rench line-of-battle ships got
under way at Orange Grove, and, dropping slowly past the sea-line wall,
delivered several broadsides against the south bastion and Ragged Staff,
until they arrived off Europa. Then, having first formed line to
eastward of the Rock, they attacked the batteries from the Point as far
as the New Mole, with some energy. On the following day this manoeuvre
was repeated, and the cannonade from the lines was renewed with all its
fierceness, six thousand five hundred shot and two thousand eighty shell
being thrown into the fortress every twenty-four hours. Notwithstanding
this overwhelming fire the loss in the garrison was exceedingly small.

On the 12th the combined fleets of Spain and France, numbering
thirty-nine ships of the line, entered the Bay of Algeciras, and having
formed a junction with the squadron already at anchor, raised the naval
force to fifty ships of the line and two second-rates; nine vessels bore
an admiral's flag.

General Eliot was conscious that the hour of trial approached, and so
ably had he conducted his preparations that during the twenty-four hours
preceding the attack not a single alteration had to be made, even in the
most minute directions that had been given to the troops. Every man knew
his place, each gun was told off for one particular duty, simple and
efficient arrangements had been made for a constant supply of
ammunition, and every bastion was furnished with its fuel and furnace
for the dreaded red-hot shot.

It was during the morning of the 12th that the governor received
information that the combined attack would commence on the following
day. Calmly as this courageous man awaited the hour of trial, he could
not but be influenced by the gravest anxiety for the result. He had
witnessed the gigantic armaments that were preparing for the assault;
and though ignorant of the exact force which was to be brought against
him, he was aware that neither France nor Spain had spared labor or
expense to accumulate a strength hitherto unknown in the history of
sieges. On the land he was threatened by two hundred forty-six pieces of
cannon, mortars, and howitzers, and an army of near forty thousand men;
while by sea fifty sail of the line, ten floating batteries, of a
construction supposed to be indestructible, with countless gun- and
mortar-boats, and three hundred smaller craft were waiting only the
signal for the attack. To this enormous armament, but seven thousand m