Tott in his Memoirs, which I shall hereafter mention. I then piled all
the carriages together in the centre of the camp, which, to prevent the
noise of the wheels being heard, I carried in pairs under my arms; and a
noble appearance they made, as high at least as the rock of Gibraltar.
I then lighted a match by striking a flint stone, situated twenty feet
from the ground (in an old wall built by the Moors when they invaded
Spain), with the breech of an iron eight-and-forty pounder, and so set
fire to the whole pile. I forgot to inform you that I threw all their
ammunition-waggons upon the top.

Before I applied the lighted match I had laid the combustibles at the
bottom so judiciously, that the whole was in a blaze in a moment. To
prevent suspicion I was one of the first to express my surprise. The
whole camp was, as you may imagine, petrified with astonishment: the
general conclusion was, that their sentinels had been bribed, and that
seven or eight regiments of the garrison had been employed in this
horrid destruction of their artillery. Mr. Drinkwater, in his account of
this famous siege, mentions the enemy sustaining a great loss by a fire
which happened in their camp, but never knew the cause; how should he?
as I never divulged it before (though I alone saved Gibraltar by this
night's business), not even to General Elliot. The Count d'Artois and
all his attendants ran away in their fright, and never stopped on the
road till they reached Paris, which they did in about a fortnight;
this dreadful conflagration had such an effect upon them that they were
incapable of taking the least refreshment for three months after, but,
chameleon-like, lived upon the air.

_If any gentleman will say he doubts the truth of this story, I will
fine him a gallon of brandy and make him drink it at one draught._

About two months after I had done the besieged this service, one
morning, as I sat at breakfast with General Elliot, a shell (for I had
not time to destroy their mortars as well as their cannon) entered the
apartment we were sitting in; it lodged upon our table: the General, as
most men would do, quitted the room directly; but I took it up before
it burst, and carried it to the top of the rock, when, looking over
the enemy's camp, on an eminence near the sea-coast I observed a
considerable number of people, but could not, with my naked eye,
discover how they were employed. I had recourse again to my telescope,
when I found th