her villages. They had, that morning, received peremptory
orders to leave before sunset. Some were fortunate enough to be
able to hire carts, to bring in their effects; but several were
compelled, from want of carriage, to leave everything behind them.

The guards had all been reinforced, at the northern batteries;
pickets had been stationed across the neutral ground; the guard, at
the work known as the Devil's Tower, were warned to be specially on
the alert; and the artillery in the battery, on the rock above it,
were to hold themselves in readiness to open fire upon the enemy,
should they be perceived advancing towards it.

It was considered improbable, in the extreme, that the enemy would
attack until a great force had been collected; but it was possible
that a body of troops might have been collected secretly, somewhere
in the neighbourhood, and that an attempt would be made to capture
the place by surprise, before the garrison might be supposed to be
taking precautions against attack.

The next morning orders were issued, and large working parties were
told off to go on with the work of strengthening the fortifications;
and notice was issued that all empty hogsheads and casks in the town
would be bought, by the military authorities. These were to be
filled with earth, and to take the places of fascines, for which
there were no materials available on the Rock. Parties of men
rolled or carried these up to the heights. Other parties collected
earth, and piled it to be carried up in sacks on the back of
mules--there being no earth, on the rocks where the batteries would
be established--a fact which added very largely to the difficulties
of the Engineers.

On the 24th the Childers, sloop of war, brought in two prizes from
the west; one of which, an American, she had captured in the midst
of the Spanish fleet. Some of the Spanish men-of-war had made
threatening demonstrations, as if to prevent the sloop from
interfering with her; but they had not fired a gun, and it was
supposed that they had not received orders to commence hostilities.
Two English frigates had been watching the fleet; and it was
supposed to be on its way to join the French fleet, off Cape
Finisterre.

The Spaniards were seen, now, to be at work dragging down guns from
San Roque to arm their two forts--Saint Philip and Saint
Barbara--which stood at the extremities of their lines: Saint
Philip on the bay, and Saint Barbara upon the seashore, on t