es of heavy ordnance were ready for use in the artillery park,
enormous quantities of ammunition and warlike stores were in the
magazines, and the reserve of gunpowder alone was reported at
eighty-three thousand barrels. Immense works were being hurried forward
on the isthmus of a grandeur which eclipsed anything that had been
previously constructed.

In twenty-four hours a flying sap was thrown out with a rapidity of
execution unequalled. The parallel extended to a length of two hundred
thirty _toises_, with a _boyau_ of six hundred thirty toises from the
place where it joined the principal barrier of the lines. The
construction of this boyau required one million six hundred thousand
bags of sand, and thousands of casks were used in forming the parallel.
In a single night this enormous work was raised to the height of twelve
feet with eighteen feet of thickness, and it was supposed that during
the seven hours in which it was erected ten thousand men were at labor.

To assist in the assault by sea, the combined fleets of France and
Spain, amounting to fifty sail of the line, with forty gunboats,
numerous frigates, and fifty mortar-vessels, were to act in support.
Three hundred boats, fitted with hinged platforms at their prows, were
to accompany the expedition, and at the proper moment to land the
troops.

The outline of the attack having been arranged, the plan was drawn out
by the Duc de Crillon, and submitted for approval, first to the Court of
Madrid, and afterward to the King of France. Subsequently the details
were very materially altered, but the principle remained the same. The
method originally proposed was as follows:

"The plan for taking Gibraltar, presented by Crillon, with the opinion
of the minister, was imparted, by order of his majesty, to France, by
the hand of Aranda, and, it being approved of, that Court offered
twenty-seven auxiliary ships. According to this plan the assault will be
conducted in the following manner: Brigadier Don Ventura Moreno will
command the fire of the fleet. The vanguard of the combined squadron
will be commanded by Senor Cordova, and among the divisions that compose
it will be included the third of twelve fireproof ships, which will
anchor in Algeciras until Senor Alvarez completes the sixty paces of
intrenchment opposite the fortress. Our ships will then attack; four by
the Europa Point, two by the New Mole, their fire being supported by
that of the gun- and mortar-boats