CHAPTER XXV

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THE GREAT SIEGE OF GIBRALTAR.

"Neither, while the war lasts, will Gibraltar surrender. Not though Crillon, Nassau, Siegen, with the ablest projectors extant, are there; and Prince Condé and Prince d'Artois have hastened to help. Wondrous leather-roofed floating-batteries, set afloat by French- Spanish _Pacte de famille_, give gallant summons; to which, nevertheless, Gibraltar answers Plutonically, with mere torrents of red-hot iron,—as if stone Calpe had become a throat of the Pit; and utters such a Doom's-blast of a No, as all men must credit."— CARLYLE.

THE year 1779 saw England engaged in war on both sides of the Atlantic, with bitter and jealous enemies. Her struggle with the revolted colonies offered a tempting opportunity to France to wipe out her losses during the Seven Years' War,—and to Spain, to wipe out the disgrace which she felt in the possession of Gibraltar by the English. France, accordingly, espoused the cause of the Americans; and Spain, under pretence of the rejection of an offer of mediation between England and France, proposed in terms which could not be accepted, immediately declared a war, which had been decided upon from the day of the disaster at Saratoga, and for which preparations had been progressing for some time without any pretence of concealment.

The Royal Artillery in this year consisted of thirty-two _service_ companies, and eight _invalid_. The augmentation referred to in the last

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