extricating their officer. Almost at the same moment the shell burst, and levelled the traverse to the ground. For this courageous action, Martin was deservedly rewarded and promoted.
The defenders of the Rock now watched with intense interest the preparations of the enemy, in whose lines the greatest activity was visible. They could note the almost daily arrival of fresh troops, until the whole shore of the Bay, from Carteia to the heights of San Roque, was covered with tents. Thousands of workmen, under cover of night, pushed the approaches nearer and nearer to the beleaguered fortress. Heavy guns bristled from every point of vantage, and hour after hour poured out their fell contents of shot and shell. It was obvious, too, that the huge men-of-war at Algesiras were being equipped as batteries of a new and formidable character. The eagerness of the besiegers was stimulated by the arrival in their camp of two French princes of the blood, the Count of Artois and the Duke of Bourbon; the enemies of Great Britain everywhere turned their attention towards the great fortress which, as they confidently believed, would soon cease to be occupied by her soldiers.
It may not be uninteresting if we borrow from Captain Drinkwater’s pages a record of the operations of a few days, with the view of giving the reader some idea of the incidents which characterize the course of a great siege:—
The 1st of March, he says, a flag of truce went to the enemy, in answer to one from them some days before. The Spanish officer who received the packet informed us that Fort St. Philip, in Minorca, had surrendered on the 5th of February. The succeeding day, a “carcass” set fire to the enemy’s 13-gun battery, which continued blazing for two hours. On their attempting to extinguish the fire, we plied them so briskly, that several were killed and most of them driven from their work; but their usual gallantry at last prevailed. This is an honourable tribute to an enemy who fought with considerable courage and perseverance.
At night they raised a place d’armes at the western extremity of their 13-gun battery; these defensive works demonstrating that they were determined to provide as much as possible against another sortie. The following night they repaired the damage done by the fire. The carpenters of the navy, on the 4th, laid the keel of one of the new gunboats. The 6th, six rows of tents, ten in each row, were pitched in the rear of the second line of the enemy’s camp, near the horse-barrack. A large party was also employed in making a road from the beach to the barrack, and others were engaged in landing shells and different ordnance. These, with other appearances, showed that the enemy were in earnest in their prosecution of the siege.
On the other hand, General Elliot unweariedly engaged the garrison in repairing, and putting in the best order of defence, the upper batteries and other works which had suffered from the storm of fire directed against them.
On the 8th, the enemy raised one face of the eastern redoubt several fascines in height. The day following, Lieutenant Cuppage, of the Royal Artillery, was dangerously wounded on the Royal battery, from a splinter of a small shell, which burst immediately after being discharged from the rock gun above and in the rear of the Royal battery; this was the second accident of the same nature. On the 11th a frigate and xebec passed to the west, with six topsail vessels, supposed to be part of the late Minorca garrison. On the night of the 13th the enemy traced out a work within the western place d’armes of the St. Carlos Battery, apparently with an intention of extending the epaulement. The firing on both sides was now considerably increased; that from the enemy amounted to about five hundred rounds in the twenty-four hours.
In the course of the 25th a shot drove through the embrasures of one of the British batteries, took off the legs of two men, one leg of another, and wounded a fourth man in both legs; so that “four men had seven legs taken off and wounded by one shot.” The boy who was usually posted on the works where a large party was employed, to inform the men when the enemy were directing their guns towards them, had been chiding them for their disregard of his warnings, and had just turned his head towards the hostile lines, when he observed this shot on its dreadful path, and called to them to beware. Unfortunately, his caution was too late; the shot entered the embrasure, with the fatal result we have described. It is strange that this boy should have been so keen-sighted as to distinguish the enemy’s shot almost immediately after it quitted the gun. But another boy in the garrison possessed an equal, if not a superior sharpness of vision.
Passing on to the 11th of April, we find that on that day the garrison obtained information as to the exact nature of the preparations which were being made for conquering their stubborn resistance. They learned that the Duke of Crillon was in command, with twenty thousand French and Spanish troops, in addition to those who had previously formed the besieging force; that the besieging operations were directed by Monsieur d’Arçon, an eminent French engineer; and that Admiral Don Buonaventura Moreno was prepared to support the attack with ten men-of-war, besides gunboats, mortar boats, floating batteries, and other vessels. Next day the enemy’s cannonade was of a peculiar character; from six in the morning until sunset a single gun or mortar was discharged every two or three minutes. Our British soldiers remarked that, as the day was the anniversary of the bombardment, the Spaniards were probably keeping it with prayer and fasting, and the minuteguns were intended to express their sorrow at the expenditure during the past twelvemonth of so many barrels of powder and rounds of cartridges without any result!
On the 28th of May the enemy sent in a flag of truce. Before the object of it was known, the governor remarked to the officers near him that he supposed the duke had arrived, and had sent to summon the garrison to surrender. His reply, he said, would be brief, “No—no;” and he hoped his officers would support him. The summons, however, was not made, and the laconic answer, therefore, was not given. But it is due to the Duke of Crillon to record his courtesy. He wrote to General Elliot to acquaint him with the arrival of the French prince, and in their name to express their high estimation of his courage and character. The letter was accompanied by a present of fresh fruits and vegetables, with ice, game, and other luxuries for the use of his staff. He knew, said the duke, that the governor lived wholly upon vegetables, and if informed of the description he preferred, he would furnish a daily supply. The governor replied in suitable terms; but while accepting the Spanish commander’s gifts, begged of him to send no more, as he made it a point of honour to share with the meanest of his fellow-soldiers both want and plenty.