hiding away great stores of provisions and liquor, with a view to
making exorbitant profits, as from a desire to indulge in a luxury
of which they had been so long deprived.

On the 15th the enemy's fire was hotter than ever; and the guns
were withdrawn from our batteries, as they produced but little
effect upon the Spanish batteries, and the men working them
suffered a good deal from the besiegers' fire. Two officers were
dangerously wounded, in one of the casemates of the King's Bastion;
and the fire was so heavy, around some of the barracks, that all
the troops who could not be disposed of, in the casemates and
bomb-proofs, were sent out of the town and encamped southward and,
the next day, all the women and children who had gone with their
husbands and fathers into the casemates were also removed, and
placed under canvas. All this gave incessant work to the troops,
for there was no level ground upon which the tents could be pitched
and, as it was therefore necessary to level all the ground into
terraces, it was some days before the camps were ranged in anything
like order.

Each day the enemy sent out their gunboats to harass the
merchantmen, but these were always driven back by the guns of the
fleet. On the 17th the besiegers' shells set fire to the Spanish
church, which had been used as a storehouse. Strong parties were
sent down to remove the provisions, which consisted largely of
barrels of flour. These were carried up and piled, so as to afford
protection to the casemates, which had been frequently entered by
the enemy's shots--several men having been killed there. They
proved a valuable defence; and afforded, moreover, great amusement
to the soldiers who, whenever a barrel was smashed by a shell,
carried off the contents and quickly converted them into pancakes,
until so many casks had been emptied that the whole structure came
toppling down.

On the 18th a shell came through the arch of one of the casemates,
killing two and wounding four men and, in consequence, a good many
more of the troops were sent under canvas.

On the 20th the work of unloading the greater portion of the
transports was completed; and the admiral, who was most anxious to
take advantage of the easterly wind, that was blowing, to sail out
of the Straits, gave the signal for departure. Many of the
merchantmen, whose cargoes were consigned to merchants and traders
on the Rock, carried them back to England; as the merchants, having
no