m was fitfully illumined by the flashes of a thousand
saucisses and shells. The whole peninsula was overwhelmed with a torrent
of shot.

For two hours this terrible cannonade continued without intermission,
and no impression had been made upon the floating batteries; so well
calculated was their construction to withstand the effects of artillery
that the heaviest shells rebounded from their roofs and the shot struck
harmless on their sides. Upward of two thousand red-hot balls had been
thrown against them, and no symptoms of combustion appeared, except here
and there a feeble flame, which ere it could spread was quenched.

At noon the enemy slackened their fire from the sea for a moment, but
seemingly only for the purpose of amending the direction of their guns,
which had previously been uncertain and too high; the pause was but for
an instant, and the artillery again burst forth with a more powerful and
better-directed fire. Showers of every missile swept over the walls, and
already the British troops, disappointed with the effects of the red-hot
shot, and fatigued with the mid-day sun, began to look gloomily upon the
issue of the fight. But about two o'clock slight wreaths of flame were
observed issuing from the Admiral's ship, and at the same time a strange
confusion was remarked among the men on board the Talla Piedra. On board
this battery was the Chevalier d'Arcon, who was present in the action as
a volunteer to watch the success of his own inventions. Several red-hot
shot had struck this ship, but one alone gave any uneasiness to those on
board; to reach the smouldering woodwork the guns were silenced, and the
smoke clearing away left the vessel exposed to such a concentrated fire
that all efforts to arrest the progress of the flames were in vain. The
blaze rapidly spread, the crew were seized with a panic, and, fearful of
an explosion, turned the water into the powder-magazines. Thus one
battery was rendered useless during the remainder of the action.

In the Admiral's ship the flames were for some hours subdued, and her
guns continued to play upon the walls until nightfall; but the disorder
which was immediately visible in the Talla Piedra and the Pastora soon
affected the whole line of attack, and by 7 P.M. the fire from the
fortress had gained a commanding superiority.

At midnight signals of distress were made from all parts of the bay. The
Admiral's ship was in flames from stem to stern, and others had be