ltar and Spain would no longer be permitted. This put an end
to all doubt, and discussion. War must have been declared between
Spain and England, or such a step would never have been taken.

In fact, although the garrison did not learn it until some time
later, the Spanish ambassador in London had presented what was
virtually a declaration of war, on the 16th. A messenger had been
sent off on the same day from Madrid, ordering the cessation of
intercourse with Gibraltar and, had he not been detained by
accident on the road, he might have arrived during General Eliott's
visit to the Spanish lines; a fact of which Mendoza had been
doubtless forewarned, and which would account for his embarrassment
at the governor's call.

Captain O'Halloran brought the news home, when he returned from
parade.

"Get ready your sandbags, Carrie; examine your stock of provisions;
prepare a store of lint, and plaster."

"What on earth are you talking about, Gerald?"

"It is war, Carrie. The Dons have refused to accept our mail, and
have cut off all intercourse with the mainland."

Carrie turned a little pale. She had never really thought that the
talk meant anything, or that the Spaniards could be really
intending to declare war, without having any ground for quarrel
with England.

"And does it really mean war, Gerald?"

"There is no doubt about it. The Spaniards are going to fight and,
as their army can't swim across the Bay of Biscay, I take it it is
here they mean to attack us. Faith, we are going to have some
divarshun, at last."

"Divarshun! You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Gerald."

"Well, my dear, what have I come into the army for? To march about
for four hours a day in a stiff stock, and powder and pigtail and a
cocked hat, and a red coat? Not a bit of it. Didn't I enter the
army to fight? And here have I been, without a chance of smelling
powder, for the last ten years. It is the best news I have had
since you told me that you were ready and willing to become Mrs.
O'Halloran."

"And to think that we have got Bob out here with us!" his wife
said, without taking any notice of the last words. "What will uncle
say?"

"Faith, and it makes mighty little difference what he says, Carrie,
seeing that he is altogether beyond shouting distance.

"As for Bob, he will be just delighted. Why, he has been working
till his brain must all be in a muddle; and it is the best thing in
the world for him, or he would be mixing up t