange of courtesies was deemed worthy of their authors, and of the sovereigns they represented.

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But while these civilities were passing, as in the midst of profound peace, the dispositions were in process for redoubling the horrors of Elliot had hitherto observed in a sort of inaction the preparations of the besiegers, when all of a sudden he saw issuing from the port of Algesiras the enormous masses of the floating batteries. If his courage was not shaken, he could not however but feel at least a strong emotion of surprise. In this uncertainty as to what might be the effect of those new invented machines, prudence urged him to make every defensive preparation that was calculated to elude and defeat it. Confiding, moreover, in the strength of the place, and the valor of his garrison, he was under no apprehension for the issue of the approaching attack. He did more; he resolved to anticipate it, by attacking himself. The besiegers had pushed their works with so much diligence that some of them were already far advanced towards the fortress. The governor determined to try how far a vigorous cannonade and bombardment with redhot balls, carcasses and shells, might operate to their destruction. A powerful and admirably directed firing accordingly commenced from the garrison, at seven o'clock in the morning of the eighth of September. By ten o'clock, the Mahon battery, with another adjoining to it, were in flames; and by five in the evening were entirely consumed, together with their gun-carriages, platforms and magazines, although the latter were bomb proof. A great part of the communications to the eastern parallel, and of the trenches and parapet for musketry, were likewise destroyed; and a large battery near the bay suffered excessively; the works were on fire in fifty places at the same instant. It was not without extreme exertions and considerable loss that the besiegers at length succeeded in extinguishing the flames, and preserving their works from total destruction.

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