en
and ninety-six guns could be opposed. At a council of war held in the
Spanish camp on September 4th the final details for the arrangement of
the grand attack had been settled, and it was decided to open the
bombardment on the 13th of the month.

At this council M. d'Arcon vehemently protested against the precipitate
haste with which the preparations of the floating batteries had been
hurried on, and vainly pleaded for a few days' further delay, in order
that some experiments might be made upon the vessels, and especially
that the effectiveness of the water apparatus might be tested. His
arguments were met by others equally cogent. Lord Howe with a powerful
fleet was known to be on his way to relieve the fortress, and it was of
vital importance that his arrival should be anticipated. The season was
already far advanced, and the works on the land side, which had only
just been repaired, were at any moment exposed to a second partial
destruction by red-hot shot. All objections, therefore, were overruled,
and the day was named.

At about seven o'clock on the morning of September 13th the enemy's
fleet was observed to be in motion off the Orange Grove, and shortly
afterward the ten floating batteries were under way, and with a crowd of
boats standing for the southward with a light northwest breeze.

Shortly after ten o'clock they had reached their respective stations off
the line-wall, and Admiral Don Buenoventura Moreno, in the Pastora,
having taken up a position opposite the capital of the King's Bastion,
the others anchored in admirable order on his right and left flanks, at
about one thousand yards distance from the walls of the fortress.

At this time the enemy's camp and the surrounding hills were covered
with countless thousands of spectators, who had hurried from all parts
of Spain to witness the fall of Gibraltar. The batteries had no sooner
let go their anchors than a tremendous cannonade of hot and cold shot
was opened upon them all along the line; at the same instant the
ponderous vessels replied from all their guns, supported by the fire of
one hundred eighty-six pieces of ordnance from the works on the isthmus.

Never before in the annals of war had a spectacle so magnificently grand
been witnessed--four hundred cannon belched forth their volleys of fire
at the same moment, the whole heaven was obscured by the curling clouds
of smoke which clung around the rugged peaks of the rocks, while the
misty gloo