the siege, and the batteries thus erected are now among the
strongest of the defences of Gibraltar.

At the end of the month a great fleet, consisting of upwards of a
hundred sail, entered the bay and anchored off Algeciras. Some nine
or ten thousand troops were landed and, from that time, scarce a
day passed without fresh vessels, laden with stores and materials
for the siege, arriving in the bay.

Early in May twelve gunboats, that had been sent out in pieces from
England, were completed and launched. Each carried one gun, and was
manned by twenty-one men. Six of these drew their crews from the
Brilliant, five from the Porcupine, and one from the Speedwell,
cutter. These craft had been specially designed for the purpose of
engaging the enemy's gunboats, and for convoying ships into the
port.

On the 11th of June a shell from the enemy burst, just at the door
of one of the magazines of Willis's Battery. This instantly blew
up, and the explosion was so violent that it seemed to shake the
whole Rock. Fourteen men were killed, and fifteen wounded, and a
great deal of injury done to the battery; but strong parties at
once set to work to repair it. A few days later a French convoy of
sixty sail and three frigates anchored in the bay and, from these,
another five thousand French troops landed.

At the end of the month the Duc de Crillon arrived, and took
command of the besiegers. A private letter, that was brought in by
a privateer that had captured a merchantman, on her way, gave the
garrison an idea of the method in which the attack was to be made.
It stated that ten ships were to be fortified, six or seven feet
thick, with green timber bolted with iron, and covered with cork,
junk, and raw hides. They were to carry guns of heavy metal, and to
be bombproof on the top, with a descent for the shells to slide
off. These vessels, which they supposed would be impregnable, were
to be moored within half gunshot of the walls with iron chains; and
large boats, with mantlets, were to lie off at some distance, full
of troops ready to take advantage of occurrences; that the mantlets
of these boats were to be formed with hinges, to fall down to
facilitate their landing. There would, by that time, be forty
thousand men in camp, but the principal attack was to be made by
sea, to be covered by a squadron of men-of-war with bomb ketches,
floating batteries, gun and mortar boats, etc.; and that the Comte
D'Artois--brother to the King