of France--with other great
personages, was to be present at the attack.

At this time the enemy fired but little, and the garrison were able
to turn their whole attention to strengthen the points most
threatened. The activity of the enemy on their offensive works on
the neutral ground continued and, in one night, a strong and lofty
work, five hundred yards long, with a communication thirteen
hundred yards long to the works, was raised. It was calculated that
ten thousand men, at least, must have been employed upon it; and no
less than a million and a half sandbags used in its construction.

There could be no doubt, now, that the critical moment was
approaching; and that, ere long, the garrison would be exposed to
the most tremendous fire ever opened upon a besieged place.

Chapter 17: The Floating Batteries.

In spite of the unremitting work, of the daily cannonade, of
illness and hardship, life on the Rock had not been unpleasant to
the O'Hallorans. Although many of the officers' wives had, at one
time or another, taken advantage of ships sailing from the port to
return home--or rather, to endeavour to do so, for a considerable
number of the vessels that left were captured by the Spaniards,
before getting through the Straits--there still remained sufficient
for agreeable society; and the O'Hallorans' was, more than any
other house, the general meeting place.

From its position in the hollow, it was sheltered from the fire of
all the shore batteries--whose long distance shots searched all the
lower parts of the Rock--while the resources of the establishment
enabled the O'Hallorans to afford an open-handed hospitality that
would have been wholly beyond the means of others. They had long
since given up selling any of their produce, distributing all their
surplus eggs among families where there was illness, or sending
them up to the hospitals; and doing the same with their chickens,
and vegetables. The greatest care was bestowed upon the poultry,
fresh broods being constantly raised, so that they could kill eight
or ten couple a week, and still keep up their stock to its full
strength. Thus, with gatherings two evenings a week at their own
house, and usually as many at the houses of their friends; while
Captain O'Halloran and Bob frequently dined at the mess of their
own, or other regiments, the time passed pleasantly.

While Carrie was fully occupied with the care of the house, and a
general superintendenc